By Fillmore High Alumni Association

Please join us for the Annual Fillmore High Alumni Dinner (Celebrating 108 Years) on Saturday, October 2nd, 2021 from 3:00pm to 11:30pm. This year's dinner will take place at the Fillmore City Park, and in front of City Hall located at 250 Central Ave in Fillmore. In the past we have served well over 600 Alumni and their guests and we expect to do the same this year. Your paid dinner reservation guarantees your entry to the event, along with Light hors d’ oeuvres (for the early arrivals), Dinner, coffee, tea, and water. New this year will be a live Band along with D.J. for your dancing and listening pleasure. This event has sold out in the past, so we encourage you to confirm your reservations soon by going online, and paying for your reservations. www.fillmorehighalumni.com/events

With so many classes having their reunions at the annual dinner now, we are expecting another sell out. Classes celebrating their reunions at the Dinner this year are the Classes of 1960, 1965, 1970, 1971, 1980, 1981 and 1990! Make your plans now to come celebrate our Home Town, our long time friends, our Scholarship program, and our High School Alma Mater.

About The Fillmore High Alumni Association
Since 1913, The Fillmore High Alumni Association has been bringing people together to support education, students and the community of Fillmore. Our mission is to provide scholarships to seniors and any graduate seeking to continue their education. Please help support our mission by making a donation. Thank you for your support. www.fillmorehighalumni.com.

Milton A. Smith's Fillmore High School Senior Picture, Class of 1940.

Heck Smith's Distinguished Service Cross Citation
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Every Memorial Day at Bardsdale Cemetery it is tradition to decorate Veterans’ graves with American flags to honor their service. Photo courtesy Bardsdale Cemetery District Facebook page.
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Courtesy Fillmore Historical Museum

The origins of Memorial Day are somewhat in dispute, but most agree that the tradition of decorating veteran’s grave originated in the South and was soon adopted by the North after the Civil War. The date of May 30th may have been chosen as an optimal date for flowers to be in bloom in the North.

If you walk through Bardsdale Cemetery you will see a few plots of Civil War Veterans, a few Spanish – American War Veterans, and then more and more World War I and World II Veterans, Korean and Vietnam Conflict Veterans.

At the Museum we have some memorabilia from all these wars/conflicts that tell the story of men and women from Fillmore who served. We are especially lucky to have photos of World War II servicemen and womencollected by A. H. “Painter” James.

World War I is not as well documented, but we do have a few items that tell stories. One solder we know about is Albert “Heck” Smith. Heck was born in Fillmore in 1896 to Walter and Ella Robertson Smith. His sister, Mildred, was born in 1901 and his mother passed away in 1903. His father remarried a few years later. Heck and Mildred were raised by their maternal aunts, Lucy Permelia and Neva Robertson in Bardsdale. The Robertson Family had come to the Valley in the 1870s.

When the United States entered World War I in 1917, Heck entered the U. S. Army. He left New York City on July 12, 1918 as a Private in Machine Gun Company C, 364th Infantry. He remained in France until March, 1919, returning as a Private, First Class.

Although he was not in France for a year, Heck would have seen some of the most intense fighting. His unit was involved in the Argonne Offensive which, according to Wikipedia, “…was the largest in United States military history, involving 1.2 million American soldiers. It is the second deadliest battle in American history, resulting in over 350,000 casualties including 28,000 German lives, 26,277 American lives and an unknown number of French lives.It was for his actions during the Argonne Offensive that Heck was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the second highest military honor given by the United States has.

Like most solders, he was probably most concerned with staying alive, but in a letter to his sister, Mildred, he wrote the following.

“Well, I was going to keep this a secret from you till I got home but I have decided to tell you that I am going to receive a Distinguished Service Cross. I suppose you want to know what I did. Well, I went out into No Man’s Land one night and helped bring in a wounded soldier. Went out about 500 or 600 yards and carried him in on two slickers and two rifles which were used as a stretcher…. I was surprised when my captain told me of (the award). He asked for volunteers and I said I would go. It didn’t seem any more than going on some errand I was told to do.”

At the Museum we have both the Croix de Guerre and Distinguished Service Cross citations which were issued to Heck and also the actual Distinguished Service Cross medal.

Heck returned home, married Marion Jorgenson and settled down in Fillmore. He worked at the Texaco Refinery as a boiler fireman, bought property in Bardsdale and raised citrus. The Smiths had two children, Milton and Dorothy Elaine. Milton graduated from Fillmore High School in 1940. By 1942, he was in the US Navy. He served in the Pacific as a Naval Officer. We have not been able to find his service records to give more detail to his Naval career, but we do have his Naval uniform on display along with his father’s memorabilia.

These were just two of many men and women from Fillmore and throughout the country who have served their country in its times of need. Memorial Day is our time to remember and honor them.

If you haven’t noticed, your local history museum is open once again.

Although we were closed to the public for over a year, our dedicated volunteers continued their efforts to make your museum one of the best around. You’ve been reading the articles in the Gazette and Facebook, but have you checked out our updated website at FillmoreHistoricalMuseum.org? Besides getting a glimpse at the many exhibits, you can read or reread all the articles we’ve been writing at https://www.fillmorehistoricalmuseum.org/story-index.

That’s not our only online presence. If you aren’t familiar with TheClio.org, check it out. It’s a great resource if you are looking for places to visit around the country. Our page on TheClio.org, https://theclio.com/entry/99487 , will give potential visitors a virtual tour of our main buildings, the 1919 Rancho Sespe Bunkhouse, the 1887 Southern Pacific Depot and the 1905 Hinckley Bungalow.

We took advantage of the Covid closure to create new exhibits on our Pioneer Families, vintage cameras and the evolution of sound and entertainment in the Santa Clara Valley since 1900. Other exhibits have been added to or refreshed. On temporary loan are vintage hats on display in the Bunkhouse.

Have you noticed the emphasis on volunteers? We are a totally volunteer organization and receive no support for any government entity. We are truly the Fillmore community’s museum. We are always looking for new resources who can help us with projects. If you have an interest or a skill that you think might be useful, please let us know. It doesn’t have to be a commitment to be a docent. We’ve had people help us by translating documents (Italian) and display signs (Spanish); refurbish Victrolas; organize our reference library; help organize our storage area. We would like to create a roster of people we can call on if we just need manpower to complete a task. Think about it and if you are interested in supporting your local museum, email us at Fillmore.Museum@gmail.com.

The most important thing is to come and visit us at 340 Main Street. We are open from 9 am to 4 pm from Wednesday through Friday, closing for the noon hour, and 10 am to 3 pm on Saturdays.

A crowd at the 1927 Motorcycle Race with Mount San Cayetano in the background. The race was sponsored by the LA Motorcycle Club and the Fillmore Chamber of Commerce. It brought riders from all over Southern California to race.
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Trophy won by P. A. Bigsby.
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Courtesy Fillmore Historical Museum

Friday mornings at the Museum are usually quiet. There’s time to catch up on the computer and check out the new displays. One morning in 2019 the phone rang and a gentleman asked, “What do you know about the Reliability Race in 1927?”

Me, “Nothing, but we can look for it in our old newspapers. Give me your contact information and I’ll see what I can find.”

The quiet dusty upstairs newspaper room is full to the ceiling with boxes and bound copies of the Fillmore Herald and the Gazette going back to 1903.I pulled the 15” by 21” book of Fillmore Heralds for 1927 down from the shelf and began leafing through the May issues. There it was for May 20, “P. A. Bigsby Wins Hill Climb and Trail Race.” Our gentleman explained that he was doing research for a book on Bigsby who won the race. He has the trophy from the race and was so very happy to get a copy of the newspaper article.

The Herald article describes an exciting event. Sponsored by the LA Motorcycle Club and the Fillmore Chamber of Commerce it bought riders from all over Southern California. The race started at the Fairbanks property which we know as the big white house on Fourth Street, climbed the hill to the Arundell’s up the Sespe, and came down Pole Creek which had been dammed up, crossing it eleven times. The course was 4.7 miles long with some very steep sections zig-zagging up the hills. Riders were given 28 minutes to complete the first lap, 24 minutes for the second, and 21 for the following 11 for a total of 13 laps. Points were deducted for stalling or touching a foot down. That was a lot of excitement for our little town.

P. A. Bigsby the winner was not just a racer; he was an engineer, inventor, and builder. Wikipedia tells us that he was a foreman for Crocker Motorcycles and designed the overhead valve-cylinder head for Crocker engines. He pioneered the solid body guitar. He also built custom guitars for musicians who played on shows in the early days of television. Some appeared with the Spade Cooley Band and on the Tennessee Ernie Ford Show. He designed the vibrato foot for electric guitars which it is a system that was used by Fender Guitars, a feature that is still being used today.

Two years pass and the pandemic closed down the country. Slowly things are beginning to open again including the Museum. The staff and volunteers can begin working on projects. Recently John Nichols of Santa Paula donated a picture of a motorcycle race to the collection. There is no date, no caption, and no label. A close look reveals Mount San Cayetano in the background and tells us the picture was taken in Fillmore. The motorcycles in the picture look old enough to be from 1927. Rereading the May 20, 1927 Fillmore Herald, we found that P. A. Bigsby wore the number 31 and rode a Harley Davidson. There doesn’t seem to be a number 31 in the picture but let’s take a closer look. We zoomed in and there right in the foreground of the picture a rider in white has a faint 31 on his shirt and he is straddling a Harley. That’s got to be him. We passed along our new information to a very happy gentleman who sent us a picture of the beautiful silver trophy won so long ago in our own little town.

If you have are working on a mystery give us a call. Maybe we can help you out. It’s so satisfying pulling together these pieces of the puzzle.

Fillmore’s Fabian (Fabi) Del Villar (above) set a new school record in the two-mile record. The previous record of 9:15.5 was set by Ben Aparicio in 1968; converts to a 3200-meter time of 9:12.28. Fabi converted the time by about .18 seconds making the new record 9:12.10 Photo courtesy Michael Torres.

It took almost 53 years for a Fillmore athlete to set a new record in two mile while running a 3200 Meter race. On Friday night at 8:15 PM, Fabi as he is known by friends and Family toed the starting line at the fabled Arcadia Invitational. Along with 25 quality athletes, he raced 8 laps of the 400 meter oval to place second, less than a second behind the eventual winner from Laguna Beach.

After the first lap, and overcoming a poor start that put him in 22nd place, Fabi worked his way around a large bunched up group of runners eight wide. He had to go out to the 4th lane before he took the lead for laps two through four. During the next few laps, he drifted as far back as fifth before moving back into the third position and finally moving into second. During the final 100 meters, Fabi closed on the eventual winner all the way to the finish before running out of real estate and posting a school record time of 9:12.10.

On the conversion calculator, the school two mile record set by Ben Aparicio on May 17, 1968 at CIF Prelims hosted by Cerritos College of 9:15.5, converts to a 3200 meter time of 9:12.28. So Fabi ran a faster converted time by about .18 seconds.

It was an exciting night for this young athlete who has only been able to run the 3200 meters twice over the last two years, as a result of the CIF safety precautions due to COVID-19. We hope that Fabi will be able to race again during his Fillmore High School tenure. His next major race will be at the Ventura County Track and Field Championships on May 21st at Moorpark High School.

After graduation, he will attend UCLA and would like to continue running and pursue a degree in Aerospace Engineering.