Grace Atmore
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Don Carlos Antonio de Jesus Carrillo
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Depiction of Adobe by Ynez Haase.
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Map of Rancho Sespe Land Grant.
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Courtesy Fillmore History Museum

Prior to 1833, the area which would become Fillmore and Bardsdale was under the governance of the Mission San Buenaventura. Few Europeans lived in the area and it was primarily used for cattle grazing. This changed in 1833. Mexico had gained its independence from Spain some years earlier and in 1833 the Mexican Government passed the Secularization Act which cancelled vast land concessions which had been given to the various Missions. Instead land was granted to individuals.

To apply for a land grant, one had to make a request in writing to the area governor, describing the land he was interested in and giving its dimensions and boundaries. This would be accompanied by a map or diseño, illustrating what was requested in the petition. If approved, the governor would issue a formal declaration and the property would be surveyed and the boundaries established. The recipient then was required to build a house on the land; stock it with cattle; plant some portion in vines, fruit trees or grain.

Don Carlos Antonio de Jesus Carrillo was the eldest of seven children born to José Raymundo Carrillo and Tomaso Lugo. They were married at the Carmel Mission in 1781 in a ceremony presided at by Junipero Serra. The Carrillos were a distinguished family, their line including an Archbishop of Toledo and a viceroy of Mexico.
Don Carlos had a military career but after leaving military service he served in the Mexican Congress. He was briefly Governor in 1837.

In 1829, prior to the Secularization Act, Don Carlos petitioned the Mexican government for Rancho Sespe. He already had extensive holding in what would become Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties, including Santa Rosa Island. Because he had a large extended family (Ten children and at least 50 grandchildren) he needed additional lands to support them. His petition he requested land that ran “from an arroyo called Piru which at its mouth unites with that of Camulos, to the hill which faces another arroyo named Mupu.” This was basically from the Piru River to Santa Paula Creek.

He received his property in 1833 naming it Rancho Sespe. On the deed it specified 6 square. leagues or 54 square. miles or 34,560 acres. Two copies of the deed were filed, and this is what sowed the seeds of later disputes and even murder. On the second copy there was an erasure and instead of 6 square leagues it read 2 square leagues. This opened the door for later settlers to claim land which Don Carlos, and later owner, T. Wallace More, believed they owned. That dispute is another chapter in the story of Rancho Sespe. For further information go to https://www.fillmorehistoricalmuseum.org/rancho-sespe.

The grant extended from Santa Paula creek on the west to Piru Creek on the east, approximately 17 miles. The ranch was centered about where the Sespe River meets the Santa Clara River. Three years after Don Carlos and his family received the ranch it was supporting 3,000 head of cattle, three or four droves of horses and mules, and approximately 400 sheep.

An adobe was built as was required by the grant, but the Carrillo family did not live on Rancho Sespe. They were residents of Santa Barbara. Carrillo’s Mayordomo, Prudencio Ayala, who was in charge of the Rancho may have lived there. The Carrillos may have stayed there when they came to the Rancho for the “round-up” of the cattle. At that time there could have been as many as fifty family members and additional servants and guests. The adobe as it has been described could not have housed that many individuals.

Grace Atmore, who died in 1943, remembered playing at the ruins of the adobe on her way home from the Santa Clara School. She remembered it as being rectangular with six or seven rooms. Eventually the school trustees felt the structure unsafe and had it torn down.

According to some historians the adobe was just north of the Santa Clara River, west of the mouth of the Sespe and close to the historical sycamore tree on Hwy 126. Other writers of local history located the adobe just south of the point where the Sespe meets the Santa Clara.

1848 saw California becoming a territory of the United States. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo guaranteed the property ownership of the existing settlers, but the Federal government soon challenged the legal status of every Spanish/Mexican land grant. A Board of Commissioners was created to review the legal proof each claimant was required to submit. Don Carlos Carrillo filed his proof shortly before his death in 1852.

His wife, Josefa, was his primary heir, but she died in 1853. In April of 1853, the Board of Commissioners ruled that the land grant was valid and encompassed six square leagues. This would soon be challenged but by then the Carrillo family would not be in the picture.

In the summer of 1853, the probate court of Santa Barbara ordered that the ranch be sold at public auction with the proceeds to be divided among the Carrillo heirs.

The successful bidders were three brothers, T. Wallace, Henry and Alexander More, who bought it for $17,500, a little over $600,000 in today’s dollars. After twenty years, this ended the Carrillo involvement in Rancho Sespe.
The heirs of Don Carlos did not disappear from the historical record. Juan Jose Carrillo, grandson of Don Carlos, was the first police chief of Los Angeles and first mayor of Santa Monica. He then served as a judge. Juan Jose’s wife, Josefa Ramona Bandini Carrillo, along with her two sisters, created the first American flag used in California. At the time of the Mexican War, Commodore Stockton, with a battalion of American troops, entered the city of San Diego. The town had no American flag, and so the daughters of Juan Bandini proceeded to make one. The flag is preserved at Washington, D.C., among the relics of the Mexican war.

Their son was probably the most well-known offspring, the actor Leo Carrillo.

The final Fillmore & Western passenger run.
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trains.com / Published w/o permission

Fillmore & Western Railway has been sold. They owned seven locomotives and 30+ cars (passenger and freight). All cars range in years from the 1910s to 1970s. Due to a confidentiality agreement, no further information was available.

Buyer registration is now open for the 2021 Ventura County Junior Livestock Online Auction happening August 11-13, 2021. Register at: https://bit.ly/3q8jeEx

The Ventura County Fair has been cancelled for the second year in a row. Our local Ag Kids need your support now more than ever. Join us for the 2021 Ventura County Junior Livestock Online Auction to ensure the 146-year tradition of buying our local 4-H, FFA, Grange & Independent Ag Kids' livestock projects continues.

Auction Details:
This year's Ventura County Junior Livestock Auction will take place online at www.805AgKids.com. Enjoy a "Silent Auction Style" bidding format beginning August 11. The bidding ends Friday, August 13 at our in-person Final Bids Buyers' BBQ at the Ventura County Fairgrounds.

Register now for free BBQ tickets & details: https://bit.ly/3q8jeEx

Learn more about this year's Auction in our Buyer's Guide, available at: https://bit.ly/378QMuM
Buyers' BBQ:
You're invited! Register as a Buyer to receive free tickets & details regarding our in-person Final Bids Buyers' BBQ on the evening of Friday, August 13 from 4-8 PM at the Ventura County Fairgrounds. Enjoy Marshall's Bodacious BBQ, a full bar, & getting together again on behalf of the best cause: our local Ag kids. The BBQ will take place during the last 4 hours of the online Auction, so come prepared to place your final bids!

Thank you for your support of our local Ag kids!

The Ventura County Fair has been cancelled for the second year in a row, however the Junior Livestock show will go on virtually this year. For more details visit www.805AgKids.com

Congratulations to Fillmore’s Dr. Linnea Fechtner on the completion of her 5th year Otolaryngology chief residency in Buffalo, New York, 2016-2021.

Linnea will now pursue an Otology Fellowship in Florida as a Cochlear Implant surgeon. There are two residents selected each year for this difficult surgical specialty.

A cochlear implant is a small electronic device that electrically stimulates the cochlear nerve (nerve for hearing). The implant has external and internal parts. The external part sits behind the ear. The internal part is placed under the skin behind the ear during an outpatient surgery.

An otolaryngologist-head and neck surgeon provides comprehensive medical and surgical care for patients with diseases and disorders that affect the ears, nose, throat, the respiratory and upper alimentary systems and related structures of the head and neck. Head and neck oncology, facial plastic and reconstructive surgery and the treatment of disorders of hearing and voice are fundamental areas of expertise.

Linnea, daughter of Michael and Diane Fechtner, was raised in Fillmore on the “Fechtner Farm”, surrounded by avocado and orange orchards.

She attended St. Bonaventure High School, graduating as 2008 Valedictorian, before going on to graduate from the University of Notre Dame, and the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio, Class of 2016, where she earned Honors with Distinction.

Understandably, Linnea’s family is incredibly proud of her accomplishments and for choosing a career which will have an impact on the lives of so many: parents Michael and Diane, grandparents Mercy and Lupe Ramirez and Howard and Linda Fechtner; sister Sigourney and husband Andrew, and nephew and niece, Jackson and Miriam Castel de Oro.

I Peter 4:10 – “God’s gifts of grace come in many forms. Each of you has received a gift in order to serve others. You should use it faithfully.”

Lou Henry's Studebaker EMF circa 1913.
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Opsahl's Studebaker dealership in the 1920s.
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Horse rescuing a horseless carriage.
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Frank Howard's team going up the "Big Hill."
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[Courtesy Fillmore History Museum]

Excerpts from “Horseless Carriages Come To Ventura County” by Edith Moore Jarrett in Old Timers’ Tales of Fillmore. Edith was a Fillmore native and founder of the Fillmore Historical Museum.

In March 1916, Fillmore’s weekly newspaper proudly proclaimed, “1510 AUTOS OWNED IN VENTURA COUNTY!"

Ernie Smith, like all young fellows, could tell you the make of anything on wheels, so after he read that item one Sunday afternoon, he went out to the road by his home east of town, sat down under a tree, and tallied every auto that passed. A total of 134 when by in 4 hours, and guess which model scored the highest. Yes, the Model T “Tin Lizzie” with 46.

See if you can remember (2021 - or every heard of) the other models he saw that day. There were 18 Dodges, 10 Maxwells, 9 Buicks, 8 Studebakers (the company had retooled from buggies to cars; remember the “E M F” – Every Morning Fixit?), 6 Cadillacs, 6 Chalmers, 4 Overlands, 4 Hupmobiles, 3 Reos, 3 Chandlers, and 2 Regals. Those who got honorable mention for one each were Grant, Lexington, Locomobile, Paige, Winton, and Apperson (the “Jackrabbit,” remember?).

By 1915, John Deere had moved his plows and cultivators over, to manufacture the “Bilt-Well Six” in four models: A 2-passenger roadster “with mohair top,” A 4-passenger “Chummy Roadster,” A 5-passenger touring car at $1295, and a seven-passenger model at $1800. George young sold them, with headquarters at the Elkins Ford garage. He also sold Maxwell roadsters “with one man top” for $655 that he said got 21.8 miles per gallon, and five passenger models for $725. But he sold Dr. William Manning a valley “Bilt-Well six” roadster for his house calls.

in 1912, Harvey Smith was selling Paiges and Hudson's, advertising that “all have self-starters.” the Moore’s Rio didn't. We bought it from a fellow who sold it just to get the 1913 model with self-starter. He was smart. We cranked that big thing, a quarter turn at a time, for nine years before we got a Chevrolet with a starter.

Of course, my folks had to get drivers licenses. I was only 14, so didn't think I was old enough to need one. I just drove and no questions asked. The license was printed on an eight by eleven sheet of paper which stated that the applicant was certified as a driver for life. Mama showed hers to the CHP just for fun when she was eighty-seven and still driving and threw the whole office into a tizzy. Of course, she had had the new kind all along, too.

We didn't push a button to turn on the lights of that 1912 Rio. There was a brassy looking tank of Prestolite, a fuel sort of like propane, on the running board, and we turned in the whole thing when we needed a refill. Turning on the headlights was a family affair, and we all got out of the car to watch.

First, the kid elected to stand by the lamps had to unscrew the latches of the brass-bound doors of the headlights, swing them open on their hinges, and hold a lighted match ready.

Then the kid stationed at the running board with a wrench - after he found it in the toolbox - was supposed to give the valve on the Prestolite tank a slight turn. Since it always stuck, he’d turn it on too much, and if it didn't blow out the match, the gas would flare up and singe the match holder.

“Turn it down!” we'd all yell, the wrench operator would jerk it clear off instead, and they'd have to start over. Usually, it took several matches before they got synchronized.

When Papa said, “We'd better start home now. Have to milk cow before dark,” we knew he was really thinking about getting there before we had to turn on those little lights.

It took a little while for people, to get used to cars. Several have told us how Judge Elkins started proudly down Central in his new 1912 Model T, forgot how to stop it, and rolled along yelling frantically, “Whoa! Whoa!”. Somebody should have told him, “Just step on any two pedals.”

Later on, John Opsahl sold the Judge a Dodge with four on the floor, but he still had a problem. When he took the family to Santa Paula, they all dreaded that short climb up Atmore Hill, just west of the present Rancho Sespe bunkhouse. It was pretty steep until the road was cut down in 1916 to be paved. Few cars could make it up in high gear. The judge solved that one. He’d stop at the foot of the little grade, order family out to push if necessary and drive up in low. He didn't find out for some time that he could shift those gears back from high to second or low while he climbed.

There was another hill that no sane driver would ever think of trying to climb with a car. That is, no one but John Opsahl, our first wheeler dealer. The Big Hill started up the Little Sespe to the oilfields from the boardinghouse at the foot where teamsters could get extra horses and a lunch before they started up that 34 % grade dirt road. But in 1916, John made it with his Dodge demonstrator and showed off “some whirligigs at the crest,” as the Herald put it. After that he advertised, “Dodge, the Car That Climbs the Big Hill Any Time.”

John could have sold sand to the Sahara. Two Elkins brothers, Carl, Jr., and Reed had the Ford garage and advertised “enough Ford parts to assemble a complete car.” And you know what John did? He sold Judge Elkins and sons Carl, Jr., Bill, and Hess, each a Dodge the same week. Only Reed could resist the fast talker.

John was always showing off in his Dodge demonstrator. Beyond the Sanitary Dairy, the old road had two unbanked right-angled corners on property boundaries. One corner had a water tank for the sprinkling wagon. John bet some fellows he could make both corners at 60 miles an hour, and, collecting a gallery of witnesses, away he went. Well, the Doge got around the first corner but took with it just one leg of that water tank tower. John lost his bet, but at least he got a free shower.

Two young men-about-town. Joel Schwartz and Hub McCampbell, heard about it and decided to give their dates a scare. One evening Hub aimed his Maxwell right at the leg of another water tank, planning to swerve at the last second to miss it. He did. But the rear end of the car swung around, hit that leg, and down came the whole tank just behind them. The girls weren’t the only ones scared.

Well, the hitching racks have disappeared. Model Ts and a lot of other models are collectors’ items, and these days we just move our housework into a self-contained RV and think we’re on vacation.

“Horseless carriages killed Buckhorn, which was about to become a town,” Harry Felsenthal said, “because people could get to Fillmore with their cars.” Horseless carriages brought the oil workers’ families down from Torrey Hill and eventually put the Southern Pacific’s passenger trains and a lot of freight cars out of business.

Horses and cars have switched places as a status symbol. If you can support a horse or two, you’re landed gentry. As J. P. Morgan said about yachts, “If you have to ask about the upkeep, you can’t afford one.” But there probably more horses loafing around the county now that the 1,510 autos the Herald bragged about in 1916.

On Friday, July 2nd, Fillmore’s Jose “Froggy” Estrada is back and will take on Leonardo “Chimmy” Morales in Miami, Florida. Photo Courtesy ‘thefogger805’ Instagram page.

Just like the rest of America, Froggy is back at work. Jose “Froggy” Estrada is fighting again after a long layoff due to Covid. It has been a long 15 months since Froggy was going to fight. Froggy was working on getting a title shot for Combate Americas M.M.A. Fighting. Due to Covid the fight in late March or early April 2020, it was called off. “I was ready for that fight!” said Froggy. “I was heartbroken when it did not happen. But like everyone else I had to deal with it.”

Now Froggy is ready and in the best shape of his life, with a fire in his eye, and a drive in his heart, he is ready! Froggy fights Friday night July 2 2021 in Miami Florada, for the new and improved Combate Global. The fight will be at 9 p.m. on Paramount + in english, and in spanish it will be on Univison.

The fight will be Jose “Froggy” Estrada with an 6-2 record vs. Leonardo “Chimmy” Morales with an 10-4 record. Both fighters will come in at 145 pounds. Morales has fought in the UFC, but has not fought in two years. Froggy fought in two JUI JITSU fights during the layoff, and feels ready for this fight. “I have stayed in shape, always training, no days off, so yeah, I am ready for this guy.” said Froggy.

Froggy like always will be fighting out of West Coast JUI JITSU Gym in Oxnard. He would like to say thank you to the supporters that make this happen. Natural Generator, Pedal Commander,Skunk Masters, V.C. Armmory, Limitless, Royal Sports Mangament. Froggy said, “I would not be able to do this without the support from everyone, I would like to thank all my friends and family in Fillmore, and Ventura County. Also my coaches and teammates at West Coast, without all of your love and support, this would not be happing, thank you!”

So now it is time to get behind this Fillmore man and show him support and watch the fight this Friday night! It will be a great one. “The guy will be tough, He is a good kick boxer.” Said Froggy. “But he can’t kick what he cannot see! I going to fight hard and take this guy out! Then it’s back to Fillmore for fireworks and bar-b-q Fillmore style on the fourth!”

Well Fillmore I know how I am kicking off my 4th of July weekend, I watching Froggy fight, the fireworks will be booming in Miami! I hope you can all support Froggy and I hope you all have a safe and sane 4th of July weekend!

Fillmore’s Fabian Del Villar took 4th place in the California State Championship Meet this past weekend, finishing with a time of 9:05.45, setting a new school record and earning a State Championship medal. Photo Courtesy Kim Tafoya.

On June 25th and 26th, VS Athletes in conjunction with PrepCalTrack and Finished Results hosted the California State Championship Meet at Arcadia High School. Athletes that placed among the top 40 in an event could register to compete in this meet. Fillmore’s Fabian Del Villar qualified to compete in the 3200 meters after posting a best time, and school record in the 3200 Meters of 9:12.10.

So here we are at Arcadia waiting for the 9:00 PM start of the 3200 meters. Two weeks ago at CIF SS D4 Championships in Carpinteria, the plan was to go out to the front and run a fast one. Unfortunately, it did go to plan. The early fast pace, the humidity, the heat, setting the pace, and other factors all added up to a third place finish in an event that Fabi was favored to win. Fabi finished in a time of 9:30.18 in 3rd place. Needless to say, FabI was disappointed.

The State Meet was never a sure thing, with COVID still a threat to keep the meet from being held. But meet organizers were able to make it happen. During Fabi’s warm up, The sun was still out 45 minutes before the race, but it felt cool. Fabi said that he felt light, and good, during the warm up.

Twelve of California’s top distance runners toed the line. After a quick start Fabi found himself in last place, but before the first lap was run, Fabi worked his way into first place and into the inside lane. He led for about 2 pedestrian paced laps. On the third lap the pace picked up and Fabi ran in fourth to sixth place. He went to the front again during the fifth lap and held that place until the final lap. That’s when the sprint to the line started with 6 runners who had broken away. Fabi worked his way back up to third place and would finish in fourth place in an excellent time of 9:05.45, a new School Record and a State Championship medal. Fabi ran an excellent race, felt he could have won, but was happy with his finish. This was approximately 25 seconds faster than his prior race at Division 4 Southern Section Finals in Carpinteria.

This is the culmination of an excellent season where Fabi set School Records in both the 1600 Meters (4:20.02) and the 3200 Meters (9:05.45). Fabi is one of many athletes who worked hard and performed well in spite of the COVID impact. We are grateful to have had the opportunity to watch him race and grow over the last 4 years. We wish Fabi the best as he transitions to UCLA next year. Go Blue!

This race can be watched on YouTube, HDRunners, Day 2. Enjoy.