Barnstormers at "Basolo field" circa 1917.
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Basolo field" circa 1946.
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Aerial Picture of Fillmore taken by Edith Moore Jarrett, 1928.
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Edith Moore Jarrett disembarking in Dublin, September 1956.
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Courtesy Fillmore History Museum

After the First World War, a new phenomenon swept the United States – Barnstormers. Men, who often had learned to fly during the war, traveled the country doing aerobatics, showing the skill of the pilot and the sturdiness of the airplane. Frequently these barnstormers were employed by aircraft manufacturers.

That was the case in August of 1919 when the first barnstormer came to Fillmore. Lieut. Arnold Popic was an “aerial demonstrator” for the Zenith Aviation Company. The August 8, 1919 Herald reported that Lt. Popic had arrived the prior Wednesday “floating gracefully over the city” in his open cockpit machine and landed in a field to the west of the Sespe bridge. Two tickets for flights had been sold, one to C. C. Bufkin and one to John Opsahl. Mr. Bufkin took the first flight. Unfortunately, the field had not been prepared properly and the plane struck a deep gully and “its snoot plowed in the opposite bank.” Neither Mr. Bufkin nor Lt. Popic were injured but the plane was damaged to the point it could not fly without repairs.

The next week the following ad ran in the paper:
“Fly in the air like a bird. Lieut. Popic is here with a brand-newmachine. Flights made from Basolo field today, Saturday and Sunday. Get you tickets at the White Garage.”

Basolo field was a recently mown alfalfa field, located just south of the Bardsdale Bridge. Tickets were $10 for a 10-minute ride and it was reported that 53 tickets were sold for the three days, with the understanding Mr. Bufkin and Mr. Opsahl would get the first flights. For an extra charge, a customer like Homer Cheek, the manager of Rancho Sespe, could take the stunt flight which included flying upside down, along with dips, dives and spins. You could also pay extra to fly higher, up to 3500 feet.

It was not just the men who took flight, several women including Edith Moore, age 21, and Hortense Wood, age 14.

It is clear that this event and others like it inspired many folks in Fillmore to take up flight – either as pilots, or like Edith Jarrett, becoming world travelers.

The news reports didn’t mention whether Betty Elkins, daughter of C. C. Elkins, Jr, and granddaughter of C. C. Elkins, took one of these flights in August of 1919. But according to a story in the May 21st, 2008 issue of the Gazette, Betty became interested in flying at the age of 9 when she won a ride in a Curtiss Jenny by selling magazine subscriptions. In 1929, she married a stunt pilot, Fred Lund, who was World Aerobatic Champion in 1930. Lund taught the former Betty Elkins to fly, and she soon set the woman’s record for doing sixty-seven barrel rolls in twenty-eight minutes.

When Lund was killed while competing in a pylon race in Kentucky, Betty took over his appearance contracts and eventually began barnstorming on her own.By the end of the 1930s she was one of the leading stunt pilots in the country. During World War II she served as a WAF transporting airplanes from the West Coast production plants to the East Coast for transport to Europe.

Some young people were not content with flying the machines, some wanted to build them too. Two high school students, Don Shaw and Edward “Ebbie” Wileman, built a glider about 1931. No one expected it to fly but fly it did. Unfortunately, it was destroyed in a windstorm.

Fillmore’s first airstrip was created in 1928, just east of town and south of the highway, near the current fish hatchery. The area had been swept clean of vegetation by the St. Francis Dam flood. The oil from the Ventura Refinery (later Texaco) was poured on the future runway, covered in sand, disked in and the steps repeated. After compacting by driving heavy trucks over it, the airfield was ready. Many Fillmoreians learned to fly on this strip. This strip was eventually abandoned with the Depression and World War II.

Before it went out of service, L. E. Hammond announced the opening of a complete aircraft and engine service. To help advertise his new venture, he flew his own plane under the Bardsdale Bridge, with several inches to spare above and below.

Despite not having a formal airfield, airplanes did insist on landing at Fillmore. The story is told of one dark, rainy evening residents hearing the sound of a large plane circling the town. No one is sure how the word got out but within minutes a line of automobiles hurried out of town to a likely flat spot and divided into two rows of bright headlights, one on each side of the impromptu runway, to guide the pilot in. Through the rain a Lockheed Electra made a three-point landing with five terrified passengers. Apparently, the plane had left Bakersfield for Burbank and had gotten lost.

After World War II there was renewed interest in having an airport and a new airfield opened near where that first barnstorming plane landed in 1919 and once again became known as Basolo Field, but never received support from the town fathers so lasted only a few years.

German Evangelical Church Bardsdale 1890.
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Bardsdale Methodist Church 1912.
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Fillmore Methodist Church circa 1912.
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Sespe Church circa 1916
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Old Sespe Church (now a restaurant) in 1930.
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Fillmore 1st Methodist Church circa 1988.
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Willow Grove School, also a church meeting place.
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Courtesy Fillmore Historical Museum

Religion and spiritual support were always a major factor in the lives of our earliest pioneers. Those first brave settlers initially looked to itinerant circuit riders who had also moved west as the United States expanded. Most of Fillmore’s early churches were organized under the live oak trees of Kenney Grove. Thus Sespe may be regarded as the birthplace of the churches in the east end Ventura County.

In 1873, the first Sunday School in the Santa Clara River Valley was organized by families living near Cienega (the current location of the Fillmore fish hatchery). This was a location on the wagon road to the coast and initially a stage stop. The first services were held by a Baptist preacher, Reverend Riley, with music supplied by Mrs. Sam Guiberson. The first major milestone in the life of the church was a celebration of our nation’s founding on July 4th 1876. The Reverend John Warner Guiberson led the services with both the Sespe and Santa Paula Choirs performing. At the time there was no church building on the Sespe but there was already a Sunday school and Ladies Aid group.

By 1884 the Cienega church group had disbanded and the local Methodists were meeting either at the Sespe school house on the corner of Muir St. and Sespe Ave (now Grand Ave) or at Willow Grove School on the south side of the river. The preacher was Rev. Wilhite. In the 1890s the Sespe Methodist Episcopal Church was built near Muir St. and Grand Ave. (over time the Methodist Episcopal churches would drop the Episcopal designation).

The original Sespe School house was moved several times from its original location on the banks of the Sespe River. Its first move was to the banks of the Santa Clara River near the current bridge crossing from Bardsdale. It was later moved back to the Sespe and then into Fillmore where it was located on the south west corner of Central and Sespe St. where first it was used as a drugstore with a residence in the back and later a restaurant. There it remained until the 1930s when it burned down in a late night fire.

In 1887, before the arrival of David C. Cook in Piru, the Methodist congregation met in a schoolhouse near the mouth of Piru Canyon on Main St. Cook had come west from Elgin, Illinois, for his health. He had been very successful as a publisher of Sunday School literature and was deeply religious. He was the founder of Piru and the son of a Methodist minister. Initially he hosted church services under the live oaks in his own yard. He paid for the building of the Piru Methodist Episcopal church and also built the Piru Mansion, his home. Both still stand. He also planned to develop a replica of the Holy Land in Piru Canyon. But his health improved and he returned to Illinois. The olive trees growing along the road to Piru Lake are the only remnants of his Holy Land project.

Bardsdale in 1890 was mostly dry land farming where the early farmers grew beans, potatoes and raised cattle and sheep. The 1890s also saw the development of an oil industry. Some of the first settlers were German immigrants. Among them were Haases, Bartels and Baldeschweilers (later Balden). They built a small German Evangelical church which also served as a school house. Services began in 1892 and were in German in the morning and English in the afternoon. The small building still stands on Owen St. in Bardsdale though it has been remodeled and moved.

In 1887, Royce Surdam purchased 1,599 acres south of the Santa Clara River and platted out the city of Bardsdale. The development was approved by Ventura County and he proceeded to sell the land for homes. Within the plat plan there were lots for houses, stores, churches and schools. But, plans were almost immediately derailed by the coming of the railroad on the north side of the river. Try as he could, Surdam could not sell the lots for houses so he began to sell land to the immigrant farmers for agricultural purposes. The only buildings built were the Bardsdale School and Bardsdale Methodist Episcopal Church both of which still stand today. The church is still an active Methodist Church and the school is now a private home. Both can be seen on Bardsdale Ave and Ventura St. The Methodist church was built in 1898 and still has an active congregation today.

In 1910 the Fillmore Methodists met in Fillmore’s Stephens Hall (located on the alley behind Stephens Store – now La Estrella Market) to discuss the organization of Fillmore Methodist Episcopal Church. Their first Church building was built in 1913. The first service was on Dec. 20, 1912, but the building was not finished and there were no chairs – they had to borrow some. In 1957, ground was broken for a social hall. Once that building was finished the old wooden church was taken down and a new church building built. The church and social hall are now owned by One Step A La Vez. The former social hall now serves as their activity center.

The history of Methodism in valley parallels the history of the pioneers and their families and the history of our part of the Santa Clara River Valley.