Fullerton Oral Histories

As part of my ongoing research into local history, I have read many interviews from the Center for Oral and Public History at Cal State Fullerton.  The COPH has conducted thousands of interviews with local residents over the past 40 years, and these are often fascinating windows into the past.  Click on the name below for more information about that person and how their story fits into the larger story of the history of Fullerton, California.  This is, of course, a work in progress...

Domingo Bastanchury (rancher)

George Fullerton (Railroad/Real Estate)

George Amerige (real estate developer/"founder" of Fullerton)

H. Gaylord Wilshire (developer/con man)

Charles C. Chapman (rancher/first mayor)

C. Stanley Chapman (son of Charles C. Chapman)

Paul Des Granges (oil worker/rancher)

Albert Hetebrink (rancher/Klansman)

Elvin A. Ames (teacher)

Hubert C. Ferry (Union Oil)

Archer Kammerer (WWI veteran)

Jessie Corona De Montoya (Latina)

Charles Clark (Postmaster)

Herman Hiltscher (rancher)

Margaret O'Hanlon (victim of KKK terrorism)

Orla Jencks (baseball player)

Omie Jensch (daughter of orange rancher)

H. Lynn Sheller (former President of Fullerton College)

Howard Crooke (Water District)

Fred Strauss (Jewish merchant)

Arletta Kelly (teacher at the "Mexican School")

Frederick "Bambino" Hernandez (World War II Veteran)

Nancy Lee Carmichael (Librarian)

Lulu Launer (teacher)

Charles Kassler (artist who painted the "Pastoral California" mural)

Raymond R. Thompson (judge)

Richard Nixon (president)

Florence "Flossie" Arnold (artist/founder of "A Night in Fullerton")

Ruth May (African American)

Murvin Breest (mechanic/bus driver)

Lee Koppick (Native American/teacher)

Ralph and Natalie Kennedy (civil rights activists)

Philip K. Dick (science fiction author)

John Briggs (State Senator)

Marjorie Kerr (artist)