Some early Surf City fireworks

JERRY PERSON

Once again, it is time to remember and to celebrate the lives and

deeds of a past generation whose sacrifices created a new country

with basic freedoms never before granted to its people. We called

this new nation the United States.

So, with the coming of this year’s Fourth of July, it is time to

remember their time in history.

Across our vast country, in nearly every town and hamlet, people

of past generations remembered the beginnings of their country and

felt proud to be called an American.

They showed that pride in many different ways, in speeches,

picnics, parades down main streets and fireworks displays, all across

our land.

In the next two weeks, we’ll look back at how our early residents

celebrated from the beginnings of Pacific City and the first 10 years

as Huntington Beach.

To begin, we must not forget that patriotic celebrations were held

in Pacific City of 1903.

Our future Huntington Beach began as a small summer getaway for

the wealthy residents of Los Angeles, and for the hearty few who

settled the area as permanent residents.

It was these who celebrated the first Fourth of July events here.

In 1903, the residents could take a pleasure trip on July 4 aboard

the flagship of the Peatland fleet for a day on Catalina Island.

This small boat was anchored at the end of our wooden pier and was

commanded by Commodore Hazeline, first mate T.J. Louis and C.E.

Edwards as chief cook.

Visitors to our town for the Fourth could enjoy lunch at J.W.

Sander’s stand and spend the night at Jake Reed’s hotel.

In 1904, Henry Huntington, who owned a major share of the new town

that was now called Huntington Beach, arranged to bring many of his

wealthy friends to town on his Pacific Electric street cars for a

special Fourth of July celebration, and of course, sell them

property.

A great parade was planned, and his “red cars” each brought 50 to

60 people all day long. The first red car to enter town was operated

by motorman Theodore Smith.

The parade and the other events that day were a complete success.

The next year saw a crowd of 8,000 to 12,000 people, who came down

to enjoy a day of festivities.

The weather on that Fourth July of 1905 could only be described as

being “intensely hot,” but people came nonetheless to enjoy a huge

barbecue of roast beef, lamb, ox and mutton and hundreds of loaves of

fresh bread. All this was free.

Henry Huntington, along with several of his company officials,

came into town aboard a special red car to look things over.

Several local restaurants were kept busy all day with visitors.

The Ivy fed 1,100 people, and there were crowds of hungry people

at the Huntington cafe and at the Pacific cafe.

The Methodist Camp out on 11th Street and Orange Avenue held an

ice cream social, and the ladies cleared about $25 that day.

There were foot races and a fireworks display.

In the 1906 celebration, the town saw more than 6,000 visitors and

a seemingly endless parade of wagons filled with people from nearby

towns, red cars pulling into the depot with visitors and even the

Southern Pacific brought visitors from Santa Ana, Riverside and the

Redlands area.

The program that morning featured patriotic exercises held inside

the auditorium at the Methodist campgrounds.

Scott’s Orchestra supplied the opening music, and this was

followed by an opening address by A. McAllen and a solo “My Country”

sung by local resident Norma Rockhold Robbins.

Standing at the podium was J.C. McCord, who read the Declaration

of Independence and the sang the “Star-Spangled Banner.”

But the highlight of the morning exercises was an address given by

Los Angeles attorney F.A. Stephenson.

Throughout the town were few parking spaces for the visitors horse

and buggies, as every feedlot and livery stable filled up long before

noon.

In the afternoon, foot races were held on Ocean Avenue (“Pacific

Coast Highway”) with Aurelius Gaviolar winning the sack race, William

Newland II winning the 100-yard dash, C. Heston the 200-yard dash and

Willie McDowell the return potato race.

Following these foot races came the horse races under the control

of Tom Talbert and Walter Smith.

This race was split into two events, the first one was a half-mile

pacing race with four entries for a prize of $25. Bert Gothard of

Santa Ana won this race.

The second event was a half-mile running race for a $20 prize and

J.C.

Patterson, riding a pony owned by William T. Newland, won.

Another popular event that day was a baseball game between Anaheim

and Huntington Beach teams. They played on a large field near Atlanta

Avenue and Huntington Street.

This event attracted a nice large crowd, and they had the chance

to watch as Huntington’s team beat Anaheim 4-2.

After the game came the catching-of-the-greased pig contest, and

the

trophy for catching that slippery swine went to J.C. Farnsworth.

All afternoon and into the evening Scott’s Orchestra played dance

music

at the pavilion on our beach for hundreds of young people.

As darkness descended on our town, the crowning event of the day

began at 8:30 p.m. with the start of an immense fireworks display

from the end of the pier.

In creating this successful pyrotechnical event, our citizens

spared no

expense. The event lasted throughout the evening hours.

Charles Warner was marshal for the day’s event, and he was not

kept busy. The event went off with scarcely a hitch from its morning

start until

the last skyrocket fired into the night air.

Even the young kids with their firecrackers had the time of their

life without a single bad accident to spoil the celebration.

As evening came, many of our residents settled down in their homes

to their evening meal.

Over at the Corbett home at Sixth and Olive, their invited guests

enjoyed a quiet dinner party.

Their dinner table was decorated in red, white, and blue and each

of their guests were given a small silk flag as a remembrance of the

day.

In 1907, their was not an official event planned, but I’m sure

many households had their own private celebration to thank and

remember those who sacrificed not only their lives but their fortunes

to bring about these United States.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington

Beach resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at

P.O. Box 7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.