Archived Stories of the Heritage Valley

Agriculture

Early Agriculture in the Santa Clara Valley

Disasters - Natural and Man-made

How disaster shaped our town

Early Apricot Cultivation

Brief story of early agriculture in the Santa Clara Valley

Elkins' Olive Oil Factory by Ellen Finley, 1988

Fillmore's First Bank

The Story of the First State Bank of Fillmore

Fillmore's First Schools

Fillmore's Monorail

The scam of the monorail

George Henley and Sespe Brownstone

The story of quarrying for brownstone rock in the Sespe

History of Stephens Store

History of the store at the Northwest corner of Main and Central in Fillmore

Honey of a Job

Bees and Honey Support the Economy

Joel K L Schwartz

Brief biography of Joel K L Schwartz - from telegrapher to postmaster

Olive Oil Manufacture per Charlie Brown

How olive oil was made at C. C. Elkins Olive Oil Factory

Painter James

How one man kept alive the memory of all who served in World War II from Fillmre

Piru, an Incomplete History

A brief history of early Piru

Railroad

Brief history of the Southern Pacific Railroad in the Santa Clara Valley

Remembering Fillmore's Past:
Dewey's Garden Center

Remembering Filmore’s Past - Part 3, By Ellen Finley

“This is the third of a series about people, places, and events from Fillmore’s history”

Ruth French, by Susan M. J. French

The story of a centenarian

Schools

Sespe Land and Water Company

The story of the creation of Fillmore

THE STORY OF THE EARLY SESPE SCHOOL DISTRICT, By Clara Smith

This is a verbatim copy of a history of the Sespe Schools, prepared by Clara H. Smith, who taught there in the 1886 -1887 school year. A long time teacher in Ventura County schools, she later taught in the Normal School at San Jose, Calif. She probably wrote this in the 1920s or 1930s. The items in brackets were corrections or clarification prepared by F. L. “Ted” Fairbanks, a resident of Fillmore from 1907 until his death in 1983.

The Museum has no photograph of the Sespe School Miss Smith taught at, but it would have been similar to the school at Cienega, just east of Fillmore, built about the same time.