JOHN FREDERICK HARTSOOK - LANKERSHIM/NORTH HOLLYWOOD PIONEER

 DISCOVERING OUR VALLEY  -  2011

     This afternoon, I spoke by telephone with longtime San Fernando Valley resident Cindy Mitchum Azbill of Portland, Oregon. She shares information about her relative John Frederick Hartsook (recognize the street name in North Hollywood?) with The Museum Community, about one of the greatest agricultural tragedies in Valley history. The loss of Hartsook's prize cattle herd was so great that the Los Angeles Times in May of 1924 covered the story with a two page article.

 Los Angeles Time clipping May 18, 1924. Courtesy of Cindy Mitchum Azbill Jan. 2011. (click on the image to enlarge it.) For your convenience, I have clipped and blown up sections of the article below for easier reading.

EARLY FRUIT ORCHARDS IN TOLUCA / LANKERSHIM

2009 - The Year of Valley History

When the wheat crops failed on the historic Lankershim Ranch, the foremen looked for substitutes. Since the early days of the Franciscan missionaries, the ability of a semi-arid San Fernando Valley to sustain orchards was well known. The padres had brought grape cuttings, the seeds of olives and fruits and a variety of nuts.
Among the most successful orchard crops were cling peaches (so named because the meat held tightly to the fruit even when ripe).

Mules used in Lankershim Orchards - Photograph gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from David High - July 2009

While waiting for a speech at Moorpark College, Caesar Chavez, who was using my office the campus center, and I talked about picking fruit (both his and my families did the back breaking work.) We discussed how in the early days of American farming in California, that East Indians were brought under English contracts to plant the orchards.
My mother told her children about a song the little children in Live Oak, California sang about the orchard planters: "Hindu, Hindu, does the best he ken do, and when it rains, he makes his skin do." Actually, the East Indian laborers were not Hindus, but Sikhs. When their planting was done, some of the American contractors put them on boxcars and sent them to the border of British Columbia (sending them back to British territory, in that case Canada, fulfilled their bargain).

Lankershim Peach Orchards - Photograph gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from David High - July 2009
Peaches seem to have originated in China about 3000 years ago, but very early cultivation of the fruit was conducted in ancient Persia. Roman merchants brought the highly desirable fruit to the western world, and aptly named it Persica. The English renamed the fruit Peche from which we get the word peach. Dried peaches and their pits arrived with the Spanish in California.

Lankershim Peach Orchards - Photograph gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from David High - July 2009

The early pioneer American farms in the San Fernando Valley experimented with a variety of fruit trees, including oranges.
Lankershim Orange Orchards - Photograph gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from David High - July 2009

The San Fernando Valley, in the heart of the Creative Center of the World, deserves a great Museum of history and culture.
Interested in agricultural history? Call 1 (818) 347-9665 and become part of your Museum Community.

3 PRICELESS PHOTOS OF DAVIS MANSION IN HISTORIC NORTH HOLLYWOOD

2009 - The Year of Valley History

Historic Davis Mansion - Lankershim / North Hollywood, California - page 22 of Davis Family Photo Album - Gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley by David High - July 2009.

Note that the front yard of the historic Davis farm mansion was just being planted when this photograph was taken. Look for the small palm tree in the center. The farm and mansion were located where today Riverside Drive and Lankershim Avenue cross.

Historic Davis Mansion - Lankershim / North Hollywood, California - page 10 of Davis Family Photo Album - Gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley by David High - July 2009.
The yard is growing here in this rare photograph from the David Family Photo Album. See how the palm tree has grown? Across the path to the house there appears to be a watering hose. At the back of the house, a windmill to pump water is seen.

Historic Davis Mansion - Lankershim / North Hollywood, California - page 9 of Davis Family Photo Album - Gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley by David High - July 2009. Note the presence of a chicken-wire fence in the foreground of this photo. (click on images to enlarge)

The San Fernando Valley, in the heart of the Creative Capital of the World, deserves a great Museum of history and culture.

PHOTOS OF PIONEER DAVIS FAMILY OF NORTH HOLLYWOOD DISCOVERED

2009 - The Year of Valley History

Photo of Harriet Davis, Gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from David High - July 2009

Photo of Hammond Davis, Gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from David High - July 2009

A few weeks ago, when David High donated his wonderful box of old North Hollywood photographs to your Museum, a small photograph album was know to have one identifiable picture of a San Francisco landmark. Today, nearly every image in the album has been identified by a descendent of the family in the book. Guy Weddington McCreary recognizes that most of the old timers are members of the historic family of Hammond Davis. Guy is a descendent of the Davis.
Here are the heads of the family, Harriet (HC-29) and Hammond Davis (HC-30)
Hammon's picture was hotographed by Thomas C. Bayfield, North Street, Horsham, England.
Harriet's was done by G. Churchill, photographers to Her Majesty the Queen and most of the imperial and royal families of Europe.
4 Cornfield Road, Eastbourn, England.
The names of the photographers and locations reveal that this family may have been from the Horsham region of Sussex south of London.

The San Fernando Valley, in the heart of the Creative Capital of the World, deserves a great Museum of history and culture.

MARIA AVILA - LIVING SAN FERNANDO VALLEY HISTORY

2009 - The Year of Valley History
Maria Avila - Jack Lankershim Reading Rood 2009 - Photo for the Archives of the Museum of the San Fernando Valley by Gerald Fecht (click on image to enlarge)
In the newly refinished Lankershim Reading Room at the Andres Pico Adobe, Maria Avila posed in front of an enlarged painting of Jack Lankershim's Ranch. Quipped Maria, Jack only had one cow at the time he painted this picture, but he didn't like to skimp on things. Maria was married in 1929. She and her husband worked for Jack Lankershim for many years.
Maria Avila attended Lankershim School in North Hollywood. She left school at 16 to marry. Like nearly all of her family she attended the Catholic church and recalls when a small chapel was built in the "Mexican Village". It was called Saint Suzanna.
Maria attended Phyllis Hansen's lecture on her recent book "Charmed", and brought small trinkets given to her over the years by members of the Lankershim family from their vacations.

JACK LANKERSHIM FINED FOR SPEEDING - 27 MPH

Valley Scene - Postcard in the collection of The Museum of the San Fernando Valley - gift of Gary Fredburg 2008 (click on image to enlarge)

Member of The Museum's Board of Directors, Phyllis Hansen shares this news item from the Los Angeles Examiner of April 24, 1909

‘JACK’ LANKERSHIM FINED
“Jack” Lankershim, son of Col. J.B. Lankershim, yesterday paid his first fine for violating the speed ordinance.
Motorcycle Policemen Humphrey and Coe paced the Lankershim machine for several blocks along West Seventh street Thursday afternoon. Their speedometers showed that Lankershim's car was traveling 27 miles an hour when it ought not to have been running faster than 20 miles.
Lankershim yesterday appeared before Police Judge Ross and paid a fine of $15. . . .