Students stand outside Orangethorpe School, which was established in 1872, well before the town of Fullerton was founded.

The brothers George and Edward Amerige officially founded and laid out the town of Fullerton in 1887. However, they were not the first ones here. Native Americans (the Kizh, or Gabrieleno) lived here for thousands of years prior to the arrival of the Spanish in the 1700s, who established the missions (the closest of which was San Gabriel).

Portrait of Domingo Bastanchury, early Fullerton shepherd and farmer.

In the early to mid-19th century, the land that would become Fullerton was a large Mexican ranch owned by Juan Pacifico and Maria Onitveros. After the Mexican-American War (1848-1848), the land came into the possession of cattleman Abel Stearns, who began to sell off his vast holdings in the latter half of the 19th century.

In 1857, the City of Anaheim was founded by a group of German grape growers. Starting about 1860, pioneering families began to settle in the area that would become Fullerton. Some of their names survive as the names of streets and parks.

Much of the information below is taken from Bob Ziebell’s book Fullerton: A Pictorial History as well as Samuel Armor’s History of Orange County.

An early settler was the Basque sheep herder Domingo Bastanchury, who arrived in the early 1860s. He first leased, and then purchased land in what is now north Fullerton for his growing sheep herd. Over time, he acquired more acres, and expanded his business into cattle, hogs, citrus, and other crops.

Domingo’s wife, Maria Bastanchury, called the land “the most desolate, lonesome place in the world.” The Bastanchury’s original adobe house was located about where the clubhouse of the Fullerton Golf Course stands today.

Jerome B. Stone (seated) with family on his Fullerton ranch circa 1880s.

In 1868, Jerome B. Stone and his wife Anna arrived and purchased two hundred acres of land that extended from present-day Harbor/Orangethorpe to the Santa Fe railroad tracks. Before it was called Fullerton, this area was known as Orangethrope.

Jerome and Anna Stone’s daughter Martha later wrote of the land, “Firewood was scarce on the fertile plain, but the mustard grew so large that the stalks were cut and burned in cookstoves and for heating…When these were not available the ranchers hitched their teams to the farm wagons and journeyed up to Carbon Canyon where oil seepage from the ground could be cut in chunks and the ‘brea’ hauled back to be used for fuel…Little did they realize the potential value of that oil seepage in those days.”

Other early settlers in the Orangethorpe area were the Germans Henry Burdorf, Chris Rorden, and Henry Boeckman.

“In 1869, this section of the country was very dreary, dry desert land filled with plants such as cactus, castor bean, sagebrush, elderberry trees, and in some places mustard; and animal life such as quail, jackrabbits, doves, coyotes, and even wildcat,” Nina May Miller, granddaughter of Henry Burdorf recalled.

Alexander Gardiner and family at their home on West Orangethorpe Avenue.

Alexander Gardiner, a native of Scotland, moved here with his family from Tennessee in 1869, planted a walnut farm, and helped establish the Fullerton Walnut Grower’s Association. Alexander’s son John was later elected to the first City Council in 1904.

Benjamin Franklin Porter came here from Texas on a wagon train in 1870 and purchased 40 acres of land on the north side of Orangethorpe. He and his wife raised 15 children. Porter helped establish the Orangethorpe School in 1872 and Fullerton High School in 1893.

In 1873, Otto Des Granges, a native of Prussia, bought 80 acres of land around present day Cal State Fullerton and Acacia Ave. and built up a citrus and walnut farm.

Richard H. Gilman established a citrus ranch near the Des Granges property. It was here that the first Valencia oranges would be cultivated. A plaque on the CSUF campus commemorates this achievement.

All photos courtesy of the Fullerton Public Library Local History Room.