The magical powers of celery

   In the early 1900s, the entire country seems to have been enamored with celery.  Celery was the super food of the early 20th Century, its promoters promising good health and weight loss.  Early vegetarianism advocates were recommending recipes chock full of celery.  And, in Wintersburg Village, farmers were toiling to meet the demand.

   In September 1905, the Los Angeles Herald published a charming student report on its front page written by Pearl Palla, age 11 years, "How to raise celery": 

   "In the peat lands celery can be grown in beds and by June the plants are ready to be set in fields.  The plants are pulled, the tops trimmed to make the celery more bushy, then the roots are set in deep furrows.  Boys and girls can help do this work." (Probably not an opinion shared by the men working long hours in the celery fields).
 

   Miss Pearl continues, "Celery is carefully cultivated.  As the plants grow, the dirt is gradually filled in the furrows.  When about ready for market, the dirt is banked around the celery nearly to the top, where it is left for about two weeks to bleach.  

LEFT: "Loading crated celery on to the cars." Long lines of wagons loaded with celery were a common site at the railroad sidings in Smeltzer and Wintersburg Village.  Imagine the countryside smelling that strong, green scent of phthalides during the celery harvest.  Scientists in the 20th Century determined celery contains the pheromone androsterone, which has an aphrodisiac effect for men. This might have made life easier for pioneer farmers when they tracked their muddy shoes into the house. (Image, June 1902, San Francisco Call)

The stalks turn from dark green to a creamy white.  Then the field is plowed and the roots are cut with a celery cutter.  Men trim and crate the stalks and then the celery is sent to market."

   "The peat lands have been low and swampy, but when they are drained and cultivated they are very rich.  Here in California, they use peat shoes on the horses.  The shoes are made of square boards that are fastened on horses' feet to keep them from sinking in the damp soil."

ABOVE: "Horses wearing clogs at work in the peat lands."  The peat soil was so soft, horses would sink into it without special wooden "peat shoes". The soil was easily plowed, water was plentiful, and Smeltzer became a "celery king" town. (Image, June 1902, San Francisco Call)

   "The white plume and golden heart varieties of celery are most generally raised.  The golden heart is a self bleacher.  A celery field is a beautiful sight, with its long, straight rows of green plants,"concluded Miss Pearl.

RIGHT: A postcard image of workers in the celery fields near Smeltzer and Wintersburg Village, undated.  Arriving by 1900, many of the workers in the celery fields were immigrants from Japan, living in labor camps in Smeltzer and Wintersburg Village.  By 1902, clergy began walking into the celery fields to talk to the laborers and the movememt to establish the Wintersburg Japanese Mission began.
   
   A couple months later in November 1905, the Los Angeles Herald headlines shouted, "Peat Lands Now Worth Hundreds of Dollars an Acre."  The Herald reported, "One of the most interesting sights in western wonderland is that of the celery trains which roll out of Smeltzer" (note: Smeltzer is in present-day north Huntington Beach, the Southern Pacific Railroad line carried celery freight from Smeltzer and Wintersburg to markets beyond).  

   "Seventeen carloads celery are now sent forward, bound for the large cities of the east," continued the Herald. "Three thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars are the figures at which these daily shipments are valued and so heavy is the demand for the Thanksgiving trade that there is much doubt as to all of the orders being filled."

LEFT: Charles Furuta driving a wagon load of produce up the Southern Pacific Railroad siding near Wintersburg and Smeltzer, circa 1915.  Similar sidings along the Southern Pacific Railroad allowed the growing agricultural community in Orange County to reach markets around the country. The Los Angeles Herald reported the December 1904 shipments "increased to such an extent that the Southern Pacific put on a special celery train from the fields in Smeltzer to Los Angeles, where the vegetable is routed to the east." (Photo courtesy of the Furuta family) © All rights reserved.

   The Herald extolled the peatlands, albeit with a bit of a back-handed compliment, "When one considers that it was by chance this great industry was started, the contrast of ten years ago from today, is amazing.  Before that time the peatland section of Orange county was considered both useless and dangerous and was inhabited by a low class of Americans who earned a livelihood by selling the peat cut from their lands." 

   Useless, dangerous and low class in the late 1800s. Okay. But, look at Orange County now (the Herald, a pro labor newspaper from William Randolph Hearst, published its last edition in 1989).

RIGHT: A crate of Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray soda near two of Wintersburg Village's prime crops--celery and chili peppers--at the Historic Wintersburg re-creation of the Tashima Market at Holidays in Huntington Beach at the Newland House Museum. (Photo, M. Urashima, December 2015) © All rights reserved.

   "The peatland, formerly worth less than $5 an acre, now readily brings $200 and often rents for $40 an acre for the one crop," reports the Herald, noting that 3,000 acres were planted in celery---making the Orange County celery fields one of the largest in the world---and that "undoubtedly the production will be much larger in 1906."

   By 1905, the farmers had formed the Celery Growers' Association, which organized the final cultivation, blanching and irrigation, as well as the "cutting, tieing, crating and carloading."   Growers netted about 15 cents a dozen celery plants, which the Herald reported was a "handsome profit" since the cost of production was $50 to $60 an acre.

   Something tells us the farmers of Wintersburg and Smeltzer weren't the only ones making a handsome profit.

ABOVE: "During these spring months, everyone is threatened with many complaints and diseases.  These months allure to exposure, overwork and risk of health.  Prudent people take advantage of the marvelous invigorating power of Paine's Celery Compound." (Los Angeles Herald, circa 1905)

ABOVE: Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray Soda is still found today.  Reportedly brewed up by a doctor in 1869 in Brooklyn, New York's Jewish community, it was billed as a tonic of celery seeds and sugar to help children with digestion.  Cel-Ray was the first Kosher soda and has a "lightly sugared, vegetable flavor of celery with a slightly peppery fizz that has been the favorite soda to pair with Deli foods from pastrami and corned beef to Kosher hot dogs and knishes." (Photo, sodapopstop.com)

Editor's note: Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray Soda can be found online at www.sodapopstop.com and sometimes at Huntington Beach's BevMo!, 16672 Beach Boulevard, between Warner (Wintersburg) Avenue and Edinger (Smeltzer) Avenue, an area once surrounded by the celery fields of 100 years ago.  Cel-Ray tastes like celery and black pepper, a little like drinking Thanksgiving dressing.  

All rights reserved.  No part of the Historic Wintersburg blog may be reproduced or duplicated without prior written permission from the author and publisher, M. Adams Urashima.  

Mr. Winters goes to Chicago

ABOVE: Chicago's lakefront hosts the 1893 Columbian Exposition and a man from Orange County named Winters makes his mark. (Photo, Library of Congress)

*Updated April 2018*

   In 1893, Chicago hosted the World's Columbian Exposition---a 630-acre international world's fair of extraordinary scope and the subject of a multitude of books and documentaries.  The four Southern California counties banded together to create the Southern California World's Fair Association, joining their exhibits in the Columbian Exposition's California Building.

   The final report of the California World's Fair Commission remarks, "Orange County displayed her citrus and deciduous fruits in such a manner as to bring them prominently before the public.  Her exhibit of fruit in glass was among the largest of any of the southern counties, while her output in the agricultural line disclosed a pleasing variety of marketable vegetables and luxuriant grains.  Her large beets, squash, celery, cucumbers, corn, oats, etc. attracted much attention, while the specimens of peat soil evoked marked comment."

ABOVE: The California Building at the World's Columbian Exposition. (Image, Final Report of California World's Fair Commission, 1893)

ABOVE: Liberty bell constructed from Southern California citrus, inside the California Building at the World's Columbian Exposition. (Image, Final Report of California World's Fair Commission, 1893)  

   A large part of the success of the Orange County exhibit has to do with Henry Winters, for whom Wintersburg Village was named.  In A History of Orange County (Samuel Armor, 1921), Winters is described as, "a conspicuous example of a successful agriculturist, and notably associated with the advancement of the county..."

   "In the early years of the county's history, Mr. Winters purchased twenty acres of land in Ocean View, where his home is situated in what is now the great celery district..." continues Armor, "His land yielded 137 bushels of shelled corn and 100 sacks of marketable potatoes to the acre the first year...samples of this remarkable showing were placed on exhibition at the World's Columbian Exposition, in 1893, and created a sensation.  Probably this exhibit, more than any other display from California, had a tendency to place the resources of Orange County in the proper light before the world in general."

   Because Winters' name was with the exhibit, he received "a large correspondence from incredulous and inquiring observers, which he personally answered."  Winters went on to display the agricultural wealth of Wintersburg Village at the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and at county fairs. 

   Winters' successful agricultural ventures and his ambassadorship for Orange County led to his being named the president of the California Celery Company, according to Armor, during which he placed Orange County celery in eastern U.S. markets.  Winters also donated land for the rail line that went through Wintersburg and land for other township purposes, such as the armory.  Grateful residents circulated a petition to name the town in his honor, creating the little community of Wintersburg Village.

LEFT: Henry and Cordelia Winters, for whom Wintersburg Village was named. Henry Winters donated land for the railroad and for local civic efforts, such as the Wintersburg M.E. Church. Cordelia Winters was a member of the Westminster Presbyterian Church, which helped found the Wintersburg Japanese Mission. (Image, History of Orange County, Samuel Armor, 1921)

   Winters built a "beautiful and commodious bungalow in the suburbs of Wintersburg, where he and his family reside and keep up the old time hospitality for which California of olden days was renowned," writes Armor, lauding Winters for keeping a family orchard and vegetable garden "in which he grows fifty varieties of fruits."

   The name of Henry Winters was lost from Wintersburg Road as the farming areas of Orange County developed.  Wintersburg Road was renamed Warner Avenue after Orange County Supervisor Willis Warner.

RIGHT: Fountain Valley's first mayor, James Kanno, with Orange County supervisor Willis Warner and other city and county officials at the Warner Avenue bridge dedication, circa 1961.  James Kanno's father, Shuji Kanno, was an elder in the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission and James Kanno attended Sunday school at the Mission.  He was the second Japanese American mayor in the United States, receiving national attention when he was elected to Fountain Valley's first city council. (Photo, Los Angeles Herald Negatives Collection)

   Today, Wintersburg Village---named after a man instrumental in the development of early Orange County---has faded into Huntington Beach.  However, a significant degree of Huntington Beach's and Orange County's early agricultural development success is due to Winters' efforts.  

   Samuel Armor's final comment about Winters was that "the wealth and success he has wrested from crude but promising materials commend itself to the consideration of the younger generation who may be imbued with ambition and possess the adequate energy and continuity of purpose to surmount the obstacles that lie in the pathway of success."

UPDATE: In 2018, archaeologists turned up remnants of the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, the fabled White City that drew millions of visitors to Chicago’s Jackson Park, as they investigated the planned site of the Obama Presidential Center and nearby parkland as part of the federal review of plans. Read http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/kamin/ct-met-obama-center-artifacts-kamin-0325-story.html

© All rights reserved.  No part of the Historic Wintersburg blog may be reproduced or duplicated without prior written permission from the author and publisher, M. Adams Urashima.

Celery in the 1890s

   See the vase on the table in this Potter & Wrightington's Tomato Soup ad?  It is a celery vase.  In the 1890s it was fashionable to display your celery, which was considered a delicacy.  

   It was hard to come by until California growers discovered how well it grew here, particularly in the area of Wintersburg.  California celery was shipped around the country.   

From Learning to Cook in 1898: A Chicago culinary memoir, (Ellen FitzSimmons Steinberg, Eleanor Hudera Hanson), "Weekly wholesale reports in 1898 show the price of California celery held fairly steady at between forty and fifty cents per dozen bunches…A frugal homemaker would have been wise to learn how to prepare these particular vegetables in as many ways as possible."

From the Golden Age Cookbook (1898), we have Celery Sandwiches:

"Use dainty little baking powder biscuits freshly baked but cold, or white home-made bread for these sandwiches. Only the very tender part of celery should be used and chopped fine and put in iced water until needed. Add a few chopped walnuts to the celery and enough mayonnaise dressing to hold them together; butter the bread before cutting from the loaf, spread one slice with the mixture and press another over it. If biscuits are used, split and butter them. They should be small and very thin for this purpose and browned delicately."

All rights reserved.  No part of the Historic Wintersburg blog may be reproduced or duplicated without prior written permission from the author and publisher, M. Adams Urashima. 

Orange County celery workers 1898

Not many images of the Japanese agricultural workers circa late 1800s or early 1900s are available.  Please contact us if you have photos!

About Wintersburg

   
   Wintersburg was once the "celery capitol" of America, instrumental in the agricultural wealth that fueled Orange County's development.  Supported by Japanese immigrant agricultural workers, Wintersburg Village and the Wintersburg Mission also became a social touchstone for those becoming Americans, for those who wished to worship in freedom, and for those who sought the American dream.  

   The dream was interrupted by World War II, when Japanese Americans on the west coast were evacuated and confined in internment camps.  Remarkably--while many Japanese Nihonmachis, or "Japantowns" were lost to history--precious elements of Wintersburg survived.  The people of Wintersburg returned home to rebuild their lives.

The Wintersburg Mission and manse, May 1910.  (Photograph courtesy of Wintersburg Presbyterian Church)

   Begun in 1904, the Wintersburg Mission building and a small minister's home were dedicated in 1910 through funds and labor provided by local Japanese immigrants and "some good American friends." In 1930, the Mission became the Wintersburg Presbyterian Church and plans were formed to build a new church building.  The Japanese community managed to raise funds and build during the Great Depression, using this building until 1966. 

A postcard of the 1934 Church building, noting the founding of the mission effort in the peatlands of Wintersburg in 1904.  (Photograph courtesy of Wintersburg Presbyterian Church)

   Among the rare Nikkei resources left in all of Orange County, the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Church complex is unusual for its range of structures demonstrating the growth of a Japanese Christian church. The complex retains the original 1909-1910 Mission building, the manse dating to 1910, the larger 1934 church built, and the home and heritage barn of church benefactor, Charles Mitsuji Furuta.   (Source: Preserving California's Japantowns, http://www.californiajapantowns.org/orange.html).

   Now part of the City of Huntington Beach, Wintersburg faces potential demolition by its new property owner.  This blog will attempt to share the story of Wintersburg and its people.   

Yukiko and Charles Mitsuji Furuta in front of their newly constructed home in 1912.  The home--once surrounded by goldfish ponds and flowers--still stands today, next to the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission complex in Huntington Beach.  (Photograph courtesy of Wintersburg Presbyterian Church)

All rights reserved.  No part of the Historic Wintersburg blog may be reproduced or duplicated without prior written permission from the author and publisher, M. Adams Urashima.