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CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, FULLERTON CENTER FOR ORAL AND PUBLIC HISTORY and ORANGE COUNTY PIONEER COUNCIL Helen Smith Collection Volume 1 Edited by Kathleen R. Frazee This is part of a collection of slightly edited transcriptions of interviews conducted by Helen Smith that have been deposited in the Center for Oral and Public History at California State University, Fullerton. The reader should be aware that an oral history document portrays information as recalled by the interviewee. Because of the spontaneous nature of this kind of document, it may contain statements and impressions which are not factual. Scholars are welcome to utilize short excerpts from any of the transcripts without obtaining permission as long as proper credit is given to the interviewee, the interviewer, and the University. Scholars and those intending commercial profit from the use of this material must, however, obtain permission from California State University, Fullerton before making more extensive use of the transcription and related materials. None of these materials may be duplicated or reproduced by any party without permission from the Center for Oral and Public History, California State University, PO Box 6846, Fullerton CA 92834-6846. Copyright © 2011 Center for Oral and Public History California State University, Fullerton HELEN SMITH COLLECTION ―For nearly twenty years Helen C. Smith (1905–1984) was editor, co-editor and contributor to the Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly. Growing and sharing plants was an important part of her life and for years she compiled the plant lists for the PCAS site reports. Her superb knowledge of English grammar and usage as well as scientific terminology set and maintained the scholarly tone of the Quarterly. ―A near lifelong resident of Orange County, Helen was a graduate of Pomona College, class of 1926. In the 1934 depression years she was instrumental in establishing the State Emergency Relief Administration Anthropological Projects (later taken over by the Works Progress Administration) that surveyed and excavated archaeological sites in Orange County. ―Through the years she interviewed and taped members of pioneer families in California and Baja California. Her research gained her widespread respect in both Mexico and the United States. Although she never wrote a book, Helen Smith was recognized as a major Orange County historian. She was a prime source of archaeological and historical information to those who wrote books and reports. Besides collecting information she gathered historical books, documents and other articles and placed them in libraries and museums where they would be accessible to researchers.‖ – PCAS Quarterly iii Helen Smith died on June 5, 1984 of a heart attack at her home in Costa Mesa, California. Her daughter donated her papers to California State University, Fullerton. They eventually came to the Center for Oral and Public History (COPH) where they were stored but unused for over a decade. Though the inventory for the papers and tapes listed some very early county settlers as narrators, it was only in 2009 that funding and technical skills dovetailed at last making publication of this information a feasible project. The Orange County Pioneer Council appreciated the value of the material and decided to help make its contents available to a wider audience. This is very much in keeping with its mission and goals. When the material arrived at COPH, several of the interviews had been transcribed into print, so the nature and amount of editing done by Smith served as a guide for editing the remaining interviews after they were transcribed. Some of the recordings had parts that were difficult to understand, so a blank line was used when the exact words could not be deciphered. A question mark in parentheses means the correct spelling of the name could not be verified. Items added by either Helen Smith or COPH editor are indicated by brackets or placed in footnotes. We thank volunteers Jenise Tim, Matt Payan, and Susan Berumen who assisted with the transcription phase of the project. In the absence of both individuals who were present at the interviews, name verification and photographs whenever possible were obtained from modern existing resources. Special thanks to Phil Brigandi, local historian; Jane and Stuart Gothold, Pacific Coast Archaeological Society; Mary Ellen Goddard, Costa Mesa Historical Society; Sharon Perry, CSUF Library Special Collections; and Jane Newell, Anaheim Public Library. Thank you also to Kevin DeMera and Daniel George for audio transfer and digital imaging support. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface iii List of Illustrations vi Louie Carisoza, O.H. 3627 and 3966 1 William Floyd Croddy, O.H. 3632 45 Eleanor Darrough, O.H. 3631 63 Donald Dodge, O.H. 3633.1 and 3633.2 81 Hazel Greenleaf Flaherty, O.H. 3637 113 Rose Ford, O.H. 3634 159 Dr. Percy Gaskill, O.H. 3636.1 to O.H. 3636.6 175 Vernie Graser, O.H. 3635 271 George Fiske Hammond, O.H. 3952 277 Index 297 v ILLUSTRATIONS Courtesy of: Figure 1 Center for Oral and Public History photo archive (fumigation) Figure 2 Anaheim Public Library, Heritage Center (Indian laborer) Figure 3 From the Collections of the Costa Mesa Historical Society (flyer, map) Figure 4 CSUF Library, Special Collections (work party) Figure 5 CSUF Library, Special Collections (beaches) Figure 6 Center for Oral and Public History photo archive (Mrs. Irvine) Figure 7 Center for Oral and Public History photo archive (composite) Figure 8 CSUF Library, Special Collections (Kraemer rancho) vi O.H. 3627 CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, FULLERTON CENTER FOR ORAL AND PUBLIC HISTORY Helen Smith Collection NARRATOR: LOUIE CARISOZA INTERVIEWER: Charles Irwin and Helen Smith DATE: June 17, 1973 SUBJECT: Diet and culture of Indians CI: Well, did the early Indians, as far as you know, did they visit the beach at certain times in the year? Winter? LC: They used to go down, no, in the summertime, they spent summer down there. They used to spend all summer down at the beach. They believed in that water, in the salt water that was really a good medicine. And they‘d go down there. Before, they had all these camps along the roadways, different tribes of them. Each tribe had a certain place they stopped and they, and therefore they had all these barrels, these rock barrels, you know, to grind corn and all that stuff, and certain waterholes. ‗Cause they came clear from way up, San Jacinto and all through there and they had to walk with everything. Probably took them quite a while to get over Saddleback, over there. CI: Where did they spend winters, as far as you know? LC: They‘d go back to the mountains. They‘d go back to their old home in the mountains. HS: Which mountains? LC: Up around San Jacinto, Pala and in through those areas there. They‘re quite a ways off of the beach, you know. CI: As far as you know, were there any Indians that lived down at the beach all year? LC: No, I don‘t think they—of course the tribes, you know, later on they got civilized, sure, and quite a few of them lived down there. But I mean as far as I know when the tribes lived like they do in them tepees and all that stuff—you know, the Indians were just like wild, they claim they used to go from here to the beach and spend (inaudible) all along the beach someplace. I guess they used to go, a lot of them go deer hunting, too, way up in the mountains. CI: Would that be in the summer too, or— 1 CARISOZA O.H. 3627 LC: Yeah, some in the summer. (pauses for testing) CI: Do you recognize this wavy turban shell? Did you ever— LC: I seen them along the beach. CI: Did you ever eat them at all, or do you think the Indians ever did? That came from a campsite, too. That‘s from an Indian campsite. LC: You know the Indians used to pick a lot of that shells up. They used to pick a lot of them shells because they used them to make paint out of. CI: Oh, I didn‘t know that. Paint? LC: Oh, yeah, the enamel of it. They used to take that thing off there [periostracum], you know the shell part and there‘s the enamel in there, and they used to take that and they used to grind that like they did the corn, you know, in them rock things, and then they‘d mix that with the clay plant or that berry juice or whatever the heck they‘d use to cure their paint. Of course, you know, they made beautiful paint; it never wore off. What they mixed in it we don‘t know but they know that they used to pick shells to make some kind of a painting with them. HS: What color? LC: Well, they would make the color out of the clay or else make the color out of the berry juices. HS: I didn‘t know they used sea shells. CI: The silvery part. HS: Oh, the mother-of-pearl part. CI: That was body paint wasn‘t it? To put on face and body. LC: Yes. You know years ago they used to do that when they used to whitewash. They had lime and mixed it with burnt shell and then they put it on the old barns. Remember the old barns? By God, it would last longer than the darn fifteen-dollar a gallon paint we buy now. That‘s the way they cured the adobes, you know. Adobes were painted white on the outside. Their houses were always white. Oh, and they used that cactus, that slime off of that cactus, too.

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