ORANGE
COUNTY
PIONEER COUNCIL
FALL 2005
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
On behalf of your Board of
Directors we hope that all is well with you and your families. Thank you all for
your participation at our Annual Pioneer Dinner at First American Corporate
Headquarters, the dinner and program were a big success. We are currently
gearing up for our fall picnic and new oral history publications. Our membership
continues to grow so please make sure that all your family members are on the
roster.
You
are welcome to join the Board of Directors. The board meetings are held
September thru May; the meetings begin at noon at the Santa Ana Country Club and
last 1½ hours. Please consider.
As
we have mentioned in the past, membership and your financial support continues
to be a vital part of our organization. We ask that you consider a gift (tax
deductible) to our Oral History Program. Thank you for your support.
Terry Brennan
President
Website
Please check out our website: www.OCPioneer.org.
There you can find a list of our Board of Directors, the Membership form, past
newsletters, announcements and a listing of completed oral histories. If you
have information for the website please contact Janet@tonkovich.com.
Thank you to
Greg Tonkovich
for keeping the website current and to Doug Miller for hosting the site.
MEMBERSHIP
With
the addition of 3 new families to our membership, we have grown to 300 members
strong! Please join me in welcoming James and Cheryl West of
Costa Mesa
into our group. James’ parents Floyd and Blanche West came to
Santa Ana
in 1923 to work as
the first employees of C. J. Segerstrom & Sons.
We also welcome Tom and Nancy Lutz
of
Santa Ana
. Tom’s grandfather, John J. Lutz Sr., came to
Santa Ana
in 1913 and opened Rankin’s Department Store. James
and Donna Kettler of Surfside, CA, have become members this spring. The
Kettler brothers William, Emil and John settled in
Huntington Beach
to farm around 1920. We also welcome all family members of existing Pioneer
Council families who have decided to join us this year. I’m looking forward to
meeting with all of you at the picnic this September and welcoming you
personally.
Laura Cook
Membership Chairman
TREASURER
There are still
several members who have not paid their dues. Please give me a call at
714-543-9681 if you think this might apply to you. I’ll be happy to check our
records. Thanks to all of you who are current. This is what keeps our
organization going.
Barbara
Oldewage
Treasurer
ORAL
HISTORY
As
I am sure you know the primary purpose of our organization is to preserve the
early history of
Orange
County
by interviewing descendants of pioneer families.
We added two new volumes to our collection at the Annual Meeting this
year: La Habra Pioneers, Volume
5, by Esther Cramer and the Oral
History of Leroy Cook, who was born in the early years of
San Juan Capistrano
. We are presently working on an
interview with Minuro Nitta which will be presented in April 2006. There are
many other members of the OCPC who still need to be interviewed but
unfortunately we are extremely short of interviewers.
You don’t need any experience just an appreciation of
Orange
County
’s heritage and a desire to get involved.
The Oral History Program and I would be more than happy to train you in
the basic interviewing skills. If
you would like to participate in the program, please contact me at 949-552-6037.
The Oral History Program,
now the Center for Oral and Public History (COPH), will be happy to assist
you in any way. Please help us continue this valuable project.
The number for COPH is 714-278-3580.
Please ask for Kathy Frazee.
Eileen DeCair
Oral History Liaison