Part 373: Chula Vista
While working for John C. Fisher in San Diego, Moses enjoyed his time with Modjeska’s company. He wrote, “We were like a big happy family, especially the real working force.” Mike Coyne was the property man and “Deacon” Goodrich the master carpenter.” Moses noted that Mark Fenton and Clarence Love also worked with him on backstage projects, in addition to performing with the company.
When the group had time off from the production, they went on trips into the countryside. Moses wrote, “We had many Sunday trips to ‘Tia Juana, Mexico’ in big Tallyho. Then some jolly crowds on a yacht out on the Pacific, and fishing; Sunday dinners given us by our friend Belcher, out at “Chula Vista” on his lemon ranch. This wonderful romantic country was so full of old Spanish architecture in the old adobe houses and ruins of the old missions, that I am sure I could be contented in living among then with my paint box and sketch book the balance of my life.”
Chula Vista, National City, and Bonita were originally part of a Mexican land grant called Rancho de La Nation. Frank Kimball and his brothers purchased the land in 1868 and first developed National City as a town. Then they developed 5,000 acres south of National City and called this agricultural community Chula Vista. Five-acre lots sold for $300 per acre in 1887 and the purchaser was required to build a home within six months on the parcel. In 1888, the Sweetwater Dam was completed, bringing water to Chula Vista and increasing land sales. Ten houses were under construction by 1889, thus contributing to the city of Chula Vista. Frank Kimball became the State Commissioner of Agriculture and discovered citrus trees to be the most successful crop for the area. The environment was perfect for growing lemons and by the twentieth century Chula Vista was recognized as the “Lemon Capital of the World.”
The average grove was probably no more than ten acres, and there were thousands of citrus growers, each selling their production to a limited number of packing houses. Such was the case when Moses recorded visiting his friend Belcher at his lemon ranch in Chula Vista. It must have been quite a sight for the middle-aged scenic artist – the scenery, the smell of citrus, and the time-honored art of picking lemons.
Lemons must be picked one at a time, the picker grasping the lemon with one hand and cutting the stem with the other hand. The picker must cut the stem very close to the lemon, but not too close as to damage the fruit. If the stem is left too long, it can puncture and damage other lemons when it goes through the packing process. One lemon with an excessively long stem can damage 20 other lemons in the packing-house process as they tumble together. There were eight packing house in Chula Vista by 1913 when the great drought occurred. Pickers were paid by how many lemons they picked so they had to work quickly, yet not too quickly and inadvertently damage the fruit.
To be continued…
