In the fall of 1897 I bought a small
acreage in the northwest quarter of section 25, township 2 north, range 2
east, in eastern Contra Costa County, and moved on it the following
February. At that time there had been five surveys made by the Santa Fe
Company, but no definite decision was reached as to its location. It was
evident the railroad wanted to avoid the orchards as much as possible and at
the same time enter Antioch by the water-front. Our nearest station was at
Neroley, a flag station on the Southern Pacific Railroad, about three miles
south from where Oakley now stands. Something of an effort had also been
made prior to this time to get a post-office established there. It was a
little premature, however, and the effort was abandoned.
A few days after I had moved in a
surveying party came along near my cabin, carefully setting a line of
stakes. They told me that was to be the Santa Fe line, and that my house
would have to be moved. A short time after the agents came along, trying to
buy the necessary rights-of-way. The company had figured upon having but one
station between Antioch and the San Joaquin River, and there was quite a
difference of opinion among its officers as to where it would be best to
locate this station. G. W. Knight's place, three and a half miles east from
this point, was finally chosen as being the nearest to the Southern Pacific
line, and would very likely draw most trade from that point. That station
the company proposed to name Meganos. It had not, however, made a good guess
on the loyalty of our leading sand-lappers, viz,. James O'Hara, Andrew
Walker, and B. F. Porter. These leaders said, "No, gentlemen; we will not
sell you a right of way across the northwest quarter of section 25, but we
will give you the land desired if you will sign an agreement to put down at
least a half-mile of side-track, put up a small room for shelter while
awaiting for trains, and build us a station whenever the business will
justify." That agreement was signed in due time, and the sand-lappers had
scored their first home run.
Before grading was well under way an
agitation was started for a post-office, without waiting for the advent of
the trains, and I was selected as the one to represent our people before
Uncle Sam. This was done success-fully, and in due time I received the first
letter that was ever addressed to Oakley, Cal. It was mailed by our
Postmaster-General at Washington, D. C., September 9,1898, certifying to my
appointment as postmaster at Oakley, California. My commission was dated
September 7, 1898. The usual amount of supplies was sent to the postmaster
at Antioch for me. My instructions were to open the office whenever I was
ready, run it to suit myself for two months, then report. The office was
opened November 1, 1898, the instructions were followed, and the rest is
detail work and public history. Our first eight months of mail service was
conducted from here to Antioch and return six times a week, by cart, and was
largely successful, through the loyalty of A. N. Norcross and Daniel Methven,
with an occasional quarter from other loyal hearts to help buy horse-feed,
and yours truly running a relief trip semi-occasionally to help out. At the
end of eight months Uncle Sam took charge of the carrying service and sent
us our mail from Brentwood via Oakley to Bethel, another new post-office
back in the big bend of the San Joaquin River. The change relieved me from
some of the responsibilities, as well as indicating permanency of
establishment.
The Santa Fe Company had undertaken to
build across the tule lands to get into Stockton, and consequently had a
great deal of trouble from its tracks sinking. The road ran southeast from
here until it reached the section-line, two miles south of Oakley, and from
there into Stockton on the section-line. After what we thought were many
long days the company named July 1, 1900, as the time to put on its first
passenger train. I was ready for it, receiving and dispatching mail by the
first train - and the sand-lappers had scored their second home run.
Oakley had been located on section 25,
township 2 north, range 2 east. This section was railroad-grant land, and
was put on the market in 1897 by James O'Hara at fifty dollars an acre, all
being sold inside of two years. Much of it has been resold two and three
times over, and always at an advance. This so-called orchard land is quite
sandy, and in early days was a haven of rest for coyote and jack-rabbit, and
those people that had courage to locate on it were sneeringly referred to as
"sand-lappers." When fruit-trees were introduced the jacks became a bane to
the fruit-grower. This section was known far and wide as the happy
hunting-ground if the river men, where the tired hunter, after his evening
feed of broiled jack-rabbit, would be serenaded to sleep and dreams of
shining gold nuggets by the silver-toned coyotes. There are but few
hiding-places left for Mr. Jack Rabbit. The almond is boss of the road now
in these parts.
James O'Hara was the most extensive
real-estate dealer in this part of the country, and was generally reckoned
as the pioneer and father of the Oakley fruit and almond industry. This is
decidedly correct. He is also sometimes referred to as the "Father of
Oakley." Strictly speaking, that was not correct. But by forcing the deal he
made with the Santa Fe Company, he helped to make possible the Oakley of the
future. It might have come later anyway, but not so soon. Being postmaster
here then, I was naturally looking for a line in coming developments, and
first bought a flat-iron corner of Porter & Walker that the Santa Fe had cut
from off the southwest corner of section 24. I offered J. A. Jesse the best
lot of the piece absolutely free of cost if he would build on it and put in
a stock of groceries. He complied, and we traded. While that was being done,
I moved the post-office building onto another part of the lot - and Oakley
town was in embryo. Shortly after this I got a line on the Haven
nineteen-acre lot across the road in section 25. Associating N. A. Norcross
with myself, we purchased that property, platted and recorded it - and
Oakley was on the map. We next made substantial concessions to J. M.
Augusto to get a blacksmith-shop started. To show that Augusto is satisfied,
I quote his own words - that he has made a thousand dollars for every
dollar that he invested in the lot. Then two lots were sold to Brentwood
parties for $125. They were resold inside of two weeks for $250. The boom
was on.
In the early spring of 1905 our loony
sand-lappers began to swell up to an alarming extent, thirsting for more
notoriety. A public meeting was held, and Oakley was pledged to a Fourth of
July celebration, with a jack-rabbit barbecue dinner. What a guffaw went up
over the whole country. "What gall! What monumental cheek!" came from all
points. Our boldness gave other towns the shivers, and not one of them dared
enter the field against us. We got a flag-pole from Washington, an orator
from Stockton, a quartet from Antioch, and our neighborhood rhymsters being
at their best, there was no lack of entertainment. As fifteen hundred gift
fans were far short of the demand, two thousand guests was the estimate of
the number present. Thirty gallons of ice-cream was licked up before one
o'clock. One stand took in eighty-five dollars for soda-water alone - and
Oakley scored another home run. Great guns! it was a hot day - 110 in the
shade!
While this town and the surrounding sand
country have had no phenomenal growth or land boom, there has been at all
times a steady, healthy increase in population as well as in improvements
and over five hundred per cent increase in land values, with a certainty of
further advance in the near future.
The Rickert lot of fifteen acres on the
east was added to the townsite in 1909 by the late James O'Hara, and has
been largely settled upon already. Another addition of larger suburban lots
was added by R. C. Marsh. We have one rural free delivery route eighteen and
a half miles in length, serving a hundred and twenty families, and we are to
get another in the near future. With two halls subject to our whims for
social and club entertainments, with four churches to lead the people in the
way they should go, with a three-room schoolhouse (now badly over-crowded)
to teach the young idea how to shoot, and a gradual increase in population,
it is only a question of time for us to reach corporation and judicial
district size. I have said the next station east of us was named Meganos by
the Santa Fe Company. It being located on Knight's farm, the people there
wanted it called Knightsen, and beat the Santa Fe to it by asking Uncle Sam
for a post-office, to be named Knightsen, with George W. Knight as
postmaster. They won out, and Knightsen had scored a home run. Lyon
Brothers, or what is known as the Miller-Cummings Company, have an asparagus
packing plant here, in which they pack and ship asparagus for the Eastern
market, sending out from two to four cars a day during the shipping season,
which lasts about seventy-five days.
We have a farmer's club of fifty members
that keeps in touch with our State University, which sends us lectures on
any subject whenever desired, free for the asking, and which is appreciated
by all. There is also a live-wire Ladies' Oakley Improvement Club of about
thirty members that helps us look after our dimes and quarters when it
thinks there are any improvements needed. Its members are top-notchers, too,
and grease the track for an occasional progressive whist party.
Why are there so many churches in Oakley?
That question has been asked many times. The one word "jealousy" would give
almost a complete answer. At the time I located here there was a small
Methodist church in the country two and a half miles southwest of Oakley. A
few of our people went to church there quite regularly for a time, several
denominations being represented. Finally a get-together meeting was called,
with the idea of moving the church to Oakley, and all joining in one
service. Five meetings, I believe, were held, two of them in my house, and
the more we got together the farther we got apart, and finally the effort
was abandoned. The Congregational Mission was first on the ground here, with
preaching and Sunday-school under an oak tree, services being conducted by
Rev. Paul Bandy. They soon had a church organization in sight, two lots
donated, and the lumber on the ground for a Congregational church. That woke
up the Methodist people, and soon after they moved their church into Oakley.
Finally, in 1908, they removed the old church and built a larger edifice,
presumably anticipating future needs. Soon after this the Catholics, who, by
the way, had been preparing for several years to build a commodious church
here, started to erect a building on their lot in the O'Hara addition. The
Baptists shortly after followed suit, with a very creditable structure, the
fourth church building for our village. Further efforts have been made for a
more united religious service, but some ism or other is always in the way.
INTRODUCTION OF THE LOGANBERRY
The wonderful loganberry of commerce was
introduced into the Oakley district in 1900 by the Rev. C. S. Scott, a
well-known resident here. Scott brought the plants from southern California,
and set out a measured acre of sediment land with rooted vines. They were
irrigated from a well and care-fully cultivated, so that a handsome growth
was secured, and a wonderful crop of berries was produced the following
year. This crop was peddled at good prices, the income from the berries
alone being six hundred dollars. But the principal idea was to create a
demand for cuttings. The canes were lopped down, weighted, mulched, and
irrigated, with the result that the following January he sold two hundred
rooted cuttings at twenty-five cents each, realizing an income of eleven
hundred dollars from one acre the next year after planting.