1900 – Dr. Saeger is a faithful family physician.

Looking After One Another

           Some of the prominent orchardists of the first decade [1900-1909] included many whose names have long been forgotten.  There was Mr. Crowell, grandfather of Arthur Waite; Kerschner, Clyde Wychall, Dr. Stewart, Gibson, Krutz and Leighton, Hall and Green.  And, of course, there was Stetson, Carne, Bennett, Stephenson, Friend, Thacher, Sheldon and Pierpont, all of whom have long since departed.  I can think of only a few whose descendents are still in the business.  They are Friend, Arthur Waite and Martha Agnew.  There may be others.  

Ojai Valley orchards at the turn of the 20th century.

         Of course, there was no electricity in those days, and each grower was dependent on a gasoline engine to pump irrigation water.  Those engines could be very temperamental.  On a quiet summer night those Fairbanks-Morse engines with the “hit-or-miss” governor could be heard all over the valley.  When one of them was “acting up,” most of the neighbors knew it.

         I don’t suppose there was a grower that some night or other didn’t saddle a horse or hitch one to a buggy and drive to the village and get Ezra Taylor to come out and start it up for him.  Philip Pierpont has told me that generally the orchardist slept on a cot near the gasoline engine to be sure there was no interruption in the operation.

         There were no telephones then, and it was vital that there be no interruption in irrigation.  I am not sure, but I believe the wells were not so deep as of now; and the pumps were only centrifugal.  In fact, there was a number of artesian (flowing) wells in the floor of the valley at that time.

         Ezra Taylor was to the orchardist of that day as Dr. [Benjamin] Saeger was to the growing families of the Ojai Valley.  Both men stabled their horses just back of the arcade and east of Rains [Department Store].  Our home was within sight of their stable, and it was not unusual to see at sundown one or the other coming in from a call and generally looking tired and worn.  Dr. Saeger, after stabling his horse, would take his satchel out of the buggy and trudge home, south of the railroad track on Ventura Street.

         . . . As far as I know, no one bothered to lock their houses in those days.  We didn’t even have a key to our house.  Of course, we had not money, clothes or jewelry worth bothering about; but at our house there were always guns, liquor and riding equipment, that no attempt was made to protect.

         Mentioning Dr. Saeger, I think most babies were born at home; at least that was so in our family.  Of course, few had a trained nurse; and I well remember one cold, winter night Uncle Tom [Clark] coming to our house and saying that, “Ella’s time has come” [Ella Bakman Clark, his wife].  Our mother [Catherine Clark Bald] dressed and left with him.

         Then at daylight, I remember our father [George Bald] building a fire in the wood stove, calling my sister [Margaret] (who must have been about nine years old) lighting a coal oil lantern and leaving to attend to his horses.  Margaret prepared breakfast by the light of the coal lamp; and after dad left for work, we did the dishes, swept the floors, made the beds and went to school.

         There were other familiar occasions when mother would be away for weeks at a time, helping someone in trouble.  It was all taken for granted, with no thoughts of compensation.  

Ojai Valley Orchards, autumn 2006.   Photo by Daly Road Graphics

 19 

By Howard Bald, 
“Reminiscences of Early Ojai”
Ojai Valley News, Feb. 14, 1973  A11:1

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