What do a doctor, Depression artists and Coney Island have in common? They’re part of this year’s Historical Cemetery Tour
When Walter Knott became intrigued by the boysenberry, a mysterious fruit he had heard about in 1932, he and the Department of Agriculture tracked down Rudy Boysen, a horticulturist who had developed the berry from a blackberry, loganberry and raspberry.
Knott asked Boysen if any of the vines had survived and Boysen gave him a few surviving vines for the Knott farm.
“Walter Knott nursed them back to health,” said Maxine Schmidl, vice president of the Santa Ana Historical Preservation Society. “And that’s the origin of Knott’s Berry Farm, then called Knott’s Berry Place. That’s how the boysenberry came to be in all those pies.”
Had the farmer who created the amusement park not been persistent, an entire hybrid of fruit could have been lost.
When many of us think of history, we don’t often think of these colorful characters living out dynamic storylines. We think of textbooks and dates, and much less tangible information — which is exactly what the Santa Ana Historical Preservation Society is trying to avoid at its 19th annual Historical Cemetery Tour at Fairhaven Memorial Park and Santa Ana Cemetery.
And costumed student actors from Orange County School of the Arts are bringing such stories to life.
Props are strategically placed at each scene throughout the cemeteries and scripts are written by a small group of society and community members who have researched and written about historical figures buried in Fairhaven Memorial Park and Santa Ana Cemetery.
This year’s theme, “The Way We Learned: A History of Education in Orange County,” is a two-hour guided tour taking place in 13 tour groups Oct. 22, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.
“As historians and preservationists, we know that too often history can seem dry — just a recitation of facts, names, years,” said Alison Young, Santa Ana Historical Preservation Society president. “Because we change the theme of the tour every year, creating new scripts, and the scenes focus on individuals who are buried in Fairhaven Memorial Park and Santa Ana Cemetery, we provide a really broad range of history but with short, personal, relatable stories.”
A Trip Back Through O.C. History
Guests of this year’s Cemetery Tour can expect an expansive look at education with the tour’s first scene talking about a little-known program called the Federal Art Project, specifically designed to put artists to work during the Depression.
The story follows two starving but world-class artists Jean Goodwin and Arthur Ames, who designed and created two mosaics at Newport Harbor High School, which remain there today.
Then there’s the story about Toastmasters International, a club founded in 1924 in Santa Ana by Ralph Smedley who wanted to teach businesspeople how to communicate better, Schmidl says.
Another scene tells of Dr. Willella Howe-Waffle, one of the first female physicians in Orange County whose house and medical museum is run by the Santa Ana Historical Preservation Society and also serves as the society’s headquarters today.
Willella decided to study medicine to assist her husband in his medical practice, but at some point she became determined to become a doctor herself.
They had one child when they picked up and moved to Chicago so Willella could attend Hahnemann Medical College in the 1880s. The story’s setting is 1883 and Willella is in Chicago with her baby in a carriage while she studies her medical books.
The Cemetery Tour typically ends at the Fairhaven’s 1916 mausoleum with a musical number. This year’s scene is “A Night at Coney Island (by Way of Santa Ana),” revolving around the history of the Ebell Club.
The club, founded by Adrian Ebell in Oakland in 1876, was a way for women to gain access to more educational opportunities.
Santa Ana Valley Chapter members wanted their own clubhouse, and in 1920 they decided to have a fundraiser, which was called “A Night at Coney Island” at The Yost Theater. The reenactment at the mausoleum is of that fundraiser.
Finding the right stories to tell for each year’s theme takes a bit of effort by society members. Not only must each story be based on historical fact and fit under the year’s theme, it must revolve around someone buried in one of the tour’s two featured cemeteries.
“We do a lot of research online, plus we have a pretty extensive collection of local history books we can refer to,” said Roberta Reed, an associate board member and co-chair of the Cemetery Tour who also is a script writer. “With that information we determine if we have enough information for our scenes. Sometimes the results are surprising.”
For instance, as part of last year’s transportation theme, the society thought the story of agriculture pioneer James Irvine riding his bicycle with a friend all the way down from San Francisco to Orange County made a great story.
“Turns out that no one knows that much about it, except that he did it,” Reed said. “In the research process I was looking for bicycle shops at the time, a tip that came from Chris Jepsen from the OC Archives, and that led me to a story about an editor of the local newspaper who could not for the life of him learn to ride a bike, but wanted to enter a bike race. It was a great story.”
It’s not always easy to tie the great stories to someone buried in the cemeteries.
A couple of years ago they needed a character who was a young girl in her late 20s. Reed had to find someone of the right age who lived in Orange County in that time period.
“Women are particularly tough, because they get married and aren’t buried with the same name,” Reed said. “So we work backwards.”
With the help of her newspapers.com subscription and findagrave.com, she found who she was looking for. Then the writing of the scene could begin.
Making History Fun
Young said through costumes, props, quality acting and unique storytelling, the Cemetery Tour offers community members a personal link to the county’s history.
“Hopefully this results in giving the public a desire to learn more about where they live, a feeling of connection to the area and a sense of pride in what has been built here,” Young said.
She said an added benefit is connecting to students at OCSA as the performances give students additional experiences that can be used for college and scholarship applications.
The Cemetery Tour has generated a loyal following, according to Young, who notes the society receives inquiries as early as January regarding that year’s theme and event date.
Barbara Burch, a resident of North Tustin, learned about the Cemetery Tour four years ago and has since attended it with friends and grandchildren.
“As a former teacher in the Tustin [Unified] School District, I feel this living history tour is an outstanding way to educate our youth about the ‘famous people of OC’ with a real hands-on approach,” she said. “The students from Orange County School of the Arts really make it all come together.”
Santa Ana Historical Preservation Society’s 19th annual Historical Cemetery Tour will be held Oct. 22, with all proceeds going to the society’s two museums. Visit santaanahistory.com for ticket information.