Independence Day, Moreton Bay Fig anniversary celebrated
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
Published: July 09, 2004
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula Times
Sunday’s Independence Day pancake breakfast was expected to draw about 100 people to the Depot area where a special exhibit of war memorabilia and a celebration of the planting of the Moreton Bay Fig were planned for the 4th of July.
“We’re now on the third batch of sausages,” bought as the need arose to feed the almost 300 people who showed up at Sunday’s joint event, said City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz.
“It’s a nice big crowd already,” said Chamber President Anna Marie Manzano, who was selling tickets for the Optimist Club prepared breakfast.
Santa Barbara Street was closed in front of the Depot and directly across the street the Moreton Bay Fig towered modestly. Nearby was a Santa Paula Fire Department ladder engine displaying the Stars and Stripes.
Inside the Depot was an exhibit of World War II and Korean War memorabilia provided by members of Mercer-Prieto VFW Post #2043 and the Korean War Veterans Association Ventura County Chapter #56.
“I’ve had some of this for years, others are things like letters from my uncle,” who had been a POW in WWII, said VFW Post Quartermaster Richard Ruiz.
Magazines, posters, medals, newspapers, uniforms, swords, rifles, even a bayonet were on display as WWII era music played in the background.
Tim Santana is a veteran of the U.S. Calvary 1st Division and had not only the bayonet and other WWII war weapons on display but also his service uniforms, pressed to a soft sheen.
“I kept all these things for years and it’s nice to show them,” said Santana.
“I’m so pleased, it’s great to be out here celebrating with the river valley,” said Supervisor Kathy Long. “And it was the good grassroots advocacy of people like Ed Beach and Pat Ragner,” who saved the Moreton Bay Fig from destruction 43 years ago.
The Independence Day ceremony included a Color Guard of WWII and Korean War veterans, Deacon Al Guilin offering the invocation, the reading of the Declaration of Independence by area Girl and Boy scouts (Kristen Easley, Stephanie Buttz, Pam Lear, Douglas Lear and Tim Montgomery). Pam Thompson sung “The Star Spangled Banner.” Councilmen Rick Cook, Ray Luna and John Procter also attended the event.
Santa Paula California Oil Museum Director Mike Nelson read a history of the Moreton Bay Fig prepared by Santa Paula Historical Society President Mary Alice Orcutt Henderson.
Planted on July 4, 1879 by Ebenezer Hugill Orne in honor of the birth of his third daughter, the tree Australian tree was just one of the many magnificent plantings on the property.
A traveling preacher born in 1832, Ebenezer and his mail order bride, Lizzie Evelyn Bates, settled in Santa Paula as their family grew and eventually moved out to the country.
“The tree lived a quiet life here in Santa Paula until the 1960s,” when plans were made to tear the tree out, said Bobkiewicz.
News travels fast in Santa Paula, said Ed Beach who with others banded together to save the tree when it was threatened.
The late Gil Jackson spearheaded the drive to save the tree, which was accomplished by community donations that made a property purchase possible. The land and Moreton Bay Fig were then donated to the city, noted Beach.
“I love the tree,” and was distressed when she saw cutters preparing to remove it, said Pat Ragner, an original member of the group that saved the tree.
“I’m a closet environmentalist and honored to be a part of a testament to the spirit of Santa Paula,” Beach said. “It’s a shining example of a good city when friends get together,” to save a beloved landmark.
Vice Mayor Mary Ann Krause noted the celebration of a “day in 1776 when a group of men in Philadelphia came together for the momentous achievement of creating a new nation,” and the planting of the Moreton Bay Fig.
“Both occasions have in common the celebration of birth and new beginnings,” an appropriate cause of celebration in the city as “our community is also enjoying a rebirth and a new beginning.”
Krause asked the crowd to imagine Santa Paula in 1879 when Orne planted the Moreton Bay Fig in a town with only 250 residents but still the second largest city in the county.
People gather each July 4th to celebrate and “remember the birth of an idea, a concept so bold that it shook the entire world. We are here to celebrate and remember the birth of democracy,” stemming from the belief of a group of visionaries that they “and their children should live free from tyranny and oppression,” Krause noted. “We celebrate the fact that a group of people believed that democracy was worth fighting for; was worth having for themselves and for all people who loved and cherished freedom. . .we love freedom. We are Americans.”
