Here we are at the start of another new year! I am honored to serve as Tustin Area Historical Society president for 2012, and I am looking forward to a very exciting year!

First of all ~ if you have not already done so ~ please renew your membership in TAHS! This year’s board wants all of our members to enjoy special benefits ~ how about group day trips to a variety of historical locales around and/or close to Orange County? Your input is important, so let us know if you might be interested ~ we welcome all ideas, so please share! In the meantime, if you’ve not yet renewed, take a moment to answer your membership reminder letter that went out in early January ~ TAHS needs and appreciates your support!

We welcome long-time Tustin resident and TAHS member Gary Siegel to our Board for 2012 ~ Gary is jumping right in as board recording secretary ~ and also welcome back returning board member Pete Beatty, who has already agreed to chair our TAHS booth at Tustin’s Chili Cook-Off.

This year, our annual Promenade tour of Tustin’s historic homes will have extra sparkle and “pizzazz,” thanks to the leadership of its chairpersons Lindburgh McPherson and David Smith. This is definitely going to be a “do not miss” event ~ mark your calendars now for Saturday, May 5, and “The Magic of Tustin” home tour! Of course, we couldn’t pull it off without the Promenade Committee and the wonderful volunteers, especially our house docents ~ if you’ve never been a docent, please consider being part of the excitement! Contact us at the Museum and we’ll see that Doreen, our docent chairman, gets in touch with you!

Keep in mind our general meetings on the third Mondays in March, May, September and November (exception this month ~ Tuesday, the 21st), at the Senior Center, and enjoy interesting programs and refreshments. Free and open to the public, these meetings are a great opportunity to bring friends along! Oh, and our speaker for our February meeting will be Tustin News columnist and TAHS member Juanita Lovret, who will talk about her new book, “Tustin the Way It Was.” If you don’t already have a copy, it will be available that evening for sale (ongoing at the Museum) and Juanita will happily sign it for you.

Although our newsletter only comes to you bi-monthly, you can stay updated via our web site ~ ably run and updated by Guy Ball ~ at www.tustinhistory.com. The latest TAHS happenings ~ as well as various blogs and twitter ~ are all

located here. If you are on Facebook, add Columbus Tustin as a friend! Current TAHS events are posted by good old Columbus!

Finally, you probably heard that TAHS’ own Margaret Pottenger’s historic Jabberwocky suffered serious fire damage this past December 15. We are pleased to inform you that Margaret will be able to go forward with repairs and reconstruction of this valued building! Tustin Area Historical Society is extremely grateful to Elizabeth Binsack, Community Development Director for the City of Tustin, for her and the City’s support from the outset of this unfortunate event. We will keep you informed of any new developments regarding the Society’s role in assisting Margaret in the reconstruction process.

Here’s wishing a wonderful year to all of you personally, and also as members of Tustin Area Historical Society! We have fun ~ so get involved and catch the spirit!

Gretchen Whisler

Volume 37 No 1 A Publication of the Tustin Area Historical Society February 1, 2012

NEXT MEETING

Tuesday, February 21, 20127:00 p.m.

Tustin Senior CenterLOUNGE

200 South “C” Street, Tustin

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Speaker: Author Juanita Lovret

Juanita Lovret at December Book Signing.

A Publication ofThe Tustin Area Historical Society

P.O. Box 185Tustin, CA 92781

Tustin Area Museum395 El Camino Real (at Main Street)

Tustin, CA 92780(714) 731-5701

FAX (714) 731-7691E-mail: tustinmuseum@att.net

Web Site: www.tustinhistory.com

BOARD OF DIRECTORSPresident GretchenWhisler

Vice President/ GeorgeJeffriesMembership Treasurer AlCorfieldRecording Secretary GarySiegel

DirectorsPeteBeatty JoyceMillerTonyCoco MargaretPottengerSindiCorwin DavidB.SmithWendyGreene ErmaZwirner

Parliamentarian TonyCoco

Museum Office Manager BarbaraHannegan

Museum Site Manager BillFinken

Artifact Manager DougManning

Committee ChairmenAmenities PeggyBraun

Corresponding Secretary BarbaraHanneganDisplays JoyceandBillMillerHospitality JuanitaCluster/ BillFinken

Promenade LindburghMcPherson, DavidSmith

Programs ErmaZwirner

Newsletter Editor JoyceMiller

Webmaster GuyBall

Newsletter Production AnchorPrinting

Museum HoursEvery Tuesday and Thursday

9 am – 2 pm First and Third Saturday

of each month12 pm – 3 pm

Open to Visitors Admission is Free

Acc

essi

ons:

Del Pickney Tustin Police Dept Ephemera

Margaret Pottenger Book: “The Golden Promise” 1986; 1979

“Sunset Magazine” featuring article on Old Town Tustin

Tim Zierer Orchard Scale; Family Histories; Photographs

Robin Fry Toy fur burro that belonged to Carl Stevens

Special Donations: Brent Ferdig – In Memory of Frances Logan Jeanne Siegel Nancy Edgell

Recent rumblings from the U.S. Postal Service about a possible cut to their Sat-urday delivery has found more than a few people with their noses out of joint, as we’ve come to take that service for granted. There was a time, though, when mail delivery in Tustin was a lot less convenient than a current customer could even fathom. Some time ago, the Museum heard from local resident Tom Pul-ley, owner of an extensive collection of post cards from the county’s earliest days. With such a collection, it’s small wonder that he also has an interest in the Postal Service, and particularly with Tustin’s. Thanks to his research, what follows is a slightly abbreviated tale of how our local postal service unfolded.

When Tustin City began in 1870, with Columbus Tustin selling, and even giv-ing away, plots to encourage residency, we had too few people to warrant a post

WE’VE GOT MAIL

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Obituaries : James “Jim” Bartholomew –

TUHS 1941

Keith Tantlinger – TUHS 1936

Elmer W. Farnsworth – TUHS 1932

Jerry F. Nail- TUHS

VOLUNTEERISMNever discount the value of being a volunteer; volunteers are the backbone of every successful non-profit organization. For every person with just an hour or two a month of free time on his hands, there’s an organization hoping that you’ll call and ask if you can help them fill a need. The Museum is no exception, and there’s a spot for everyone. Aren’t sure about being a docent but have a talent for organizing? You’re who we’re looking for. Enjoy going through old photographs and ephemera? We’re looking for you, too. Enjoy hearing stories about Old Town from the many members who drop by just to chat? This is the place for that, and maybe you can file something or stuff some envelopes while you listen to them. Call us and get a feel for how life used to be - much of that same small-town ambience is waiting for you at the Tustin Museum.

office. Adding insult to injury, William Spurgeon, Tustin’s rival, was able to se-cure one for Santa Ana, a city in competition for residents and a railroad line, and local citizens had to travel to Spurgeon’s Santa Ana store to pick up their mail. A petition to Washington for postal service of its own was finally granted to Tustin on October 28, 1872.

The first post office was located in the Nathan Harris home at on the southeast corner of B and 2nd Streets. By 1875, with Columbus Tustin as postmaster, it had moved to the two-story Tustin Building on the south side of Main Street between ‘C’ and ‘D’. As mail traveled from railroad depot to depot at the time, a stage would then carry it to surrounding rural areas. Columbus Tustin would meet the Los Angeles to San Diego stage as it pulled up to the store and distrib-ute mail to the crowd of locals gathered outside. Mail not distributed would be put into lock boxes, which were accessible 24 hours a day. For a short time, mail reached here at the Southern Pacific depot when a branch railroad to Tustin was established. After the ‘boom and bust’ of the 1880s ended, that delivery was dis-continued and switched to the Santa Fe station a mile southwest of town. Bags of mail, thrown out of the baggage car door, were picked up by Franklin Crawford and carried by wagon to Tustin. Outgoing mail was snatched from a hook next to the depot tracks.

Home delivery, a rural route from the Santa Ana post office, didn’t come to Tus-tin until the early 1900s, and in 1925 the post office moved into the newly built Knights of Pythius building at the corner of Main and El Camino Real. It con-tinued to operate there until moving to its own building on 3rd Street in 1951. It outgrew even that facility in 1963 and moved into its present location.

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GETTING IN THE PARTY SPIRITOn December 10th, we held our annual potluck holiday party for the Museum’s office staff, our many volunteers and docents. The appetizers, sal-ads, main courses, and desserts were delicious and more than ample – we could’ve stayed there another day with all that food, in fact. It was held in the clubhouse of Doug and Mari-lyn Manning’s mobile home park, which was already deco-rated, but we managed to add a lot more to it. The photo is of our new Board for this year, al-though David Smith and Joyce Miller were unable to attend, and therefore, you’ll have to imagine what they might look like.

Board members for 2012 (missing: Joyce Miller, David Smith)