Tag: Ventura County

The Picture -(via the Museum of Ventura County)

by Library Docent Volunteer Andy Ludlum

At first glance, the picture is nothing special. It’s a group of 31 men, posed in front of the Ventura Mill & Lumber Company. They are all dressed in their best clothing, suits and hats, most wearing ties. What makes the picture historic is that it was taken on Easter Sunday, the morning of April 8, 1917, two days after the United States had declared war on Germany. The young Ventura men had all volunteered to serve their country as members of a state naval militia. Newspaperman, author, and curator of what would become the Museum of Ventura County, E. M. Sheridan wrote that the photograph finally told the “little sleepy mission town” that “there really was a war and their own land was into it.”

Read the story: Museum of Ventura County

“The Woman Lawyer”- (via Museum of Ventura County)

by Library Docent Volunteer Andy Ludlum

On July 28, 1924, when motions were called for in the case of the People vs. Jesse Mendoza in Ventura County Superior Court, court watchers were stunned when “a tall and stately woman” stepped inside the bar and answered, “ready for the defendant.” Mary Belle Spencer of Chicago became the first woman to represent a criminal defendant in Ventura County history. And this was no routine trial. It was the trial of man accused of committing one of the most gruesome and brutal murders anyone could remember. Spencer practiced law for decades and relished the attention she drew in legal circles. But despite her accomplishments and failures, she was invariably described in the newspapers as “the woman lawyer.”

Read the story: Museum of Ventura County

The Bad Bob – (via Museum of Ventura County)

by Library Volunteer Andy Ludlum

Marjery Misner was described in 1924 by The Los Angeles Times as a “pretty, young teacher.”  Near the end of the term, the first-year elementary school teacher in Santa Paula was summoned to the South Grammar School office of the district superintendent, Charles D. Jones.  He said her actions two weeks earlier left him with no choice. She could no longer teach in Santa Paula, and he asked for her resignation. What had Misner done to prompt such an arbitrary reaction from Jones? She defied a school board edict – and bobbed her hair.

Read the story: Museum of Ventura County

The Story of Pierre Agoure (via Museum of Ventura County)

By Library Volunteer Andy Ludlum

This is the story of an early Ventura County sheep rancher. His remarkable tale has been overlooked and almost lost over time.

Source: Museum of Ventura County

Stolen Liberty (via Museum of Ventura County)

By Library Volunteer Andy Ludlum

The Sunday, December 7, 1941 edition of the Oxnard Press Courier ran a banner headline “FIRST WAR EXTRA” and described the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Wartime hysteria and long-simmering racial prejudice would lead to 120,000 people of Japanese descent losing their homes, farms, jobs, and businesses as they were forced to spend the next several years in desolate concentration camps….

Source: Museum of Ventura County

Women’s Long Road to the Vote in Ventura County (via Museum of Ventura County)

Written by Andy Ludlum, Library Volunteer

In the 1896 statewide general election, national leaders saw California as a turning point, a chance to prove their movement could succeed beyond…

Source: Museum of Ventura County

African American Voices from Ventura County’s Past (via Museum of Ventura County)

Written by Andy Ludlum, Library Volunteer

Recorded interviews in the Research Library’s oral history collection give us a glimpse into the lives of two remarkable women who were members of the earliest African American families to settle in Ventura.

Source: Museum of Ventura County