Roundup: April 10, 2019
Almansor Court – 700 S. Almansor, Alhambra, CA.
Social Hour: 5:00 PM
Dinner: 6:00 PM
Our Speaker: Larry Latimer
His Subject: Downey’s Aerospace History from Biplanes to Missiles to the Moon
Larry Latimer is a business owner, researcher, historian and author in Downey.
His book on the history of Downey was published by Arcadia Press as a part of the “Images of America” series. In addition to his other work, Mr. Latimer also makes occasional presentations to audiences ranging from 3rd graders to senior citizens on Downey’s unique history. Larry is a board member of the Downey Historical Society and a former president of the Aerospace Legacy Foundation which is headquartered at the Columbia Memorial Space Center. The slides in his presentation are from his extensive digital collection of historical images related to Downey and its fascinating aerospace history.
The relationship of Downey and the aircraft/aerospace industry dates back to the early decades of the last century. Private planes and military aircraft were produced in large numbers at plants in Downey. As the industry shifted from aircraft to aerospace, Downey came to the forefront as North American Rockwell, later a part of Boeing, began aerospace operations. Research and engineering studies done in Downey resulted in advances that led to the space capsule and to the space shuttle. A full-size mock-up of the shuttle was housed in one of the buildings. All of this took place in a relatively small area, surrounded by orange groves and housing tracts. Even more interesting is what has happened to the original site where the engineers, mechanics and other professionals transformed the industry from aircraft to taking men to the moon and the International Space Station. Attend this interesting presentation to discover the links between Downey and space flight and what happened to the original plant.
Suggestions for future programs are always welcome! Contact Ann Shea at 562-408-6959 or annwshea@ca.rr.comwith your ideas and program topics.
Posted by Ann Shea, Deputy Sheriff
Future Los Angeles Corral Events
May 8, 2019 Roundup
Speaker is Michael Eberts
History of Griffith Park
June 15, 2019
Fandango
Rancho Los Cerritos in Long Beach
July 10, 2019 Roundup
Speaker is the Corral’s Autry National Center Fellow
Dinner Fees, Reservations & Meal Choices
The Roundup Dinner Fee is $40 including ample, convenient and free parking. The dinner choices for this Roundup are beef, chicken and vegetarian. The beef will be grilled and slow roasted sirloin with a wild mushroom sauce. The chicken is roulade of chicken, sliced breast of chicken stuffed with a julienne of vegetables and melted cheeses in a spinach sauce. The vegetarian offering is penne pasta with tomato, basil, carrots, peppers, zucchini, mushrooms and green beans. The dessert this month is something different, a seasonal lemon cake.
Please choose your entrée and make out your check for $40 to “Westerners, Los Angeles Corral,” or submit your payment onlineas EARLY AS YOU CAN but no later than one week before the Roundup date. Just log onto our website and go to the Members Only tab. Click on the Roundup Store option and follow the instructions. Walk-ins can be served, but entrée choices will be limited to what is on hand. The “late price” is now $45.00.
If you are paying by check, mail it to Ms. Therese Melbar, Registrar of Marks and Brands at 549 South Aldenville Avenue, Covina, CA 91723-2909. Late reservations or questions may be addressed to Therese via Email: tmelbar@cpp.eduor by telephone: (661) 343-9373.
Travel Assistance to Our Fellow Members
Please keep in mind that some of our members can no longer drive or are uncomfortable driving on the freeways at night. If such members live in your area, please get in touch to see if they would come with you to the Roundups. Call Michele Clark, our Sunshine Wrangler, at (626) 822-1522 if you need a ride.
Books and Art Pieces for Sale
Books and art pieces will be available for sale at the Roundup. Once Brian Dillon returns from his travels, you will be able to check out the books and art available on our webpage and purchase your choices online once again. Previous lists are available below:
Art
To view the items included in this year’s art auction, click here.
Books
To view the items included in this year’s book auction, click here.
Contact Ann Shea, Deputy Sheriff, at 13613 Barlin Avenue, Downey, CA 90242-5107 at annwshea@ca.rr.com or at (562) 408-6959 with any questions or news.
Living Legend No. 62 – Dr. Gary D. Turner
Westerners International Living Legend No. 62 Dr. Gary D. Turner
Gary Turner has been an active member of the Los Angeles Corral of WI since 1979. He has held leadership positions throughout his entire length of membership. Gary is an impressive speaker with a knack for humor and has presented many history programs for his Corral and many other organizations. Gary has also published numerous articles for the Corral quarterly publication, The Branding Iron. He is a cowboy poet, limerick dispenser, and book publisher. Gary, a native of Venice, California has a BA in History from Whittier College and was awarded a Ph.D. in Education, from the Claremont Graduate School. Gary has been a life-long educator teaching Social Studies and English. He has also served as an administrator and completed his education career as Principal of Verdugo Hills High School. In his youth, Gary studied classical piano and was a star high school and college football player. Gary and his wife, Vicki, have been passionate supporters of local football and have had the Verdugo Hills football stadium, Turner Field and Stadium, named in their honor. Dr. Turner and Vicki have traveled the world and have visited 15 foreign countries. Additional passions include grandkids, conservation, fishing and big game hunting – not to mention his vast knowledge of western history.
Thanks to Brian Dervin Dillon, Ph.D., 2017 Sheriff of the Los Angeles Corral of Westerners for his nomination.
Roundup: March 13, 2019
An updated book list is included below.
Almansor Court – 700 S. Almansor, Alhambra, CA.
Social Hour: 5:00 PM
Dinner: 6:00 PM
Our Speaker: Michael Holland
His Subject: Treasures of the Los Angeles City Archives
Michael Holland is the city archivist for Los Angeles and manages historical city government records for the Office of the City Clerk, managing government documents dating to the 1820s. Their holdings of documents, films, photos, videos and ephemera have been included in many texts and media projects. While the City Archives has records from as early as 1827, the great bulk of its records are from the 20th Century—and 99% of it hasn’t been digitized and only exists here, in this archaic physical form. This is a truly remarkable collection.
The purpose of the City Archives Historical Records Program is to identify, collect, preserve, arrange and describe records of historical significance originated by city government. These records are made available to City officials and employees, as well as the general public. As an institution, the City Archives serves as the final resting place for records of enduring political, historic, economic, legal and cultural value. As a rich, diverse collection of historical records from various City agencies, the City Archives represents the most unique and esteemed component of the City’s Records Management Program used by City departments.
Join us for the program to learn the secrets of the City Archives and how to access the treasures hidden away in Piper Technical Center.
Suggestions for future programs are always welcome! Contact Ann Shea at 562-408-6959 or annwshea@ca.rr.comwith your ideas and program topics.
Posted by Ann Shea, Deputy Sheriff
Future Los Angeles Corral Events
April 10, 2019 Roundup
Speaker is Larry Latimer
Biplanes to Space Shuttle: aircraft/aerospace industry in Los Angeles
May 8, 2019 Roundup
Speaker is Michael Eberts
History of Griffith Park
Dinner Fees, Reservations & Meal Choices
The Roundup Dinner Fee is $40 including ample, convenient and free parking. The dinner choices for this Roundup are beef, chicken and vegetarian. The beef will be grilled prime sirloin with a sweet & spicy sauce. The chicken dish will be delicious chicken teriyaki. The vegetarian dinner will be the always popular eggplant Parmesan. The dessert this month is stark naked vanilla Häagen-Dazs.
Please choose your entrée and make out your check for $40 to “Westerners, Los Angeles Corral,” or submit your payment online as EARLY AS YOU CAN but no later than one week before the Roundup date. Just log onto our website (www.lawesterners.org) and go to the Members Only tab. Click on the Roundup Store option and follow the instructions. Walk-ins can be served, but entrée choices will be limited to what is on hand. The “late price” is now $45.00.
If you are paying by check, mail it to Ms. Therese Melbar, Registrar of Marks and Brands at 549 South Aldenville Avenue, Covina, CA 91723-2909. Late reservations or questions may be addressed to Therese via Email: tmelbar@cpp.edu or by telephone: (661) 343-9373.
Travel Assistance to Our Fellow Members
Please keep in mind that some of our members can no longer drive or are uncomfortable driving on the freeways at night. If such members live in your area, please get in touch to see if they would come with you to the Roundups. Call Michele Clark, our Sunshine Wrangler, at (626) 822-1522 if you need a ride.
Books and Art Pieces for Sale
Once again, you can buy books, art pieces and other ephemera donated to the Corral. You can order items on the lists below. Contact Brian Dillon via email at briandervindillon@gmail.com.
Art
To view the items included in this year’s art auction, click here.
Books
To view the items included in this year’s book auction, click here.
Contact Ann Shea, Deputy Sheriff, at 13613 Barlin Avenue, Downey, CA 90242-5107 at annwshea@ca.rr.com or at (562) 408-6959 with any questions or news.
2023 Dues
It’s that time of year when the Los Angeles Westerners Corral call for Dues is made. The weather may be cold, but the warmth of Western history is comforting. Dues are still only $60 for all Active, Ranger Active, Associate, Institutional and Corresponding members.
To pay & complete your purchase:
1. Click Buy Now below. You will be taken to PayPal. The following steps apply to the PayPal checkout process.
2. If you have a PayPal account: under Choose a way to pay, you can enter your PayPal account information.
If you do not have a PayPal account: under Choose a way to pay, select Pay with debit or credit card, or Bill Me Later link and enter your billing information.
3. After entering your billing or account information on PayPal, click Pay. This will complete your purchase.
Roundup: February 13, 2019
Almansor Court – 700 S. Almansor, Alhambra, CA.
Social Hour: 5:00 PM
Dinner: 6:00 PM
Our Speaker: Mark Hall-Patton
His Subject: One Hump or Two: The Commercial Use of Camels in the Western United States
Mark Hall-Patton, long a member of our Corral, is the Museum Administrator for the Clark County Museum system in Nevada. He has worked for public and private non-profit museums and has served as a consultant for museums and museum boards. In addition, he can be seen on the television show Pawn Stars, where he lends his expertise, wisely and amusingly, on artifacts and items of interest.
His talk will focus on the subject of camels and why camels were used in the Western United States commercially after the military found them less than satisfactory. The idea that camels, used as pack animals in some parts of the world, might solve the problems relating to shipping goods in the vast arid distances of the American West interested several entrepreneurs in the shipping industry. Mark will discuss what happened to the camels brought to the area and why they are not found in the desert today. Since they could eat almost anything, the story of their eventual demise is part of this story of the Western United States.
Join us for the program’s story of how our distinguished speaker became interested in these always-thirsty, curmudgeonly camels — one hump or two.
Future Los Angeles Corral Events
March 13, 2019 Roundup
Speaker is Larry Latimer
Biplanes to Space Shuttle: the aircraft/aerospace industry in Los Angeles County
April 10, 2019 Roundup
Speaker is Michael Holland
Treasures of the Los Angeles City Archives
Posted by Jim Macklin, Sheriff, Ann Shea, Deputy Sheriff, and Therese Melbar, Registrar
Dinner Fees, Reservations & Meal Choices
The Roundup Dinner Fee is $40 including ample, convenient and free parking. The dinner choices for this Roundup are beef, fish and vegetarian. The beef will be slow-roasted prime sirloin with a wild mushroom sauce. The fish dish will be baked Atlantic salmon with toasted almonds in a cream sauce. The vegetarian dinner will be penne pasta in a tomato basil sauce (again, no mention of cheese) with the usual boring but healthy fresh carrots, peppers, zucchini, mushrooms and green beans. After the December Roundup dessert of Cherries Jubilee Flambé served a month late in January, the chef will attempt to win you back with Chocolate Royale, which is similar to a baked chocolate souffle!
Please choose your entrée and make out your check for $40 to “Westerners, Los Angeles Corral,” or submit your payment online as EARLY AS YOU CAN but no later than one week before the Roundup date. Just log onto our website (www.lawesterners.org) and go to the Members Only tab. Click on the Roundup Store option and follow the instructions. Walk-ins can be served, but entrée choices will be limited to what is on hand. The “late price” is now $45.00.
If you are paying by check, mail it to Ms. Therese Melbar, Registrar of Marks and Brands at 549 South Aldenville Avenue, Covina, CA 91723-2909. Late reservations or questions may be addressed to Therese via Email: tmelbar@cpp.edu or by telephone: (661) 343-9373.
Travel Assistance to Our Fellow Members
Please keep in mind that some of our members can no longer drive or are uncomfortable driving on the freeways at night. If such members live in your area, please get in touch to see if they would come with you to the Roundups. Call Michele Clark, our Sunshine Wrangler, at (626) 822-1522 if you need a ride.
Books and Art Pieces for Sale
Once again, you can buy books, art pieces and other ephemera donated to the Corral. You can order items on the lists below. Contact Brian Dillon via email at briandervindillon@gmail.com.
Art
To view the items included in this year’s art auction, click here.
Books
To view the items included in this year’s book auction, click here.
Contact Ann Shea, Deputy Sheriff, at 13613 Barlin Avenue, Downey, CA 90242-5107 at annwshea@ca.rr.com or at (562) 408-6959 with any questions or news
Roundup: January 9, 2019
Almansor Court – 700 S. Almansor, Alhambra, CA.
Social Hour: 5:00 PM
Dinner: 6:00 PM
Our Speaker: Brian Dervin Dillon, Ph.D.
His Subject: Exiles and Saints at Kalaupapa, Molokai, Hawaii
In the 19th Century, epidemiology was in its infancy, and “germ theory” was by no means commonly accepted, even by surgeons and physicians. The causes of, and cures for, many of the most dreaded diseases were unknown, and few cities, even in America, had hospitals as we know them today. Isolation and quarantine were the most common responses to the threat of communicable diseases, real or imagined, around the world.
In 1866 a quarantine facility was begun at Kalaupapa, on the most isolated portion of Molokai in the Hawaiian Islands. Over the next century, more than 8,000 people suspected of leprosy were sent there, not to be cured, but to be isolated in exile. All but a few died there. Portrayed as hell on earth by sensationalistic writers like Jack London and James Michener, more thoughtful visitors to Kalaupapa like Robert Louis Stevenson believed it instead to be a holy place, a breeding ground for saints. Indeed, no part of what is now the United States has produced more Saints (one per square mile) than has Kalaupapa, and no part of America has such an unusual, tragic, yet at the same time uplifting, history.
Brian Dervin Dillon is uniquely qualified to speak about Kalaupapa. He first became familiar with our 50th State as an eight-year-old while his father was teaching history at the University of Hawaii. Some years later he became an honorary Islander by marrying into a long-established Chinese family with roots on both Kauai and the Big Island, gaining Native Hawaiian calabash cousins into the bargain. For more than 40 years he has been the “token Haole” of his large, diverse, multi-racial, multi-ethnic family. Four of his relatives by marriage, both Chinese and Hawaiian, were exiled to Kalaupapa in the 19th and 20th centuries. All of them died there, and all four are still buried there.
Posted by Ann Shea, Deputy Sheriff
Dinner Fees, Reservations & Meal Choices
The Roundup Dinner Fee is $40 including ample, convenient and free parking. The dinner choices for this Roundup are beef, chicken and vegetarian. The beef will be grilled prime sirloin with a sweet & spicy sauce. The chicken dish will be baked garlic chicken with parmesan cheese. The vegetarian dinner will be stuffed zucchini instead of the usual boring but healthy fresh vegetables such as broccoli, tomato, carrots, cauliflower, peppers, potato or the ever-popular jicama, kale and brussels sprouts. We have hopefully talked the chef into fulfilling his contractual obligations from the December Roundup dessert fiasco by serving our traditional holiday Cherries Jubilee Flambé a month late in January.
Please choose your entrée and make out your check for $40 to “Westerners, Los Angeles Corral,” or submit your payment online as EARLY AS YOU CAN but no later than one week before the Roundup date. Just log onto our website (www.lawesterners.org) and go to the Members Only tab. Click on the Roundup Store option and follow the instructions. Walk-ins can be served, but entrée choices will be limited to what is on hand. The “late price” is now $45.00.
If you are paying by check, mail it to Ms. Therese Melbar, Registrar of Marks and Brands at 549 South Aldenville Avenue, Covina, CA 91723-2909. Late reservations or questions may be addressed to Therese via Email: tmelbar@cpp.edu or by telephone: (661) 343-9373.
Future Los Angeles Corral Events
February 13, 2019 Roundup
Mark Hall-Patton on One Hump or Two?: The Commercial Use of Camels in the West
March 13, 2019 Roundup
Speaker To Be Determined
Travel Assistance to Our Fellow Members
Please keep in mind that some of our members can no longer drive or are uncomfortable about driving on the freeways at night. If there are such members living in your area, please get in touch to see if they would come with you to the Roundups. Call Michele Clark, our Sunshine Wrangler, at (626) 822-1522 if you need a ride.
Books and Art Pieces for Sale
Once again, you can buy books, art pieces and other ephemera donated to the Corral. You can order items on the lists at the bottom of the online Roundup announcement at www.lawesterners.org. Contact Brian Dillon via email at briandervindillon@gmail.com.
Art
To view the items included in this year’s art auction, click here.
Books
To view the items included in this year’s book auction, click here.
Contact Ann Shea, Deputy Sheriff, at 13613 Barlin Avenue, Downey, CA 90242-5107 at annwshea@ca.rr.com or at (626) 446-6411 with any questions or news
Annual Holiday Celebration: December 12, 2018
Annual Holiday Celebration
Almansor Court – 700 S. Almansor, Alhambra, CA.
Social Hour: 5:00 PM
Dinner: 6:00 PM
Our Speaker: Phil Brigandi
His Subject: Reservations, Removal & Reform: The Indian Agents of Southern California
Phil Brigandi is familiar to us as one of the Corral’s stalwart leaders in writing history and overseeing the Corral’s publications. He will discuss the role and impact of the Indian agents of Southern California. This subject is familiar to him since Valerie Sherer Mathes and he published a book, Reservations, Removal & Reform: The Indian Agents of Southern California, in 2018. Inseparable from the history of the Indians of Southern California is the role of the Indian agent–a government functionary whose chief duty was, according to the Office of Indian Affairs, to “induce his Indian to labor in civilized pursuits.” Offering a portrait of the Mission Indian agents of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Phil will reveal how individual agents interpreted this charge and how their actions and attitudes affected the lives of the Mission Indians of Southern California. Phil will tell the story of these agents who served the Mission Indians from 1850 to 1903, with an emphasis on seven regular agents who served from 1878 to 1903. Relying on the agents’ reports and correspondence as well as newspaper articles and court records, he will create a vivid picture of how each man engaged with the issues and the events confronting the Mission Indians including land tenure, water rights, education, law enforcement and health care.
Phil has been researching and writing local history for more than 40 years, specializing in the history of Orange, Riverside, and San Diego counties. He is the author of more than two dozen books and hundreds of articles, including histories of Orange, Temecula, and Borrego Springs. He is the former historian for the Ramona Pageant and former archivist for the County of Orange. He has been a member of The Westerners since 2005 and served as our Branding Iron editor from 2008 to 2010. His most recent publications include scholarly works on Helen Hunt Jackson, the book with Mathes and the Corral’s Keepsake #45, A Five-Foot Shelf of Westerners, Prominent Historians of the Los Angeles Corral.
NOTE: This Roundup is our annual holiday celebration. Also, it’s the time of the year that we pass the gold-panning pans for donations to our servers at the Almansor Court to express our appreciation for their diligent and patient care of us all year. Remember to bring a generous amount of cash!
Posted by Jim Macklin, Deputy Sheriff
Dinner Fees, Reservations & Meal Choices
The Roundup Dinner Fee is $40 including ample, convenient and free parking. The dinner choices for this Roundup are beef, chicken and vegetarian. The beef will be grilled sliced top sirloin with a wild mushroom sauce. The chicken dish will be a breast of chicken baked in traditional, slightly-spicy Mexican adobo sauce. The vegetarian dinner will be a Bouquet of Vegetables, the chef’s euphemism for boring but probably healthy fresh vegetables including broccoli, broiled tomato, carrots, cauliflower, grilled zucchini, peppers and potato. The poor souls who choose vegetarian may ask for double desserts to ease their holiday disappointment. The dessert for all will be our traditional holiday Cherries Jubilee Flambé.
Please choose your entrée and make out your check for $40 to “Westerners, Los Angeles Corral,” or submit your payment onlineas EARLY AS YOU CAN but no later than one week before the Roundup date. Just log onto our website and go to the Members Only tab. Click on the Roundup Store option and follow the instructions. Walk-ins can be served, but entrée choices will be limited to what is on hand. The “late price” is now $45.00.
If you are paying by check, mail it to Ms. Therese Melbar, Registrar of Marks and Brands at 549 South Aldenville Avenue, Covina, CA 91723-2909. Late reservations or questions may be addressed to Therese via Email: tmelbar@cpp.edu or by telephone: (661) 343-9373.
Future Los Angeles Corral Events
January 9, 2019 Roundup
Brian Dervin Dillon on Exiles and Saints at Kalaupapa, Molokai, Hawaii
February 13, 2019 Roundup
Mark Hall-Patton on One Hump or Two?: The Commercial Use of Camels in the West
Travel Assistance to Our Fellow Members
Please keep in mind that some of our members can no longer drive or are uncomfortable about driving on the freeways at night. If there are such members living in your area, please get in touch to see if they would come with you to the Roundups. Call Michele Clark, our Sunshine Wrangler, at (626) 822-1522 if you need a ride.
Books and Art Pieces for Sale
Since we did not sell all the books, art pieces and other ephemera at the October 20th Rendezvous, you can order items still on the lists below. Contact Brian Dillon via email at briandervindillon@gmail.com.
Art
To view the items remaining from this year’s art auction, click here.
Updated Book List
To view the items remaining from this year’s book auction, click here.
75th Los Angeles Corral Anniversary Event and Simultaneous 2021 Westerners International Gather
The Trail Bosses have agreed with the Westerners International organization in Canyon, Texas to host the international meeting, called The Gather, in Fall, 2021 in conjunction with our celebration of the Corral’s 75thAnniversary. Past Sheriff Gary Turner will chair the event. If you would like to assist him on the committee, please let him know at (747) 202-3888 or at drdirt_t@hotmail.com.
Contact Jim Macklin, Deputy Sheriff, at 1221 Greenfield Avenue, Arcadia, CA 91006-4148, at jhmcpa@earthlink.net or (626) 446-6411 with any questions or news items.
Roundup: November 14, 2018
Annual Hat Night
Almansor Court – 700 S. Almansor, Alhambra, CA.
Social Hour: 5:00 PM
Dinner: 6:00 PM
Our Speaker: Paul McClure
His Subject: The Disappearing West: Just how much “West” is there in Country Western Dance?
Our very own Past Sheriff (2015) will discuss how “The West” has morphed from essential American identity and iconography to a perhaps less-relevant though heart-warming historical imagery in both popular culture and dance.
Paul McClure grew up in Chula Vista, California, has a B.S. in business from California Western University and a Ph.D. in public administration from the University of Southern California, and was a RAND Fellow in Policy Analysis.
Over the years, he served as physics department administrator at the RAND Corporation, city manager of Adelanto, vice president of EFHutton, owner of American Art Glass Company, and now a retired administrator from the Pomona Unified School District. He has earned certifications as Certified Financial Planner and has held a “Q” security clearance. (If you know what a “Q” clearance is and what’s good for you, keep your lips sealed and don’t ask any questions.)
In 1992, McClure’s alter ego “Pablo” won the USADA United States Country Western Dance Championship and won first place in Pony Swing at the UCWDC World Championship in Nashville, Tennessee. Pablo has taught Country Western dancing at InCahoots and Montana’s for more than 20 years.
McClure has served as a president of the Adelanto School Board and chairman of the Adelanto Planning Commission. He was a board member of the San Dimas Historical Society and the San Dimas Parks and Recreation Commission. In addition to being a Past Sheriff of the Los Angeles Corral, he had previously served as Sheriff of the San Dimas Corral, demonstrating remarkable commitment to the Westerners. He has authored 12 books of Southern California history and Country Western dancing.
Note: Don’t forget to wear a distinctive hat to our 2018 Hat Night! It can be a western hat, Fascinator, bonnet or whatever headwear that will draw the notice and the grudging envy of your fellow Westerners.
Posted by Jim Macklin, Deputy Sheriff
Dinner Fees, Reservations & Meal Choices
The Roundup Dinner Fee is $40 including ample, convenient and free parking. The dinner choices for this Roundup are beef, fish and vegetarian. The beef will be grilled sliced top sirloin with a sweet and spicy sauce. The fish dish will consist of baked Atlantic salmon with toasted almonds in a cream sauce. The vegetarian dinner will be penne pasta in a tomato basil sauce and fresh vegetables including carrots, peppers, zucchini, mushrooms and green beans. The dessert for all is ice cream crafted from cream, sugar and Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla.
Please choose your entrée and make out your check for $40 to “Westerners, Los Angeles Corral,” or submit your payment online as EARLY AS YOU CAN but no later than one week before the Roundup date. Just log onto our website (www.lawesterners.org) and go to the Members Only tab. Click on the Roundup Store option and follow the instructions. Walk-ins can be served, but entrée choices will be limited to what is on hand. The “late price” is now $45.00.
If you are paying by check, mail it to Ms. Therese Melbar, Registrar of Marks and Brands at 549 South Aldenville Avenue, Covina, CA 91723-2909. Late reservations or questions may be addressed to Therese via Email: tmelbar@cpp.eduor by telephone: (661) 343-9373.
Nominations for and Election of the 2019 Trail Bosses
In accordance with the provisions of the Corral’s Range Rules, Past Sheriff John Selmer, Chair of the Nominating Committee, will announce the slate of nominations for the 2019 Trail Bosses and open the floor for any additional nominations. The election will be by written ballot mailed to Voting Members in November. John will announce the election results at the December 12th Roundup and Holiday Celebration.
Future Los Angeles Corral Events
December 12th Roundup
Phil Brigandi on Reservations, Removal & Reform: The Indian Agents of Southern California
January 9, 2019 Roundup
Brian Dervin Dillon on Exiles and Saints at Kalaupapa, Molokai, Hawaii
February 13, 2019 Roundup
Mark Hall-Patton on One Hump or Two?: The Commercial Use of Camels in the West
Travel Assistance to Our Fellow Members
Please keep in mind that some of our members can no longer drive or are uncomfortable about driving on the freeways at night. If there are such members living in your area, please get in touch to see if they would come with you to the Roundups. Call Michele Clark, our Sunshine Wrangler, at (626) 822-1522 if you need a ride.
Books and Art Pieces for Sale
Since we did not sell all the books, art pieces and other ephemera at the October 20th Rendezvous, you can order items still on the lists below. Contact Brian Dillon via email at briandervindillon@gmail.com.
Art
To view the items included in this year’s art auction, click here.
Books
To view the items included in this year’s book auction, click here.
Contact Jim Macklin, Deputy Sheriff, at 1221 Greenfield Avenue, Arcadia, CA 91006-4148, at jhmcpa@earthlink.net or (626) 446-6411 with any questions or news items.
Rendezvous 2018 Auction
Art
To view the items included in this year’s art auction, click here.
Books
To view the items included in this year’s book auction, click here.
Fandango 2018 Auctions
Art
To view the items included in this year’s art auction, click here.
Books
To view the items included in this year’s book auction, click here.
Roundup: May 9, 2018
Almansor Court – 700 S. Almansor, Alhambra, CA.
Social Hour: 5:00 PM
Dinner: 6:00 PM
E Clampus Vitus Night at the Corral!
(Clamper attendance, attire and regalia are encouraged.)
Our Speaker: Abe Hoffman, Past Sheriff & Platrix X-Noble Grand Humbug
His Subject: The Secret Behind The Secret History of Southern California and Its Author
In 2011 the Platrix Chapter of the Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus published The Secret History of Southern California by B.T. Fripps. The book contained thirteen chapters dealing with topics on Southern California history that were previously unknown to historians of the region–or, for that matter, anyone living there. Some people suspect that Fripps is simply an alias for Platrix X-Noble Grand Humbug Abe Hoffman, noting that some booklets carried Abe’s name. Former Sheriff and Clamper Abe Hoffman strongly denies that he and Fripps are the same person, offering as defense the many books and articles he has written, many of them refereed by peer reviewers, whereas almost nothing has been published by Fripps, and those items that have seen the light of day clearly are not written in any style Abe would write. Fripps asked Abe to proofread his writings, and Abe made the mistake of agreeing to do so. Fripps then placed Abe’s name as author or editor on the booklets and writings. Abe reveals how the Secret History came to be published by Platrix Chapter ECV, noting that considerable controversy exists between those who denounce the book as “fake history” and those who strongly defend it as uncovering long-hidden information.
Abe Hoffman is a past Sheriff of the Corral (1997) and has been a Corral member for more than forty years. He teaches history at Los Angeles Valley College. His writings have received awards from the Historical Society of Southern California, including the Wheat Award for Best Article and the Don Pflueger Award for his book Vision or Villainy: Origins of the Owens Valley-Los Angeles Water Controversy. His latest book is California’s Deadliest Earthquakes.
To enhance the educational value of his presentation, Abe has arranged for copies of Fripps’ latest booklet, “Spanish Santa Barbara: Mission, Presidio, and Leper Colony,” to be given to all persons attending the May evening so they may compare Fripps’ writing with Abe’s own articles such as those published in The Branding Iron.
Posted by Jim Macklin, Deputy Sheriff.
Future Los Angeles Corral Events
June 16th, 2018 — Fandango at home of Vicki and Gary Turner
July 11th, 2018 — Autry Fellow — Challenging the Veracity of Civil War Era History in California & Nevada
August 8th, 2018 — Jeff Lapides — Passage to Eldorado: The First Photos on the Mojave Road by Rudolph d’Heureuse (1863)
Dinner Fees, Reservations & Meal Choices
The Roundup Dinner Fee is $40 including ample, convenient and free parking. The dinner choices for this Roundup are beef, fish and vegetarian. This month, that includes Grilled Top Sirloin with a Wild Mushroom Sauce, Baked Atlantic Salmon with Toasted Almonds and a Cream Sauce or, finally, Clamper-style Penne Pasta in a Tomato Basil Sauce with Carrots, Peppers, Zucchini, Mushrooms and Green Beans (but no cheese). Dessert will be Chocolate Royale, the baked soufflé-style dessert beloved by all. (Just kidding about the Clamper-style vegetarian dinner. What self-respecting Clamper would order a vegetarian dinner?)
Please choose your entrée and make out your check for $40 to “Westerners, Los Angeles Corral,” or submit your payment online as EARLY AS YOU CAN but no later than one week before the Roundup date. Just log onto our website (www.lawesterners.org) and go to the Members Only tab. Click on the Roundup Store option and follow the instructions. Walk-ins can be served, but entrée choices will be limited to what is on hand. The “late price” is now $45.00.
If you are paying by check, mail it to Ms. Therese Melbar, Registrar of Marks and Brands at 549 South Aldenville Avenue, Covina, CA 91723-2909. Late reservations or questions may be addressed to Therese via Email: tmelbar@cpp.edu or by telephone (661) 343-9373.
Travel Assistance to Our Fellow Members
Please keep in mind that some of our members can no longer drive or are uncomfortable about driving on the freeways at night. If there are such members living in your area, please get in touch to see if they would come with you to the Roundups. Call Michele Clark, our Sunshine Wrangler, at (626) 822-1522 if you need a ride.
Get Involved & Volunteer
We encourage our members to get involved with any of the Corral’s activities. Perhaps you’re a new Corresponding member who wants to be more actively involved but doesn’t know what opportunities are available. Or you may be a more experienced member who wants to help out in a particular area of our events, publications, membership, webpage or archives. Or you may be a senior member who can no longer attend meetings but who can still read a book and write a review. Please call me to discuss your interest or to get a list of the Corral’s current needs I’ve prepared. We all know that, the more you give, the more you’ll get out of the Corral’s activities! I’m continually surprised about the amazing people in our Corral with whom I get to associate and whom I now consider friends!
Contact Jim Macklin, Deputy Sheriff, at 1221 Greenfield Avenue, Arcadia, CA 91006-4148, at jhmcpa@earthlink.net or (626) 446-6411 with any questions or news items.
Keepsakes
The Los Angeles Corral of the Westerners publishes occasional offerings on a wide range of subjects. Our Keepsakes typically appear as small-format booklets of greater length than our quarterly Branding Iron, but of many fewer pages than our much longer Brand Books.
Our Los Angeles Corral Keepsakes are listed here:
Keepsake 56 2022
Hoffman, Abraham
Boot Hill Anthology
[Alan Griffin, Editor].
Los Angeles Corral, Westerners International
Keepsake 55 2021
Turner, Gary, Ed.
75th Anniversary Cowboy and Cowgirl Poetry.
Los Angeles Corral, Westerners International
Keepsake 54 2021
Dillon, Brian Dervin
Early Chapters in Southern California History.
A Special Publication for the 75th Anniversary of the Los Angeles Corral, Westerners International.
Keepsake 53 2021
Hoffman, Abraham
An Actor’s Life: William S. Hart, 1864-1946.
Arkaz Vardanyan, Editor.
A Special Publication for the 75th Anniversary of the Los Angeles Corral, Westerners International.
Keepsake 52 2021
Weber, Msgr. Francis J.
The Ten Most Important California Mission Books.
A Special Publication for the 75th Anniversary of the Los Angeles Corral, Westerners International.
Keepsake 51 2020
Turner, Gary, Ed.
Cowboy Poetry and Limericks.
Keepsake 51: Corona Virus Edition.
Westerners International, Los Angeles Corral.
Keepsake 50 2019
Turner, Gary, Ed.
Cowboy & Cowgirl Poetry 2019.
Westerners International, Los Angeles Corral.
Keepsake 49
Turner, Gary, Ed.
Cowboy & Cowgirl Poetry 2018.
Westerners International, Los Angeles Corral.
Keepsake 48 2018
Hoffman, Abraham
Los Angeles and the Owens Valley: Essays on a Century-Long Water Dispute.
Westerners International, Los Angeles Corral.
[Available through amazon.com].
Keepsake 47 2017
Turner, Gary, Ed.
Cowboy Poetry 2017.
Westerners International, Los Angeles Corral.
Keepsake 46 2017
Mathes, W. Michael
Indian Warfare In Baja California, 1533-1857.
Edited, with a Preface, by Brian Dervin Dillon and Matthew A. Boxt. Foreword by Msgr. Francis J. Weber.
Los Angeles Corral of the Westerners.
[Available through amazon.com]
Keepsake 45 2017
Brigandi, Phil
A Five-Foot Shelf of Westerners: Prominent Historians of the Los Angeles Corral of the Westerners.
Keepsake 45, Los Angeles Corral.
Keepsake 44 2016
Turner, Gary, Ed.
Cowboy Poetry.
Keepsake 44 , Los Angeles Corral.
[Unnumbered. No page numbers, no title page, no editorial attribution Jim Macklin assigned it No. 44 in 2019].
Keepsake 43 2016
Hoffman, Abraham
Where the Sun Never Shines: Essays in Southern
California History. Los Angeles, CA.
[Unnumbered. Mentions of the Los Angeles Corral and the word “Keepsake” are on the final page, but not on the title page nor the copyright page. Jim Macklin assigned it No. 43 in 2019].
[Available through amazon.com]
Keepsake 42 2017
Selmer, John
70th Anniversary Keepsake, Sheriffs of the Los Angeles Corral,
1946-2016. [Unnumbered, Assigned No. 42 by Jim Macklin in 2019].
Keepsake 41 2015
Turner, Gary, Ed.
Cowboy Poetry.
Keepsake 41, Los Angeles Corral.
Keepsake 40 2014
Turner, Gary, Ed.
Cowboy Poetry.
Keepsake 40, Los Angeles Corral.
Keepsake 39 2013
Turner, Gary, Ed.
Civil War Sequicentennial Poetry.
Keepsake 39, Los Angeles Corral.
Keepsake 38 2012
Turner, Gary, Ed.
Cowboy Poetry.
Keepsake 38, Los Angeles Corral.
Keepsake 37 2012
Brigandi, Phil, Ed.
The Death Valley Chuck-Walla.
Keepsake 37, Los Angeles Corral.
Keepsake 36
Turner, Gary, Ed.
2011 Cowboy Poetry.
Keepsake 36, Los Angeles Corral.
Keepsake 35
Turner, Gary, Ed.
2008 Fandango Californio, 2008, Cowboy Poetry and Limericks, II.
Keepsake 35, Los Angeles Corral.
Keepsake 34 2007
Turner, Gary, Ed.
Fandango Californio, 2007, Cowboy Poetry and Limericks.
Keepsake 34, Los Angeles Corral.
Keepsake 33 2003
Hoffman, Abraham
And the Horse You Rode in On: Essays in Western History.
Westerners International, Los Angeles Corral.
Keepsake 32 2001
Blew, Robert W., Ed.
Last Nuggets from the California Gold Rush 1849.
Keepsake 32, Los Angeles Corral.
Keepsake 31(B) 1999
Blew, Robert W.
A Grand Score: Brand Books 1-20. A Guide to the Contents and Authors of the First Twenty Brand Books issued by the Los Angeles Corral of the Westerners. Westerners, Los Angeles Corral.
[Blew did not exercise due diligence, so he repeated the number used by Art Clark four years earlier.].
Keepsake 31(A) 1995
Clark, Arthur
Directory of Monthly Meetings and Meetings Speakers.
Westerners, Los Angeles Corral.
Keepsake “30” 1992
Nunis, Doyce B.
The Life of Tom Horn Revisited. [116 pp.].
The Westerners, Los Angeles Corral.
[No specific identification as a Keepsake. Two different, conflicting, addresses are provided for the Los Angeles Corral on the same page. Brigandi’s typed list assigns it No. 30].
Keepsake 29 1988
Taylor, Elmer E.
George Sanders Bickerstaff, 1893-1954: ”Painter of Pictures.” [Hardcover].
The Los Angeles Westerners.
Keepsake 28 1988
Anonymous
Fandango Californiano, Casa del Rancho Los Cerritos.
Single page, folded cardstock menu with brief historical sketch, for annual Fandango, June 11, 1988,
Los Angeles Corral of the Westerners.
Keepsake 27 1988
Koenig, George
Panamint City, the California Comstock.
[Cardstock folder with two reproduction inserts, one of the Panamint News for December 15, 1874, the other for March 4, 1875].
Keepsake No. 27, The Westerners, Los Angeles Corral.
Keepsake 26 1987
Dagosta, Andy
1987 Roster, Active Members, Honorary Members, Ranger Active and Associate Members.
[Poster, of all member’s names forming the “Old Joe” buffalo skull].
Keepsake No. 26, The Westerners, Los Angeles Corral.
Keepsake 25 1987
Stevens, Errol Wayne, Ed.
Incidents of a Voyage to California, 1849: A Diary of Travel aboard the Bark Hersilia, and in Sacramento, 1850.
Foreword by Martin Ridge. [Hardcover].
Simultaneously published by the Western History Association, and The Westerners, Los Angeles Corral.
Keepsake “24” 1985
Hager, Anna Marie and Everett Gordon Hager
An Index to the Brand Book, Volume 1, Numbers 1-5 (1947) and the Branding Iron, Numbers 1-153 (1948-1983) of the Westerners, Los Angeles Corral. [Hardcover].
The Westerners, Los Angeles Corral.
[Identified on its copyright page as “Publication No. 161.” Bob Clark penciled “Keepsake #24” on his copy].
Keepsake 23 1986
Lehman, Anthony L.
Herschel Logan: Man of Many Careers.
The Westerners, Los Angeles Corral.
Keepsake “22” 1978
Frey, W.
The Apaches of the Rio Grande, a Story of Indian Life.
Translated by Brita F. Mack, Introduction by Ray Allen Billington.
Westerners, Los Angeles Corral.
[Identified on its initial page as “Westerners KeepsakePublication No. 133.” Bob Clark penciled “Keepsake #22” on his copy].
Keepsake “21” 1977
Drury, Clifford M.
An Outline Guide to the Evening Program.
The Westerners, Los Angeles Corral.
[Identified on its cover as “Keepsake Number 126,” this large single-page folio was folded in half and printed on all four sides. Bob Clark penciled “New #21” at its top].
Keepsake “20” 1972
Starr, Harvey E.
Colonel Charles Hoffmann, 1891-1971.
[16 pp.]. Los Angeles Corral of the Westerners.
[Identified on its cover as “Special Keepsake for 1972- Publication 104.” As with Keepsakes 20, 22, etc. Bob Clark penciled “New #20” on his copy].
Keepsake “19” 1971
Billington, Ray Allen
Don Meadows and the Westerners International: A Rebuttal.
[Single-page, double-sided, double column statement, undated. Not identified as a Keepsake or even as a Los Angeles Corral publication, Bob Clark’s penciled emendation at top reads: “Keepsake #19].
Keepsake “18” 1971
Coleman, William T., William T. Sherman and James O’ Meara
The San Francisco Vigilance Committee of 1856: Three Views.
Introduced and Edited by Doyce B. Nunis, Jr.
[1hardbound. Title page reads: “The Silver Anniversary Publication of The Los Angeles Westerners,” and back side reads: “Publication Number 103.” Bob Clark’s penciled annotation reads: LA Westerners Keepsake #18].
Keepsake “17” 1969
Anonymous
The Twenty-Third Psalm.
Illustrated by Sylvia G. M. Holland.
The Los Angeles Corral of The Westerners.
[A glued-in post-publication addendum page identifies this small pamphlet both as a “Keepsake” as as “Publication No. 95.” Bob Clark penciled “New # 17” on its cover].
Keepsake “16” 1969
Clifford, Henry H., Ed.
Coining Money at the San Francisco Branch Mint.
An Example of “California’s Pictorial Letter Sheets.”
[Identified as “A Special Keepsake of The Westerners, Los Angeles Corral. Keepsake for 1969, Publication No. 91. Identified on Art Clark’s handwritten list of Keepsake conversions as “New Number 16.”
Keepsake “15” 1968
Friswold, Carroll
Frontier Fighters and their Autograph Signatures.
[On the cover is written: “Los Angeles Corral, A Keepsake for 1968, Publication No. 87.” Unfortunately, the contemporary Branding Iron of June, 1968, was also given the “Publication Number of 87.” Bob Clark penciled “New #15” on his copy’s cover].
Keepsake “14” 1966
Clark, Arthur H.
A Score of Years and Fourscore Issues: An Index-Guide to the Branding Irons and Keepsake Issues 1947-1966, Los Angeles Corral of Westerners.
[Printed on the cover is: “Westerners Keepsake No. 81” but in Art Clark’s hand-written 1986 conversion table the designation is changed to “New # 14”].
Keepsake “13” 1966
Edwards, E. I.
Twelve Great Books: A guide to the Subject Matter and Authors of the First Twelve Brand Books issued by the Los Angeles Corral of the Westerners.
Westerners, Los Angeles Corral.
[Hardbound. Originally identified as “Westerners Keepsake- Publication No. 80.” Bob Clark’s penciled note on the soft-cover version, however, indicates “New # 13”].
Keepsake “12” 1996
Bishop, L.C.
Labonte: Hunter, Free Trapper, Trail Blazer and Mountain Man of the Old West, 1825-1848.
Review of a Book by George Frederick Ruxton, titled [sic] “Life in the Far West,” published in 1848, dedicated to the Wyoming Pioneers by L.C. Bishop, President, Wyoming Pioneer Association, 1950. [Republished by Bill Upton as an unnumbered Keepsake for the L.A. Coral [sic] of the Westerners. Later designated “Keepsake 76A,” but with Bob Clark’s penciled designation “Keepsake #12”].
Keepsake “11” 1958
Conkling, Roscoe P.
Waterman Lily Ormsby II. His Hitherto Unpublished Portrait, and a sketch of the Sole Passenger on the First Butterfield Overland Mail to California as a Special Correspondent for the New York Herald.
[Six large foliopages, folded and stapled for 12 pages of text and illustrations, unpaginated, labeled on its back cover “Westerners Keerpsake- Publication 46, Los Angeles Corral. Bob Clark penciled “New # 11” on its front cover].
Keepsake “10” 1958
Gordon, Dudley
Charlie Lummis and Gene Rhodes: Discoverer and Discovered.
[Large folio sheet, folded over for 4 pages of text and illustration, unpaginated. Identified on its back cover as “Westerner’s Keepsake #43 Los Angeles Corral,” this slim offering was labeled “New # 10” by Bob Clark].
Keepsake “9” 1958
Clifford, Henry H.
Collecting California and the West.
[Four pages of text and illustrations, unpaginated. Reprinted from the Pasadena Junior League Community News, at bottom on the first page it is identified as “Publication No. 42, A Keepsake of the Los Angeles Corral of Westerners.” Bob Clark’s penciled note at top reads “New #9”].
Keepsake “8” 1956
Anonymous
Wells, Fargo & Co’s Express, List of Offices, Agents, and Correspondents. 44-568. Corrected July 1st, 1880.
Single page, oversize, facsimile. At top of page is stamped “Keepsake 1956, No. 1” as an addendum to the original legend: “Keepsake of the LOS ANGELES CORRAL of the WESTERNERS” but the original distribution date of December, 1955, has been obliterated by an intentional overstrike. Bob Clark’s penciled note on the back reads: [#32a], indicating that if this Keepsake was later given the designation of “Publication 32” then this number duplicated that of the contemporary Branding Iron].
Keepsake “7” 1955
Reynolds, J.E.
Holiday Greetings.
[Narrow folder containing reprints of an 1886 Pico House advertisement and an 1883 Britten and Rey Mining Map of Inyo County. Undated, the cover states “A Keepsake. . . .Publication No. 28.” Bob Clark’s penciled notation reads “New #7” and, almost illegibly, “1955.”].
Los Angeles Corral, The Westerners.
Keepsake “6” 1954
Woodward, Arthur
Jim Waters.
[Laid out identically to chapters in the very earliest Brand Books, identified on back cover as a “Keepsake…of the Los Angeles Corral of Westerners…Publication No. 23.” Undated, but if intercalated between Branding Iron No. 22 and 24, a date of late 1953 or early 1954 would result. Bob Clark penciled “New #6” on his copy].
Keepsake “5” 1953
Anonymous
Union—Extra. . .Custar [sic] Killed!
[Facsimile of Thursday, July 6, 1876 newspaper entry, “Printed by the Los Angeles Corral of the Westerners as a Westerner Keepsake. Publication No. 19.” Bob Clark’s penciled note at top reads: “New #5.”
Keepsake “4” 1952
Dawson, Glen
The Daily Gazette and Commercial Advertiser.
Double-sided, oversized, single-page facsimile of a Denver newspaper for May 5, 1869. The legend on the back page reads: “Printed by the Los Angeles Corral of Westerners as a Westerners Keepsake. Publication No. 17, 1952. The same number, unfortunately, was also assigned to the March, 1953, Branding Iron. Bob Clark Penciled “New #4” on the Keepsake’s front sheet.
Keepsake 3 1949
Upham, Samuel C.
Ye Ancient Yuba Miner, of the Days of ’49.
[Facsimile of an 1878 8-page pamphlet, published in Philadelphia, PA. The title page reads: “Keepsake No. 3, Los Angeles Corral of The Westerners. Later, it was retroactively identified as “Publication No. 8”].
Keepsake 2 1949
Brininstool, E.A.
The Logic of Sitting Bull. [Single large, poster-sized sheet, folded down into a single landscape side, and four separate pages on the reverse. On the top of the front page is printed: “No. 2” in oversized, bold, text, followed by: “This piece is the second in a series of keepsakes issued from the Los Angeles Corral of The Westerners.” But it was also, apparently, retroactively labeled “Publication # 7” as well. In Art Clark’s hand-written list of Keepsakes, he assigns a date of 1949 to it.
Keepsake “1” 1948
Woodward, Arthur
The Old Side-Wheeler Senator.
[Single-sheet poster, reproducing the 1874 original, with text and illustrations on back. Simply identified as a “reprint…designed to replace the former BRANDING IRON. . .” which, of course, it did not, this strange offering was later assigned the identification of “Publication No. 6,” although nowhere is this to be found on the document. Bob Clark penciled “New Sequence #1” on his copy].
*********************************
Unnumbered “Keepsake” 1985
Demke, Siegfried
The Cattle Drives of Early California.
Prosperity Press, San Gabriel, CA.
[Nowhere in this 26-page pamphlet is it identified either as a “Keepsake” nor are the L.A. Westerners identified. A separate, business-card sized insert, dated October 1985, however, states that the pamphlet “is presented as a Keepsake to all members of the Los Angeles Corral by Siegfried Demke.”]
*********************************
Compiled by Brian Dervin Dillon, Ph.D.,
Los Angeles Corral Publication Committee,
with the Assistance of Jim Macklin and Bob Clark,
St. Valentine’s Day, 2021
Roundup: January 10, 2018
Almansor Court – 700 S. Almansor, Alhambra, CA.
Social Hour: 5:00 PM
Dinner: 6:00 PM
Our Speaker: Brian Dervin Dillon
His Subject: California, the Irish Paradise
California, the Irish Paradise: After more than 600 years of brutal occupation by the English, Ireland suffered one of the worst natural calamities of modern times: the Potato Famine of the mid-1840’s. Now the Emerald Isle truly became hell on earth. One quarter of the Irish population starved to death, and another quarter emigrated, mostly to the United States. The story of Irish immigrants on the American East Coast is well known, almost a cliché. Much less familiar is the history of Irish “conquistadores” throughout Latin America, including Mexican California, long before the Great Famine. Also overlooked is the story of how the Irish, beginning with the Gold Rush, turned California into the best place to be Irish anywhere in the world. At the same time that the Irish were starving back home in Ireland and being discriminated against on the American Atlantic Seaboard, California had become an Irish Paradise, and Irish people were enjoying freedoms in the Golden State that would be denied them for many years to come everywhere else. Dr. Dillon’s California, the Irish Paradise was published by the California Territorial Quarterly in 2016 in issue No. 108: his January 2018, presentation is based upon this recent study.
Brian Dervin Dillon is a fifth-generation Californian with Gold Rush ancestors, descended from Famine and pre-Famine Irish immigrants, including the earliest (1650) Irishman of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. An archaeologist, he is both the son and the father of historians. A Phi Beta Kappa and Fulbright Fellow, at age 25 Brian was the youngest-ever U.C. Berkeley Ph.D. in Archaeology. Dillon has done archaeology in California since 1972, in Guatemala and three other Central American countries since 1974. Widely published in Maya and California archaeology and in California history, Brian has taught and lectured at UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCLA Extension, CSU Long Beach, The Southwest Museum and for the California State Department of Forestry. He is the recipient of more than two-dozen grants, fellowships and awards, and was just honored with his 6th consecutive Coke Wood Award for historical writing by Westerners International. Brian was Sheriff of the Los Angeles Corral of the Westerners for 2017.
Posted by Jim Macklin, Deputy Sheriff. Read about FIVE BIG CHANGES below. Especially BIG CHANGE #5 about Your 2018 Dues!
Dinner Reservations
BIG CHANGE # 1 Based on our 2018 arrangements with Almansor Court, the cost of meals to the Corral will increase significantly. You should expect that the price for the later Roundups will also go up after the Trail Bosses meet. However, a dinner reservation for the January Roundup still costs just $35.00. Attend in January before the price goes up!
BIG CHANGE # 2 Almansor Court will no longer offer four dinner choices but only three. For the January Roundup, we will offer only beef, chicken or vegetarian dinners. Please choose your entrée and make out your check to “Westerners, Los Angeles Corral,” or submit your payment online as EARLY AS YOU CAN but no later than one week before the Roundup date. Walk-ins can be served, but entrée choices will be limited to what is on hand. The “late price” is still just $40.00.
BIG CHANGE # 3 No more “Sheas,” no more “Shuttleworths” and no more “Macklins!” If you insist on sending a check, mail it to Ms. Therese Melbar, the new Registrar of Marks and Brands at 549 South Aldenville Avenue, Covina, CA 91723-2909. Late reservations or questions may be addressed to Therese via Email: tmelbar@cpp.edu or by telephone (661) 343-9373.
BIG CHANGE # 4 Please make your payments on the Corral’s webpage if possible! Paying online is easier and less expensive for you and more efficient for the Registrar and Keeper of the Chips to process. Please pay your 2018 dues and your 2018 Roundup reservations online ASAP rather than sending a check! Just log onto our website (www.lawesterners.org) and go to the Members Only tab. Click on the Roundup Store option or the 2018 Annual Dues Store option, and follow the instructions. “Old Joe” Cavallo at (626) 372-5126 will gladly help you if needed.
BIG CHANGE # 5 A REAL DUES BARGAIN! The final big change is the potential increase in the Corral’s 2018 Annual Dues. The dues have not changed since 2013 when they were increased from $40 to $45. Just the direct printing and mailing costs of monthly Roundup notices, Branding Irons, Keepsakes, etc. now eat up the $45 dues each member paid in 2017. Since there are other necessary indirect costs for the Corral, we will probably increase the dues in 2018. However, if you pay your 2018 dues before the next Trail Boss meeting in January – preferably online at 2018 Annual Dues Store but also with a check sent with your January Roundup reservation, you will be able to pay only the old $45 rate. Don’t let this deal pass you by!
Forthcoming Los Angeles Corral Presentation
Jeannette Davis
February 14th, 2018
The Donner Party Incident: A Family Perspective
Contact Jim Macklin, Deputy Sheriff, at 1221 Greenfield Avenue, Arcadia, CA 91006-4148, at jhmcpa@earthlink.net or (626) 446-6411 with any questions or news items.
Roundup: November 8, 2017
Almansor Court – 700 S. Almansor, Alhambra, CA.
Social Hour: 5:00 PM
Dinner: 6:00 PM
Our Speaker: Philip Nathanson
Subject: Santa Fe’s Golds’ Rush: the Indian Curio Business and Santa Fe in the Latter Half of the 19th Century
After arriving in Santa Fe in the 1850s, Louis Gold and his sons Aaron, Abe and Jake became the pioneer merchants in New Mexico dealing in Indian curios and related goods, best known for establishing Gold’s Free Museum and Old Q-Riosity (sic) Shop on San Francisco Street and Burro Alley in the early 1800s. The three sons managed various enterprises into the early 20th century, when Jake was jailed and Abe died. This is the story of my great- great- grandfather Louis Gold and his significant and colorful frontier merchant descendants and their Santa Fe.
Philip D. Nathanson, a member of our Corral since 2012, was born in Connecticut and went west in time to attend high school in then-smoggy Pasadena. He has a B.A. degree from UCLA and a Ph. D. ( Economics ) from the University of Michigan. He has published on early California photography and purchased an image of Gold’s Free Museum and Old Q-Riosity Shop decades ago before he knew it was his ancestor’s store.
Factoid: What is the structure on the roof of the “Museum” behind the sign?
Late-Breaking News and Crystal Ball Gazing/Upcoming Speakers
News too hot to wait until the next Roundup? Send to your Deputy Sheriff, Steve Kanter, retiredrad@sbcglobal.net.
The speaker roster through next March, 2018 has been locked in and can be viewed on below. Stay tuned.
10/28/17—ANNUAL RENDEZVOUS
Our ANNUAL RENDEDZVOUS will take place in the Mayordomo’s Garden (and environs) at Mission San Fernando from 4 to 8 p.m. on Saturday, October 28, 2017. “Come join us where early California history is still alive and well”. See the flyers and printed invitations. Tours, Auction, Presentations, FOOD! (by The Bear Pit)
Sign up NOW; payment ($50 per person) by PayPal or check. Formal invitations in September.
11/8/17 –Philip Nathanson -A Family’s Western Odyssey
12/13/17 –Peter Blodgett –National Parks Out West
01/10/18 –Brian Dervin Dillon – California-Irish Paradise.
02/14/18 –Jeanette Davis – The Donner Incident-The Family Perspective
Department of Recurrent Reminders
Dinner Reservations: NOTE: PROCESS DIFFERENT THIS MONTH ONLY
Dinner reservations cost $35.00 each. Please choose your entrée (beef, chicken, fish, or vegetarian) and make out your check to “Westerners, Los Angeles Corral,” or submit your payment by PayPal AS EARLY AS YOU CAN, but no later than one week before the roundup date. Walk-ins can be served, but entrée choices will be limited to what is on hand: the “late price” is $40.00. Mail your check to: Mr. James Macklin, Keeper of the Chips, 1221 Greenfield Avenue, Arcadia, CA 91006-4148. Contact Jim at jhmcpa@earthlink.net or (626) 446-6411, with late reservations or questions. You can also get information from Mr. John & Mrs. Ann Shea, Registrars, Marks & Brands, via Email: johnshea23@ca.rr.com or annwshea@ca.rr.com or by telephone (562) 408-6959.
PayPal Makes it Easy!
Now you can put your money where your mouse is, and make your dinner selection and pay for it over the Internet. Just log onto our website and go to the Member’s Only tab. Click on the pay option, and follow the instructions. The two-step process is easy once you get used to it. Mr. Joseph “Old Joe” Cavallo (626-372-5126) will gladly help you navigate on your initial PayPal voyage.
Sheriff Brian Dervin Dillon, Ph.D.
You can view Sheriff Dillon’s current endeavors here. Otherwise, you can view them below. New entries are in red font.
Rendezvous 2017
A list of items for auction at this year’s event can be found below!
The list of items of auction can be downloaded here.
You’re invited!
The Westerners, Los Angles Corral, cordially invites you to attend the…
Fandango 2017
You are invited, amigos, to el Molino Viejo!
Saturday, June 24, 2017
4:00 – 8:00 PM
The Old Mill
1120 Old Mill Road
San Marino, CA 91108
$50 Per Person
Come to enjoy good music, barbeque dinner, auction & friends!
Pay using PayPal on the Members Only page.
Living Legend No. 61 – Dr. Abraham Hoffman
Westerners International Living Legend No. 61 Dr. Abraham Hoffman
Abraham Hoffman joined the Los Angeles Corral of Westerners in the Fall of 1973, at the invitation of renowned historian Doyce Nunis. Hoffman’s first presentation to the corral as a speaker was in 1976: his most recent of many outstanding presentations was in February of 2016, exactly 40 years later. Dr. Hoffman became the Sheriff of the Los Angeles Corral in 1997: his tenure in the top spot is still remembered as a high point of our long existence. Abe has persuaded numerous interested parties to visit corral events, and to become members, including Glenn Thornhill, and Brian Dervin Dillon. Abe became the Editor of the corral’s quarterly publication The Branding Iron in 1985, and ably served in that position for three years. Ever after, he has served as Book Review Editor for that same quarterly. He has also been a regular author of corral publications, including the two most recent Keepsakes, and over a dozen Branding Iron articles since 1973. His writing has been recognized through many awards over the past 40 years, including the Danielson Award (1976, 2008, 2012), The Fred Olds Cowboy Poetry Award (2011, 2016), and the Best Book Award for 2015.
In addition to his varied activities with the Los Angeles Corral of Westerners, Dr. Hoffman is also a member of the Los Angeles City Historical Society, the Historical Society of Southern California, the Organization of American Historians, the Western History Association, and Western Writers of America. The Historical Society of Southern California has awarded Dr. Hoffman the Donald H. Pflueger Award for “distinguished research and writing on the local history of Southern California.”
Dr. Hoffman was born in Los Angeles. He attended Los Angeles City College and received B.A. and M.A. degrees from Los Angeles State College (now CSU, Los Angeles), then earned his doctorate in History at UCLA. He taught in Los Angeles schools for more than thirty years and has been an adjunct professor at Los Angeles Valley College since 1974.
Abe’s books include Unwanted Mexican Americans in the Great Depression: Repatriation Pressures, 1929-1939 (1974), Vision or Villainy: Origins of the Owens Valley-Los Angeles Water Controversy (1981), An Oklahoma Tragedy: The Shooting of the Mexican Students, 1931 (1987), California Then and Now (1996), and Mono Lake: From Dead Sea to Environmental Treasure (2014). His latest book is California’s Worst Earthquakes (working title), due for publication in 2017. Hoffman also serves on the board of editors for Southern California Quarterly. He reviews books, and has contributed articles to many different history publications, including California History, California Territorial Quarterly, Journal of the West, Pacific Historical Review, Pacific Historian, Western Historical Quarterly, and Western States Jewish History. One of the most prolific historical writers of western America, by conservative estimate Dr. Hoffman has published more than 700 book reviews during the past four decades.
The Los Angeles Corral of Westerners is proud to claim many outstanding members who have made their mark in educational, literary, and bibliographical contexts, above and beyond their service to our organization. Nevertheless, a very few illustrious members stand head and shoulder over the rest of us. Dr. Abraham Hoffman is just such a Westerner, and all members of the Los Angeles Corral congratulate him upon being honored, in the 70th year of our existence, as Westerners International Living Legend No. 61.
Brian Dervin Dillon, Ph.D.
Deputy Sheriff,
Los Angeles Corral of Westerners
December 15, 2016
Living Legend No. 60 – Monsignor Fancis J. Weber
Westerners International Living Legend No. 60 Monsignor Francis J. Weber
Monsignor Francis J. Weber is one of the most active of all members of the Los Angeles Corral of Westerners. He was first persuaded to come to corral round-ups by the archaeologist and historian Mark Raymond Harrington in 1962, the same year he became the Archivist for the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Weber became a member of the Los Angeles Corral in 1969, and presented his first invited lecture to it in 1970. His most recent of more than a dozen presentations came forty-six years later, in 2016. Monsignor Weber threw open the gates of San Fernando Mission to the Corral in 1973, for that year’s annual Fandango. He has contributed more than a dozen articles to the Branding Iron, the Los Angeles Corral Quarterly, and was the editor of the Los Angeles Corral Brand Book No. 21 (1999), an amazing collection of no fewer than 73 contributions by members, friends, and other local historians. Weber served as the Los Angeles Corral Sheriff in 1995, and his leadership is remembered fondly by all members, especially its female ones, for finally making the corral co-ed.
Francis J. Weber was educated at the Catholic University of America and is the recipient of the only Honorary Doctorate ever granted to a priest by Azusa Pacific University. He has taught at many different ecclesiastical and secular institutions, including Immaculate Heart College, Mount St. Mary’s College, and the University of Southern California. Monsignor Weber has always been devoted to local history, and has encouraged many others, Westerners and non-Westerners alike, to take the plunge and get involved in research, writing, and publication. Foremost amongst such success stories is that of fellow Los Angeles Corral members Ken and Carol Pauley, who, after twenty-five years of research, published their magnificent historical volume (2005) on the California Mission most closely associated with Msgr. Weber: San Fernando, Rey de España. Weber, if not the only member of Westerners International to also be a priest, is certainly the only monsignor.
Father Weber has for more than half a century effortlessly navigated through both sacred and secular waters, offering guidance, leadership, and good fellowship to his diverse flocks, be they fellow historians or parishoners. Monsignor Weber is known to his many friends and admirers as “the Old Country Priest.” He is Archivist Emeritus of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and by common accord the most knowledgeable living scholar of California’s ecclesiastical history. Ordained in 1959, since that time he has celebrated Mass at a great many California locations, including Santa Cruz Island, and has been a tireless and effective spiritual and intellectual leader at San Fernando Mission. Msgr. Weber, in addition to his many local duties, serves as an Honorary Chaplain to His Holiness Pope Francis. Few historians ever get to see a major research archive built to their own specifications, much less one with their own personal, built-in “research cave,” but for Francis J. Weber, this dream came true for him at Mission San Fernando, Rey de España, in 1980. He is still there at the Archival Center, thirty-six years later, accompanied by his faithful dog (Shelty No. 7) Wild Bill Cody, just slightly younger (in dog years) than the Monsignor himself.
Weber is widely published on Spanish Colonial history, ecclesiastical history, and the history of California and the West. His books include: The California Missions as Others Saw Them, 1786-1842 (1972), A Select Bibliography of California Catholic Literature, 1856-1974 (1974), The Life and Times of Fray Junípero Serra (1987), The Mission in the Valley: A Documentary History of San Fernando, Rey de España (1987), Century of Fulfillment: The Roman Catholic Church in Southern California 1840-1947 (1990), Prominent Visitors to the California Missions, 1746-1842 (1991), Memories of an Old Mission: San Fernando, Rey de España (1997), The Literary High Spots of Mission Hills, California (1998), Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels (2004), The California Missions (2005), Catholic Heroes of Southern California (2007), Blessed Fray Junípero Serra: An Outstanding California Hero (2008) and More Memories of an Old Country Priest (2011), to name just a few. Monsignor Weber is such a prolific writer that his 30+ years of newspaper columns were updated and republished in the year 2000 in an 1148-page volume (Encyclopedia of California’s Catholic Heritage, 1769-1999), and the complete listing of his early publications, the 1995 hard-cover book A Bibliographical Gathering: The Writings of Msgr. Francis J, Weber, 1953-1993 extends to a whopping 270 pages. In order to accommodate the 23 years of publishing since, a second volume is obviously indicated. Weber’s present writing task is the third volume in his Memories of an Old Country Priest series.
The Los Angeles Corral of Westerners is proud to claim many outstanding members who have made their mark in educational, literary, and bibliographical contexts, above and beyond their service to our organization. Nevertheless, a very few illustrious members stand head and shoulders above the rest of us. Monsignor Francis J. Weber is just such a Westerner, and all members of the Los Angeles Corral congratulate him upon being honored, in the 70th year of our existence, as Westerners International Living Legend No. 60.
Brian Dervin Dillon, Ph.D.
Deputy Sheriff,
Los Angeles Corral of Westerners
December 15, 2016
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