PLOUGHSHARE & PRUNING HOOK

Volume 3 Number 6  September 1998

Historical Doll Donated to Society

   The Historical Society at its last meeting was donated a porcelain doll that was a gift to a child in Winchester around 1896. The doll was bought by Lou Peyregne for her sister Alice. The doll was manufactured in Germany and Alice made the clothing for the doll. Although fragile with age the silk dress shows the work of the era. The doll was passed onto the daughter of Madaline Garbani when Alice died since she was a doll collector. The doll was donated by Diane Southworth. Diane also donated some pictures of her family and of the harvesting rigs as they worked in the Domenigoni Valley. We also received some old school text books from her.

  Other items were also donated to us by members including a death card for Tilla Patterson Hudson. These and many other items will      someday be displayed in your "Patterson House " Museum.

   If you have any memorabilia of the areas past you would love to share or donate please contact the historical society.

Windows & Doors Update

   Another window was purchased this month as the Patterson family relatives reached there first goal of $300. They have contributed as a family group and now are working towards the goal of purchasing the front door. This is one way to purchase a bit of history. Anyone person or organization may purchase one for $300 or you may contribute any sum towards a "community window."

Who We Are

   The Ploughshare & Pruning Hook is published each month by the Winchester Historical Society of Pleasant Valley. The sole purpose is the let the community and others interested in preserving our history a glimpse into our past, present, and future history. We can be reached by mail at P.O. Box 69, Winchester, California 92596-0069 or by phone at (909) 926-4039. Donations to help support this newsletter and other activities are tax deductible as a gift to charity. We also accept gift writings about our local history and will publish them as space permits. Guest speakers and displays are available upon request. E-mail the society at gregg@koan.com.

Francis Honberger Remembered

   Old time residents were saddened to hear of the passing of Francis Honberger this past month at the age of 85. Born to a pioneer Winchester family who migrated here from South Dakota he had lived in the Sun City  area the past 48 years. Mr Honberger owned many businesses in the are and was a founding member  of the Perris Volunteer Fire Department in 1931. Our condolences to his family and many friends.

Tidbits From Our Past

06/01/1893 John Norton lately purchased of Chas. Moody five and one half acres of land adjoining his tract in East Winchester.

06/01/1893 During the past week Rev. I. R. Lovejoy and family have been in attendance at the Camp meeting at Colton.

06/01/1893 Titus Case and wife arrived last week from Nebraska and have been visiting J. M. Case at this place.

06/01/1893 A number of Winchesterites attended Memorial Day services in this city (San Jacinto).

06/01/1893 Mrs. H. V. Briggs, of Santa Ana, is visiting her many friends in the valley.

06/01/1893 J. A. Woodman, of Riverside, has purchased 100 acres of land near Winchester, in the irrigation district. R. Brinkerhoff representing Weber & Griffin made the deal.

06/01/1893 The correspondent of the Riverside Enterprise says "complaints are being made on account of poor mail service." This is a mistake. Our mail facilities are first-class and cannot be bettered unless we are given two trains a day.

06/01/1893 M. G. Stone, Don Jones, and W. B. Johnson have struck it rich in a mine recently discovered a few miles west of town in the hills known as "Juniper Flats." The present indication is that it will develop into a very rich mine.

06/08/1893 Wm. J. Haslam was in Los Angeles last Friday.

06/08/1893 M. Z. Remsburg went to Perris last Wendesday(sic) morning, where he will go to work sticking type in the New Era office. (Sure hope he did a better job than this type sticker did, ed.)

06/08/1893 The majority of our prominent citizens seem to have gone to sleep in regard to getting up a Fourth of July celebration. Why can't we have another such a time as we had last Fourth, when all the other towns were put in the shade?

06/08/1893 W. I. Jones says he has contracted for nearly 800 tons of hay to bale during this season. He recently purchased a Southwick press, which he says is giving the best of satisfaction.

Diamond Valley

GREAT WATER BASIN

   The proofs multiply that the Diamond Valley is a great water basin or under-ground lake. First, the pools rising to the surface of the valley indicate it. Second, the well Rev. Mr. Austin had bored to the second water course demonstrated it. And now Mr Austin has had another well bored near his residence for his son-in-law, Mr. C. S. Goodwin, of Vinton, Iowa which establishes the fact beyond question.

   At about fifty feet the first water course was struck in both wells in a vein of sand about three feet deep. In the last well the second water was reached at about one hundred feet, in a bed of granite, sand, and gravel. This bed was found to be about twenty-three feet in depth, before rock was reached, which prevented further operations for the present.

   As the case now stands there is an underground reservoir of great depth and extent, in which the pressure is so powerful as to send the water op about ninety feet. In the first well, which is down to the second water, there has been no decline, but rather an increase, for the last six years.

   Here, then, is ample room and an abundance of sweet, pure water for a thousand windmills running night and day, and for all the irrigation the valley will ever need.

   Mr. G. M. Green, of San Jacinto bored this well and did an excellent work. He may by and by get other drilling tools and go through that rock, and find what lies below. It is hoped and believed that flowing wells may yet be obtained

   Diamond Valley is to become the G. V. S. of Southern California  the Great Valley of Strawberries  as it now is in one spot where this water is freely used.

(This article appeared in the San Jacinto Register in June of 1893)

It is "The Law"

   City Marshal Knapp (San Jacinto) wants it distinctly understood that after today he will arrest all parties, regardless of station in life, who are caught driving between the shade trees along the streets. Many of the best shade trees have been broken off by careless drivers, and the cows driven by boys, and the Marshal has been instructed to make the arrests and thus make an example of some one.

San Jacinto Register Sidelights

06/08/1893 Two columns of heavy (?) Editorial has been crowded out of this issue by our numerous correspondents.

06/08/1893 The trailed dress skirts must go. Fashionable dresses clear the ground fully an inch all around.

Words of Wisdom 1967 Style

   If we're a lazy generation, it's understandable. We have computers to do our thinking and late-night discussions shows to do our conversing.

   Nowadays if a movie has no intimate bedroom scene, we feel we must have come in late.

   What alarms us most about today's rock-and-roll music is the thought that these are the soft, soothing melodies we'll be wishing we could return to ten years from now.

(This was published in October 1997 in McCalls Magazine.)