The Rea Family & Katella Ranch

The popular street known as "Katella" has been around almost as long as Anaheim itself. 
But, how did the street get it's name? Well, that is a story all on its own. Before I get to that, first let me take you back, way back to the beginning, so you can know the entire history of this beautiful name.


 The Rea Family

Rea Home, El Cajon, CA

Born in 1848, John Rea, was raised in his native country of Canada. Having contracted Tuberculosis in his early twenties, the weather in Canada seemed to worsen his condition making John yearn for a dryer climate. By 1873, John chose to leave his homeland and head south, to the United States. John chose to first settle in San Francisco, but soon he realized that had been a poor choice.

His next venture to find the right climate for his health was when he boarded a Steamer headed for Southern California. Arriving in Los Angeles, he had grown so ill that he had to be hospitalized for his conditions. An issue of the Orange Coast Magazine (1989) states that while John was hospitalized, he was asked by his nurse what he would like to eat. He asked for something he had only dreamed of at his prior homeland, strawberries and cream. It was said that once he had eaten the delicious treat, he realized that hard work and outdoor living would be the best thing for him. This epiphany of sorts, was said to have prompted him to join his brother in San Diego.

Rea Family

It was in San Diego, in an easterly town known as El Cajon, where John became a bee-keeper and later went back to Canada to marry his wife Margaret, and move her down to El Cajon to his farm. Their daughters were born in their small home in El Cajon. Kate, being born in 1876 and Ella in 1881. The family lived in their small house for many years, using whatever means they could to provide a living to the household.

Being that the home was situated near a stage coach line, many times they would offer meals to hungry travelers. This became a lucrative business move because it allowed them to save to purchase the very first grocery store in the city of El Cajon. In fact, there is a street named after John Rea right in town, Rea Street (also, the Rea Arts District is named after John Rea).

Katella Ranch

Rea Home (224 E. Broadway)

By the late 1890s, John chose to sell his property in El Cajon and move up to Anaheim. The economy had become crippled after the terrible disease to the vineyards, and John took the opportunity to purchase land at a good price. After moving the family to Anaheim, he chose to start a walnut orchard. Wanting to be creative and have have a memorable name for his ranch, John combined the two names of his daughters, Kate and Ella, thus creating "Katella." Not only the ranch was known for this name, but also the dirt path that crossed the property up to the school house took the name as well.
Although his ranch was located at present day Katella Ave., John Rea chose to move his family to a home closer in town, at 224 E. Broadway in Anaheim.

Rea Sisters

By the time the family had moved to Anaheim, his daughters were already teenagers, so they lived in Anaheim only a few years before both the girls and their mother moved to Northern California to attend college at the University of Berkeley.  While there, Kate earned her master's degree in education, and later came back to Anaheim to be a school teacher at the first Anaheim High School.

Kate taught at Anaheim High School from 1901-1904 and Fullerton Junior College until she retired in 1921, after her father died. She was very involved at the Carnegie Building when the Anaheim Public Library was opened. She also served as the first chairwoman on the Library Board and remained on the Board for 45 years. She was a member of the Ebell Club and other various groups and charities, and also helped start Anaheim's first PTA. Her sister Ella, married William Wallop on May 19, 1909. Unlike her sister, Kate never married, but instead threw her life into her work and taking care of her mother until she passed away in 1931.

What I found interesting is that the archives state that the home John Rea built at 224 E. Broadway was sold in 1919 to a former Anaheim mayor, Louis Miller. The home was then moved in 1922 to 125 W. Elm Street. Then in 2007, the same home was moved once again, now to the location at 129 W. Stueckle Ave.  The odd part about this, is that Ella Rea Wallop's obituary states that Kate (who was still alive) was living at 224 E. Broadway.  Does that mean that Kate moved back to the spot where her family home once stood? Interesting thought.

Many people are unaware of when Kate died, and where she is buried. Her sister Ella was buried at
Loma Vista Memorial, in Fullerton in the Mausoleum. However, Kate was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale under her legal name "Ellen Kate Rea"-- (Born: March 21, 1876- Died: February 24, 1972) Why her real name is very rarely mentioned, any information on her death and why she was buried so far from Anaheim, I guess is a mystery for us all. Hopefully, one day I can find out and you can bet I will write about it here.

E. Kate Rea, 1970

The  next time you drive around Anaheim and you see the street sign "Katella," please take a second and remember that it once was known for the walnut ranch owned by Mr. Rea and his family. Remember that the street was once just a small dirt path that crossed the property up to the old school house.  Do not forget that its humble beginnings started in the mind of an eager man who came to California to start life anew and lived the American dream to the fullest. This path witnessed Anaheim in its early beginnings, only to become the large street that remains today. Think of who it was who started that name, and the family legacy they have left Anaheim for generations to come.


Sources:
All photos from Anaheim Public Library Archives Collection
Orange Coast Magazine, 1989
Early Anaheim-(Book)
Great California Registers
Census Records,
Birth and Death Records,
San Diego- El Cajon History
Anaheim History (APL Archives)
Findagrave
Obituary Notices
Loma Vista and Forest Lawn Cemetery

Tidbits of Anaheim History

ANAHEIM GAZETTE- NEWSPAPER


In September of 1870, G.W. Barter of the firm Hamilton & Barter, which were publishing the "Daily Star", retired from his post there and started his own paper, the "Anaheim Gazette." He bought the old press from the "Star" which had originally came from the "Wilmington Journal" as well....this press was ancient but worked and got the paper going. Sadly, in 1877, the original building for the "Gazette" burned down and with it went it's old press. 



ANAHEIM HIGH SCHOOL

 The first Anaheim High School, Circa 1901. Quoted from the Anaheim Public Library archives, it states: "Anaheim High School, built in 1901, the first high school built in Anaheim district and third in Orange County; located at 608 W. Center Street (later Lincoln Ave.); sold to the elementary school district in 1911; demolished 1937 and became site of Fremont Junior High School, which closed in 1979 and was demolished in 1980."

 

 CLASS OF 1902- ANAHEIM HIGH

Here is a historic photo of the graduating class of Anaheim High School, 1902! (top row from left to right: Arthur G. Baker, Carl Zeus; Bottom left to right: Olga Boege and Ruth Enearl.)--

 


THE COMMERCIAL HOTEL

The Commercial Hotel, located at 182 West Center Street (now Lincoln Avenue) at the corner of Lemon Street. It was originally known as the Anaheim Hotel, built by Henry Kroeger (2nd Mayor of Anaheim). When Max Nebelung purchased the hotel in the late 1890s, he changed the name to the Commercial Hotel. (Photo Circa 1915; APL Archives)


(Copyright 2014- J'aime Rubio)

All photos came from Anaheim Public Library Archives. 

History Of The Woelke-Stoffel House

c/o Anaheim Historical Society

If you have ever driven past this house on West Street in Anaheim, I am sure it has caught your eye. You may have even wondered about who might have lived in this house such a long time ago. You may have even recalled the time when people referred to it as the "Red Cross House," however this home is actually called the "Woelke-Stoffel House." Named after two of it's owners, John Gottlieb Woelke and Peter Stoffel, this home is one of the most beautiful Queen Anne designs in architecture that Anaheim has ever seen.

Woelke Family

Born in Germany around 1838, John Gottlieb Woelke immigrated to the United States with his wife and family in 1878.  He became a naturalized citizen on August 23, 1888 in Chicago, Illinois. While in Chicago, he became a successful restauranteur. By 1894, John had moved to Anaheim, bringing with him his wife Anna Wilhelmina Hopp Woelke, his mother Caroline Woelke and his children. When he came to Anaheim, he purchased the property on the southwest corner of what was West Center Street and Palm (which would be Lincoln and Harbor streets today).

John Woelke (APL Archive)

The home was designed by architect, George Franklin Barber, and the building of it was overseen by contractor, Armstrong Davis Porter in 1896. It was stated that during the building of the home, the family lived in a barn that was constructed on the property. The Woelke family lived in the home at 524 W. Center Street, for several years before moving to Los Angeles in 1899. 

Hotel Argyle

After selling the home, John purchased the Hotel Argyle in Los Angeles, which was located on Bunker Hill on the corner of Olive and 2nd streets. Sadly, by June of 1906 a terrible fire swept through the Hotel Argyle and because of insufficient fire escapes in the building, (which John had been cited for prior to the fire), he was held accountable and was fined. His insurance did pay for the repairs which was estimated at $1,500.00 in damages. By December of 1906, only a few months later, John Woelke died of a sudden hemorrhage. He was instructing his painters at the current site of his new home on 3rd Avenue, when he fell down and began having a seizure. He died within a few minutes, which was later determined to be a brain hemorrhage. He was 68 years old.

The Lyons Family & Other Owners

Lyons Hardware- APL Archives

In 1899, when John had left Anaheim, he sold the home to Isaac Lyons, the proprietor of Lyons Hardware Store that was located in the Metz Building on the corner of Los Angeles St (Anaheim Blvd) and Center St (Lincoln). Lyons was a native of England who came to California in 1862. Lyons lived in the home with his family from 1899 to 1904 when he sold the house to another family, the Michod's. They lived there from 1904 to 1907 and then sold the home to another family, Olmstead's. This family would only live there for less than a year before Peter Stoffel and his family would buy it, and make this house their home in 1907.


The Stoffel Family

Stoffel Family outside home (APL Archives)

Peter Stoffel was born in 1865, in Luxenbourg and he immigrated to the United States in 1890. He moved to Kansas and married his wife Mary-Elizabeth and settled there for several years, raising a family. He later moved to Anaheim, purchased the home on Center street and became a very successful citrus farmer and lived there the rest of his life. It wasn't until Peter's wife died, that the family estate sold the property to John Dwyer when the city had planned to demolish it. 
  
The Dwyer Family

copyright: J'aime Rubio

John Dwyer's first wife, Marie Horstmann was from Anaheim's first families that settled there. It is said that she was the first baby born in Anaheim from the colonists families. She set aside some of her family land located on West Street in order to secure a spot for Anaheim's history to be preserved.  In the late 1920s when the Hansen House (or "Mother Colony House") was going to be demolished, Marie Horstmann Dwyer was the one to make sure it would be moved to her family property on West Street. After Marie died, and when the Woelke-Stoffel house faced the same possible demolition in 1949, John Dwyer bought the home and moved it right next to the Hansen House on their property.  By 1953, the home was then donated to the Red Cross to be used, where they kept the property until the home was officially sold to the City of Anaheim in 2006. It was re-dedicated in 2008 and part of what is now known as "Founder's Park."

This home has seen many faces, has been a home to many families and also one of historical significance. It has been a museum and a wonderful place that thousands of children have visited on field trips for decades to learn about our town's earlier days. This home is a piece of Anaheim history, and one so well loved by Anaheim's citizens. This is a place that I hope remains open for future generations to learn about this town's wonderful history and all the people who made Anaheim a literal "home by the river." --

UPDATE: Since I had published this story back in 2014, I noticed a website known as "Backpackerverse" posted their own completely fabricated story about this historical treasure. Let me make this clear, the house is not haunted and there is definitely no evil spirits in the home. I have been in contact with Cynthia Ward who has been a longstanding volunteer at the house as well as one of Anaheim's best historians. If she says its not haunted, please take her word for it. Thanks

(Copyright 2014- J'aime Rubio)

Photos:

Anaheim Historical Society
Anaheim Public Library Archives
University of California Digital Archives
Los Angeles Public Library Archives