Countdown to 2000: Land barons

Many of the major players of the first two decades included those

purchasing and subdividing lands, early chamber of commerce organizers

and farmers.

By the late 1910s, the once-booming town of Fairview was nothing more

than a schoolhouse, hotel and a few scattered houses.

Ownership of the once-successful Fairview Hotel continued to change hands

throughout the early 1900s. By the 1920s, Charles TeWinkle had purchased

the abandoned hotel and had it torn down. TeWinkle -- who would later

become Costa Mesa’s first mayor -- used the lumber and fixtures from the

old hot springs hotel for use in his new home.

Another major figure during the 1910s was Jake Shiffer. Shiffer moved his

family from Kansas to Paularino and settled in for the long haul. But by

the 1970s the family was asked to move in order to make room for the

Corona del Mar Freeway. The Shiffers, who made their living off the land,

were one of last farming families in the area.

On the other side of the mesa, the city of Newport Beach continued to

grow. One major personality of the 1910s was longtime Newport Beach

resident Joseph A. Beek. Beek played a major role in helping establish

commuting rituals for many Balboa Island residents during this time.

Beek, who served as the town’s first harbor master during Prohibition,

was born in Maine in 1880. As a means of supporting himself financially

while attending college, he sold Balboa Island real estate lots for $75

to $100 apiece.

When Newport Beach land owner William S. Collins went bankrupt in 1919,

Beek took over his job of transporting Balboa Island residents from the

peninsula to the island by boat. He would later become the founder of the

Balboa Island Ferry.

“I only had a rowboat, an outboard motor and a pair of oars, and the

outboard didn’t always work. But the oars did,” Beek later told the

Newport Beach City Council, the last time he renewed his franchise.

Beek died in 1968.