Strike up the old band

A LOOK BACK

I was recently reminded by Main Street businessman Andy Arnold that

the 30th anniversary of the Huntington Beach Concert Band is coming

up and that the group is planning a concert at the Huntington Beach

Library theater on Sunday, March 16.

Arnold plays trumpet in this 70-member band. So this week I

thought I would look back at a former Huntington Beach councilman who

also was a member at one time of our municipal band and played the

horn, too.

It was in Winfield, Kansas that a son was born to William Littell

Morehouse and his wife and they named him Arthur. He was the only boy

in a family of girls. Arthur’s father had been an early Kansas

pioneer and helped stake out the town of Winfield where his son was

born.

Arthur’s father was active in the lumber business and his family

had saw mills in Indiana, Colorado and Kansas. The elder Morehouse

was also active in Winfield politics and wrote many articles for the

town’s newspaper on political issues of the day.

He also held the position of councilman of Winfield and was on the

school’s board of education. From this foundation Arthur learned well

the ways of the politician and would use to good advantage this

knowledge later in his life.

When Arthur was 4-years-old, the family moved to Lamarr, Colo. to

escape those cold winters. Arthur received his early formal education

in Lamarr and after graduating from high school went on to attend the

Colorado College of Agriculture at Fort Collins.

After two years of study Arthur went to live with Judge Bristol in

town when his father passed away. Arthur’s mother wanted to get away

from the cold and took her family out to California to live near Palo

Alto.

It was during this time that the great San Francisco earthquake of

1906 hit, and at this time Arthur was studying at Stanford

University. He joined the school’s relief committee that aided those

whose homes were demolished by the quake. His Squad “E” helped feed,

cloth and care for the injured until local shelters were available.

While at Stanford, Arthur played the trombone in the school’s band

and orchestra. When he graduated from Stanford in 1908 he returned to

Lamarr to live, but when he arrived there a telegram was waiting for

him with an offer to become a professor of mathematics at Sierra

Polytechnic College in Chico, Calif.

Arthur accepted, and so it was back to California he went. He

taught there for two years before leaving and moving to Oxnard to

work as a pump operator for the American Beet Sugar Co. He left

American to work for the Holly Sugar Company and it was at this time

that Holly Sugar was starting construction on a new sugar plant down

south in Huntington Beach.

When Arthur lived with Judge Bristol, the judge’s son, Warren

Bristol, lived in Huntington Beach. Warren Bristol owned the town’s

Richfield Service Station at 602 Pacific Coast Highway.

With the completion of the Holly plant, Arthur needed work and so

he opened a feed store here at 209 5th St. Arthur went up to Gardena

on April 26, 1922 and it was there that he met Irene Dorse. After a

very short courtship, they were wed.

He brought his new wife down to Huntington Beach to live and she

helped at the feed store. It was not long after their wedding that

their daughter Dorothy was born.

In the meantime, Arthur joined the Huntington Beach Municipal Band

under the direction of James E. Son. While in the band Arthur played

the tuba. He would travel with the band for their concerts in Long

Beach. In 1938 Arthur threw his hat in the political ring and became

a Huntington Beach councilman and served on the city’s Finance

Committee. I’m sure that his father would be very proud of his son.

Arthur was active on the city’s Streets and Parks Committee.

Arthur was re-elected to the City Council to serve another four-year

term, and in these years guided the city through the war-torn years

of World War II.

He was at this time very in the town’s Civilian Defense program.

The Christian Church could find Arthur playing in its musical

programs as well as singing in the church’s choir.

He served as a member of our Lions Club, the Toastmaster’s Club

and the Knights of Pythias. Arthur’s father had been an active member

of the Masonic Lodge and it was only natural for Arthur to become a

member of our Masonic Lodge. He also was a member of the Huntington

Beach Chamber of Commerce.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian.