Pacific Electric and Osborn

A LOOK BACK

When I think of the Pacific Electric’s old red cars, I have this

picture of an old- fashioned, rust-colored streetcar sliding along

ribbons of steel with sparks flashing from its overhead cable.

Huntington Beach owes much to those big red cars and to the

Pacific Electric Company that was owned by Henry Huntington.

This week we are going to look at a man who spent 33 years of his

life with that company, and nearly as long as an agent for that

company in Huntington Beach.

It was back in the town of Woodbury, N.J. that a local roofer,

Elias H. Osborn and his wife gave birth to a baby boy in 1873. They

named their little baby Willis Reeves Osborn.

In his youth Willis Osborn received his early education in

Woodbury and later in Cameron, N.J. In 1891 Willis finished high

school to enter the job market as a cashier in a local clothing

store.

Not long after that Osborn took up the wood polishing trade and in

time became quite good at it.

About a year later, on Nov. 8, 1892, Osborn married Bertha Leary

in Camden, N.J.

Longing to be his own boss, Willis opened a general merchandise

store in the southern part of New Jersey. It was in 1912 that Osborn began his long association with the Pacific Electric railway when the

Osborns moved to California to accept a job in the freight department

of that company.

At the time the Osborns came to Southern California, the red car

was a familiar sight throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties

carrying goods and people.

Osborn enjoyed working for the Pacific Electric Company and in

1915 Willis was promoted to company agent and sent to a tiny seaside

beach town called Huntington Beach.

Three years later, in 1918, the Pacific Electric transferred

Osborn to the company’s Long Beach office and made him both cashier

and freight agent.

Osborn had a gift for music and while in Long Beach he would

continue his music education and for several years he was a soloist

in the Long Beach Baptist church and even appeared in several musical

ensembles throughout Long Beach.

Willis would work very hard at his job and the company promoted

him to general agent in 1919. His new territory now included Long

Beach to Newport Beach and of course Huntington Beach and Seal Beach.

He served in that capacity for eight years in the Long Beach office

and in 1927 the company transferred him back to Huntington Beach

where he would remain as city agent for the rest of his life.

Osborn joined the Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce and in 1930

he was elected as president of that organization.

When two former Huntington Beach City Councilmen, Orvil Ray Harris

and James W. Mitchell passed away in August of 1930, Osborn was called upon to pay tribute to their memory at a luncheon held at the

Golden Bear Cafe. During the luncheon, Osborn brought up the subject

of what happened to the Ostrich hide billfold that belonged to J.

Sherman Denny.

Willis Osborn went on to serve as president of the Chamber of

Commerce for two more years (1931 and 1932) at the same time he was

also in charge of the city’s advertising.

It was Osborn who created many of those colorful brochures and

pamphlets that the city mailed out to towns and cities across America

advertising the beauties of our fair city.

When Osborn worked as agent for the Pacific Electric red car line,

the one-way fare from Huntington Beach to Los Angeles was 65 cents

and a round trip cost only $1.10.

The Osborns lived at 811 Frankfort Ave. and from their front door

they could watch the sun rise over the distant snow-capped mountains

and set in the beautiful blue Pacific.

Willis and Bertha had one daughter Viola Christine who married one

of the Vidal boys. If Osborn had lived to Nov. 8, of 1945 he would

have been able to celebrate 33 years with the Pacific Electric Co.

But that was not to be for on April 25, 1945 the man that most

personified the red car’s history in Huntington Beach left us and

though the red cars no longer come into town, it, like Willis Osborn,

will always be a part of Huntington Beach’s rich history.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach

resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box

7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.