Centennial call, part II

JERRY PERSON

This week, we’ll continue our look back at the Community United

Methodist Church (Wintersburg Methodist) as its members celebrate the

church’s 100th anniversary, and we’ll also look at the life of one of

those early members of the church.

Last week, I related that the church bell had possibly come from

the school or firehouse in he small community of Talbert. Well, we

have a new candidate for the original location of that bell, the

Balboa Methodist Church.

Regardless, one thing is for sure, and that’s the fact that for

countless years, a member of the congregation’s children has rung the

bell in the old church. It was a big honor for a kid to pull the rope

to ring the church bell and call the congregation to service.

In the early days, the area was populated with celery, sugar beet

and lima bean farms. Wintersburg had only a general store, blacksmith

shops, a couple of small stores and the impressive new church.

This church stood at the corner of Wintersburg Avenue (Warner),

looking across vast acres of farmland and a dusty road that

dead-ended into Warner. This road was referred to as Church Street

when the townspeople attempted to incorporate, but today we know it

as Gothard Street.

To say the members were proud of their new $5,116.75 church was an

understatement.

One of those present at the meeting of Dec. 12, 1904, was a little

7-year-old boy. Charles Leonard Applebury was the third child and the

oldest son of George Applebury and his wife.

Charles had been born on the family farm in Garden Grove on Nov.

19, 1897, making him a true native Californian. He had two older

sisters and 10 younger brothers and sisters.

His parents moved often during this period when Charles was

growing up. By 1904, the family had settled in the Wintersburg area,

just long enough for Charles and his family to be at that first

community Sunday school, meeting inside the old Armory Hall.

A short time after the church was organized on Jan. 7, 1906, his

family moved to Carlton, Mo., to live with his father’s relatives. A

little while later, the family returned to California to live in Los

Alamitos, and it was there that Charles would graduate from grammar

school.

Not only would 10-year-old Charles attend school, he also had to

help out in the fields during harvest time.

By 1911, the family had moved again, this time to Victorville,

where 14-year-old Charles became a young cowboy, catching wild horses

in Hesperia, helping break those horses and, at one time, appearing

as an extra in Tom Mix western films.

In 1916, one of those men helping to catch those wild broncos had

a 16-year-old sister named Carol. Before Charles knew it, Carol’s

brother had introduced the two to each other.

Just before Charles was to be inducted into the Army for World War

I, the Armistice was signed, saving the 21-year-old from going to

war. When Charles returned home to Victorville, he began to court

Carol in earnest, and on April 27, 1920, the two were wed in Santa

Ana.

It wasn’t long before the newlyweds left Victorville to return to

the Wintersburg area to farm. Their first farm was where McDonnell

Douglas (Boeing) is located today.

The young couple moved again, to a ranch on Springdale, between

Bolsa and Edinger, and it was here that their son Charles Jr. was

born. Charles also farmed land out on Edinger, from Goldenwest to

Beach Boulevard, where he grew lima beans, sugar beets, tomatoes and

bell peppers.

More children came along, and on June 22, 1930, Charles and Carol

transferred to Wintersburg Methodist Church and would remain active

church members for the next 58 years.

In the 1950s, they were living on Wilson Street in Midway City.

Charles had one of the earliest Marie Callendar’s Restaurants, No.

14, on Edinger across from the Huntington Mall.

On Charles’ 90th birthday in 1987, his church gave him a giant

birthday card, signed by hundreds of church and Sunday School

members.

Charles died on Jan. 3, 1988.

Next week, we’ll look at more of the history of the church, as it

survived the roaring ‘20s, the war years and the 1950s. We’ll also

again look at the life of another of the church pioneers, as the

church celebrates a century of service to the community.

* 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.