Early in 2015, after completing my Discovering San Diego series, I was left with lots more information to share as well as more questions to ask. My main curiosity was Frank Kimball. He seemed to be a huge part of the history of southern San Diego, buying a huge property, splitting it in half, and spending the rest of his life building a city on the top half of that land from scratch.
Wanting to know more about him, I looked him up, but as you can see, information on him is very limited. Googling his name brings up a few interesting articles, National City in Review, and a piece on the Frank Kimball Museum, which was basically the home he lived in. There's even a nice black and white picture of him as a strapping young man below. How long did he have to stand still for to take such a clear picture?
Young Frank Kimball
As I looked through the articles, I began to become amazed at the accumulation of hard labor he suffered all his life, and with rheumatism. He had made a fortune off of realestate in San Francisco, but had a vision of a bustling city. Unfortunately, he ran into a lot of trouble down the road: Not even as the father of a city, would Kimball's life get any easier. He would later lose his fortune and have to sell the home he first built when he bought the ranch, forced to live in a nephew's attic. He died in 1913 broke, and nearly forgotten.
This bothered me. How could a man who started out as a millionaire, die a pauper with little recognition? After living in Chula Vista most of my life, I was only recently learning about this man. Why wasn't he better known, or recognized for his work like Alonzo Horton was?
I decided to buy Images of America: Early National City by Marilyn Carnes, Matthew Nye as well as Chula Vista by Frank M. Roseman, Peter J. Watry Jr., both from Arcadia Publishing, both had additional information about Frank, but not enough, so I decided to go to his house.
See? I DO have them all!
Once he bought the ranch, he built a home. It was one of the first homes to have indoor plumbing. It's small, compared to today's standards, but it looked cosy and sturdy. I made sure to look up the hours before I stopped by, since I also had some overtime work to do that day. The hours were Saturday and Sunday from 11AM to 1PM. I stopped by Brick Row at noon on a Saturday and learned that you're supposed to be there by 11AM. There was nobody around the house, but there was furniture on the patio. A man passed by and told me that "they would be back" and that they went to go have tea.
I waited until about 12:30 before they returned. It was a small group of women who were nicely dressed in 19th century attire. The lady in charge approached me and asked if she could help me. I told her that I was interested in learning about Frank Kimball, though I didn't say much more, she told me to stop by the next day, since she already had her talk and she would fill me in on him. She was very kind and offered to let me explore the house a little bit, while she showed her company a small tour.
I decided not to take any pictures that day because I had been invited to stop by the next day. I guess I can say that the home felt like the times, but I don't know that for sure. I noticed the stairs to the upper floor were roped off, but I did enjoy what little I saw of it though. I quietly left after a brief tour and returned the next day on time, with my camera, but she never showed up. I don't blame her, things happen.
Frank Kimball's home, which is now a museum
While I was there, I was able to capture some shots of the house. Afterwards, remembering that Frank Kimball had a collection of diaries that was donated to the National City public library. I called them up and asked for the hours to their local history room. I arrived that Monday and after chatting with the curator there - his name is Ray - he was very kind and allowed me access to Kimball's writings as well as two unpublished manuscripts that seemed to have been compiled long before I was born (which was in 1983).
I am dressed in a blurry silhouette, waiting for the local history room to open up at the National City Public Library.
Throughout the year, I've been returning when I can and taking pictures of Frank's letters, journals, as well as preserving these two manuscripts. I originally wanted to be the first to digitize the century old journals and letters he left behind, only to learn that I had completely underestimated the amount of writing Frank Kimball did throughout his life, from ages 23 to 81.
Just to break it down: I spent three of these trips just preserving the letters written from 1890-1891 in one book. That book had almost fifty pages worth of contacts and a thousand really thin-ass pages of letters. I took a great deal of effort not to damage them, I handled them with gloves and used a legal size blank piece of paper to separate the pages. He had 14 of these types of books just for his letters, while his journals were written in small leather bound pocket books.
I did a great deal of work the first few times I stopped by, trying to capture every page he wrote. Eventually, as I read the other two books about Frank, I decided what was more important was to capture samples of all of his writings in hopes of preserving and releasing the most important parts of Frank's writings, if not all - kind of like what Paul T. Mizony did, but my own excerpts. If I know what I'm doing, his writings will all be preserved in time.
Frank's letters are much more comprehensive than his diaries. While the diaries tell about what he did throughout his life, his letters give you a glimpse into his life, his personality and his interests.
I not only captured a great deal of Kimball's writings, but I was given better context by following both of these unpublished biographies of Frank Kimball so I will include them into the mix. This is where I want to give ultra-credit to where it truly belongs. First, to Frank Kimball himself because he IS the f-ing guy, and you'll hear a lot more about him later. The following people will help me understand and tell this story better, though I have never met either of them before.
First, I would like to talk about Paul T. Mizony. His contribution is mainly a 121 page, nicely typed, but unpublished manuscript titled "Excerpts from the diaries of Frank A. Kimball, Founder of National City, California, years 1868-1912". It is a transcription of selected parts of Kimball's diary that tells the story of National City from when he bought the land, to his death. I wish to relay the forward in its entirety, since that is really all I know about Mizony and he even helps out with some reading tips. Since his Google searches only lead to his physical collection, which would make a digital copy like this pointless, let's hurry to the forward;
From time to time, I have been asked by various people to write a little sketch of the early day events of National City, and of the Kimball Family.
It was my privilege to have been acquainted with Frank, Warren, George and Charles Kimball, and their families.
My wife who was Marguerite Grace O'Connell, came to National City with her parents Mr. & Mrs. J.D. O'Connell, in May of 1886.
They resided at the north east corner of 18th st. and "J" Avenue, or about three blocks from the George Kimball place.
National City in 1887
"Gracie", as she was called by the George Kimball family was a favorite of theirs.
From October 1905 to the middle of 1908, the Mizony family and the Augustus B. Kimball family lived in adjoining houses on "K" Avenue, between 16th, and 17th streets National City, and about a block and a half from the George Kimball place.
Mrs. Lucy Kimball, her sons, and daughter told us a great deal of the early day history of National City.
In selecting the items from the Frank Kimball diaries, I tried to select such entries that I thought would appeal to the readers as a whole.
I have tried to give an insight to the business, farming, social, religious and cultural life of the community of those early days.
The events as described would also apply to the other early day pioneers of National City.
It will be noted that in a number of instances the old style of spelling was used. "Y" for an "I", viz: "Jym" for "Jim", "P" for an "S". Viz: "Mop" for "Moss". I have been given to understand that the German style of "S" was also used by a good many people who came from the far east. Also the long and short form of spelling as was the custom of a number of people of that day.
It was difficult for the farmer from the east to adjust himself to the methods used, in trying to dry farm or the irrigation way, as was being done in the southwest. He had to learn the hard way by experience.
If tools and implements could not be bought on the coast, the rancher improved his own.
The Kimball Brother's chief interest in selling the land on the National Ranch was, that the people who bought would improve the same.
With that thought in mind they were lenient with those who made an honest effort, as will be noted in several items of the narrative.
No attempt will be made here to tell of what is known as the "Railroad Story". Several articles have already been written on this subject, also there are writers who are now going into the story in more detail.
...like me! I will tell the Railroad Story when it comes up.
The notations of the locations of the properties mentioned, I tried to verify from the following sources.
Records in the office of the County Recorder. Lot Book records of the Union Title Insurance & Trust Company. Also from a map compiled by Fred Copeland, City Engineer of National City in 1905.
April 16 1956
Paul T. Mizony
614 Highland Avenue,
National City, Calif.
He also acknowledged Mr. Gorden Kimball, who I guess owned the diaries back then. He then thanked members of the Kimball Family for helping in corrections and such. Last, he thanked "the officers and staff members of the various departments of the Union Title Insurance and Trust Company, who aided in the research work and in making the Master Copy".
Like Mizony, Irene Phillips is also hard to track down online, but her historic writing on San Diego is prevalent on and offline. I had heard of Irene Phillips well before I had entered the library. She had written "National City in Review" in 1962 which was more or less of a summary of Kimball's life, and first peaked my interest in the man. From here on out, we will tackle Frank Kimball. Mizony and Phillips will lead the story from the historical front of fifty to sixty years after his death, while I will tell you what I have found out from the present.
This isn't my traditional way of telling stories, this is more of a behind the scenes story about how I gained interest in Frank Kimball and learned about his life.
-F
That moment when you realize that you have your hands on Civil War Era artifacts.
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