Fine lima beans and $300 well spent

A LOOK BACK

This week we’ll look at a man whose presence bridges the history of

both Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley.

Our subject was a well-known rancher and a popular horse fancier,

and before he died, a school was named in his honor. We will start

with the father of our subject, who was born on the sunny shores of

Italy, and our subject’s mother who was French but came to America

from South America.

When our subject’s father was 14 years old he came to our shores

and like many young, strong men at the time went to work for the

railroad. He and his wife settled in the town of Monett, Mo. while

working for the railroad and raising a family.

But the warm climate of California called to him. It might have

been that the California climate was more like his native Italy.

In 1888 the family moved to Santa Clara County to live. They found

that the ground was fertile for growing grapes and those grapes made

fine wine.

It was in 1892 that our subject, Urbain Henry Plavan, was born in

that beautiful wine-growing county.

At that time Santa Clara County had far too many saloons, much

like Main Street today, and Urbain’s mother did not want any of her

eight children to be raised in that rowdy element. So the Plavan

family left Santa Clara County for a more “dry” county and at the

time Orange County was bone dry of the demon rum, except for Anaheim.

The Plavan family settled in Huntington Beach near the Newland

ranch in 1905 and began farming.

Young Urbain attended the early grammar school that had been

located on Orange Avenue, between 5th and 6th streets in Huntington

Beach and had the opportunity of attending high school in the old

Methodist camp grounds auditorium at 11th Street and Orange Avenue in

1907 for one year while the new high school was being built. Many of

you may have seen pictures of these two schools. The grammar school

with its two stories and bell tower and the stucco-clad Mission

Revival style high school.

After Urbain graduated from high school, and being a strong lad,

he leased some farm land from William Newland in 1911.

Meanwhile, a young lady from Idaho, Florence Courdin, was out here

visiting some friends and the two met each other. It would not be a

typical love affair and wedding for the two. The two lovers, Urbain

and Florence, eloped in Urbain’s Model T Ford and headed for Santa

Barbara to wed.

Back in those days the roads were little more then dirt cow paths

filled with potholes and traveling to Santa Barbara in that 28

horse-powered vehicle took nearly a day and Urbain’s tin lizzle did

break down a few times on the way, not to mention that they got lost

along the way and had to backtrack on those old dirt winding roads.

But they finally arrived in Santa Barbara. Urbain and Florence

were married there by a local Presbyterian minister.

The two newlyweds returned to Huntington Beach to live on their

new home on the Newland ranch property. Their farm produced some of

the finest lima beans for which he received 14 1/2 cents a pound.

This was good money in those days and it supplied the family with

enough money that they were able to buy more farm property outside of

Huntington Beach. Urbain also bought an acre of land out on

Goldenwest Street just after the first oil well came in on Reservoir

Hill, Goldenwest Street and Clay Avenue, in 1920 for a few hundred

dollars.

Urbain was sure that there was oil under that acre and he would

not sell that acre for any price. Many oil promoters offered to buy

his land but they were always turned down.

Huntington Beach Mayor Tom Talbert offered Urbain $7,000 for that

acre and still Urbain would not sell. But Urbain did lease the acre

to the Marchris Brothers, who in turn subleased the property to the

Petroleum Midway Oil Co. A well was drilled and boy did it come in.

Urbain received a check for $6,000 for the first month and for

many years that well generated a nice income for the Plavan family.

It was on the Newland ranch that their daughter Floflo was born in

1923.

By the early 1940s, a million and a half barrels of oil had been

pumped from that $300 investment. With this oil money Urbain was able

to enjoy a hobby.

He was now in his 50s, but still looked much younger with his dark

hair and fair complexion. The family was now living at 2685 North

Main St. in Santa Ana.

He took up raising race horses and his horse stables were located

at 19501 Magnolia St. in Huntington Beach. His horse, Kay Diane,

caused quite a sensation at Hollywood Park race track in the early

1940s when the sprinter ran six furlongs in 1.10 seconds. She was

later acquired by actor George Raft.

A few of his racehorses included Tenuous, Tornillo and Urge Me.

In 1953 Urbain acquired his greatest racehorse was Taj Akbar,

which we looked at in a past column.

Urbain passed away a few years ago, but his name will live on at

the Urbain H. Plavan Elementary School named for our famous rancher

out on Warner Avenue in Fountain Valley.

* 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.