Moving on in Surf City

JERRY PERSON

There have been a lot of changes taking place since we did the

historic survey of the Downtown in the mid 1980s.

People who have lived here are amazed at how much has the city has

become an Irvine by the Sea. There have been some good changes, but

with the good comes more traffic and higher rents.

Two casualties of the higher rents will be disappearing from the

Downtown scene after more then 40 years in business.

At the end of October, Ed Farber’s Lewis TV at 326 Main St. will

cease repairing television sets after having been a fixture around

town for more then 40 years.

The second casualty is Farmers Insurance’s Arnold Insurance

Agency, a business that spans three generations at 324 Main St. and

is the subject of this week’s column.

But first a little history of the parent company -- Farmers

Insurance.

The company was started here in Orange County by Thomas Leavey and

John Tyler on March 28, 1928.

Their first stockholder in the new endeavor was E. Ray Moore, a

lima bean grower in Orange County. It was on April 8, 1928 that

company agent William J. Cheney wrote up the company’s first auto

policy on a four-door 1925 Cadillac Phaeton to Charles C. Brisco, a

shop teacher at Huntington Beach High School. It was another Charles,

Charles Peurrung, who became the first company agent in Huntington

Beach when he opened his agency inside Terry’s Garage at 610 Main St.

in 1933.

In May of 1941 the agency of William Cheney, Art Gillespie and

Robert Stricklin Jr. opened a broom closet-sized office at 119 1/2

Main St.

Robert went on to have his own agency and when World War II

started he entered the service. His agency was taken over by his

father, Robert Stricklin Sr. and included far more than 700 policies

insuring many of our local residents and businesses.

After the war ended Robert Sr. would continue to operate the

agency and by 1950 was selling insurance out of his house at 412 7th

St. He had a new home built at 1102 Main Street in 1952 and in a

small attached office he would continue to sell Farmers Insurance

policies throughout the 1950s.

In those early days, most agents not only had to sell and service

their policyholders, but also required to be the company’s adjuster

for accidents.

One Christmas day, as the family was sitting down to their big

Christmas meal, Stricklin received a call to inspect a car that had

just been in an accident. Yes, he headed out on Christmas to look

over the damaged vehicle.

Stricklin relocated his agency to larger quarters at 326 1/2 Main

St. and in 1962 took in a partner, Leo Merritt, and the agency became

Stricklin & Merritt.

When Merritt left the agency in 1964, he was replaced by another

agent, James Russell Jones, and they moved the agency to 324 Main St.

Jones had been an agent with Farmers since 1959 and stayed with

Stricklin for four years. When Jones departed in the late 1960s,

Stricklin was joined by two other agents, Jim Shannon and George Le

Bouef.

Shannon’s wife, Virginia, ran the Seagull Paperback Book Exchange

two doors down from her husband’s office at 320 1/2 Main St., and Le

Bouef’s wife worked across the street at the California Bank.

About this time, Stricklin’s daughter, Eileen Stricklin Arnold,

began working as secretary in the office. When her father retired in

1974 Eileen became a second-generation Farmers agent.

In the late 1970s Eileen brought in her oldest son Jim to help

manage the office.

In the late 1980s Shannon left the agency and in October of 1990

his youngest son Andy became a third-generation Farmers agent when

Eileen decided to retire.

Being the oldest continuing Farmers agency in Huntington Beach,

Andy was helped by his lovely wife Barbie for awhile in the mid

1990s.

Andy and Barbie are the proud parents of three children -- Jessie,

Amy and Drew.

During the moving of the office to the Town & Country Center on

Beach Boulevard, Andy moved one of the office bookcases and on the

floor was a slide rule to rate the “Alpha Plan” life insurance. The

company stopped selling that policy many years ago and this slide

rule may been used by Andy’s grandfather, Robert Stricklin Sr. since

it carried a copyright date of 1971.

But Andy is continuing the family tradition of being a Farmers

agent and maybe one day his children will take over the agency and

become a fourth-generation of Huntington Beach Farmers agent, that is

if the rents don’t go overboard in Surf City.

* 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.