Warning: Undefined variable $num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 126
Warning: Undefined variable $posts_num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 127
My paper will be on “Orange: From A Community To A City.” The purpose of this paper is to explain how and why ordinary people were influential in forming communities and establishing cities in Southern California. Specifically, I will examine the community of Orange, CA within the context of Orange County development in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. I will discuss how historians have historiographically regarded important factors that led to urban development. I am mainly concerned with how historians have included the people in communities as a possible factor. Southern California gradually transitioned from a rural region of ranches into a more urban setting at this time. For instance, the successes of agriculture and the railroad contributed to such development, but I want to take that research further by examining the history of Orange through the lens of its community. While the citrus industry was key to Orange County’s growth, it would not have made such an impact without the daily contribution of workers who picked and packaged the citrus. Also, the railroad may have contributed to the region’s economic growth, but it also brought people to California from other states and countries who founded cities like Orange.
There are several significant questions guiding my research. Why have historians tended to focus more on institutions such as the Southern Pacific Railroad and the Southern California Fruit Exchange instead of the communities, which also contributed to the area’s growth? How did immigration play a role in the establishment of cities, such as Orange? Was the change from rural to urban growth a direct result of increased migration to the area? Why were people drawn to Orange County and the community of Orange in particular? How and why did people establish the city of Orange? How much were community members involved in that process or was it controlled by certain leaders? How was the Orange community similar to or distinct from other Orange County communities? How can historians create a more diverse and inclusive understanding of Orange County’s early community life?
I have identified many potential primary sources for this paper. My primary sources include oral histories, newspapers, city records, county records, and photographs related to both Orange County and Orange. Three potential archives for these sources are Orange County collections in the Center for Oral and Public History (CSUF), CSUF Special Collections, and the Orange Public Library and History Center. With these sources, my aim is to have a bottom-up approach to Orange County’s early development. While the citrus industry and the railroad were major factors, I will also research the personal aspects of Orange’s growth. I hope to learn more about the people who lived in early Orange such as orchard workers, business owners, or families. Since there are oral histories available, I want to incorporate these stories into the history of the city’s development. My primary sources overall will enable me to piece together how early Orange County communities created the cities we know today.