History · Fair Oaks

Fair Oaks’s history is
mostly unwritten

The public archives hold no old photos of Fair Oaks. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.

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The story

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The community began as part of the 1844 Rancho San Juan Mexican land grant. In 1895, Brevet Brigadier General Charles Henry Howard and James W. Wilson of the Howard-Wilson Publishing Company of Chicago acquired rights to present Fair Oaks community, then primarily covered by citrus farms, from California Senator Frederick K. Cox and businessman Crawford W. Clarke. The Howard-Wilson company surveyed and mapped the land and began to promote Fair Oaks as one of their “Sunset Colonies.” The Howard-Wilson company advertised Fair Oaks as an innovative and growing citrus colony after destructive freezes in Southern California and Florida and a national depression hitting in 1893. Many of the purchasers were professionals and other friends of the investors and the Fair Oaks community was initially composed primarily of businessmen and other professionals, including bankers and engineers.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

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Before
2000
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Fair Oaks

California · CA
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