First Census – 1910

The 60 heads of household were characterized as follows: average age, 43; 35 native born, 25 foreign born; 5 females, 55 males. Living in the 60 households were 49 wives, 64 sons, 58 daughters, 7 other relatives, 9 boarders and 3 servants.

Of the native born heads of household, 11 were born in California, 10 in the east and 14 in the mid-west. As for the foreign born, 12 came from Portugal (Azores), 4 from Germany, 3 from England, 3 from Denmark and 1 each from Holland, Ireland and France.

34% of the population were gainfully employed: 30 white collar jobs such as salesperson, manager, lawyer, bookkeeper and clerk; 36 blue collar jobs such as carpenter, house painter, electrician, plumber and teamster; 18 laborers, gardeners and servants.

The following is an example of census information on a household: Edwin T. Ezekiel, age 50, a buyer for a fur house, was “head”. He and his wife Josephine had seven children: the oldest daughter, Florence, age 27, was postmaster of the LaVerne post office. Four younger daughters were Eve, age 25, Sarah, age 19, Leslie, age 12, and Josephine, age 7. Two sons, Edwin J., age 22, and Chester, age 21 were wagon drivers, the older for a department store and the younger for a coal company. Annie Foley, age 34, a bookkeeper for the telephone company, and her 4 year old son John were boarders. All were born in California. Edwin’s father was born in Louisiana and his mother in England. Josephine’s parents were born in England.

Many of the names listed in the census appear in previous history articles. For example, Bill Brown (Brown’s Hall), Herman Heckman (Heckman tract), Alfred Worley (Worley tract), Anton Perry (built cabin where Jack Kerouac stayed), Lillian Ferguson, and Alexander Eells (Earthquake refugees). The 1910 census provides a wealth of information about these and other early residents of the Homestead Valley community. Descendants of a few of the families listed in the 1910 census live in Homestead Valley today.