Colony Olivenhain By Richard Bumann. Published by the
author, 1981. IIlustrations. Index. Maps. 108 pages. $16.00.
Reviewed by Marje Howard-Jones, author of Seekers of The Spring: A History
of Carlsbad.
For sixty-seven German immigrants walking through the low
slanting light of November 1884, the trek from Encinitas to Rancho Las Encinitas
was the last leg of a very long journey. The vanguard of a new community, they
had responded to the lure of establishing a colony of two hundred families where
"any honest work would pay off." Their dreams of shared prosperity based on
shared decisions and equal labor lasted only a few years but their efforts
became the foundation of a small, tightly-knit farming community that only
recently has evolved into another pocket of north San Diego suburbia.
As a grandson of one of the original members of "Colony
Olivenhain," Richard Bumann is a relative or life-long friend of his subject's
founding families. From handsome gold-stamped binding to photos and other print
memorabilia, his book is like an extended family album. Letters and minutes of
the colony's organizing meetings in a Denver, Colorado bar are translated from
their original German language. They are reproduced amid descriptions of
negotiations and transactions that eventually led to the discrediting of the
colony's leaders and the departure of all but seven colony families. Accounts of
the community's subsequent growth are accented by copies of such quaint items as
merchants' receipts and advertisements and the handwritten "work schedule" of
Miss Kate Schiller, the 1907-08 school mistress who meticulously planned her
class day in five and ten minute segments.
Bumann's focus on farm life in the isolated and seemingly
arid valley is a descriptive museum of agricultural methods and implements. The
first-hand accounts of those whose lives depended on the success of planting and
harvesting lend depth to photos of work in the fields and the specific devices
that were used to improve production.
Other elements of community life are not overlooked. Shops
and services, from blacksmith and grocer to teacher and doctor, take their
places amidst such traditional small-town institutions as the school, meeting
hall and cemetery. Readers who long have cherished the Olivenhain Town Hall as a
venerable county landmark may not be aware of its purely local fame as the home
of the Olivenhain Owl Club, a social organization initiated by teenagers just
after the turn of the century. From Virginia reels to waltzes and swing, Owl
Club festivities reflected dance trends of the times until soon after World War
II, when its brand of home-grown fun finally went out of style. At the other end
of the spectrum is Bumann's account of the simple, un-landscaped cemetery where
all necessary burial arrangements traditionally have been carried out by
Olivenhain's pioneer families and their descendants.
Bumann's personal connection with the people and events of
his local history has not encumbered him with a need to glorify successes or
gloss over failures. He shares the treasures of family and community lore with
affectionate care, enhancing their value to the reader.
