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96
winter
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spr ing
Fithian organized a one-hour visit for the troops, all of whom were served
a breakfast of sandwiches, rolls, pies, fruit, and hot coffee from long tables
set up underneath the colonnades of the station. The officers were treated to
breakfast at the Potter Hotel with Fithian serving as host.
The
Morning Press
reported that after breakfast, “there were reunions
with home folks, hellos and good-byes, music and cheering, exchange of
messages, then some more cheering and some more music and some more
good-byes, and back into the train went the soldiers, expressing hearty
thanks for the hospitality extended them, and giving three rousing cheers
for Santa Barbara.”
The Grizzlies were eventually sent to France, and Joel Fithian of the
Carpinteria Constabulary became a captain in the Liaison Service of the U.S.
Army. He also worked as a spotter for the Air Service. Additionally, he was
placed in charge of prisoner of war camps for German officers because of his
knowledge of German and French, and he served as an intelligence officer,
holding the rank of major in the corps.
The Grizzlies served five months, saw no action, and returned in January
1919, just in time for a second outbreak of Spanish flu in Santa Barbara.
After the war, Joel headed the committee that welcomed the soldiers home.
Later Years
Anne Stow Fithian and Richard Barrett Fithian’s marriage did not survive
WWI. When Anne returned to Santa Barbara with Dorothy, she initially
kept an office at the Fithian building on State Street. By 1920, Barrett was
living with his new wife Lucia on the family ranch in Carpinteria, and Anne
became the vice president and manager of the El Encanto Hotel Company
and lived on Mission Ridge. Eventually, Anne moved to Montecito, where
she became a landscape gardener for private estates.
The 1930s were a time of change in Joel’s life. For one thing, he
renamed his ranch
Rancho Monte Alegre
, supposedly because he was tired
of tourists driving up and unloading their luggage to check in, thinking
they were at the Miramar Hotel. Joel’s wife Mary died, and a short time
thereafter he married Irma Carteri Baker. Joel also sold
Rancho San Juan
back to descendants of the Den-Bell family.
Joel Remington Fithian died in 1936, leaving the entirety of his estate
to Irma, his children, and his stepchildren. Joel Remington Fithian II grew
up to become the manager of the ranch where he’d been working since
he was a toddler, helping Selin Carrillo haul trash in the old horse-drawn
wagon. The Fithian legacy continued until 1966, when Irma sold the ranch
and gave Joel’s collection of horse-drawn vehicles to the Santa Barbara
Historical Museum.
Moguls & Mansions
(Sources: Various Santa Barbara County histories – Philips, Guinn,
O’Neill; U.S. censuses, passenger lists, and passport applications from Ancestry.
com; contemporary news articles and obituaries from Santa Barbara papers
and
New York Times
; “The Historic Fithian Ranch” by Roxie Grant Lapidus;
city directories; journals of Edith Forbes Perkins; Montecito and Santa
Barbara by David Myrick; files of the Santa Barbara Historical Museum and
the Carpinteria Valley Museum of History; special thanks to Joel Remington
Fithian II for reminiscences and photos of his family.)
Looking dapper in suit and tie, Selin Carrillo drives one of the Fithian carriages with
Joel Remington Fithian, Jr. aboard (Courtesy Joel Remington Fithian II)
Wedding day for Anne Stow (with bouquet); Joel R. Fithian (wearing top hat) stands
on far right with Kate Stow to his right (Courtesy Santa Barbara Historical Museum)