PAT’S BLOG #8

July 5, 2018

Pat’s Blog #8

Charles Emerson Hoar was born March 27, 1850 to an influential family in Massachusetts. He was named after Ralph Waldo Emerson’s brother Charles Emerson.  Charles Emerson Hoar came to the Valley of Simi in the 1870s as one of the earlier pioneers.

He acquired the property called ‘El Nido de Chuparosas’ also known as the Hummingbird’s Nest Ranch from Juan Pucillo. It’s not clear whether he purchased Hummingbird’s Nest from Mr. Pucillo, or purchased land that Mr. Pucillo was leasing.  In any case, Mr. Pucillo continued to live at Hummingbird’s Nest and manage the property after Mr. Hoar resided there.  C.E. Hoar lived in an adobe structure on the ranch for a number of years before moving to another property he acquired near the current day Royal and Erringer.

In a letter written in 1994 by Marion Mottino Smith, who lived in the Simi Hotel as a child along with her family in 1917-1918, she shares a memory about a Spring at Hummingbird’s Nest:

“I remember a little bit about the Hummingbird Spring.  Our family would go to the Spring about once a year, in the spring, to clear it of the cattails and other water plants that would grow thick and would slow up the outgoing water, which at that time was the supply of water to the (Simi) Hotel site.

“While cleaning the Spring we found many Bullfrogs, the kind that make frog legs a delicacy. The folks would catch a large amount, and bring them home, and we would have frog legs for dinner that night, cooked in a delicious way.

“I don’t want to forget that at the Spring lived an old War veteran of WWI* I believe. We knew him as Percy.  A very likeable fellow.”

[Pat Havens wonders if he might have been a Spanish/American war veteran, if he seemed old to the child.]

Structure on Hummingbird’s Nest Ranch. C.E. Hoar lived in this adobe structure on the ranch for a number of years before moving to other property he had near the current day Royal and Erringer. This photo was taken in c.1887 by C.H. Shaffner, and was originally published in ‘Views on the Simi’ a book to promote development in Simi Valley. From the Charles Outland Collection, Courtesy of Eleanor Taylor.

Hummingbird’s Nest Ranch.  This photo was taken in c.1887 by C.H. Shaffner, and was originally published in ‘Views on the Simi’ a book to promote development in Simi Valley. From the Charles Outland Collection, Courtesy of Eleanor Taylor.

Just Below Hummingbird’s Nest Ranch. This photo was taken in c.1887 by C.H. Shaffner, and was originally published in ‘Views on the Simi’ a book to promote development in Simi Valley. From the Charles Outland Collection, Courtesy of Eleanor Taylor.

Barn on Hummingbird Ranch 1927