I-8 Jewish Travel: Klauber was a Lakeside legend

Boathouse on Lindo Lake was part of the Lakeside Hotel resort, which spurred development of the town. Among early merchants was the Klauber-Wagenheim Company.
Boathouse on Lindo Lake was part of the Lakeside Hotel resort, which spurred development of the town. Among early merchants was the Klauber-Wagenheim Company.


-54th in a series–

Exit 22, Los Coches Road, Lakeside, California ~ Historic Lakeside

By Donald H. Harrison

Donald H. Harrison
Donald H. Harrison

LAKESIDE, California— Los Coches Road translates from Spanish to “The Cars Road” which makes one wonder if, perhaps, somewhere nearby there is “The Trucks Road” or “The Bicycles Road” or yet another road for some other form of mechanical transportation.  Be that as it may, it was in a car that we proceeded from Interstate 8 down Los Coches Road to the heart of Lakeside.

This small unincorporated western-flavored town is known for its rodeo and for the former automobile track around Lindo Lake where pioneer race driver Barney Oldfield set a speed record a century ago, covering a mile distance in 51 and 4/5 seconds.  It is not a town one normally associates with Jews, but here (and as we suggest, everywhere) some Jewish threads are included in the tapestry of local history.

One of the first Jews to make an impression on Lakeside was Edgar Klauber, great-grandson of a rabbi and son of pioneer Jewish merchant Abraham Klauber of San Diego.  He used to travel from San Diego to back country towns to take orders and deliver to stores such merchandise as groceries, tobacco, boots, shoes, dry goods, hardware, and farm implements.

The Lakeside Historical Society reported in its book, Legends of Lakeside, that Klauber had recorded a sales trip on behalf of Klauber-Wangenheim Co: “My first day took me through Lemon Grove, Spring Valley, then by way of Sycamore Canyon to El Cajon, where I had lunch at the Knox Hotel.  At El Cajon, I had three customers: my old friend John Burgess, who was doing a thriving general merchandise business in those days; Al Brower, the druggist, and Harry Hubbell, who I believe was the town constable in conjunction with his saloon business.  In the afternoon I left for Lakeside, via Bostonia, stopping at Lakeside overnight.

“There was no store at that time in Lakeside, but I remember a fellow named John Ike ran what he called a ‘club’—you signed your name to a register, and after paying $1.00 for dues, you automatically, as it were, became a member in good standing. You could buy drinks as long as you could stand up and stand the drinks, as no saloons were allowed in Lakeside.  John Ike’s club had a big membership.”

Pedestrians wait for a gaggle of geese to cross walking path to Lindo Lake, July 2015
Pedestrians wait for a gaggle of geese to cross walking path to Lindo Lake, July 2015

Edgar Klauber subsequently recalled in an article of his own in the Journal of San Diego History that he had attended a grocer’s picnic near Lakeside during the Depression year of 1893.  A Republican, Klauber blamed economic hard times on Grover Cleveland, who was then the occupant of the White House.

“Suddenly I saw the manager of the Lakeside Hotel coming toward our Retail Grocers’ Picnic of 29 grocers, 29 wives, and a lot more children. He was running and when a manager of a hotel runs, there is something wrong.  At first I thought he was going to have us arrested for not eating in his hotel, but, no, it was even worse than that. He called me aside and broke the news.  He had just received a telegraph message from San Diego. There had been a run on the three San Diego banks and all three had closed their doors.”

Klauber went on to write that he made the following announcement: “Ladies and gentlemen, little boys and girls, and various innocent relatives, please stop eating and give me your attention. This man at my side is the manager of the Lakeside Hotel. You can see by his face that he carries bad news.  All three banks in San Diego have closed their doors.  I advise you to continue your picnic for two very good reasons.  First, I happen to know that very few of you have any money in the closed banks. Second, even if you did have any money on deposit, you could not get it out with a crowbar. So please sit right down and go on eating before the ants set in…”

The Lakeside Hotel was a resort property which long since has been destroyed.  However, the boat house which was a popular place for guests to row to still graces Lindo Lake, which to this date attracts various kinds of water fowl including ducks, egrets, geese, herons, and pelicans, among others.

Eventually the Klauber-Wangenheim Co. purchased property in Lakeside.  According to the Lakeside Historical Society, “In 1903, Klauber-Wangenheim bought the Lakeside Store and C. W. Ross was sent to Lakeside to manage it in 1904. Mr. Ross brought with him his wife, Mary Annie, his daughter Josie, and Mrs. Ross’ mother, Josephine Mansfield.  They occupied the upper story of the Lakeside Store (over the Meat Market) while they built their house next door, and moved there in 1905.  There were only 16 dwellings in town at that time, including the Church, Inn and Lindo Hotel.”

Legends of Lakeside also noted: “In 1919, Lakeside’s first high school classes were held upstairs in the Klauber-Wangenheim Building on the southwest corner of Maine and Sycamore, with Alice Gibson its teacher.  In 1920, Riverview H.S. was built on Woodside Avenue….”

Klauber store in Lakeside, circa 1903 (Photo with permission from David M. Klauber's 'The Sounding')
Klauber store in Lakeside, circa 1903 (Photo with permission from David M. Klauber’s ‘The Sounding’)

In 1911, the silent movie industry produced in San Diego County some 45 short films between May 25 when it made A Trooper’s Heart and October 2 when it filmed The Love of the West, according to a compilation by Gregory L. Williams in a 2002 edition of The Journal of San Diego History.  As was noted in the earlier story in this series concerning Exit 13 A, Spring Street, one of the films that Alan Dwan made in Lakeside was The Yiddisher Cowboy.

Lindo Lake always has been a pleasant destination for San Diegans.  During World War II, Sam Sloan, a U.S. Marine, took Ruth Ann Trupin, whom he met at a USO dance at Temple Beth Israel in San Diego, on a spin in his car out to this lake.  They liked what they saw, and in the 1950s, after Sam earned an optometry degree and they were married, the Sloans moved to Lakeside where Sam opened a practice, Ruth taught school, and they raised two children, Iris and Tom.

The Sloans became active civic boosters, Sam in particular.  Lakeside’s chamber of commerce, its historical society, and its Kiwanis Club all, at one time or another, elected Sloan as their president. He is credited with helping to start the annual Lakeside parade, an occasion for which the former leatherneck recruited the Marine Corps Band, and attracted as a participant another former Marine—and a future U.S. senator and California governor— Pete Wilson.

Another Jewish professional in Lakeside was Robert Siegel, a dentist who arrived in the mid-1950s.  His widow, Paula, once recalled that Bob had intended to practice in El Cajon, where a medical/ dental center was being constructed.  In the meantime, he participated in a San Diego County program to bring dental and medical services to areas of the county where there were no resident physicians and dentists.

“The county had a trailer for places without professionals,” Paula Siegel recalled.  “So he would go there once a week and to other places.  Some members of the Town Council came to him and asked if he would like to start practicing in Lakeside. They offered to set him up in a building.  Bob’s feeling was that if they needed a dentist in Lakeside, it would be better to go there than to El Cajon where there were already dentists.”

Eventually, Siegel purchased a piece of land and built his own dental offices.  He practiced there for approximately 28 years, until his death in 1983.  His wife, Paula, outlived him by 21 years.  Like Sloan, Siegel was a member of the Kiwanis Club and “we went to Chamber dances,” Paula once said.  She also recalled that for a while the Kiwanis Club had a piano that no one seemed to be able to tune.  “It was like an old Jimmy Stewart movie—someone playing the piano out of tune.”

Although Lakeside was considered the back country, that didn’t stop Siegel from becoming a leader among California dentists. He regularly lobbied the Legislature for bills affecting the field of dentistry, among them one which called for the computerization of dental records.   That program helped Siegel perform his work as a forensic dentist, particularly in identifying victims of the PSA crash in San Diego in 1978 that claimed 144 lives.

One of Lakeside’s most famous residents was a girl who lived to be only 12 years old, Heather Michele O’Rourke.  As the story goes, the little blonde girl and her mommy were visiting the commissary of MGM Studios in Hollywood when a man asked her name.

Reluctantly she told him, but added: “You’re a stranger; I can’t talk to you.”  The man waited for Heather’s mother to return so that he and Heather could be properly introduced. It was Steven Spielberg, and there was something about Heather that made the famous producer think she might be just perfect in a movie about the supernatural: The Poltergeist. After two auditions—the first not having gone so well—5-year-old Heather got to act in the movie, and also to utter one of cinema’s most famous lines: “They’re here.”

Heather, who won election as president of her 5th grade class, starred in two Poltergeist sequels. She died of cardiopulmonary arrest brought on by a chronic intestinal condition before the completion of Poltergeist III, which was dedicated to her memory.

 

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From Exit 22 head north on Los Coches Road until it becomes Maine Avenue.  Turn right on Woodside Avenue or Lakeshore Drive to access Lindo Lake.

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Harrison is editor and publisher of the San Diego Jewish World.  You may contact him at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com

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