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Upland Public Library Local History Collection For more information on the copyright or about this image, please contact the Upland Public Library at (909) 931-4205 or ci.upland.ca.us/#Local_History
Description
These recording are of an interview with Robert Nesbit who was born in 1889. The interview took place in December of 1977. After attending Pomona College for one year, Nesbit was offered an office position at Pomona Fruit Growers Exchange. Nesbit worked with his brother, William, on a forty-acre ranch in Alta Loma; Nesbit was manager of the Grower’s Service Company. Nesbit reflected on the recession’s impact on his work; he said that his farming interests were affected. Nesbit discussed the kind of services that the Grower’s Service Company provided: pest control through fumigation and supplying the orchard heater oil for the district. In 1937 during a freeze, Nesbit experienced troubles getting oil to the tanks. Nesbit said that he obtained water for his orchards from mutual water companies initially, but over time the water district had bought out the companies. Nesbit and other unnamed persons paid the Cucamonga Water Company one million dollars for the company to form the Cucamonga County Water District. Nesbit said that he decided to do so to provide local people with water during a time of shortage. The company owned seventy-five percent of the Cucamonga Basin. Nesbit said the company was currently doing tunnel work in the mountains to supply more tunnel water. Nesbit described some of the challenges the area faced concerning water as needing to purify water after it is connected to the state water project.
Audio cassette tape, 1 cassette tape, Oral History #52: San Antonio Water Company Oral History Collection, Upland Public Library Local History Collection.
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