Anaheim and Orange County History

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Men and women of vision carved cities from Orange County's beaches, ranchos and farmland.

The county's earliest settlement, Mission San Juan Capistrano, was founded in 1776. The mission eventually added commerce, trading locally prepared hides and tallow for books, furniture and other supplies from the East Coast.

The entrepreneurs who followed saw riches in Orange County's good soil, wide expanses of range and pristine beaches. Settlers and farmers built homes, churches and schools - the foundation of 27 cities to come.

The first cities - Anaheim, Santa Ana and Orange, incorporated between 1876 and 1888.W.H. Spurgeon investigated the area, bought 74 acres and laid out what would become the town center of Santa Ana, selling downtown lots to investors for $15 each in 1870. Two lawyers, Alfred Beck Chapman and Andrew Glassell, took 1,385 acres of land in lieu of a legal fee and turned it into a town originally called Richland, then renamed Orange. The town soon became a fruit packing and shipping center.

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