Laguna Federal Highlights

A MAN CALLED ISAAC

By Mildred Yorba MacArthur

Isaac Jenkinson Frazee could have been the first artist to make a sketch of Laguna Beach, according to his widow, who has just written her memoirs which she calls, “Journeying Through The Years.” She signs herself Mrs. Isaac J. Frazee, which she was, for 57 devoted years. Publication date has not yet been set.

Isaac first say Laguna in 1873, as a boy of 15 when he came with his parents, and they camped in the beach. He was entranced by the sun, the sand and the hills that rolled down to the sea., It was in Laguna that he made his first sketch, which he kept and later gave to his bride, a native of Louisville, Kentucky. She has kept it ever since. Isaac went on the become one of California’s finest and most collected artists.

The Frazees built a life for themselves in the back country of San Diego County, near Bonsall, where they reared their seven children.  It was there in 1915 that he wrote and produced his Indian Pageant called “Kitshi Manido.” The entire village helped him build a 500-seat amphitheater near his home. The cast was made up of neighbors, and his daughter Arlitta (sic)* has a lead part, as Majella the Wood Dove.

Musicians were brought in from Los Angeles and they were trained and directed by W. M. Bower, a noted violinist and composer. The production was a sellout. People came in buggies, hay wagons, on horseback or on foot, and some even ventured in by car, churning up the dust in their wake.

“In 1921,” writes Mrs. Frazee, “We loaned our pageant to the Art Association of Laguna Beach and all that summer the artists dropped their work and joined with us to produce it for six nights, with great success. It was given in a magnificent eucalyptus grove and over $3,600 was taken in at the gate.

“After the overhead was paid, a nice little sum of nearly $1,000 was given to the Art Association to help build the beautiful Art Gallery which now adorns Laguna Hills.  The Art Association presented us with a life membership and a lot in Laguna.  Again in 1927, the Pageant was produced for 21 nights, by this same community group.”

That certainly was a great success in the days when many artists made their homes in tents. Cows were tethered on empty adjoining lots, and bawled vociferously when ready to be milked and their owner had overslept. Streets were short and ran in all directions, coming to dead ends, much as they still do. There was evidence of much visiting among artists where they left their paths through the green grass of spring or the dust of summer. There were no street lights so most people carried lanterns. There was no highway.

On Saturday nights the artists gathered at a little art gallery to admire or criticize their fellow painters. There was a small dance hall, Mrs. Frazee recalls, with a sign over it that said, “Clean Dancing Every Night Except Sunday.”  J. N. Isch owned the village grocery store and one corner of the room was reserved for the post office, over which Mrs. Isch presided.  Long lines of people gathered each day for the mail to be brought in, via stage.  The waits were long, but the visiting was most enjoyable.

Nell Gail Moulton told me that her happiest memories were of her horse-driven carriage, with her two tiny daughters, Charlotte and Louise. She took lessons from that great teacher and artist Anna Hills, while the children romped on the beach.

The Frazees finally settled in Laguna for good in 1927. By then it was a haven for artists from everywhere, including William Wendt, Julia Bracken Wendt, Edgar Payne, William Griffith, Joseph Kleitch, Frank Coprien, Alice Fullerton, David Criesbach, Donna Schuster, Clarence Hinkle, Mary Sherer, Charles Patridge Adams, Thomas Hunt, Gail Moulton, Irving Manoir, Anna Hills and Karl Yens.

Most were friendly, but I like the story that is told of the young artist on his first day in Laguna, who came upon a fellow artisan and he said, “Hello there, brother. I’m an artist too, just in from Chicago yesterday. My name is . . .” The old-Laguna-hand said, “What of it?” and he picked up his canvas and walked off.

Another visitor, a plump little person, fared better. She sided p to an artist and stood so close that he could barely move his brush as she overshadowed his canvas. Finally the artist glanced up and said, “What do you think of it?” Without hesitation she replied, “Oh, I guess maybe it will look better when it dries, won’t it?”

In 1968 one of Isaac’s earliest paintings was given to the Santa Barbara Mission. It was painted in 1898, of a Franciscan Friar, Joseph O’Keefe, of Mission San Luis Rey at Oceanside, where the Frazees then resided.  They and all the other families thereabouts helped with the restoration of the Mission. An interested onlooker was a duck that swam in a small nearby pond and became very attached to Father O’Keefe. Artist Frazee sketched the scene, which he later painted.

I shall now turn to Elizabeth Frazee Worsley’s final communication in 1968. She was the eldest daughter of the Frazees. She and her husband, Christian, delivered the painting to Padre-historian, Rev. Maynard Gieger at Santa Barbara Mission. She said, “I had a distinct feeling that all is well, and that my ‘Padre With a Duck’ had at last come to his right resting place.”

She continued, “You can see many of Father’s paintings at Chapman College at Orange, Laguna Beach Museum of Art, Bowers Museum at Santa Ana, Laguna Federal Savings and Loan Association’s home office, and the Serra Museum at San Diego. The latter also has two big scrapbooks about him, and his old desk. Shipped around the Horn in 1849, it was once the property of California’s renowned Circuit Court Judge Benjamin B. Hayes. His history-laden scrap books I gave to the Huntington Library at San Marino. He and Mother lived a full life among their friends in Laguna, he with his painting and Mother with her writing.”

Isaac Jenkinson Frazee, the gentle man of many and varied talents, left his lasting imprint upon his beloved California where he came as a youth in 1873. He was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on November 3, 1858. (sic)** He died in Laguna Beach on June 23, 1942. Lest we forget, he brought Laguna its first Festival in 1921.

* His daughter, Helen Frazee Bower, had the same role as Arlitta a famous opera singer who performed in the 1927 edition of the pageant.

** Isaac's birth date was November 30th, 1858 His place of birth isn't clearly identified in the records. I have Winchester, Indiana - which is near the Ohio border. Google also mentions an obsolete location called "New Winchester" which was 18 miles west of Indianapolis. Isaac's grandmother, uncle, and cousins were all living near Rushville, Indiana about 30 miles south east of Indianapolis. They are listed in the 1860 Census as living in Decatur, which is also near the Ohio border, but up near Fort Wayne.  His father did, just before moving to San Bernardino in 1873, own a book and stationary store near the center of Indianapolis.