Whittier, California Timeline

This is a very basic timeline meant to aid genealogical research.  Click here for the list of rosters, documents, images etc.  that reference Whittier.  Click here for the list of cities in Los Angeles County.  Click here for the list of Counties in California. 

Some of the  Native American Tribes known to inhabit California were the Hupa, Maidu, Pomo, Modic, Mohave, Chowignas, Pimunguns.  According to Ereferencedesk there were over 135 distinct language dialects.

1542 The official discovery of California by Spain

1545 Typhus and other European diseases start killing larges amounts of native populations in Cuba, and New Spain

1579 Sir Francis Drake claims some land north of San Francisco for England

1633 - 1634 Small Pox

Spanish missionaries start settling California in the 1700s

1775 - 1783 Revolutionary War

1776 Declaration of Independence signed

1784 - The land from North Whittier HIlls, and to the Ocean are granted to Captian Manuel Nieto

1793 Yellow Fever

1812 Russian fur traders build Fort Ross just north of San Francisco

1820 American Trappers start arriving from the East

1820 - 1875 Texas - Indian Wars

1821 Mexico gained independence from Spain

1832 - 1866 Cholera

1846 - 1848 Mexican - American War

1848 California is ceded to the United States by Mexico

1849 The Gold Rush begins

1850 California becomes the 31st State

1858 Scarlet Fever

1861-1864 The Civil War

1862 The Great Floods  

1863 Emancipation Proclamation

1877 Jim Crow Law enacted till 1950s

1882 The Chinese Exclusion Act

1887 - Whittier recieves it's name
1887 - Whittier enters first depression due to drought

1892 - A flume is built to carry water to East Whittier
1894 - First Founder's Day Celebration

1898 - Whittier incoporated

1898 the American Anti-Imperialist  League formed

1900 Oil discovered in California

1905 - Union High School (Whittier High School) built

1905 Japanese and Korean Exclusion league formed in California and gained 80,000 + members

1906 San Francisco Earthquake and fires

1906 - 1907 Typhoid

1910 Angel Island opens (West Coast’s Ellis Island)

1913 California Alien Land Law

1914 - Whittier Police Department organized

1914 - 1918 WWI

1915 - 1955 Polio Outbreaks

1918 - 1919 Spanish Flu Pandemic

1920 ACLU founded

1920 Women get the right to vote

1920 - 1933 Prohibition

1921 - 1925 Diphtheria Outbreaks

1924 United States gives citizenship to some Native Americans

1929 Beginning of the Great Depression

1933 The Long Beach Earthquake

1939 - 1945 WWII

1941 Pearl Harbor

1942 President Roosevelt Signed Executive Order 9066 (Feb)

1942 General Dewitt issued Public Proclamation No. 1(Mar, internment camps)  

Useful Resources

Whittier Historical Society  **There are contact links on the page linked. I could not find a website for the Historical Society itself.

Whittier Historic Nieghborhood Association

Whittier Area Genealogical Society

Whittier College Wardman Library  Has a good collection of Historical documents.