Did you know?

Isaac W. Whitaker distinguished himself as a pioneer when he built and occupied the first house in Ontario. Suffering from asthma, Whitaker and his wife, Hettie, relocated from San Francisco to the desert air of Southern California. Unhappy with housing prices in the Los Angeles area, Whitaker ventured out to the communities east of the city. A chance meeting at a railroad depot he learned of O...ntario from nursery man John W. Calkins, whose trees eventually lined many of the streets in the bourgeoning colony. On January 11, 1883, pitching their tent on a ten acre tract of cacti and sage brush, newly purchased from founders George and William Chaffey, they could only envision the metamorphosis that would have to happen to change the harsh landscape into the lush citrus orchards that would come to define the community. As the land was surveyed, avenues graded, and water flowed from San Antonio Canyon, they welcomed other settlers as neighbors. Prior to residing in Ontario, Whitaker served in the Civil War, and had engaged in farming and carpentry. He acted as undertaker at Ontario’s first funeral and he planted the colony’s first Washington navel orange tree on his property in 1883.