1911 – Nick Peirano supplies his Ventura store with fruit from his Santa Ana Valley ranch. Nick Peirano, Sr.
His uncle, Alex Gandolfo, opened a grocery store in Ventura across the street from the mission in 1877. Gandolfo then summoned Nick from Italy to work in the store. Traveling with Nick from Italy was his good friend John Lagomarsino. The two arrived in Ventura in 1882, and both would later play significant roles in the history of the county. Nick must have been an enterprising young man, for he purchased the store from his uncle in 1890. There may have been other reasons for the purchase, however, since Gandolfo was declared an “insolvent debtor” in 1892. Peirano commissioned the construction of a family residence at 107 So. Figueroa St. in Ventura in 1897, about a block and a half south of his store toward the ocean. The construction was for his newly-wed bride Clara Rafetto, and the house still stands at that location. Peirano was included in a photograph of persons attending the dedication of the entrance towers at Foster Park on January 26, 1908. He is shown in company with persons such as Anselmo Canet, Orville Wadleigh and Paul Charlebois, suggesting that by this year he had an interest in the Santa Ana Valley (where Lake Casitas is now located). Orville Wadleigh was at the time the owner of the land that would in time become the famous Rancho Casitas. Charlebois was among those who had sold the ranch to Wadleigh in 1905. In September 1908, the carcass of a mountain lion was displayed in front of Peirano’s store. It was described as “one of the largest of its species, measuring 6 feet and 2 inches from tip to tip and weighing 95 pounds.” It had been killed in the vicinity of Foster Park.
Peirano had purchased his Santa Ana Valley ranch by 1911, for the property is
shown in his name in an atlas published in that year. Adjacent property owners included Jose Boronda, The following year brought difficulties. First, his son Victor was seriously injured in an auto accident. The news report stated that young Victor was riding a bicycle when he was “struck, thrown to the ground and dragged some . . .” He suffered a broken collar bone and severe bruises about his face and chest. An equally disturbing event occurred only twelve days later, when Candelaria Valenzuela suffered burns on Peirano’s ranch and died shortly after at her son’s home in Ventura. Candelaria and her husband lived and worked on the Peirano ranch. The troubles of 1915 were followed by fire in 1917 and the loss of close friends in 1918. The great Ojai Valley fire of 1917 that devastated the community of Nordhoff also burned into the Santa Ana Valley and for a time was centered on the Peirano ranch. Peirano served as pall bearer at the funerals of Jose Boronda in February and Jacob Cagnacci in May. These events occurred in the war-year of 1918, while the influenza epidemic raged across the land. Added to all this was news of the death of Alex Gandolfo, who had been in business for a number of years in Seattle. Nick Peirano is mentioned in 1919 as being among a group of Santa Ana Valley ranchers who were interested in improving Santa Ana Road from Foster Park into the Santa Ana Valley. Those ranchers, contemporaries of Peirano, included Ben Fazio, Winfield Dunshee, John Barnard and John Selby. His ranch was also leased for oil exploration, this time in company with Ben Fazio, Amerigo Cagnacci and John Selby. The lease was made on the basis of a “1/8th royalty” for any oil produced from the property. It seems none was found that would have been of commercial value. Nick was in an auto accident near Lompoc on Sunday, September 23, 1923. He was in a car driven by his close friend John Lagomarsino, Sr.; and a second passenger was the Ventura architect and builder Selwyn Shaw. The car ran off the road and over turned. The three men were able to extract themselves from the wreckage, but Lagomarsino had serious injuries. They were taken to the Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, where Lagomarsino died after two sessions of surgery designed to save his life. A reason given for the accident was that “The steering knuckle on the automobile broke, catapulting the machine over a 15-foot drop.” Peirano suffered a severe cut on his leg with bruises and abrasions. In 1924, Periano was among those who supported a call for construction of a county road from Ojai to the base of the Casitas Grade, a route that would pass across or near his ranch. On February 6, of that year, he accompanied a group of interested persons to a meeting of the Board of Supervisors to make an appeal for the road. The most prominent member of the contingent was the “glass-king” Edward Libbey, the great patron of the Ojai Valley. The road through the Santa Ana Valley was not constructed until 1933, but this appeal did result in the construction of Burnham Road. In the same year, Peirano was also a party to a unique effort to save steelhead trout in the Ventura River. A prolonged period of drought had caused the flow of water in the river to become so shallow that the trout were unable to swim upstream to spawn. Nick and his son Victor were among members of the local Rod and Reel Club that turned out on March 31, 1924, to assist the fish with free transport upriver. Big trucks were driven to the mouth of the river, and in the trucks were large tanks of water. The Rod and Reel men picked the fish up by hand and placed them in the water tanks. The trucks were then driven upstream to a point where water flow was sufficient. The fish were then released on the assumption that they would be able to swim the rest of the way on their own. Nick retired from business in 1931, and his sons Nick, Jr., and Victor took over responsibility for operation of the grocery store. He died in 1937. by Richard Hoye 14
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