CORRESPONDENCE_75B - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

unfortunately bore no descendants? Oh wait, there is one - -the Sexlinger name is on an interior wall at the office of Concordia University's president. Not the whole wall, mind you. It shares the wall, along with the names of other major donors. I want to think that this is simply an oversight for a busy religious institution, but that institution has been spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to deny that there is any historic value to the Sexlinger's homestead. Now that, is an odd token of gratitude. Historically speaking, I want to know more about Martha and Esther Sexlinger, as well as their parents, Georg and Sophia. I want to know why, for almost one hundred years, they gave of themselves to that five -acre orchard. I want to know how Georg's work at Con Edison and his investment prowess contributed to their classic, American rags to riches story. I want to know why Martha and Esther, long after they became millionaires, continued to live in a humble clapboard cottage, donating oranges to the needy, and watering their trees by hand. I want to know how their parents, who suffered the loss of a son while they were young, taught their two girls to defend the family homestead against all outsiders, including the City of Santa Ana's mid - century attempt to impose eminent domain and develop the property_ I want to see the vintage photos of this brave and hard- working family, and learn how their history is intertwined with Santa Ana's. I want to be reminded that Orange County grew and prospered because of the integrity and faith of people like the Sexlingers. I want to know how Martha and Esther, working outdoors well into their nineties, kept their trees so healthy that abundant crops of oranges continue to fall from their branches, despite no irrigation for seven years! The institutional benefactor of the Sexlinger estate hasn't cared about these "trivial" matters_ Though it had every opportunity, it didn't preserve the history of the Sexlingers, and it doesn't have the photos, diaries, agricultural records, or other archival treasures that would celebrate their lives_ As the sole benefactor, it had total control over the historical account of the Sexlingers, and it didn't even take the time to pass along the family photos to a museum or genealogy database. Contrast this lack of respect with how family photos, washed ashore from the tsunami in Fukushima, Japan, are being lovingly preserved. Now you can contrast the character of the corporation that is objecting to the historic designation of the property, with the hundreds of people who support it. I walk and drive past that orchard everyday, and I've grown to care about people I've never met_ I will cry the day the farmhouse and orchard are gone because the site is a monument to what an ordinary family can do when its members work hard and persevere. On the day 1 hear the sound of earth movers breaking through the walls of the Sexlinger home, taking away the history of my neighborhood, I will grieve_ don't know what Martha Sexlinger's final wishes were. Her trust does not appear to be part of the public record in Orange County. I have heard from her neighbors that she loved the orchard. In contrast, I have heard from the aforementioned, rather biased parties that her dying wish was to see the orchard plowed under. However, if that is 2