Martha Stoebe - Biography
Martha Stoebe was born to the Gaines family in Pasadena in 1915. She attended Polytechnic Elementary School, South Pasadena High School, and then Pomona College, where she met her husband, Wallace Stoebe. She graduated in 1936, Wallace in 34. They married and moved to Alta Loma to purchase a 10 acre citrus ranch. They lived in a Sears catalogue house that had been built at a prior location and then moved to Beryl and 19th Street.
Her husband's family, the Stoebes, had a long legacy in Alta Loma. Her relatives brought the rocks to help build the Methodist Church. His uncle and father came to Alta Loma in 1914. They were friends of the Ledig's and attended their annual Christmas Party. Her husband tried to work odd job and farm. These jobs included delivering groceries for his sister's Billings Market in Alta Loma, and delivering newspapers. He decided to go back to the Claremont Graduate School to initially get an elementary teaching certificate, and then an administrative credential.
They had 2 sons and one daughter.
She remembers The Big Freeze of 1937 and all the smudging, which occurred a few months after they were married. Trash-can smudging was outlawed after that freeze. The Alta Loma citrus industry changed after than, and people were no longer able to make a living from only 10 acres. Everyone had to hold down outside jobs. They needed more money, so Martha began taking teaching classes while her husband taught education classes at the University of Redlands. He later became a principal of several elementary schools in the area.
She took her first elementary school teaching job in Rialto. She initially did not like to teach, but later came to love it, after putting in 24 years. Her true love was writing and history. She wrote: The History of Alta Loma and The History of the Methodist Church. People began selling their ranches in the 1950s. After they sold their citrus acres in 1957, they moved to San Bernadino and only returned to Alta Loma for births, deaths, and weddings.
Her husband loved to dance, so that was their main form of recreation. She enjoyed tennis and taught it at the schools as well. She also played organ.
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