The Model Colony

The Chaffey brothers George (1848-1932) and William (1856-1926) were engineers and entrepreneurs born in Brockville, Ontario, Canada. They followed their father to California in the late 1870s and in 1881 bought the land and water rights for the region that would become the cities of Ontario and Upland. They built the irrigation system that transformed the desert into fertile land, built city infrastructure including schools and Euclid Avenue, subdivided the land and attracted investors and residents.

They termed their new settlement “The Model Colony”, expressing their vision for a town with an ideal balance between agricultural interests and city comforts. They chose the name Ontario in honor of their homeland.

By 1886, the brothers had moved on to Australia where they built similar irrigation projects. Their efforts there ran into some legal and financial troubles requiring intervention of the government. William stayed to oversee the project’s eventual success, but by 1897 George had returned to California, where he would remain. With his son Andrew Chaffey (born 1874), George founded the American Savings Bank. Our grandfather Joe, although 18 years younger, knew Andrew well and his name comes up in many of Joe’s stories.

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Second great grandfather Burton Tuttle (1842-1911) was born in New York state, his farmer parents having left New Haven after multiple generations living there. Burton moved on to Illinois where he met second great grandmother Jane Thompson (1843-1911). They were married in Illinois in 1862 and their only child, our great grandmother Mabel Tuttle, was born there in 1866. By 1870 the United States Census shows the family of three living in Mankato, probably drawn there by the same migratory forces and rivers that brought the Swan family there a few years earlier from Ohio. The 1870 Census lists Burton as a hardware retailer.

Burton and Jane Tuttle came to Ontario from Mankato Minnesota sometime between 1892, when they still appear in the Mankato directory, and 1894, when they appear in the San Bernardino voter listings as Ontario residents.

Interestingly, grandma Margaret was born in 1895 in Mankato. a year or two after her grandparents had already moved to Ontario. So when, as the story goes, Henry Swan and Mabel Tuttle decided to move to California for the health of their young daughter, they simply followed Mabel’s parents there.

There was a steady migratory flow from Minnesota to California during these years. They kept in communication with each other and with family and friends who stayed behind. An 1896 Los Angeles Times article, reprinted a week later in Saint Paul, gives a list of prominent Minnesotans who had settled in Southern California.

Burton and Jane Tuttle thrived in Ontario. Burton became an orange grower but also established a thriving real estate business, both occupations at the epicenter of life in the Model Colony.

This living tribute to Burton must have been published around 1905, although the date and source are unknown.

When George Chaffey returned to Ontario from Australia, the two became friends and business associates (Burton six years older than George.)

By the time daughter Maybe Tuttle Swan and son-in-law Henry Swan settled in Ontario for the second and last time in 1902, the Tuttle family were already leading citizens of Ontario, and Henry, a successful banker in his own right, fit right in.

Burton and Jane Tuttle died in October 1911, two weeks apart. Burton died at the Chaffey Cottage in Balboa on the coast south of Los Angeles.

Jane and Burton are buried in the family plot at Bellvue Cemetery in Ontario.