History of Bear Valley

Visalia Weekly Delta
July 1, 1875

Tehichipa - June 25, 1875
Editorial Correspondence

Bear Valley is about three miles long by one
and a half wide. It was so named from its
being the favorite resort of grizzlies a few
years ago. They bothered stock a good deal.
Night was rendered hideous by the squeal of
captured hogs and the low of unfortunate
cattle that fell into the clutches of these un-
ceremonious customers.

Deer are still plentiful in the mountains
around, but the bear are comparatively
scarce. Wild-cats and such game are still
found. The valley is all under fence and the
absence of lanes accounts for the necessity
of gates. It is said to be the valley of gates
and pretty girls.

 The Fickerts Find Their "Garden of Eden"

Excerpted from "The Fickert's of Bear Valley" by Eleanor Englestad
available at the Bear Valley Springs Country Store (661-821-3102), across from the real estate office in Bear Valley Springs, or from Dawn's Enchanting Bookstore on Valley Boulevard in Old Town (661-822-7585).

Frederick William Fickert probably never expected to become a California cattle baron. He was born August 27, 1830, in Prussia of German parents. A restless and ambitious Fred Fickert left home at the age of fifteen and went to sea. Five years later, in 1850, after a voyage from Hamburg as provision master on a merchant ship, he arrived in New York. Within a month he was aboard a ship to San Francisco by way of Cape Horn. The young man had decided to leave seafaring life and seek his fortune in the mining regions of California. He spent most of the next nineteen years pursuing the ever elusive promise of riches which beckoned from the gold fields of Sierra, Butte, Yuba, Inyo, and upper Kern counties.

Mary Glynn Fickert was born in Barney's Slough, Ireland, on March 27, 1839, the daughter of Thomas Glynn and Mary Toohey Glynn. One of six sisters who emigrated to the United States, she arrived in New York in 1859 accompanied by her brother-in-law, Charles Boland. From New York she traveled by sea and land across the Isthmus of Panama to San Francisco. There is no record of Mary's life in California in the year or two after her arrival, or any record of when and where she met her future husband, but on December 19, 1861, Mary and Fred were married in San Francisco.

Marriage evidently didn't dim Fred's dream of the wealth to be found in mining. That he was a persistent hard-working man is confirmed by the many years he spent struggling as a miner. An 1891 biography....relates that he discovered the "world renowned" Sierra Gorda mine in 1863 and formed a mining district. The biography stated that Fickert abandoned the Sierra Gorda because he feared for the safety of his family. In the 1860s it took courage to follow your husband to a desolate mining camp, but Mary was also practical, and she persuaded Fred to move to the safer slopes of Kernville.

After a short stay in Kernville Fred moved the family to Havilah where he once again engaged in mining, and, in addition, took on the operation of a livery stable. Unforturately the livery stable burned down in 1868 and again in 1869. Since Fickert's mining ventures in Kernville and Havilah had only been moderately successful, after the second loss of the livery stable he decided that ranching might be more profitable and began looking for suitable land.

Traveling over the mountains and into the Tehachapis Fred found Bear Valley and was impressed by its beauty, fertile soil, and excellent grazing land. He had found his "Garden of Eden" as he later called it. The first Fickert land in Bear Valley was purchased from James Williams, Esq. in 1869. It was a squatter's right to 160 acres.

The 1981 biography concludes with this charming account, very likely written by one of the Fickerts since families furnished the information and paid to have their biographies published:

The Fickert home is known by all to be a place where the friend and also the stranger is always hospitably received and entertained. When generations have passed from the scenes of active life and this beautiful valley shall have advanced to the dignity of a princely paradise, the name of this pioneer family will still stand boldly out on the pages of local history as the founder of the settlement, growth, and prosperity of lovely Bear Valley - one of the most charming of the many beautiful mountain nooks of Central California. 

TERRI JUERGENS, BROKER-ASSOCIATE

DIRECT: 661-303-6868 ~ OFFICE: 661-822-4433 Ext 227~
Bear Valley Country Real Estate, 107 E Tehachapi Blvd., Tehachapi, CA 93561