Riding Herd on the Chapman Ranch Could Have Its Eerie Moments for a Believer in Ghosts

“There are no ghosts here,” emphasized Catherine A. Ponce, 50, caretaker of the three-acre El Dorado Ranch, home of the late wealthy Fullerton rancher and land investor C. Stanley Chapman and wife, Alice. “It’s just that funny things have happened.”

For instance, earlier this year a tree Chapman disliked “broke right to the ground. It fell on his birth date (Jan. 7),” said Ponce, a licensed vocational nurse who cared for the Chapman couple during their twilight years. Alice Chapman died five years ago, and her husband died two years ago. The Chapman family then asked Ponce to care for the home.

And the previous year, a piece of bark from the 105-year-old pepper tree fell and brushed the shoulder of Chapman’s son, C. Stanley Jr., as he and Ponce were walking the richly planted grounds.

“We both laughed at it, but it gives you a funny feeling,” she said, “since it, too, happened on his birthday. It was his father’s favorite tree.”

Ponce also tells the story of trying to locate old pictures of the Chapman family, and no one, including other family members could locate them. “We all searched the house through and through but couldn’t find them,” she said.

“One day someone opened a closet we had completely searched, and there they were.”

It has only been recently that the 6,000-square-foot, two-story house, with 5 bedrooms and 6 1/2 baths, has been opened to the public. The North Orange County YWCA recently held part of its home and garden tour there, although various charitable organizations have held fund-raising luncheons at the ranch in the past.

Ponce said that Chapman College, named for the family which supported it in its early days, is starting to use it more, “and until we figure out what to do, we’re allowing charitable groups to use it. We’re going to see if the college can come up with a plan for the estate to be self-supporting.”

And Ponce feels that she has to come up with a plan for herself. “I’ve always liked being around people,” she said, noting that most of her conversations these days are with two full-time gardeners and her cat, Dusty. “I need to be needed,” she said, reflecting on her past role as a nurse for the Chapmans.

“I never had a chance to readjust to this kind of life,” she said, but then she noted its advantages, pointing to the expansive green surroundings. “I never had a yard to play in before,” a reflection of her apartment living. Whatever the plan, said Ponce, who lives in a one-bedroom apartment on the estate, those who use the property most likely will have company.

“I just feel they (the Chapmans) are still here,” she said.

Jack Hill, 54, wanted to surprise his wife, Sharon, 35, on their 10th wedding anniversary, so he bought her a handcrafted Wurlitzer piano at the Orange County Swap Meet for a bargain price of about $4,000.

Her surprise to him was that he’d have to buy a new house for the piano.

“The only room it would fit in made everything cramped,” said Sharon, who has started piano lessons, a dream since childhood. The Hills, who live in the Garden Grove Meadow Brooks Village condominium complex, bought a bigger unit there.

Now the piano sits in their sunken living room. “I’m thrilled with it,” she said. Uh, so is Jack.

Earthquakes tend to put people in motion and one destination for a lot of them, reports Harry Huggins, 37, of the Orange County Red Cross, “was to sign up for our earthquake preparedness classes, something we’ve been urging for years.”

For example, he said, the Laguna Niguel Red Cross office received a jolt of its own when 50 people showed up for its weekly preparedness class following

the first two temblors that rocked Orange County. Normally, less than 10 attend. And 59 showed up at the headquarters office in Santa Ana.

“There’s a misconception that if an earthquake happens, it happens,” he said. “People can do something like getting the family together for a plan in case of earthquake, fire or flood. Frankly, it’s a joy to see that the work we have been preparing for is starting to take hold.”

Acknowledgments--The artwork of Eader Elementary School fourth-grader Judy Tsai of Huntington Beach won first place and a $50 savings bond in Huntington Center’s children’s art contest titled “Why School is Fun For Me.” There were 68 entries.