Aptos resident has firsthand view of local history

By Candace Atkins, Staff Writer. Watsonville Register-Pajaronian July 30, 1985, page 6

In 1918 Ralph Mattison and his bride built a little house in Aptos. They planned to live there temporarily. Fifty-seven years later in 1975, they decided maybe they’d just stay.

Mattison, a third generation resident of Santa Cruz County, has a unique perspective on this area. Not only has he spent a lifetime here, he has also has multiple careers to his credit – careers in food production, firefighting and business.

Mattison has seen Watsonville under water during winter storms in the early 1900s. He watched the first motor car chug its way from Watsonville to Aptos. His grandfather built the first sidewalks on Main Street in Watsonville.

Mattison has seen lynch mobs, corrupt government officials and a sheriff who "looked the other way and handed over the keys to the Jail one night."

He watched the cement ship being towed to its resting spot off New Brighton Beach. and In the mid-1940s he witnessed the uprooting of the Aptos Hotel from its original spot on the corner of Soquel Drive and Trout Gulch Road to Its present location several yards away. At that time. the building was about 75 years old.

Sitting in an easy chair in his living room, Mattison pointed to the hearth. "See that marble fireplace top?" he asked. "That's from the old Aptos (now the Bayview) Hotel."

Mattison bought a, wing of ,the, hotel after It was damaged in the 1920s, by fire. He wanted the salvageable wood but when he saw I the marble, be thought It might look 1 - nice in his home, located on the hill above the hotels

He was one of the group who fought the fire and saved the main hotel building from damage.

"The hotel caught fire one afternoon about two o'clock," he said. "We didn't have anything to fight fire with -- only buckets, But we managed to save the old hotel. Watsonville (firefighters) came to help later, but we had it pretty much under control by that time."

Mattison said the hotel fire and the increasing number of brush fires In, the area convinced local residents they needed a fire department.

With contributions from businesses and families, they formed a volunteer fire department and bought equipment from American Standard La France.

“We had a 300-gallon fire engine built. Something you could jump in and get there quick,” he said

19... - oh jeez I can't remember. Anyway, I served as chief and also as State fire warden and deputy State fire marshal for Santa Cruz County."

Until the last few decades firefighting was only a sideline with the men who served in either volunteer or paid positions.

For Mattison, It was just one of the things he did to make a living. He had trained to be a mechanic during his teens but soon changed his Mind and decided as a young man to follow his father's work as an apple dryer.

"In 1918, my dad died of the flu. I was just a kid (22) and I had to go to the bank and borrow money for the business. Here's this kid asking for $100,000. I paid it off too," he said.

Mattison had experimented with making vinegar from the apples his father used for drying, and later formed a vinegar works above the present Aptos Village Fair Antiques near the post office.

I'd started monkeying with the vinegar business in 1916. I was producing 350,000 gallons a year (after the plant was in operation). I sold it through Jones Brothers in Watsonville," he said.

H. J. Heinz visited Mattison's vinegar plant before opening one of his own. Mattison said he didn't see Heinz as competition; he felt there were enough customers for everyone.

In addition to apple drying and vinegar making, Mattison also ran a mushroom growing business. And if that wasn't enough, in the late 1920s he opened a local bank with another man.

"We called it Citizens Commercial Savings Bank. It was in Soquel. It stayed alive during the depression, but it was tough. Eventually we sold it to County Bank."

Mattison was quick to give his wife Hazel equal credit f or the success of all his business ventures. "She was just as responsible and just as valuable to our life's success as I was,", he said. "Maybe more."

Mattison said one day they decided they were working too hard. They had no children and enough money to live , comfortably, through retirement.,

"So, I sold off the businesses for about half what they were worth. I kind of gave them away," said Mattison. "I sold the vinegar and the dryer. I closed the mushroom plant and we sold the bank."

For a while. Mattison became a private lender, but he said he got tired of that too.

Hazel died five years ago, just six weeks before their 62nd wedding anniversary.

"We enjoyed life together. I can say that,” said Mattison. “I wish I had her now. There's no family left except me. I’m the last Mattison.”

Mattison, 88, fills his days by taking care of his animals and his home of 67 years.

“I’ve kept every kind of animal through the years, except a deer, coon or a monkey. I had a very nice parrot, but a monkey? Uh-uh,” he said. “I have fish, birds, a turtle (who escapes his pen at every opportunity) and a rabbit, What I keep ‘em for is because I’m an odd old man, I guess.”