Rosedale began on swindler scheme
by Kathy Freeman 
Staff Writer

Bakersfield Californian October 20, 1978

  Rosedale was thne promised land for
many of the German mennonite families
that moved there in 1909.

  For a cash deposit, they were given
deeds outlining the sections of land each
family would own when they arrived in
Kern County.

  With the guarantee of good farmland
and easy payments, about 50 families sold
their acreage in Oklahoma and Kansas and
took the long train ride to Rosedale,
bringing everything they owned in the world.

  It wasn't long after the Germans arrived in
Kern County that they discovered they had been
taken.

  "They were thunderstruck," said Selma Bartell,
longtime Rosedale resident as she related the 
history of the area.  "Many of them lost 
everything they had."

  Mrs. Bartell is the daughter of D.J. Classen, 
one of the German Mennonites swindled in the deal.
The president of the Rosedale Highway Business 
Association, she kept the original Mennonite Land
Co. grant deed and real estate sale which was given
to the promoter from Hillsboro, Kan.

  The papers looked legal enough to be entered in
Kern County records.  The documents show Classen 
bought an 80-acre stretch on what is now Zerker Road.  
For $10,000.00 he would own the land and the water 
rights to a well Martens was supposed to build.

  Unfortuneately, the deal didnt work out that way.  
Classen and the other families eventually found out
the acreage was owned by the McWilliams Land Co. of 
Illinois.

  "At first they settled near Cawels and called the
township Martensdale after Henry Martens.  At the same
time they didn't realize they didn't own the land.  
Now there's no record Martensdale existed."


  Mrs. Bartell said she didn't know how much money her 
father lost in the deal.


  "Martens disappeared in 1910," she said.  "Some thought 
he had gone to Old Mexico.  Some thought he changed his 
name.  No one was able to locate him."


  Classen and other immigrants arranged with the Kern 
County Land Co., which later became Tenneco, to lease and 
sharecrop land.

  Her father eventually saved enough to buy 160 acres.

  It was easy to understand why the immigrants liked the
area enough to stay.  Mrs. Bartell said a group of 
English noblemen had built beautiful homes several years
earlier after the land company publicized the availablity 
of acreage in the Rosedale area.

  "Many wealthy parents sent their children here from England
to establish themselves," she said.  "They built long drives 
in front of their homes and planted pleanders, roses, and 
palm trees.  But since most of them didn't know how to work, 
they sold their property and went elsewhere."

  When the Classens arrived in 1909, the Rosedale subdivision 
was established.  The post office was in Amos Weller's store 
and the Rosedale and Fruitvale schools were operating, along 
with the Episcopalian and Congregational churches.

  "The Mennonite Brethren Church was established several years 
later," she said.

  Classen, a teacher, taught German to the children after school 
in the Mennonite Church.

  Katherine Brewer said this practice of "bilingual" education 
continued when she taught at Rosedale in 1927.

  "They spoke English at school and learned German after school 
in the church, so they grew up learning two languages," she said.

  Mrs. Bartell said the area remained exclusively agricultural 
for many years, with changes in crops.

  But increased farming and water costs resulted in residents 
selling their land to subdivisions more than 10 years agao.  That 
and the new businesses which began there several years later 
caused problems in the area's development.

  "The Rosedale Highway Business Association believes most people 
out here want orderly development and a general plan for the area, 
but we don't want all progress stopped while the county is putting 
this together," she said.

  Supervisor Trice harvey, whose Fourth District includes Rosedale, 
said those residents opposed to growth in the community fear the 
overcrowding of schools and businesses.

  "I really think most people out there want good planned growth for
the community," the former Rosedale resident said.  "The majority of
the area hasn't developed in a leapfrog manner."

  Harvey said the county's Rosedale plan will have to comply with 
state law in trying to control the growth problems the community faces.

  "We're tring to put out fires," he said.  "We've got a growth problem
in all of Kern County, and when we get a little brush fire in Rosedale 
we try to put it out.  We've done the same things in other areas.

  "Until we come up with a consistant general plan for the entire 
county, we will have problems like this."

  The county's plan for Rosedale won't please everyone.

  "We're going to have to find out what we can do within the law that 
will make the most people happy," he said.