A LOOK BACK:

Over the years I have been asked about my favorites among the more than 600 stories, and I have to admit this one about an unselfish individual for some reason puts a lump in my throat as it reflects the true spirit of the people of Huntington Beach.

There are no monuments, plaques or statues to mark this man’s unselfish deeds.

This man’s name was Thomas Bishop Watson, and you might call him a man of the world because he wasn’t born in a country, but on the open seas in 1845.

His parents were coming to America from their native home in Bohemia (Czech Republic).

As Watson grew up he would seek work as a landscape gardener and as a fisherman.

Later in life he became a beachcomber along our shore.

In 1908, Watson, at 63, arrived in our town. Without money, he looked south toward the mouth of the Santa Ana River and said he would build his “castle of content” just 500 feet inland. This was nestled beside a sand dune amid wild cane and a sea of driftwood.

He laid out his castle grounds and claimed it through squatter’s rights. His property was 40 feet by 60 feet. It laid in a depression and was hidden from view.

By collecting lumber that washed ashore and by gathering wild cane that grew nearby, Watson constructed his stockade.

Around his stockade were thick walls to keep out the flood water, and there was a strong gate, but this gate rarely kept out visitors. Along the outside of his stockade were fishing poles.

Once inside, visitors saw three small huts, or doll cabins as he called them, along with neatly cut fruit trees, flower and vegetable gardens, and trimmed shrubs. Watson brought the soil for the gardens in a basket that he laboriously carried on his back from the inland.

In the cabins, Watson had built a fireplace, a cupboard, a built-in bed, and each was spotlessly clean.

Near his cabin he had a wooden keg that had once been part of an ice cream freezer that was transformed into his water jar. Above this he kept a cup for anyone needing a drink.

His neighbors saw Watson as a kind and gentle man, standing some 5 feet, 8 inches tall with gray hair and beard. Although an old man, he had the spring in his step of a young man.

His neighbors knew of his “castle of content” and would always speak highly of him.

Watson was a devoutly religious man and his Bible would always be found in a prominent place in his cabin.

In 1922, he met a Frenchman from Corsica named Mihaels and invited him to live in one of his cabins. The two would spend many evenings discussing their philosophies. A year later a third man named Henri Marki, from Switzerland, joined them. These three old men worked to earn a few dollars in the lima bean fields. In the summer they would head north in search of work and would leave the castle gate open for anyone needing a place to stay.

Watson would leave money and provisions on his table for any guest. He believed all men were his brothers and were welcome to stay as long as they needed.

In the nearly 20 years Watson lived here, nothing was stolen from his cabins when he was away. Sometimes when he returned home he found more money on the table than when he left. How many of you would leave your front door open for strangers while you were away?

Maybe Watson’s furnishings may not have cost as much as yours, but to him they were just as precious. And in the years he lived here, no man ever went hungry or had no place to sleep.

He ate fish, herbs and wild mushrooms, but he did not touch whiskey, for he believed if God had meant us to have whiskey he would have made it in rivers and lakes.

May the memory and spirit of Thomas Bishop Watson, the “Hospitable Hermit of Huntington Beach,” his deeds and his unselfish giving to his fellow man remain a living treasure of our city, forever and ever.

JERRY PERSON is the city’s historian and a longtime Huntington Beach resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box 7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.