A Baxter Bros. Harvester pulled by mules in Le Grand.
An old grain elevator in Le Grand.
The Le Grand train station. Though not in use, the structure still stands today.
A historic view of the Santa Fe Railroad and Front Street in old town Le Grand.
The old Methodist Church in Le Grand.
The Commercial Hotel in Le Grand back in 1908.
Le Grand is an active little town in the southeastern part of Merced County, near Planada and Plainsburg. This unincorporated town in 2022 had a population of about 1,700 people.
Le Grand came into existence when the Santa Fe Railroad came through in 1894-1896. Up until that time just a very few homes were in the area. The surrounding countryside, at that time, was grain farming and livestock raising. It seemed like between Le Grand and Merced was one big grain field, mostly barley. All of the shopping was done in Plainsburg or Merced.
A gentleman named Fred Yokum came to the Le Grand area in 1886 and purchased some land from Louella and Wiliam Le Grand Dickinson. This land would cover the later townsite. Le Grand started to develop around 1896 when the Santa Fe Railroad bypassed Plainsburg and built through Le Grand. Yokum, with the help of the county surveyor, had laid out the town and made a plat of town plans with streets paralleling the railroad.
Mrs. Dickinson also had another town plan recorded for some of her land, a little south of Yokum’s area. She was a strong prohibitionist and if you owned one of her lots the deed stated that no alcohol was to be sold or the deeds would revert back to her. Since much of the new development was done by the saloon keepers they tended to stay away from building on the Dickinson land. Mrs. Dickinson soon raised the restriction and allowed alcohol to be sold on her properties. Then the saloons and later the hotels and stores moved onto her more favorable properties facing the depot.
The town was originally called Idlewilde, later changed to Le Grand in honor of William Le Grand Dickinson. Originally Le Grand had no post office and the mail was brought by carrier from Plainsburg. Before that, mail came to a post office at Gwin, later named Union, which was located in a house on a ranch east of Le Grand. In the 1860s there were only three post offices located in Merced County, one of which was Gwin.
As Le Grand developed many stores and houses were moved to Le Grand from Plainsburg. Including the Methodist Church in Le Grand, with it’s beautiful stained glass windows, was moved there in 1910 and with some remodeling is still being used today.
In the later 1900s, Le Grand was becoming a thriving little community. A new grammar school and high school were built, a post office, hotels, boarding houses, restaurants, livery stable, blacksmith, grocery, drug store, newspaper, library, bank and a little theatre were all soon be part of the town. A modern railroad depot and freight shed along with cattle pens and loading chutes were constructed because the area had become the county’s foremost livestock shipping center. Later a grain elevator was constructed for the large grain production in the area. With no irrigation it was all dry farming depending on the winter rains to produce a crop. The grain harvesting was very labor intensive and mules were widely used in the harvest, mowing and raking. After cutting it all had to be hand loaded and moved to the barn. The combine harvester didn’t come in until the later 1900s and because of their size it took 20-30 mules to pull. With the establishment of an irrigation district it created a more diversified agriculture with alfalfa, corn, tomatoes, grapes, almonds and other row crops all being grown in the area.
Many of the old farms also had beef and hogs mainly for their own food supply. If there were any additional animals to sell they would be driven by foot to the railroad stockyards for sale. Most of the homes had a few milk cows to supply themselves with butter, milk and cottage cheese. With no electricity they had to use a water cooler to keep things a little bit cool, including vegetables and eggs. Water was supplied by a windmill and if there was a period of time with no wind you had to pump by hand. Water was needed for the animals and for the weekly baths. Lights were kerosene and candles, electricity didn’t arrive to the area until 1909. In Bruce Burchell’s history of Le Grand he also states that the boys went to school barefooted but had to wear shoes to church on Sunday.
In the early 1900s, as in a lot of old towns, fires destroyed many of the old buildings that happened in Le Grand also. Many of the businesses were destroyed along Front Street or Broadway. New construction of a hotel, restaurant, bakery, butcher shop, pool hall, barber shop (haircuts were 25 cents), drug store, general store, real estate office, post office and a bank were all inside a new huge building built by Merced druggist N.L.A. Cody. There was also a dental and doctors office and a roller skating rink was built in 1913.
The Le Grand bank was sold to the Merced First National Bank and the Merced Branch library moved into the old bank building, it was also used for a justice court. In the late 1920s a new modern high school was built and in 1935 a gymnasium and auditorium which also served as a community meeting place. A new American Legion Building was constructed and is still being used today with some updates and additions.
At that time the town’s triangular park was being prepared for planting and it is still an active place for community events today. They have an excellent deep pit BBQ every Memorial Day weekend and many other community events. The Catholic Church was moved from Front Street to its present location on Le Grand Road. It has been enlarged and renovated over the years. Le Grand is also home to an elementary school and a high school that includes students from the Planada and Plainsburg Districts.
Over the years, familiar landmarks have been destroyed by fire and neglect. Grain farming has given way to orchards, alfalfa, and many acres of row crops. Le Grand is still known for having some of the best and most diversified agriculture in the country.
Le Grand is also a proud little community with many outstanding and industrious long-time families and community members that are always willing to do what is needed to benefit the town.
Jim Cunningham and Flip Hassett are both retired, but they remain active in Merced County as community advocates, local history buffs and photographers.