When we last looked in on William C. Bernard and Thomas R. Bard, Bard had two big reasons for feuding with Bernard.
First, Bernard, tapped as postmaster in 1869, had deigned to name the settlement “Wynema,” after his Wynema Lighter Company. But that’s not all. By the summer of 1870, the lighters or rafts owned by Barnard, Charles H. Bailey, Christopher Christensen, and Daniel Dempsey had effectively floated in a load of lumber from a schooner anchored beyond the surf as well as floating out a load of grain to the steamship Kalorama at sea. Bard naturally viewed the Wynema Lighter Company’s success with alarm and fast-tracked plans for his own Hueneme Wharf and Lighter Company.
But Bard’s animosity toward Barnard also focused on the Pioneer Store owned by Barnard, H.P. Flint, and G.S. Gilbert. All coowners of the Wynema Lighter Company and the Pioneer Store had formed an organization called “the Settlers League.”
Unfortunately for them, though, both thriving enterprises were operating on land owned by Pennsylvania oil baron Thomas A. Scott—Bard’s boss. In Bard’s eyes, you see, Barnard and his buddies were merely “squatters,” and as Bard unceremoniously informed them, he’d see them in court. The Settlers…
