Elisha William Palmer (1878-1958) was born in Indiana and moved to Southern California around 1897. He married Garnet Belle Adams (1886-1974) in Fullerton, California on June 21, 1904. They had three children, Chester Arthur Palmer (1905-1990), Kermit William Palmer (1907-1938), and Clarence Ivan Palmer (1910-1990). The 1910 census reported Elisha’s profession as “Oil Driller,” and by 1911 Elisha began to purchase property. First, in the Central Valley of California where he received a land patent for his Visalia property signed by President Woodrow Wilson in 1918. Palmer bought more property, this time the Coyote Hills area of Orange County around 1914 and began to lease it for oil drilling. He continued to receive revenue from Standard Oil of California for the oil drilled on his property through the late 1950s. Elisha Palmer took up farming around 1916 and began to grow walnuts in Placentia with some success. The 1920 census report listed Palmer’s profession as “Citrus Grower” with a listed crop, however, as Walnuts. A few years later (around 1923 or so) he began to grow oranges in Placentia with much greater success and continued to grow oranges with the help of his sons Chester and Clarence until his death in 1958. Clarence Palmer’s wife, Betty donated the family’s papers to the university in 1993.