Fallbrook Remembers: The Martin Family Tragedy

FALLBROOK – Fallbrook’s founder Vital Reche had a daughter in 1858 named Amelia Helene Reche. Amelia married Joseph George “J.G.” Martin, who lived next door. J.G. immigrated to the United States from Ireland and was a farmer and schoolteacher. The couple lived in Fallbrook with their six children.

Decades later, March 7, 1915, Amelia Reche Martin prepared an ordinary but fateful Sunday dinner of bacon, potatoes, beans, bread, butter and home-canned apricots for dessert. When she opened the jar, she noticed a substance had formed on top of the apricots. She threw that portion to the chickens....