first american traces its roots to 1889, when orange county, california—a rural, undeveloped area at the time—split off from the county of los angeles. two firms opened to handle title matters in the brand-new county. five years later, charles edward parker (c.e. parker), a local businessman, succeeded in merging the two competitors into a single entity—orange county title company. c.e. parker became the president of orange county title, which, starting in 1909, would pay a cash dividend every year for the rest of the century and would become one of the first abstract companies in california to qualify to issue title insurance policies.