Full text of "William Durbrow, irrigation leader : transcript, 1957 July and October"

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THE LIBRARY

THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA

University of California General Library/Berkeley
Regional Cultural History Project

William Durbrow

WILLIAM DURBROW, IRRIGATION DISTRICT LEADER

An Interview Conducted By
Willa Klug Baum

Berkeley
1958

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^WILLIAM DURBROW,
IRRIGATION DISTRICT LEADERj

WILLIAM DTJRBROW,

All uses of thia manuscript are covered by en
agreement between the Regents of the University of
California and William Durbrow, dated January 2l|,
1953* The manuscript ia thereby made available for
research purposes. All literary righta in the manu
script, including the right to publish, are reserved
to the General Library of the University of Califor
nia at Berkeley* No part of the manuscript may be
quoted for publication without the written perraia-
aion of the Librarian of the University of California
at Berkeley.

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IHTRODUCflOH

California's land is fertile* the climate ideal for
agriculture, but for most crops in most areas seasonal
irrigation la a requirement. Irrigation on the scale neces
sary, often bringing water from great distances, requires
expensive works of a type beyond the means of private irri-
gstors. So California's farmers have banded together to
form public districts for the purpose of building, financ
ing, and administering irrigation works for the benefit of
the Included territory* The organization, operation, and
complications of these irrigation districts and other
water-use districts are of interest to all those con
cerned with any sort of local cooperation for publio pur
poses.

In order to preserve some of the details of water-use
districts, severel interviews with men intimately connected
with these districts have been conducted by the Regional
Cultural Hiatory Project of the Library of the University
of California at Berkeley. One of these men has been
William Durbrow, who was sotive in irrigation district
affairs from 1919 until his retirement in 19V?. Origi
nally trained as a mining engineer, he soon went into the

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water field aa the engineer and manager of a water and
power company. He later became a farmer, but his earlier
experience* in the distribution of water soon brought him
back into water matters, first on the organizing committee,
then as president of the Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District,
and later as manager of the Nevada Irrigation District*
Prom 1923 to 1933 he served ss president of the Irriga
tion Districts Association* Daring the depression of the
1930's, when the problem of meeting their district finaa-
cisl obligations seriously threatened the economic sur
vival of the farmers within irrigation districts as well
as the districts themselves, Mr* Durbrow spent a good deal
of his efforts on negotiating and renegotiating financial
arrangements for Nevada Irrigation District,

The following four Interviews were tape-recorded by
Villa Baura during July and October of 1957 in the home of
Mr* Durbrow 1 s daughter in Atherton, a more convenient lo
cation than his home in Grass Valley* William Durbrow,
tall, erect, a carefully-groomed, gray-haired gentleman,
was eighty years old at the time of the interviews* Be
fore the actual recording sessions he and thj interviewer,
with the assistance of his son, Robert Durbrow, executive
secretary-treasurer of the Irrigation Districts Associa
tion, planned the topics to be covered, and Mr. Durbrow

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checked on certain information in his files. He later
carefully edited the transcription into ita present form.
This series of interviews was part of a larger aerie*
undertaken by the Regional Cultural History Project, under
the direction of Dr. Corlnne Gilb, to record for posterity
eyewitneaa accounts of significant phases of California's
history during the twentieth century.

Villa K. Baum

Regional Cultural History Projeet
University of Cslifornia Library, Berkeley
June 12, 1958

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TABLE OP CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

BIOGRAPHICAL 1

Family Background 1

Childhood in San Francisco 8

Student Days at the University of California Ik

Marriage 22

A Family of Five Children 23

First Jobs A Mining Engineer 2?

Karl Krug 31

Entry into Water Engineering and Management

Oro Water t Light & Power Company 33

Ranching in Glenn County

Food Administrator for Glenn County-
World War I

Getting Water from the Sacramento Weat Side

Canal Company lj.9

Depression Years 1920* s 52

A Director of the Rice Growers Association 62

J6 J.J. $;> . ,-..,.

GLENN-COLUSA IRRIGATION DISTRICT 66

Organization 1919 66

Purchase and Construction of Facilities 67
Antioch Case 70

Sale of Bonds 72

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TABLE OP CONTENTS (cont.)

Officials and Employees of the District 73

Refinancing the District 76

Tolls and Assessments 73

Second Refinancing 80

Annexation of Williams Irrigstion District Ql\

Durbrow Leaves the District 85

RECLAMATION DISTRICT 20i-7 88

NEVADA IRRIGATION DISTRICT 92

Organization 1921 92

Purchases and Construction of District

Facilities 100

Visker's Power Development Plans Pail 106

Durbrow Becomes Manager 1929 113

Pirst Refunding 1931 116

Second Modification 1937 123

Negotiation with the R.P.C. 123

A Private Deal 127

Purchase of Scotts Plat Reservoir Lands 138

Bowman House llj.0

Land Delinquencies ,-

Third Modification 191*3

Assessment Policies 151

Officials and Employees of the Diatrict 153

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TABLE OF CONTENTS (eont.)

IRRIGATION DISTRICTS ASSOCIATION

Early Leaders of the Association

Functions of the Association 166

Methods of Raising Honey 172

Participation in State Water Problems 176

Achievements of the Association 179

COMMENTS ON IRRIGATION DISTRICTS I8fc.

Financial Problems 1930s I81j.

Delinquent Lands 190

Assessments and Tolls 195

Distribution of Water 198

Leadership 199

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BIOGRAPHICAL

Family Background

Baums First of all, I'd like to find out about your parents*

Durbrow: My parents were both born In New York City* My

father was Alfred K. Durbrow and ray mother was Clara
Pierson, and they were both from old New Yorker fami
lies. My father's family goes back in New York to my
great-great-grandfather, who was married in 1776 in
New York City. Ky father was straight English*

My father's mother died when he was a year and
a half old, so he was brought up by his grandfather.
When my father was about eight years old he went to
live with his father in Chicago for a short time*
His father had gone to Chicago and there formed the
firm of Durbrow and Hubbsrd. It was a very well-
known concern at that time and they were importers
of wheat from the middlewest country. And my father
often spoke of the frozen hogs coming in on the top
of the wheat. They operated a grsin elevator*

BsumJ Frozen hogs?

Durbrow t Oh, yes, that's the way they brought the hogs in.
There was no refrigeration in those days. They

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Durbrow: brought in the hogs frozen on top of the wheat*
Baumr Frozen from the winter. Natural freezing,
Durbrow: Natural freezing. Hubbard waa the man who later

formed the packing concern which aold out to Armour.
It waa the beginning of Armour & Company.
Baumt Vhat was his first name?

Durbrow j I don't know. I read a short history of Hubbard in
the Saturday Fvenina Post one time. It said it waa
the beginning of Armour & Company. But my grand*
father waa not in the meat part of the business; he
was in the grain business. He was there for just a
few years. It was quite a journey from New York to
Chicago at that time, circa ldi}..

Then ray grandfather, after that, in the late
or early '50's, I eouldn*t say which, became agent for
the Pacific Mail Steamship Company at Panama City.
The railroad had Just been opened. Anyway, that waa
the port of call of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company.
Later, he was transferred and became the agent of the
Pacific Kail Steamship Company at Oregon City in Ore
gon, Later he was again transferred and, became the
agent of Pacific Kail Steamship Company at Benloia,
California. At that time it looked to some that
Benecia would be the big city rather than San Fran-

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Durbrow: cisco. The ships used to land there very largely.
After that, I don't know about what time* it must
have been before l 6 because my father came in '6,
that my grandfather had gone to San Francisco, where
he became manager of Parrott & Company Bank, which
was one of the great private banks of that day. For
many years ho was the manager of the Parrott & Company
Bank.

Baumt Had he taken his family, including your father, with
him on these various jobs?

Durbrow J No. My father lived in How York until he finished

schooling, after which he had a Job for a short time
in New York. Then he came to San Francisco to be with
his father. He lived with his grandfather in New York,
but he never lived with his father except in Chicago
for a short time, after which he went back to New
York and continued to live with his grandfather, Joseph
r>urbrow.

As the agent for Parrott & Company Bank, my grand
father, Joseph Durbrow, Jr., represented the Parrott
interests. He was a director of the Spring Valley
Water Company and the San Francisco Gas Company and
various cable railroad companies in San Francisco and
he was quite a well-known man at that time in San

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Dr.rbrow: Francisco. I think that 1 a all about my grandfather
Durbrow. He died in 1688.

My mother came from the old Dutch of New York.
Her mother, my grandmother, who lived with us, used
to recite her Dutch ancestors, just for us children,
back to Aneka Jans who owned Trinity Church property
In Hew York City. We didn't keep the record, very
foolishly, so we don't know very much about the old
!>uteh ancestors, except that they came to New Amster
dam in the seventeenth century.

Then, on my mother's father's side it was Welsh
and that goes way back* They came from Wales around
1700, and one of the brothers, not my ancestor, but
his brother, was the first president of Yale Univer
sity* He was a Welshman named Abraham Pierson, and
his statue is in Yale Yard today*

My mother came to California in f 5>2. Her father,
my grandfather Pierson, came in July f l}.9 so I'm entit
led to be a member of the California Society of Pion
eers, which I am. He went back to Hew York in '$1, to
bring his family out* While there he contracted small
pox* They had already purchased their tickets to come
out to California. My grandmother, who was a strong
character, who knew her way around all right, went down

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"Durbrow: to get her money back from the tickets because of the
smallpox. They said, "No, nothing doing," They
wouldn't return the money for the tickets* So she
said, "All right, I'll bring him down and we'll go
anyway " So she got her money back, (laughter)

My grandmother really ran her family* My grand
father, Joseph D. Pierson, was kind of a dreamer* My
grandmother earned money in New York as a flag maker,
which was quite a profession in those days, making
flags of all sorts. It was a funny thing* My mother
and father went back to New York some time in the
1920 's. They found this neighborhood, which is in
lower New York, where my grandmother lived and made
flags and there was a sign, "So and So, Maker of
Flags," fifty years afterwards. New York, with sll
its growth since 1852, hadn't changed as to that
neighborhood and there was still the flag maker there*

Baums I take it your parents were married in California then.

Durbrow: Oh yes, they were married in California.

Baurat What was your father's occupation?

Ihirbrow: When he first came to California in '56 he was in the
warehouse business. Then he was an accountant, and
was sent up to North Sen Juan, up above Nevada City, in
*6?, as secretary for a water company that supplied

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Durbrow: water for hydraulic mining* I ran many of thoae

same ditches in later years. The president of the
company was Alpheua Bull, a very well-known Calif orn-
ian. He became president of this company and aent ray
father up there to straighten out the accounts and be
secretary of the Eureka Lakes and Yuba Consolidated
Water Company. Later Bull loat control of the com
pany and my father returned to San Francisco in '68,
He was only there a little over a year* After that
he became secretary of several of the Coma took mines,
the Gould and Curry mine in particular* He was secre
tary of verious mines in Nevada and California until
his death at ninety- two years of age in 1929*

Bourn: *hen he didn't actually do mining himself. He was on
the financial end of it,

Durbrow: He was the secretary in San Francisco, and as secre
tary he knew and had contact with most of the well-
known characters of the Comatock Lode, like Fair, and
Maokay and Flood. They were people that he knew quite
well.

Baum: I was wondering what your father* a interests were.
&id he like to read or,.. sports?

Durbrowi He was a great reader. As a young man he was quite a
sport too. He liked boating particularly. They had

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Durbrows a boat, an eight-oared boat, on San Francisco Bay*
And than ha alao liked hunting, I recollect a pic
ture, when I was a boy , in my room of aome well-known
men in San Francisco who were on a hunting party* Ha
waa alao a charter member of the Olympic Club of San
Francisco* There were 22 charter members and he waa
the last to die. Of course, ha sobered down whan he
married my mother* (laughter)

My mother and father were quite religious* My
father was brought up as an Episcopalian, as moat of
the English were* My grandmother on my mother* a side
was of the Dutch Reform Church in Hew York, which is
similar to the Presbyterian Church, and whan they came
to San Francisco in '2 they Joined the Presbyterian
Church, And so my mother waa a Presbyterian and my
father compromised, and he became a Presbyterian too,
(laughter) And he became rather a well-known Pres
byterian, He was treasurer of Calvery Church in San
Francisco for a long tirae. They were not fanatically
religious but brought the family up to attend church*

Baumt What was your mother's education?

DurbrowJ My mother went through primary and prararaar schools in
San Francisco and entered the San Praneiaeo High
School when it was first organised and graduated from

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Purbrow: it. That was all, aha didn't go any further than
that*

Baum: And what was your father 'a education?

Durbrovs My fathar'a education was private. He vent to pri
vate achoola in New York and Connecticut and New
Jersey. He was going to Columbia Univeralty but he
came to California inatead.

Baum! What were your mother 'a intereats?

Durbrowl Mother waa very rauoh interested in social work. She
waa preaident of Buford Kindergarten Aaaociation, one
of the early private kindergartens, which of course
no longer exists. Moat of her Intereats were of that
sort. She waa quite social, with many friends. She
waa a well-educated woman*

Baura: Could she help your father in hla accounting work?

Durbrow: No, There waa no meeting of the minds in hi a work.
Father had his work and he was quite poaitive about
that.

Childhood in San Francisco

Durbrow: I grew up in San Francisco. I waa born December

1876 in San Francisco on Washington Street between

Polk and Larkin and grew up there.

How many brothera and sisters did you have?

Baum:

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Durbrow: I had three brothers and two sisters. I'm the

youngest brother and ray Bister, Mrs, Clara D. Buckbee,
is the youngest sister. The oldest brother was
Pierson, then Charles Joseph, and then there was
Katharine and then there was Alfred, named after my
father, and then I came, and then my sister Clara*

Baumt And where did you all attend school?

Durbrowt We all attended school in San Francisco. All of us

boys went to the Clement Grammer School, which is now
no longer existing. That was on Geary Street near
Jones. I started, as did my brother Alfred, in the
Pacific Heights School in San Francisco but only
stayed there for a few years because my father didn't
like the teaching. So we went to Clement Grammer,
where my two older brothers had graduated.

Baum: How did ell you girls and boys get along together?

Durbrow: Oh, we got along all right. Of course my older bro
thers tried to lord it over us younger ones, but we
managed to make a go of it.

Baum: You say your grandmother lived with you?

Durbrow: My grandmother Pierson lived with us until she died.
She died when I was about 12 years old...

Baum: And I take it your grandfather hod died before that?

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Durbrow: No, my grandfather Pleraon lived to be 92 and he

lived up the street* He was something of e recluse.
He had a shop. He was a cabinet-maker. He made
wonderful things. But he was a recluse, and loved to
study and read. That was his life. He was well-sup
ported by my uncle who was well-to-do and my father.
My mother owned the home where he lived. T hey were
not divorced but separated. My grandfather never
came down to our house regularly until ray grandmother
died. Then each week I'd bring him down for dinner
on a Thursday night. I'd bring him down the hill on
my arm and so I learned quite a little about him.
He was quite an interesting old man, although as I
say, he was kind of a recluse. Hever much a supporter
of his family.

Bauxn: And a dreamer you say.

Durbrow: And a dreamer* Before he came Vest he joined up with
a Horace Oreeley sponsored colony in New York.

BauiaJ What did your brothers and sisters do when they grew

up?

Durbrow: Well, my oldest brother was an insure nee, men, employed
by the Aetna Insurance Company. When he retired he
was the oldest employee in San Francisco of the Aetna
Insurance Company. He retired when he was 70 and he

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Durbrowt became an insurance broker. He kept his offices, which
were supplied him by the Aetna Insurance Company, in
the Mills Building in San Francisco.

Baumt You mean after he retired at 70?

Durbrowi After he retired, yes, he still remained a broker* Ha
always went to his office.

And my brother Charles waa with Selby Smelting
and Lead Company. He went there right from high
school, as my older brother went very shortly after
high school into the insurance... and neither of them
had any other Job, just what they first went into.
My brother Charles became secretary of Selby
Smelting and Lead Company, which later became the
American Smelting and Refining Company, which company
acquired it. It's a national concern. But Selby
Smelting and Lead Company was a very well-known San
Francisco local company. One of San Francisco's pio
neer companies. They used to smelt the silver and
gold that came from the mines and turn the bullion over
to the mint.

My father was a stockholder of Selby Smelting
and Lead Company. He also represented certain mines
which sent their ore and concentrates down. He used
to go across to the Selby Smelting and Lead Company

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Durbrov: at their place near Crockett on Cerqulnez Straits to
see if shipments were properly sampled*

Baura: Is that how your brother went to work there?

Durbrow: Of course, ray father knew all of the Selby people,
which probably helped* The head of the company was
A. J. Ralston, the brother of W. C, Ralston, the
early day banker* I knew him quite well* A* J.
Ralston was very highly thought of in San Francisco*
My brother was head of the ore purchasing department
and later became secretary of the company and remained
there until he retired*

My brother Alfred was not a very good student*
He did not go to high school but became a salesman for
the Cowell Cement Company, and when he died at 72 was
employed by the Southern Pacific Hospital in San Fran
cisco, He wes a member of the Olympic Club, was a
good teller of stories, and very popular with a large
circle of friends*

Baum: And your sisters msrried, I suppose?

Durbrow: My oldest sister married W. W* Sanderson, who was st
one time one of the supervisors of San Francisco, at s
very interesting time in San Francisco's history. San
Francisco had Just gone through the terrible scandal
of the Schnitz and Huef time and a man named Taylor

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THirbrow: was made the major of San Francisco and he selected
his own board of supervisors and ray brother-in-law
was one of them.

Baton: How come your brother-in-law was selected?

Durbrow: He was a friend of Taylor's and a well-known attorney.
He was not particularly prominent, but he was very
well-known and well -liked.

Baum: Did he favor the Heteh Hetchy purchase or not?

Durbrow: Oh yes, very definitely, San Francisco had already
purchased the Spring Valley Water Company. Heteh
Hetchy was looked to as a future source of water.
^hey didn't actually purchase it, but the Taylor
board laid the foundation for its purchase and did
a lot of other forward-looking things in San Francisco,
It was a very fine board of supervisors.

My youngest sister married Spencer G. Buckbee,
who organized the firm of Shainwald, Buckbee Company,
which later became Buckbee, Thome & Co. in San Fran
cisco. A well-known real estate firm.

Baum: ^t sounds like none of your brothers went to college.

How come you decided to go?

Durbrow: Well, I went to college because I just wanted to go.
Many of my intimate friends were going to the Univer
sity of California and I wanted to go. At first my

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Durbrow: father didn't want me to go to college because he
thought thet I was going Just to have a good time,
which was probably true,., (laughter) But anyway,
my brother Charles stepped in and offered to pay part
of the expense and kind of shamed Bather into it* And
of course, my father took it over very shortly. But
anyway, that's the way I started to college*
-eumz Why did the select the University instead of..,

DurbrowJ Well, I selected the University because ray very intim-
ate friends in high school were all going to the Uni
versity. Very few were going to Stanford at that time.

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Student Days at the University of California

Bauzn: Why did you choose engineering as a profession?

Durbrow: Originally I intended to go into law when I was in

high school* Hy uncle, my mother's brother, William M.
Pierson, was a very prominent lawyer in San Francisco,
the first attorney of the P. 0. & E. Co* end the writer
of the James G. Fair will. I intended to study law
and go into his office* And then one day my father in
vited to dinner a mining man from Mono County, a very
interesting character. And he got to talking to me
about mining end the need for mining engineers and
right there, I decided I would become a mining engin
eer. I don't know why, but I did* He was an enthu-

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Durbrow: slaatle sort of man and that's the reason I became a
mining engineer*

Baum: Are you glad you became an engineer instead of an
attorney?

Durbrow* Well, that's s moot question* I don't know. But I've
had a very interesting life as an engineer* Not as s
mining engineer although I was connected for a time
with mines, particularly with gold dredging, but I
never practiced much actual mining* In a very few
years I got into water and irrigation which has been
my life work.

Baums How did you like your time at the University?

Durbrow: I enjoyed my university life very much. I have rea
lized since that it was the best and most care-free
time of my whole life.

I was a good student. I was a "B" student right
straight through. Very few "As* and no "Cs" thst I
can remember. Mathematics came very easy to me snd I
have always said I got through rather too easily.

Baum: So you didn't have to work too hard for those *B f s w *

Durbrow: Ko, I didn't have to work too herd. The only time I
came near failing was rather an interesting thing. In
my Junior year I got into quite other activities. And
when I came to take the examination for a hard course.

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Durbrow: my mid-year, which, was Analytic Mechanics, I was just
worn out from too many extra-curricular activities.
Whether I was sick I don't remember; anyway, I turned
the paper in and there was nothing on it*

Then after that I was very much worried* I passed
all my other examinations and got good marks but on
that one I just couldn't do it. And a friend of mine,
who became a great friend, Karl Krug, who was in my
class in Engineering also had failed in the examination
so he went over to find out about it* And Professor
Raymond, whom I thought a great deal of, told him,
"Krug," he said, "you better quit. You can't make it.
You haven't got the background to get through this
course." So he quit the University although he be
came a very well-known mining engineer afterwards.
But t hen Krug said, "How about Durbrow? He wasn't
feeling well that dey. n n You tell Durbrow to forget

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it. He can make it all right," he said* "Tell him to
come and I'll give him another examination." So that
was all right, and I passed easily.

Professor iieskell (Kellen Woodman Haskell) was a
mathematics teacher* Of course, we knew the teachers
personally in those days, ^hen there was Professor
Rising (Villa rd Bradley Hieing) whom I knew very well.

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Durbrowi He was a very well-known professor of chemistry.

Natter of fact, it was at Professor Rising* s house
that I proposed to my wife.

Baumi Then you knew your teachers quite well?

Durbrows Oh yes. We knew them well, and of course the Rising
girlsthere were two girls in the Rising family
they were great friends of my wife* But there was s
spirit of friendliness and community feeling in the
University at that time. It was a smaller college,
of course. Some of the classes were fairly large
like Professor LeConte 's in geology. Professor Le-
Conte had a very large class* It was merely a lecture
class. It was a wonderful course.

Be urn: Did you take that?

Durbrowi Oh yes, I took that because geology was one of my sub*
jeets. And then Professor Lawson, Andrew Laws on, was
also my teacher in geology. I thought a great deal
of him. He was a very fine teacher. He became a very
noted geologist... all over the United States in fact.
But Professor Joseph LeConte's name probably goes down
as one of the great geologists of that time.

Baums Very popular teacher too.

Durbrowi Very popular. Professor John LeConte was dead before

I went to college. Professor Joseph LeConte had a son,

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Durbrow: Joseph N. LeConte, who became professor of engineering.
And then one of the professors who gave us probably
more one of the beat courses and yet one of the
hardest courses in the University waa the eourae in
Analytic Mechanics, which was given by Professor
Frederick Slate and Professor William Raymond* The
two of them together. One gave the problems and the
other gave the theoretical..

Aa to Professor Christy, head of the mining de
partment, I don't think he was a particularly inspiring
teacher* He never struck me so*

Baum? What did you think of the library there?

Durbrow t You see, I was a mining engineering student and we
dldn f t uae the library very much*

Baum: $id you have your own engineering library in the Engin
eering Building?

Durbrow: Mining Engineering generally waa in its infancy at my
time* As to other engineering there was only one man
registered as a civil engineer in my time. I suppose
there were twenty electrical engineers and some few
mechanical engineers, and there were twenty- two of ua
mining engineers who graduated.

Baura: That was the big department of the Engineering Depart
ment. ..

Durbrow: No, I think the Electrical department waa... electri-

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Durbrowt city was coming to the front at that time in Cali
fornia.

As a mining student we had a lot of civil engi
neering, and as a matter of fact, I'm a licensed civil
engineer in the state of California today, number 69.

Baumt I was wondering if you had much practical work in

your engineering course or was it mostly theoretical?

Durbrowt My engineering course I don't think was particularly
thorough in those days. The engineering courses are
today much better in preparing a man for his profes
sion. I think the background was good, the mathemati
cal and chemical and physical studies were good. As
I say I got no enthusiasm for going into mining it
self when I took the mining course. Of course, after
all, a person educates himself largely after he gets
out of college. College gives him his basic back
ground and his later work and experience really edu
cates him. I know men in my class at college who were
not good students but became very fine engineers later,
but I think it's largely because they study and gain
experience after they get out of college, with the
background they got from college.

Baums Were the students serious about their professions?

Durbrowt Oh yes, I think that's true. In my tine nobody went

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Durbrowi to college except when he was headed for a profession
of some sort* Very few went just to get an education.

Baumi Were there many play boys there?

Durbrowt Very few. As I remember even the fellows who were

rolling in money and were sort of play boys, moat of
them had objectives* They were there to educe te them
selves aa engineers* or attorneys or something of that
aort. We had a good many in my time who "became prom
inent attorneya and there were many who became promin
ent engineers. One of my most intimate friends in
college, and in high school too, became the heed of
the San Francisco Water Department aa an engineer,
Kelson Eekart. He's still living. He's retired.
There were others who were studying the basics to be
come doctors. One of my most intimate friends was a
doctor, Henry Walter Gibbons. He became quite a
prominent doctor in San Francisoo and later Sacramento.

Baumi Well, you had to take some general education courses,
didn't you?

Durbrowi Not many.

Baums Mostly they were straight technical engineering?

Durbrow: Yes. That is one criticism I have, that we were not
given enough general education. I think I took only
one English course which was a basic English course.

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Durbrow: We didn't think much of it. Otherwise there were no
general courses*

Baumi How did you meet these fellows who were later to be

come attorneys end doctors?

: :

Durbrow! Oh, the college was small in that time; everybody knew
nearly everybody else In the class* I started in with
a class of 400 people and graduated in a class of 200*
And of course the upper classes, being smaller, I
knew most of them* And particularly members of other
fraternities, you*d know them quite well*

Baumt Were there many girls in the University then?

Durbrow: Veil, yes, there were a good many girls in the Univer
sity, not as many as boys, but there was a good sprink
ling of girls. Most of the girls were going to be
teachers*

Baum: What did you do for fun?

Durbrow: Oh, I had my extra-curricular activities* I was a

T.N.E. (Theta Hu Epsilon) which was a kind of secret
Sophomore society which wasn't known until you be
came a Junior, because you got into all kinds of
activities you shouldn't have* Then I was a Skull and
Keys. And also my fraternity was Phi Gamma Delta,
known as the "Fijis."

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Marriage

Oh, I had a good time. In my Junior year, the prin
ciple activity I got Into mostly was the Junior Day
and the Junior Farce. A very intimate friend of mine,
Harold Symmea, wrote the Junior Faroe. It was called
the "Duke of Oldenburg." I was the hero of the farce.
The girl that I married was the heroine. Of course, I
had known her for some time because I used to meet her
at the Presbyterian Church in San Francisco, but not

well. I remember very well walking up Stiles Hall

steps. I didn't know what pert I was going to take

in this play, and we were just going up to the first
rehearsal. Aa I came up to her, I turned to her and
said, "And what part have you in this farce?" She
looked at me astonished and said, "Why I'm the heroine."
And I said, "What part have I got?", and she said, "Why,
you're the hero." (laughter) And that was the first
meeting and I fell in love right there. And that was
the girl I married. It was quite a college romance*
What was your wife studying?

Baton:

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IHirbrow: My wife only went as far as the Junior class. She got

Junior standing, that's the reason why she could be-

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come a member of the American University Women. But
then in my Senior year, she was in Boston, studying to

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Durbrowt be a kindergarten teacher* And I think aha went to

Boston so aa to leave me alone and to decide what she
wanted to do. So it was quite a year of letter-writ
ing*

Baumi I see* You graduated in 1899*

Pur brow: 1899, and she, just before I graduated, came out from
Boston and we became engaged* Class :) ay, which ia the
great day I guess it is now, isn't it anyway, our
engagement was announced* It wasn't supposed to be
announced, but those kind of things leak out* Wher
ever we went, to different houses, everybody was out
to congratulate us.

Bauras When did you marry herT

Durbrowt I married her just the year after I graduated. We
were married in October 1900, and our daughter
Terrill was born in November 1901, in San Francisco.

A Family of Five Children

Baumt What was your wife's maiden name?

Durbrow: Blanche Terrill.

Bourn: Did she teach kindergarten after you were married?

Durbrow: No, she never taught*

Baum: What were her particular interests?

Durbrow: Hers was raising a family. We raised a family of five

Durbrowt children. And she was e very wonderful person end
mother. She came from very interesting people too.
Her mother was a teacher and graduated from a school
in Hew Hampshire. And then she came out here end
married Mr. Terrlll, who came from Kentucky. Her
maiden name was Bailey and they came from New England.
He was from Kentucky so my wife was a mixture of
southern Kentuckian and New England*

Baumt What was your wife's father 1 s occupation?

Durbrow: He was a farmer in Kentucky but came to California
in l8i|9. He came here to mine gold and he was suc
cessful enough to go back into Missouri where his
people had moved from Kentucky and buy e ranch, s
section of land, and then he was a judge back there}
not being a lawyer, I imagine a municipal judge or
something of that sort... Justice of the peace, I
don't know what it was. &ut anyway, later he came out
to Davis, then 1'avisvllle, California, where my wife
was born, and established first a general store which,
I think, must have been in the late fifties, probably,
or the early sixties, I'm not sure. But, first he es
tablished a general store. Then in 18?6 he built some
brick buildings there which I still own...

Bauroi In DavisT

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Durbrow: In Davis. Then he gave up that and vent into farming
up near Willows* Not the property that we later
farmed but property leased from the Glides* Do you
know who the Glides were?

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Bauroi Ho.

Durbrow: He was a very large landowner in the Sacramento Valley*
Mrs, Glide, his widow, was a big philanthropist. Rob*
ert Terrill, my wife's father* farmed part of his
property and did very well. He died when my wife was
eight years old. He knew he was going to die so he
bought his wife a piece of property in Santa Cruz*
where my wife's uncle. Dr. Bailey, was living. It was
home to her mother and that was where my wife was
brought up. She lived there till she was about
eighteen years old. Then she came to San Francisco
after her mother died.

My oldest daughter was born in San Francisco in
1901. Her name is Terrill. She didn't go to the
University. She went to San Francisco State College.
She had polio when she was about 17 years old. She
was married when she was 20, and vent to, Alaska to
live. Her husband, Thomas K. Donoho, a graduate of
Stanford, became a very well-known attorney in Alaska
and she raised her family in Alaska. Terrill has
three boys.

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Burbrowt My second daughter, Katharine, waa born in Orovllle
in 1903* She graduated from the University of Cali
fornia and became a high school teacher and is now
living in Seattle, married to a professor. His name
ia Rosa, T. J. Rosa, No children*

Then, my third child was William Jr., who vaa
born in Oroville in 1906. He ia married to Gladys
French and has four children* Be lives in Sacramento
and ia an engineer with the State Water Department*

Baums Oh, he it*

Durbrow t Yea*

Baumt Quite a water family*

Durbrow: Yea, a water family*

Then, my fourth child ia Robert Terr ill and he
hat been married twice. By his firat wife he has
two boys that are now fairly grown and by his second
wife has one child* Both my sons were captaina in
the army in the second World War* Bill waa injured aa
hia company was loading supplies at Fort Ord and waa
unable to go over aeaa, so he stayed on the Pacific
Coaat in the Engineering Department of the army*
Robert waa an officer in the Cadeta at Berkeley,
graduated a lieutenant and he went all through the
war* Never in any very large engagements, except the
Battle of the Bulge. He haa kept up hia standing in
the army and ia now a major in the Army Reserves. But

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Durbrow: I might say that before he went to war* .he first

went to DP vis and put in tvo years of college at Davis,
then went to Berkeley and graduated from Berkeley in
agriculture. Then he took a post-graduate course at
California Polytechnic at San Luis Obispo. After he
came back from the war in 19^4-6 he was appointed as
executive secretary of the Irrigation Districts Asso
ciation end has been such ever since* Since he has
been with the association it has grown largely.

Then my youngest child is Ceeile, Blanche Cecile,
named after her mother. She married a mining engineer
named Robert E Baker, also a graduate of the Univer
sity and she also is a graduate of the University. They
live now at Long Island in New York. She has been all
over the country end Canada, as a mining engineer's
wife. They have two children.

Baum: You have quite a few grandchildren.

Purbrowt I have twelve grandchildren and six great-grandchild-
MM

ffjrst Jobs A Mining Engineer

"urbrow! The first job I had was at a copper smelter with the
Mountain Copper Company, Ltd., in Shasta County, as a
chemist. I got that Job through Professor Haskell.
He recommended me. Professor Haskell and possibly

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I>urbrow: Professor Rising also. I was with the Mountain Copper
Company for two years and I was married while there.
I liked the Job in the smelter very much and I think
should have probably stayed there as I was due for
advancement*

Baums This was your mining engineer experience?

Durbrowt Yes, but it was in metallurgy rather than mining. As
I was not making much money in that Job I accepted an
offer from Selby Smelting and Lead Company to go to
the west coast of South America on a trip to induce
the shipments of ores to California. So I went to
South America in April 1900 and came back Just before
Terrill was born. I left my wife here as she was ex
pecting the baby. She lived at my father 1 a house. I
spent six months in South America. A very interesting
trip.

The two people who had been sent before both ac
complished nothing for the company, but my trip was
successful in getting shipments of ore to Selby Smelt
ing and Lead Company. Well, I not only went for Selby
but also for the Tacoma Smelting Company, of Tacome,
Washington. I represented both companies.

Baumt With the mission to get ore sent to San Francisco?

Durbrow: Or Tacoma. Most of the ore from the west coast of

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Coast, to England, and probably Frence too... and I
had to know all those different monetary systems so
that I could tell them what they would gain If they
shipped to the West Coast*

Baum: You say you were successful.

Durbrow: Yes.

Baumt Do you have any opinion as to how you were able to

persuade them to send ore when ore had not been pre
viously been coming this way?

Durbrow: It may have been just the times* South America as you
know is very often mixed up in various revolutions.
When I got there it was a peaceful time and I met the
right people and I guess I did a fairly good job of
inducing them to try to ship to California and to the
state of Washington.

Baum: Was there any price factor in there?

Durbrow: *es, the matter of price and shipping costs all had

to be considered* Also, one of the reasons 1 was sue*
cessful was that there was a new line of ships at that
time sailing from San Francisco to South American ports.
It was English owned. That helped because it was di
rect communication.

Baum: Well, did these ore shipments continue after you left
the country?

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Durbrowi Well, for some years, I don't know how long. ..I left
the company a little time later. The trip did some
good for my employers.

was a very interesting trip. While I was there
I became very friendly with the head of the railroad
that went up from Callas to the summit of the Andes,
where it goes through the Galera Tunnel. I made two
trips with him and on the second trip I was asked to
look at a mine near the summit. I didn't know much
about mining, but had been studying smelting snd I had
intended to stay in that business...

Baum: Is that what you were doing for the Mountain Copper
Company?

Durbrowt Smelting, yes. At that time the people who owned the
mine engaged me to buy a smelter in California and to
ship it to South America and to Install it down there,
which I considered myself capable of doing. But I
didn't know anything about the mine. In other words,
I hadn't been in mining enough to expertly say whether
a mine is a good mine or not. So I said I would hire
a man to go down and tell them about the- mine and
about the development of the mine. T hey thought
enough of the mine to put up the money to buy a smel
ter.

Baumi They had no engineers down there?

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Durbrovt Well, they had engineers, but not aa good as ours*

So I came up hero* I intended to send a man from
the Mountain Copper Company whom I knew well and was
quite intimate with, but he had taken another job* So
at that time my friend, Krug, was available and I sent
him* They liked him very nuch* He went over the mine
very thoroughly and turned it down* And we both lost
our Jobs, (laughter) I had to turn down all the eon*
tracts, return and pay for such parts of the smelter
as had been partly constructed*

Karl Krug

Beura: Yes, you mentioned your friend, Karl Krug*
Durbrow: Yea* Krug and I were classmates. He was a great base
ball player, one of the best players California ever
had. When he was quite a young man* his father, Charles
Krug of the Charles Krug winery, died. His father was
known as the father of wine making in California*

I knew the family very well* There were three
girls and this one boy. At the end of our Freshman
year Krug and I went up to Grass Valley to work in the
mines. I was a novice and he had worked in the minea
before and knew something more about their operation.
We worked as laborers in the mine. At the end of our
Sophomore year we went up there again and worked in

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Durbrowl the nines again during our summer vacation.

Krug didn't finish college. He failed to pass
in the Junior year and was advised not to continue
because he didn't have the necessary preparation in
mathematics to graduate as an engineer. He vent to
Alaska and stayed for several years, until 1900.

The I sent Krug to s outh America to look over
the mine I mentioned* When he turned that down, we
were both out of n job. I went baek into Selby as en
asseyor for about a year. He went up to Orovllle and
became an engineer for the Lava Beds Dredging Company,
Shortly after he got up there he induced the people
who owned the property, who also owned the Oroville
Water Company and the Oroville Light and Power Company,
to invite me to become the engineer and manager of
those properties* At the time I was with Selby Smelt*
ing and Lead Company. I went up and became the engineer
end manager of the Oroville Water Company and the Oro-

Baum:

ville Light and Power Company, and that's the way I
happened to become interested in water. It was

largely through Krug, who, in returning the favor of
my sending him to South America, that got me the Job.
What happened to Krug after that?

Ihirbrowx Krug became a very well-known dredge operator, gold

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DurbrowJ dredging. He lived until about 1911 and then died

of a cancer which ha thinks he got by a ball hitting
him in the aide and cauaing a bruise

Baum: You aey his father died. Did the Charles Krug winery
go out of the Krug family?

Durbrow: The Krug family failed and the property went into the
hands of J. K. Moffitt, who was a friend of Charles
Krug. Moffitt owned it for many, many years. I don't
know whether he sold it before he died or not. It
then went into the hands of Mondavi & Sons. It's the
same winery, rebuilt with additions, built by Krug,
the same vineyard, but it's now operated by Mondavi*

Entry into Water Engineering and Management-
Pro Water, Light and Power Company

Durbrow: So through Krug I was employed to go to Oroville as

the engineer and manager of the Oroville Water Com
pany, and the Oroville Light and Power Company, and I

might say that I've been interested in water ever

since. I was the manager and engineer of these com
panies. Then ray employers, who also had large interests
in gold dredging, bought out the other interests in
the water company and the power company and consolidat
ed and became the Oro Water, Light and Power Company
and then later it was renamed and called the Oro Elec-

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Durbrow:

Durbrowj trie Corporation* Under the Oroville Water Company,
and the Oroville Light and Power Company, when they
were consolidated, I built two power planta on the
we at branch of the Feather Hirer, which are a till
operating. They belong now to P, d. & E. Then after
X got through there, I was transferred to an office
in San Francisco and I lived in Berkeley for seven
years*

This is while you 1 !* still working for the sane com
pany?

Same company, from 1908 to 1913 I was in Berkeley as
a consulting engineer* I traveled all over the west
ern part of the United States looking for dredging
properties or water properties*

Baumi They purchased properties all over the West Coast?

Ihirbrowt Well, no they didn't. There was very little property
purchased. Some dredging property that I recommended,
they did purchase. But moat of it, they f d look at,
but bought very few.

Baum: But they were planning to expand?

Durbrow: They were trying to expand in the power business. T hey
built a steam plant in Stockton and intended to build
a greet big plont up on the Feather River. I had done
quite a little engineering work up on the Feather

.
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Durbrowl River and on other streams for the company*

Baum: Where did they get their money? Was this from the

sale of power mainly?

Durbrowt No, all from dredging. Gold dredging*
Baum: Oh, so they were still mainly gold dredging*
Durbrow: And also the two power plants that I had built were

making money, but not enough to do all this work* Then
they sold a big bond issue under Oro Electric Corpora*
tion. T hat wes their undoing*
Baum: This was for power expansion, that they sold the bond

issue*

Durbrow : Yes, And as those things go, they ran into a terrible
mess. And I got out* As a matter of fact, I was a
stockholder in the Oro Water, Light and Power Company*
And I sold ray stock* And for a time I got out of the
company, but I came back to it* The president didn't
like that* He said that I didn*t hove confidence* I
saw it was going bad, I sold at a good profit* I
made some twenty thousand dollars out of the stock.
Baum: You sold your stock but you continued to work for

them, is that it?

Durbrow: Well, I left the company for a while after I sold my
stock, but they wanted me to come back*

While I was out of the Oro Water, Light and Power

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Durbrowt Company for part of a year, I went into the contract
ing business and formed a partnership and built some
ditches in the Madeline Plains up in Northern Califor
nia. That's about all there was to it. I didn't make
any money and I didn't enjoy the experience very much,
but it was a fill-in while I was sway from the Oro
Water, Light and Power Company.

Baurat What year did you sell your stock? Do you remember
that?

Durbrowt Oh, I sold my stock about 1913*

Baum: Was this when they were building the Stockton power
plant?

Durbrow: Well yes, they were building the Stockton power plant
and they were going to do a lot of other things that I
did not approve of*

Baum: w hy did you think they were getting into a mess?

Durbrowt I could see it coming about.

Baum: Apparently you were right. But what made you think so?

Durbrowt Well, they were over-spending themselves* They were
spending more money in San Francisco on the general
offices than they were in the field building things.
It looked to me like a phoney transaction. In other
words, nobody was accused of stealing money but it
was simply poor financial management by the president

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DurbrowJ of the company. I wasn't manager at that time. I vaa
just a consulting engineer but I could aee how things
were going. And I was pretty close to the president;
I knew him pretty well. Re was very friendly to me and
I used to go down to his house quite often. But I
didn't like the way he was operating. And I told him
so. So finally I got out in 1915*

Baum: I think in those years, weren't a lot of power com

panies competing with each other?

DurbrowJ Yes, they were. It was dog eat dog at that time.

There was the northern California Power Company that
was organized by some people up north whom I knew.
And then this company, and oh, there was a company on
the Stanislaus River, and then there's the San Jos*
quin Light and Power Compsny. And they were all more
or less competing. And as I say, it was dog eat dog.
It was considered good business if you could do it,
to go into another person's territory and steal all
their customers, underbid them, or in some way force
them to sell out* And that continued until the Hail*
road Commission was given greater powers, It was
still called the Railroad Commission, but they were
given the powers of a public utility commission and
later they were celled the Public Utility Commission.

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Durbrow: After that, things became quite different.

Baum: They didn't let you go in and steal another company's
territory,

Durbrow: Oh no,... your rates were controlled, your territory was
controlled, and everything was controlled*

Baum: Did the Railroad Commission have anything to do with
the failure of the Oro Electric Corporation?

Durbrow: Not as I remember. The failure of the Oro Electric

was simply that the people became critical of the fi
nancial set-up and the bonds went down in price and
finally the P. 0. & E. Co. took it over.

Baum: Back when you were the manager, was it at that time
that it was a smaller operation?

Durbrow: Yes, it was a smaller operation.

Baum: And they were doing gold dredging?

Durbrow: We supplied our own gold dredges with power, and some
other gold dredges with power. And also we supplied
the town of Oroville with power.

Baum: Did you supply water?

Durbrow: Yes. We supplied water to the town of Oroville as
well as to some gold dredges.

Baum: Were you in the irrigation business too?

Durbrow: Yes, we were in the irrigation business. Across the
river from Oroville is Thermalito, a citrus colony.

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Durbrow: And we supplied water to them* It was a pipeline

proposition. So at that time I was in the water busi
ness.

Beum: Were you in the gold dredging end of the business?

Durbrow! Well* I was to some extent* When my friend, Krug,

died... he died quite young, before all this trouble...
and I was asked by the president of the company, to
more or less look after the dredging in a general way.
I wasn't in charge of the gold dredges directly, but
I used to go up and consult with the superintendents
and suggest any changes. I was kind of general manager
and that was for a short time. That was before I got
out.

Bauro: You mentioned before that out of the Oro Water, Power
and Electric Company came the Table Mountain Irriga
tion District and I wondered if you could fill in that
for me?

Durbrow: Well, the Oro Water, Light and Power and Company owned
the Miacene Ditlch which took out of the west branch
of the north fork of the Feather River and, after going
through two power plants, was the source, of water for
not only supplying Orovllle with water but Thermal! to,
wi ich was an irrigated area, with water, and it also
supplied the area that later became the Table Mountain

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Durbrowf Irrigation District. In fact, it wasn't irrigated at
that time, but we did serve some little water from
the ditch.

The Kiacene Ditioh is the diteh which had been
built by the early mining interests for hydraulic
mining near Oroville, Thompson Flat area mostly. When
hydraulic mining was stopped then the Hiacene Diteh
was used as a purveyor of water for the Oroville area,
and it was on this diteh that we built the two power
plants, the Lime Saddle Power Plant and Coal Canyon
Power Plant, which are still operating and belong now
to the P. G. & E. That power was used not only to
supply Oroville but it was used also to supply our
dredges and some others with power and the water from
the ditch was also used to supply some of the dredges
with water, and for various other purposes that water
was used for.

There were two sources of water in Oroville. One
was the ro Water, Light end Power Company and one was
the Palermo Water Company, which was owned by the
Hearst Interests. They used it for irrigating around
Palermo, which is south of Oroville, and also to supply
a certain small portion of the city of Oroville. During
my time we purchased the Palermo Water Company, that
is, the portion of the Palermo Water Company that sup-

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Durbrowt plied part of Oroville, s o we supplied all of Oroville
after that.

Baumt The competition between two companies must have been
disastrous as far as rates were concerned*

Durbrow: No, they didn't compete, They supplied separate

areas* &ut when we took it over, we supplied all the
town of Oroville.

Baum: Do you know how the Table Mountain Irrigation District

came to be formed?

Durbrowt That was formed by getting water from the Miacene

Ditch or its extension known as the Powers Ditch. As
the country grew up, they wanted to irrigate a larger
area end they formed an irrigation district. It's a
small district. At the present time it is owned by
one man*

Baum: The whole district? You mean all the land in the dis

trict is in the hands of one man?

Durbrow: Yes. One man. It went through various reorganiza
tions. The Table Mountain Water Irrigation District
went into default, I believe, on its bonds, and then
it was purchased by one person who took it all over.
I don't know his name.

Beumt To get back, first of all the Oro Water, Light and

Power Company was a fairly small operation with gold

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Baumi dredging as one unit and then you were in charge
especially of the water and power...

Durbrowt Yes, water and power.

Baumt And then they decided to expand into the power busi
ness in Northern California* Was that their idea?

Durbrow: Well, first they expanded in dredging to some extent.
They bought other dredging properties, which was all
right. And they made money. But then the president
of the company thought he had enough money. He had an
income of about half a million a year from the gold
dredges. And he thought he would expand into the
power business. And that* a where he had his Waterloo.

Baums And that's when they moved you down to San Francisco,
and tried to open up large offices, for promotion
inly?

Durbrow: For promotion. They hired a man from Stone & Webster,
a high-powered engineer, to be the general manager.
I was supposed to be his assistant and I didn't like
it at all. (laughter)

Baum: Especially if you didn't like what he was doing.

Durbrow! No, I didn't like what he was doing, although he and
I were very cliae friends, a very fine man. As a
matter of fact, when Mr. Goodwin, who was the presi
dent of the company wanted me to move to San Francisco,

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Durbrow: I said, "Why move to San Francisco? This is where we
have our business. This is the place where we are
making our money.* 1 But he decided to move me to San
Francisco. He was an attorney but he was more of a
promoter*

Baums Was he in any other business?

Durbrow I J. W. Goodwin? No* The other interest in this prop
erty was a man named Holton. And he was a heavy owner
with Goodwin. And then the other heaviest owner was
J. K, Moffitt. Jim Moffltt, whom I knew very well*

Baumt He was in many other businesses I think*

Durbrow: Yes, of course. Jim was a very wealthy man, a banker*
He used to joke with me; he said, "You* re the only
fellow who made any money on this thing," But mine
was a very small Interest. And he sold enough of the
stock to build his hone over in Piedmont. So he said*
"I didn't do so well, yet not too badly." But the
rest of his stocks that he held went down to nothing*

Baumi The Oro Electric Company was taken over by P. 0* & E.
eventually, is that right? Did Goodwin go into the
P. G. & E. then?

Durbrow: Oh no, he was out*

Baum: What about the other men in the company? Were they
out or...

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Durbrow: Quite a few of the employees went into P. 0, 4 B. I

could have gone into P. G. & E. I uaed to get letters
from them asking me for their background, recommenda
tions, one thing or another. Some of them went into
P. G. & E, end others didn't. They scattered.

Ranching in Glenn County

Baumt Why didn't you go into the P. 0. & F.T

Durbrov: Well, I was tired of thot kind of business. It dis
gusted me completely. I decided that I wanted to go
into farming. Wanted to be more independent. And
my wife ha<3 inherited a piece of property up in Glenn
county, part of it, and I bought the other half for
her interests from her brother. So I decided that I
wanted to go up there. I put money that I had made
into livestock, and the operation of the ranch, and I
sank it all in the ranch.

Baum: How large a ranch was it?

Durbrow: Well, 800 acres. I enlarged it later to 1500 acres.

Baum: T hst was quite a lot of property.

Curb row: Yea, it was very well known up there as % ranch but

it was not successful because the agricultural depres
sion started very shortly after we got there.

Baum: Id like to know a little more about your ranch.

. o ;

DurbrowJ Well, it was a little over 800 acres of land and it
vaa general farming land. Moat of it was very good
land and a considerable part of it we put under irri
gation*

We raised quite a large dairy herd, I think about
a hundred head altogether. We raised hogs, we raised
sheep, and we raised grain, and rice* We had some-
wheres around a hundred acres of alfalfa* It was pro
fitable for a while and, as my son often tells me, every
department of that ranch made money; in other words we
operated at a profit. But it wasn't enough of a pro
fit to pay our overhead, which was the irrigation
district taxes and the interest on our loan, so we had
to borrow. Very shortly after we started, the depres
sion came and we operated at a loss from that time on.

Baum! You say you had a superintendent?

Durbrowt Yes, I always had a superintendent on the ranch be
cause we employed quite a few men.

Baum: What kind of labor did you employ?

Durbrowf White labor, all white labor.

Baum: Were they transients or did they stay with the ranch
all the time?

Durbrow: Some were permanent and stayed with the ranch right
along. They were more or less local people. We had

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Durbrow: men who stayed with us for 10 years or more. They

were permanent employees who stayed with us through*
out the year. But then of course during the rloe
harvest we had to employ a great many more men, whleh
were transients.

Bid you have any problem* In getting this labor or
keeping them happy?

Durbrow: Oh yes, It was quite a problem in getting labor. I
used to get most of It through employment offices In
Sacramento, and sometimes they would send ue good men
and sometimes they weren't so good. But they knew me
pretty well and they did pretty well for us. One
problem of labor was the cook... We always kept a
cook and we had different ones come every year for
some years; then they f d want to go somewhere else, to
another job* In general we took care of them pretty
well.

A lot of the labor around there was Hindu or Oriental.
Not with us. The Hindus did not act as laborers
usually* They ran their own properties. They were
rice growers and of course they hired their own men.
But while I was there there was very little Hindu em
ployment by white people. They leased land and ran it
themselves.

Baunl
Ihirbrow:

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Be urns
Durbrowi

Baumi
Durbrow!

Baumt
Durbrow J

Baumt
Durbrow:

How about Mexican labor? Was there much of that?
There was practically none.
In the whole area or on your own ranch?
In the whole area* Oh, you'd get an occasional Mexi
can or Filipino or some other nationality*

When the children were growing up, we lived on

the ranch* My oldest daughter, Terrill, end my

yl
youngest daughter, Cecile, were great horsewomen* They

loved horses. And Cecile particularly owned several

.-. -

horses, kept them until we went to live in Grass Val
ley* The rest had various occupations on the ranch*
It's very easy to make life interesting on a ranch.
I imagine they helped around the ranch too**.
Oh yes, they did. Particularly my son Bob. Matter of

fact, my son Bob during the last year we lived there
was in charge of the ranch* When I moved to Grass
Valley, he stayed with my wife on the ranch for one
year* I used to go over weekends, and he ran the
ranch.

v...

What was your religious preference?
Well, we went to the Methodist Church in, Willows be
cause our friends went there* My wife and I were
both Presbyterians and we usually went to a Presbyter

ian hurch if there was one.

* *;*

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Baums Your family was Presbyterian too, weren't they?

Durbrow: ^es, my family was Presbyterian. My mother and father*
But Mrs. Durbrow and I later rather switched to the
Episcopal Church when we went to Grass Valley.

Food Administrator for
Glenn CountyWorld War I

Baums When did you start farming in Glenn County?

Durbrow: I started to farm in Glenn County in 1915 and the

war started in 1917. I was food administrator for the
county at the time* They asked first one of the regents
of the University to be food administrator and he was
a great friend of mine.

Baums Who was that?

Durbrow: That was James Mills. And so he asked me to serve as
food administrator and I agreed.

Baums And whet were your duties as food administrator?

Durbrow: Well, as food administrator I was supposed to keep
down the use of sugar and flour particularly. Also
foods were pretty much rationed, and it was my duty
to see that the orders of the food administration were
complied with. Herbert Hoover was the national heed
of it, and Ralph Merritt, whom I knew very well, was
head of it in California. Ralph was also in the rice
business. He was at one time head of the Rice Associ-

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Purbrow: atlon. That came later, after he got through with the
food administration. But food administration waa not
a very difficult Job at that time, but It threw you
In contact with a lot of very Interesting people*

Baum: I'm always curious as to how this food administration
worked. Did you have any power really, or was it
mostly persuasion?

Durbrowl Yes, we had real power if we wanted to use it. I

never had to use it. But we had real power. One time
I remember I had information that they were selling
sugar, which was very scarce, at a town called Hamil
ton. I went over there and found that they were per
fectly willing to cooperate with us. I had no trouble,
The stores cooperated very well. Those country people
would cooperate much better than probably they would
in a large city and during those war years and the
years following there was very good cooperation.

Getting Water from the Sacramento
West Side Canal Company

Baum: I think I read somewhere that you had to supervise the
operations of the Sacramento West Side Canal Company.

Durbrow: Before I went to the ranch, I was offered a very good

price for the property, which probably I ought to have

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Durbrovt taken* Anyway, I didn't* I thought the property was
worth more money.

BaumJ Thla was when the Kuhns were building a big land de
velopment?

Durbrowt Yea, the Kuhns were acquiring a lot of property. Our
ranch was a good piece of property and they wanted it.
They offered me, as I remember, thirty thousand dol
lars. I thought it wasn't enough so I didn't take it.
Soon after I started living at the ranch, my previous
experience in water was recognized. At that time the
Sacramento Valley West Side Canal Company and the
Superior California Land Company were in existence. It
was therefore natural for me to take an interest in the
development of the country in water matters. First I
appeared a witness in a Railroad Commission hearing
for establishing the requirement on the pert of the
Sacramento Valley West Side Canal Company of serving
all lands under its system with water. At that time
the Byington suit had been tried but the decision
hadn't been given, although at that time it had been
held that it was a public utility. And we went before
the Railroad Commission to force them to give us water
at certain rates.

Baumt YOU won that.

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Durbrow: We won that case, yes. They gave ua a rate of $2*00
an acre for water for general crops.

Baumi Were you Involved in the Bylngton action?

Durbrow: No, I waa not involved in the Bylngton action. That
waa held down in Coluaa County and that waa before
y real contact with the company. Then, when we got
this rate, thinga went from bad to worse for the West
Side Canal Company and the Superior California Farmland
Company. They failed financially.

Baum: Waa this because the rate waa too low for them to

operate profitably?

Durbrow: No, the people didn't take the water end the company
didn't aell enough land.

Baum! I know people didn't buy the land. But they weren't

able to sell all their water?

Durbrowi They weren't able to aell the water or the land either,
so they failed. They were a Pittsburgh concern. And
their name waa Kuhn Brothers. And they failed. Then
the suggestion was made by several of us, a man named
S, J. Hankins waa one of the prime movers, and a
fellow named William D'Egilbert, and I were on an
organizing committee to form an irrigation district
and to take over the West Side Canal Company, that Is,
to buy the canal property. And so I waa on that or-

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Durbrow: ganii'.ing committee and we were successful in organiz
ing an irrigation district.

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Depression Years 1920* a

Baura: After the depression set in for the farmers, Mere the

farmers of your locality interested in any form of
government aid.., any political movement for aid of any
kind?

Durbrow: Not that I remember, no| I don't think so. Of course,
government aid wasn't as prevalent then as later.

Baum: No, it was a new idea...

Durbrow: Rather a new idea, yes. And they had no social se
curity and we had no old age pensions and things of
that sort. If people got old and couldn f t support
themselves, they went to the poor houses of which there
was one in each county, usually known as the poor house
or county hospital. The county hospital was a better
name and became more prevalent when you had social
security and old age pensions. But in my day they
were known as the county poor houses.

Baum: There was no aid for anything except... -

Durbrow: No, the people went there to be taken care of. They
gave them their lodging and something to eat.

Baum: Wasn't there... I think in 192lj. around in the Mid-West

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f they were asking for the McKary-Haugen Bill, and that
was for wheat and there was a certain preasure for
government assistance of one kind or another. That
may not hare applied to the rice districts,

Durbrovt No, there was no help for rice at that time* In

1919 I had a fairly good crop of rice and I sold It
for seven cents a pound and the next year the 1920
crop sold for fifty cents a hundred. It went from
$700 a hundred to fifty cents a hundred, so It was
quite a drop* And then also, we had a very poor year
for harvest. In those days, harvesting had to be done
under drier conditions. How they go in with new type
machines and harvest nearly any time and then throw
It into driers which have been constructed for that
purpose, and they can get by* But we couldn't, so we
had to sell rice at fifty cents a hundred that year
and harvested very little at that. I mean a lot of it
was spoiled In the fields and couldn't be harvested.

Baumt c id the depression have any effect on the political

opinions of the farmers In your locality?

Durbrow: Oh, I can't say for that. I wasn't in politics and
I don't remember how the people up at Willows voted.
I think they were mostly Democratic.

Baum: And what was your political preference?

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Durbrow: Republican; my grandfather, my father and myself have
all been conservatives and Republicans. I only had
one little fling in politics. I ran for the Assembly
one time after I retired, and I was very happy I
wasn't elected* (laughter)

Baumt This was in Grass Valley?

Durbrow: '^hls was in Grass Valley. This man who beat me did a
much better job than I could have done,

Baumt Who did you support for President in 192k, when La-
toilette was running and agricultural conditions were
depressed?

Durbrow: Of course I was definitely for Coolidge.

Baum: You were a straight-line Republican...

Durbrow: That's right.

Baum: That true in 1928 for Hoover?

Durbrow : Yes, oh, very definitely.

Baumt Of course, he was a California man...

DurbrowJ Y s, he was a California man.

Baum: Did you know Hoover?

Durbrow: I've met him since. I had a very interesting meeting
with him since. Hoover came up to Grass- Valley, this
wee after he retired as president, and was there as
the speaker at one of our ij.th of July celebrations.
I was asked to get some people together who had worked

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Beurat
^urbrow:

J>urbrow: with Hoover when he was a student at Stanford, and
when he came up to Nevada City to work in the mines
up on Harmony Ridge, So I got quite a group of then
and introduced them to him and he was very nappy to
meet them. And one of them I remember particularly*
He's a close friend of mine, Ed Qasssway, who was
very picturesque character and was not afraid of any*
body and so when I introduced him to Hoover he just
slapped him on the back and said, "Hello, Herbie, how
are you?" (laughter) And Hoover Just loved it.
Oh, is that right* He always seemed such a dignified*
Oh, I know, but he loved it up there*

So they had quite a long chat together* He
worked with Hoover in the mine and they sll had worked
with Hoover up there* This man was older than Hoover
wes. Later we all had lunch together down at the
hotel in Grass Valley with Hoover and his wife. My
wife had known his wife. They were both Kappas. She
was a Kappa at Stanford and my wife was a Kappa at
Berkeley. So they had met before, and we had a very
pleasant luncheon with them. My sister, .Clara, and
her husband, S. C. Buckbee, happened to be there at
the time. It was quite an occasion. He made a very
fine talk at the lj.th of July celebration.

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Baurat You like hint, I take it...

Durbrow t Oh, very much.

Baurat So you thought you voted correctly in 1928?

Durbrow: Oh, I always knew I had voted correctly. We were

very much for him at the tine he ran... Roosevelt ran
against him in 1932. We went out in force down to
Colfax to meet him when he came through on the train.
He spoke to us from the train as he was going through
to his home in Palo Alto*

Baumt Did you continue Republican right through the depres
sion?

Durbrow: Well, I have one confession to make* I voted for
Kooaevelt once. That's on his second time he ran,
1936.

Baumt That was against Landon, I think...

Durbrow: I was not particularly impressed with Landon and

figured Roosevelt had helped us out of the depression.
Anyway, 1 voted for him once and I'm very much ashamed
of it. I think he made the worst president we have
had for some time.

Baumt So that was your one fall from grace.

Durbrow: One fall from grace, (laughter) 1 think in a way he's
the worst president we've ever had and I think he's
caused more economic trouble in the United States.

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Durbrowi I think our troubles today all spring from the Roose-

v> . .
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describe his program as Socialistic.

Baumi S you're opposed to him on his domestic policy* not

..* -

his foreign policy.

Durbrowt ?es* I think he made* at certain times* a mess out of
his foreign policy because he made secret agreements
which he shouldn't have made and which Z don't believe
were to the best interest of the * 3* I'm opposed to
him on his domestic policy* I think he vss a very
poor president and led us down a very wrong alley*

Baumt Rather unusual you voted for him in 1936 then* because

he was going down that alley at that time* wasn't he?

Durbrow: Well* I know, but he seemed to be the man of the hour
at that time and it looked as though it was a poor
time to change presidents*

Baumt Well, I think the rest of the country agreed with you

at that time.

Durbrowi I think so, and many of the people who voted for him
think the same as I do* it was a mistake.

Baumt At the time of this agricultural depression, let's say

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1926*27* when things were getting bad and many farmers

were unable to meet their mortgages, what was the re
action of the banks In the Glenn-Colusa area?

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Durbrow: T he banks in the Glenn-Colusa area all failed*

Bsum: They went broke ...did they foreclose first or...

Durbrow ? No, my land wasn't foreclosed* I just turned it over
to them. I made them a present of it*

Baum: Would they have taken it if you hadn't turned it over?

Durbrow: Oh, I don't know if they would have, but I couldn't
pay my debts from the ranch earnings at that time so
I simply gave them the deed to not only the ranch, but
to the livestock and everything else, all the imple
ments that went with the operation of the ranch, every
thing.

Baum: This was common of other farmers too, I suppose?

Durbrow: No, I had left Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District end
had become the manager of Nevada. It was one year
before my family moved over* It was during that tins
that I turned the ranch over to the bank* I agreed to
pay them toward the debt they claimed I still owed
them, but I didn't owe them anything as a natter of
fact. They claimed a deficiency, even though I turned
everything over, but when the Superintendent of Banks
took the bank over he asked me why the hell did I ever
sign any deficiency to the bank because what I had
told him he said was absolutely so. He had found out.
But he said I ought not to have signed those notes.

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Baums You agreed to pay them more later than all your prop

erty*

Durbrow: And they aaid they would straighten it out later* I
didn't know then how bad off the bank was end they
were all friends of mine. I knew them from the
president down... they were all good friends of mine*
So I said I'll do anything they wanted, and so I
gave them the notes which I shouldn't have done* So
later the Superintendent of Banks just did not try to
collect on them.

Baum: Well, now I suppose you owed assessments to the dis

trict at the same time too*

Durbrow: Well, that all went in together, when the bank took
over the ranch...

Baum: When the bank took over, did they try to operate it,

and pay the district?

Durbrow: Oh, they tried but they made a mess of it* (laughter)
They lost more money than I did.

Baum: That was what was usually happening I suppose, that the

farmers lost the land to the bank and the bank lost
it... ifc

Durbrow: Yes, the bank... of course that isn't the first time
that the bank took over properties. When I first
owned property up in Willows, (my wife's property bat

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Durbrow: I looked after it), and I often went up there at

that time, the banks owned a great deal of property
all over the valley from the previous depression, I
don't know whether the *70's or '80's or when it was*
but anyway, it was some previous agricultural depres
sion end they owned a good deal of the land in the
counties of Glenn and Colusa. I lived to see all
those lands purchased by private owners* This depres
sion acted the same way. The banks had to take the
lands and now they* re all back in private ownership.

Baurct The same ownership?

Durbrowi Oh, some in different ownership. If I had been a

farmer, and not an engineer and a financial operator
as I was, I would have probably stayed on the ranch
and would have come out all right.

Baums You'd have rented it...

Durbrow: I'd have operated it. And probably would have made
money a. all my friends have done. I go back there
now and whet used to be my home in the Willows ranch
is a beautiful place now. It's the same house but
they've added to it. But fundamentally it was the
same house. It was a one-story house and I made it
into a two-story house* Itatch colonial style. And
they have now added to it and made a beautiful place

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Durbrow: out of it* All over the district I find beautiful
homes that have been built since we left*

Be urn: When a district goes into default it then becomes

very difficult for the farmers to borrow personally
from the bank because there's this fact that there are
heavy assessments, liens on the lend, end so on.

Durbrow: That doesn't always follow* You sea, some of the

lands nay go in default but others nay be perfectly
prosperous and paying their assessments and those
people are perfectly able to borrow from the "banks.
$o thot at least in the Glenn-Colusa area you didn't
notice any relationship between the whole district
and particular farmerst

Durbrow: I left there Just before the main financial depression
which was in '29, but up to '29, money was very plen
tiful and we could borrow easily! in fact, they lent us
too much money, that's one trouble. The bank would
lend me whatever money I needed, I had a good in
come besides, which all went into the bank. I was
not only manager of the Olenn-Colusa Irrigation Dis
trict but I was also the president of Reclamation
District Number 20i;7.

Oh, is that right? Well, es president of the reclama
tion district, you didn't draw a salary, did you?

Be urn:

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I>urbrow: Yes, t>15>0 per month wee allotted to each director,
paid in warrants, which I turned over to the bank,
always.

I still remained a director of that district for
a few years after I came over to the Nevada Irrigation
District. I was still going to the meetings at Coluaa.

A Director of the Rice Growers Association

Baum: You mentioned that you were in the Rice Growers Asso
ciation.

Durbrow: Yes, I was a director of the Rice Growers Association.
I was raising rice on my ranch and was on the board
of directors of the Rice Growers Association. Ralph
Merritt at one tine was the head of the Association.
I knew Ralph Merritt in the Pood Administration and
later in the Rice Association. I thought a great deal
of him; he f s a fine chap. Ernest Adams then became
president of the Rice Growers Association.

Baum: Was the Rice Growers Association already formed when
you became a director, or did you have to put it to
gether?

Durbrowi No, it was already organized. I came in later. I

represented a large number of rice growers because I
was president of Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District and
later its manager.

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Baura: Were the fanners eager to Join this association or
did they look dubiously at it.

Durbrowt No, I think they were quite willing to join the asso
ciation. You see, in '20 and '21 we had a very dis-

,-. 'i
astrous year* The association helped pull the members

out and get the best price for the rice that was
possible under the conditions at that time. Of course,
there were others than the association in the rice

business who rather competed with the association in
the buying of rice.

Baum: Were there private millers who tried to buy directly
from the farmers?

DurbrowJ Yes, there were several private millers. They bought
a great deal of the rice, but a good many of the
growers sold through the association.

Be tun: Was pert of your Job to persuade farmers to sell their
rice through the association?

Durbrowt No, I don't think that was part of the Job of being
a director. *t was merely to keep the association
running right and make it a prosperous organization,
which we succeeded in doing. Ernest Adams was a very
good president. He remained president for some time
after I left the association. I left the association
when I left the district.

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Baums Than you were out of the riee business?

Durbrow: Out of the rice business altogether, yes*

Baum: What happened to this rice that the association hand
led?

Durbrow: It was sold on the markets. I think they helped de
velop the brown rice business end were quite a factor
in the rice business* They were not opposed altogether
by the other purchasers of rice* Of course, there was
competition in the buying of rice* The rice was mar
keted, I think, very largely through private organi
zations.

Baum: Are you speaking of other private organizations to
market the rice to the millers or the millers them
selves purchasing directly from the farmer.

Durbrow * The millers themselves purchased directly from the
farmers.

Baum: Wasn't the ecsociation sot up to run an auction, to
which they hoped the millers would come and purchase
the rice.

Durbrows I don*t retnember that.

Baura: Did you have short grain rice?

Durbrow: Most of the rice raised in California was short grain
rice. We relsed some of the long grain rice, but it
didn't produce as well* So we raised what was known

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IHirbrow: as the Jap variety of rice, short grain rice.
Baum: Which you sold to Japan?

Durbrow: We sold to Japan largely. It was sold in this coun
try too, but we overproduced fop this country* a need*

GLESH-COLUSA IRRIGATIOH DISTRICT
Organize t lon1919

Baum: 1 have a lot of questions on the Glenn -Colusa Irri

gation District. What were the reasons that you and
the other landowners around Willows decided to form
a district in 1919?

Durbrow: Well, one of the reasons was that the price of rice
went up during World War I and it was found that we
could grow rice. First, it was just experimental
planting and later it was found quite profitable and
we wanted to get water on the lands and the Sacra*
mento West Side Canal Company had failed, and was not
able or willing to enlarge the canal so as to carry
the amount of water we wanted to divert from the river.
So we decided the only thing to do was buy the system
by forming an irrigation district*

Baum: Who did the organizational work, getting out the peti

tions and getting the landowners to agree to form a
district? ^

Durbrow: Well, we had an organizing committee which consisted
of S. J, Hankins, William DEgilbert, and myself. I
was the chairman of the committee* Then we hired

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Durbrow: man as e paid organizer named Lambert, Charles F*

Lambert, a very well-known man who had Just come out
of the orray. He was 9 local man at Willows* Ve were
very successful in organising and as we wanted to
build right away, as soon as we organized the district
we started construction and got the money on warrants
issued by the district, even before we got a bond
issue out,

Purchase arid Construction of Facilities

Beum: &sd you made an agreement with the company to sell
their works yetT

Durbrow: Ve had already agreed on the details of purchase*

Baumt Oh, you had already purchased,.,

Durbrow: No, for one year we rented the canal for 4>60,000, And
then we kept on our negotiations for the final pur
chase of it,

Eaum: Who did the negotiating for the purchase?

Durbrow: Hankins and myself were the principal two*

Baum: And who were the people you negotiated with?

Durbrow: A man named Myrl B, Moon who was the receiver for the
West Side Canal Company and Superior California Farm
Land Company, Those negotiations were conducted in
San Francisco, We agreed finally to buy the canal for

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Durbrow: a million dollars* In fact, they offered it to us
for a million dollars but there were a good many
details in the purchase of it* So we had to have a
number of meetings to work out the details*

Baums They were glad to get rid of the system, I imagine,

Durbrow: Well, Moon was glad to be able to sell the irrigation
system but he had all the other properties to sen.
Superior California Farm Lands Company was organised
to sell the lands and the West Side Canal Company was
to either operate the canal or sell it. He sold it
to us for a million dollars* Then we got out a bond
issue for two million, rive -hundred -some -odd- thousand
dollars* One million of this went for the purchase of
the canal and one million end a half was intended for
construction. We wanted the canal, which at that
time only had a limited capacity, increased to a
capacity of 1,700 second-feet of water* A 155 second*
feet of that went to a smell district to the north of
Glenn-Colusa, known as Jacinto Irrigation "District.
And 1,550 second-feet came to Glenn-Colusa Irrigation
District.

Baurat foere you glad to let Jacinto buy this amount of water?

Durbrow: That was a separate deal* They bought their interest.*,
they bought a separate pumping plant and they had an

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DurbrowJ interest In the upper end of the canal. That was on*
of the details of the purchase. Then we started to
build before we sold the bond isaue and the way we
raised the money waa on wsrranta, and the warrants
were purchased by our own landowners, who were proa*
perous at the time*.*

Baumt Prom the rice...

Ihirbrowt Froa: rice. Quite wealthy. So they purchased these
warrants of the district and we paid them off after
ve sold the bond issue. The bond issue was passed
almost unanimously by the people of the district*

Bauic! Vac It easy for you to get the landowners to take
these warrants?

Durbrow: Oh, very easy for they were anxious to have the water*
We were operating even before we finelly purchased
the canal.

When we organized the irrigation diatrict I was
made president of the district end froia that time on
WPS president during ell the negotiations. And the
construction period. It was rather an engineering
job and the man who was given the contract to design
end Increase the capacity of the conel was an engineer
who was ft close friend of mine, Fred H* Tlbbetts,

Baumt Had he been a classuiate of your?

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Durbrowt No, he was a younger men than I. I was never associ
ated with him in business at all but for many years
any big job that he had, I used to go out and see* So
we became close friends* We built this canal and then
Just at the time we got the canal built, ready to take
the increased supply of water, it developed a very,
very dry year* So dry that the whole northern part of
the atcte was up in arras about our taking this water.

v * '"*".. ? r .;.'"*. -' .:'.' $ <

Ant loch Case

Durbrow: The officials of the state, from the Governor down,
were opposed to our taking this water which we had
agreed with our landowners to take as we were entitled
to it. We jjot the people to put up the money for or
ganizing the district and voting the bonds on the
agreement that we would get this enlarged capacity
and ta2ce the water from the river which was half the
water in the Sacramento River at low flow. We fought
them ell and wouldn't enter into aay agreement with
others* We took th vater and got by with it*

Baum: Was this the Antioch case?

Durbrowt The AntiDch csse, ye*

Baums That wss decided against you, wasn't itT

Durbrowt The Antioeh case was decided for us...

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Beam: Let 1 8 see, that vent to the Supreme Court, I remember;
I think it was decided against you, if I recall cor*
rectly, but your need for water was over by the time
they had gotten through all the appeals and so on*

Durbrovi I don't think it wets*..

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Baum: Perhaps I am mistaken*

Durbrow: Anyway, we got the water* And we did it by being

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tough, and not agreeing to any compromise with other
people who wanted us to take only a portion of the

: .. " "/ *

water we were entitled to.

As a matter of fact, the Glenn-Colusa Irrigation
District is probably the only district in the United
States that has a Congressional grant to take water
from a navigable stream* It may not be of any value,
but it's en interesting thing. They were given the
right by Congressional grant very early, long before
the Irrigation district was formed. This was for
taking of water from tho Saeramento River by the Cen
tral Canal Company which was an earlier predecessor

' ~ -

of the 'jrlenn-Colaaa Bi strict as owner of the canal*
It gave the right to take 900 second -feet out of the
Sacramento River end that was done by Congressional
grant*

>*!WT .'

Sale of Bonds

--'- ,.* *

Ihirbrowt How* is there any other question you'd like to ask?

"' * ' '* t
Beum: Yes, I would like to aak you about the sale of your

*' ;**!. '

bonds. How was that handled?

Durbrow: Well, the bonds were sold to a bond syndicate, partly
Eastern people and partly California people and they

purchased $1,189*000 of this bond issue* The purchase

...~.- .
of the property from West Side Canal Company was hand

led by direct transfer of bonds, Thats about all
1 .

there was to it. I don't remember just what the

price was.
Baum: I read in Frank Adam's history of irrigation districts,

that you sold your bonds before they were certified*
Durbrow: Yes, they were sold before they were certified, then

they were certified afterwards*

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BauraJ And that you only got 90 for then rather than par,

Durbrow t I think that's correct. We got 90 for the bonds

actually sold*

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Baum: Well, that's quite a loss,

Durbrow! Yes,

I
Baumt Ten points down, yes. I was wondering if you were

forced to sell them so soon or If you could have held

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off a while and gotten par,

Durbrow: No, I think not. As a matter of fact we sold them

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Durbrow : just In time. The market broke right after that* I
believe the bonds were sold in 1920. The district
was organized In 1919 and the bonda were voted and
aold in 1920. The construction work had been done or
practically so. In fact, the contractors had moved
out.

Baumt Who were the contractorat

Durbrow: I don't remember.

Baum: Was it a good Job?

Durbrow: Yes, a very good job. It was a drag line job...

Officials and Employees of the District

Baumt Did you do any of the supervising of the Job, of the
cons true tionT

Durbrow: No, although I waa an engineer, I waa the president of
the district and of eourae there were a lot of detaila
that had to be settled by the board of directors and
it was left mostly to me to settle such details.

Baumt Did all your work for the irrigation district leave
you enough time to handle your ranch?

Durbrow: Probably I neglected the ranch, but I had, a super
intendent on the ranch, and I spent part of my time
there, but I went into town every day. The ranch waa
about eight miles from town and I'd go in practically

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Durbrovt every day to the office* We purchased an office from
the Superior California Farm Land Company.

Baum: I was wondering how much work you had to do yourself
and how much you could delegate to Mr* Lambert*

Durbrowi Well, Lambert first was the organiser and then when we
got to operating we made him secretary of the district
and he was secretary for several years*

Baumi Was that the same as manager or did you have another
manager?

DurbrowJ No. we had a manager very shortly, an engineer-Manager,
named Raymond Matthew. He's a very well-known engineer
at the present time in Southern California*
And he handled the engineering supervision?
He was the manager of the district* He had worked
with Tibbetts and was a very competent engineer* At
present he is chief engineer of the Colorado River
Board of California. When he left the district, I
became manager. I had been president end had been
elected twice. First in the organization and then for
another four year term. Before ray second four years
was up. I resigned and became manager of the district
as I had been giving too much of my time and. of course.
they couldn't pay me as president an amount to Justify
my time. The board allowed me as a member to draw

Baum:
Durbrow:

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Durbrow: what money I was legally allowed for every day of
the month* I was allowed per diem for each dey of
the month, but that was only 15 a day* Later I be
came manager and remained manager until I went over
to Nevada Irrigation District.

Baums One question I wanted to ask is if there was any

opposition to the formation of the district and to
the enlargement of the canal.

Durbrow: Very little* Of course ther were some people who
wanted to stay out* which we allowed*

Be urn: Oh, you let some of the people...

;*i.>?v- ...." !.'*

Durbrow: Well, it wasn't very much spotted but there was some
areas of general crops that didn't want to come into

the district* They were allowed to stay out. Since

that time they asked to be and were brought in.
Baum: I have the name of Gion Gibson as one of your opponents

in the beginning*
Durbrow: No, he waa in at the start but did not help in the

organizing*

Baums He later came into the district, didn't he?

Durbrow: Yes, he was on the first board of directors and he

remained a director until he died. Gion Gibson became

a close friend of mine.
Baum: I noticed in the Irrigation District Association

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Baurat minutes, there's a delegate from Glenn-Coluss, Cali

fornia Gibson,

Durbrowi Yes, California Gibson was Glon Gibson's sister and

she becpme a director of the district when Glon died*
Later she became treasurer of Colusa County.

Baum: Oh, Is that right She stood out In the minutes as

one of the few women delegates*

Durbrowi Yes, she was a very well-known person, California
Gibson*

Refinancing the District

Baum:

Durbrowt

Baum:
Durbrow :

Well, now, 1920 when the market broke on rice* what
effect had this on the Irrigation district?
The Irrigation district was put into a tail-spin, as
it couldn't meet its bonded debt installments* When
the Bond Certification Commission certified our bonds,
they required us to pay off our debt in this way: 5>/
of the principal of the debt eaeh year for twenty

; ; .' : .

years* Now that meant that in the first years of our

debt you had to pay the highest amount because the

Interest was on top of the 5$ payment*

So they weren't equal payments*

No, the payments were 3$ of the principle plus interest*

"->: VT:VS\* V

So I refinanced the district at that time by getting

the people who owned bonds to accept other dates of

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Durbrow! payment of principle to make equal payments every
year. That was the first refinancing I did for an
irrigation district*

Baumi So that didn't change the principle or interest*

Durbrow! It didn't change the principle or interest*

Baum: But reallocated the payments*

Durbrow! Reallocated the payments, yes*

Baumt id the bondholders object to that, any of then?

Durbrow! Oh, there were some objections, but I succeeded in

the refinancing to such an extent that I became very
well-known in the financial center in San Francisco
and that's how I happened to go over to Nevada Irri
gation District end refinance that district*

Baumi How did you handle this refinancing, this first one?
I -roan, what techniques did you use? Did you go to
San Francisco and talk to bankers..,

Durbrow: Yes, I went to San Francisco and talked to bankers*
I remember one meeting in the Palace Hotel where I
invited representatives from all the bond houses to
come and I explained the whole situation to them, after
luncheon* It waa successful and they all cooperated
and it waa a lot of fun,

Baural Were your district bonds down in value at that time?

Durbrow! Yes, th district bonds were down. And I think one

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Durbrow: of the reasons I wss able to put it over was thst
they ell realized thst, if I made it easy on the
district to pay the amount, the bonds would probably
be better off market-wise. It would increase the
price because the district would be less likely to
default in its payments*

Tolls and Aasessiaents

Bourn: After the rice collapse were the landowners able to

continue to meet their assessments?
Durbrowt Well, to some extent* A lot of the poorer land did

not meet their assessments and that's the reason it

; - - . -'

was so hsrd on the district* Their income was very
much depleted*

Baurc: Did these people who couldn't meet their assessments

or those for whom it was very hard hold any resentment
sgalnst the district or against you?

Durbrowt Ho. The only trouble I had was with a mall group

of landowners, mostly general crop landowners, a very
small group. The trouble was that the people who
owned most of the land didn't live on it and didn't
have a vote, so later the control went into the hands
of people who lived on the land, the small landowners,
who were rather opposed to the rice growers.

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aura: They would be opposed to all the costs they didn't

need, I suppose.

Durbrovt Well, of course, as a matter of fact, our Income wasn't
a matter of assessments so much as it was a matter of
selling water.

Baumt Oh, tolls.

Durbrow: Tolls, and we increased the tolls on rice and got by
that way.

Baum: Did you start out with water tolls from the very begin
ning?

Durbrow: Yes, we started out from the very beginning. I for
get what the tolls were* I remember that we made the
tolls very low on general crops, one dollar per acre*
That was done largely to help out the small farmer*
Then the rice growers paid the heavy amount of the
running costs of the district* X think it was ff> per
acre, if I remember rightly.

Baum: Could they pay that amount of money and still make
profit on their cropsT

Durbrow: Yea. The rice growers who continued to grow rice could
pay as that amount wasn't a very large proportion of
the costs of growing rice. After the collapse the
amount of rice grown was, for a while, considerably
leas. That, of course, caused a decrease in the dis
trict's income.

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Baura: What did they do with their land that they didn't

grow rice on?
Durbrow: Well, a lot of it became owned by the district. In

other words the assessments were not paid and it

went into district ownership.
Baura: It wasn't very good land, was it?

Durbrow: No, there was a lot of very poor land in Qlenn-Colusa,

a lot of alkaline land. It was good for growing rice

only. Not as good as the best land but it was used

and it has become better since.

Second Re financing

Durbrow: I left the district before they had to again refi
nance. My refinancing worked all right at long as I
was there in the district. But later they got into
difficulties, the price of rice still remained low,
and I think they folded in their payments of bonds
and they refinanced under the Reconstruction Finance
Corporation.

Baura: So this would be under the Municipal Bankruptcy Act.

Durbrow: Yes. At that time, and I was rather instrumental,

along with others in the Irrigation Districts Associ
ation, in forming that portion of the RFC which was
known as the Drainage and Irrigation Seetion. And

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Durbrow: under that section the RFC bought up the certain bond
issues that had a depleted price. The bonds had all
gone down in price. They bought them up and then re*
financed the districts.

Baums They bought the original bonds at low cost... Did
the district then issue new bonds?

Durbrow: Well, the RFC later sold such issues to a bond house
for a lower than original price and they issued new
bonds to the district. That was the way it was hand
led by the RFC, and they made money in so doing*

Baumt The RFC?

Durbrow* The RFC made money. They bought the bonds at a de
preciated price. Then, after the district got in
better shape, they resold the issue to a bond house
at a lower price than when originally issued and the
district was able to meet the lowered cost*

You're getting now beyond my time* This refin
ancing was all done in Glenn-Colusa after I left. As
a matter of fact, GUenn-Colasa, to my mind, could have
paid out exactly on my refinancing. It had the earn
ing power to pay out.

Baums You think they had the ability all during the depres
sion or would they have had to stop payment for a
while and pick it up later?

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DurbrowJ Well, if they had stopped payment they could have
picked it up. Aa a matter of fact, I don't think
they would ever have had to stop payment* It* a my
belief that the Slenn-Colusa district could have
paid out aa they were refinanced originally* That is,
refinanced as it was, not reducing the principal at all,
and the bonda would have all been paid out by 191^0.
Well, they nay have had to go a little beyond that
time, but I think they could have paid out and the
bondholder received all hia money*

Baurat -^id you oppose this refinancing of Glenn-Colusa later?

Durbrowt No. I had nothing to do with it at all* Whan I left
the district I was completely out of that*

Baurat Bat I take it you fael that it wasn't quite a fair

thing to do.

Durbrow: It waa done by friends of mine and I wai much in sjra-
pathy with them. Glenn-Colusa is in very good condi
tion at the present time and always has been a good
district. I mean it haa been in excellent shape ever
since rice has come back. Even before then it waa in
pretty good condition*

Baums Well, I've heard the argument that in many eases tbt

bonds were already out of the hands of the original
purchasers and in the hands or people who had bought

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Baum: them up at, sey, thirty cents on the dollar, so that

the original purchaser had already lost hit original

investment***

Durbrow: Chat's very often the case,
Baum: And Just the speculator would have made the profit

anyway*

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Durbrow s Yes.

Baum: So that's the argument I heard justifying this refi

nancing. Would you agree with that?

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Durbrow: Well, I would to some extent* Mow, as a matter of

fact, in Nevada Irrigation District many of the bond*
were always held by the original owners, although they
were traded on the market and a lot of them were sold*
I mean some of the very large holders held on to big

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blocks of bonds and as we refinanced it, they came out
very, very well. They were very happy at the outcome*

'* utt *

Baum! I should think you'd feel s little differently about

the original holders*

Durbrowt Ho, you couldn't. You see the bonds are like cash...
Baum: You have to treat them the same...

Durbrows Well, you don't know who owns them, unless you get

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list. Of course I had a list up in Nevada, a list of
who owned all the bonds.

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Annexation of Williams Irrigation District

Baum: I understand that the Williams District was annexed
to Glenn -Coins a.

Durbrovt Yes, that was during ray time,

Baum: 192U, waan't it?

DurbrowJ *es, we annexed the Williams Irrigation District and
we also supplied part of the water to the Provident,
and later, I think, supplied all the water to Provi
dent, and we supplied all the water for the Maxwell
Irrigation District. The Williams Irrigation District
became part of the Glenn-Coluaa Irrigation District,
but it had its own bond issue which was in very bad

Baum: Did the Glenn -Colusa landholders object to the anncxa-

tion of Williams?
Durbrow: No. Ho objection.

Baumt Because they had their own bond issue, I suppose*
Durbrow: Yes* We required them to take cere of their own bond

issue. Glenn-Colusa indebtedness was spread over it

all and then under that were the Williams Irrigation

District bonds.

Baumt And I understand that Williams bonds defaulted in 192?,

**
Was that any trouble to you?

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Durbrow: No, no trouble to us. It meant new ownerships of

land In the Williams Irrigation District because with
the bonds going into default, the district became the
owner of the land.

Bauin! And what would you do with the land?

Durbrow: We'd resell it,

Baura: Resell it... You could resell it?

Durbrow: Yes, we could sell it, but then there would still be
the obligation against it of the bonds so it wasn't
very salable*

Baum: Did you try to rent or lease it?

Durbrowt Williams Irrigation District lands? They were all

leased. I don't remember the details of the Williams
Irrigation District, how we handled the lands. I know
that the lands had mostly gone into default and their
bonds were in pretty bad shape at that time. We ex
tended the canal down to connect with Williams irriga
tion canals and it continued to be part of the Qlenn-
Colusa... it still is, of course.

Durbrow Leaves the District

Baura! Why did you leave the Glenn-Colusa Diatrict then?

Durbrow: Well, they had a recall election and they elected

another board that waa not to my liking at all. I had

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Durbrow: at that time many letters from larger landowners like
James Mills, who had a large orchard in the district,
and from many people in Sen Francisco, and others, who
all wanted me to stay* But this group of small land
owners who had come in had very different ideas as to
the district, not my ideas at all, so I got out.

Baums It was the small landowners who took over the director
ship...

Durbrow: Yes. When they replaced me with another man I showed
him around, gave him all the experience I could, but
he only lasted about a year*

Baums Was there any difference in the way they wanted the
district operated from the way it had been?

Durbrow! I don't know. I never have been able to figure out
what they wanted. As a matter of fact, I guess I
was kind of a czar. The board always knew exactly
what I was doing* I told them exactly* At the same
time, my way usually prevailed as they always approved.
However, as one of the small landowners whom I knew
quite well, said to me, "We want to run this district
ourselves. n And they ran it not very well until they
got experienced.

Baura! Veil, was it Just that they wanted to run it or did
they object to anything you were doing?

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D urbrow: No, they didn't object to anything I was doing.,,

Baura: Just objected to your doing it yourself,

Durbrovi Just objected to my doing it myself* As I say, they

wanted to run it themselves and I don*t know what they
changed. I don't think they changed very much. As a
matter of fact, most of our policies are still being
used. Of course they all became very friendly with as
later.

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RECLAMATION DISTRICT 20l|7

Baumi You ware also a director of Reclamation District 20lj.7.

Durbrovl Yes, I was the president of that district Reclamation
District 20l|-7, which covered GHenn-Colusa Irrigation
District and other districts, as wall as other lands*

Baura: That district was in trouble too, wasn't it?

Durbrowt Well, it got in trouble later* It wasn't in trouble
in my time* It got in trouble later and defaulted on
its bonds in Glenn-Colusa and this nan, Lambert, was
instrumental in having it dissolved* There* a no longer
any Reclamation District 20l;7

Baura: When were you president of the reclamation district?

Durbrow: I became president about 1926. I wouldn't say exactly
when. And I continued until about 1931.

Baura: Those were hard years for the reclamation district,

weren't they?

Durbrow t Yea. We had to do some cleaning work on the ditches,
but we didn't do very much work at that time on ac
count of the expense. The reason I was elected on the
board and then became president of the district, was
that we objected rather to the way it was being opera
ted and the expense of It. So we reduced the expense of

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Durbrow: operating Reclamation District 201(7 One of the old
members, a man by the name of J. C. Campbell, re
mained on the board with me. Then, there waa another
man, I* G, Zumwalt, and he plus Campbell end myself
were the board during my time and I waa president*
It was the largest reclamation district in Horthern
California* It had in it about 250,000 acres* It vat
conceived for the purpose of draining the irrigation
districts run-off back into the Sacramento River down
near Grimes where it had a removable dam, that could
let the water out in summer and hold the river water
back in winter,

Baumt Was this because the down-river had complained about

the Irrigation districts not returning as much irriga
tion water as possible?

Durbrow: No, there was no objection to that, but these dis
tricts needed draining, although Glenn-Colusa looked
after Its own drainage problems. But it drained all
run-off down into the Colusa Basin, to which there
was some objection. This reclamation district took
the drainage water back into the Sacramento River. It
wasn't a particularly necessary district and has now
been abandoned.

Baum: Why do you say it was a mistaktt

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Baton:
Durbrow:

Baum:

Durbrow:

Baumr
Durbrow:
Baum:
Durbrow:

It was too costly, for one thing* It added a debt

upon all the districts in addition to their irrigation

district debts, which was beyond their ability to pay

at that time.

But wasn't the drainage absolutely necessary?

It was absolutely necessary, but it could be done by

the districts themselves and was largely done by the

districts themselves. I think certain work done by

20l|7 was a very necessary drainage matter, but it

could have been worked out by an association of the

districts.

You think it would have been more economical to handle

the problem another way*

Very much more economical by an association of the

districts* Thia district contracted a rather large

bond issue which had to be paid off by the land in

the district.

I heard mentioned the name of Mr* Zurawalt,.*

He was on the board with me.

He was a heavy landholder*,

Yes, a heavy landowner and a rich man. He was rather

a difficult man, in some ways, to do business with.

but he was a very wealthy man, and I got along with

him fine. We were very good friends.

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I heard that Mr. Zurawalt was quite unpopular and I

wondered how he got himself elected*
Durbrow: He was unpopular because* as a merchant, if a farmer

had bought some implements from him (he was a big in*

plement dealer) and didn't pay him, he'd just go out

and take the implements away*
Baum: He foreclosed right away.

'*'*

Durbrow: He was a hard man to deal with. He was rather un
popular in that way.

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NEVADA IRRIGATION DISTRICT

Organization - 1921

Baum: I have aorae questions on the Nevada District*

Durbrow: I hare a few notes here.

Baum: I understand you hare been checking up on your old
papers and so on*

Durbrowt Yea, I cheeked on some of my old papers. Alto. I

vent down to the Nevada Irrigation District* A man
named Doyle Thomas, employed there, has made up
quite a history of the Nevada Irrigation District*
It isn't approved altogether by the present board of
directors, but they let me interview him and I got some
facts I wanted from him*

Baum: Who is he?

Durbrow: He was originally employed by the district as a pub*
licity man, but he tells me he is not in very good
favor with the board of directors at the present time*

Baum: Did they employ him to write up a hiatory?

Durbrow: *ea, he was employed by a former board of" directors
to write up titie history. I think, as you know, the
Nevada Irrigation District has been in continual fer
ment ever since I left. A somewhat radical group have
been in control.

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Baumi Radical In what way?

Durbrow: I don't know how to express it. They are dominated
by men who have radical political notions. I think
also they have what is called the Nevada Irrigation
District Water Users Association, which was somewhat
radical in some of Its views* I couldn't say just
exactly how.

Baum: Oh, I can see how their politics might be radical*

but I was wondering how that effected the operation
of the district?

Durbrows Well, whenever they had a real conservative manager
who seemed to be running things right, they made s
lot of trouble for him and he got out. So every
manager quit. They now have a new manager end X
don't know how long he's going to stay, but he seems
to be a good man.

Baurc: Who are these people? Are they landowners?

Durbrow: Yes, they're landowners. It's mostly the small land
owners, not the large landowners. I had that trouble
in Glenn-Colusa. Here I haven't any trouble because
I'm not in it. In fact, I got out of the Nevada Irrl
gation District when they elected a new group of di
rectors that I thought wouldn't operate things in the
way thst I wanted It operated.

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Bauraf Out of Hevada?

Durbrow: Tea, I was seventy years old at the time and I was

glad to retire anyway.

Baum: Does this conflict arise on the matter of assessments?
Ourbrow: I can't say just what it is. I think It's largely

a matter of wanting to run things rather than leaving

it to the engineer and manager.

Baum: It* a just a personality clash, Mho runs the show?
Durbrow: I think so. I think the small landowners, as in

Glenn -Colusa, wanted to run things. They got control

and began to run things, some times not to the best

advantage.
Baum! Getting back to the beginnings of the Nevada irrlgs-

tion District, I was wondering why it was formed*
I>urbrowt Well, it goes way back before the formation of the

district to about Hay 1916. A committee of fifty

prominent businessmen, ranchers, requested the P. G.

It E. to enlarge their facilities* A petition probably.

The F. 3. & . at that time refused, intimating they

were not aa much interested in irrigation as in power,

and therefore they refused to expand their irrigation

in te rests.
BauraJ Waan f t the P. G. & B. at that tin* selling water for

irrigation?

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DurbrowJ Yes, the P. G. & E. old water that came through the
South Tuba Canal to a power house after which it went
into the Cascade Ditch, Snow Mountain Bitch, and sev
eral other smaller canals. The amount was limited,
They sold water to Nevada City and the mines and to
Grass Valley also* T hy alo told water to a limited
extent for irrigation. It was entirely inadequate
and they were net inclined to increase the amount or
enlarge the distribution canals*

Baumt Was there any increase in agriculture in the area
about that time? That was about the time of World
War I.

Durbrow: i.o. The increase in agriculture in Nevada County came
after the shut-down of the hydraulic mines, in the
lete >80's end early '90's. Then, down in the Chicago
Park area, which is in the northeastern part of the
district, along the Bear River, the people moved in
fron Chicago* They were German people and they formed
a colony called the Chicago Park Colony. They raised
pears mostly. They raised them without Irrigation.
They weren't doing too well and wanted water*

In 1915 a man named A. L. Wisker, who became very
prominent later in the diatrict and was a pear grower.
organized a club with a membership of sixty-eight for

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Durbrow: irrigation purposes. T hen Kate Church, who also

became a very early member of the irrigation district,
talked with Wisker. As a result, they changed it
into what they called a Tana club and shortly there
after a man named Grasser was engaged for the Para
Bureau and the farm elub was turned into a unit of
the *'arm Bureau. In 1917 they formed this Farm Bureau
unit*

Also in 191? several prominent men, Earl Taylor,
Joe C. 0' Conner, A* L, Kosher, J. C. Tyrell, got in
touch with Crasser in regard to irrigation matters
and in 1918 Joe 0*Conner made filings on water for
the benefit of the area*

Baumt Hadn't the P. 0. & E* filings on the water?

Durbrow: No, the P. G. & E. just had their filings for water
and power from the Yuba and alao they had a power
plant on the Bear. The water really came from the
Yuba through another power plant and dropped the water
into the Bear.

Then in 1920 they formed what was known as the
Yuba-tfevada-Sutter Water and Power Association. Taylor
was president and Wisker was secretary*

Baum: This was Just a private group 'of citizens trying to
get water.

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Durbrow: Yes. The three counties, Tuba, Nevada, and Sutter,
pledged money for making surreys and filings and one
thing and another. They applied to the Reclamation
Service for help and were turned down. Then the
organization rather lapsed, as it was poorly attended
Finally they gave up.

Baum: And all this time the P. 0. & E. was resisting their
effortat

Durbrowt Yes, the P. 0. & B, were rather uncooperative. They
were against any increase of irrigation from their
own sources and also of course they were against any
filings that might produce power.

Then, also in 1920, Wisker suggested that Nevada
County form its own district, because of the failure
of the Yuba -Nevada -Sutter group, under state laws*
The Perm Bureau took over the organization and Orasser,
the farm advisor, was the leader. The Perm Bureau and
the farm advisor at that time were very close together,
much closer than they are now. On August 15, 1921

the district was organized.

^here was considerable opposition. There were
two petitions, one of 319 names and another of 797
names to form the district. Then in 192ij., May 7, 1921).,
bonds were voted.

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Baurat What was the opposition to the district?

Durbrow: A lot of the land was grazing land and people didn't
want to have Increased taxes* As a natter of fact,
the opposition to the formation of an Irrigation dis
trict Is usually a matter of resistance to Increased
taxes bj lends not greatly benefited. Of course, the
organization of an irrigation district means that you
must hare taxes to support it.

Baura: Was this before the district had thought of the idea

of selling water to the P. G, & E.T

Durbrowi Yes, they weren't working with the P, 0. & E. at all
at that time. They formed this district and then got
Fred Tibbetts to make plans for irrigation works. At
that time they began negotiation with the P. J. & B.
so that the water that was being impounded by the
district could be brought down through canals and de
livered to the P. (*. & E. through a power plant and
then was used through their other power plants.

Baumt Was this Tibbetts' idea, the sale of falling water?

Durbrow: Well, it was Tibbetts 1 plans. Wisker at that time
was the secretary of the district and he- became,
without compensation, for a time the manager, during
the time before they sold the bonds.

Then, Key 7 192l|, they voted bonds of 16,063,000
and that was later increased to $7,250,000.

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Durbrow: T he Farm Bureau assessed Its members ten cents

per acre to get Tibbetts 1 report. That 1 * how Tibbetts 1

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report was financed.

Baum: By a voluntary contribution.

Durbrow: *es, the preliminary report. That wasn't his final
report or plans; they were more costly than that.
The ten cents per acre was paid back when the dis
trict bonded itself, paid back to the people who
assessed themselves ten cents per acre.

Baum: Isn't it harder to vote bonds than to incorporate as

a district?

Durbrowt Well, they apparently didn't have any particular

trouble in voting the bonds. The bonds went over with
a pretty good majority.

Baum: Did you have anything to do with the district at that
time?

Durbrow: No, I didn't.

Baum: You weren't In touch with them?

Durbrowt Yes, I was in touch with then. Fred Tibbetts and I

were very close friends. So even before the district
had plans for building, I went up there with Tibbetta
to look over the area and met the board of directors.
They were already organized and had their first
board of directors. I went over it with them, Just
as a friend of Tibbetts. I was at that time president

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Durbrow: of the Irrigation Districts Association and interacted
in getting new districts formed.

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Durbrow J

Purchases and Construction
of District Facilities

Then began the negotiations. Wlsker was an ex
cellent negotiator* He negotiated the purchase from
the Excelsior Water and Power Company of their ditch
out of the South Yuba River for t30.000* Then on
November f>, 1925 they purchased Bowman Lake from
William B. Bourn, who owned Bowman Lake* They were
properties originally built for hydraulic mining*
So they bought the Bowman properties, which
included Bowman Lake, formed by two dams, which
were torn down and rebuilt later by the district.
Along with that went a dam by the name of Foucherie,
a small dam, and Saw Mill and French Lake, as well as
other properties which had all been acquired by Bourn*

Baums What did B O urn do with these lakes and dams?

Durbrowi Well, he waa practically the aole owner of the Empire
Mine in Grase Valley, a very wealthy man. At one
time he became a very large stockholder of the Spring
Valley VJater Company in San Francisco* In fact, he
sold that business to San Francisco. He bought theae

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101

Durbrow: properties and I don't know whether at the time he
bought them he had this idea, but later he had the
idea that he might divert that water into San Fran
cisco from the South Tuba. Later San Francisco
brought water from Hetch Hetchy, but Bourn had this
idea before he sold to San Francisco. It never be
came really a good project because I don't think
there waa enough water*

Later he sold the Spring Valley Water Company.
When he died he waa worth about thirty million dol
lars. In fact, I went up to Grass Valley originally,
when I waa a college student, with a letter from
Bourn to his superintendent. Be waa a friend of my
father* a.

Viaker also negotiated the purchase of Tarr
Ditch for 1100,000, out of Wolf Creek* Than the
Deer Creek system was bought from the P. 3. & E.
That took the P. G. & E. out of irrigation in Hevada
County.

Baura* At that time I imagine they realized the irrigation

dlatrict waa going and they might as well cooperate*

Durbrow: Yea. Well, the negotiation went further than the

purchase of the Deer Creek system. At that time he
negotiated the contract with the P. 0. 3e E. for the

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102

Durbrow: sale of water for power to them for the water from
Bowman and these other lakes which all came Into
Bowman and was routed from there through the Mountain
Division Ditch of the district. This ditch took the
water from Bowman Lake for eleven miles to a power
plant, the Rim Power Plant, of the P. 3. & B, Company.
This plant delivered water into Lake Spaulding. From
Lake Spa aiding it went down through the various power
plants of the P. 3. & E, and the district recovered a
good deal of the water. Not all of the water, because
some of the water went through in the wintertime*

With the bonds voted, they proceeded to build the
works of the district. The principal reservoir. was
Bowman Lake, which was formed by tearing down and re
building two higher dams where the old Bowman Bans
were, and doing other work, principally, building the
distribution canals*

M. M. 0*Shaughnessy was employed by Fred Tibbetts,
who was our engineer, as a consultant, particularly on
the building of Bowman Cam, which was quite an exten
sive affair, a rock-filled dam with a concrete face.
I went up to Bowman with Fred Tibbetts and O'Shaugnnessy
some years after the dan was built end he was very well
pleased with it. We stayed there overnight and had a

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103

Durbrowi very interesting trip with O'Sheugnnessy.

Baum: Fred Tibbetts was the engineer for the district for

long time?
Durbrow: Oh, he was the engineer for the district originally

and for as long as he lived.
Baum: Did he live up around there?
Durbrow: No, he lived in Berkeley.

Baum: I notice he has been in on a lot of irrigation dls-
:^Mm> triot planning.

Durbrow: Tea, he has. His firm was quite the first firm in

the planning of irrigation district works in Northern

'\' ' ' *
California.

Baum: I also noticed that Tibbetta represented Nevada Dls-

trict at the Irrigation Districts Association sometimes,

Durbrow: Yes, I used to invite him always to go* Sometimes

he went. He also, you know was the engineer for the
Santa Clare Conservation District, building those
works down there. I used to go to the various jobs
he was on to look them over with him. Not that I had
any special ability. We were close friends and I was
an engineer and I was Interested. That's how Z hap
pened to go up first to see the Nevada Irrigation
D lstrlct proposed works*

Baum! I reed the prospectus for that first issue of bonds

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Baton: and I noticed that it mentioned that most of the dis
trict would be paid for by the sale of falling water
to the P. 0. * E,

Durbrowt Visker also negotiated with the bond people before
these bonds were sold, using the contract with the
P. G, 8s B, the income from which was entirely devoted
to the repayment of these bonds. That has always been
so and still is.

Beumt I was wondering if the landholders thought they would
have to pay any assessments at all?

Durbrowt Well, that's where Visker fell down. He rather in*
tins ted that the thing would be so wonderfully self*
liquidating that there would be no assessments. Be

went so far as to have then think that in time they
wouldn't even have any water tolls. In other words*
he was overly optimistic. I always figured that
Visker, whom I knew very well, was something of
dreamer, although he was a very good negotiator. He
went back to Washington and negotiated with the Fed
eral Power Commission and got them to give the dis
trict a power permit to sell water and power to the
P. 0. & E. He did a wonderful lot of very competent
work, negotiating these contracts.
Baumt What was Mr. Wisker's occupation? You say he was not

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105

Baum: compensated for his work with the district.

Durbrow: Mr. Visker came to Nevada Count 7 to operate a farm
for a man named Whitney, up on Loma Rica* He was
operating that farm and was quite a factor in i*
proving the affairs of the community and making better
the agricultural situation all through Nevada County*

Baurat Was he trained in agriculture?

Durbrow: I don't know whether he waa or not.

Baum: He was a ranch manager*

Durbrowt He was a ranch manager and operated this Loma Rica

Ranch and lived at Loma Rica I the property later be
came the property of the principal owner of the Idaho-
Maryland Mine who lived there until his death,

Baum: This was a large ranch, I presume*

Durbrow: A good-sized ranch, yea.

Then, December 10, 1926, it looked a a though the
district was going to be operated all right and water
waa going to be available, so some of the acreage in
Placer County wanted to Join the district. On that
date 66, $00 acres in Placer County were annexed to the
district, making 2,268,500 acres in the district. That
was the district as I knew it.

The first water was delivered July 1, 1927.

Baum: When did you come to the district?

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106

Ihirbrowl I came in July 1929*

1*11 go a little further* On May 8, 1928 the
second bond issue was voted. It was intended to cover
reservoirs at Scotta Flat, Combie Dem, and the pur*
chase from P. G.&E. of Gold Hill and Ophir. It never
did all those different things* but it helped complete
the works of the district*

Wisker* Power Development Flans Pail

' ': A

Dux-brow: Then, the district needed more revenue. It was get
ting to be in rather bad shape. It could be seen that
the revenue was not sufficient to service the bonds*

Baum: The P. G. & E. was adhering to their contract?

Burbrowt Yes.

Baum: And you had water to sell them?

Durbrow* Yes. But the district didn f t have enough income to
even service the bonds.

Bauras Were people buying the water at the rate that Wisker

had expected?

Durbrow: That carae a little later. Wisker left just about the
time they delivered the first water to the district.
In 192? he got into trouble. One thing, Wisker saw
that things were not going to work out so he organized
what was known as the Pacific Electric and Development

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107

Durbrow: Company with which he intended to take over the work*
of the district and have the diatrict turn the whole

W., 1 *-. r^_ _*& -i

thing over to him* He had organized this company and
they proposed to go ahead and produce more power by
voiding the contracts with P. G. it , and by other
means using the water to make more power*

Baurat In other words* this company, which was Mr. Uisker,

was going to produce the power rather than have the
P. G. & E, do It.

. >!-"

Durbrow: And also was going to return the water to the land
owners, get more weter, much cheaper. They weren't
going to have any assessments at all*

Faun: Was the idea that they would make so much money off

the scle of the power that they could do this?

Durbrow i Tha^s ri^ht, that they would make money off the sale
of the power and th*t would lessen the cost to the
farmers of the district.

Now, that didn't work out. I have understood
thet he had commit teen ts of some fourteen million
dollsrs from some Eastern sources to go ahead with
this work. At the same time, the board didn't approve
and they had disagreements and he quit the district in
1927.

Bauras At the time Mr. Wisker was suggesting that you produce

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108

Baum: your own power, did the district consider putting in
their own power plant, or having this other company
put in a power plant?

Burbrowt That waa Wisker's scheme. Just what his plans were is

* ._.

heard to say. Also, one of the things that troubled
me when I first took over the district was a great
antagonism to the district by the P. 0. it E. and one
of the reasons was that Visker had filed on the waters
of Bear River, which the P. 0. & E. had plans for using,
He had filed on and intended to use, but he didn't
have the money,

Baums x hen Visker was contemplating that at some time the
district would be in the power business?

Durbrowi Not the district. The Pacific Development and Power
Company.

Baums Would the area around there have been able to pur
chase all of the power? Could this company have re
tailed the power around there?

Durbrow: No. Just as other districts did, they would have had
to sell that to P. G, & E,

BaumJ There was no thought of retsiling?

Durbrow: No. There couldn't have been because there wasn't

market. I was in the power business for several years
and I realized that Viaker was dreaming. It couldn't

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109

DurbrowJ be done. It failed in every ease where people had
formed power companies, even with a better market
than he could have had. They either failed to make
profit or found it more profitable to sell out to the
P. d. & E, That was true of the Northern California.
Power Company, the Stanislaus Power Company, the Oro
Water, Light and Power Company with which I was con
nected and others.

Baum: You felt power production was too big an undertaking
for a district.

Durbrowt It was too big for a district this size. It didn't
have the potential water power to make a big thing

of it either. They are still attempting, under

i. ,
recent management, to find means of financing new

power developments but they intend to sell to P. Q. &

E.
Baum: *es, I noticed the district is thinking of doing their

own power development.
Durbrow: I don't know the details of that, but I know that they

have had engineers working on the problem. Also the

P. G. & E. has worked on the problem but "have not yet

come up with the final solution.
Baum! Would the P. G. & E like to have the district produce

the power and then sell it to the P. 0. & E.T

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110

Durbrow: Well, the P. 0. & E. have changed their attitude

since I first started in. They are now friendly to
irrigation districts, very friendly. For instance,
very recently they have built a series of power
plants known as the Tri-Para project. They build the
power plants and give the water back to the district,
the sale of power paying the cost. So they're been
very friendly and very cooperative. Ait at the time
I went to Nevada District they were not friendly. As
a matter of feet, Paul Downing was the general manager
of the Pacific Gas and Electric Company at that time.
I knew him personally very well. He didn't like
Nevada Irrigation District. He told me so personally.
But eventually we became very friendly and P. O & E.
cooperated with the district in every way they could.
But they insisted upon sticking to their contracts*

Baum: Why do you think the P. a. & E. was so against the
irrigation districts, especially since some like
Nevada didn't seem to be a threat to them?

Durbrowt The Pacific Gas and Electric Company figured that power
was their particular province and it wasn't the pro
vince of an irrigation district. Some districts had
gone into the power district, which they didn't like.
Like Turlock, Modesto, and Imperial. But they realized

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Durbrow: they couldn't combat those things if the conditions
were right for a district to go into the power busi
ness. But in other cases, and most cases, the P. G.
& E. has produced the power generated by the falling
water from irrigation district works. They have been
very friendly and cooperative in that way.

I've gone into this because I went from the time
they were uncooperative and antagonistic to irriga
tion districts to the time that they were very friendly.
Even after I quit Nevada Irrigation District the friend
liness has continued.

Baums I imagine that is because the P. 0. & E. doesn't

think any districts are going to go into retailing
power any more.

Durbrow: I don't think they believe it will hurt them very badly.
There have been a number of cases where districts or
municipalities have gone into the power business, but
the P. G. Sc E. still are the wholesale producers of
electricity, like San Francisco* They produce a cer
tain amount of their own power but they also buy from
P. 0. & E. Or If there's a shut-down of 'their own pow
er plants they have an arrangement by which they can
get power from the P. G. & E.

BaumJ Of course, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District
has gone off of the P. G. & E.'s market.

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112

Durbrow They still buy from P. 0. & B. but would like to
buy from the Reclamation Bureau. That looks as
though It might be rather an unfair situation to the
private company, because Sacramento wants to buy
from the Reclamation Service at a rate that is lower
than the eost of production, all things considered*

Baumt What do you think of the present plans of the Nevada
District for making their own power? The Haypress
Project.

Durbrowt If the Pacific Gas and Electric Company considers it
a feasible project and they work it out together, I
think It will be all right. There is water there and
there's drop enough to make considerable power, but
it would require cooperation of all parties to do it*
P. G. & E, would buy that wholesale then?
Oh yea.

Baumi
Durbrow :
Baum:
Durbrow i

Then why shouldn't the P. 0* & B* build it?

Well, the water rights belong to the district, so it's

natural that it should be done by the district.
Baum: So you think it's feasible if it works out with the

P. 0. & E. satisfactorily*
Durbrow: Tea, but it has to be not only feasible but economic

for both parties.

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113

Durbrow Becomes Manager - 192?

* ,'i \ *t i ?

Durbrowi After Wisker quit, the district than hired Fred Miller
ai manager of the district for one year. During his
administration they negotiated another contract with
the P. 0. & E. and they got out another bond issue*
This bond issue was for $2,592,000. Then the P. 0.
& B. enlarged their canal out of the Bear River, from
their Bear River Head Dam near Colfaz down a number
of miles through a couple of power plants. They en-

> >

larged that canal to take the district water, but at
district expense. The district would pay them back
some $55,000 per year. That gave the district a
larger income.

At the end of the year there was a good deal of
dissatisfaction, particularly from the bondholders
standpoint. I was contacted, largely through the
bondholders and their attorneys, Orrick, Palmer ft
Dahlquist. They contacted me and I was asked to go
up and take over the management of the district.

Baumi At that time was there any default yet?

Durbrowi Yes, there was default, but it wasn't a default as to
the bondholders. It was a default in this wayt a cer
tain combination of landholders and bondholders pur-

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Durbrowt chased the coupons of the district as they became

due, so that there was no actual default at the time
I took over. For a year or two I had to continue
this process of raising enough additional money to
pay the interest through the sale of the coupons. The
coupons were good of course. They would always be the
first to be redeemed.

I took over the district on the first of July,

H 1< *9. HAti

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Baumi Why did the bondholders contact you?

Durbrowt I had had a good deal of background on the handling

of district bonds. I was well known in the financial
district of San Francisco and also by the attorney**
As a matter of fact, I knew Orrlck very well* A
college friend* I had a good reputation in San Fran
cisco among the bondholders because I had refinanced
the bonds of the Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District and
had contacted many bond houses as well as bondholder*
down there* I was well known and they wanted me a*
manager of the district* I had quit Glenn-Colusa. A*
a matter of fact, I intended to go more deeply into
farming, but I didn't. So I went over to Nevada Irri
gation District.

Baumt When you got to Nevada, were the landowners paying a

BauraJ tax on their land? Or was all the money still coming
from P. d & K. and the water tolls?

Durbrow J No, the landowners were paying a very heavy tax* Inc
order to try and get the revenue of the district up to
a point where they eould meet their bond interest* the
bondholders were trying to insist on an extremely
heavy tax, which I considered too heavy a burden for
the landowners. There was very little irrigation.
It was mostly dry land and it was Just an additional
cost to the farriers to pay this tax*

Baum: This tax was falling on all of the lands, including
a majority of them that weren't using any water.

Durbrow: Yes. At that time I came to a little disagreement
with the bondholders committee themselves* The head
of the committee was L S. Keplinger. I had some
disagreement with him because he was all for soaking
the landholders. He represented the Eastern bond*
holders.

Baum: Wasn't he with Dillon, Head & Co.?

Durbrow: Yes, he waa. He was all for making the landowners

pay through the nose so the bondholders vould get the
full amount of interest. He tried to force a tax on
as* We did, for a couple of years, in *29 and '30,
put on a tax of $60,000, which I maintained was the

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116

Durbrow: Unit that they could pay. Z said that limit could
not be considered aa a permanent limit, but vaa Just
in order to get by a certain period*

Baura: Doesn't the law require the district to levy assess

ments adequate to meet your obligations?

Durbrow: Yea* It should, but you can't do the impossible. In
other words, you can't levy what they can't pay* Even
under the $60,000 whieh we levied, there were a let

of delinquencies MM! a lot of land reverted to th*

district.

Pirat Refunding - 1931

Durbrowt My first job was to refinance the district. I could
see that the then Income of the district couldn't
meet its interest and pay off its bonds. It had been
reported by Tibbetts and later by the firm of Quinton,
Code, Hill-Leeds & Barnard of Loa Angeles, under Sum
mary of Power Revenue Reasonably Assured^ that there
would be a full flow of water for the district every
year so it would pwt the maximum revenue from the
P. G. & B. This amount would have been $ij.37,800 to
atart, and that would have been enough to pay the
Interest and retire a substantial part of the bonda,
if the interest rate of the bonds should be reduced to

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117

Durbrowt

The original bonded debt of the district was at
5J# and ao I met with the attorneys and the bond*
holders on this matter and finally got an agreement,
which was rather a difficult thing to do too, to get
them to reduce the interest from 5& to i$. This
was known as Nevada Irrigation District Plan, dated
Juno 1, 1931* and was finally proposed to the bond*
holders by a ootnraittee representing the original bond-
houses which put out the bonds.

The plan tells the whole story. I had quite a
job of getting the bondholders to agree to this plan.

Baura: How dl<2 they get in touch with the bondholders?

Weren't they pretty well sprinkled around?

Durbrowj Yes, we could get them because we got in touch with
the different people who had sold the bonds. There
were both Eastern and Western bond houses that di*
tributed the bonds. However, we were able to contact
them. The only trouble was that at that time there
was no provision for a refunding plan that forced the
bondholders to do anything. So we had to^get the
bondholders to agree voluntarily* and I want to tell
you, it was a tough Job.

Baumt It was just persuasion.

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118

Durbrow: It was persuasion* But the principle of the persua
sion was that this would make their bonds better*
As a matter of fact, the bonds had gone down to twenty-
four cents on the dollar* That was the lowest figure
at which they sold* The plan, when accepted, did
raise the bonds considerably over that figure. It
made their bonds better, safer*

Baum: So they were willing to take this lower interest for
better bond* Were there any bondholders who re
fused to put their bonds in?

Durbrowi As I remember it, we got practically ell of then.

There was one bunch of bonds, I think tlO.OOO, which
on the last modification of the refunding plan hadn't
come in. They belonged to a maiden lady down in San
Marino. Finally, the attorney told me, "We have to
have all those bonds in before we can put through
this deal." So I had to go down end buy those bonds*

Baum: At par?

Durbrow: No, I made some kind of a deal* I forget whet the

deal was now, but we got the bonds at a fairly decent
price. But she did, perhaps, a little better than
the others.

Baum: Someone told me that Edward Treadwell did the same
thing on the Nevada refinancing.

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119

Durbrowt Well, that waa somewhat the same sort of deal* He vac
a hold-out. I went in to see Ed Treadwell. We wanted
to get his bonds* I don't remember lust what the
deal waa but I had to agree to give him a little bit
better deal than the others, which Z waa very unhappy
to do. Nearly everybody had come through and he hadn't.
He waa a little bit selfish on the proposition; he
wanted to get a little more*

This plan made quite a change in the refunding
of irrigation bonds* The plan provided that if there
were further modifications of the plan and if 7j# ef
the outstanding bonds consented, all bonds would have
to consent.

This was part of the contract on the new bondsf
Yes, the contract for the new bonds* We ran into a
lot of opposition. J. R* Mason waa quite a well-
known bond dealer end he brought suit and the suit
was carried up through the courts and got practically
to the Supreme Court. It got to the highest federal
court outside of the Supreme Court, then they quit}
so we won.

I have a note that the California Legislature passed
a law that such a provision waa legal*

Durbrowl That waa after we got this through the courts.

Baumj

Durbrow:

Baum:

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120

Baum: Oh, so you were the ones they passed the lav for.
Durbrow: No, they passed the law because we proved it could be

done. We started things moving. And we won out in

every court. We were then in a position for later

modification.
Baum: A ease came up after the first modification, Mulcahy

vs. Baldwin*
Durbrow: That was our own case to test the legality* We had

a number of problems coming up. One thing was to

have a court ruling on the original plan.
BauraJ There was some litigation by Placer County resident*

against the district in about 1930. Bo you remember

that?
Durbrow t Yes, I do. As a matter of fact, we made very good

friends of them afterwards.

Baum:

As I get the story, they were paying the P <J. & B.

for water that the P. 0. 4 B. got from the district
and they were paying a higher rate than the purchas
ers from the district had to pay and they were angry
about it.

Durbrow* That's right. We finally consented to py the dif
ference.

Baum: This was a loss to you, wasn't it?

Durbrow: A loss to the district*

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121

Beam: Because you sold the same water at a lower price to

the P. 0. & E. ,**.*#** ^ ;$,. -

Durbrowt No, it wasn't that. Some of the lands in the district
were being served by P* 3. & E and they were being
charged $lj.5> an acre* The district rate for orchard
lands was $2lj. and for a time we paid the difference.
We gave them a rebate on their water -bills* I don't
remember that they won any suit; I don't think they
did. I don't remember that it went to court*

The only suit I remember, in the early days of
my administration was a suit against the Pacific Gas
and Electric Company. W had delivered, in 192?, water
to the P. <J. !c B. and they had never paid us for it,
They claimed the delivery in 192? was not in accord*
ance with the contract, that it would be a violation
of the contract for them to pay that* Ve had a suit
over this 192? delivery, which we won*

There was another suit against the district about
that time. Certain landowners got water from Wolf
Creek for their lands. It wasn't served by the dis
trict, Just taken by those lands by their own ditches

out of Wolf Cyeek. T hes people sued, claiming that
they had always received this water, that it was
natural water from Wolf Creek and that they were en-

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122

Durbrow: titled to receive it as a water right and at no

cost* We really didn't carry the suit beyond the
Superior Court* We agreed to a modified adjudica
tion of it under which we gave them a little less
water than they claimed, but we agreed that they were
entitled to this water*

Baums So they didn't have to pay water toll*

Durbrowt No, The crux of that whole suit was this. There

was no water in Wolf Creek at times. We proved that.
But there had been water in Wolf Creek ever since
early times because the mines had pumped it into
Wolf Creek. It wasn't natural i/ater. We proved It

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wasn't natural water and all they were entitled to
was the natural flovr. Now, the court held that the
water the mines pumped out, not the water we might
deliver into the mines but the water they pumped out,
was in lieu of the natural flow that the mines had
taken away, and they were entitled to such water* I
think now the mines are shut down those people will
eventually lose their rights to water because there is
actually no water in Wolf Creek in the summertime, or
just a trickle.

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Second Modification * 1937

. e .- o t ia 1 5 on with the H .FC .

Durbrowi Then, later, * vt operated for several years under
the plan with Interest reduced to li* we had several
bed years..,

Beuat Bed water years?

Durbrowt Zee* At that time the Municipal Bankruptcy Aet had

coma Into being and there wee a division formed, known
as the Irrigation and Drainage Division of the Recon
struction Finance Corporation, and we decided to try
and work through it* Z figured that things weren't
working out right et all, because while under the
itf we had been able to pay our interest, we hadn't ra*
duoed the bonded debt at all* So we decided the bond
issue had to be age in re financed in some Banner.

So I went back to Waahington in 1933 *nd again
in 1936* The first time Z went with our attorney end
we got nowhere et all* They turned us down cold.

Bauns You wanted the R.P.C. to refinance the whole diatriet,
buy in the bonda and iaaue new oneaT

Durbrowt Tea* That ia what they were doing with other dis
tricts. In some oaaea it worked out very well for
the districts*

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Durbrow: The second time I went back I get to know the
people very well indeed* Ercil Schramm, who later
became the head of the Hew York Stock Exchange, wet
at that tine the head of the Irrigation and Drainage
Division of the R.F.C. He was very friendly. He
had been out here and I had net him and worked with
him, so we knew each other rather well. He looked
over our reports and had his engineers and his ac
countants go over our bond plan* Finally he turned
us down absolutely cold, said he couldn't do anything
for us at all*

Bauxn: On what basis?

Durbrow: On the basis, mostly, that our bonds were supported
by power income and not irrigation. Anyway, they
turned ua down and finally he said, "Bill, I hate to
do this but we cant do anything for you at all* But
you can appeal our decision and I won't object if you
want to go to the big board." The big board was head*
ed by Jesse Jones of Texas. Of course, irrigation
district affairs were too small, usually, to ever appear
before them. But he said, "You can appear before them
if you want to. 11 I said, "I'll appear before them.*

So I got Senator Henderson of Nevada to make a
date for me with the board. It was a very, very

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125

Durbrowt Interesting netting I had with the Reconstruction
Finance Corporation board. I went to the board
meeting. Jesse Jones wasn't there, but the rest of
the board was. They said I'd hare about fifteen
minutes, but I ended up by having about an hour.
When I got through they were all very good-natured
about it. They said I had just sold then Nevada
County. They all seemed to be very pleased with
the exposition I had made of our situation and what
we could do and how good our country was and what a
good future the district had.

The next day I went into Henderson's office to
see what they had decided. The secretary asked me
to take a seat and wait, that Senator Henderson was
busy at the time. Just after I came in a tall man
with white hair came in. I knew him right away from
what I had heard of him. That was Jesse Jones. So
he went in and had his talk with Henderson. He wasn't
there more than about ten minutes. As he came out
Henderson came with him and introduced him to me*
When he was introduced, he slapped me on the back and
said, "I know all about California. I've gone through
there on a railroad train." We had a little converse-
tlon and then he said, "I think we can fix you up all

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126

Durbrow: right ." Then I went into Henderson's office and h*
said, "That's all we needed. When Jesse says you
are all right, you can do a thing, why it 9 a done, w

Baum: So he vaa really a big man in that outfit?

Durbrow: Oh, he was one of the big aan of the United States
at the time. The R.F.C. handled all sorts of big
affairs.

So when Jesse Jones said it was all right, the
others usually agreed* They had been sold by my talk
as to Nevada Irrigation District. So several days
later they gave their final consent, but it wasn't
very satisfactory one to me. But I said, "I don't
care what it is, I want a deal* You've gone over
the district's reports and plans and I want you to
give me a deal* I don't care how bad It is, what it
is, I want it. I can use it."

The deal was that they would pay us fifty cents
on the dollar for our bonds and also that we were to
issue some 1$ bonds in addition to this money for
the bondholders, kind of s bonus*

Baurat I didn't quite understand that. You were' going to get

the bonds from the bondholders*

Durbrows The R.P.C. would buy the bonds.

Baum: The R.F.C, would buy the full issue, not a new issue,

the same issue.

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127

Durbrowt Yes, for fifty cents on the dollar.

Baumt Were you supposed to pay off at par to the R.F.C.?

Durbrowt No, they would sell them later. They would just

charge us on the basis of fifty cents for th* bonds.
Baumt So the bondholders would have taken just half .
Durbrowt And the bonds were only selling for about thirty*

four* As I say, we'd had very bad years and while

we'd met the interest, we hadn't been able to pay

any on the principal.

A Private Peal

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Durbrow: It was just what I wanted. I was perfectly satisfied,
I came baek and then I got hold of the bankers end
the bondholders, particularly the Bank of America,
We had a meeting in the Bank of America building.
Russell Kent of the Bank of America became the chair
man of this first meeting, and we discussed th situa
tion as to bonds. I told them what the deal was as
offered by the R.F.O. and had the R.F.C. report show
ing that the district was all right but that's all

they would pay for the bonds. I said, *I think we

can do better with a private deal** So finally we

made a private deal.

. .
Baumt Was this about 1937?

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128

Durbrowt It was in 1936 that we were negotiating. The re
funding plan is dated January 1, 1937* It was in the
early part of 1936 I was back in Washington and got
this report* Then, later on I began negotiating with
this bondholders 1 committee. This committee repre
sented people who owned large blocks of the bonds.
Fred G.Stevenot was chairman and represented Bank of
America* A. 0. Stewart was head of the Federal Re
serve Bank in San Francisco, Robert M. Searls was
very prominent attorney in San Francisco* end represent*
ed his brother, Fred Searle, who was a large bond*
holder. Kernan Hobson was a bondholder, and Earl V*
Huntley was a stock and bond operator.

Baura: So here on your bondholders advisory committee you

had the major bondholders*

Durbrowt ?es. As a matter of fact, on the committee we had
i|X> of the outstanding bonds. We had several long
meetings. Finally it was decided that the bonds
would be reduced to 3#. Certain other changes were
made. We would be allowed to buy the bonds up at
any amount we could with the surplus money.

Baum: *es, I noticed that you did that.

Durbrow: Under the first plan we had agreed to a sinking fund
of |200,000 to provide funds in case we fell down in

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129

Durbrow: Interest or any disaster came to the Mountain Divi
sion works of the district* Under certain conditions
we could apply to the Bond Certification Commission
for money out of this fund but had to refund it out
of future revenues.

One time, about 1935* after the original plan
had gone into effect but before we had gone ahead with
this modification of the plan, Fred Sesrls, who was
a big minijig operator, and president since, of the
Newmont Mining Company, which at that time controlled
the Empire Mine and to whom we sold considerable
water, came into my office. He was a hard man to
talk to, as he decides for himself rather quickly and
doesn't give you very much time to talk. Anyway, he
said, "Mr. Durbrow, Ive got $10,000 of your bonds.
We owe you money for water each month. Supposing I
pay that water in bonds fit the depreciated value."
It looked like a rrood deal to him. Of course, it
was a good deal for the mine* However, it gave me a
chance to show him how it wouldn't do, how it wouldn't
work out for the district. Then I outlined to him
my plans for refinancing the district. I explained
to him how at a lower interest rate the bonds would

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Durbrowj rise in value, they'd be good bonds, and I thought
the district then could go ahead paying interest and
reducing the principal. He listened, first time I
ever knew him to really listen* He got the whole
story, all about the irrigation district and my finan
cial problems as to it* Finally he went out*

In about a month or two he came back. He said.
"Durbrow, I have $100,000 of your bonds now* I'm
perfectly willing to help you in your refinancing."
Well, it ended up by his buying over $2,000,000 of
our bonds, or a quarter of the whole issue. He was
a great help in putting through the modification of
the refunding plan of January 1. 1937*

One time, when I was in the middle of negotiating
this modification I was walking down Montgomery Street
with a man named V* D, Courtright, a rice -president
of the Bank of America. As we were walking along the
street, we met Fred Searls. Fred Searls never dressed
up; he usually dressed very carelessly* He had on
an old cap, his clrthes *ere mussed, his shirt was
old end mussed. He stopped us, so I introduced Court
right to him. Courtright didn't recognise the name.
Fred said, "How are you coming along with your modi
fication? 1 * B 0h f n I said, "We're coming along very

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131

Durbrov: well. We need about 1,000,000 more of the bonds to
handle the deal." He said, "You get them end Ill
buy them." Then we went on. Courtright looked at
me and said, "How the heck is that man coming along
here, an old slob like that, offering to buy a rail-
lion dollars worth of bonds?* I said, "Be would, too,
There's no question he has the money and he'd buy

..' V.-J J A';'-"-

them* That's Fred Seerls. He's one of the heeds of
the Newmont Mining Company. He's helping us very
much in this refinancing."

Anyway, we got the necessary bonds, although not
too easily.

Baumt Searls bought a lot of those bonds himself and de
posited them.
m .--..

Burbrows Rather I would say he bought them for himself end his
clients.

Baum! Did he sell bonds?

DurbrowJ No, he was one of the heads of the Newmont Mining

Company, one of the big mining companies of the world.
He bought some of them for the Newraont, some for the
then -pre si dent of the Newraont, some for Mrs. Thomp
son, a large owner of Newmont and a very wealthy woman.
Her husband, Thompson, formed the Newmont Mining Com
pany. The name Nswmont is a contraction of the words

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132

Durbrowi Hew York and Montana, and it became a very wealthy

raining organization in Mew York, Hewmont controlled
the Empire Mines of Grass Valley* They all made con
siderable money out of Nevada Irrigation District
bonds.

Baumi That we a a good deal for him*

Durbrowi An awfully good deal.

Baura: Because he knew those bonds were going to go up.

Durbrowt I had told him at our first meeting that I thought
those bonds were going to go up, but I said, "The
income isn't sufficient at present to properly ser
vice them and that f s the reason we have to modify the

present plan." He realized that if the modification
went through it would increase the price of the bonds,

We got the modification through. The result of
that was these bonds which had gradually raised from
twenty-four up to thirty, thirty-five, rose into the
sixties, that's when he was buying them. Eventually
they got up to over par. In fact, I sold some bonds
I had for 103.

Baum: This was after the modification had gone 'through*
Durbrowt After the modification. That made the bonds good.
Those people who had bought bonds at 5i$ interest
gained money by their being reduced to 3# because

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133

Durbrow: the bonds rose in value.

Baum: Because you had thia R.F.C. deal, you were able to
make a private deal.

Durbrowi The R.P.C. deal had done thia for me, it had given
me a report on the district. They had thoroughly
gone into the detaila of the district, its contracts
and everything else. That was the help it had given
me. And it had given me a rotten deal so that I
could turn to the bondholders and get a better deal*

Baum: You could say, "Look what's going to happen. You're

only going to get fifty cents on the dollar and you'd
better do something about it."

Durbrowi Yes, and Instead of that they got a hundred cents on
the dollar.

Baum: That was pretty clever financing, I think. The R.P.C.
didn't know you were going to do that, did they?

Durbrowl Well, I didn't tell them what I was going to do, I
merely told them 1 didn't care how bad their deal
was, I wanted a deal. Sehramm had refused to give me
a deal. I respect him, he had a good reason for doing
that. But knowing me so well, he did say,- "You can
go before the big board," and that was the turning
point. That gave me a chance.

Baum: I noticed in one of the things you sent out, that in

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BaumJ order to get bondholders to turn in their bonds they
could go to a bond house. The bond house got a half
of 1% of all the bonds they persuaded bondholders to
deposit*

Durbrow: There was a payment.

Baum: I also noticed you didn't have to do that very long*

Durbrowt No, not very long.

Baum: Did you have a financial advisor or did the bond*

holders committee suggest all these different tech
niques of getting in the bonds*

Durbrow: We had this advisory committee which was headed by
Fred Stevenot. I had an offiee in San Francisco and
a secretary there and we handled this transaction
right in that office. The bonds were deposited with
the Bank of America National Trust and Savings Asso
ciation. There was a letter of consent and trans-
mittal. That didn't provide for any payment. They
could be deposited in New York, Philadelphia, Boston,
or Chicago. Many of the bonds were held in the East.

Baum: Were there any holdouts, then, in this 1937 modifica
tion?

Durbrow: There couldn't be.

Baum: After you got 15% you were in.

Durbrow: Yes.

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PLEASE SIGN AND RETURN
PROMPTLY WITH DEPOSIT
ED BONDS

LETTER OF CONSENT AND TRANSMIT! AL

(Modification of Nevada Irrigation District Refunding Plan.)

Dated 1937.

BANK OF AMERICA NATIONAL TRUST AND SAVINGS ASSOCIATION,
485 California Street,
San Francisco, California.

Depositary under Modification dated as of January 1, 1937, of Nevada irrigation District .
Refunding Plan dated June 1, 1931.

In care of - Sub-Depositary

(Here insert name of any sub-depositary mentioned on the reverse hereof if the Bonds are to be deposited in New York, Philadel
phia, Boston or Chicago.)

Dear Sirs :

The undersigned is the owner and holder of bond(s) of the First Refunding Issue of Nevada Irrigation District dated Sep
tember 15, 1931, listed below, viz:

Numbers of Bonds:

(Insert here the letters and numbers which appear at the top
lefthand corner of each Bond.)

Aggregate Principal Amount of Bonds:

all standing in the name of, or now owned by the undersigned, and hereby deposits said bonds, accompanied by fixed and con
tingent interest coupons due July 1, 1937, and all subsequently maturing fixed and contingent interest coupons (and also A July
1, 1932 and B Julj 1, 1932 and all Deferred Interest Coupons due January 1, 1934 and subsequently), and hereby becomes a party
to the Modification dated as of January 1, 1937 of Nevada Irrigation District Refunding Plan dated June 1, 1931, receipt of a
copy of which Modification the undersigned hereby acknowledges. The undersigned, by the execution of this Letter of Consent and
Transmittal in respect of the above-mentioned bonds, assents to and is fully bound by the provisions of the aforesaid Modification and
has become a party thereto with the same force and effect as though he had signed the same. The undersigned does hereby
further make, constitute and appoint Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association, or any agent, employee or
nominee thereof, his true and lawful attorney, for him and on his behalf to do and perform all acts and sign all instruments
necessary for the proper approval of said Modification ; hereby ratifying and confirming all that said attorneys and each of them or
their substitutes shall do or cause to be done by virtue hereof ; and the undersigned does hereby irrevocably authorize said Bank of
America National Trust and Savings Association to endorse on said bonds and coupons the endorsements respectively con
tained in said Modification, pursuant to the terms thereof. This letter of Consent and Transmittal shall constitute an agency
coupled with an interest and shall be irrevocable by the undersigned unless said Modification shall fail to become effective in
the manner therein provided. In the event said Modification shall not become effective on or before January 1, 1938, the under
signed hereby requests the Depositary to detach from said deposited bonds interest coupons due July 1, 1937 and all subse
quently maturing coupons until said Modification shall become operative or shall terminate in accordance with its terms
and to present the same to the Treasurer of Nevada Irrigation District for payment and upon such payment to remit the pro
ceeds thereof to the undersigned by check of the Depositary. If such coupons shall not be paid upon presentation, the Deposi
tary is hereby authorized and directed to cause the same to be registered in the name of the undersigned in the manner provided
by law. The endorsement of any such checks by the undersigned shall be full release and acquittance to the Depositary for the
amount of any sums collected by the Depositary and disbursed to the undersigned, which amounts shall be in lieu of the
interest coupons hereinabove referred to and represented by the proceeds so collected. The agreements contained in this Letter
of Consent and Transmittal shall be binding upon each successive transferee, owner or holder of said bonds and coupons.
Please issue a receipt for the above-described bonds in the name of the undersigned owner thereof which receipt shall be negotiable
in the manner provided in said Modification. All costs and expenses of this deposit are to be paid by said District.

Name... .
Street...

(Please PRINT in block, letters)

In the Presence of:

City and State

Yours very truly,

Witness.

(Please sign your name here)

LEAVE BLANK

Bonds:

Checked:

Endorsements:

Checked:

Redelivery:

Checked:

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY THE INSTRUCTIONS SET FORTH ON THE REVERSE SIDE HEREOF.

INSTRUCTIONS

Fill out and sign the form on the reverse side hereof and transmit it with your bonds to

Bank of America National Trust and
Savings Association

485 CALIFORNIA STREET
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

If it is not convenient for you to deliver your bonds to the Depositary,
it is suggested that you consult your local bank or investment firm, either of
which will arrange the forwarding of your bonds to the Depositary. If you
choose, you may send your bonds directly to the Depositary by insured regis
tered mail.

NOTE : Whenever it appears that this Letter of Consent and Transmittal
has been executed by a trustee, attorney, executor, administrator or guardian,
proper evidence of his authority so to act must be filed with the Depositary.

Additional copies of this form may be obtained from Bank of America
National Trust and Savings Association, or from the Nevada Irrigation District,
or from the firm through which you purchased your bonds.

The Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association, as Deposi
tary, has approved the appointment of the sub-depositaries below named. Any
bondholder may deposit his bonds with any of the sub-depositaries named below.
Such sub-depositaries will act for and on behalf of Bank of America National
Trust and Savings Association and as its agent with respect to such deposits.

New York:

Manufacturers Trust Company,
55 Broad Street,
New York City.

Philadelphia :

The Market Street National Bank of Philadelphia,
Market and Juniper Street,
Philadelphia, Pensylvania.

Boston:

Old Colony Trust Company,
1 7 Court Street,

Boston, Massachusetts.

Chicago :

City National Bank & Trust Company of Chicago,
208 South La Salle Street,
Chicago, Illinois.

RETAIN THIS COPY FOR YOUR
FILE.

LETTER OF CONSENT AND TRANSMIT! AL

(Modification of Nevada Irrigation District Refunding Plan.)

BANK OF AMERICA NATIONAL TRUST AND SAVINGS ASSOCIATION,

485 California Street,
San Francisco, California.

Depositary under Modification dated as of January 1, 1937, of Nevada Irrigation District
Refunding Plan dated June 1, 1931.

of..

Dated , 1937.

In care of _ _ _ Sub-Depositary

(Here insert name of any sub-depositary mentioned on the reverse hereof if the Bonds are to be deposited in New York, Philadel
phia, Boston or Chicago.)

Dear Sirs :

The undersigned is the owner and holder of bond(s) of the First Refunding Issue of Nevada Irrigation District dated Sep
tember 15, 1931, listed below, viz:

Numbers of Bonds:
(Insert here the letters and numbers which appear at the top
lefthand corner of each Bond.)

Aggregate Principal Amount of Bonds:

all standing in the name of, or now owned by the undersigned, and hereby deposits said bonds, accompanied by fixed and con
tingent interest coupons due July 1, 1937, and all subsequently maturing fixed and contingent interest coupons (and also A July
1, 1932 and B Julj 1, 1932 and all Deferred Interest Coupons due January 1, 1934 and subsequently), and hereby becomes a party
to the Modification dated as of January 1, 1937 of Nevada Irrigation District Refunding Plan dated June 1, 1931, receipt of a
copy of which Modification the undersigned hereby acknowledges. The undersigned, by the execution of this Letter of Consent and
Transmittal in respect of the above-mentioned bonds, assents to and is fully bound by the provisions of the aforesaid Modification and
has become a party thereto with the same force and effect as though he had signed the same. The undersigned does hereby
further make, constitute and appoint Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association, or any agent, employee or
nominee thereof, his true and lawful attorney, for him and on his behalf to do and perform all acts and sign all instruments
necessary for the proper approval of said Modification ; hereby ratifying and confirming all that said attorneys and each of them or
their substitutes shall do or cause to be done by virtue hereof; and the undersigned does hereby irrevocably authorize said Bank of
America National Trust and Savings Association to endorse on said bonds and coupons the endorsements respectively con
tained in said Modification, pursuant to the terms thereof. This letter of Consent and Transmittal shall constitute an agency
coupled with an interest and shall be irrevocable by the undersigned unless said Modification shall fail to become effective in
the manner therein provided. In the event said Modification shall not become effective on or before January 1, 1938, the under
signed hereby requests the Depositary to detach from said deposited bonds interest coupons due July 1, 1937 and all subse
quently maturing coupons until said Modification shall become operative or shall terminate in accordance with its terms
and to present the same to the Treasurer of Nevada Irrigation District for payment and upon such payment to remit the pro
ceeds thereof to the undersigned by check of the Depositary. If such coupons shall not be paid upon presentation, the Deposi
tary is hereby authorized and directed to cause the same to be registered in the name of the undersigned in the manner provided
by law. The endorsement of any such checks by the undersigned shall be full release and acquittance to the Depositary for the
amount of any sums collected by the Depositary and disbursed to the undersigned, which amounts shall be in lieu of the
interest coupons hereinabove referred to and represented by the proceeds so collected. The agreements contained in this Letter
of Consent and Transmittal shall be binding upon each successive transferee, owner or holder of said bonds and coupons.
Please issue a receipt for the above-described bonds in the name of the undersigned owner thereof which receipt shall be negotiable
in the manner provided in said Modification. All costs and expenses of this deposit are to be paid by said District.

Name-
Street..

(Please PRINT in block letters)

In the Presence of:

City and State

Yours very truly,

Witness.

(Please sign your name here)

LEAVE BLANK

Bonds:

Checked:

Endorsements:

Checked:

Redelivery:

Checked:

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY THE INSTRUCTIONS SET FORTH ON THE REVERSE SIDE HEREOF.

INSTRUCTIONS

Fill out and sign the form on the reverse side hereof and transmit it luith your bonds to

Bank of America National Trust and
Savings Association

485 CALIFORNIA STREET
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

New York:

Manufacturers Trust Company,
55 Broad Street,
New York City.

Philadelphia :

The Market Street National Bank of Philadelphia,
Market and Juniper Street,
Philadelphia, Pensylvania.

Boston:

Old Colony Trust Company,
1 7 Court Street,

Boston, Massachusetts.

Chicago :

City National Bank & Trust Company of Chicago,
208 South La Salle Street,
Chicago, Illinois.

135

Bauxa: You had a lawsuit though* Later this fellow Living
ston earn* up and wanted his 1$.

Durbrow: Well, that was a put-up lawsuit.

Bauns That's what I wondered.

Durbrow: Livingston was a good friend of mine. He was in

Placer County, a real estate dealer in Auburn. As Z
remember it, we wanted to get a court decision on
certain matter, so we had him bring this suit, which
turned out in our favor.

Baumt Yes, I thought it was probably a put-up case because
A. L. Cowell was his attorney.

Durbrow: Yes, and A. L. Cowell was also a close friend of mine.
In fact, they all were. I think Tresdwell was in
there and I can't remember why Treadwell was in it.

Baumt Xes. I reed the court case and there wasn't anything

about Treadwell. I wondered what he had to do with
it. This was one that J. Rupert Mason was in.

Durbrowt Oh, yes, he objected very strenuously to everything.

Baumi He wasn't pert of the put-up case, was he?

Durbrow; No, he was against us all around. Of course, I knew
him also, very well. He is a great writer and wrote
to me often. He also visited me at my home. He was
very much opposed to any change in the original bonds
as issued by districts. He maintained that when dis-

136

Durbrow: trlcts had sold to bondholders at a certain price,

they should pay It whether they had to pay it through
the nose or not, which was against economic law, you
know. It wasn't good economics* As a matter of fact,
had the districts had to pay exactly what they had
originally contracted to pay to the bondholders,
there would have been an entire new deal of the lands
of the whole state. A lot of the districts would

have failed.

j^ ^.
Baumi I was wondering what you thought of the Municipal

Bankruptcy Actt

Durbrow: I think it was a very wise act to save districts and
I guess to save certain small cities that were over
loaded with debt. It was, in a way, a humanitarian
act. If a district was overloaded with debt and
couldn't pay it, it was Just the seme as a man who
couldn't pay his debts. He was allowed to go into
bankruptcy and there is no reason why a district
couldn't go into bankruptcy, which they did. I
think It was really a good thing for the bondholders
too. In most cases they got a fair deal. In some
eases I'll say they didn't.

Baums I remember you said concerning Glenn-Colusa that you
thought they didn't need to refinance at such a low
figure.

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137

Durbrow: I think In the case of Glenn-Colusa it wasn't as

necessary as some of the others because they had the
ability to pay out, as it later turned out*

Baurot The Nevada District never used the Bankruptcy set.

Durbrow: No,

Baum: Never tried to cut your principal.

Durbrow: No, we never out the principal in the least.

Baum: Don't you think you could haveT

Durbrow: We could have used that R.P.C. loan, but it wouldn't
have been es good for the district,

Baum: Why do you say it wouldn't have been es good for the
district? Wouldn't it neve eut down the amount you
had to pay?

Durbrow: Possibly, but depending how the R.P.C, handled the
bonds end also you would have had to pay a higher
rate of interest on the amount you would have had to
pey, I think the best thing for the district was to
have done as they did for the reason that it main*
tained good faith in their credit. The credit of
the district was exceedingly good for a long time
after that becsuse they had lived up to their obliga
tions.

Bsumt Then you thought it was just good business for the
district to do it the way you did.

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138

Durbrow: Yes*

Baura: Hot Just that it was fairer to the bondholders?

Durbrow: Well... when I went up there I represented both the
district and the bondholders, I went up there to

refinance the district. So I thought we ought to be
fair to those who had financed us* But I really think
the district was in better shape because they met
their obligations than by trying to run out on then*

Baurnt I see.

Purchase of Scotts Flat TVaervoir Lands

Durbrow: About 19^5 the district needed sn additional water
supply, and, as the best source, we decided to build
Scotts Plat Dam on Deer Creek, We had already pur-

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chased the Excelsior Water and Power Company from
Fred Ayers of Boston, president end owner of Excel
sior Water & Power Co. Re was head of a very wealthy
and powerful financial family. The company owned at
that time about 20# of the land in the district. Also,
they owned a large tract of land up on Deer Creek,
part of which would be covered by tfcte reservoir cre
ated by Scotts Flat Dam. When we decided to build
Scotts Flat T>aro, the W.P.A. was then in existence . 1
made a deal with a lumber company that we get the

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139

Durbrowr W.P.A. to cut the lumber and they would take the log*
and give ua in exchange lumber that the W.P.A. oould
uae In building a camp for housing them while they
were doing the work of clearing the reservoir aite and
to be used later when we were building the dam* Well,
I ran up against thia problem. While the district
had negotiated around 1926 with Fred Ayers on the
uae of part of the property to be covered by the res
ervoir, all he had given was an easement to flood
thia area, not the ownership of it* The tract they
owned amounted to about three or four thousand acres.

I -went to our attorney and told him what we
wanted to do. He said, "As aoon as your W.P.A. men
cut the timber off that land, the timber will belong
to Ayers because you don't own the land and the tim
ber is part of the land." So I figured we had to
buy the property. Ayera had become dissatisfied as
the owner of land at this time and waa liquidating.
Bill Allen, living on a part of the property at Smart-
ville, waa the representative of Ayers in liquidating
the property. So I went down to see him about buying
this land. I thought I'd better be pretty cheap. I
think the tract was about three thousand five hundred
acres and I offered him $5,000 for the whole thing,

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140

Durbrowt about $1.50 an acre, Well, he went into the air and
said, "Bill, you 1 re trying to steal it. Mo, I won't
sell it to you for that. I 1 11 tell you, I'll take
$10,000." Well, I was flabbergasted. I thought Id
have to pay about $20,000 for the property. So my
$5,000 kind of set the price. So I said, "Let's com
promise and make it $700. n So I finally bought the
property for $7,500. I don't know how many thousands
of dollars worth of timber they've sold off of that
property. I sold &3,000 or $lj.,000 worth of timber,
besides the deal with the W.P.A. Also, we owned the
whole property, we could do as we pleased with it.
We put up the building on it for the housing of the
W.P.A. and they cleared the land without cost to us.

Bowman House

Durbrowt Also about the W.P.A., we had an old house at

Bowman. It wasn't even framed. It was two-story, and
used to sway with the wind. It was forty or fifty
years old at the time and been headquarters for the
original owners of Bowman Reservoir. The district
owned it. It was called Bowman House, a rather fam
ous old place. While I was manager of the district,
it burned down. Pack rats got in and got ahold of

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Durbrow: some matches* I lost a number of things I had up
there, a very fine phonograph that came from ray
father's house in San Francisco and some surveying
instruments* It wasn't insured*

After that I decided we had to build a new Bow
man House. I had a man working for the district who
had taken architectural training at the University.
He was a bright boy and I liked and had confidence in
him. So I told him to go up to Bowman House* X
said, "I'll give you a chance to make ua a plan be*
fore we get an architect." He made a wonderful plan*
It was Just perfect.

We had the W.P.A. working for us. They said
their men would do rock work. So I decided we'd
build a house partly out of rock* The first story
was of rock end the second story of timber* It's
really a beautiful place.

We started to build it and when we got it about
half done the W.P.A. got orders from Washington to
quit. No more W.P.A. So here I was with an expen
sive house half finished. I decided we had to finish
it. I thought I'd get a lot of criticism on account
of it. As a matter of fact, it only coat us, with
the work that had been done, about f 10, 000* It would

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DurbrowJ cost from 150,000 to $100,000 today*

So I finished it* I took the board of directors
up there. I thought, "3y gosh, they'll think thit if
too expensive. 11 We got up there end they were ell
tickled to death. Everyone in the dietriet who went
up there waa pleased with it* It was a great credit
to the district.

Baum: What waa it used for?

Durbrowt It was district headquarters for the Mountain Division
as well as a guest house* I used to take guests up
there. Also, it was the headquarters for a ditch
tender* I got a ditch tender that had a wife who
would cook for us and take care of the house. I had
some very funny experiences there*

We were doing some refinancing and I used to
take people up there who were interested in our re
financing and entertain them overnight* We had lots
of room, three separate bedrooms besides a big dormi
tory room you could put several people in. One time
I took Walter Heller, quite a prominent bond roan in
San Francisco, to look over the mountain works, with
some other men. So that night and the next day we
went over the whole matter of refinancing the bonds
as well as looked over the works. When I came down

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143

Durbrow: to San Francisco s couple of days later, I met a man
and he said, "What did you do to Walter Heller up
there at Bowman?" I said, "Why, I don't know* We
entertained him up there.* "Well," he said, "You
must have sold him the district because he came down
and bought a half million dollars worth of bonds,"

I figured that house paid for itself, oh, dozens
of times over. Whenever I had any problem I used to
take the dirsctors up there or men to talk with them
concerning certain matters. Problems with the ?. 0.
& E, were discussed with them, and we usually came to
an agreement* The house is still there*

Baum: When did you have this W.P.A. work going on?

Durbrow: That was around 19i^ to 19U6.

Baum: It must have closed down when the war came on.

Durbrow: It closed down and then started up again* I remember
it just closed down for awhile*

Baum: I remember reading that when you got this R.F.C.

offer, that at the same time you got so much money
you could spend on. having W.P.A. work done.

Durbrow: We didn't get any money, We got labor* We ran a
tunnel for Scotts Plat dam water delivery with the
labor* All this work was done before we got the
money for building Scotts Plat. I saw a chance for
getting this W.P.A. so we used them for clearing the

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Durbrowt reservoir site and doing a lot of other preliminary
work. It saved a lot of money.

Baum: When did you put up Scotts Flat Dam?

Durbrow: Well, it wasn't quite finished in ltf when I left. It
was in f lj. or 'k6. The money was raised in '1+3 in the
modification contract of *k3

After this modification went through we had to
sell some bonds so it took a little time after the
'J43 modification went through before we sold the
bonds. Scotts Plat was built in '[(.6 and '!*?.

Lend Delinquencies

Baum: During the depression did the district acquire a lot
of delinquent lands?

Durbrow: Yes, we acquired quite a lot of land.

Baum: Was this agricultural land?

Durbrow: Some of it was agricultural land. The district 1 !
policy at that time was to get tax-sale land back
into the hands of the taxpayers as quickly as possi
ble so the taxes would be paid on it. There was one
particular case where a tract of land belonged to a
man named Whitney, who I mentioned owned the Loma
Rica Ranch. Anyway, Whitney, a well-known man in New
York, owned quite a lot of land. When the high taxes

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Durbrowt came he dropped quite a lot of the land, didn't pay
taxes on it, and the district became the owner.
After the district sells to a new owner, he has to
clear up the title by going through a quiet-title
suit. There was one big piece of land that he owned
that the district took title to. I thought we could
sell that off at a good profit to various people In
the district. So I had u man who knew him write to
Whitney, for $100, to clear the title to the prop
erty. This tract contained six or seven hundred acres
of land, not very good land, but well situated. The
bank had a second mortgage and, as they had other
means of collecting the debt, they gave the district
a quit-claim to it. So that waa how I obtained a
perfect title for the district by paying $100. A
quiet-title suit would have cost thousands of dollar*
and taken quite a long tine* Then we sold that proper
ty to various people at a good profit to the district.

There were a number of cases like that. Quit*
a lot of land during those years when the taxes were

rather high went into the district. Later the dis-

'
trict land rose in value and we had lass and less

delinquency.
Beumt What kind of lands would come into your hands? Would

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Bauml they be fruit orchards or gracing lands?

Durbrovs Veil, not usually orchards, though aorae orchards
can* In, the poor ones. Hot any good ones.

Baumt It was usually the poorer lands, I suppose*

Durbrovs Poorer lands, but lands that later might become

valuable for residential purposes* I said when I
first went into the Nevada Irrigation District,
after I looked it over, "This is not strictly an
agricultural a re a *^' Of course, aweh of it is good
for livestock, good grazing land, and irrigated pas
ture, but I maintained that the future of the dis
trict was largely residential. Just as the Santa
Barbara country and other areas in California which
are beautiful to live in and have a fine climate.
And really it has become so. The Nevada Irrigation
District is a nice place to live and more and more
people, some with considerable money, are coming out
from the cities and buying places there and retiring*

Baurnt These are retired people?

DurbrowJ Hot always, but many retired people* Some of then
wealthy people*

Baumi These delinquent lauds, did you get small ranches

where the people lived? Did they lose their lend, or
was it mainly large landholdinga where the owner prob-

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347

Baura: ably wasn't too interested in it?

Durbrow: No, we didn't lose many small tracts. In the first

place, in an irrigation district the improvements are
not taxed, Just tha land. Tfas land tax on resident-'
ial property was small] it didn't affect then very
much. It wasn't the very large holdings either be
cause the very large holdings were usually held by
people who could afford to pay. Sueh tracts war*
mostly being held for timber or livestock. A great

*"*

deal of the land in the district was pasture land
and it has become valuable for livestock, particu
larly with irrigated pasture.

Baum: But these large landholdings didn't come into the
district hands either?

Durbrow: No, very few of them. This Whitney estate was on*

of the largest we acquired, about aix hundred acres.

Baum: That 1 a not very large.

Durbrowt No.

Baura: Are there many large landholdings in the Nevada Irri-

gation District?

Durbrowt Oh yes, I would say there are a great many large land-
holdings. The raising of livestock requires large
holdings.

Baum: That's mainly unimproved land, isn't it?

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148

Durbrow: No, a lot of it has been Improved. The owners have

taken off the brush or timber and have planted irri
gated pastures. There are some very fine herds of
registered stock in the district.

Third Modification - 1943

l?y*3i .<?'::

Baum: What sort of problems made it necessary for you to
refinance again in 1943?

Durbrow: In 1943 there wasn't any trouble. It was just that
I figured there were a lot of things which I thought
would be to the advantage of the district to do* For
instance, the second contract between the P. G. & E.
and the district was dated May 8, 1928. In that eon-

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tract the district agreed to pay the P. 0. & E.
&5,140 a year for the enlargement of the Vise Canal.
I figured this out and while they admitted it was as
much as 1%, I found it figured out that the district
was paying nearly 8# under that contract. That is,
the principal plus 8. I got them to agree to let
us pay off the balance due, and we borrowed, through
a bond issue, money for less than 3/ to do this.
Baum: Oh, on the basis of your good credit, I imagine.

Durbrow: Yes. The difference between 3# end 8# is over
some forty or fifty years. It made quite a lot of

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Durbrowt money, enough money to actually build Scotts Pl*t

Dam. I figured by making that payment to ths- P. <*.
ft E. It financed the building of Scotts Plat Dan.

There were a lot of other details to this new
agreement with P. G. ft E. We were allowed to pay out
of the money received from the P. <*. & E. an amount of
$87,000 a year which we could use In financing a bond
Issue. This was done with the consent of the bond*
holders under this 19^3 modification*

19U3 was a major modification because it allowed
us to use money that we formerly had to pay to the
P. 0. & E. for financing a bond issue. This bond
issue allowed us to pay off certain amounts we owed
P, 0. & E. Co. and in addition build certain neces
sary works.

Baumt So you have really handled three major refinancings*
Durbrowi Yes. Prior to the modification of 19l;3 there was a
long negotiation between myself and the P. G. & E.,
with an attorney at their offices mostly, part of
the time at Bowman House, to accomplish a renegotia
tion of the original contract. It was quite an intri
cate affair to renegotiate such contract.

Baum: Most of the work on this 19^4-3 modification was with

the P. G. & E. Was there any objection by any bond*
holders?

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Durbrow: No. The contract renegotiations were with the P. 0.
& E. After that it had to go to the bondholders to
get them to agree that this money which was formerly
paid the P. 0, & E., or rather deducted from the
amount they paid us, could be used for building this

dam and other works as well as pay off certain oblige*
'

tions we owed P. G. & B. Co.

Baumt Was there any objection by bondholders to this 1914-3

.
modification?

Durbrow: Not a great deal of objection.

Baum: It Just sounds so reasonable.

.
Durbrow : It went through rather easily. I did most of it down

in San Francisco. I had an office there and a man

who handled the letters of consent as they came in*

It was rather easily done. The only thing, the man
died during the time he was doing it, so I had to
finish his job. The man was named George Henry. We
got to be very close friends. His name doesn't appear
In any of these modification booklets.

Baurat I've heard of him. Didn't he do other work on irriga
tion districts?

Durbrow) Yes, some. He was a very fine chap. I got to be very
fond of him.

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Assessment Policies

Baumi Some general questions about the district* I had

' , . ..

noticed in looking through the liets of average

assessments for the various districts that the Nevada

' ' '-."'.*

District seemed to have one of the lowest acreage

assessments*

Durbrows The reason for that was the character of the lands.

v -.
The lands wouldn't stand a high assessment. We put

a very low valuation on them which resulted in a low

assessment*

Baum: At about what per cent did you value the land, wnat
per cent of Its market value?

Durbrow: Well, I would say that we assessed it at about 2# of

Baum:

Durbrows

its value. Sot higher than that, Of course, a lot

..}& .*-
of land might appear to be worth more because of the

improvements, but the district doesn't assess improve*
ments. It's pretty hard to say what percentage of
true value is put on the land* I would say that prob
ably most of the time we put a pretty conservative
value, not over 2#.

Would you say that was about the average valuation
for other irrigation districts?

v- ' -\

Some irrigation districts have some odd ways of
assessing. For Instance, Turlock end Modesto, I think,

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152

Durbrow: used to assess land at a value depending on distance
from town; say &100 an acre, one mile from town| ten
miles from town, $5>0 an acre) twenty-five miles from
town, so much less.

Baura: Irregardless of the fertility of the land?

Durbrow: Regardless of anything. That was in old times. Z
don't know what they do now. There are a whole lot
of different methods. In Glenn-Colusa, my recollec
tion is that at one time we assessed all lands the
same* That isn't true at all as to real value, you

know.

Baum t
Durbrow:

Mo, the lends aren't equivalent.

'hey are not of equal value at all. X think assess-
ments within many irrigation districts have but little
relation to the actual value.

Baum: I've got the figures. The assessment rate in the

r -

Sevada District was about $1 per flOO in 19ij.6, |2
in 19lj7, 13 In 19lj-8, and then it went up to 15 per

$100.

Durbrow: When I was there, except for the first two years, we

Baum:

kept it down to about $1 per tlOO, which amounted to

Sf*

about $30,000 e year and that was about as much as

the district could stand at that time.

Your valuation must have been very low.

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153

Officials and Employees of tha District

Baumt *t seemed to me that about the time you ceased to

be manager, Forrest Varney took over after you?
Durbrowi Yes, Forrest Varney.
Baunt And the assessment want up*
Durbrow: Yes.

Baum! I was wondering if that was a change in policy or

#t/;; :; :;

just an increase in expenses?

Durbrow: It was an attempt to increase the income of the dis-

*' .

trict. I had quite a lot of trouble with labor, as a

. .

demand for higher pay was brooding* At one time, just

before I left, lator unions wanted to come in and I

- ' ;
was very much opposed to that*

Baumt You mean for district workers?

Durbrowj For district workers. No district had a union* X

also had this idee, to use as our employees, district
landowners, and I tried to keep it so. Small land
owners. The result is that many of them were really
working for themselves more or less* I tried to keep
the coats down by this and other means* After Varney
came in the policy was changed. The employees wanted
bigger wages, better Jobs all around, which of course
I might have had to do in time, but I didn f t up to
the time I left the district.

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Baum:
Durbrow!

Baum: Did he continue to try to employ landowners?

Durbrow: Many of the men that I employed are still working for
the district in spite of the fact that it was ten
years ago that I left there* I see a lot of them} they
often speak to me on the street, and several I hear
from each year at Christmas.

Forrest Varney was succeeded by Charles T. Law*
Charlie Law v;as my assistant when I was there* He's
a very good engineer, a Kew York nan. Came from
New York many years ago as a mining engineer and
bought land in the district. He was employed by the
district before I came there and I kept him on as
assistant* He was a very good assistant* but I don't
think he had the quaiifi cat ions to be a manager* He
wasn't cut out for that.

Baumt When Varney was replaced by Law, .1n not too long a

tine... I wondered if this indicated changes in poll*
cy or was it just a matter 01' circumstance?

Durbrow: No, I think that wes circumstance. He was kind of a
fill-in. He became sick and died later. He continued
as manager until he became sick.

Baumt Who was president when you were director?

Durbrow: The first man was J. A. Teagarden, a Placer County

orchard man. After that, a man named Thomas Muleahy,

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Durbrow: also an orchard man. He was president until I left.

Baum: He's not president any more.

Durbrow: No, he died and all my old directors are out*

Baum: Was that because of the change in the ruling group?

Durbrow: Partly. Of course a lot of the fellows who worked
for me left at the same time I left. They were not
agreeable to going under the changed policy* Now, of
course, most of my old directors have died.

Baura: During the years when you were director, what groups
would you say were most influential in policy forma*
tion?

Durbrow: Well, I don't know as there was sny particular group.
Different individuals used to come in once in
while and sit in the room with the board of directors*
The board of directors during my time were all success
ful farmers. They were well distributed over the dis
trict and they knew the feelings of the people of the
district pretty well end they really represented the
district. There wasn't much necessity for people
coming in to see that there interests were properly
taken care of.

Baum: Did they represent a wide variety of people? Did some
of them represent the large landowners, or the cattle
men?

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156

Durbrow: That was the beauty of it* They represented pretty
near a cross-section of tha whole district. The
roan from Placer County waa a fruit grower, named
Singer. Mulcahy waa a fruit grower and had been at
one time a larger landowner, Schwartz waa a large
landowner. Oh, there were quite a number be a idea
those. Several of then died and one retired*

Baurai I noticed In some of your printed material that
Mr. L. 0. Wisler was accountant for the diatriet.

Durbrow: Yea, Wisler was the accountant for the diatrict. I
had known him for some time, knew him as a very good
accountant. Wisler la kind of a crank in some things*
but he waa a very good accountant and very ho neat. I
had him on Nevada Irrigation Diatriet accounting and
he did very well*

Baumi Does he still do accounting for districts?

Durbrow: Not very much. He's getting pretty well along in

years and has turned it over to others. His son, who
lives up at Trecy, ia also an accountant. He's the
accountant for some district up there*

Bauret Hssn't Mr. Wlaler still got an establishment in Oakland?

Durbrow: He may have, but run by others. I hear from him once
in a while. He's always been in the Pacific Building

In Oakland. I uaed to go there quite often. He also

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157

Durbrow* used to do my personal Income tax* I don't have to

go down there any wore. I hare a man up here locally
to do it. Wlsler is a single-tax advocate and edits
a small paper which he aenda me occasionally* J. Ru
pert Mason, whom I have mentioned, is also a single-
taxer and writes once in a while for the paper edited
by Wialer, which I think is called "Liberty."

There is one thing I would like to aay about
Nevada Irrigation District. I haven't mentioned the
name of George Herri ngton. George Herrington is one
of the partners of Orrick's firm. It was his brains,
his legal brains, that worked out the details of
these different modifications that we went through.
The first plan Orrick did mostly, but the two later
modifications were all the legal work of George Her
rington* He* s a very able man and did a wonderfully
fine job on these modifications.

Baum! He's worked out other refinancing plans for othe?

districts, hasn't he?

DurbrowJ Yes. He's an attorney for some of the stock and bond
houses, Blyth and Company particularly, who were very
instrumental in our modifications.

Baum: Oh, Blyth and Company worked on the modifications?

Durbrow: Oh yes, they helped with it. They represented a con-

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DurbrowJ siderable number of owners of bonds*

Baumt Who was their represents tire on the bondholders* ad
visory committee?

DurbrowJ They didn*t have s representative.

Baum: But they worked with the bondholders advisory com
mittee?

Durbrow* Yes, and they worked very closely with Herri ngton.

A man named John Inglis of Blyth and Company, a vice-
president of Blyth and Company at the present tine,
was particularly instrumental in the work and helped
greatly.

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159

IRRIGATIOH DISTRICTS ASSOCIATION

Early Leaders of the Association

Baum: When did you first become associated with the Irriga
tion Districts Association?

Durbrovt I became associated as soon as we formed Glenn-Colusa
Irrigation District.

Baum!

Durbrowi Well, I didn't go to the first meeting, not until 1920.
At that time a man by the name of 3, A. Hultman was
the president. The first tine that we really got
into oontact with the Irrigation Districts Associa
tion was when a former president of the Irrigation

About 1919?

:* ''' '.*

Districts Association, C. E. Steinegal, who later
became a supervisor of San Joaquin County, came up to
Willows and talked to a group of us as to the associa
tion. It was then that we decided that we would go

into the association. Steinegal preceded Hultman as

. : -

president.

Baum) It was a very small association, wasn't it, then?
Durbrowi It was small, although it took in praetieally all of

the irrigation districts at that time in the state.

In fact, it always has represented practically all.

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160

Durbrowl Once In a while there is some disagreement over some
policy and one or two districts will drop out* Every
once in a while one or two drop out because they are
not interested in the proceedings* But, by in large,
the association has represented all of the irrigation
districts of the state.

Baum: Was it expensive to join at that time?

Durbrow? No, it was not expensive. In fact, when I first went
into the association they had a limit of $2f> on dis
tricts up to a certain acreage, X think 5?0,000 acres.
It was very small* Of course, the association was
largely supported, at that time, by the more wealthy
districts, like Fresno District, Imperial District,
and Turlock District. Those were very strong in the
association at that time, and they supported it
largely.

Bauml When you first went to the Irrigation Districts Asso
ciation, was that as president of the board of direc
tors of Glenn-Colusa? This was before you were mana
ger?

Durbrow: Yea. I was president of Glenn-Colusa as soon as it
was organized*

BaumJ Who was your manager at that time?

Durbrow: A man named Charles F. Lambert. He was the secretary

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161

Durbrowt and manager, I think the first year or two years.
Then Raymond Matthew*

Baums Was Charles Lambert interested in the Irrigation
Districts Association at that time?

Durbrowt Yes. He attended the first several meetings* It was
about the second or third meeting that I attended and
I was elected president of the association when Hult-
man f s term expired. That was in 1923 Then I served
as president from 1923 to 1933 *n years. That
would mean that I was elected five different times,
two-year terms.

Bauro: After you retired as president, you still continued

to serve, didn't you, on the board of directors?

Durbrowt Yes. I still serve as a member of the executive com
mittee. That's largely a courtesy | my name is still
on there as a member of the executive committee. I
an still sent all records of the association which
cone out, the minutes of the meetings and all such
matters.

Baum: I think you mentioned that you don*t attend very much

any more.

D-irbrow: No, I seldom attend. There are several reasons for
not attending. One is that I have no particular in-

terests to serve, as to any particular district. Also,

.
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162

^urbrowt m7 a on Is now the executive secretary-treasurer of the
association and I don't feel that I want to interpose
any family connections in that matter. So I let him
alone aa far a a I'm concerned.

Baum: I'd like to have some description of what the I.D.A.
was like in 1923 when you came in.

Durbrow: In 1923 we had a very powerful group of men interested
in irrigation matters who uaed to come and attend the
meetings. One was Hike P. Tarpey, who was president
of Fresno Irrigation District and a very earnest man
in the association. There was also Pat Griffin who
was the attorney for Turlock Irrigation Diatrict and
Oakdale. His principal district was Turlock. ^hen,
there waa A. L. C owe 11, who had been secretary of the
association for some time past, although he waa not
at that time, V. B Wagner was the secretary*

Beam: Wagner became secretary at the same time aa you be
came president, didn't he?

Durbrowi ilo, I think not. Wagner was secretary of the Merced
Irrigation District and in that way came into the
association* It waa a short while before my time*

Later, there was Homer Hankina, who waa one of
the attorneys of the firm of Hankins end Hankins.
Homer Hankins became a very useful attorney for the

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Durbrow: association and he gave a great deal of his time to it,

Bauxnt I f ve seen the name of Homer Hankins. What was the
name of the other HankinaT

Durbrow: Judson J. Hankina.

Baumi Bid he also work with the irrigation districts or
nob ao much?

Durbrowi He did not work aa much with the association. He was
landholder in Glenn-Coluse Irrigation District and
his firm were the attorneys. Homer Hankins did moat
of the law work for the Glenn-Coluaa, but Jud Hankins
used to appear often at the meetings*

T hen, there we aj Charlie Childera of Imperial.
Ho, he wasn't at thaf; time. The man who was the at*
torney lor Imperial before Childera was a man named
Roes.

Beam: These were the men you feel were most influential?

Durbrows At that time* And then, L. L, Dennett, who was an
attorney for South San Joaquin District and a state
senator. Then, W. II. Shaffer, of Consolidated Irri
gation District, a very early member and very prom*
inent in the association*

These men and others I don't recall really gave
the association tone* I remember we used to have
very earnest discussions* There wasn't alwaya una.uim-

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161).

Durbrow: ity of opinion* We used to have some pretty good

discussions. Bat I remember very often, at the end,
Mike Tarpey would get up and say, "Now, we've disa
greed and we've had a fine meeting and we've come to
an agreement on things and that's the way an asso
ciation should be." Pat Griffin was also a very
strong advocate of the association, and he also was
very able attorney for Turlock, Then of course
there was Walter D. Wanner who was not only our
secretary, but also our legislative representative
or lobbyist

Bauxat How would you characterize Walter Wagner?

Durbrow: I would characterize Wagner as a good politician*

He first learned his politics in San Bernardino County,
where he was elected as County Auditor. He was very
successful in the California legislature as a lobbyist
for the Irrigation Districts Association in getting
measures approved that were in the interest of the
various districts* He also served during Governor

* .;

Richardson's administration as Director of Institu
tions, Before that he had helped in organising Merced
Irrigation restrict. When we established an office
In San Francisco for the Irrigation Districts Associa
tion, he was for the first time paid a regular salary

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165

I>urbrowt and was very instrumental in making the Association
into a stronger organization* Hia very complete
knowledge of the districts of the state caused him
to be selected by the Irrigation and Drainage Dirt*

aion of the R*P.C. to act aa an appraiser in connection
with their loana to the diatricta in California and ha
remained aa such aa well aa Secretary-Treasurer of
the Association until his death*

Baumt Whan did Wagner diet

Durbrow: Walter D. Wagner died in the spring of 19*4j.* H* wa*

elected secretary of the Irrigation Districts of Cali
fornia on March th, 1921, and served a a such until
his death*

Baumt Wasn't it shortly after that your aon became secre
tary of the association?

Burbrow: Wagner died during war tine and the I.T>*A. was not

too active at that tine. **ra* Margie Worrell had been
his secretary for some tine end had handled not only
the association business but very efficiently the in
surance business that the association was carrying on
at that time* She was well liked in the association
and continued on a a temporary secretary-treasurer
during the interval until we, the executive committee,
could select a successor to Wagner. We wanted a

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166

Durbrow* younger men and moat of tha young nan at that time
were in the array or in aorae way connected with tha
war effort. We had rejected quite a few who applied
or were auggeated. My aon, Robert Terrill Durbrow,
returned from Germany around the firat of 19i& He
waa a captain in the army. A number of membera of
the executive committee had known him aa aaaiatant
farm adviaor in Merced County and alao aa agriculture
teacher at Brentwood High School and thought of him
for the job. They interviewed him on hia return and
ended in appointing him executive aeeretary-treaaurer
on February 2, 191*6.

Function a of the Aaaociation

Baum: What were some of the thinga you fought about?

Durbrow: At that time the act creating irrigation districta
waa rather new, the districts had increased their
functions, and a lot of ohangea were necessary. The
association 1 a minutes were taken up very largely with
discussions over changes in the act which were recom
mended. We never eaked the legislature for any appro-
prietiona, but when we asked the legislature for
changes in the act, they were usually consented to.
So tha association really made that act.

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167

Durbrowt Also, there was a lot of discussion at that tine
over the new bond la sue a and alao in regard to the
Bond Certification Commission* They all required new
additions to the set.

Baumi Was there any difference of opinion that was a really
crucial different point of view? Were there two
aides, by any chance, or was it just as to how things
would work out on little things?

Durbrowt No, the association never divided itself into fac
tions, but occasionally a change that was wanted
might step on the toes of one district and there
would be some objections* It hsd to be worked out
so as not to hurt some certain district* It was e
matter of give and take*

Baum: I wanted to ask you about the court cases that I.r>,A.
took part In*

Durbrowt There were a great many court eases* Zf the court
case affected a number of districts or affected the
act, the association often entered into it as amicus
curie* The ettorneys, Hankins and Hankina, Griffin
and Boone, A, L. Cowell, Charles Childers, (who be
came the attorney for Imperial, and he was followed by
Harry Horton), as well as others, freely gave time and
advice* In all cases where it affected irrigation

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Durbrowi districts or the act, these people gave very liberally
of their time* They were paid by their own districts.
They didn't charge the association.

Another thing, very often districts would write
in to the association and Wagner, who was then the
secretary, would write to the attorneys for informa
tion and suggestions as to procedure on one thing or
another* Such matters were referred very often to
a committee of attorneys and they would suggest, .

even though it wasn't their own districts at all.

means and methods of operation in conformity with

lew*

Baum: Was there sny disagreement in these court cases you
would take part in as to which side you should be on?

Did some of the districts favor one point of view and

some another?
DurbrowJ No, that didn't come up until perhaps the time when

the Reclamation Bureau became prominent in irrigation
matters. When I started in there was only one reclama
tion district in California, the Orland Project* La*
ter the Declamation Bureau built Shasta and proceeded
to be quite prominent in the water natters of the
state. Some of the things, which under the Reclamation
Act were attempted, were objected to very strongly by

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169

Inirbrowt the districts. The principal things were the 160-

sere limitation and its ideas on water rights* These
have been fought over very strongly and a till are
being fought over*

Baumt On that limitation* were all the I.E. A, members on
the same side* that is, against it?

Durbrowi Well* it did not affeet ell of them* Another thing*
the irrigation districts themselves had brought about
smaller ownership of lands, just in a normal way*
r or inatanee* you take Modesto* Turlock, and South
San Joaquin* and other early districts* Through na
tural processes the lands in these districts were
divided up into smaller holdings and there would have
been no necessity for a 160-acre limitation*

Baums The irrigation district assessments Just operated to
break the holdings up?

Durbrowi Yes* And slso* the more intense cultivation due to

irrigation* The raiaing of crops that were conducive
to smaller acreages* But there were still some large
holdinga in the districts of the aasoeiation and in
aome cases these people wanted Reclamation Bureau help.
They objected to the 160-acre limitation* so the aaso
eiation rather fought to do away with that limitation,
Z don't know what will be the final outcome of it*

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Baumt But none of this conflict cam* up when you were presi

dent? I don't think this came up until the late 1930' s.

Durbrowi No, the reclamation Bureau hadn't started to serve any
of our districts with water. That came later*

Baunl What did you think of the 160-ecre limitation per

sonally?

The Irrigation Districts Association has always been
against the 160-acre limitation and personally I en
very much opposed to it when privately owned landa
are concerned* As to public domain landa that are
owned by and are being reclaimed by the government, I
can see some justification. In the case of private
holdings, the limitation seems to be an attempt to do
by lew what should come about through economic pro*
cess* As irrigation increases in a district, values
also tend to increase and subdivision to smaller
acreages occurs naturally* both by the necessity for
more intensive cultivation, and the desire for profit*
In this country, inheritance also plays its part to*
ward smaller holdings* Then there is the economic
requirement of larger acreages to profitably raise
certain crops which may have fallen in price* Another
thing is that it limits the efficient and hard-working
farmer* He gives to others an example and creates

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171

Durbrowi competition which is as necessery in farming aa in
other endeavora. We don't want to creete a peasant
class in America.

BaumJ One queation that might have come up waa one about

the Irrigation Districts Association favoring the
districts generating and retailing their own power*
That waa Wagner's point of view, wasn't it?

Durbrowi I couldn't say that. We early favored the genera*
tion of power* That required very great changes in
the act, which the association helped provide. It
required eonaiderable changes in the act to allow
theae different districts to generate and distribute
power, which some of them did to their own people,
like Modesto and Turloek. And Imperial also* .

Baumf Aa I read from the minutes, it sounded like Walter
Wagner favored the districts retailing their own
powei*

Durbrowt No, I wouldn't say that* I wouldn't say that there

waa any thought in the association favoring districts'
power power policies* ^he districts really ran it
their own way and the association was always for what
the diatricta wanted to do.

Baumt So if one district wanted to retail its power, then
the association would be willing to fight for that

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172

Bftumt district's right to do that?

Durbrow: Yes, they certainly would* but I don't remember that
that problem ever came up* The only problem was a
change in the laws that would allow the proper distri
bution and sale of power and also would provide for
how the income from power was to be used. I don't
remember that there waa any particular problem about
their right to sell power although at first it waa
rather opposed by the private companies*

Methods of Raising Money

Durbrow s There also came up during ray time the problem of how
to collect duea. The association originally only
paid Wagner a very small amount to cover his expenses,
aa he was at first employed by Merced Irrigation Dis
trict and later had a Job with the state* Later, we
had an office in San Francisco and at that time we
required additional income to pay a secretary full-
tine* At that time Wagner had retired aa an employee
of the atate and we wanted him aa a fully paid secre
tary. So we had to make a change in the method of
collecting dues* At that time we raised the duea con
siderably* The dues were allocated very largely on
the basis of the income of the district, a percentage

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173

Durbrows of income. Arvin D. Shaw, a well-known attorney in
Los Angeles, worked out a formula by whioh we col
lected dues* That formula, with some changes, has
been uaed ever since. That was done in my time.

Baurai Was this Increase in dues satisfactory with the dis

tricts, or did any of them drop out because it was
too expensive?

Durbrowt There was very little objection* There was some,
but we also provided in that first formula that if
the district felt they were unjustly deslt with they
could appeal to the executive committee and the mat
ter could be adjusted. Very few dropped out* I
think one or two dropped out, but we had practically
a hundred districts in the association at that time*

Eaura: flow is the money for I.D.A. rsised nowT

Durbrows It is raised the same way* The formula has been
changed considerably and I think it's in the pro-
cess of change at the present time*

Baurai The expenses of the association must have increased
tremendously*

Durbrow: Oh, tremendously. Several things helped to keep our
dues down. The principal one was the insurance busi
ness which we entered into. Also, later, when the
R.F.C. started to refinance some of the districts,

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Durbrow: Wagner, for quite a while prior to his death, became
the appraiser for the Reconstruction Finance Corpora*
tion, that ia, the Irrigation and Drainage Division
of the R.F.C. This was for determining the amount of
loans to the districts under the bankruptcy act* He
did a great deal of work for them and was paid by
them as much as the aasoeistion psid him* It was
largely to the advantage of the districts anyway*

Baumt I think I noticed in the minutes that Vegner also

tried to sell insurance to all the districts through
the association,

Durbrowi Ho, that isn't strictly true* One of our means of
raising money was to go into the insurance business*
At that time there was quite a little unrest in the
districts because of insurance rates on bonds for
the directors and other officers* So we decided that
we would go into the insurance business* This was
A* L. Cowell'a suggestion*

We asked for as much of the districts 1 insurance
business as they were willing to give us* A great
many of them didn't give us all their insurance busi
ness, and some none, because they were tied up to
local insurance agents, but nearly all gave us their
bond business, the bonding of the officers* That was

. . .

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17*

IHirbrow: very largely handled by the association and we were
able to decrease rates* Also, a great many of the
districts gave us much of their fire insurance.
This was all handled in the association office. It
produced about half the revenue at that time neces
sary for running the association*

Baums Does the association still do that?

DurbrowJ No. They've given up the insurance business. X

don't know right now if they have given it up com
pletely. There's nobody now in the office who is
licensed to write insurance. It has to be a li
censed insurance broker. There was a good deal of
complaint from the insurance agents of the state as
to this insurance being handled by the association,
and they appealed to the Insurance Commission to take
away our license. There was a big fight over that.

Bauras Because they didn't want the competition?

Durbrow: Well, they didn't went the competition. I think that
was largely it. They felt it violated certain laws
under which the insurance agents worked.

Bauai I did notice in the minutes that whan Wagner died
there was some difficulty in straightening out the
insurance .

Durbrowt ?es that was an unfortunate thing* The money for

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176

Durbrow: the insurance business was all deposited in Wagner's
name and when he died one of his sons claimed that
it was Wagner's own personal money and claimed that
Wagner was the insurance broker and entitled to the
money, which had been accumulated, amounting to
good many thousands of dollars* We objected to it*
As a matter of fact, we found in reading the minutes
that Wagner had agreed that this was not so. We pre
sented the facts in court and won the case} the asso
ciation got all the money* It wes Just an unfortunate
circumstance that came about through the settling of
his estate*

Participation in State Water Problems

Beumi Did the Irrigation Districts Association take any

interest in the Water and Power Act in 1922, 192lj. and
1926?

Durbrow: ^es, we were not all favorable* We thought some of it
rather fanciful*

Baumi ?he whole aasociationf

Durbrow: Well, most of us in the association considered the

Marshall Plan a harebrained scheme, which it wes* It
did, however, arouse the interest of the people of
the state in the problem of water and I think out of

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177

Durbrowt that grew a more determined effort on the part of the
tete to assess its water problems and find out how
they could be solved* I think that the earliest work
done to look at the whole problem was by Paul Bailey*
State Engineer at that time. I think he was the
first one to really attempt to assess the water prob
lems of the state of California and how it eould in
general be solved* H pointed out at least* that
northern California had the water and that the South
was deficient and that if properly handled there was
enough for the entire state*

Baumt Then did the asaoeistion take a stand against these
water and power aots? They were more or leas the
Marshall Plan.

Durbrow: I wouldn*t say we took a stand a gainst., *I don't

think the Marshall plan ever came up for any construc
tive legislation.

Baumt These acts were initiative acts and they would have
provided for the issuance of bonds for the building
of statewise water and power facilities and they
were based to some degree on Marshall* s Plan*

Durbrow: I don't recall that we took any stand for or against
the HI.

Baumi Did the association take part in the State Water Plan

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Baumi campaign*, about 1933* The Central Valley Project Act,

Durbrowj Of course, the Irrigation Districts Association always
took an active interest In any water matter. I had
also always been very friendly with the various heads
of the Stete Water Department at that time under the
State Engineer, Edward Hyatt* Then, before him, He*
Clure and Paul Bailey, and after him, Bob Edmonston.
I've worked with them and others on certain plant
for distributing the waters of the state I remember
sitting in such a committee with Paul Bailey*

Baums Did you sit in mainly In your capacity as an engineer
or as a person familiar with the operation of irriga
tion districts?

Durbrowt There were two things. I waa an engineer and also

interested in the irrigation districts and the Irri
gation Districts Association. I may say I was in
terested in a dual capacity. Here la a report of a
commission I waa a member of.

Baumi What date waa that?

Durbrowt The report waa made on December 27, 1930. It waa the
California Joint Federal-State Water Resources Commis
sion, the members being appointed by the President of
the United States and the Governor of the state of

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179

Durbrowt California* The appointees were George C. Pardee,
Chairman} William Durbrow, B. A. Etcheverry, Alfred
Ha r re 11, W. B. Ma thews, Warren Olney, Jr.* and Prank
E. Weymouth. This was on general water mattera.
There alao sat on the commission B. B, Meek, Director
of Public Works, and W. J. Carr, member of the State

7 ' ' ' '

Railroad Commission.

BaurnJ That was quite an important commission,
Durbrows Yea, it vaa quite an important commission. It held a

great many meetings at the Hotel Oakland in Oakland.

A number of experts were interrogated and appeared

before the commission, but the report here is just very
short aa to what the commission recommended*
Baumt I think in 1933 there was the Garrison Bill which

would have provided for revenue bonda for the building
of electricc.1 distribution faeilitiea by the state.

* ->< tt

Durbrow: Yes, I knew Garrison very well. I thought he was

rather a dreamer in these things, not too practical.
I don't think any of that legislation ever got the
okay of the people of the state or of the association.

Achievements of the Association

Baumt What would you consider the major achievements of the
aaaocistiont

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Durbrow: In the first place, we came together twice year, in
semi-annual conventions at various locations around

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the state, to consider the problems of the districts.
The association at such meetings was divided up into
sections which sometimes had separate meetings. The
attorneys usually had a sepsrate meeting* Also the

managers and engineers of the districts, also the

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assessors and tax-collectors, all had sepsrate meetings.
Then they came together into larger meetings where we

met to consider the proposed lews and other problems

. . .

affecting the association*

In the beginning of my time the meetings were

,. .

taken up very largely with considerations of the word*
ing of the act and the set was practicslly developed
during my administration. We were very kindly treated
by the legislature* There were legal problems that

came up always and we were sdvised by the best brains

of the legal talent in the districts* They slways ap
peared with us and helped straighten matters out*
The operating difficulties presented by the different
districts were sometimes straightened out st our

meetings*

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Bams So you think that the main achievements were partially
in influencing legislation and partially in helping
the districts themselves to work out their problems

181

Baum: together.

; ' A. jfr.rt :-' :

Durbrowt That is true, yes. The Improvement of the act, to
make it more serviceable to the districts.

I might list here some of the accomplishments
for which the association can take full or, in some
eases, partial credit!

1) An amendment to the constitution of the state
which allowed irrigation district bonds to be sold
tax-exempt. This gave the districts a lower interest
rate and a better price for their bonds* It saved
millions for the districts*

2) Permission to own stock in mutual water com
panies. This also required a constitutional amend*

.
ment.

3) Riparian rights to water was giving considera
ble trouble to irrigation districts, particularly in
the San Joaquin Valley where large landholders such

as Miller and Lux, claimed rights under our inherited
English riparian laws, regardless as to how such water
was used. We sponsored and succeeded in passing a
constitutional amendment defining riparian rights to
water as the amount of water a riparian owner can
beneficially use on his land by a reasonable means of
diversion and reasonable methods of use* We were some-

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182

Durbrow: what concerned as to how the courts would handle this
amendment, but the supreme court of the state finally
upheld it* It made many irrigation developments pos
sible.

k) We sponsored and had passed by the legislature
the right of districts to generate and sell electric
power both within and outside the boundaries of the
districts* The passage of this bill was opposed by
the privately-owned power companies.

5) The present California Districts Securities
Commission was created largely by the efforts of the
association, which sponsored it and helped greatly

. to paas it through the legislature* As now constituted,

two of its five members must have had at least five

years experience in irrigation district management,

6) A man named Scott from Little Rock, Arkansas*
headed a group of drainage and reclamation districts
In the Middle West who were in financial difficulties*
He wrote me as president of the association, and came
out to meet us and to solicit our support* Z put him
in touch with Wagner who waa our executive officer*
The result finally, after some tine, was the passage
by Congress of an amendment to the Reconstruction Pi-
nance Corporation Act, authorizing the refinancing

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183

Durbrowt and rehabilitation of various forma of districta.
Thia haa resulted in the aaving of many districts
and the lowering of the bonded debt and of interest
rate a to auoh districts.

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COMMENTS ON IRRIGATION DISTRICTS

Financial Problems - 1930 t i

Baums In the late 1920 a, I was reading that many bankers
felt that the irrigation district lew, which I be*
lieve allowed the landowner to redeem hia land for
three years from the district...

Durbrowt Yea, the Irrigation Diatriet Aet provides that the
land doesn't become the property of the district
until three years after delinquency. So the owner
has three years during which he can operate after he
be come a delinquent*

Baumt I think these bankers argued that if it were cut down

to one year and the land immediately went to the dis
trict and was resold, that the districts wouldn't
have run down financially o badly* Do you think
that might have been true?

Durbrow! No, I doubt that* That point waa argued at great

length in the association, but the association alwaya
stood for the continuing of the three-year period of
redemption* Many farmera were able to work them*
aelvea out in the three-year period* It was to the
beat interests of the farmera to keep it that way* I

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185

Durbrow: don't think the one-year redemption would have changed
the picture very much*

Baucis Would there have been buyers for the land anyway?

Durbrowt No, there usually wouldn't have been any buyers.

The fact that the farmer at that time couldn't pay
his taxea would have operated in the same way for a
new buyer* Also, the people who were farming the
landa at the time of delinquency were probably more
familiar with there and better able to get a profit
out of them than anybody else*

Baumi So that you think that to have resold that land im

mediately would have done nothing, even if you could
have reaold it.

Durbrowt I don't think it would have helped at all*

Baumi I noticed that a proposed plan that Stephen Downey,

Cowell, and Hankins drew up for the association in
1932 suggested that delinquent landa could be re*
deemed without penalty*

Durbrowt I don't remember that plan* It was probably proposed
as an emergency.

Baurat What waa Stephen Downey* a association with..*

Durbrowt Stephen Downey waa not connected so much with irri-

gation diatricta aa he waa with reclamation districts.
He waa a general attorney in Sacramento, a very able

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Durbrow: one. It was through his efforts very largely that
Congress passed legislation to help out in the eon*
trolling of the rivers through levees,

Baumt Did he work with the association in refinancing prob
lems?

Durbrow t No, not very much* Stephen Downey wasn't one of our
attorneys* He very seldom appeared at meetings*

Baumt I think he was an attorney for Merced.

Durbrow Probably on sons particular matter. He didn't take

a leading part at all in irrigation district matters}
mostly in drainage and reclamation matters*

Baumt This plan that Downey, Kankins, snd Cowell drew up

also included en idea of limiting the assessment the
district would charge to some amount that they would
determine the land could pay.

Durbrows Well, those were all ideas advanced at the time for
working the farmer out of the depression* None of
them were passed by the legislature. It was finally
worked out through the Municipal Bankruptcy Act,
where the R.P.C. in its Irrigation and Drainage
Division, refinanced these districts through buying
their depressed bonds. The bonds had gone down in
value and they bought them at the depressed value.

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Durbrowt It all had to be don* under certain procedures* It
had to go before the court a and the courta had to
agree to it and alao the Districts Securities Con*
mission had to agree to it*

Baumi Did you personally feel that it was fair to reduce

the bonds, to buy them in at this reduced price? Vat
it fair to the bondholder?

Durbrow: Yea, I think it was. The bondholder got a certain

price, which was usually the market value at that time*
Thia market value was due to the depressed value of
the landa In the district. I think it ell worked out
to the beat interests of moat of the bondholders even*
tually. Everything was depressed at that time, of
course. Land valuea were down, wages were down,
everything waa down.

Baum: In other words, you don't think the bondholders were
any more depressed than anything elaef

Durbrow s No, I think they got the same kind of a deal aa the
rest of us got.

Baumi I read in the association minutes a apeeeh by Senator
Henderaon of the R.P.C. and he was pointing out that
the amount of money that the R.P.C. agreed to loan on
a district was baaed upon their appraisal of what the
diatrict could pay.

bst* sJ'

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186

rhxrbrow: That's right. Hot only the amount they could pay In
the past, but whet eta appraisal of the district shoved
they could pay at that tiros. Wagner was one of those
appraisers hired by the Reconstruction Finance Cor*
poretion to appraise the ability of the districts*
Be was, of course, friendly to the districts and
possibly there was some injustice to the bondholders,
but I think very little* It was mostly a ease of
finding out what could be done to males a district
healthy and get back to operating conditions again*

Baums Then you feel this was the basis of the loan, what

the district would be able to pay?

Durbrowj Yes, It was largely reflected in the market value of
the bonds*

Baum: I've heard people say that what they really did was

Just estimate what the market value of the bonds was,
and if it was 21^ on the dollar, that's what the
R.F.C. loaned, even though the district might have
been able to pay 70^ on the dollar.

Durbrow: Well, that's a matter that really works out in buying
and selling* What the bonds are really worth usually
is a measure of the ability of the district to pay
through land tax, water sales, or other means*

Baumt I see. You think the big financial institutions had

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Baum: more or less appraised the situation themselves in
what they offered for the bonds?

Durbrow: I think very largely* Usually the bond houses who

bid on the bonds originally were in close touch with
the district and they had appraised already their
ability to pay* If, In a purely agricultural district,
the bonds want down in value it would be because the

- , -

priees of the things that the farmers raised were

just not sufficient to give hia an income sufficient

to operate and pay off the interest on this bonded <

debt.

Z see* In 1935 Wagner was talking about the bond*

holders, that they had been mainly cooperative, but

there were these holdouts throughout the state..,

1935?

I think 1935* when I read his apeech in the minutes
of the association. I have a quote heres *But there
are four or five individuals in the state who are
prolific letter or postcard writers, who have done

Baum!

Durbrow s
Baum:

everything they could to block all this refinancing**
Durbrow: That is true* There were people who objected to all
refinancing* One of them was J Rupert Mason who
represented a large lot of bonds that he himself owned
or had sold. In a general way he represented then*

;. : . - -,cc.i

190

Durbrowt But that wasn't generally true of bondholders. Those

people didn't gain anything by objecting to it. The

thing vent through anyway*

Baumi Did they alow down the refinancing very seriously?

Durbrow: No, I don't think they did* It waa probably a good

thing for them to have made the objection because it

kept the thing honest* I think an opposition in any

thing is good*
Beam! You're probably right there* It might have gone too

easy and the bonda might have gone too low if they

hadn't been there*
Durbrow t That 'a right* That's alwaya true*

Delinquent Lends

Baumt You say that you don't think the districts were re

luctant to take over delinquent lands* When the
three years were up they took itt

Durbrow: I think generally they did* In some eases there waa
no object in taking itf the owners just let it slide.
No buyers anyway* But generally the lands were taken
over and either sold or held by the district and some
times rented or leased out by the district.

Baumt If the district leased land* could they get as much

as a rental for the land aa they could have gotten aa
an assessment?

* '

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191

Durbrowt Sonetiraes they got e great deal more. I know of
certain oases where the lands were good. For in*
stance, Glenn-Coluse, there were good rice lands and
the district rented those lands for rice end received
very good income from them, which was more than the
taxes they would have received.

Baumt What would they do with land like that? Would they

try to sell it to somebody?

Durbrow: My idea always was that land taken for delinquent

assessments should be resold whenever we found people
who wanted to buy it*

Baurct Even if it would have been wore profltsble for tbt

district to hold it and lease itf

Durbrow Oh yes* I think the duty of an irrigation district
is not to operate land but to merely sell or deliver
water to the lands of the district* Therefore, as
soon as the proper buyer cones along I think the land
should be sold back into private ownership*

Baumt I believe there are some districts that still own a

great deal of lend and lease it and they use the lease
money to pay all the expenses of the district, so
that the private owners are tax-free as far as irri
gation district assessments*

Durbrow: That is true in certain districts for certain reasons*

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1.-;' '

I
'

Durhrow: POP instance, down In the San J oaquin Valley certain
districts had a limited supply of water and could
supply only a certain amount of water for a certain
amount of their lands* When they acquired lands
through tax delinquencies* they didn't resell it be
cause if they resold it, those people could come back
and demand water and they didn't have the water to
deliver to them. Some of those districts since that
time have received water through contracts with the
Reclamation Bureau, water that it developed in Shssts
and Friant Reservoirs* Since they have obtained
enough water by purchase, they have resold those lands*
The district was able often to rent such owned lands
when there would be wet years, when the district
would have sufficient water to serve all its lends*
Only in such years would they rent these lands that
they owned* They were afraid to sell them because
then they could demand water. So long a's they were
short of weter in dry years they didn't want to sell
them.

BSUIK: I'm thinking of a district in the Sacramento Valley

and I can't rem*rabr which district it is, but I be
lieve they still hold a great deal of land, which
pays all of the expenses of the district and which

.
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193

Baum: they have not resold simply because It is more pro

fitable to lease it* I think the district is Reclama
tion District 106.

Durbrowt Yes, that is true as to Reclamation District 108* A
few people own the land and are very prosperous be
cause they own and rent this land which came to them
when prices were depressed.

Baum: But you think there are very few districts that have

retained ownership of the land, except for very
special reasons?

Durbrowt I don*t think it's a proper thing for irrigation
districts to retain lands when there is e private
buyer who would buy the lands, pay assessments, and
operate them. There must be certain conditions, such
as if they're short of water end they have to retire
such lands temporarily and operate them until they
could get a better water supply.

Baumt Yes. I believe some bondholders would feel thafc the

districts should have kept the delinquent lands and
gotten the higher rental in order to pay off the bond
holders, rather than reselling them and getting a low
er assessment out of then. But that, of course, would
mean there wouldn't be private owners in the district.

Durbrowt Irrigation districts are organized for supplying

.
.

' '

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.
'

Durbrowt water, not for operating land*

Baumt Yea, you'd have to have a different social philosophy.

Durbrows You'd have to have an entirely different social

philosophy. You'd have really a socialized situa
tion.

Beumi Yea.

When the districts acquired theae lends and then
later resold it, did they try to return it to the
hands of the original owner when possible?

Durbrowt That I can't tell you because I don't know those

particular districts. There was only one ease I re
member. It waa under a apeeial act. That was a
district on the Colorado River above ImperialPalo
Verde District. It defaulted on its bonda and it
took over practically the whole district. I think
the idea waa as far as possible to sell those lands
back to the original holder. The district is now
prosperous.

Baumt Is that legal, to re sail tax-delinquent lands to the

original owner?

Durbrowt Oh, you can aell to anybody. Nobody has a better
right to buy it back than the original owner*

Baumt In the case of the Nevada District, when you resold

delinquent land, did you try to get it to the origi-

H0#

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195

Baumt nal owner or did new people buy it?

Durbrowt The original owner would naturally here the first

right. Any board of directors would rather sell the
land back to the original owner than to somebody
elae. But that was never a problem, as I remember.
It was merely sold to whomever you could. Sometimes
it was sold to somebody who subdivided and sold it
off in smaller holdings. Seldom did the original
owner have any interest in the land, but if they did,
every opportunity was given them to recover their
property.

Assessments and Tolls

Baumt Do you think the major part of the expense money

of irrigation districts should be raised by assess*
ments or water tolls?

Durbrowt That is largely a matter of the situation and condi
tions in the district. Some districts raiae practical
ly everything by water tolls. Others, practically
all by assessments. It's merely e matter of the
situation and type of the district. In the case of
our operation of the Nevada Irrigation District, it
was my theory that the land should be taxed as low
as possible for the reaaon that we only had a limited

**'
.

f.f,

tor.'*-

''HSitXFttfbf**

.
.
.

Durbrowi water supply and the dltchei of the district only
covered a certain amount of the lands of the dis
trict. Therefore, the assessment on those unim
proved lands* the lands that did not have a water
supply, should be kept as low as possible* The
largest amount for the operation of the district
should come from the land using water through water
tolls. There was a certain justification in an
assessment on unimproved and unused land that did
not yet have a water supply* They had a potential
interest in getting water* The land had an addi
tional value because they were in an irrigation dis
trict which at some time could serve them water.
Therefore I think there was some justification in
a small assessment on the land*

Baumt What would you think of using Juat revenue for raising
money, such as the sale of falling water or power?

Durbrowi Well, if the situation of the district was favorable,

it might be done by the sale of revenue bonds* Another
thing the Irrigation Districts Association fathered
was the right to issue revenue bonds in an irrigation
district* Some districts have done so* In other
words, they operate, for instance, a power plant.

the bonds were sold on the basis that the income

,
.

I
.

fiJt 4^C t$

, -^--VSr

. '

.' -t'. '"':' ' ' ; < .' ' ?

t v '^ '

Durbrow: from that power plant could be used for paying the
bonds and that only* The bondholder would have to
look to that particular property rather than to a
general assessment for the payment*

Baumt Do you think this ia a good way to finance certain
developments in the district?

Durbrowi It* a a very good way of doing it, if the thing you

want to build, the power plant or water plant, ia of

auffieient value and sufficient earning power ao that

the bondholder ia convinced that the facility built

will continue to earn enough to pay off his bonds.

In that cese the revenue bond ia the beat bond you

can get.

From the bondholder's point of view?

Bather from the district 'a point of view* Moat of

our large bridges here have been built on revenue

bonds aerviced and paid off by tolla.

Do you think the assessments ahould be levied, as they

are now, on the land value alone, or do you think they

ahould include the improvements?

Durbrow I No, I think the land value is a proper measure. I
don't think the fact that a farmer haa improved hia
land by putting up eoatly buildings ahould be used
as a basis for assessments*

Baumt
Durbrow:

Baumt

rt*W

Ctf- 'Waff :-.*Ii'CV.

J V "" '.">"' J ' "

198

Baumt Suppose a farmer puts In orchards or grapes or that
type of improvement? Doesn't he pay a larger share
then, if you charge him by water tolls?

Durbrov: Of course, if he pays by water tolls he pays a larger
amount than a man who uses leas water or none et all*
But as to taxes he pays only the value of his land,
not on hie improvement aueh an orchard* The mere
fact that there is an orchard on the property showa
that it will raiae that particular crop.

Baumt It's a better piece of land.

Durbrow: Yea. And therefore naturally it Is being taxed at
a higher rate, being assessed at a higher value.

Baurat Than his neighbor 1 a land next door.

Durbrow: Than hia neighbor* a land, which may be just as good
land, but it hasn't proved itaelf as euch.

Baum: I see, so in effect the assessor may be influenced
by the improvements such as orchards.

Durbrow: Yea, by the fact that the value of the land has
actually been proved*

Distribution of Water

Baum: What do you do in caae of a water shortage, if there's

not enough water for the lands?
Durbrow: Well, fundamentally the irrigation district law pro-

; ' 'rl$. .

Durbrowl vldes that water mast be served rateably ea to the
assessment. In other words, a man with the same
acreage as an adjoining piece and double the assess*
ment, theoretically ought to get double the water*
This has never worked out that way* The water has
been distributed more or less rateably according to
need, not according to the actual wording of the law.

Baums Let's say, both men have rice* Does each -et, if the
water is down one-half, they each just get water for
one -half their acreage?

Durbrows If the water became short they would have to plant

half their acreage. Each one would usually get about
the same amount of water. Soils differ end it would
be difficult to be exact.

Suppose one man haa orchards and his orchards would
die if he didn't get water, and the other waa going
to plant a temporary crop*

Durbrows Veil, that haa been worked out aa a reasonable dis
tribution usually and not according to the actual
law. Any district would be interested in saving a
permanent crop*

Leadership

Beuns What type of men become leadera in an irrigation dis
trict, or is there any special type?

Baum:

. ~* .

. y. rut

-"V ' ' 5? '

tf jrtiftnrc

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?*KV-.? . 't^

Durbrow: 1*11 say thia. I think one of the bad points in an
irrigation district often is that the people who
really should take an interest do not take a suffi
cient interest* I think that 1 a true in all our politi
cal institutions. We don't take enough interest in

our own government* But I think some districts would
be better operated if men who are efficient and of
sound judgment would take a larger interest in the
operation of their district*

Baumt Are you saying that the larger landowners do not serve
as officisls?

Durbrows Very often they do not, because they are more inter
ested in the operation of their own properties, and
do not take an interest in the political affairs of
the district, which I think is a mistake.

Baums Then who does tske an interest?

Durbrow: Very often the people who have nothing else to do*

How, that isn't true in some of our olde'r snd better
operated districts* I think our older districts do
elect some of their best men to boards of directors
and that's what they should do. But very often it
is left to the small farmer or the improvident fellow
who has become a politician in the district snd favors
the election of a less qualified man*

.
.

1c, focxs- *n*.io.. ':'.. i orf

. .

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uvc '.tie- :

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I

><K: c ;' id* jj

ZOJ.

BaumJ It would seem to be danger to the larger landowner

in that the district might make policies that would be
detrimental to him.

Durbrov: I think they are often detrimental* I think it has
proven so. That Is true of our cities as well aa
our irrigation districts. Everybody should take an
interest in the operation of the political institution
in which he or she lives*

Baums DO you think there ought to be some change in voting
so that the larger landowner might have more votes
and therefore have more influence?

Durbrow: I would say this* If there were any way of foreing
people to vote in selecting the people who are going
to operate their institutions* it would be a good
thing* But the trouble is, that would probably be
considered against our fundamental freedom or consti
tutional rights.

Baum: You think the large landowner, even if he had, say,
a vote per acre, he wouldn't use it anyhow, often?

Durbrow: Well, he might* However, that has never been pro*
posed for irrigation districts* It is the method
used by the reclamation districts of the state in
electing officials, and I think the same thing is
true of the drainage districts. They vote by acreage,

t9-wchnsx <**7rtftf 3d* s* i- 9C * crf **" '*

l '

* / f * . ! ^ i V \ f -

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&CC^ 9

.td-afwjfv fr

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t .r :. T -" 'irpli;''

-ont .rsoo-' xov'sr

jJ.tl

Durbrowi but I doubt if it would be found that that method of
voting creates better conditions than the democratic
method of voting used in irrigation districts*

Baum: Are district managers usually engineers?

Durbrowi Most of then should be because there ere engineering
problems come up all the time and while they may en-
ploy engineers, they should have enough information
about the engineering works to be able to properly
direct engineers,

Baums Then you think engineering is probably more important
than having a man who is a specialist as a business
man or an administrator?

Durbrowj I think the two ere very necessary* X think the

engineer who is engaged as a manager of a district
should be a businessmen and he should have some idea
of finance too* A very necessary point in favor of
a manager is to be able to properly finance a dis-

trict* There are always financial problems.

Baum: It sounds like finding a good manager is pretty hard*
DurbrowJ It is hard. I know it is hard because my son in the
Irrigation Districts Association says the association
has many requests to recommend men for managers of
districts. They have to put out feelers to see who

*j 'ii tnt.'c ;.r<5

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203

Durbrowi ere interested in becoming managers of a district* It
isn't the easiest thing in the world to be a manager
of a district.

Baumi No. I should think Just the personal problems in*
volved would be quite complex.

Durbrowt The personal problems are often complex. There are

business problems. There are also financial problems.
I would describe a good manager for an irrigation
district as an executive with some engineering and
financial background and a good mixer to deal with

the human problems involved.

Transcriber: WB
Typist! RJ,

MH&Jtf> 3 '!.- n

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20H.

PARTIAL INDEX

Adama, Ernest 62, 63

Aetna Insurance Co. 10-11

Ant loch case 70*71

Armour & Co. 2

Assessments and water tolls 78-80, 115-116, 121-122.

151-152, 195-198

Ayers, Pred 138-139

'.'?'> ! ' ''

Bailey, Paul 177, 178

Benicia, city of 2-3

Blyth & Co. 157-158

Bond Certification Commission 76, 167

Bourn, William B. 100-101
Bowman House llj.O-lIj.3, 1L9

Buford Kindergarten Association 8

Bull, Alpheus 6

Byington case 50-51

California Joint Federal-State Water

Resources Commission 178-179

Campbell, J. C. 89

Carr, W. J. 179

Central Canal Co. 71

Central Valley Project 178

Charlea Krug Winery 31, 33

. . .

205

PARTIAL INDEX (oont.)

Chicago Park colony 95

Childers, Charles 163, 16?

Christy, Samuel B. 18

Church, Kate 96

Consolidated Irrigation District 163

Courtright, W, D. 130-131
Cowell, A. L. 13$, 162, 167, rft, 185-186

D'Egilbort, William 51, 66

Dennett , L. L. 163

Depresaion, Agricultural of 1920* 52-53, 56-61

Dillon, Read & Co. 115

Districts Securities Commission 182, 18?

Downey, Stephen 185-186

Downing, Paul 110
Durbrow, Robert T. 26-2?, U?, 162, 166

Eckert, Nelson 20

Edraonston, Bob 178
Empire Mine 100, 129, 132

Etcheverry, B. A. 179

Eureka Lakes & Tuba Consolidated Water Co* 6

Excelsior Water & Power Co. 138

Farm Bureau 96, 97, 99

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V'<jr

PARTIAL INDEX (cont.)

Pood Adminis tret ion World War I

Fresno Irrigation District 160, 162

Garrison, J, 0* 179

Gibson, Gion 75-76

Gibson, California 76

Glenn-Coluaa Irrigation District 66-8?, 88, 89, 93*

11U, 136-137, 152, 159, 160, 163, 191

Organization 66-69

Antioch ease 70-71

Sale of bonds 72-73

Officials and employees 73*76

Refinancing 76-78, 80-83

Tolls & Assessments 78-80

Annexation of Williams Irrigation District 8k-6$

Durbrow leaves district 85-87

Goodwin, J. W.

Gould & Curry Mine 6

Grssser, Mr. 96-97

Griffin, Pat 162, I6lj.
Hankins, Homer 162-163, '167, 185-186

Hankina, Judson 163, 167

Hsnkins, S. J* 51, 66

Harrell, Alfred 179

Haskell, MeUen W. 16, 27

Heller, Walter 11*2-143

Henderson, Charles B* 12lj.-126, 187

iW n^*

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r : .0

;:>./

us:

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20?

PARTIAL INDEX (eont.)

Henry, George l0

Harrington, George 157*158

Hindus, in Glenn County

Hoover, Herbert l\B, 5U-55

Horton, Harry 167

Hultman, 3. A. 159, 161

Huntley, Earl V. 128

Hyatt, Edward 178

Imperial Irrigation District 110, 160, 163, 171

Inglis, John 158
Irrigation districts

Consolidated 163

Fresno 160, 162

Glenn-Coluaa 66-87, 114, 136-137* 152,

159, 160, 163, 191

Imperial 110, 160, 163, 171

Jacinto 66

Maxwell 81).

Merced . 162

Modesto 110, 151-152, 169, 171

Nevada 83, 92-158, 19^, 195

Oakdale 162

Palo Verde 19*1

Provident 3lj.

South San Joaquin 163, 169

Table Mountain 39-1*1

Turlock 110, 151-152, 160, 162, 169. 171

Williams 81^-85

Irrigation Districts Association 27, 75*76, 100,

159-183, 202

Early leaders 159-165

Functions 166-172

&-<v .

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ifsal Tsi
.

200

PARTIAL IND8X (cont.)

Irrigation Districts Association (cont.)

Methods of raising money 172-176

Participation in stats water problems 176-183

Jaelnto Irrigation District 68

r l l

Jones* Jesse 12l*-126

Kent, Russell 127

Kepllnger, L. B. 115

Krug, Karl 16, 31-33
Kuhn, J. S.

Kuhn, W. S.

Lambert, Charles F. 67, 7k 88, 160-161

Lays Beds Dredging Co. 32

Law, Charles T 151;

Laws on, Andrew 17

LeConte, Joseph 17

''. JJ-* 1X2,

Livingston, John A. , 135

Marshall Plsn 176-177
Mason, J. Rupert 119, 135-136, 157, 189

Mathews, V. B. 179

Matthew, Raymond 7k 9 161

Maxwell Irrigation District 81).

Meek, B. B* 179

Merced Irrigation District 162

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9 'f t

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209

PARTIAL INPEX (cont.)

Mcrritt, Ralph U8-U9, 62

Miller, Fred 113

Mills, Jaaes Ij8, 86

Modesto Irrigation District 110, 151-152, 169, 171

Moffitt, J. K. 33, fc3

Mondavi & Sons 33

Mosher, A. L. 96

Moon, Myrl B. 6?, 68

Mountain Copper Co,, Ltd* 27 -28, 30, 31

Huleahy vs. Baldwin ease 120

Mulcahy, Thonaa 15M. 55 156

Municipal Bankruptcy Act 80, 123, 136-137* 186

Nevada Irrigation District 83, 92-158, 19^, 195

Organization 92-100

Purchases and construction 100-106

Relationa with P. G. & E. 106-112, llj.8-150

Durbrow becomes manager , 113*134
Refinancing 124-120, 12>128, lij.8-150

Purchaae of Seotts Plat lands 133-llj.O, Iii3li4

Bowman House 1^0-1^3

Land delinquencies 114j.-llj.8

Assessment policies 151-152

Officials and employees 153*158

Nevada Irrigation Dlatrict Water Users Assoc. 93

Newmont Mining Co. 129, 131-132

Oakdale Irrigation District 162

Connor, Joe C. 96

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PARTIAL INDEX (cont.)

Olney, W 8 rren, Jr. 179

Olympic Club 7

One -hundred -sixty acre limitation 169*171

Oro Eleetrie Corporation 35, 38, lj.3

Oro Water, Light & Power Co. 33-Wi, 109

Oroville Light & Power Co. 32-31}

Oroville Water Co. 32-3U

Orrick, Palmer fc Dahlquiat, attorney* 113

Orrick, W. H. 111^, 157

0Shaughnesay, M. M. 102-103

Pacific Electric & Development Co. 106-108

Pacific Oaa & Electric Co. ll|, 314.. 38, ,

9U-95* 97, 98, 101-102.
106-113, 115, 116, 120*121, ll;3, 348-150

Pacific Kail Steamship Co. 2

Palermo Water Co. I|.0

Palo Verde Irrigation Diatrict 19fc

Pardee, George C. 179

Parrott & Co. Bank 3

Provident Irrigation District 8i|

Quint on, Code, Hill -Leeds Ss Barnard 116
Railroad Commission 37*38, 50, 179

Ralston, A. J. 12

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ill

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211

PARTIAL INDEX (cont.)

Raymond, William 16, 18

Reclamation Bureau 97. 112, 168-170, 192

Reclamation District 108 193

Reclamation District 20lrf 61-62, 88-91

Reconstruction Finance Corporation 80-61, 123-12? . 133 .

137, 165* 173-17k, 182, 186, 187-188

Rice Growers Association 62-6f>

Riparian rights 181-182

Rialng, Willard Bradley 16-17

Robs on, Kernan 128

Roosevelt, Franklin D. J>6-7

Sacramento, city of 111-112

Sacramento Valley Veat Side Canal Co. 1*9-51, 66,

67-68, 72

San Francisco, city of 12-13* 100-101, 111

Schramm, Emil 12l|., 133

Scotts Flat Dam 138, 'litf-ll&, 349

Seerls, Fred 128, 129-132

Searla, Robert M. 128

Selby Smelting & Lead Co. 11-12, 28, 32

Shaffer, W. H. 163

Shaw, Arvin D. 173

Slate, Frederick 18

South San Joaquin Irrigation District 163, 169

ftjc . ,.vi

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KWT

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tnwri

212

PARTIAL INDEX (confc.)

Spring Valley Water Co. 3, 13, 100-101

Steinegal, C. E. 159

Stevenot, Pred & 128, 131;

Stewart, A. 0. 128

Superior California Land Company 50-51, 67-68, 74

Table Mountain Irrigation District 39-41

Taooma Smelting Co, 28

Tarpey, Mike P. 162, 164
Tax-delinquent land 80, 85, 11*4-147 184-185, 190-195

Taylor, Earl 96

Taylor, Edward Robaon 12-13

Teagarden, J. A. i^

Thonaa, Doyle 92

Tibbetta, Pred H, 69-70, 7k 98-99, 102-103

Treadwell, Edward 118-119, 135

Turlok Irrigation Diatriet 110, 151-152, 160*

162, 169, 171

Tyrell, J. C. 96

University of California li;-23

Varney, Porreat 153

W.P.A. 138-1I|1.

Wagner, Walter D. 162, 164-165, 168, 171,

172, 174-176, 182, 188-189

.. !

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Bfl-*ttl

213

PARTIAL INDEX (cont.,)

Weymouth, Prank C. 179

Williams Irrigation District 8i}-8

Wiaker, A* L. 95-98, 100-101, 10l*-105, 106-108, 113

Wisler, L. 0. . 1^6-157

Worrell, Margie 165

Yubs-Nevada-Sutter Water & Power Aaaoe. 96-97

Zunwalt, I. a. 89-91

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