(377~&A
University Library
University of California Berkeley
<7
IN
1853-1913
CONTAINING THE RE^
HARRIS NEV
HARRIS NEWMARK
AET. LXXIX
MAD I
MARCO R.
Every generation enjoys the use of * >*t hoard
to it by antiquity, and transmits
fresh acquisitions, to future ages. In >:.- pursuits
the first speculators lie under grear
when they fail, are entitled to prai
WITH 150 IL
W '
Ube IRn?
VIWjTVT
SIXTY YEARS
IN
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
CONTAINING THE REMINISCENCES OF
HARRIS NEWMARK
EDITED BY
MAURICE H. NEWMARK
MARCO R. NEWMARK
Every generation enjoys the use of a vast hoard bequeathed
to it by antiquity, and transmits that hoard, augmented by
fresh acquisitions, to future ages. In these pursuits, therefore,
the first speculators lie under great disadvantages, and, even
when they fail, are entitled to praise. MACAULAY.
WITH 150 ILLUSTRATIONS
NEW YORK
Ube fmtcfcerbocfcer press
1916
COPYRIGHT. 1916
BY
M. H. AND M. R. NEWMARK
/ t\ v
To
THE MEMORY OF
MY WIFE
Hn flDemoriam
At the hour of high twelve on April the fourth, 1916, the
sun shone into a room where lay the temporal abode, for eighty-
one years and more, of the spirit of Harris Newmark. On his
face still lingered that look of peace which betokens a life
worthily used and gently relinquished.
Many were the duties allotted him in his pilgrimage ;
splendidly did he accomplish them ! Providence permitted him
the completion of his final task a labor of love but denied
him the privilege of seeing it given to the community of his
adoption.
To him and to her, by whose side he sleeps, may it be both
monument and epitaph.
Thy will be done!
M. H. N.
M. R. N.
INTRODUCTION
SEVERAL times during his latter years my friend, Charles
Dwight Willard, urged me to write out my recollections
of the five or six decades I had already passed in Los
Angeles, expressing his regret that many pioneers had carried
from this world so much that might have been of interest to
both the Angeleno of the present and the future historian of
Southern California; but as I had always led an active life of
business or travel, and had neither fitted myself for any sort
of literary undertaking nor attempted one, I gave scant at-
tention to the proposal. Mr. Willard's persistency, however,
together with the prospect of cooperation offered me by my
sons, finally overcame my reluctance and I determined to
commence the work.
Accordingly in June, 1913, at my Santa Monica home, I
began to devote a few hours each day to a more or less fragmen-
tary enumeration of the incidents of my boyhood ; of my voyage
over the great wastes of sea and land between my ancestral and
adopted homes; of the pueblo and its surroundings that I
found on this Western shore; of its people and their customs;
and, finally, of the men and women who, from then until now,
have contributed to the greatness of the Southland, and of the
things they have done or said to entitle their names to be
recorded. This task I finished in the early fall. During its
progress I entered more and more into the distant Past, until
Memory conjured before me many long-forgotten faces and
happenings. In the end, I found that I had jotted down a
mass of notes much greater than I had expected.
Thereupon the Editors began their duties, which were to
arrange the materials at hand, to supply names and dates
viii Introduction
that had escaped me, and to interview many who had been
principals in events and, accordingly, were presumed to know
the details; and much progress was made, to the enlarging
and enrichment of the book. But it was not long before they
found that the work involved an amount of investigation
which their limited time would not permit ; and that if carried
out on even the modest plan originally contemplated, some
additional assistance would be required.
Fortunately, just then they met Perry Worden, a post-
graduate of Columbia and a Doctor of Philosophy of the
University of Halle, Germany; a scholar and an author of at-
tainments. His aid, as investigator and adviser, has been
indispensable to the completion of the work in its present form.
Dr. Worden spent many months searching the newspapers,
magazines and books some of whose titles find special men-
tion in the text which deal with Southern California and its
past ; and he also interviewed many pioneers, to each of whom
I owe acknowledgment for ready and friendly cooperation. In
short, no pains was spared to confirm and amplify all the facts
and narratives.
Whether to arrange the matter chronologically or not, was
a problem impossible of solution to the complete satisfaction of
the Editors; this, as well as other methods, having its advan-
tages and disadvantages. After mature consideration, the
chronological plan was adopted, and the events of each year
have been recorded more or less in the order of their happening.
Whatever confusion, if any, may arise through this treatment
of local history as a chronicle for ready reference will be easily
overcome, it is believed, through the dating of the chapters
and the provision of a comprehensive index; while the brief
chapter-heading, generally a reference to some marked occur-
rence in that period, will further assist the reader to get his
bearings. Preference has been given to the first thirty years
of my residence in Los Angeles, both on account of my
affectionate remembrance of that time and because of the
peculiarity of memory in advanced life which enables us to
recall remote events when more recent ones are forgotten ; and
Introduction ix
inasmuch as so little has been handed down from the days
of the adobe, this partiality will probably find favor.
In collecting this mass of data, many discrepancies were met
with, calling for the acceptance or rejection of much long cur-
rent here as fact; and in all such cases I selected the version
most closely corresponding with my own recollection, or that
seemed to me, in the light of other facts, to be correct. For
this reason, no less than because in my narrative of hitherto
unrecorded events and personalities it would be miracu-
lous if errors have not found their way into the story, I
shall be grateful if those who discover inaccuracies will report
them to me. In these sixty years, also, I have met many
men and women worthy of recollection, and it is certain that
there are some whose names I have not mentioned; if so, I
wish to disclaim any intentional neglect. Indeed, precisely as I
have introduced the names of a number for whom I have had no
personal liking, but whose services to the community I remem-
ber with respect, so there are doubtless others whose activities,
past or present, it would afford me keen pleasure to note, but
whom unhappily I have overlooked.
With this brief introduction, I give the manuscript to the
printer, not with the ambitious hope of enriching literature in
any respect, but not without confidence that I have provided
some new material for the local historian perhaps of the
future and that there may be a goodly number of people
sufficiently interested to read and enjoy the story, yet indulgent
enough to overlook the many faults in its narration.
H. N.
Los ANGELES,
December j/, 1915.
FOREWORD
THE Historian no longer writes History by warming over
the pancakes of his predecessors. He must surely know
what they have done, and how and whereby they
succeeded and wherein they failed. But his own labor is to
find the sidelights they did not have. Macaulay saves him
from doing again all the research that Macaulay had to do;
but if he could find a twin Boswell or a second Pepys he would
rather have either than a dozen new Macaulays. Since history
is becoming really a Science, and is no more a closet exploration
of half-digested arm-chair books, we are beginning to learn the
overwhelming value of the contemporary witness. Even a
justice's court will not admit Hearsay Evidence; and Science
has been shamed into adopting the same sane rule. Nowadays
it demands the eye-witness. We look less for the ' ' Authorities"
now, and more for the Documents. There are too many
histories already, such as they are self-satisfied and oracular,
but not one conclusive. Every history is put out of date,
almost daily, by the discovery of some scrap of paper or some
clay tablet from under the ashes of Babylon.
Mere Humans no longer read History except in school
where they have to, or in study clubs where it is also Required.
But a plain personal narrative is interesting now as it has been
for five thousand years. The world's greatest book is of course
compulsory; but what is the interesting part of it? Why, the
stories Adam and Eve; Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; Saul and
David and Samson and Delilah; Solomon, Job, and Jesus the
Christ! And if anyone thinks Moses worked-in a little too
much of the Family Tree he doesn't know what biblical
archaeology is doing. For it is thanks to these same "petty"
xii Foreword
details that modern Science, in its excavations and decipherings,
has verified the Bible and resolved many of its riddles !
Greece had one Herodotus. America had four, antedating
the year 1600. All these truly great historians built from all the
"sources" they could find. But none of them quite give us the
homely, vital picture of life and feeling that one untaught and
untamed soldier, Bernal Diaz, wrote for us three hundred
years ago when he was past ninety, and toothless and angry
"because the historians didn't get it straight." The student of
Spanish America has often to wish there had been a Bernal
Diaz for every decade and every province from 1492 to 1800.
His unstudied gossip about the conquest of Mexico is less
balanced and less authoritative, but far more illuminative,
than the classics of his leader, Cortez a university man, as
well as a great conqueror.
For more than a quarter of a century it was one of my duties
to study and review (for the Nation and other critical journals)
all sorts of local chronicles all over Spanish and English America
particularly of frontier times. In this work I have read
searchingly many hundreds of volumes ; and have been brought
into close contact with our greatest students and editors of
"History-Material," and with their standards.
I have read no other such book with so unflagging interest
and content as these memoirs of Harris Newmark. My per-
sonal acquaintance with Southern California for more than
thirty years may color my interest in names and incidents ; but
I am appraising this book (whose proofs I have been permitted
to read thoroughly) from the standpoint of the student of
history anywhere. Parkman and Fiske and Coues and Hodge
and Thwaites would join me in the wish that every American
community might have so competent a memorandum of its
life and customs and growth, for its most formative half-
century.
This is not a history. It is two other much more necessary
things for there is no such thing as a real History of Los
Angeles, and cannot be for years. These are the frank, naive,
conversational memoirs of a man who for more than sixty
Foreword xiii
years could say of Southern California almost as truly as
^Eneas of his own time "All of which I saw, much of which I
was." The keen observation, the dry humor, the fireside
intimacy of the talk, the equity and accuracy of memory and
judgment all these make it a book which will be much more
valued by future generations of readers and students. We are
rather too near -to it now.
But it is more than the "confessions" of one ripe and noble
experience. It is, beyond any reasonable comparison, the
most characteristic and accurate composite picture we have
ever had of an old, brave, human, free, and distinctive life
that has changed incredibly to the veneers of modern society.
It is the very mirror of who and what the people were that laid
the real foundations for a community which is now the wonder
of the historian. The very details which are "not Big enough"
for the casual reader (mentally over-tuned to newspaper
headlines and moving pictures) are the vital and enduring
merits of this unpretentious volume. No one else has ever set
down so many of the very things that the final historian of
Los Angeles will search for, a hundred years after all our orato-
ries and "literary efforts" have been well forgotten. It is a
chronicle indispensable for every public library, every reference
library, the shelf of every individual concerned with the story
of California.
It is the Pepys's Diary of Los Angeles and its tributary
domain.
CHARLES F. LUMMIS.
PREFACE
THE Editors wish to acknowledge the cooperation given,
from time to time, by many whose names, already
mentioned in the text, are not repeated here, and in
particular to Drs. Leo Newmark and Charles F. Lummis, and
Joseph P. and Edwin J. Loeb, for having read the proofs.
They also wish to acknowledge Dr. Lummis's self-imposed
task of preparing the generous foreword with which this
volume has been favored. Gratitude is also due to various
friends who have so kindly permitted the use of photographs
not a few of which, never before published, are rare and difficult
to obtain. Just as in the case, however, of those who deserve
mention in these memoirs, but have been overlooked, so it is
feared that there are some who have supplied information and
yet have been forgotten. To all such, as well as to several
librarians and the following, thanks are hereby expressed:
Frederick Baker, Horace Baker, Mrs. J. A. Barrows, Prospero
Barrows, Mrs. R. C. Bartow, Miss Anna McConnell Beckley,
Sigmund Beel, Samuel Behrendt, Arthur S. Bent, Mrs. Dora
Bilderback, C. V. Boquist, Mrs. Mary Bowman, Allan Bromley,
Professor Valentin Buehner, Dr. Rose Bullard, J. 0. Burns,
Malcolm Campbell, Gabe Carroll, J. W. Carson, Walter M. Cas-
tle, R. B. Chapman, J. H. Clancy, Herman Cohn, Miss Gertrude
Darlow, Ernest Dawson and Dawson's Bookshop, Louise Deen,
George E. Dimitry, Robert Dominguez, Durell Draper, Miss
Marjorie Driscoll, S. D. Dunann, Gottlieb Eckbahl, Richard
Egan, Professor Alfred Ewington, David P. Fleming, James G.
Fowler, Miss Effie Josephine Fussell, A. P. Gibson, J. Sherman
Glasscock, Gilbert H. Grosvenor, Edgar J. Hartung, Chauncey
Hayes, George H. Higbee, Joseph Hopper, Adelbert Hornung,
XV
xvi Preface
Walter Hotz, F. A. Howe, Dr. Clarence Edward Ide, Luther
Ingersoll, C. W. Jones, Mrs. Eleanor Brodie Jones, Reverend
Henderson Judd, D. P. Kellogg, C. G. Keyes, Willis T. Knowl-.
ton, Bradner Lee, Jr., H. J. Lelande, Isaac Levy, Miss Ella
Housefield Lowe, Mrs. Celeste Manning, Mrs. Morris Meyberg,
Miss Louisa Meyer, William Meying, Charles E. Mitchell, R. C.
Neuendorffer, S. B. Norton, B. H. Prentice, Burr Price, Edward
H. Quimby, B. B. Rich, Edward I. Robinson, W. J. Rouse,
Paul P. Royere, Louis Sainsevain, Ludwig Schiff, R. D. Sepul-
veda, Calvin Luther Severy, Miss Emily R. Smith, Miss
Harriet Steele, George F. Strobridge, Father Eugene Sugranes,
Mrs. Carrie Switzer, Walter P. Temple, W. I. Turck, Judge
and Mrs. E. P. Unangst, William M. Van Dyke, August
Wackerbarth, Mrs. J. T. Ward, Mrs. Olive E. Weston, Pro-
fessor A. C. Wheat and Charles L. Wilde.
CONTENTS
PAGE
IN MEMORIAM . . . ..... v
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . vii
FOREWORD ......... xi
PREFACE ......... xv
CHAPTER
I. CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH, 1834-1853 . . i
II. WESTWARD, Ho! 1853. .... 6
III. NEW YORK NICARAGUA THE GOLDEN GATE,
1853 . H
IV. FIRST AD VENTURES IN Los ANGELES, 1853 . 27
V. LAWYERS AND COURTS, 1853 .... 45
VI. MERCHANTS AND SHOPS, 1853 ... 60
VII. IN AND NEAR THE OLD PUEBLO, 1853 . . 8O
. VIII. ROUND ABOUT THE PLAZA, 1853-1854 . . 97
IX. FAMILIAR HOME-SCENES, 1854 . . .112
X. EARLY SOCIAL LIFE, 1854 . . . .128
XI. THE RUSH FOR GOLD, 1855 . . . 146
XII. THE GREAT HORSE RACE, 1855 . . . 157
XIII. PRINCELY RANCHO DOMAINS, 1855 . . . 166
XIV. ORCHARDS AND VINEYARDS, 1856 . . , v -V
xviii Contents
CHAPTER PAGE
XV. SHERIFF BARTON AND THE BANDIDOS, 1857 . 204
XVI. MARRIAGE THE BUTTERFIELD STAGES, 1858 . 220
XVII. ADMISSION TO CITIZENSHIP, 1859 . . . 240
XVIII. FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH THE TELEGRAPH, 1860 260
XIX. STEAM- WAGON ODD CHARACTERS, 1860. . 274
XX. THE RUMBLINGS OF WAR, 1861 . . . 289
XXI. HANCOCK LADY FRANKLIN THE DELUGE,
1861 ....... 299
XXII. DROUGHTS THE ADA HANCOCK DISASTER,
1862-1863 ...... 310
XXIII. ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN, 1864-1865 . . 328
XXIV. H. NEWMARK & COMPANY CARLISLE-KING
DUEL, 1865-1866 ..... 342
XXV. REMOVAL TO NEW YORK, AND RETURN, 1867-
1868 359
XXVI. THE CERRO GORDO MINES, 1869 . . . 379
XXVII. COMING OF THE IRON HORSE, 1869 . . 393
XXVIII. THE LAST OF THE VIGILANTES, 1870 . . 408
XXIX. THE CHINESE MASSACRE, 1871 . . . '421
XXX. THE WOOL CRAZE, 1872-1873 . . 437
XXXI. THE END OF VASQUEZ, 1874 .... 452
XXXII. THE SANTA ANITA RANCHO, 1875 . . . 472
XXXIII. Los ANGELES & INDEPENDENCE RAILROAD,
1876 .... . 485
XXXIV. THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC, 1876 . . . 496
Contents xix
CHAPTER PAGE
XXXV. THE REVIVAL OF THE SOUTHLAND, 1 877-1 880 . 509
XXXVI. CENTENARY OF THE CITY ELECTRIC LIGHT,
1881-1884 525
XXXVII. REPETTO AND THE LAWYERS, 1885-1887 . 546
XXXVIII. THE GREAT BOOM, 1887 . ' . . .564
XXXIX. PROPOSED STATE DIVISION, 1888-1891 . . 588
XL. THE FIRST FIESTAS, 1892-1897 . . . 602
XLI. THE SOUTHWEST ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY,
1898-1905 . . . . . 616
XLII. THE SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE, 1906-1910 . 633
XLIII. RETROSPECTION, 1910-1913 .... 641
INDEX 653
ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING
PAGE
HARRIS NEWMARK. IN HIS SEVENTY-NINTH YEAR
Engraved from a photograph Frontispiece
FACSIMILE OF A PART OF THE MS. ..... 2
REPRODUCTION OF SWEDISH ADVERTISEMENT ... 3
PHILIPP NEUMARK ........ 10
From a Daguerreotype.
ESTHER NEUMARK ........ 10
From a Daguerreotype
J. P. NEWMARK . . . . . . . .10
From a Daguerreotype
MR. AND MRS. JOSEPH NEWMARK . . . . .10
Los ANGELES IN THE EARLY FIFTIES . . . . .11
From a drawing of the Pacific Railway Expedition
BELLA UNION AS IT APPEARED IN 1858 .... 26
From a lithograph
JOHN GOLLER'S BLACKSMITH SHOP ..... 27
From a lithograph of 1858
HENRY MELLUS ........ 50
From a Daguerreotype
FRANCIS MELLUS . . . . . . ' n 50
From a Daguerreotype
JOHN G. DOWNEY ....... < , 5
CHARLES L. DUCOMMUN . . . . ,>., 5
xxii Illustrations
FACING
PAGE
THE PLAZA CHURCH 51
From a photograph, probably taken in the middle eighties
Pio Pico 68
From an oil portrait
JUAN BANDINI 68
ABEL STEARNS. 68
ISAAC WILLIAMS . 68
STORE OF FELIPE RHEIM ....... 69
JOHN JONES 102
CAPTAIN F. MORTON . . . . . . . 102
CAPTAIN AND MRS. J. S. GARCIA . ... . . 102
CAPTAIN SALISBURY HALEY . . . . . .102
El Palacio, HOME OF ABEL AND ARCADIA STEARNS . . 103
From a photograph of the seventies
THE LUGO RANCH-HOUSE, IN THE NINETIES . . . 103
J. P. NEWMARK . . . . . . . .112
From a vignette of the sixties
JACOB RICH 112
O. W. CHILDS . . . . . . . . 112
JOHN O. WHEELER 112
BENJAMIN D. WILSON . . . . . . .113
GEORGE HANSEN . . . . . . . .113
DR. OBED MACY 113
SAMUEL C. FOY . . 113
MYER J. AND HARRIS NEWMARK 128
From a Daguerreotype
GEORGE CARSON . . . . .. . . .128
JOHN G. NICHOLS 128
Illustrations xxiii
FACING
PACE
DAVID W. ALEXANDER 129
THOMAS E. ROWAN 129
MATTHEW KELLER 129
SAMUEL MEYER 129
Louis SAINSEVAIN . . 154
MANUEL DOMINGUEZ. . . . . . . 154
El Aliso, THE SAINSEVAIN WINERY . . . . .154
From an old lithograph
JACOB ELIAS . 155
JOHN T. LANFRANCO . . . . . . . 155
J. FRANK BURNS ........ 155
HENRY D. BARROWS 155
MAURICE KREMER . . . . . . . .168
SOLOMON LAZARD 168
MELLUS'S, OR BELL'S Row 168
From a lithograph of 1858
WILLIAM H. WORKMAN AND JOHN KING . . . .169
PRUDENT BEAUDRY 169
JAMES S. MALLARD . 169
JOHN BEHN ......... 169
Louis ROBIDOUX 174
JULIUS G. WEYSE 174
JOHN BEHN 174
Louis BREER 174
WILLIAM J. BRODRICK 175
ISAAC R. DUNKELBERGER *75
FRANK J. CARPENTER * 175
xxiv Illustrations
FACING
PAGE
AUGUSTUS ULYARD 175
Los ANGELES IN THE LATE FIFTIES . . . .188
From a contemporary sketch
MYER J. NEWMARK ....... 189
EDWARD J. C. KEWEN ....... 189
DR. JOHN S. GRIFFIN . . . . . . .189
WILLIAM C. WARREN . . . . . . .189
HARRIS NEWMARK, WHEN (ABOUT) THIRTY-FOUR YEARS OLD 224
SARAH NEWMARK, WHEN (ABOUT) TWENTY-FOUR YEARS OF
AGE ......... 224
FACSIMILE OF HARRIS AND SARAH NEWMARK'S WEDDING
INVITATION ........ 225
SAN PEDRO STREET, NEAR SECOND, IN THE EARLY SEVENTIES . 254
COMMERCIAL STREET, LOOKING EAST FROM MAIN, ABOUT
1870 .... . . 254
VIEW OF PLAZA, SHOWING THE RESERVOIR . . . 255
OLD LANFRANCO BLOCK ....... 255
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK 290
ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON ...... 290
Los ANGELES COUNTY IN 1854 ..... 291
From a contemporary map
THE MORRIS ADOBE, ONCE FREMONT'S HEADQUARTERS
EUGENE MEYER .
JACOB A. MOERENHOUT .......
FRANK LECOUVREUR .......
THOMAS D. MOTT ........
LEONARD J. ROSE .
H. K. S. O'MELVENY
Illustrations xxv
FACING
FACE
REMI NADEAU . .311
JOHN M. GRIFFITH . . . . . . .311
KASPARE COHN ........ 342
M. A. NEWMARK 342
H. NEWMARK & Co.'s STORE, ARCADIA BLOCK, ABOUT 1875,
INCLUDING (LEFT) JOHN JONES'S FORMER PREMISES . 343
H. NEWMARK & Co.'s BUILDING, AMESTOY BLOCK, ABOUT
1884 . 343
DR. TRUMAN H. ROSE ....... 370
ANDREW GLASSELL ........ 370
DR. VINCENT GELCICH . 370
CHARLES E. MILES, IN UNIFORM OF 38*3 .... 370
FACSIMILE OF STOCK CERTIFICATE, PIONEER OIL Co. . . 371
AMERICAN BAKERY, JAKE KUHRTS'S BUILDING, ABOUT 1880 . 371
LOEBAU MARKET PLACE, NEAR THE HOUSE IN WHICH
HARRIS NEWMARK WAS BORN . . . 384
STREET IN LOEBAU, SHOWING (RIGHT) REMNANT OF AN-
CIENT CITY WALL ....... 384
ROBERT M. WIDNEY ....... 385
DR. JOSEPH KURTZ . . ... . . . 385
ISAAC N. VAN NUYS ....... 385
ABRAHAM HAAS ........ 385
PHINEAS BANNING, ABOUT 1869 . . . . . 400
HENRI PENELON, IN HIS STUDIO . . . . 400
Carreta, EARLIEST MODE OF TRANSPORTATION . . . 401
ALAMEDA STREET DEPOT AND TRAIN, Los ANGELES & SAN
PEDRO RAILROAD . . . . . . ;.< 401
HENRY C. G. SCHAEFFER . . . . .j,f. 428
xxvi Illustrations
FACING
FACE
LORENZO LECK ........ 428
HENRY HAMMEL ........ 428
Louis MESMER ........ 428
JOHN SCHUMACHER ....... 428
WILLIAM NORDHOLT ....... 428
TURNVEREIN-GERMANIA BUILDING, SPRING STREET . . 429
VASQUEZ AND HIS CAPTORS . .... 452
(Top) D. K. SMITH,
WILLIAM R. ROWLAND,
WALTER E. RODGERS.
(Middle) ALBERT JOHNSON,
GREEK GEORGE'S HOME,
G. A. BEERS.
(Bottom) EMIL HARRIS,
TIBURCIO VASQUEZ,
J. S. BRYANT.
GREEK GEORGE ........ 453
NICOLAS MARTINEZ ....... 453
BENJAMIN S. EATON ....... 464
HENRY T. HAZARD ........ 464
FORT STREET HOME, HARRIS NEWMARK, SITE OF BLANCHARD
HALL; JOSEPH NEWMARK AT THE DOOR . . . 464
CALLE DE LOS NEGROS (NIGGER ALLEY), ABOUT 1870 . . 465
SECOND STREET, LOOKING EAST FROM HILL STREET, EARLY
SEVENTIES ........ 465
ROUND HOUSE, WITH MAIN STREET ENTRANCE . . 476
SPRING STREET ENTRANCE TO GARDEN OF PARADISE. . 476
TEMPLE STREET, LOOKING WEST FROM BROADWAY, ABOUT
1870 . -477
PlCO HOUSE, SOON AFTER COMPLETION . . . -477
WILLIAM PRIDHAM ... .... 500
Illustrations xxvii
FACING
PAGE
BENJAMIN HAYES 500
ISAAC LANKERSHIM ........ 500
RABBI A. W. EDELMAN ...... 500
FORT STREET, FROM THE CHAPARRAL ON FORT HILL. . 501
ANTONIO FRANCO AND MARIANA CORONEL . . . 520
From an oil painting in the Coronel Collection
FOURTH STREET, LOOKING WEST FROM MAIN . . . 520
TIMMS LANDING . . . . . . . .521
From a print of the late fifties
SANTA CATALINA, IN THE MIDDLE EIGHTIES . . .521
MAIN STREET, LOOKING NORTH FROM SIXTH, PROBABLY IN
THE LATE SEVENTIES ...... 530
HIGH SCHOOL, ON POUND CAKE HILL, ABOUT 1873 . . 530
TEMPLE COURT HOUSE, AFTER ABANDONMENT BY THE
COUNTY 531
FIRST STREET, LOOKING EAST FROM HILL . . . .531
SPRING STREET, LOOKING NORTH FROM FIRST, ABOUT 1885 . 566
CABLE CAR, RUNNING NORTH ON BROADWAY (PREVIOUSLY
FORT STREET), NEAR SECOND . . . . .567
EARLY ELECTRIC CAR, WITH CONDUCTOR JAMES GALLAGHER
(STILL IN SERVICE) . . . . . . . 567
GEORGE W. BURTON 594
BEN C. TRUMAN 594
CHARLES F. LUMMIS 594
CHARLES DWIGHT WILLARD 594
GRAND AVENUE RESIDENCE, HARRIS NEWMARK, 1889 . 595
ISAIAS W. HELLMAN . . . . . . .616
HERMAN W. HELLMAN 616
xxviii Illustrations
FACING
PAGE
CAMERON E. THOM . . . . . . .616
YGNACIO SEPULVEDA . . . . . . .616
FIRST SANTA FE LOCOMOTIVE TO ENTER Los ANGELES. . 617
MAIN STREET, LOOKING NORTH, SHOWING FIRST FEDERAL
BUILDING, MIDDLE NINETIES . . . . .617
HARRIS AND SARAH NEWMARK, AT TIME OF GOLDEN WEDDING 636
SUMMER HOME OF HARRIS NEWMARK, SANTA MONICA . 637
HARRIS NEWMARK, AT THE DEDICATION OF M. A. NEWMARK
& Co.'s ESTABLISHMENT, 1912 . . . . . 644
J. P. NEWMARK, ABOUT 1890 . . . . . . 644
HARRIS NEWMARK BREAKING GROUND FOR THE JEWISH
ORPHANS' HOME, NOVEMBER 28th, 1911 . . . 645
SIXTY YEARS
IN
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Sixty Years in Southern
California
CHAPTER I
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH
1834-1853
I WAS born in Loebau, West Prussia, on the 5th of July, 1834,
the son of Philipp and Esther, nee Meyer, Neumark; and
I have reason to believe that I was not a very welcome
guest. My parents, who were poor, already had five children,
and the prospects of properly supporting the sixth child were
not bright. As I had put in an appearance, however, and there
was no alternative, I was admitted with good grace into the
family circle and, being the baby, soon became the pet.
My father was born in the ancient town of Neumark ; and
in his youth he was apprenticed to a dealer in boots and
shoes in a Russian village through which Napoleon Bonaparte
marched on his way to Moscow. The conqueror sent to the
shop for a pair of fur boots, and I have often heard my father
tell, with modest satisfaction, how, shortly before he visited
the great fair at Nijni Novgorod, he was selected to deliver
them ; how more than one ambitious and inquisitive friend tried
to purchase the privilege of approaching the great man, and
what were his impressions of the warrior. When ushered into
the august presence, he found Bonaparte in one of his charac-
2 Sixty Years in Southern California [1834-
teristic postures, standing erect, in a meditative mood, braced
against the wall, with one hand to his forehead and the other
behind his back, apparently absorbed in deep and anxious
thought.
When I was but three weeks old, my father's business
affairs called him away from home, and compelled the sacrifice
of a more or less continued absence of eight and one half years.
During this period rny mother's health was very poor. Un-
fortunately, also, my father was too liberal and extravagantly-
inclined for his narrow circumstances ; and not being equipped
to meet the conditions of the district in which we lived and
our economical necessities, we were continually, so to speak, in
financial hot water. While he was absent, my father traveled
in Sweden and Denmark, remitting regularly to his family as
much as his means would permit, yet earning for them but
a precarious living. In 1842 he again joined his family in
Loebau, making visits to Sweden and Denmark during the
summer seasons from 1843 until the middle fifties and spend-
ing the long winters at home. Loebau was then, as now, of
little commercial importance, and until 1849, when I was
fifteen years of age and had my first introduction to the
world, my life was very commonplace and marked by little
worthy of special record, unless it was the commotion center-
ing in the cobble-paved market-place, as a result of the
Revolution of 1848.
With the winter of 1837 na d come a change in my father's
plans and enterprises. Undergoing unusually severe weather
in Scandinavia, he listened to the lure of the New World and
embarked for New York, arriving there in the very hot summer
of 1838. The contrast in climatic conditions proved most dis-
astrous; for, although life in the new Republic seemed both
pleasing and acceptable to one of his temperament and liberal
views, illness finally compelled him to bid America adieu.
My father was engaged in the making of ink and blacking,
neither of which commodities was, at that time, in such univer-
sal demand as it is now; and my brother, Joseph Philipp, later
known as J. P. Newmark, having some time before left
Pris-Courant
E NEUMARK < FaWikater
CYAN BLANKSMORJA
SpHitaskur
/ /Jtfk. .1sk,,r /? f t.
ECONOMIC BLANKSMORJA
I f>ff//<'St/Ht(l Cl
///
/. .ff/ftt iffmiirker sit/ urnutn (/r>/r//t,'t
* .. . L . It , . ' . . '. - m.
BLACK ffir
\
" Note. The ' F ' in the above announcement is
the abbreviation for Fabian, one of Philipp Neumark's
given names, at one time used in business, but
seldom employed in social correspondence, and finally
abandoned altogether."
1853] Childhood and Youth 3
Sweden, where he had been assisting him, for England, it was
agreed, in 1849, after a family council, that I was old enough to
accompany my father on his business trips, gradually become
acquainted with his affairs, and thus prepare to succeed
him. Accordingly, in April, of that year, I left the family
hearth, endeared to me, unpretentious though it was, and
wandered with my father out into the world. Open confession,
it is said, is good for the soul; hence I must admit that the
prospect of making such a trip attracted me, notwithstanding
the tender associations of home ; and the sorrow of parting from
my mother was rather evenly balanced, in my youthful mind,
by the pleasurable anticipation of visiting new and strange
lands.
Any attempt to compare methods of travel in 1849, even in
the countries I then traversed, with those now in vogue, would
be somewhat ridiculous. Country roads were generally poor
in fact, very bad; and vehicles were worse, so that the entire
first day's run brought us only to Lessen, a small village but
twelve miles from home ! Here we spent the night, because of
the lack of better accommodations, in blankets, on the floor of
the wayside inn; and this experience was such a disappoint-
ment, failing to realize, as it did, my youthful anticipations,
that I was desperately homesick and ready, at the first oppor-
tunity, to return to my sorrowing mother. The Fates, however,
were against any such change in our plans; and the next
morning we proceeded on our way, arriving that evening
at the much larger town of Bromberg. Here, for the first time,
the roads and other conditions were better, and my spirits
revived.
Next day we left for Stettin, where we took passage for
Ystad, a small seaport in southern Sweden. Now our real
troubles began ; part of the trip was arduous, and the low state
of our finances permitted us nothing better than exposed deck-
quarters. This was particularly trying, since the sea was rough,
the weather tempestuous, and I both seasick and longing for
home ; moreover, on arriving at Ystad, after a voyage of twelve
hours or more, the Health Officer came on board our boat and
4 Sixty Years in Southern California [1834-
notified us that, as cholera was epidemic in Prussia, we were
prohibited from landing! This filled me with mortal fear lest
we should be returned to Stettin under the same miserable
conditions through which we had just passed ; but this state of
mind had its compensating influence, for my tears at the dis-
couraging announcement worked upon the charity of the
uniformed officials, and, in a short time, to my inexpressible
delight, we were permitted to land. With a natural alertness to
observe anything new in my experience, I shall never forget my
first impressions of the ocean. There seemed no limit to the
expanse of stormy waters over which we were traveling; and
this fact alone added a touch of solemnity to my first venture
from home.
From Ystad we proceeded to Copenhagen, where my father
had intimate friends, especially in the Lachmann, Eichel and
Ruben families, to whose splendid hospitality and unvary-
ing kindness, displayed whenever I visited their neighborhood,
I wish to testify. We remained at Copenhagen a couple of
months, and then proceeded to Gothenburg. It was not at this
time my father's intention to burden me with serious respon-
sibility; and, having in mind my age, he gave me but little of
the work to do, while he never failed to afford me, when he
could, an hour of recreation or pleasure. The trip as a whole,
therefore, was rather an educational experiment.
In the fall of 1849, we returned to Loebau for the winter.
From this time until 1851 we made two trips together, very
similar to the one already described; and in 1851, when I was
seventeen years of age, I commenced helping in real earnest.
By degrees, I was taught the process of manufacturing; and
when at intervals a stock had been prepared, I made short trips
to dispose of it. The blacking was a paste, put up in small
wooden boxes, to be applied with a brush, such a thing as water-
proof blacking then not being thought of, at least by us.
During the summer of 1851, business carried me to Haparanda,
about the most northerly port in Sweden ; and from there I took
passage, stopping at Lulea, Pitea, Umea, Hernosand, Sundsvall,
Soderhamn and Gefle, all small places along the route. I trans-
1853] Childhood and Youth 5
acted no business, however, on the trip up the coast because
it was my intention to return by land, when I should have
more time for trade; accordingly, on my way back to Stock-
holm, I revisited all of these points and succeeded beyond my
expectations.
On my trip north, I sailed over the Gulf of Bothnia which,
the reader will recollect, separates Sweden from Finland, a
province most unhappily under Russia's bigoted, despotic
sway; and while at Haparanda, I was seized with a desire to
visit Tornea, in Finland. I was well aware that if I attempted
to do so by the regular routes on land, it would be necessary to
pass the Russian customhouse, where officers would be sure
to examine my passport; and knowing, as the whole liberal
world now more than ever knows, that a person of Jewish faith
finds the merest sally beyond the Russian border beset with un-
reasonable obstacles, I decided to walk across the wide marsh in
the northern part of the Gulf, and thus circumvent these expo-
nents of intolerance. Besides, I was curious to learn whether, in
such a benighted country, blacking and ink were used at all.
I set out, therefore, through the great moist waste, making my
way without much difficulty, and in due time arrived at Tornea,
when I proceeded immediately to the first store in the neigh-
borhood; but there I was destined to experience a rude, un-
expected setback. An old man, evidently the proprietor, met
me and straightway asked, "Are you a Jew?" and seeing, or
imagining that I saw, a delay (perhaps not altogether tem-
porary!) in a Russian jail, I withdrew from the store without
ceremony, and returned to the place whence I had come. Not-
withstanding this adventure, I reached Stockholm in due season,
the trip back consuming about three weeks; and during part
of that period I subsisted almost entirely on salmon, bear's
meat, milk, and kndckebrod, the last a bread usually made of rye
flour, in which the bran had been preserved. All in all, I was
well pleased with this maiden-trip ; and as it was then Septem-
ber, I returned to Loebau to spend one more winter at home.
CHAPTER II
WESTWARD, HO.'
1853
IN April, 1853, when I had reached the age of nineteen, and
was expected to take a still more important part in our
business an arrangement perfectly agreeable to me my
father and I resumed our selling and again left for Sweden.
For the sake of economy, as well as to be closer to our field
of operations, we had established two insignificant manufac-
turing plants, the one at Copenhagen, where we packed for
two months, the other at Gothenburg, where we also prepared
stock; and from these two points, we operated until the middle
of May, 1853. Then a most important event occurred, com-
pletely changing the course of my life. In the spring, a letter
was received from my brother, J. P. Newmark, who, in 1848, had
gone to the United States, and had later settled in Los Angeles.
He had previously, about 1846, resided in England, as I have
said; had then sailed to New York and tarried for a while in
the East; when, attracted by the discovery of gold, he had
proceeded to San Francisco, arriving there on May 6th, 1851,
being the first of our family to come to the Coast. In this letter
my brother invited me to join him in California ; and from the
first I was inclined to make the change, though I realized that
much depended on my father. He looked over my shoulder
while I read the momentous message ; and when I came to the
suggestion that I should leave for America, I examined my
father's face to anticipate, if possible, his decision. After some
6
1853] Westward, Ho! 7
reflection, he said he had no doubt that my future would be
benefited by such a change ; and while reluctant enough to let
me go, he decided that as soon as practicable I ought to start.
We calculated the amount of blacking likely to be required
for our trade to the season's end, and then devoted the neces-
sary time to its manufacture. My mother, when informed of
my proposed departure, was beside herself with grief and forth-
with insisted on my return to Loebau ; but being convinced that
she intended to thwart my desire, and having in mind the very
optimistic spirit of my brother's letter, I yielded to the in-
fluence of ambitious and unreflecting youth, and sorrowfully
but firmly insisted on the execution of my plans. I feared that,
should I return home to defend my intended course, the mutual
pain of parting would still be great. I also had in mind my
sisters and brothers (two of whom, Johanna, still alive,
and Nathan, deceased, subsequently came to Los Angeles), and
knew that each would appeal strongly to my affection and
regret. This resolution to leave without a formal adieu caused
me no end of distress; and my regret was the greater when, on
Friday, July 1st, 1853, 1 stood face to face with the actual reali-
zation, among absolute strangers on the deck of the vessel that
was to carry me from Gothenburg to Hull and far away from
home and kindred.
With deep emotion, my father bade me good-bye on the
Gothenburg pier, nor was I less affected at the parting;
indeed, I have never doubted that my father made a great
sacrifice when he permitted me to leave him, since I must have
been of much assistance and considerable comfort, especially
during his otherwise solitary travels in foreign lands. I re-
member distinctly remaining on deck as long as there was the
least vision of him; but when distance obliterated all view of
the shore, I went below to regain my composure. I soon in-
stalled my belongings in the stateroom, or cabin as it was
then called, and began to accustom myself to my new and
strange environment.
There was but one other passenger a young man and
he was to have a curious part in my immediate future. As he
8 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
also was bound for Hull, we entered into conversation; and
following the usual tendency of people aboard ship, we soon
became acquaintances. I had learned the Swedish language,
and could speak it with comparative ease ; so that we conversed
without difficulty. He gave Gothenburg as his place of resi-
dence, although there was no one at his departure to wish him
God-speed ; and while this impressed me strangely at the time,
I saw in it no particular reason to be suspicious. He stated
also that he was bound for New York ; and as it developed that
we intended to take passage on the same boat, we were pleased
with the prospect of having each other's company throughout
the entire voyage. Soon our relations became more confidential
and he finally told me that he was carrying a sum of money,
and asked me to take charge of a part of it. Unsophisticated
though I was, I remembered my father's warning to be careful
in transactions with strangers ; furthermore, the idea of burden-
ing myself with another's responsibility seeming injudicious, I
politely refused his request, although even then my suspicions
were not aroused. It was peculiar, to be sure, that when we
steamed away from land, the young man was in his cabin ; but
it was only in the light of later developments that I understood
why he so concealed himself.
We had now entered the open sea, which was very rough,
and I retired, remaining in my bunk for two days, or until we
approached Hull, suffering from the most terrible seasickness
I have ever experienced; and not until we sailed into port did
I recover my sea legs at all. Having dressed, I again met
my traveling companion; and we became still more intimate.
On Sunday morning we reached Hull, then boasting of no such
harbor facilities as the great Humber docks now in course of
construction; and having transferred our baggage to the train
as best we could, we proceeded almost immediately on our way
to Liverpool. While now the fast English express crosses the
country in about three hours, the trip then consumed the
better part of the night and, being made in the darkness,
afforded but little opportunity for observation.
Hardly had we arrived in Liverpool, when I was surprised
1853] Westward, Ho ! * 9
in a way that I shall never forget. While attempting to find
our bundles as they came from the luggage van a precaution
necessitated by the poor baggage system then in vogue, which
did not provide for checking my companion and I were taken
in hand by officers of the law, told that we were under arrest,
and at once conducted to an examining magistrate! As my
conscience was clear, I had no misgivings on account of the
detention, although I did fear that I might lose my personal
effects; nor was I at ease again until they were brought
in for special inspection. Our trunks were opened in the
presence of the Swedish Consul who had come, in the mean-
time, upon the scene; and mine having been emptied, it was
immediately repacked and closed. What was my amazement,
however, when my fellow-traveler's trunk was found to contain
a very large amount of money with which he had absconded
from Gothenburg! He was at once hurried away to police
headquarters; and I then learned that, after our departure,
messages had been sent to both Hull and Liverpool to stop the
thief, but that through confusion in the description, doubtless
due to the crude and incomplete information transmitted by
telegraph (then by no means as thoroughly developed as now) ,
the Liverpool authorities had arrested the only two passen-
gers arriving there who were known to have embarked at
Gothenburg, and I, unfortunately, happened to be one of
them.
At the period whereof I write, there was a semimonthly
steamer service between Liverpool and New York ; and as bad
luck would have it, the boat in which I was to travel paddled
away while I was in the midst of the predicament just de-
scribed, leaving me with the unpleasant outlook of having to
delay my departure for America two full weeks. The one thing
that consoled me was that, not having been fastidious as to my
berth, I had not engaged passage in advance, and so was not
further embarrassed by the forfeiture of hard-earned and much-
needed money. As it was, having stopped at a moderately
priced hotel for the night, I set out the next morning to inves-
tigate the situation. Speaking no English, I was fortunate, a
io Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
few days later, in meeting a Swedish emigration agent who
informed me that the Star King, a three-masted sailing vessel
in command of Captain Burland both ship and captain
hailing from Baltimore was booked to leave the following
morning; and finding the office of the company, I engaged
one of the six first-class berths in the saloon. There was no
second-cabin, or I might have traveled in that class; and
of steerage passengers the Star King carried more than eight
hundred crowded and seasick souls, most of whom were
Irish. Even in the first-class saloon, there were few, if any, of
the ordinary comforts, as I soon discovered, while of luxuries
there were none; and if one had the misfortune to lose even
trifling delicacies such as I had, including half a dozen bottles
of assorted syrups put up by good Mrs. Lipman, on my
leaving Gothenburg, and dropped by a bungling porter the
inconvenience of the situation was intensified.
We left Liverpool which, unlike Hull, I have since seen
on one of my several visits to Europe on the evening of the
loth of July. On my way to the cabin, I passed the dining
table already arranged for supper; and as I had eaten very
sparingly since my seasickness on the way to Hull, I was
fully prepared for a square meal. The absence not only of
smoke, but of any smell as from an engine, was also favorable
to my appetite; and when the proper time arrived, I did full
justice to what was set before me. Steamers then were infre-
quent on the Atlantic, but there were many sailing vessels;
and these we often passed, so close, in fact, as to enable the
respective captains to converse with each other. In the begin-
ning, we had an ample supply of fresh meat, eggs and butter, as
well as some poultry, and the first week's travel was like a
delightful pleasure excursion. After that, however, the meat
commenced to deteriorate, the eggs turned stale, and the
butter became rancid ; and as the days passed, everything grew
worse, excepting a good supply of cheese which possessed, as
usual, the faculty of improving, rather than spoiling, as it aged.
Mountain water might justly have shown indignation if the
contents of the barrels then on board had claimed relationship;
Philipp Neumark
From a Daguerreotype
Esther Neumark
From a Daguerreotype
J. P. Newmark
From a Daguerreotype
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Newmark
W
-3
6 8
&,
.a s
I
1853] Westward, Ho! n
X
while coffee and tea, of which we partook in the usual man-
ner at the commencement of our voyage, we were compelled
to drink, after a short time, without milk the one black and
the other green. Notwithstanding these annoyances, I en-
joyed the experience immensely, once I had recovered from my
depression at leaving Europe; for youth could laugh at such
drawbacks, none of which, after all, seriously affected my
naturally buoyant spirits. Not until I narrowly escaped being
shot, through the Captain's careless handling of a derringer,
was I roused from a monotonous, half-dreamy existence.
Following this escape, matters progressed without -special
incident until we were off the coast of Newfoundland, when we
had every reason to expect an early arrival in New York.
Late one afternoon, while the vessel was proceeding with all
sail set, a furious squall struck her, squarely amidships ; and in
almost as short a time as it takes to relate the catastrophe, our
three masts were snapped asunder, falling over the side of the
boat and all but capsizing her. The utmost excitement pre-
vailed; and from the Captain down to the ordinary seaman,
all hands were terror-stricken. The Captain believed, in fact,
that there was no hope of saving his ship; and forgetful of
all need of self-control and discipline, he loudly called to us,
"Every man for himself!" at the same time actually tearing at
and plucking his bushy hair a performance that in no wise
relieved the crisis. In less than half an hour, the fury of the
elements had subsided, and we found ourselves becalmed; and
the crew, assisted by the passengers, were enabled, by cutting
away chains, ropes and torn sails, to steady the ship and keep
her afloat. After this was accomplished, the Captain engaged
a number of competent steerage passengers to help put up
emergency masts, and to prepare new sails, for which we
carried material. For twelve weary days we drifted with
the current, apparently not advancing a mile; and during all
this time the Atlantic, but recently so stormy and raging, was
as smooth as a mill-pond, and the wreckage kept close to our
ship. It was about the middle of August when this disaster
occurred, and not until we had been busy many days rigging
12 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
up again did a stiff breeze spring up, enabling us to complete
our voyage.
On August 28th, 1853, exactly forty-nine days after our de-
parture from Liverpool, we arrived at New York, reaching
Sandy Hook in a fog so dense that it was impossible to see any
distance ahead; and only when the fog lifted, revealing the
great harbor and showing how miraculously we had escaped
collision with the numerous craft all about us, was our joy and
relief at reaching port complete. I cannot recollect whether
we took a pilot aboard or not ; but I do know that the peculiar
circumstances under which we arrived having prevented a
health officer from immediately visiting us, we were obliged
to cast anchor and await his inspection the next morning.
During the evening, the Captain bought fresh meat, vegetables,
butter and eggs, offered for sale by venders in boats coming
alongside; and with sharpened appetites we made short work
of a fine supper, notwithstanding that various features of shore
life, or some passing craft, every minute or two challenged our
attention, and quite as amply we did justice, on the following
morning, to our last breakfast aboard ship. As I obtained my
first glimpse of New York, I thought of the hardships of my
father there, a few years before, and of his compulsory return
to Europe ; and I wondered what might have been my position
among Americans had he succeeded in New York. At last, on
August 29th, 1853, under a blue and inspiriting sky and with both
curiosity and hope tuned to the highest pitch, I first set foot on
American soil, in the country where I was to live and labor the
remainder of my life, whose flag and institutions I have more
and more learned to honor and love.
Before leaving Europe, I had been provided with the New
York addresses of friends from Loebau, and my first duty was
to look them up. One of these, named Lindauer, kept a board-
ing-house on Bayard Street near the Five Points, now, I believe,
in the neighborhood of Chinatown; and as I had no desire to
frequent high-priced hotels, I made my temporary abode with
him. I also located the house of Rich Brothers, associated with
the San Francisco concern of the same name and through whom
1853] Westward, Ho ! 13
I was to obtain funds from my brother with which to continue
my journey; but as I had to remain in New York three weeks
until their receipt, I could do little more in furthering my de-
parture than to engage second-cabin passage via Nicaragua by
a line running in opposition to the Panarna route, and offering
cheapness as its principal attraction. Having attended to that,
I spent the balance of the time visiting and seeing the city, and
in making my first commercial venture in the New World. In
my impatience to be doing something, I foolishly relieved
Samuel, a brother of Kaspare Cohn, and a nephew of mine, of
a portion of his merchandise; but in a single day I decided to
abandon peddling a difficult business for which, evidently,
I was never intended. After that, a painful experience with
mosquitoes was my only unpleasant adventure. I did not
know until later that an excited crowd of men were just then
assembled in the neighborhood, in what was styled the Uni-
versal Ice- Water Convention, and that not far away a crowd
of women, quite as demonstrative, excluded from the councils
of men and led by no less a personality than P. T. Barnum,
the showman, were clamoring for both Prohibition and Equal
Suffrage!
CHAPTER III
NEW YORK NICARAGUA THE GOLDEN GATE
1853
ON September 2Oth, during some excitement due to the fear
lest passengers from New Orleans afflicted with yellow-
fever were being smuggled into the city despite the vi-
gilance of the health authorities, I left New York for Nicaragua,
then popularly spoken of as the Isthmus, sailing on the steamer
Illinois as one of some eleven or twelve hundred travelers re-
cently arrived from Europe who were hurrying to California
on that ship and the Star of the West. The occasion afforded
my numerous acquaintances a magnificent opportunity to give
me all kinds of advice, in the sifting of which the bad was dis-
carded, while some attention was paid to the good. One of the
important matters mentioned was the danger from drinking
such water as was generally found in the tropics unless it were
first mixed with brandy; and this led me, before departing, to
buy a gallon demijohn a bulging bottle destined to figure in a
ludicrous episode on my trip from sea to sea. I can recall little
of the voyage to the eastern coast of Nicaragua. We kept
well out at sea until we reached the Bahama Islands, when
we passed near Mariguana, felt our way through the Windward
Passage, and steered east of the Island of Jamaica; but I
recollect that it became warmer and warmer as we proceeded
farther south to about opposite Mosquito Gulf, where we
shifted our position in relation to the sun, and that we consumed
nine days in covering the two thousand miles or more between
New York and San Juan del Norte, or Grey Town.
H
1853] New York Nicaragua The Golden Gate 15
From San Juan del Norte in normal times, a hamlet of
four or five hundred people clustered near one narrow, dirty
street we proceeded up the San Juan River, nine hundred
passengers huddled together on three flat-bottomed boats, until,
after three or four days, our progress was interfered with, at
Castillo Rapids, by a fall in the stream. There we had to dis-
embark and climb the rough grade, while our baggage was
carried up on a tramway ; after which we continued our journey
on larger boats, though still miserably packed together, until
we had almost reached the mouth of Lake Nicaragua, when the
water became so shallow that we had to trust ourselves to the
uncertain bongos, or easily-overturned native canoes, or get out
again and walk. It would be impossible to describe the hard-
ships experienced on these crowded little steamboats, which
were by no means one quarter as large as the Hermosa, at
present plying between Los Angeles harbor and Catalina. The
only drinking water that we could get came from the river, and
it was then that my brandy served its purpose: with the addi-
tion of the liquor, I made the drink both palatable and safe.
Men, women and children, we were parched and packed like
so many herring, and at night there was not only practically no
space between passengers sleeping on deck, but the extremities
of one were sure to interfere with the body of another. The
heat was indeed intense; the mosquitoes seemed omnivorous;
to add to which, the native officers in charge of our expedition
pestered us with their mercenary proceedings. For a small
cup of black coffee, a charge of fifty cents was made, which
leaves the impression that food was scarce, else no one would
have consented to pay so much for so little. This part of the
trip was replete with misery to many, but fortunately for me,
although the transportation company provided absolutely no
conveniences, the hardships could not interfere with my enjoy-
ment of the delightful and even sublime scenery surrounding
us on all sides in this tropical country. As the river had no
great width, we were at close range to the changing panorama
on both banks; while the neighboring land was covered with
gorgeous jungles and vegetation. Here I first saw orange,
16 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
lemon and cocoanut trees. Monkeys of many kinds and sizes
were to be seen ; and birds of variegated colors were plentiful,
almost innumerable varieties of parrots being visible. All
these things were novel to me ; and notwithstanding the great
discomforts under which we traveled, I repeat that I enjoyed
myself.
A walk of a mile or two along the river bank, affording
beneficial exercise, brought us to Port San Carlos, from which
point a larger boat crossed the lake to Virgin Bay, where we took
mules to convey us to San Juan del Sur. This journey was as
full of hardship as it was of congeniality, and proved as inter-
esting as it was amusing. Imagine, if you please, nine hundred
men, women and children from northern climes, long accus-
tomed to the ways of civilization, suddenly precipitated, under
an intensely hot tropical sun, into a small, Central American
landing, consisting of a few huts and some cheap, improvised
tents (used for saloons and restaurants), every one in search
of a mule or a horse, the only modes of transportation. The
confusion necessarily following the preparation for this part of
the trip can hardly be imagined: the steamship company fur-
nished the army of animals, and the nervous tourists furnished
the jumble! Each one of the nine hundred travelers feared
that there would not be enough animals for all, and the anxiety
to secure a beast caused a stampede.
In the scramble, I managed to get hold of a fine mule, and
presently we were all mounted and ready to start. This con-
glomeration of humanity presented, indeed, a ludicrous sight;
and I really believe that I must have been the most grotesque
figure of them all. I have mentioned the demijohn of brandy,
which a friend advised me to buy; but I have not mentioned
another friend who told me that I should be in danger of sun-
stroke in this climate, and who induced me to carry an um-
brella to protect myself from the fierce rays of the enervating sun.
Picture me, then, none too short and very lank, astride a mule,
a big demijohn in one hand, and a spreading, green umbrella
in the other, riding through this southern village, and prac-
tically incapable of contributing anything to the course of the
1853] New York Nicaragua The Golden Gate 17
mule. Had the animal been left to his own resources, he might
have followed the caravan; but in my ignorance, I attempted
to indicate to him which direction he should take. My method
was evidently not in accordance with the tradition of guiding
in just that part of the world ; and to make a long story short,
the mule, with his three-fold burden, deftly walked into a
restaurant, in the most innocent manner and to the very great
amusement of the diners, but to the terrible embarrassment
and consternation of the rider. After some difficulty (for the
restaurant was hardly intended for such maneuvers as were
required), we were led out of the tent. This experience showed
me the necessity of abandoning either the umbrella or the
brandy; and learning that lemonade could be had at points
along the route, I bade good-bye to the demijohn and its ex-
hilarating contents. From this time on, although I still dis-
played inexpertness in control, his muleship and I gradually
learned to understand each other, and matters progressed very
well, notwithstanding the intense heat, and the fatigue natural
to riding so long in such an unaccustomed manner. The
lemonade, though warm and, therefore, dear at ten cents a
glass, helped to quench my thirst; and as the scenery was
wonderful, I derived all the benefit and pleasure possible from
the short journey.
All in all, we traversed about twelve miles on mule or horse-
back, and finally arrived, about four o'clock in the afternoon of
the day we had started, at San Juan del Sur, thus putting
behind us the most disagreeable part of this uncomfortable trip.
Here it may be interesting to add that on our way across the
Isthmus, we met a crowd of disappointed travelers returning
from the Golden Gate, on their way toward New York. They
were a discouraged lot and loudly declared that California was
nothing short of a. fiasco; but, fortunately, there prevailed that
weakness of human nature which impels every man to earn his
own experience, else, following the advice of these discomfited
people, some of us might have retraced our steps and thus
completely altered our destinies. Not until the publication,
years later, of the Personal Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman,
i8 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
did I learn, with peculiar interest, that the then rising soldier,
returning to California with his young wife, infant child and
nurse, had actually embarked from New York on the same day
that I had, arriving in San Francisco the same day that I
arrived, and that therefore the Shermans, whose experience
with the mules was none the less trying and ridiculous than my
own, must have been members of the same party with me in
crossing the mosquito-infested Isthmus.
There was no appreciable variation in temperature while I
was in Nicaragua, and at San Juan del Sur (whose older por-
tion, much like San Juan del Norte, was a village of the Spanish-
American type with one main street, up and down which,
killing time, I wandered) the heat was just as oppressive as
it had been before. People often bunked in the open, a hotel-
keeper named Green renting hammocks, at one dollar each,
when all his beds had been taken. One of these hammocks I
engaged; but being unaccustomed to such an aerial lodging,
I was most unceremoniously spilled out, during a deep sleep
in the night, falling only a few feet, but seeming, to my stirred-
up imagination, to be sliding down through limitless space.
Here I may mention that this Nicaragua Route was the boom
creation of a competitive service generally understood to have
been initiated by those who intended, at the first opportunity,
to sell out; and that since everybody expected to pack and
move on at short notice, San Juan del Sur, suddenly enlarged
by the coming and going of adventurers, was for the moment
in part a community of tents, presenting a most unstable
appearance. A picturesque little creek flowed by the town and
into the Pacific ; and there a fellow- traveler, L. Harris, and I
decided to refresh ourselves. This was no sooner agreed upon
than done; but a passer-by having excitedly informed us that
the creek was infested with alligators, we were not many seconds
in following his advice to scramble out, thereby escaping per-
haps a fate similar to that which overtook, only a few years
later, a near relative of Mrs. Henry Hancock.
At sundown, on the day after we arrived at San Juan del
Sur, the Pacific terminal, we were carried by natives through
1853] New York Nicaragua The Golden Gate 19
the surf to small boats, and so transferred to the steamer
Cortez; and then we started, amidst great rejoicing, on the
last lap of our journey. We steamed away in a northerly
direction, upon a calm sea and under the most favorable cir-
cumstances, albeit the intense heat was most unpleasant. In
the course of about a week the temperature fell, for we were
steadily approaching a less tropical zone. Finally, on the i6th
of October, 1853, we entered the Golden Gate.
Notwithstanding the lapse of many years, this first visit to
San Francisco has never been forgotten. The beauty of the
harbor, the surrounding elevations, the magnificence of the
day, and the joy of being at my journey's end, left an impression
of delight which is still fresh and agreeable in my memory. All
San Francisco, so to speak, was drawn to the wharf, and enthusi-
asm ran wild. Jacob Rich, partner of my brother, was there to
meet me and, without ceremony, escorted me to his home; and
under his hospitable roof I remained until the morning when
I was to depart for the still sunnier South.
San Francisco, in 1853, was much like a frontier town,
devoid of either style or other evidences of permanent progress ;
yet it was wide-awake and lively in the extreme. What little
had been built, bad and good, after the first rush of gold-seekers,
had been destroyed in the five or six fires that swept the city
just before I came, so that the best buildings I saw were of
hasty and, for the most part, of frame construction. Tents also,
of all sizes, shapes and colors, abounded. I was amazed, I
remember, at the lack of civilization as I understood it, at the
comparative absence of women, and at the spectacle of people
riding around the streets on horseback like mad. All sorts of
excitement seemed to fill the air ; everywhere there was a notice-
able lack of repose ; and nothing perhaps better fits the scene
I would describe than some lines from a popular song of that
time entitled, San Francisco in
City full of people,
In a business flurry;
Everybody's motto,
Hurry ! hurry ! hurry !
2O Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
Every nook and corner
Full to overflowing:
Like a locomotive,
Everybody going!
One thing in particular struck me, and that was the tin-
settled state of the surface on which the new town was being
built. I recall for example, the great quantity of sand that
was continually being blown into the streets from sand-dunes
uninterruptedly forming in the endless vacant lots, and how
people, after a hard wind at night, would find small sand-heaps
in front of their stores and residences; so that, in the absence
of any municipal effort to keep the thoroughfares in order, the
owners were repeatedly engaged in sweeping away the accumu-
lation of sand, lest they might be overwhelmed. The streets
were ungraded, although some were covered with planks for
pavement, and presented altogether such an aspect of un-
certainty that one might well believe General Sherman's testi-
mony that, in winter time, he had seen mules fall, unable to rise,
and had even witnessed one drown in a pool of mud ! Sidewalks,
properly speaking, there were none. Planks and boxes some
filled with produce not yet unpacked were strung along in
irregular lines, requiring the poise of an acrobat to walk upon,
especially at night. As I waded through the sand-heaps or fell
over the obstructions designed as pavements, my thoughts
reverted, very naturally, to my brother who had preceded me
to San Francisco two years before; but it was not until some
years later that I learned that my distinguished fellow-country-
man, Heinrich Schliemann, destined to wander farther to
Greece and Asia Minor, and there to search for ancient Troy,
had not only knocked about the sand-lots in the same manner
in which I was doing, but, stirred by the discovery of gold and
the admission of California to the Union, had even taken on
American citizenship. Schliemann visited California in 1850
and became naturalized; nor did he ever, I believe, repudiate
the act which makes the greatest explorer of ancient Greece a
burgher of the United States!
During my short stay in San Francisco, before leaving for
New York Nicaragua The Golden Gate 21
Los Angeles, I made the usual rounds under the guidance of
Jacob Rich. Having just arrived from the tropics, I was not
provided with an overcoat ; and since the air was chilly at night,
my host, who wore a talma or large cape, lent me a shawl,
shawls then being more used than they are now. Rich took
me to a concert that was held in a one-story wooden shack,
whereat I was much amazed ; and afterward we visited a num-
ber of places of louder revelry. Just as I found it to be a few
days later in Los Angeles, so San Francisco was filled with sa-
loons and gambling-houses ; and these institutions were in such
contrast to the features of European life to which I had been
accustomed, that they made a strong impression upon me.
There were no restrictions of any sort, not even including a
legal limit to their number, and people engaged in these enter-
prises because, in all probability, they were the most profitable.
Such resorts attracted criminals, or developed in certain
persons latent propensities to wrong-doing, and perhaps it is no
wonder that Walker, but the summer previous, should have
selected San Francisco as headquarters for his filibustering
expedition to Lower California. By far the most talked-of
man of that day was Harry Meiggs popularly known as
"Honest Harry" who was engaged in various enterprises,
and was a good patron of civic and church endeavor. He was
evidently the advance guard of the boomer organization, and
built the Long Wharf at North Beach, on a spot now at Com-
mercial and Montgomery streets, where later the Australian con-
vict, trying to steal a safe, was captured by the First Vigilance
Committee ; and so much was Meiggs the envy of the less pyro-
technical though more substantial people, that I repeatedly
had my attention called, during my brief stay in San Fran-
cisco, to what was looked upon as his prodigious prosperity.
But Meiggs, useful as he was to the society of his day, finally
ended his career by forging a lot of city scrip (a great deal of
which he sold to W. T. Sherman and his banking associates),
and by absconding to Peru, where he became prominent as a
banker and a developer of mines.
Situated at the Plaza where, but three years before, on
22 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
the admission of California as a State, the meeting of gold-
seeking pioneers and lassoing natives had been symbolized
with streaming banners, and the thirty-one stars were nailed
to a rude pole was the El Dorado, the most luxurious
gambling-place and saloon in the West, despite the existence
near by of the Bella Union, the Parker House and the Empire.
Music, particularly native Spanish or Mexican airs, played
its part there, as well as other attractions; and much of the
life of the throbbing town centered in that locality. It is my
impression that the water front was then Sansome Street ; and if
this be correct, it will afford some idea of the large territory in
San Francisco that is made ground.
As there was then no stage line between San Francisco and
the South, I was compelled to continue my journey by sea; and
on the morning of October i8th, I boarded the steamer Goliah
whose Captain was Salisbury Haley, formerly a surveyor
from Santa Barbara bound for Los Angeles, and advertised
to stop at Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and
one or two other landings formerly of importance but now more
or less forgotten. There were no wharves at any of those places ;
passengers and freight were taken ashore in small boats; and
when they approached shallow water, everything was carried
to dry land by the sailors. This performance gave rise, at
times, to most annoying situations; boats would capsize and
empty their passengers into the water, creating a merriment
enjoyed more by those who were secure than by the victims
themselves. On October 2ist we arrived a mile or so off San
Pedro, and were disembarked in the manner above described,
having luckily suffered no such mishap as that which befell
passengers on the steamship W infield Scott who, journeying
from Panama but a month or so later, at midnight struck
one of the Anacapa Islands, now belonging to Ventura County,
running dead on to the rocks. The vessel in time was smashed
to pieces, and the passengers, several hundred in number, were
forced to camp on the island for a week or more.
Almost from the time of the first visit of a steamer to San
Pedro, the Gold Hunter (a side- wheeler which made the voyage
1853] New York Nicaragua The Golden Gate 23
from San Francisco to Mazatlan in 1849), and certainly from
the day in January of that same year when Temple & Alexander
put on their four-wheeled vehicle, costing one thousand dollars
and the second in the county, there was competition in
transporting passengers to Los Angeles. Phineas Banning,
Augustus W. Timms, J. J. Tomlinson, John Goller, David W.
Alexander, Jose Rtibio and B. A. Townsend were among the
most enterprising commission men; and their keen rivalry
brought about two landings one controlled by Banning, who
had come to Los Angeles in 1851, and the other by Timms, after
whom one of the terminals was named. Before I left San
Francisco, Rich provided me with a letter of introduction
to Banning who was then known, if I remember aright, as
Captain, though later he was called successively Major and
General at the same time stating that this gentleman
was a forwarding merchant. Now, in European cities where
I had heretofore lived, commission and forwarding merchants
were a dignified and, to my way of thinking, an aristocratic class,
which centuries of business experience had brought to a genteel
perfection; and they would have found themselves entirely
out of their element had their operations demanded their sudden
translation, in the fifties, to the west coast of America. At
any rate, upon arriving at San Pedro I had expected to find a
man dressed either in a uniform or a Prince Albert, with a high
hat and other appropriate appurtenances, and it is im-
possible to describe my astonishment when Banning was
pointed out to me ; for I knew absolutely nothing of the rough
methods in vogue on the Pacific Coast. There stood before
me a very large, powerful man, coatless and vestless, without
necktie or collar, and wearing pantaloons at least six inches
too short, a pair of brogans and socks with large holes; while
bright-colored suspenders added to the picturesque effect of
his costume. It is not my desire to ridicule a gentleman who,
during his lifetime, was to be a good, constant friend of
mine, but rather to give my readers some idea of life in the
West, as well as to present my first impressions of Southern
California. The fact of the matter is that Banning, in his own
24 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
way, was even then such a man of affairs that he had bought,
but a few months before, some fifteen wagons and nearly five
times as many mules, and had paid almost thirty thousand
dollars for them. I at once delivered the letter in which Rich
had stated that I had but a smattering of English and that it
would be a favor to him if Banning would help me safely on my
way to Los Angeles ; and Banning, having digested the contents
of the communication, looked me over from head to foot, shook
hands and, in a stentorian voice loud enough, I thought, to
be heard beyond the hills good-naturedly called out. " Wie
geht's?" After which, leading the way, and shaking hands
again, he provided me with a good place on the stage.
Not a minute was lost between the arrival of passengers
and the departure of coaches for Los Angeles in the early
fifties. The competition referred to developed a racing
tendency that was the talk of the pueblo. The company that
made the trip in the shortest time usually obtained, through
lively betting, the best of advertising and the largest patronage ;
so that, from the moment of leaving San Pedro until the final
arrival in Los Angeles two and a half hours later, we tore along
at breakneck speed, over roads slowly traveled, but a few
years before,by Stockton's cannon. These roads never having
been cared for, and still less inspected, were abominably bad;
and I have often wondered that during such contests there
were not more accidents. The stages were of the common
Western variety, and four to six broncos were always a feature
of the equipment. No particular attention had been given to
the harness, and everything was more or less primitive. The
stage was provided with four rows of seats and each row, as a
rule, was occupied by four passengers, the front row including
the oft-bibulous driver; and the fare was five dollars.
Soon after leaving San Pedro, we passed thousands of
ground squirrels, and never having seen anything of the kind
before, I took them for ordinary rats. This was not an attrac-
tive discovery ; and when later we drove by a number of ranch
houses and I saw beef cut into strings and hung up over fences
to dry, it looked as though I had landed on another planet.
New York Nicaragua The Golden Gate 25
I soon learned that dried beef or, as the natives here called
it, came seca (more generally known, perhaps, at least among
frontiersmen, as "jerked" beef or jerky} was an important
article of food in Southern California; but from the remi-
niscences of various pioneers I have known, it evidently as-
tonished others as much as it did me.
Having reached the Half- Way House, we changed horses;
then we continued and approached Los Angeles by San Pedro
Street, which was a narrow lane, possibly not more than ten
feet wide, with growing vineyards bordered by willow trees on
each side of the road. It was on a Sunday and in the midst of
the grape season that I first beheld the City of the Angels ; and
to these facts in particular I owe another odd and unfavorable
first impression of the neighborhood. Much of the work
connected with the grape industry was done by Indians and
native Mexicans, or Californians, as they were called, and every
Saturday evening they received their pay. During Saturday
night and all day Sunday, they drank themselves into hilarity
and intoxication, and this dissipation lasted until Sunday
night. Then they slept off their sprees and were ready
to work Monday morning. During each period of excite-
ment, from one to three or four of these revelers were
murdered. Never having seen Indians before, I supposed them
to represent the citizenship of Los Angeles an amusing error
for which I might be pardoned when one reflects that nine out
of forty-four of the founders of Los Angeles were Indians, and
that, according to an official census made the year before, Los
Angeles County in 1852 had about thirty- seven hundred
domesticated Indians among a population of a little over
four thousand whites; and this mistake as to the typical
burgher, together with my previous experiences, added to my
amazement.
At last, with shouts and yells from the competing drivers,
almost as deafening as the horn-blowing of a somewhat later
date, and hailed apparently by every inhabitant and dog
along the route, we arrived at the only real hotel in town, the
Bella Union, where stages stopped and every city function
26 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853]
took place. This hotel was a one-story, adobe house enlarged
in 1858 to two stories, and located on Main Street above Com-
mercial ; and Dr. Obed Macy, who had bought it the previous
spring from Winston & Hodges, was the proprietor.
My friend, Sam Meyer (now deceased, but for fifty years
or more treasurer of Forty- two, the oldest Masonic lodge in
Los Angeles), who had come here a few months in advance of
me, awaited the arrival of the stage and at once recognized
me by my costume, which was anything but in harmony with
Southern California fashions of that time. My brother, J. P.
Newmark, not having seen me for several years, thought that
our meeting ought to be private, and so requested Sam to show
me to his store. I was immediately taken to my brother's
place of business where he received me with great affection;
and there and then we renewed that sympathetic association
which continued many years, until his death in 1895.
BELLA UNION H OT
Bella Union as it Appeared in 1858
From a lithograph
John Goller's Blacksmith Shop
From a lithograph of 1858
CHAPTER IV
FIRST ADVENTURES IN LOS ANGELES
1853
ONCE fairly well settled here, I began to clerk for my
brother, who in 1852 had bought out a merchant named
Howard. For this service I received my lodging, the
cost of my board, and thirty dollars each month. The charges
for board at the Bella Union then enjoying a certain prestige,
through having been the official residence of Pio Pico when
Stockton took the city were too heavy, and arrangements
were made with a Frenchman named John La Rue, who had
a restaurant on the east side of Los Angeles Street, about two
hundred feet south of Bell's Row. I paid him nine dollars a
week for three more or less hearty meals a day, not including
eggs, unless I provided them ; in this case he agreed to prepare
them for me. Eggs were by no means scarce; but steaks and
mutton and pork chops were the popular choice, and potatoes
and vegetables a customary accompaniment.
This La Rue, or Leroux, as he was sometimes called, was an
interesting personality with an interesting history. Born in
France, he sailed for the United States about the time of the
discovery of gold in California, and made his way to San Fran-
cisco and the mines, where luck encouraged him to venture
farther and migrate to Mazatlan, Mexico. While prospecting
there, however, he was twice set upon and robbed; and barely
escaping with his life, he once more turned northward, this time
stopping at San Pedro and Los Angeles. Here, meeting Miss
27
28 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
Bridget Johnson, a native of Ireland, who had just come from
New York by way of San Diego, La Rue married her, notwith-
standing their inability to speak each other's language, and then
opened a restaurant, which he continued to conduct until 1858
when he died, as the result of exposure at a fire on Main Street.
Although La Rue was in no sense an eminent citizen, it is
certain that he was esteemed and mourned. Prior to his death,
he had bought thirty or thirty-five acres of land, on which he
planted a vineyard and an orange-orchard; and these his wife
inherited. In 1862, Madame La Rue married John Wilson,
also a native of Ireland, who had come to Los Angeles during
the year that the restaurateur died. He was a blacksmith and
worked for John Goller, continuing in business for over twenty
years, and adding greatly, by industry and wise management,
to the dowry brought him by the thrifty widow.
I distinctly recall La Rue's restaurant, and quite as clearly
do I remember one or two humorous experiences there. Noth-
ing in Los Angeles, perhaps, has ever been cruder than this
popular eating-place. The room, which faced the street, had a
mud-floor and led to the kitchen through a narrow opening.
Half a dozen cheap wooden tables, each provided with two
chairs, stood against the walls. The tablecloths were generally
dirty, and the knives and forks, as well as the furniture, were
of the homeliest kind. The food made up in portions what it
lacked in quality, and the diner rarely had occasion to leave the
place hungry. What went most against my grain was the
slovenliness of the proprietor himself. Flies were very thick in
the summer months ; and one day I found a big fellow splurging
in my bowl of soup. This did not, however, feaze John La Rue.
Seeing the struggling insect, he calmly dipped his coffee-colored
fingers into the hot liquid and, quite as serenely, drew out the
fly ; and although one could not then be as fastidious as nowa-
days, I nevertheless found it impossible to eat the soup.
On another occasion, however, mine host's equanimity
was disturbed. I had given him two eggs one morning, to pre-
pare for me, when Councilman A. Jacobi, a merchant and also
a customer of La Rue's, came in for breakfast, bringing one
1853] First Adventures in Los Angeles 29
more egg than mine. Presently my meal, unusually generous,
was served, and without loss of time I disposed of it and
was about to leave; when just then Jacobi discovered that the
small portion set before him could not possibly contain the three
eggs he had supplied. Now, Jacobi was not only possessed of a
considerable appetite, but had as well a definite unwillingness
to accept less than his due, while La Rue, on the other hand,
was very easily aroused to a high pitch of Gallic excitement;
so that in less time than is required to relate the story, the two
men were embroiled in a genuine Franco-Prussian dispute, all
on account of poor La Rue's unintentional interchange of the
two breakfasts. Soon after this encounter, Jacobi, who was
an amateur violinist of no mean order, and had fiddled himself
into the affections of his neighbors, left for Berlin with a snug
fortune, and there after some years he died.
Having arranged for my meals, my brother's next provision
was for a sleeping-place. A small, unventilated room adjoining
the store was selected; and there I rested on an ordinary cot
furnished with a mattress, a pillow, and a pair oifrazadas, or
blankets. According to custom, whatever of these covers I re-
quired were taken each evening from stock, and the next morn-
ing they were returned to the shelves. Stores as well as houses
were then almost without stoves or fireplaces; and as it grew
colder, I found that the blankets gave little or no warmth.
Indeed they were nothing more or less, notwithstanding their
slight mixture of wool, than ordinary horse-blankets, on which
account in winter I had to use five or six of them to enjoy any
comfort whatever; and since I experienced difficulty in keeping
them on the cot, I resorted at last to the device of tacking them
down on one side.
In 1853, free-and-easy customs were in vogue in Los Angeles,
permitting people in the ordinary affairs of life to do prac-
tically as they pleased. There were few if any restrictions ; and
if circumscribing City ordinances existed except, perhaps,
those of 1850 which, while licensing gaming places, forbade the
playing of cards on the street I do not remember what they
were. As was the case in San Francisco, neither saloons nor
30 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
gambling places were limited by law, and there were no regu-
lations for their management. As many persons as could make
a living in this manner kept such establishments, which were
conspicuous amid the sights of the town. Indeed, chief among
the surprises greeting me during my first few weeks upon
the Coast, the many and flourishing gambling dens caused
me the greatest astonishment.
Through the most popular of these districts, a newly-found
friend escorted me on the evening of my arrival in Los Angeles.
The quarter was known by the euphonious title of Calle de los
Negros Nigger Alley ; and this alley was a thoroughfare not
over forty feet wide which led from Aliso Street to the Plaza,
an extent of just one unbroken block. At this period, there was
a long adobe facing Los Angeles Street, having a covered
platform or kind of veranda, about four feet from the ground,
running its entire length. The building commenced at what
was later Sanchez Street, and reached, in an easterly direc-
tion, to within forty feet, more or less, of the east side of
Nigger Alley, then continuing north to the Plaza. This
formed the westerly boundary, while a line of adobes on the
other side of the street formed the easterly line. The structure
first described, and which was demolished many years ago,
later became the scene of the beginning of an awful massacre
to which I shall refer in due season.
Each side of the alley was occupied by saloons and gambling
houses. Men and women alike were to be found there, and
both sexes looked after the gaming tables, dealing monte and
faro, and managing other contrivances that parted the good-
natured and easy-going people from their money. Those in
charge of the banks were always provided with pistols, and
were ready, if an emergency arose, to settle disputes on the
spot ; and only rarely did a case come up for adjustment before
the properly-constituted authorities, such as that in 1848, which
remained a subject of discussion for some time, when counter-
feiters, charged with playing at monte with false money, were
tried before a special court made up of Abel. Stearns and
Stephen C. Foster. Time was considered a very important
First Adventures in Los Angeles 31
element during the play; and sanguinary verdicts in financial
disputes were generally rendered at once.
Human life at this period was about the cheapest thing in
Los Angeles, and killings were frequent. Nigger Alley was as
tough a neighborhood, in fact, as could be found anywhere, and
a large proportion of the twenty or thirty murders a month
was committed there. About as plentiful a thing, also, as there
was in the pueblo was liquor. This was served generously in
these resorts, not only with respect to quantity, but as well
regarding variety. In addition to the prodigality of feasting,
there was no lack of music of the native sort the harp and the
guitar predominating. These scenes were picturesque and
highly interesting. Nigger Alley, for a while the headquarters
for gamblers, enjoyed through that circumstance a certain
questionable status; but in the course of years it came to be
more and more occupied by the Chinese, and given over to
their opium-dens, shops and laundries. There, also, their
peculiar religious rites were celebrated in just as peculiar a joss
house, the hideously-painted gods not in the least becoming a
deterrent factor. Juan Apablasa was among those who owned
considerable property in Chinatown, and a street in that quarter
perpetuates his name.
Having crossed the Plaza, we entered Sonora Town, where
my friend told me that every evening there was much indul-
gence in drinking, smoking and gambling, and quite as much
participation in dancing. Some of this life, which continued in
full swing until the late seventies, I witnessed on my first
evening in Los Angeles.
Returning to Main Street, formerly Calle Principal, we
entered the Montgomery, one of the well-known gambling
houses a one-story adobe about a hundred feet in width, in
front of which was a shaded veranda situated nearly opposite
the Stearns home, and rather aristocratic, not only in its
furnishings but also in its management. This resort was
managed by the fearless William C., or Billy Getman,
afterward Sheriff of Los Angeles County, whom I saw killed
while trying to arrest a lunatic. The Montgomery was con-
32 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
ducted in an orderly manner, and catered to the most fastidious
people of Los Angeles, supplying liquors of a correspondingly
high grade; the charge for a drink there being invariably
twenty-five cents. It was provided with a billiard parlor, where
matches were often arranged for a stake of hundreds of dollars.
Games of chance there were for every requirement, the long
and the short purse being equally well accommodated. The
ranch owner could bet his hundreds, while he of lowlier estate
might tempt the fickle goddess according to his narrower
means.
A fraternity of gamblers almost indigenous to California,
and which has been celebrated and even, to an extent,
glorified by such writers as Mark Twain, Bret Harte and
others, was everywhere then in evidence in Los Angeles; and
while it is true that their vocation was illegitimate, many
of them represented nevertheless a splendid type of man:
generous, honest in methods, courageous in operations and
respected by everybody. It would be impossible, perhaps, to
describe this class as I knew them and at the same time to
satisfy the modern ideal; but pioneers will confirm my tribute
to these early gamesters (among whom they may recall Brand
Phillips) and their redeeming characteristics.
As I have said, my brother, J. P. Newmark, was in partner-
ship with Jacob Rich, the gentleman who met me when I
reached San Francisco; their business being dry-goods and
clothing. They were established in J. N. Padilla's adobe on the
southeast corner of Main and Requena streets, a site so far
"out of town" that success was possible only because of their
catering to a wholesale clientele rather than to the retail trade ;
and almost opposite them, ex-Mayor John G. Nichols con-
ducted a small grocery in a store that he built on the Main
Street side of the property now occupied by Temple Block.
There was an old adobe wall running north and south along the
east line of the lot, out of which Nichols cut about fifteen feet,
using this property to a depth of some thirty feet, thus forming
a rectangular space which he enclosed. Here he carried on a
modest trade which, even in addition to his other cares, scarcely
First Adventures in Los Angeles 33
demanded his whole time ; so that he would frequently visit his
neighbors, among whom Newmark & Rich were his nearest
friends. Often have I seen him therefore, long and lank, seated
in my brother's store tilted back in a chair against the wall or
merchandise, a cigar, which he never lighted, in his mouth, ex-
horting his hearers to be patriotic and to purchase City land at
a dollar an acre, thereby furnishing some of the taxes necessary
to lubricate the municipal machinery. Little did any of us
realize, as we listened to this man, that in the course of another
generation or so there would spring into life a prosperous
metropolis whose very heart would be situated near where old
Mayor Nichols was vainly endeavoring to dispose of thirty-
five-acre bargains at thirty-five dollars each a feature of
municipal cooperation with prospective settlers which was in-
augurated August 1 3th, 1852, and repealed through dissatisfac-
tion in 1854. Nichols, who, with J. S. Mallard and Lewis
Granger, brought one of the first three American families to
settle here permanently, and who married a sister of Mrs.
Mallard, was the father of John Gregg Nichols, always claimed
to be the first boy born (April 24th, 1851), of American parents,
in Los Angeles. Nichols when Mayor was never neglectful of
his official duties, as may be seen from his record in providing
Hancock's survey, his construction of the Bath Street School,
his encouragement of better irrigation facilities, his introduc-
tion of the first fruit grafts brought, by the way, from far-
off New York and his reelection as Mayor in 1856, 1857, and
1858. In 1869, another son, Daniel B. Nichols, of whom I shall
speak, was a participant in a fatal shooting affray here.
A still earlier survey than that of Hancock was made by
Lieutenant Edward O. C. Ord later distinguished in the
Union Army where, singularly enough, he was fighting with
Rosecrans, in time a resident of Los Angeles who, in an effort
to bring order out of the pueblo chaos, left still greater confusion.
To clear up the difficulty of adobes isolated or stranded in the
middle of the streets, the Common Council in 1854 permitted
owners to claim a right of way to the thoroughfares nearest
their houses. This brings to mind the fact that the vara, a
34 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
Spanish unit equal to about thirty- three inches, was a standard
in real estate measurements even after the advent of Ord,
Hancock and Hansen, who were followed by such surveyors as
P. J. Virgen (recalled by Virgen Street) and his partner Hardy;
and also that the reata was often used as a yardstick its
uncertain length having contributed, without doubt, to the
chaotic condition confronting Ord.
Graded streets and sidewalks were unknown; hence, after
heavy winter rains mud was from six inches to two feet deep,
while during the summer dust piled up to about the same extent.
Few City ordinances were obeyed; for notwithstanding that a
regulation of the City Council called on every citizen to sweep
in front of his house to a certain point on Saturday evenings,
not the slightest attention was paid to it. Into the roadway
was thrown all the rubbish: if a man bought a new suit of
clothes, a pair of boots, a hat or a shirt, to replace a correspond-
ing part of his apparel that had outlived its usefulness, he would
think nothing, on attiring himself in the new purchase, of toss-
ing the discarded article into the street where it would remain
until some passing Indian, or other vagabond, took possession
of it. So wretched indeed were the conditions, that I have seen
dead animals left on the highways for days at a time, and can
recall one instance of a horse dying on Alameda Street and
lying there until a party of Indians cut up the carcass for food.
What made these street conditions more trying was the fact
that on hot days roads and sidewalks were devoid of shade, ex-
cept for that furnished by a few scattered trees or an occasional
projecting veranda; while at night (if I except the illumination
from the few lanterns suspended in front of barrooms and stores)
thoroughfares were altogether unlighted. In those nights of
dark streets and still darker tragedies, people rarely went out
unless equipped with candle-burning lanterns, at least until
camphine was imported by my brother, after which this was
brought into general use. Stores were lighted in the same
manner: first with candles, then with camphine and finally
with coal-oil, during which period of advancement lamps re-
placed the cruder contrivances.
i853l First Adventures in Los Angeles 35
Southern California from the first took an active part in
State affairs. Edward Hunter and Charles E. Carr were the
Assemblymen from this district in 1853; and the following year
they were succeeded by Francis Mellus and Dr. Wilson W.
Jones. Carr was a lawyer who had come in 1852; Hunter
afterward succeeded Pablo de la Guerra as Marshal. Jones was
the doctor who just about the time I came, while returning
from a professional call at the Lugos at about sunset, nearly
rode over the bleeding and still warm body of a cattle-buyer
named Porter, on Alameda Street. The latter had been out to
the Dominguez rancho, to purchase stock, and had taken along
with him a Mexican named Manuel Vergara who introduced
himself as an experienced interpreter and guide, but who was,
in reality, a cutthroat with a record of one or two assassina-
tions. Vergara observed that Porter possessed considerable
money ; and on their way back to Los Angeles shot the Ameri-
can from behind. Jones quickly gave the alarm; and Banning,
Stanley and others of the volunteer mounted police pursued
the murderer for eighty-five or ninety miles when, the ammuni-
tion of all parties being exhausted, Vergara turned on the one
Vigilante who had caught up with him and, with an adroit thrust
of his knife, cut the latter's bridle and escaped. In the end,
however, some of Major Heintzelman's cavalry at Yuma (who
had been informed by a fleet Indian hired to carry the news of
the fugitive's flight) overtook Vergara and shot him dead.
These volunteer police or Rangers, as they were called, were a
company of one hundred or more men under command of Dr.
A. W. Hope, and included such well-known early, settlers as
Nichols, J. G. Downey, S. C. Foster, Agustin Olvera, Juan
Sepulveda, Horace Bell, M. Keller, Banning, Benjamin Hayes,
F. L. Guirado, David Alexander, J. L. Brent and I. S. K. Ogier. :
Under the new order of things, too, following the adoption
in 1849 of a State constitution, County organization in Los
Angeles was effected; and by the time I declared myself for
American citizenship, several elections had been held. Ben-
jamin Hayes was District Judge in 1853; Agustin Olvera was
finishing his term as County Judge; Dr. Wilson W. Jones was
36 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
County Clerk and Recorder two offices not separated for
twenty years or until 1873; Lewis Granger was County
Attorney; Henry Hancock was Surveyor; Francis Mellus
(who succeeded Don Manuel Garfias, once the princely owner
but bad manager of the San Pasqual rancho), was Treasurer;
A. F. Coronel was Assessor; James R. Barton was Sheriff and
also Collector of Taxes; and J. S. Mallard, whose name was
given to Mallard Street, was Coroner. Russell Sackett was a
Justice of the Feace here when I arrived; and after a while
Mallard had a court as Justice, near my store on Commercial
Street. All in all, a group of rather strong men!
The administrative officials of both the City and the
County had their headquarters in the one-story adobe building
at the northwest corner of Franklin Alley (later called Jail
Street 1 ) and Spring Street. In addition to those mentioned,
there was a Justice of the Peace, a Zanjero, and a Jailer. An-
tonio Franco Coronel had but recently succeeded Nichols as
Mayor; A. S. Beard was Marshal and Tax Collector; Judge
William G. Dryden was Clerk; C. E. Carr was Attorney;
Ygnacio Coronel was Assessor; and S. Arbuckle was Treasurer.
Antonio Franco Coronel, after whom Coronel Street is
named, had just entered upon the duties of Mayor, and was
busy enough with the disposal of donation lots when I first
commenced to observe Los Angeles' government. He came
from Mexico to California with his father, Don Ygnacio F.
Coronel; and by 1850 he was the first County Assessor. He
. lived at what is now Alameda and Seventh streets, and had a
brother, Manuel, who was City Assessor in 1858.
Major Henry Hancock, a New Hampshire lawyer and
surveyor, came to Los Angeles in 1852, and at the time of my
arrival had just made the second survey of the city, defining
the boundaries of the thirty-five-acre City lots. I met him
frequently, and by 1859 I was well acquainted with him. He
then owed Newmark, Kremer & Company some money and
offered, toward liquidation of the debt, one hundred and ten
acres of land lying along Washington and extending as far as
1 In April, 1872, officially named Franklin Street.
First Adventures in Los Angeles 37
the present Pico Street. It also reached from Main Street to
what is now Grand Avenue. Newmark, Kremer & Company
did not wish the land, and so arranged with Hancock to take
firewood instead. From time to time, therefore, he brought
great logs into town, to be cut up ; he also bought a circular saw,
which he installed, with horse-power and tread-mill, in a vacant
lot on Spring Street, back of Joseph Newmark's second resi-
dence. The latter was on Main Street, between First and the
northern junction of Main and Spring; and between this junction
and First Street, it may be interesting to note, there was in
1853 no thoroughfare from Main to Spring. As I was living
there, I acted as his agent for the sale of the wood that was left
after our settlement. The fact is that Hancock was always
land poor, and never out of debt ; and when he was particularly
hard up, he parted with his possessions at whatever price they
would bring. The Major (earlier known as Captain Hancock,
who enjoyed his titles through his association with the militia)
retained, however, the celebrated La Brea rancho bought at a
very early date from A. J. Rocha, and lying between the city
and the sea which he long thought would furnish oil, but
little dreamt would also contain some of the most important
prehistoric finds; and this ranch, once managed by his wife, a
daughter of Colonel Augustin Haraszthy, the San Francisco
pioneer, is now owned by his son, George Allan Hancock.
George Hansen, to whose far-reaching foresight we owe the
Elysian Park of to-day, was another professional man who was
here before I reached Los Angeles, having come to California
in 1850, by way of Cape Horn and Peru. When he arrived at
Los Angeles, in 1853, as he was fond of recounting, he was too
poor to possess even surveying instruments; but he found a
friend in John Temple, who let him have one hundred dollars
at two per cent, interest per month, then a very low rate.
Thereupon Hansen sent to San Francisco for the outfit that
enabled him to establish himself. I met Hansen for the first
time in th'e last few weeks of 1853, when he came to my brother's
store to buy a suit of clothes, his own being in rags. He had
been out, very probably, on an expedition such as subjected
38 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
a surveyor, particularly in the early days, to much hard work
and fatigue. Hansen, a good student and fine linguist, was
prominent for many years and made more land measurements
hereabouts than did any one else; he had the real management,
in fact, of Hancock's second survey.
Among others who were here, I might mention the Wheeler
brothers. Colonel John Ozias Wheeler, at various times an
office-holder, came to California from Florida, and having
endured many hardships on the trip along the Mississippi,
Arkansas and Gila rivers, arrived at the Chino rancho on August
1 2th, 1849, afterward assisting Isaac Williams in conveying a
train of supplies back to the Colorado River. The next year
he was joined by his brother, Horace Z. Wheeler, who came by
way of the Isthmus, and later rose to be Appraiser-General of
the Imperial Customs at Yokohama; and the two young men
were soon conducting a general merchandise business in Los
Angeles if I recollect aright, in a one-story adobe at the
northeast corner of Main and Commercial streets. Extravagant
stories have been printed as to Wheeler's mercantile operations,
one narrative crediting him with sales to the extent of five
thousand dollars or more a day. In those times, however, no
store was large enough to contain such a stock; and two
successive days of heavy sales would have been impossible. In
1851 Colonel Wheeler, who had been on General Andres
Pico's staff, served as a Ranger; and in 1853 he organized the
first military company in Los Angeles.
Manuel Requena, from Yucatan, was another man of in-
fluence. He lived on the east side of Los Angeles Street, north
of the thoroughfare opened through his vineyard and named
after him later extended east of Los Angeles Street. As early
as June, 1836, Requena, then Alcalde, made a census of this
district. He was a member of the first, as well as the second,
third, fifth and seventh Common Councils, and with David W.
Alexander was the only member of the first body to serve out
the entire term. In 1852, Requena was elected a Supervisor.
Mrs. Requena was a sister of Mrs. Alexander Bell and Mrs.
James, or Santiago Johnson, and an aunt of Henry and Francis
1853] First Adventures in Los Angeles 39
Mellus and Mrs. J. H. Lander. Requena died on June 27th,
1876, aged seventy-four years.
Henry N. Alexander appeared in Los Angeles at about the
same time that I did possibly afterward and was very active
as a Ranger. He too occupied positions of trust, in business
as well as public life, being both City and County Treasurer
in the latter case, preceding Maurice Kremer. It is not sur-
prising, therefore, that he became Wells Fargo & Company's
agent when much uphill work had to be done to establish
their interests here. He married a daughter of Don Pedro
Dominguez. Alexander moved to Arizona, after which I lost
track of him.
John W. Shore, who was here in 1853, was County Clerk
from 1854 to 1857, and again from 1860 to 1863. He always
canvassed for votes on horseback until, one day, he fell off and
broke his leg, necessitating amputation. This terminated his
active campaigns ; but through sympathy he was reflected, and
by a larger majority. Shore was a Democrat.
Mention of public officials leads me to speak of an interest-
ing personality long associated with them. On the west side of
Spring Street near First, where the Schumacher Building
now stands, John Schumacher conducted, in a single room, as
was then common, a grocery store and bar. A good-hearted,
honest German of the old school, and a first-class citizen,
he had come from Wurtemberg to America, and then, with
Stevenson's Regiment, to California, arriving in Los Angeles
in 1847 or 1848. From here he went to Sutter's Creek, where he
found a nugget of gold worth eight hundred dollars, for which
he was offered land in San Francisco later worth millions a
tender which the Wurtemberger declined; and the same year
that I arrived, he returned to Los Angeles, whose activity had
increased considerably since he had last seen it. In 1855,
Schumacher married Fraulein Mary Uhrie, from which union
six children including two sons, John and Frank G. Schumacher,
were born. The eldest daughter became Mrs. Edward A.
Preuss. Schumacher established his store, having bought
nearly the whole block bounded by Spring and First streets
40 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
and Franklin Alley for the value of his famous gold nugget;
and there he remained until the early seventies, the Schumacher
Block being built, as I have said, on a part of the property.
Mrs. Schumacher in 1880 met with a tragic death: while at the
railway station in Merced, she was jolted from the platform
of a car and was instantly killed.
For something else, however, Schumacher was especially
known. When he returned in 1853, he put on sale the first lager
beer introduced into Los Angeles, importing the same from San
Francisco, of which enterprise the genial German was proud;
but Schumacher acquired even more fame for a drink that he
may be said to have invented, and which was known to the
early settlers as Peach and Honey. It contained a good mixture
with peach brandy, and was a great favorite, especially with
politicians and frequenters of the neighboring Courthouse,
including well-known members of the Bar, all of whom crowded
John's place, "between times," to enjoy his much-praised
concoction. Whenever in fact anyone had a cold, or fancied
that he was going to be so afflicted, he hastened to John for his
reputedly-certain cure. Schumacher, who .served as Councilman
in 1855, 1856 and 1857, was proficient in languages and, as an
interpreter, often gave his time and services freely in assisting
his less-gifted neighbors, particularly the poor and unfortunate,
to straighten out their affairs. In the fall of 1860, he had a
narrow escape through the carelessness of a customer who
threw a lighted match into a can of powder. Schumacher
owned some acreage in what was known as the Green Meadows,
a section located near what is now South Figueroa Street ; and
this land he held with Jacob Bell, who was assassinated, as I
shall relate, by a Frenchman named Lachenais hanged, in
turn, by an exasperated mob.
Most political meetings of that period took place at the
Plaza home of Don Ygnacio Del Valle, first County Recorder.
From 1841, Don Ygnacio lived for some time on the San Fran-
cisco rancho granted by the King of Spain to his father and con-
firmed by patent in 1875. He also owned the more famous
Camulos rancho on the Santa Clara River, consisting of several
1853] First Adventures in Los Angeles 41
thousand acres north and west of Newhall, afterward selected
by Helen Hunt Jackson as the setting for some of the scenes in
her novel, Ramona; and these possessions made him a man of
great importance. During his later life, when he had abandoned
his town residence, Del Valle dwelt in genteel leisure at the
rancho, dying there in 1880; and I will not miss this opportunity
to attest his patrician bearing and genial qualities.
At the time of my arrival, there was but one voting precinct
and the polling place was located at the old municipal and
County adobe already spoken of; although later a second polls
was established at the Round House. Inside the room, sat the
election judges and clerks; outside a window, stood the jam of
voters. The window-sill corresponded to the thickness of the
adobe wall, and was therefore about three feet deep. This sill
served as a table, upon it being placed a soap- or candle-box,
into which a hole had been cut for the deposit of the votes.
There was also no register, either great or small, and anyone
could vote. Each party printed its own tickets; and so could
any candidate. This resulted in great confusion, since there
were always many tickets in the field as many, in fact, as
there were candidates; yet the entire proceeding had become
legalized by custom. The candidate of one party could thus
use the ticket of the other, substituting his own name for his
opponent's, and leaving all of the remainder of the ticket un-
changed; in addition to which there was such a lack of uni-
formity in the size and color of the ballots as greatly to add to
the confusion in counting.
To make matters worse, the ballot-box was not easily
reached because of the crowd which was made up largely
of the candidates and their friends. Challenging was the
order of the day; yet, after crimination and recrimination, the
votes were generally permitted to be cast. Although it is true,
of course, that many votes were legitimate, yet aliens such as
Mexicans, who had not even considered the question of taking
out citizenship papers, were permitted to vote while Indians and
half-breeds, who were not eligible to citizenship at all, were ir-
regularly given the franchise. The story is told of an election
42 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
not far from Los Angeles at which a whole tribe of Indians
was voted ; while on another occasion the names on a steamer's
passenger-list were utilized by persons who had already voted,
that very day, once or twice! Cutting off the hair, shaving
one's beard or mustache, reclothing or otherwise transforming
the appearance of the voter these were some of the tricks
then practiced, which the new registry law of 1866 only
partially did away with.
Sonorans, who had recently arrived from Mexico, as well as
the aliens I have mentioned, were easy subjects for the political
manipulator. The various candidates, for example, would
round-up these prospective voters like so many cattle, confine
them in corrals (usually in the neighborhood of Boyle
Heights), keep them in a truly magnificent state of intoxica-
tion until the eventful morning, and then put them in stages
hired from either Banning or Tomlinson for the purpose; and
from the time the temporary prisoners left the corral until
their votes had been securely deposited, they were closely
watched by guards. On reaching the voting place, the captives
were unloaded from the stage like so much inanimate baggage,
and turned over to friends of the candidate to whom, so to
speak, for the time being they belonged. One at a time, these
creatures were led to vote ; and as each staggered to the ballot-
box, a ticket was held up and he was made to deposit it.
Once having served the purpose, he was turned loose and re-
mained free until another election unless, as I have intimated,
he and his fellows were again corralled and made to vote a
second or even a third time the same day.
Nearly all influential Mexicans were Democrats, so that
this party easily controlled the political situation; from which
circumstance a certain brief campaign ended in a most amusing
manner. It happened that Thomas H. Workman, brother of
William H., once ran for County Clerk, although he was not a
Democrat. Billy was naturally much interested in his brother's
candidacy, and did what he could to help him. On the evening
before election, he rented a corral located near what is now
Macy Street and Mission Road, on property later used by
First Adventures in Los Angeles 43
Charles F., father of Alfred Stern, and for years in partnership
with L. J. Rose; and there, with the assistance of some friends,
he herded together about one hundred docile though illegal
voters, most of whom were Indians, kept them all night and,
by supplying fire-water liberally, at length led them into the
state of bewilderment necessary for such an occasion. The
Democratic leaders, however, having learned of this magnifi-
cent coup, put their heads together and soon resolved to thwart
Billy's plan. In company with some prominent Mexican
politicians led by Tomas Sanchez, they loaded themselves
into a stage and visited the corral; and once arrived there,
those that could made such flowery stump speeches in the
native language of the horde that, in fifteen or twenty minutes,
they had stampeded the whole band ! Billy entered a vigorous
protest, saying that the votes were his and that it was a
questionable and even a damnable trick; but all his protests
were of no avail: the bunch of corralled voters had been cap-
tured in a body by the opposition, deciding the contest. These
were the methods then in vogue in accordance with which it
was considered a perfectly legitimate transaction to buy votes,
and there was no secret made of the modus operandi by either
party.
During these times of agitated politics, newspapers (such as
they were) played an important part. In them were published
letters written by ambitious candidates to themselves and
signed, "The People," "A Disinterested Citizen," or some
equally anonymous phrase. As an exception to the usual
maneuver, however, the following witty announcement was
once printed by an office-seeker:
George N. Whitman, not having been requested by "Many
Friends," or solicited by "Many Voters," to become a candi-
date for the office of Township Constable, at the end of the
ensuing September election, offers himself.
Here I am reminded of an anecdote at the expense of John
Quincy Adams Stanley, who in 1856 ran for Sheriff against
David W. Alexander, and was County Assessor in the middle
44 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853]
seventies. Stanley was a very decent but somewhat over-
trusting individual; and ignoring suggestions as to expendi-
tures for votes, too readily believed promises of support by the
voters of the county, almost every one of whom gave him a
favorable pledge in the course of the campaign. When the
ballots were counted, however, and Stanley learned that he
had received just about fifty votes, he remarked, rather dryly:
"I didn't know that there were so many damned liars in the
county!"
Another interesting factor in early elections was the vote
of Tehachepi, then in Los Angeles County. About thirty votes
were cast there; but as communication with Los Angeles was
irregular, it was sometimes necessary to wait a week or more
to know what bearing the decision of Tehachepi had on the
general result.
CHAPTER V
LAWYERS AND COURTS
1853
IN the primitive fifties there were but comparatively few re-
putable lawyers in this neighborhood ; nor was there, per-
haps, sufficient call for their services to insure much of a
living to many more. To a greater extent even than now,
attorneys were called "Judge;" and at the time whereof I
write, the most important among them were Jonathan R.
Scott, Benjamin Hayes, J. Lancaster Brent, Myron Norton,
General Ezra Drown, Benjamin S. Eaton, Cameron E. Thorn,
James H. Lander, Lewis Granger, Isaac Stockton Keith Ogier,
Edward J. C. Kewen and Joseph R. Gitchell. In addition to
these, there was a lawyer named William G. Dryden, of whom
I shall presently speak, and one Kimball H. Dimmick, who
was largely devoted to criminal practice.
Scott, who had been a prominent lawyer in Missouri, stood
very high, both as to physique and reputation. In addition to
his great stature, he had a splendid constitution and wonderful
vitality and was identified with nearly every important case.
About March, 1850, he came here an overland emigrant, and
was made one of the two justices of the peace who formed,
with the county judge, on June 24th, the first Court of Sessions.
He then entered into partnership with Benjamin Hayes, con-
tinuing in joint practice with him until April, 1852, after which
he was a member successively of the law firms of Scott &
Granger, Scott & Lander, and Scott, Drown & Lander. Prac-
45
46 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
ticing law in those days was not without its difficulties, partly
because of the lack of law-books; and Scott used to tell in his
own vehement style how, on one occasion, when he was de-
fending a French sea captain against charges preferred by a
rich Peruvian passenger, he was unable to make much headway
because there was but one volume (Kent's Commentaries)
in the whole pueblo that threw any light, so to speak, on the
question; which lack of information induced Alcalde Stearns
to decide against Scott's client. Although the Captain lost, he
nevertheless counted out to Scott, in shining gold-pieces, the
full sum of one thousand dollars as a fee. In 1859, a daughter
of Scott married Alfred Beck Chapman, a graduate of West
Point, who came to Los Angeles and Fort Tejon, as an officer,
about 1854. Chapman later studied law with Scott, and for
twenty years practiced with Andrew Glassell. In 1863, Chap-
man succeeded M. J. Newmark as City Attorney; and in 1868,
he was elected District Attorney. If I recollect rightly, Scott
died in the sixties, survived by Mrs. Scott a sister of both
Mrs. J. S. Mallard and Mrs. J. G. Nichols and a son, J. R.
Scott, admitted in 1880 to practice in the Supreme Court.
Hayes was District Judge when I came, and continued as
such for ten or twelve years. His jurisdiction embraced Los
Angeles, San Diego, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara
counties ; and the latter section then included Ventura County.
The Judge had regular terms in these districts and was com-
pelled to hold court at all of the County seats. A native of
Baltimore, Hayes came to Los Angeles on February 3d, 1850
followed on St. Valentine's Day, 1852, by his wife whose
journey from St. Louis, via New Orleans, Havana and Panama,
consumed forty-three days on the steamers. He was at once
elected the first County Attorney, and tried the famous case
against the Irving party. About the same time Hayes formed
his partnership with Scott. In January, 1855, and while
District Judge, Hayes sentenced the murderer Brown; and in
1858 he presided at Pancho Daniel's trial. Hayes continued
to practice for many years, and was known as a jurist of high
standing, though on account of his love for strong drink, court
Lawyers and Courts 47
on more than one occasion had to be adjourned. During his
residence here, he was known as an assiduous collector of his-
torical data. He was a brother of both Miss Louisa Hayes,
the first woman public-school teacher in Los Angeles, later the
wife of Dr. J. S. Griffin, and Miss Helena Hayes, who married
Benjamin S. Eaton. Judge Hayes died on August 4th, 1877.
Brent, a native of the South, was also a man of attainment,
arriving here in 1850 with a fairly representative, though in-
adequate library, and becoming in 1855 and 1856 a member of
the State Assembly. He had such wonderful influence, as one
of the Democratic leaders, that he could nominate at will any
candidate; and being especially popular with the Mexican
element, could also tell a good story or two about fees. When
trouble arose in 1851 between several members of the Lugo
family and the Indians, resulting finally in an attempted assas-
sination and the narrow escape from death of Judge Hayes
(who was associated with the prosecution of the case) , several
of the Lugos were tried for murder; and Brent, whose defense
led to their acquittal, received something like twenty thousand
dollars for his services. He was of a studious turn of mind
and acquired most of Hugo Reid's Indian library. When the
Civil War broke out, Brent went South again and became a
Confederate brigadier-general. Brent Street bears his name.
Norton, a Vermonter, who had first practiced law in New
York, then migrated west, and had later been a prime mover
for, and a member of, the first California Constitutional Conven-
tion, and who was afterward Superior Court Judge at San Fran-
cisco, was an excellent lawyer, when sober, and a good fellow.
He came to the Coast in the summer of 1848, was made First
Lieutenant and Chief-of-Staff of the California Volunteers, and
drifted in 1852 from Monterey to Los Angeles. He joined
Bean's Volunteers, and in 1857 delivered here a flowery Fourth
of July oration. Norton was the second County Judge, suc-
ceeding Agustin Olvera and living with the latter's family at the
Plaza; and it was from Norton's Court of Sessions, in May,
1855, that the dark-skinned Juan Flores was sent to the State
prison, although few persons suspected him to be guilty of such
48 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
criminal tendencies as he later developed. Norton died in Los
Angeles in 1887; and Norton Avenue recalls his life and work.
Judge Hayes' successor, Don Pablo de la Guerra, was born
in the presidio of Santa Barbara in 1819, a member of one of the
most popular families of that locality. Although a Spaniard
of the Spaniards, he had been educated in an Eastern college,
and spoke English fluently. Four times he was elected State
Senator from Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo, and was
besides a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1849.
Late in 1863, he was a candidate for District Judge when
a singular opposition developed that might easily have led,
in later years at least, to his defeat. A large part of the
population of Santa Barbara was related to him by blood or
marriage; and it was argued that, if elected, De la Guerra in
many cases would be disqualified from sitting as judge. On
January ist, 1864, however, Don Pablo took up the work as Dis-
trict Judge where Hayes surrendered it. Just as De la Guerra
in 1854 na -d resigned in favor of Hunter, before completing his
term as United States Marshal, so now toward the end of 1873,
De la Guerra withdrew on account of ill-health from the dis-
trict judgeship, and on February 5th, 1874, ne died.
Drown was a lawyer who came here a few months before I
did, having just passed through one of those trying ordeals
which might easily prove sufficient to destroy the courage and
ambition of any man. He hailed from Iowa, where he had
served as Brigadier-General of Militia, and was bound up the
Coast from the Isthmus on the steamer Independence when it
took fire, off Lower California, and burned to the water's edge.
General Drown, being a good swimmer and a plucky fellow,
set his. wife adrift on a hencoop and then put off for shore with
his two children on his back. . Having deposited them safely on
the beach, he swam back to get his wife; but a brutal fellow-
passenger pushed the fainting woman off when her agonized
husband was within a few feet of her; she sank beneath the
waves, and he saw his companion go to her doom at the moment
she was about to be rescued. Though broken in spirit, Drown
on landing at San Pedro came to Los Angeles with his two
1853] . Lawyers and Courts 49
boys, and put his best foot forward. He established himself
as a lawyer and in 1858 became District Attorney, succeeding
Cameron E. Thorn; and it was during his term that Pancho
Daniel was lynched. In 1855, too, Drown instituted the first
Los Angeles lodge of Odd Fellows. Drown was an able lawyer,
eloquent and humorous, and fairly popular; but his generosity
affected his material prosperity, and he died, at San Juan
Capistrano, on August lyth, 1863, none too blessed with this
world's goods.
Dimmick, who at one time occupied an office in the old
Temple Block on Main Street, had rather an eventful career.
Born in Connecticut, he learned the printer's trade; then
he studied law and was soon admitted to practice in New York ;
and in 1846 he sailed with Colonel J. D. Stevenson, in command
of Company K, landing, six months later, at the picturesquely-
named Yerba Buena, on whose slopes the bustling town of San
Francisco was so soon to be founded. When peace with Mexico
was established, Dimmick moved to San Jose; after which
with Foster he went to the convention whose mission was to
frame a State constitution, and was later chosen Judge of the
Supreme Court. In 1852, after having revisited the East and
been defrauded of practically all he possessed by those to
whom he had entrusted his California affairs, Dimmick came
to Los Angeles and served as Justice of the Peace, Notary
Public and County Judge. He was also elected District
Attorney, and at another time was appointed by the Court to
defend the outlaw, Pancho Daniel. Dimmick's practice was
really largely criminal, which frequently made him a defender
of horse- thieves, gamblers and desperadoes ; and in such cases
one could always anticipate his stereotyped plea:
Gentlemen of the Jury : The District Attorney prosecuting my
client is paid by the County to convict this prisoner, whether he
be guilty or innocent ; and I plead with you, gentlemen, in the
name of Impartial Justice, to bring in a verdict of " Not guilty ! "
Through the help of his old-time friend, Secretary William
H. Seward, Dimmick toward the end of his life was appointed
50 Sixty Years in Southern California (1853
Attorney for the Southern District of the United States in
California; but on September nth, 1861, he suddenly died of
heart disease.
Eaton, another prominent representative of the Bar, came
from New England as early as 1850, while California govern-
ment was in its infancy and life anything but secure; and he
had not been here more than a few months when the maneu-
vers of Antonio Garra, Agua Caliente's chief, threatened an
insurrection extending from Tulare to San Diego and made
necessary the organization, under General J. H. Bean, of
volunteers to allay the terror-stricken community's fears.
Happily, the company's chief activity was the quieting of
feminine nerves. On October 3d, 1853, Eaton was elected
District Attorney and in 1857, County Assessor. Later, after
living for a while at San Gabriel, Eaton became a founder of the
Pasadena colony, acting as its President for several years ; and
in 1876 he was one of the committee to arrange for the local
Centennial celebration. Frederick Eaton, several times City
Engineer and once in 1899-1900 Mayor of Los Angeles, is
a son of Benjamin Eaton and his first wife, Helena Hayes, who
died a few years after she came here, and the brother of Mrs.
Hancock Johnston. He reflects no little credit on his father by
reason of a very early, effective advocacy of the Owens River
Aqueduct. Under his administration, the City began this
colossal undertaking, which was brought to a happy consumma-
tion in the year 1913 through the engineering skill of William
Mulholland, Eaton's friend. In 1861, Judge Eaton married
Miss Alice Taylor Clark, of Providence, R. I., who is still living.
While I am upon this subject of lawyers and officialdom, a
few words regarding early jurists and court decorum may be in
order. In 1853, Judge Dryden, who had arrived in 1850, was
but a Police Justice, not yet having succeeded Dimmick as
County Judge; and at no time was his knowledge of the law
and things pertaining thereto other than extremely limited.
His audacity, however, frequently sustained him in positions
that otherwise might have been embarrassing; and this auda-
city was especially apparent in Dryden's strong opposition to
Henry Mellus
From a Daguerreotype
Francis Mellus
From a Daguerreotype
John G. Downey
Charles L. Ducommun
Lawyers and Courts 51
the criminal element. He talked with the volubility of a Catling
gun, expressing himself in a quick, nervous manner and was,
besides, very profane. One day he was trying a case, when
Captain Cameron E. Thorn (who had first come to Los Angeles
in 1854, as the representative of the National Government,
to take testimony before Commissioner Burrill) was one of
the attorneys. During the progress of the case, Thorn had
occasion to read a lengthy passage from some statute book.
Interrupting him, the Judge asked to see the weighty volume;
when, having searched in vain for the citation, he said in
his characteristic, jerky way:
"I'll be - - damned, Mr. Thorn, if I can find that law!"
All of which recalls to me a report, once printed in the Los
Angeles Star, concerning this same jurist and an inquest
held by him over a dead Indian :
Justice Dryden and the Jury sat on the body. The verdict
was: " Death from intoxication, or by the visitation of God!"
Dryden, who was possessed of a genial personality, was
long remembered with pleasure for participation in Fourth of
July celebrations and processions. He was married, I believe,
in 1851, only one year after he arrived here, to Senorita Dolores
Nieto; and she having died, he took as his second wife, in
September, 1868, another Spanish lady, Senorita Anita Domin-
guez, daughter of Don Manuel Dominguez. Less than a year
afterward, on September loth, 1869, Judge Dryden himself
died at the age of seventy years.
Thorn, by the way, came from Virginia in 1849 and ad-
vanced rapidly in his profession. It was far from his expecta-
tion to remain in Los Angeles longer than was necessary; and
he has frequently repeated to me the story of his immediate
infatuation with this beautiful section and its cheering climate,
and how he fell in love with the quaint little pueblo at first
sight. Soon after he decided to remain here, he was assigned
as associate counsel to defend Pancho Daniel, after the retire-
ment of Columbus Sims. In 1856, Thorn was appointed both
52 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
City and District Attorney, and occupied the two positions at
the same time an odd situation which actually brought it
about, during his tenure of offices, that a land dispute between
the City and the County obliged Thorn to defend both inter-
ests! In 1863, he was a partner with A. B. Chapman; and
twenty years later, having previously served as State Senator,
he was elected Mayor of the city. Captain Thorn married two
sisters first choosing Miss Susan Henrietta Hathwell, and
then, sometime after her death, leading to the altar Miss Belle
Cameron Hathwell whom he had named and for whom, when
she was baptized, he had stood godfather. A man ultimately
affluent, he owned, among other properties, a large ranch at
Glendale. '
Another good story concerning Judge Dryden comes to
mind, recalling a -certain Sheriff. As the yarn goes, the latter
presented himself as a candidate for the office of Sheriff ; and
in order to capture the vote of the native element, he also
offered to marry the daughter of an influential Mexican. A
bargain was concluded and, as the result, he forthwith
assumed the responsibilities and dangers of both shrieval and
matrimonial life.
Before the Sheriff had possessed this double dignity very
long, however, a gang of horse-thieves began depredations
around Los Angeles. A posse was immediately organized to
pursue the desperadoes, and after a short chase they located
the band and brought them into Los Angeles. Imagine the
Sheriff's dismay, when he found that the leader was none other
than his own brother-in-law whom he had never before seen !
To make the story short, the case was tried and the prisoner
was found guilty; but owing to influence (to which most
juries in those days were very susceptible) there was an ap-
peal for judicial leniency. Judge Dryden, therefore, in an-
nouncing the verdict, said to the Sheriff's brother-in-law,
"The jury finds you guilty as charged," and then proceeded
to read the prisoner a long and severe lecture, to which he
added: "But the jury recommends clemency. Accordingly, I
1 Thorn died on February 2d, 1915.
1853] Lawyers and Courts 53
declare you a free man, and you may go about your business."
Thereupon someone in the room asked : "What is his business? "
To which the Judge, never flinching, shouted: "Horse-stealing,
sir! horse-stealing! "
Lander was here in 1853, having come from the East the
year previous. He was a Harvard College graduate there
were not many on the Coast in those days and was known as a
good office-practitioner; he was for some time, in fact, the Bar's
choice for Court Commissioner. I think that, for quite a while,
he was the only examiner of real estate titles ; he was certainly
the only one I knew. On October I5th, 1852, Lander had mar-
ried Senorita Margarita, a daughter of Don Santiago Johnson,
who was said to have been one of the best known business men
prior to 1846. Afterward Lander lived in a cottage on the
northeast corner of Fourth and Spring streets. This cottage
he sold to I. W. Hellman in the early seventies, for four
thousand dollars; and Hellman, in turn, sold it at cost to his
brother. On that lot, worth to-day probably a million dollars,
the H. W. Hellman Building now stands. Lander died on
June loth, 1873.
Granger was still another lawyer who was here when I
arrived, he having come with his family one of the first
American households to be permanently established here in
1850. By 1852, he had formed a partnership with Jonathan
R. Scott, and in that year attained popularity through his
Fourth of July oration. Granger was, in fact, a fluent and
attractive speaker, which accounted, perhaps, for his election
as City Attorney in 1855, after he had served the city as a
member of the Common Council in 1854. If I recollect aright,
he was a candidate for the district judgeship in the seventies,
but was defeated.
Ogier, a lawyer from Charleston, S. C., came to California
in 1849, and to Los Angeles in 1851, forming a partnership on
May 3 ist of that year with Don Manuel Clemente Rojo, a
clever, genial native of Peru. On September 29th, Ogier
succeeded William C. Ferrell, the first District Attorney; in
1853, he joined the voluntary police; and later served, for
54 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
some years, as United States District Judge. He died at
Holcombe Valley in May, 1861. Ogier Street, formerly Ogier
Lane, was named for him. Rojo, after dividing his time
between the law and the Spanish editorial work on the Star,
wandered off to Lower California and there became a " sub-
political chief."
Kewen, a native of Mississippi and a veteran of the Mexican
War, came to Los Angeles in 1858 with the title of Colonel,
after fiasco followed his efforts, in the Southern States, to
raise relief for the filibuster Walker, on whose expedition A. L.
Kewen, a brother, had been killed in the battle at Rivas,
Nicaragua, in June, 1855. Once a practitioner at law in St.
Louis, Kewen was elected California's first Attorney-General,
and even prior to the delivery of his oration before the Society
of Pioneers at San Francisco, in 1854, ne was distinguished
for his eloquence. In 1858, he was Superintendent of Los
Angeles City Schools. In the sixties, Kewen and Norton
formed a partnership. Settling on an undulating tract of some
four hundred and fifty acres near San Gabriel, including the ruins
of the old Mission mill and now embracing the grounds of the
Huntington Hotel, Kewen repaired the house and converted it
into a cosy and even luxurious residence, calling the estate
ornamented with gardens and fountains, El Molino a title
perpetuated in the name of the present suburb. Kewen was
also a member of the State Assembly and, later, District
Attorney. He died in November, 1879.
Gitchell, United States District Attorney in the late fifties,
practiced here for many years. He was a jolly old bachelor
and was popular, although he did not attain eminence.
Isaac Hartman, an attorney, and his wife, who were among
the particularly agreeable people here in 1853, soon left for the
East.
Volney E. Howard came with his family in the late fifties.
He left San Francisco, where he had been practicing law, rather
suddenly, and at a time when social conditions in the city
were demoralized, and the citizens, as in the case of the
people of Los Angeles, were obliged to organize a vigilance
Lawyers and Courts 55
committee. William T. Coleman, one of the foremost citizens
of his city, led the Northern movement, and M. J. Newmark,
then a resident of San Francisco, was among those who partici-
pated. Howard, who succeeded William T., afterward General
Sherman in leading the Law and Order contingent, opposed the
idea of mob rule ; but the people of San Francisco, fully alive to
the necessity of wiping out the vicious elements, and knowing
how hard it was to get a speedy trial and an honest jury, had
little sympathy with his views. He was accordingly ordered
out of town, and made his way, first to Sacramento, then to the
South. Here, with Kewen as their neighbor, Howard and his
talented wife, a lady of decidedly blue-stocking tendencies, took
up their residence near the San Gabriel Mission ; and he became
one of the most reliable attorneys in Los Angeles, serving once
or twice as County Judge and on the Supreme Court bench, as
well as in the State Constitutional Convention of 1878-1879.
Speaking of the informality of courts in the earlier days, I
should record that jurymen and others would come in coatless
and, especially in warm weather, without vests and collars ; and
that it was the fashion for each juryman to provide himself
with a jack-knife and a piece of wood, in order that he might
whittle the time away. This was a recognized privilege, and
I am not exaggerating when I say that if he forgot his piece of
wood, it was considered his further prerogative to whittle the
chair on which he sat! In other respects, also, court solemnity
was lacking. Judge and attorneys would frequently lock horns ;
and sometimes their disputes ended violently. On one occa-
sion, for example, while I was in court, Columbus Sims, an
attorney who came here in 1852, threw an inkstand at his oppo-
nent, during an altercation; but this contempt of court did not
call forth his disbarment, for he was later found acting as at-
torney for Pancho Daniel, one of Sheriff Barton's murderers,
until sickness compelled his retirement from the case. As to
panel-service, I recollect that while serving as juror in those
early days, we were once locked up for the night; and in order
that time might not hang too heavily on our hands, we
engaged in a sociable little game of poker. Sims is dead.
56 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
More than inkstands were sometimes hurled in the early
courts. On one occasion, for instance, after the angry dis-
putants had arrived at a state of agitation which made the
further use of canes, chairs, and similar objects tame and un-
interesting, revolvers were drawn, notwithstanding the mar-
shal's repeated attempts to restore order. Judge Dryden, in
the midst of the melee, hid behind the platform upon which his
Judgeship's bench rested ; and being well out of the range of the
threatening irons, yelled at the rioters:
"Shoot away, damn you! and to hell with all of you!"
After making due allowance for primitive conditions, it
must be admitted that many and needless were the evils
incidental to court administration. There was, for instance,
the law's delay, which necessitated additional fees to witnesses
and jurors and thus materially added to the expenses of the
County. Juries were always a mixture of incoming pioneers and
natives; the settlers understood very little Spanish, and the
native Calif ornians knew still less English; while few or none
of the attorneys could speak Spanish at all. In translating tes-
timony, if the interpreter happened to be a friend of the
criminal (which he generally was), he would present the evi-
dence in a favorable light, and much time was wasted in sift-
ing biased translations. Of course, there were interpreters who
doubtless endeavored to perform their duties conscientiously.
George Thompson Burrill, the first Sheriff, received fifty dollars
a month as court interpreter, and Manuel Clemente Rojo
translated testimony as well; officials I believe to have been
honest and conscientious.
While alluding to court interpreters and the general use
of Spanish during at least the first decade after I came to
California, I am reminded of the case of Joaquin Carrillo, who
was elected District Judge, in the early fifties, to succeed
Judge Henry A. Tefft of Santa Barbara, who had been drowned
near San Luis Obispo while attempting to land from a steamer
in order to hold court. During the fourteen years when Car-
rillo held office, he was constantly handicapped by his little
knowledge of the English language and the consequent neces-
1853] Lawyers and Courts 57
sity of carrying on all court proceedings in Spanish, to say
nothing of the fact that he was really not a lawyer. Yet I
am told that Carrillo possessed common sense to such a
degree that his decisions were seldom set aside by the higher
courts.
Sheriff Burrill had a brother, S. Thompson Burrill, who
was a lawyer and a Justice of the Peace. He held court in the
Padilla Building on Main Street, opposite the present site of
the Bullard Block and adjoining my brother's store; and as
a result of this proximity we became friendly. He was one
of the best-dressed men in town, although, when I first met him,
he could not have been less than sixty years of age. He pre-
sented me with my first dog, which I lost on account of stray
poison: evil-disposed or thoughtless persons, with no respect
for the owner, whether a neighbor or not, and without the
slightest consideration for pedigree, were in the habit of throw-
ing poison on the streets to kill off canines, of which there was
certainly a superabundance.
Ygnacio Sepulveda, the jurist and a son of Jose Andres
Sepulveda, was living here when I arrived, though but a boy.
Born in Los Angeles in 1842, he was educated in the East
and in 1863 admitted to the Bar; he served in the State Legis-
lature of the following winter, was County Judge from 1870 to
1873, and District Judge in 1874. Five years later he was
elected Superior Judge, but resigned his position in 1884 to
become Wells Fargo & Company's representative in the City
of Mexico, at which capital for two years he was also American
Charge d' Affaires. There to my great pleasure I met him,
bearing his honors modestly, in January, 1885, during my tour
of the southern republic. 1 Sepulveda Avenue is named for the
family.
Horace Bell was a nephew of Captain Alexander Bell, of
Bell's Row; and as an early comer to Los Angeles, he joined the
volunteer mounted police. Although for years an attorney and
journalist, in which capacity he edited the Porcupine, he is
1 After an absence of thirty years, Judge Sepulveda returned to Los Angeles,
in 1914, and was heartily welcomed back by his many friends and admirers.
58 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
best known for his Reminiscences of a Ranger, a volume writ-
ten in rather a breezy and entertaining style, but certainly
containing exaggerations.
This reference to the Rangers reminds me that I was not
long in Los Angeles when I heard of the adventures of Joaquin
Murieta, who had been killed but a few months before I
came. According to the stories current, Murieta, a nephew of
Jose Maria Valdez, was a decent-enough sort of fellow, who
had been subjected to more or less injustice from certain
American settlers, and who was finally bound to a tree and
horsewhipped, after seeing his brother hung, on a trumped-up
charge. In revenge, Murieta had organized a company of
bandits, and for two or three years had terrorized a good part
of the entire State. Finally, in August, 1853, while the outlaw
and several of his companions were off their guard near the
Tejon Paso, they were encountered by Captain Harry Love
and his volunteer mounted police organized to get him,
"dead or alive;" the latter killed Murieta and another des-
perado known as Three-fingered Jack. Immediately the out-
laws were despatched, their heads and the deformed hand of
Three-fingered Jack were removed from the bodies and sent by
John Sylvester and Harry Bloodsworth to Dr. William Francis
Edgar, then a surgeon at Fort Miller; but a flood interfering,
Sylvester swam the river with his barley sack and its grue-
some contents. Edgar put the trophies into whiskey and ar-
senic, when they were transmitted to the civil authorities, as
vouchers for a reward. Bloodsworth died lately.
Daredevils of a less malicious type were also resident
among us. On the evening of December 3ist, 1853, for example,
I was in our store at eight o'clock when Felipe Rheim often
called Reihm and even Riehm gloriously intoxicated and out
for a good time, appeared on the scene, flourishing the ubiqui-
tous weapon. His celebration of the New Year had apparently
commenced, and he was already six sheets in the wind. Like
many another man, Felipe, a very worthy German, was good-
natured when sober, but a terror when drunk ; and as soon as he
spied my solitary figure, he pointed his gun at me, saying, at the
1853] Lawyers and Courts 59
same time, in his vigorous native tongue, "Treat, or I shoot!"
I treated. After this pleasing transaction amid the smoky
obscurity of Ramon Alexander's saloon, Felipe fired his gun
into the air and disappeared. Startling as a demand like
that might appear to-day, no thought of arrest then resulted
from such an incident.
The first New Year's Eve that I spent in Los Angeles was
ushered in with the indiscriminate discharging of pistols and
guns. This method of celebrating was, I may say, a novelty
to me, and no less a surprise ; for of course I was unaware of the
fact that, when the city was organized, three years before, a
proposition to prohibit the carrying of firearms of any sort, or
the shooting off of the same, except in defense of self, home
or property, had been stricken from the first constitution by
the committee on police, who reported that such an ordinance
could not at that time be enforced. Promiscuous firing con-
tinued for years to be indulged in by early Angelenos, though
frequently condemned in the daily press, and such was its
effect upon even me that I soon found myself peppering away
at a convenient adobe wall on Commercial Street, seeking to
perfect my aim!
CHAPTER VI
MERCHANTS AND SHOPS
1853
TRIVIAL events in a man's life sometimes become indelibly
impressed on his memory ; and one such experience of my
own is perhaps worth mentioning as another illustra-
tion of the rough character of the times. One Sunday, a few
days after my arrival, my brother called upon a tonsorial ce-
lebrity, Peter Biggs, of whom I shall speak later, leaving me in
charge of the store. There were two entrances, one on Main
Street, the other on Requena. I was standing at the Main
Street door, unconscious of impending excitement, when a
stranger rode up on horseback and, without the least hesitation
or warning, pointed a pistol at me. I was not sufficiently
amused to delay my going, but promptly retreated to the other
door where the practical joker, astride his horse, had easily
anticipated my arrival and again greeted me with the muzzle
of his weapon. These maneuvers were executed a number of
times, and my ill-concealed trepidation only seemed to aug-
ment the diversion of a rapidly-increasing audience. My
brother returned in the midst of the fun and asked the jolly
joker what in hell he meant by such behavior; to which he
replied: "Oh, I just wanted to frighten the boy!"
Soon after this incident, my brother left for San Francisco;
and his partner, Jacob Rich, accompanied by his wife, came
south and rented rooms in what was then known as Mellus's
Row, an adobe building for the most part one-story, standing
60
[1853] Merchants and Shops 61
alone with a garden in the rear, and occupying about three
hundred feet on the east side of Los Angeles Street, between
Aliso and First. In this row, said by some to have been built
by Barton & Nordholt, in 1850, for Captain Alexander Bell,
a merchant here since 1842, after whom Bell Street is named,
and by others claimed to have been the headquarters of Fre-
mont, in 1846, there was a second-story at the corner of Aliso,
provided with a large veranda; and there the Bell and Mellus
families lived. Francis Mellus, who arrived in California in
1839, had married the niece of Mrs. Bell, and Bell having
sold the building to Mellus, Bell's Row became known as
Mellus's Row. Finally, Bell repurchased the property, retain-
ing it during the remainder of his life ; and the name was again
changed. This famous stretch of adobe, familiarly known as
The Row, housed many early shopkeepers, such as Fgrner &
Kraushaar, general merchants, Kalisher & Wartenberg, and
Bachman & Bauman. The coming to Los Angeles of Mr.
and Mrs. Rich enabled me to abandon La Rue's restaurant, as
I was permitted to board with them. None the less, I missed
my brother very much.
Everything at that time indicating that I was in for a com-
mercial career, it was natural that I should become acquainted
with the merchants then in Los Angeles. Some of the trades-
men, I dare say, I have forgotten; but a more or less distinct
recollection remains of many, and to a few of them I shall
allude.
Temple Street had not then been opened by Beaudry and
Potts, although there was a little cul-de-sac extending west from
Spring Street; and at the junction of what is now Spring and
Temple streets, there was a two-story adobe building in which
D. W. Alexander and Francis Mellus conducted a general
merchandise business, and at one time acted as agents for
Mellus & Howard of San Francisco. Mellus, who was born in
Salem, Massachusetts, February 3d, 1824, came to the Coast in
1839, first landing at Santa Barbara; and when I first met him
he had married Adelaida, daughter of Don Santiago Johnson,
and our fellow-townsman, James J. Mellus familiarly known
62 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
as plain Jim was a baby. Alexander & Mellus had rather
an extensive business in the early days, bringing goods by sailing
vessel around Cape Horn, and exchanging them for hides and
tallow which were carried back East by the returning merchant-
men. They had operated more or less extensively even some
years before California was ceded to the United States; but
competition from a new source forced these well-established
merchants to retire. With the advent of more frequent,
although still irregular service between San Francisco and the
South, and the influx of more white people, a number of new
stores started here bringing merchandise from the Northern
market, while San Francisco buyers began to outbid Alexan-
der & Mellus for the local supply of hides and tallow. This
so revolutionized the methods under which this tradition-bound
old concern operated that, by 1858, it had succumbed to the
inevitable, and the business passed into the hands of Johnson
& Allanson, a firm made up of Charles R. Johnson, soon to be
elected County Clerk, and Horace S. Allanson.
Most of the commercial activity in this period was carried
on north of First Street. The native population inhabited
Sonora Town, for the most part a collection of adobes, named
after the Mexican state whence came many of our people;
there was a contingent from other parts of Mexico ; and a small
sprinkling of South Americans from Chile and Peru. Among
this Spanish-speaking people quite a business was done by
Latin-American storekeepers. It followed, naturally enough,
that they dealt in all kinds of Mexican goods. .
One of the very few white men in this district was Jose
Mascarel (a powerfully-built French sea-captain and master
of the ship that brought Don Luis Vignes to the Southland) ,
who settled in Los Angeles in 1844, marrying an Indian woman.
He had come with Prudhomme and others ; and under Captain
Henseley had taken part in the military events at San Bartolo
and the Mesa. By 1865, when he was Mayor of the city, he had
already accumulated a number of important real estate holdings
and owned, with another Frenchman, Juan Barri, a baker, the
block extending east on the south side of Commercial Street,
Merchants and Shops 63
from Main to Los Angeles, which had been built in 1861 to take
the place of several old adobes. This the owners later di-
vided, Mascarel taking the southeast corner of Commercial
and Main streets, and Barri the southwest corner of Commer-
cial and Los Angeles streets. In the seventies, I. W. Hellman
bought the Mascarel corner, and in 1883, the Farmers &
Merchants Bank moved to that location, where it remained
until the institution purchased the southwest corner of Fourth
and Main streets, for the erection of its own building.
Andres Ramirez was another Sonora Town merchant.
He had come from Mexico in 1844, and sold general merchan-
dise in what, for a while, was dubbed the Street of the Maids.
Later, this was better known as Upper Main Street; and still
later it was called San Fernando Street.
Louis Abarca was a tradesman and a neighbor of Ramirez.
Prosperous until the advent of the pioneer, he little by little
became poorer, and finally withdrew from business.
Juan Bernard, a native of French Switzerland, whose daugh-
ter married D. Botiller, now an important landowner, came to
California by way of the Horn, in search of the precious metal,
preceding me to this land of sunshine. For awhile, he had a
brickyard on Buena Vista Street ; but in the late seventies, soon
after marrying Senorita Susana Machado, daughter of Don
Agustin Machado, he bought a vineyard on Alameda Street,
picturesquely enclosed by a high adobe or brick wall much
after the fashion of a European chdteau. He also came to own
the site of the Natick House. A clever linguist and a man
of attractive personality, he passed away in 1889.
An American by the name of George Walters lived on
Upper Main Street, among the denizens of which locality he
was an influential person. Born at New Orleans as early as
1809, Walters had trapped and traded in the Rocky Mountains,
then teamed for awhile between Santa Fe and neighboring
points. Near the end of 1844, he left New Mexico in com-
pany with James Waters, Jim Beckwith and other travelers,
finally reaching Los Angeles. Walters, who settled in San
Bernardino, was at the Chino Ranch, with B. D. Wilson
64 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
and Louis Robidoux, when so many Americans were made
prisoners.
Julian Chavez, after whom Chavez Street is named, was here
in 1853. If he was not native-born, he came here at a very
early day. He owned a stretch of many acres, about a mile
northeast of Los Angeles. He was a good, honest citizen, and
is worthy of recollection.
Ramon Alexander, a Frenchman often confused with David
Alexander, came to Los Angeles before 1850, while it was still a
mere Mexican village. Pioneers remember him especially as
the builder of the long-famous Round House, on Main Street,
and as one who also for some time kept a saloon near Requena
Street. Alexander's wife was a Senorita Valdez. He died
in 1870.
Antoine Laborie was another Frenchman here before the
beginning of the fifties. He continued to live in Los Angeles till
at least the late seventies. A fellow-countryman, B. Dubordieu,
had a bakery in Sonora Town.
Philip Rheim, the good-natured German to whom I have
referred, had a little store and saloon, before I came, called
Los dos Amigos, as the proprietor of which he was known as
Don Felipe. Nor was this title amiss; for Felipe married a
native woman and, German though he had been, he gradually
became, like so many others who had mated in the same way,
more and more Calif ornian in manners and customs.
A month after I arrived here, John Behn, who had a grocery
business at the northeast corner of First and Los Angeles
streets, retired. He had come to Los Angeles from Baden in
1848, and, after forming one or two partnerships, had sold out to
Lorenzo Leek, a German Dane, who reached here in November,
1849, and whose son, Henry von der Leek, married a daughter
of Tom Mott and is living at San Juan Capistrano. Leek
opened his own store in 1854, and despite the trials to which
he was to be subjected, he was able, in 1868, to pay John
Schumacher three thousand dollars for a lot on Main Street.
Leek had a liking for the spectacular; and in the November
previous to my arrival was active, as I have been told, with
1853] Merchants and Shops 65
Goller and Nordholt, in organizing the first political procession
seen in Los Angeles. The election of Pierce was the incentive,
and there were gorgeous transparencies provided for the event.
It was on this occasion that a popular local character, George
the Baker, burned himself badly while trying to fire off the
diminutive cannon borrowed from the Spanish padre for the
event.
In the one-story adobe of Mascarel and Barri, on the corner
of Commercial and Main streets, now the site of the United
States National Bank, an Irishman named Samuel G. Arbuckle,
who had come here in 1850 and was associated for a short time
with S. Lazard, conducted a dry goods store. From 1852 to
1856, Arbuckle was City Treasurer.
In the same building, and adjoining Arbuckle's, John
Jones, father of Mrs. J. B. Lankershim arid M. G. Jones,
carried on a wholesale grocery business. Jones had left England
for Australia, when forty-seven years old, and a year later
touched the coast of California at Monterey and came to Los
Angeles. Twice a year, Jones went north in a schooner, for
the purpose of replenishing his stock; and after making his
purchases and having the boat loaded, he would return to Los
Angeles. Sometimes he traveled with the round-bellied, short
and jolly Captain Morton who recalled his illustrious prototype,
Wouter van Twiller, so humorously described by Washington
Irving as "exactly five feet six inches in height, and six feet
five inches in circumference; " sometimes he sailed with Captain
J. S. Garcia, a good-natured seaman. During his absence, the
store remained closed ; and as this trip always required at least
six weeks, some idea may be obtained of the Sleepy Hollow
methods then prevailing in this part of the West. In 1854
or 1855, Jones, who was reputed to be worth some fifty
thousand dollars, went to San Francisco and married Miss
Doria Deighton, and it was generally understood that he
expected to settle there ; but having been away for a couple of
years, he returned to the City of the Angels, this being one of
the first instances within my observation of the irresistible
attraction of Los Angeles for those who have once lived here.
66 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
It is my recollection that Jones bought from John G. Downey
the Cristobal Aguilar home then occupied by W. H. and Mrs.
Perry; a building the more interesting since it was understood
to have served, long in the past and before the American
occupation, as a calabozo or jail, and to have had a whipping-
post supposed to have done much service in keeping the
turbulently-inclined natives quiet. How many of the old
adobes may at times have been used as jails, I am unable to
say, but it is also related that there stood on the hill west of
the Plaza another cuartel, afterward the home of B. S. Eaton,
where Fred, later Mayor of Los Angeles, was born. Like
Felix Bachman and others, Jones entered actively into trade
with Salt Lake City ; and although he met with many reverses
notably in the loss of Captain Morton's Laura Bevan, which
sank, carrying down a shipload of uninsured goods he retired
well-to-do.
John, sometimes called Juan Temple or Jonathan, as he
used to sign himself in earlier years who paid the debt of
Nature in 1866, and after whom Temple Street is named, was
another merchant, having a store upon the piece of land (later
the site of the Downey Block, and now occupied by the Post
Office) which, from 1849 to 1866, was in charge of my friend,
Don Ygnacio Garcia, his confidential business agent. Garcia
imported from Mexico both serapes and rebozos; and as every
Mexican man and woman required one of these garments,
Temple had a large and very lucrative trade in them alone.
Following the death of Temple, Garcia continued under
Hinchman, the executor of the estate, until everything had been
settled.
It was really far back in 1827 when Temple came to Los
Angeles, started the first general merchandise store in town,
and soon took such a lead in local affairs that the first Vigi-
lance Committee in the city was organized in his store, in 1836.
Toward the fifties, he drifted south to Mexico and there
acquired a vast stretch of land on the coast; but he returned
here, and was soon known as one of the wealthiest, yet one of
the stingiest men in all California. His real estate holdings
1853] Merchants and Shops 67
in or near Los Angeles were enormous ; but the bad judgment
of his executor cost him dear, and valuable properties were
sacrificed. After his death, Temple's wife who once ac-
companied her husband to Paris, and had thus formed a
liking for the livelier French capital returned to France with
her daughter, later Dona Ajuria, to live; and A. F. Hinch-
man, Temple's brother-in-law, who had been Superintendent of
Santa Barbara County Schools, was appointed administrator.
Hinchman then resided in San Diego, and was intensely partial
to that place. This may have prejudiced him against Los
Angeles; but whatever the cause, he offered Temple's properties
at ridiculous prices, and some of the items of sale may now be
interesting.
The present site of the Government Building, embracing
as it then did the forty-foot street north of it, was at that time
improved with an adobe building covering the entire front and
running back to New High Street ; and this adobe, known after
Temple's death as the Old Temple Block, Hinchman sold for
fifteen thousand dollars. He also disposed of the new Temple
Block, including the improvement at the south end which I
shall describe, for but sixteen thousand dollars. I remember
quite well that Ygnacio Garcia was the purchaser, and that,
tiring of his bargain in a couple of weeks, he resold the prop-
erty to John Temple's brother, Francisco, at cost.
Hinchman, for fourteen thousand dollars, also disposed of
the site of the present Bullard Block, whereon Temple had
erected a large brick building, the lower part of which was
used as a market while the upper part was a theater. The
terms in each of these three transactions were a thousand
dollars per annum, with interest at ten per cent. He sold
to the Bixbys the Cerritos rancho, containing twenty-six
thousand acres, for twenty thousand dollars. Besides these,
there were eighteen lots, each one hundred and twenty by three
hundred and thirty feet, located on Fort Street (now Broad-
way), some of which ran through to Spring and others to Hill,
which were bought by J. F. Burns and William Buffum for
one thousand and fifty dollars, or fifty dollars each for the
68 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
twelve inside and seventy-five dollars each for the six corner
lots.
Returning to the Fort Street lots, it may be interesting to
know that the property would be worth to-day at an average
price of four thousand dollars per foot about nine million
dollars. Eugene Meyer purchased one of the lots (on the
west side of Fort Street, running through to Hill, one hundred
and twenty by three hundred and thirty feet in size), for the
sum of one thousand dollars ; and I paid him a thousand dollars
for sixty feet and the same depth. In 1874 I built on this site
the home occupied by me for about twelve years, after which I
improved both fronts for F. L. Blanchard. These two blocks
are still in my possession; the Broadway building is known as
Blanchard Hall. Blanchard, by the way, a comer of 1886,
started his Los Angeles career in A. G. Bartlett's music store,
and has since always been closely identified with art move-
ments. He organized the system of cluster street -lights in
use here and was an early promoter of good roads.
Charles L. Ducommun was here in business in 1853, he and
John G. Downey having arrived together, three years before.
According to the story still current, Ducommun, with his
kit and stock as a watchmaker, and Downey, with his outfit
as a druggist, hired a can eta together, to transport their belong-
ings from San Pedro to Los Angeles; but the carreta broke down,
and the two pilgrims to the City of the Angels had to finish
their journey afoot. Ducommun's first store, located on
Commercial Street between Main and Los Angeles, was about
sixteen by thirty feet in size, but it contained an astonishing
assortment of merchandise, such as hardware, stationery and
jewelry. Perhaps the fact that Ducommun came from Switzer-
land, then even more than now the chief home of watchmaking,
explains his early venture in the making and selling of watches ;
however that may be, it was to Charlie Ducommun's that the
bankrupt merchant Moreno later sentenced to fourteen
or fifteen years in the penitentiary for robbing a French-
man came to sell the Frenchman's gold watch. Moreno
confessed that he had organized a gang of robbers, after his
Pio Pico
From an oil portrait
Juan Bandini
Abel Stearns
Isaac Williams
Store of Felipe Rheim
1853] Merchants and Shops 69
failure in business, and had murdered even his own lieuten-
ants. Ducommun, pretending to go into a rear room for the
money, slipped out of the back door and gave the alarm. Du-
commun's store was a sort of curiosity-shop containing many
articles not obtainable elsewhere; and he was clever enough,
when asked for any rarity, to charge all that the traffic would
bear. I wonder what Charlie Ducommun would say if he could
return to life and see his sons conducting a large, modern whole-
sale hardware establishment on an avenue never thought of in
his day and where once stretched acres of fruit and vine lands !
Ducommun Street commemorates this pioneer.
Ozro W. Childs, who came to Los Angeles in November,
1850, was for awhile in partnership with J. D. Hicks, the firm
being known as Childs & Hicks. They conducted a tin-shop on
Commercial Street, in a building about twenty by forty feet.
In 1861, H. D. Barrows joined them, and hardware was added
to the business. Somewhat later the firm was known as J. D.
Hicks & Company. In 1 87 1 , Barrows bought out the Childs and
Hicks interests, and soon formed a partnership with W. C.
Furrey, although the latter arrived in Los Angeles only in 1872.
When Barrows retired, Furrey continued alone for several years.
The W. C. Furrey Company was next organized, with James W.
Hellman as the active partner of Furrey, and with Simon Maier,
the meat-packer and brother of the brewer, and J. A. Graves
as stockholders. Hellman, in time, succeeded this company
and continued for himself. When Childs withdrew, he went in
for importing and selling exotic trees and plants, and made his
home place, in more modern days known as the Huntington
Purchase and running from Main to Hill and Eleventh to
Twelfth streets, wonderfully attractive to such tourists as then
chanced this way; he also claimed to be the pioneer floricul-
turist of Los Angeles County. Toward the end of his life,
Childs erected on Main Street, south of First, a theater styled
an opera house and later known as the Grand, which was
popular in its time. Childs Avenue bears the family name.
Labatt Brothers had one of the leading dry goods houses,
which, strange as it may seem, they conducted in a part of the
70 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
Abel Stearns home, corner of Main and Arcadia streets, now
occupied by the Baker Block. Their establishment, while the
most pretentious and certainly the most specialized of its day
in town, and therefore patronized by our well-to-do people,
would nevertheless make but a sorry appearance in comparison
with even a single department in any of the mammoth stores of
to-day.
Jacob Elias was not only here in 1853, in partnership with his
brother under the firm name of Elias Brothers, but he also
induced some of his friends in Augusta, Georgia, to migrate to
California. Among those who came in 1854 were Pollock,
whose given name I forget, and L. C., better known as Clem
Goodwin. The latter clerked for awhile for Elias Brothers, after
which he associated himself with Pollock under the title of
Pollock & Goodwin. They occupied premises at what was then
the corner of Aliso Street and Nigger Alley, and the site, some
years later, of P. Beaudry's business when we had our interest-
ing contest, the story of which I shall relate in due time. Pol-
lock & Goodwin continued in the general merchandise business
for a few years, after which they returned to Augusta.
Goodwin, however, came back to California in 1864 a Bene-
dick, and while in San Francisco accidentally met Louis Po-
laski who was then looking for an opening. Goodwin induced
Polaski to enter into partnership with him, and the well-known
early clothing house of Polaski & Goodwin was thus estab-
lished in the Downey Block. In 1867, they bought out I. W.
Hellman and moved over to the southeast corner of Commercial
and Main streets. Goodwin sold out to Polaski in 1881, when
the firm became Polaski & Sons; in 1883 Sam, Isidor and
Myer L. Polaski bought out their father, and in time Polaski
Brothers also withdrew. Goodwin became Vice-president of the
Farmers & Merchants Bank. Polaski died in 1900, Goodwin
having preceded him a short time before. Goodwin left his wife
some valuable property, and as they were without issue, she so
richly endowed the Children's Hospital, at her death, that the
present building was made possible.
The Lanfranco brothers Juan T. and Mateo came from
1853] Merchants and Shops 71
Genoa, Italy, by way of Lima, Peru and New York, whence
they crossed the Plains with James Lick the carpenter later so
celebrated, and they were both here in business in 1853; Juan,
a small capitalist or petit rentier, living where the Lanfranco
Building now stands, opposite the Federal Building, while
Mateo kept a grocery store on Main Street, not far from Com-
mercial. In 1854, Juan added to his independence by marrying
Senorita Petra Pilar, one of -fourteen children of Don Jose
Loreto Sepulveda, owner of the Palos Verdes rancho; the celebra-
tion of the nuptials, in dancing and feasting, lasting five days.
It was at that ranch that a great stampede of cattle occurred,
due to fright when the pioneer sulky, imported by Juan Lan-
franco from San Francisco, and then a strange object, was
driven into their midst. About 1861, the first Lanfranco Build-
ing was erected. Mateo died on October 4th, 1873, while
Juan passed away on May 2Oth, 1875. His wife died in 1877. A
daughter married Walter Maxwell; a second daughter became
the wife of Walter S. Moore, for years Chief of the Fire Depart-
ment; and still another daughter married Arthur Brentano,
one of the well-known Paris and New York booksellers.
Solomon Lazard and Maurice Kremer, cousins of about the
same age, and natives of Lorraine, were associated in 1853
under the title of Lazard & Kremer, being located in a
storeroom in Mellus's Row, and I may add -that since nearly
all of the country development had taken place in districts
adjacent to San Gabriel, El Monte and San Bernardino,
travel through Aliso Street was important enough to make
their situation one of the best in town. Lazard had arrived in
San Francisco in 1851, and having remained there about a year,
departed for San Diego, where it was his intention to engage in
the dry goods business. Finding that there were not enough
people there to maintain such an establishment of even moder-
ate proportions, Lazard decided upon the advice of a seafaring
man whom he met to remove his stock, which he had brought
from the Northern town, to Los Angeles. He told me that he
paid fifty-six dollars' steamer fare from San Francisco to San
Diego, and that the freight on his merchandise cost him twenty
72 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
dollars a ton. Among his native friends, Lazard was always
known as Don Solomon, and being popular, he frequently
acted as floor-manager at balls and fandangos. Lazard is still
living at the good old age of eighty-seven years. Kremer also
reached here in 1852. In time, Timoteo Wolfskill, a son of
William Wolfskill, bought Kremer 's interest, and the firm
name became Lazard & Wolfskill. Each of these worthy
pioneers in his day rendered signal service to the community
Lazard serving as Councilman in 1862; and I shall have
occasion, therefore, to refer to them again. Abe Lazard, a
brother of Solomon, who had spent some years in South
America, came in the late fifties. Dr. E. M. Lazard is a
son of S. Lazard.
While speaking of San Diego, I may remark that it was
quite fifteen years before the interesting old Spanish settlement
to the South, with which I had no business relations, attracted
me; and as I was no exception, the reader may see how seldom
the early settlers were inclined to roam about merely for sight-
seeing.
In 1853, M. Norton and E. Greenbaum sold merchandise at
the southwest corner of Los Angeles and Commercial streets
(when Jacob, J. L., an early Supervisor and City Treasurer,
1863-64 and Moritz Morris, Councilman in 1869-70, were
competitors). In time, Jacob returned to Germany, where he
died. Herman Morris, a brother, was a local newspaper re-
porter. Jacob Letter was another rival, who removed to
Oakland. Still another dealer in general merchandise was M.
Michaels, almost a dwarf in size, who emigrated to South
America. Casper Behrendt father-in-law of John Kahn, a
man prominent in many movements who arrived in 1851,
was another Commercial Street merchant. Still other early
merchants whom I somewhat distinctly recall were Israel
Fleishman and Julius Sichel, who had a glassware, crockery
and hardware business; and L. Lasky, on Commercial Street.
Thomas D. Mott, father of John Mott, the attorney, who
was lured to California by the gold-fever of 1849, and to Los
Angeles, three years later, by the climate, I met on the day of
1853] Merchants and Shops 73
my arrival. His room adjoined my brother's store, so that we
soon formed an acquaintanceship which ripened, in the course
of time, into a friendship that endured until the day of his
death. In the early sixties, he was the proprietor of a livery
stable on Main Street, opposite the Stearns home. He was
very fond of hunting, being an expert at dropping a bird on the
wing; and frequently went dove-shooting with his friends.
All of which, insignificant as it may at first appear, I men-
tion for the purpose of indicating the neighborhood of these
operations. The hunting-ground covered none other than that
now lying between Main and Olive streets from about Sixth
Street to Pico, and teeming to-day, as the reader knows, with
activity and life. There sportsmen hunted, while more matter-
of-fact burghers frequently went with scythes to cut grass for
their horses.
Prudent Beaudry, a native of Quebec destined to make and
lose several fortunes, was here when I came, having previously
been a merchant in San Francisco when staple articles
such as common tacks, selling at sixteen dollars a package!
commanded enormous prices. Two or three times, however,
fire obliterated all his savings, and when he reached Los
Angeles, Beaudry had only about a thousand dollars' worth of
goods and two or three hundred dollars in cash. With these as-
sets he opened a small store on Main Street, opposite the Abel
Stearns home ; and again favored by the economic conditions of
the times, he added to his capital very rapidly. From Main
Street Beaudry moved to Commercial, forming partnerships
successively with a man named Brown and with one Le Maitre.
As early as 1854, Beaudry had purchased the property at the
northeast corner of Aliso Street and Nigger Alley for eleven
thousand dollars, and this he so improved with the additional
investment of twenty-five thousand dollars that he made his
now elongated adobe bring him in an income of a thousand a
month. As stated elsewhere, Beaudry went to Europe in 1855,
returning later to Montreal; and it was not until 1861 or later
that he came back to Los Angeles and reengaged in business,
this time in his own building where until 1865 he thrived,
74 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
withdrawing, as I shall soon show, in the beginning of 1 866.
Beaudry Avenue recalls this early and important man of affairs.
David W. Alexander, Phineas Banning's enterprising
partner in establishing wagon-trains, was here when I came and
was rather an influential person. An Irishman by birth, he had
come to California from Mexico by way of Salt Lake, in the
early forties, and lived for awhile in the San Bernardino coun-
try. From 1844 to 1849, John Temple and he had a store at San
Pedro, and still later he was associated inbusiness with Banning,
selling out his interest in 1855. In 1850, Alexander was Presi-
dent of the first Common Council of Los Angeles, being one of
the two members who completed their term; in 1852, he visited
Europe; and in September, 1855, he was elected Sheriff of the
County, bringing to his aid the practical experience of a Ranger.
Before keeping store, Alexander had farmed for awhile on the
Rincon rancho; he continued to hold a large extent of acreage
and in 1872 was granted a patent to over four thousand acres
in the Providencia, and in 1874 to nearly seventeen thou-
sand acres in the Tejunga rancho. George C. Alexander, David's
brother, was Postmaster at San Pedro in 1857.
The Hazards arrived in 1853 with a large family of children,
Captain A. M. Hazard having made his way with ox- teams from
the East, via Salt Lake, on a journey which consumed nearly
two years. At first they took up a claim about four miles from
Los Angeles, which was later declared Government land. The
eldest son, Daniel, was employed by Banning as a teamster,
traveling between Los Angeles and Yuma; but later he set up
in the teaming business for himself. George W. Hazard became
a dealer in saddlery in Requena Street; and taking an active
interest in the early history of Los Angeles, he collected, at
personal sacrifice, souvenirs of the past, and this collection has
become one of the few original sources available for research. 1
In 1889, Henry T. Hazard, after having served the City as its
Attorney, was elected Mayor, his administration being marked
by no little progress in the town's growth and expansion.
Henry, who married a daughter of Dr. William Geller, and
'George Hazard died on February 8th, 1914.
1853] Merchants and Shops 75
after whom Hazard Street is named, is the only one of the
brothers who survives.
Sam Meyer, who met me, as related, when I alighted from
the stage, was another resident of Los Angeles prior to my com-
ing. He had journeyed from Germany to America in 1849, had
spent four years in New Orleans, Macon, and other Southern
cities, and early in 1853 had come to California. On Main
Street, south of Requena, I found him, with Hilliard Loewen-
stein, in the dry goods business, an undertaking they contin-
ued until 1856, when Loewenstein returned to Germany,
to marry a sister of Meyer. Emanuel Loewenstein, one of the
issue of this marriage, and a jolly, charitable fellow, is well
known about town. On December I5th, 1861, Meyer married
Miss Johanna, 1 daughter of S. C. and Rosalia Davis, and
the same year formed a partnership with Davis in the crockery
business. After two and a half years of residence in Ger-
many, Loewenstein returned to Los Angeles.' Meyer, so long
identified with local freemasonry, died in 1903. A daughter
married Max Loewenthal, the attorney.
Baruch Marks, one of the very few people yet living
who were here when I arrived, is now about ninety-one years
of age, and still 2 a resident of Los Angeles. He was with Louis
Schlesinger (who lost his life when the Ada Hancock was de-
stroyed) and Hyman Tischler in the general merchandise
business in 1853 at Mellus's Row, the firm being known as B.
Marks & Company; and having prospered, he went to Berlin.
There, after the Franco-Prussian War, when much disaster befell
speculators, he lost most of his means; and greatly reduced in
resources, he returned to Los Angeles. Since then, however,
he has never been able to retrieve his fortune. Luckily he
enjoys good health, even being able at his advanced age, as
he told me recently, to shave himself.
In 1851, Herman Schlesinger reached Los Angeles and
engaged in the dry goods business with Tobias Sherwinsky.
In 1855, Moritz Schlesinger, Herman's brother, came here and
'Mrs. Meyer died on September 4th, 1914.
* Marks died on July gih, 1914.
76 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
clerked for the firm. In 1857, Schlesinger & Sherwinsky,
having made, approximately, fourteen thousand dollars, which
they divided, sold out to Moritz Schlesinger and returned to
Germany. A few years later Sherwinsky lost his money and,
coming back to California, located in San Diego where he
died. Schlesinger remained in Germany and died there, about
1900.
Collins Wadhams had a general store on the northeast
corner of Main and Commercial streets a piece of property
afterward bought by Charlie Ducommun. At another time,
Wadhams & Foster were general merchants who, succeeding to
the business of Foster & McDougal, were soon followed by
Douglass, Foster & Wadhams. Clerking for this firm when
I came was William W. Jenkins, who left for Arizona, years
afterward, where he led an adventurous life.
Henry G. Yarrow, often called Cuatro Ojos or four eyes,
from the fact that he wore a pair of big spectacles on a large
hooked nose, was an eccentric character of the fifties and later.
He once conducted a store at the southwest corner of Los Ange-
les and Requena streets, and was the Jevne of his day in so
far as he dealt in superior and exceptional commodities gener-
ally not found in any other store. In other respects, however,
the comparison fails ; for he kept the untidiest place in town, and
his stock was fearfully jumbled together, necessitating an in-
definite search for every article demanded. The store was a
little low room in an adobe building about twenty feet long and
ten feet wide, with another room in the rear where Yarrow
cooked and slept. He was also a mysterious person, and nobody
ever saw the inside of this room. His clothes were of the
commonest material; he was polite and apparently well-bred;
yet he never went anywhere for social intercourse, nor did he
wish anyone to call upon him except for trade. Aside from the
barest necessities, he was never known to spend any money,
and so he came to be regarded as a miser. One morning he was
found dead in his store, and for some time thereafter people
dug in his backyard searching for the earnings believed to have
been secreted there; but not a cent of his horde was ever
1853] Merchants and Shops 77
found. There were all kinds of rumors, however, respecting
Yarrow. One was to the effect that he was the scion of a noted
English family, and that disappointment in love had soured
and driven him from the world ; while another report was that
his past had been somewhat shady. Nobody, apparently,
knew the truth; but I personally believe that Yarrow was
honest, and know that when at one time, despite his efforts, he
failed in business, he endeavored to settle his debts upon the
most honorable basis.
Charles Hale, later associated with M. W. Childs, had a
tin-shop just where Steams's Arcadia Block now stands. This
shop stood on elevated ground, making his place of business
rather difficult of access; from which the reader will gain some
idea of the irregular appearance of the landscape in early days.
Hale in time went to Mexico, where he was reported to have
made a fortune.
August Ulyard arrived with his wife on the last day of
December, 1852, and rented a house near the Plaza. In com-
petition with Joseph Lelong, who had established his Jenny
Lind bakery a couple of years previous, Ulyard opened a bake-
shop, making his first bread from yeast which Mrs. Ulyard had
brought with her across the Plains. There had been nothing
but French bread in Los Angeles up to that time, but Ulyard
began to introduce both German and American bread and cake,
which soon found favor with many; later he added freshly-
baked crackers. After a while, he moved to the site of the
Natick House, at the southwest corner of Main and First
streets ; and once he owned the southwest corner of Fifth and
Spring streets, on which the Alexandria Hotel now stands.
Having no children of their own, Ulyard and his wife adopted
first one and then another, until eventually they had a family
of seven!
Picturing these unpretentious stores, I recall a custom
long prevalent here among the native population. Just as in
Mexico a little lump of sugar called a pilon, or something
equally insignificant, was given with even the smallest pur-
chase, so here some trifle, called a pilon, was thrown in to
78 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
please the buyer. And if a merchant neglected to offer such
a gratuity, the customer was almost certain to ask for it.
Among the meat-handlers, there were several Sentous broth-
ers, but those with whom I was more intimately acquainted
were Jean and Louis, father of Louis Sentous the present
French Consul, both of whom, if I mistake not, came about the
middle of the fifties. They engaged in the sheep business ; and
later Louis had a packing-house of considerable importance
located between Los Angeles and Santa Monica, where he also
owned over a thousand acres of valuable land which he sold
some time before his death. They were very successful; and
Sentous Street bears their name. Jean died in 1903, and Louis
a few years later.
Refugio Botello was another wholesale cattle- and meat-
dealer.
Arthur McKenzie Dodson, who came here in 1850 and
later married Miss Reyes, daughter of Nasario Dominguez, con-
ducted a butcher shop and one of the first grocery stores. He
was also the first to make soap here. For a while Dodson was
in partnership with John Benner who, during a quarter of a
century when in business for himself, in the old Temple adobe
on Main Street, built up an important trade in the handling of
meat. James H. Dodson is Arthur's son.
Santiago Bollo also kept a small grocery.
' " Hog " Bennett was here in the middle fifties. He raised
and killed hogs, and cured the ham and bacon which he sold
to neighboring dealers.
. Possessed as he was of an unusual sense of rectitude, I
esteemed Francisco Solano, father of Alfredo Solano, for his
many good qualities. He was in the butcher business in
Sonora Town, and was prosperous in the early fifties.
An odd little store was that of Madame Salandie, who came
to California in 1849, on the same vessel that brought Lorenzo
Leek. She had a butcher shop ; but, rather curiously, she was
also a money-lender.
I believe that Jack Yates was here in 1853. He owned the
first general laundry, located on Los Angeles Street between
1853] Merchants and Shops 79
First and Requena, and conducted it with success and profit
for many years, until he succumbed to the competition of the
Chinese. Yates's daughter, Miss Mary D., married H. J.
Woollacott, at one time a prominent financier.
More than once, in recording these fragmentary recollec-
tions, I have had occasion to refer to persons who, at one
time or another, were employed in a very different manner
than in a later period of their lives. The truth is that
in the early days one's occupation did not weigh much in the
balance, provided only that he was honorable and a good
citizen; and pursuits lowly to-day were then engaged in by
excellent men. Many of the vocations of standing were un-
known, in fact, fifty or sixty years ago ; and refined and educated
gentlemen often turned their attention to what are now con-
sidered humble occupations.
CHAPTER VII
IN AND NEAR THE OLD PUEBLO
1853
ABOUT the time when I arrived, Assessor Antonio F.
Coronel reported an increase in the City and County
assessment of over eight hundred and five thousand
dollars, but the number of stores was really limited, and the
amount of business involved was in proportion. The commun-
ity was like a village ; and such was the provincial character of
the town that, instead of indicating the location of a store or
office by a number, the advertiser more frequently used such
a phrase as "opposite the Bella Union," "near the Express
Office," or "vis-d-vis to Mr. Temple's." Nor was this of great
importance: change of names and addresses were frequent in
business establishments in those days an indication, perhaps,
of the restless spirit of the times.
Possibly because of this uncertainty as to headquarters,
merchants were indifferent toward many advertising aids con-
sidered to-day rather essential. When I began business in Los
Angeles, most of the storekeepers contented themselves with
signs rudely lettered or painted on unbleached cloth, and nailed
on the outside of the adobe walls of their shops. Later, their
signs were on bleached cloth and secured in frames without
glass. In 1865, we had a painted wooden sign; and still later,
many establishments boasted of letters in gold on the glass
doors and windows. So too, when I first came here, merchants
wrote their own billheads and often did not take the trouble to
80
[i853l In and Near the Old Pueblo 81
do that; but within two or three years afterward, they began
to have them printed.
People were also not as particular about keeping their
places of business open all day. Proprietors would sometimes
close their stores and go out for an hour or two for their meals,
or to meet in a friendly game of billiards. During the monot-
onous days when but little business was being transacted, it
was not uncommon for merchants to visit back and forth and to
spend hours at a time in playing cards. To provide a substitute
for a table, the window sill of the thick adobe was used, the
visitor seating himself on a box or barrel on the outside, while
the host within at the window would make himself equally
comfortable. Without particularizing, it is safe to state that
the majority of early traders indulged in such methods of killing
time. During this period of miserably lighted thorough-
fares, and before the arrival of many American families, those
who did not play cards and billiards in the saloons met at night
at each other's stores where, on an improvised table, they in-
dulged in a little game of draw.
Artisans, too, were among the pioneers. William H. Perry,
a carpenter by trade, came to Los Angeles on February 1st, 1853,
bringing with him, and setting up here, the first stationary
steam engine. In May, 1855, seeing an opportunity to expand,
he persuaded Ira Gilchrist to form a partnership with him
under the name of W. H. Perry & Company. A brief month
later, however so quickly did enterprises evolve in early Los
Angeles Perry gave up carpentering and joined James D.
Brady in the furniture business. Their location was on Main
Street between Arcadia and the Plaza. They continued together
several years, until Wallace Woodworth one of Tom Mott's
horsemen who went out to avenge the death of Sheriff Barton
bought out Brady's interest, when the firm became Perry &
Woodworth. They prospered and grew in importance, their
speciality being inside cabinet-work; and on September 6th,
1861, they established a lumberyard in town, with the first
regular saw- and planing-mills seen here. They then manu-
factured beehives, furniture and upholstery, and contracted
82 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
for building and house -furnishing. In 1863, Stephen H.,
brother of Tom Mott, joined the firm. Perry & Woodworth
were both active in politics, one being a Councilman, the
other a Supervisor the latter, a Democratic leader, going as a
delegate to the convention that nominated General Winfield
S. Hancock for the presidency. Their political affiliations
indeed gave them an influence which, in the awarding of con-
tracts, was sufficient to keep them supplied with large orders.
Woodworth 's demise occurred in 1883. Perry died on October
3Oth, 1906.
Nels Williamson, a native of Maine and a clever fellow,
was another carpenter who was here when I arrived. He had
come across the Plains from New Orleans in 1852 as one of a
party of twenty. In the neighborhood of El Paso de Aguila
they were all ambushed by Indians, and eighteen members of
the party were killed; Williamson, and Dick Johnson, afterward
a resident of Los Angeles, being the two that escaped. On a
visit to Kern County, Nels was shot by a hunter who mistook
him for a bear; the result of which was that he was badly
crippled for life. So long as he lived and he approached
ninety years Nels, like many old-timers, was horribly profane.
Henri Penelon, a fresco-painter, was here in 1853, and was
recognized as a decorator of some merit. When the old Plaza
Church was renovated, he added some ornamental touches to it.
At a later period, he was a photographer as well as a painter.
Among the blacksmiths then in Los Angeles was a well-
known German, John Goller, who conducted his trade in his
own shop, occupying about one hundred feet on Los Angeles
Street where the Los Angeles Saddlery Company is now
located. Goller was an emigrant who came by way of the Salt
Lake route, and who, when he set .up as the pioneer blacksmith
and wagon-maker, was supplied by Louis Wilhart, who had a
tannery on the west side of the river, with both tools and
customers. When Goller arrived, ironworkers were scarce,
and he was able to command pretty much his own prices.
He charged sixteen dollars for shoeing a horse 'and used to
laugh as he told how he received nearly five hundred dollars
1853] In and Near the Old Pueblo 83
for his part in rigging up the awning in front of a neighboring
house. When, in 1851, the Court of Sessions ordered the
Sheriff to see that fifty lances were made for the volunteer
Rangers, Goller secured the contract. Another commission
which he rilled was the making for the County of a three-inch
branding-iron with the letters, L. A. There being little iron in
stock, Goller bought up old wagon- tires cast away on the plains,
and converted them into various utensils, including even horse-
shoes. As an early wagon-maker he had rather a discouraging
experience, his first wagon remaining on his hands a good while :
the natives looked upon it with inquisitive distrust and still
clung to their heavy carretas. He had introduced, however,
more modern methods, and gradually he established a good
sale. Afterward he extended his field of operations, the
late sixties finding him shipping wagons all over the State.
His prosperity increased, and Mullaly, Porter & Ayers con-
structed for him one of the first brick buildings in Los Angeles.
A few years later, Goller met with heavy financial reverses,
losing practically all that he had.
I have stated that no care was given to either the streets or
sidewalks, and a daily evidence of this was the confusion in the
neighborhood of John's shop, which, together with his yard,
was one of the sights of the little town because the blacksmith
had strewn the footway, and even part of the road, with all
kinds of piled-up material; to say nothing of a lot of horses
invariably waiting there to be shod. The result was that
passers-by were obliged to make a detour into the often muddy
street to get around and past Goller's premises.
John Ward was an Angeleno who knew something of the
transition from heavy to lighter vehicles. He was born in Vir-
ginia and took part in the Battle of New Orleans. In the thir-
ties he went to Santa Fe, in one of the earliest prairie schooners
to that point; thence he came to Los Angeles for a temporary
stay, making the trip in the first carriage ever brought to the
Coast from a Yankee workshop. In 1849, he returned for
permanent residence; and here he died in 1859.
D. Anderson, whose daughter married Jerry Newell, a
84 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
pioneer of 1856, was a carriage-maker, having previously been
in partnership with a man named Burke in the making of pack-
saddles. After a while, when Anderson had a shop on Main
Street, he commenced making a vehicle somewhat lighter than
a road wagon and less elaborate than a carriage. With mate-
rials generally purchased from me he covered the vehicle, mak-
ing it look like a hearse. A newspaper clipping evidences
Anderson's activity in the middle seventies "a little shaky
on his pins, but cordial as ever."
Carriages were very scarce in California at the time
of my arrival, although there were a few, Don Abel Stearns
possessing the only private vehicle in Los Angeles; and trans-
portation was almost entirely by means of saddle-horses, or the
native, capacious carretas. These consisted of a heavy plat-
form, four or five by eight or ten feet in size, mounted on two
large, solid wheels, sawed out of logs, and were exceedingly
primitive in appearance, although the owners sometimes
decorated them elaborately; while the wheels moved on
coarse, wooden axles, affording the traveler more jounce
than restful ride. The carretas served, indeed, for nearly all
the carrying business that was done between the ranchos and
Los Angeles; and when in operation, the squeaking could be
heard at a great distance, owing especially to the fact that the
air being undisturbed by factories or noisy traffic, quiet gener-
ally prevailed. So solid were these vehicles that, in early wars,
they were used for barricades and the making of temporary
corrals, and also for transporting cannon.
This sharp squeaking of the carreta, however, while pene-
trating and disagreeable in the extreme, served a purpose,
after all, as the signal that a buyer was approaching town;
for the vehicle was likely to have on board one or even two
good-sized families of women and children, and the keenest
expectation of our little business world was consequently
aroused, bringing merchants and clerks to the front of their
stores. A couple of oxen, by means of ropes attached to
their horns, pulled the carretas, while the men accompanied their
families on horseback; and as the roving oxen were inclined to
i8$3] In and Near the Old Pueblo 85
leave the road, one of the riders (wielding a long, pointed stick)
was kept busy moving from side to side, prodding the wandering
animals and thus holding them to the highway. Following
these carretas, there were always from twenty-five to fifty
dogs, barking and howling as if mad.
Some of the carretas had awnings and other tasteful trim-
mings, and those who could afford it spent a great deal of
money on saddles and bridles. Each caballero was supplied with
a reata (sometimes locally misspelled riata) or leathern rope,
one end of which was tied around the neck of the horse while
the other coiled and tied to the saddle when not in use was
held by the horseman when he went into a house or store;
for hitching posts were unknown, with the natural result
that there were many runaways. When necessary, the reata
was lowered to the level of the ground, to accommodate
passers-by. Riders were always provided with one or two
pistols, to say nothing of the knife which was frequently a
part of the armament ; and I have seen even sabers suspended
from the saddles.
As I have remarked, Don Abel Stearns owned the first
carriage in town ; it was a strong, but rather light and graceful
vehicle, with a closed top, which he had imported from Boston
in 1853, to. please Dona Arcadia, it was said. However that may
be, it was pronounced by Don Abel's neighbors the same dismal
failure, considering the work it would be called upon to per-
form under California conditions, as these wiseacres later
estimated the product of John Goller's carriage shop to be.
Speaking of Goller, reminds me that John Schumacher gave
him an order to build a spring wagon with a cover, in which he
might take his family riding. It was only a one-horse affair,
but probably because of the springs and the top which afforded
protection from both the sun and the rain, it was looked upon
as a curiosity.
It is interesting to note, in passing, that John H. Jones, who
was brought from Boston as a coachman by Henry Mellus
while Mrs. Jones came as a seamstress for Mrs. Mellus and
who for years drove for Abel Stearns, left a very large estate
86 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
when he died, including such properties as the northeast
corner of Fifth and Spring streets, the northwest corner of
Main and Fifth streets (where, for several years, he resided,)
and other sites of great value; and it is my recollection that
his wage as coachman was the sole basis of this huge accu-
mulation. Stearns, as I mention elsewhere, suffered for years
from financial troubles; and I have always understood that
during that crisis Jones rendered his former employer assistance.
Mrs. Fremont, the General's wife, also owned one of the
first carriages in California. It was built to order in the East
and sent around the Horn; and was constructed so that it
could be fitted up as a bed, thus enabling the distinguished lady
and her daughter to camp wherever night might overtake them.
Shoemakers had a hard time establishing themselves in Los
Angeles in the fifties. A German shoemaker perhaps I should
say a Schuhmachermeister! was said to have come and gone
by the beginning of 1852; and less than a year later, Andrew
Lehman, a fellow-countryman of John Behn, arrived from Ba-
den and began to solicit trade. So much, however, did the gen-
eral stores control the sale of boots and shoes at that time, that
Lehman used to say it was three years before he began to make
more than his expenses. Two other shoemakers, Morris and
Weber, came later. Slaney Brothers, in the late sixties,
opened the first shoe store here.
In connection with shoemakers and their lack of patronage,
I am reminded of the different foot gear worn by nearly every
man and boy in the first quarter of a century after my arrival,
and the way they were handled. Then shoes were seldom
used, although clumsy brogans were occasionally in demand.
Boots were almost exclusively worn by the male population,
those designed for boys usually being tipped with copper at the
toes. A dozen pair, of different sizes, came in a case, and often
a careful search was required through several boxes to find
just the size needed. At such times, the dealer would fish out
one pair after another, tossing them carelessly onto the floor;
and as each case contained odd sizes that had proven unsal-
able, the none too patient and sometimes irascible merchant had
In and Near the Old Pueblo 87
to handle and rehandle the slow-moving stock. Some of the
boots were highly ornamented at the top, and made a fine
exhibit when displayed (by means of strings passing through
the boot straps) in front of the store. Boot-jacks, now as
obsolete as the boots themselves, are also an institution of that
past.
Well out in the country, where the Capitol Milling Com-
pany's plant now stands, and perhaps as successor to a still
earlier mill built there by an Englishman, Joseph Chapman
(who married into the Ortega family since become famous
through Emile C. Ortega who, in 1898, successfully began
preserving California chilis), was a small mill, run by water,
known as the Eagle Mills. This was owned at different times
by Abel Stearns, Francis Mellus and J. R. Scott, and con-
ducted, from 1855 to 1868, by John Turner, who came here for
that purpose, and whose son, William, with Fred Lambourn
later managed the grocery store of Lambourn & Turner on Aliso
Street. The miller made poor flour indeed; though proba-
bly it was quite equal to that produced by Henry Dalton at
the Azusa, John Rowland at the Puente, Michael White at
San Gabriel, and the Theodore brothers at their Old Mill in Los
Angeles. The quantity of wheat raised in Southern California
was exceedingly small, and whenever the raw material became
exhausted, Turner's supply of flour gave out, and this indis-
pensable commodity was then procured from San Francisco.
Turner, who was a large-hearted man and helpful to his fellows,
died in 1878. In the seventies, the mill was sold to J. D.
Deming, and by him to J. Loew, who still controls the corpora-
tion, the activity of which has grown with the city.
Half a year before my coming to Los Angeles, or in
April, 1853, nearly twenty-five thousand square miles had been
lopped off from Los Angeles County, to create the County of
San Bernardino; and yet in that short time the Mormons, who
had established themselves there in 1851 as a colony on a
tract of land purchased from Diego Sepulveda and the three
Lugos Jose del Carmen, Jose .Maria and Vicente and
consisting of about thirty-five thousand acres, had quite
88 Sixty Years in Southern Californi [1853
succeeded in their agricultural and other ventures. Copying
somewhat the plan of Salt Lake City, they laid out a town a
mile square, with right-angled blocks of eight acres and irri-
gating zanjas parallel with the streets. In a short time, they
were raising corn, wheat (some of it commanding five dollars
a bushel), barley and vegetables; and along their route of
travel, by way of the Mormon metropolis, were coming to the
Southland many substantial pioneers. From San Bernardino,
Los Angeles drew her supply of butter, eggs and poultry ; and as
three days were ordinarily required for their transportation
across what was then known as the desert, these products
arrived in poor condition, particularly during the summer heat.
The butter would melt, and the eggs would become stale. This
disadvantage, however, was in part compensated for by the
economical advantage of the industry and thrift of the Mor-
mons, and their favorable situation in an open, fertile country;
for they could afford to sell us their produce very reasonably
fifteen cents a dozen for eggs, and three dollars a dozen for
chickens well satisfying them! San Bernardino also supplied
all of our wants in the lumber line. A lumber yard was then
a prospect seven or eight years elapsing before the first
yard and planing-mill were established; and this necessary
building material was peddled around town by the Mormon
teamsters who, after disposing of all they could in this manner,
bartered the balance to storekeepers to be later put on sale
somewhere near their stores.
But two towns broke the monotony of a trip between Los
Angeles and San Bernardino, and they were San Gabriel
Mission and El Monte. I need not remind my readers that
the former place, the oldest and quaintest settlement in the
county, was founded by Father Junipero Serra and his asso-
ciates in 1771, and that thence radiated all of their operations
in this neighborhood; nor that, in spite of all the sacrifice and
human effort, matters with this beautifully-situated Mission
were in a precarious condition for several decades. It may be
less known, however, that -the Mission Fathers excelled in the
cultivation of citrus fruits, and that their chief competitors, in
m
1853] In and Near the Old Pueblo 89
1853, were William Wolf skill and Louis Vignes, who were also
raising seedling oranges of a very good quality. The population
of San Gabriel was then principally Indian and Mexican, al-
though there were a few whites dwelling some distance away.
Among these, J. S. Mallard, afterward Justice of the Peace and
father of the present City Assessor, Walter Mallard, carried on
a small business ; and Mrs. Laura Cecelia Evertsen mother-in-
law of an old pioneer, Andrew J. King, whose wife is the tal-
ented daughter, Mrs. Laura Evertsen King also had a store
there. Still another early storekeeper at the quaint settlement
was Max Lazard, nephew of Solomon Lazard, who later went
back to France. Another pioneer to settle near the San Gabriel
River was Louis Phillips, a native of Germany who reached
California in 1850, by way of Louisiana, and for a while did
business in a little store on the Long Wharf at San Francisco.
Then he came to Los Angeles, where he engaged in trade; in
1853, he bought land on which, for ten years or until he removed
to Spadra (where Mrs. Phillips still survives him) , he tilled the
soil and raised stock. The previous year, Hugo Reid, of whom
I often heard my neighbors speak in a complimentary way,
had died at San Gabriel where he had lived and worked. Reid
was a cultured Scotchman who, though born in the British Isles,
had a part, as a member of the convention, in making the first
Constitution for California. He married an Indian woman and,
in his leisure hours, studied the Indians on the mainland and
Catalina, contributing to the Los Angeles Star a series of
articles on the aborigines still regarded as the valuable testi-
mony of an eyewitness.
This Indian wife of the scholarly Reid reminds me of Nathan
Tuch, who came here in 1853, having formerly lived in
Cleveland where he lost his first wife. He was thoroughly
honest, very quiet and genteel, and of an affectionate dis-
position. Coming to California and San Gabriel, he opened
a little store; and there he soon married a full-blooded squaw.
Notwithstanding, however, the difference in their stations and
the fact that she was uneducated, Tuch always remained
faithful to her, and treated her with every mark of respect.
90 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
When I last visited Tuch and his shop, I saw there a home-made
sign, reading about as follows:
THIS STORE BELONGS TO NATHAN TUCH,
NOW 73 YEARS OLD.
When he died, his wife permitted his burial in the Jewish
Cemetery.
Michael White was another pioneer, who divided his time
between San Gabriel and the neighborhood that came to be
known as San Bernardino, near which he had the rancho
Muscupiabe. Although drifting hither as long ago as 1828, he
died, in the late eighties, without farm, home or friends.
Cyrus Burdick was still another settler who, after leaving
Iowa with his father and other relatives in December, 1853,
stopped for a while at San Gabriel. Soon young Burdick went to
Oregon ; but, being dissatisfied, he returned to the Mission and
engaged in farming. In 1855, he was elected Constable; a year
later, he opened a store at San Gabriel, which he conducted for
eight or nine years. Subsequently, the Burdicks lived in Los
Angeles, at the corner of First and Fort streets on the site
of the present Tajo Building. They also owned the northeast
corner of Second and Spring streets. This property became
the possession of Fred Eaton, through his marriage to Miss
Helen L. Burdick.
Fielding W. Gibson came early in the fifties. He had bought
at Sonora, Mexico, some five hundred and fifty head of cattle,
but his vaqueros kept up such a regular system of side-tracking
and thieving that, by the time he reached the San Gabriel
Valley, he had only about one-seventh of his animals left.
Fancying that neighborhood, he purchased two hundred and
fifty acres of land from Henry Dalton and located west of
El Monte, where he raised stock and broom corn.
El Monte a name by some thought to refer to the ad-
jacent mountains, but actually alluding to the dense willow
forests then surrounding the hamlet the oldest American
settlement in the county, was inhabited by a party of mixed
1853] In and Near the Old Pueblo 91
emigrants, largely Texans and including Ira W. Thompson who
opened the first tavern there and was the Postmaster when its
Post Office was officially designated Monte. Others were
Dr. Obed Macy and his son Oscar, of whom I speak elsewhere,
Samuel M. Heath and Charlotte Gray, who became John
Rowland's second wife; the party having taken possession, in
the summer of 1851, of the rich farming tract along the San
Gabriel River some eleven or twelve miles east of Los Angeles.
The summer before I came, forty or fifty more families arrived
there, and among them were A. J. King, afterward a citizen of
Los Angeles ; Dr. T. A. Hayes, William and Ezekiel Rubottom,
Samuel King A. J. King's father J. A. Johnson, Jacob Weil,
A. Madox, A. J. Horn, Thomas A. Garey, who acquired quite
a reputation as a horticulturist, and Jonathan Tibbets, spoken
of in another chapter. While tilling the soil, these farmer folks
made it their particular business to keep Whigs and, later,
Republicans out of office ; and slim were the chances of those
parties in El Monte and vicinity, but correspondingly enthusias-
tic were the receptions given Democratic candidates and their
followers visiting there. Another important function that
engaged these worthy people was their part in the lynchings
which were necessary in Los Angeles. As soon as they re-
ceived the cue, the Monte boys galloped into town ; and being
by temperament and training, through frontier life, used to
dealing with the rougher side of human nature, they were
recognized disciplinarians. The fact is that such was the
peculiar public spirit animating these early settlers that no one
could live and prosper at the Monte who was not extremely
virile and ready for any dare-devil emergency.
David Lewis, a Supervisor of 1855, crossed the continent
to the San Gabriel Valley in 1851, marrying there, in the follow-
ing year, a daughter of the innkeeper Ira Thompson, just
referred to. Thompson was a typical Vermonter and a good,
popular fellow, who long kept the Overland Stage station.
Sometime in the late fifties, Lewis was a pioneer in the growing
of hops. Jonathan Tibbets, who settled at El Monte the year
that I came to Los Angeles, had so prospered by 1871 that he
92 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
left for the mines in Mohave County, Arizona, to inaugurate a
new enterprise, and took with him some twenty thousand
pounds of cured pork and a large quantity of lard, which had
been prepared at El Monte. Samuel M. Heath was another
El Monte pioneer of 1851; he died in 1876, kindly remem-
bered by many poor immigrants. H. L., J. S. and S. D. Thur-
man were farmers at El Monte, who came here in 1852.
E. C. Parish, who arrived in 1854 an d became a Supervisor,
was also a ranchman there. Other El Monte folks, afterward
favorably spoken of, were the Hoyts, who were identified with
early local education.
Dr. Obed Macy, father of Mrs. Sam Foy, came to Los
Angeles from the Island of Nantucket, where he was born, by
way of Indiana, in which State he had practiced medicine,
arriving in Southern California about 1850 and settling in El
Monte. He moved to Los Angeles, a year later, and bought the
Bella Union from Winston & Hodges; where were opened the
Alameda Baths, on the site of the building later erected by
his son Oscar. There Dr. Macy died on July 9th, 1857. Oscar,
a printer on the Southern Calif ornian, had set type in San
Francisco, swung a miner's pick and afterward returned to El
Monte where he took up a claim which, in time, he sold to
Samuel King. Macy Street recalls this pioneer family.
The San Fernando and San Juan Capistrano missions, and
Agua Caliente, were the only other settlements in Los Angeles
County then; the former, famous by 1854 for its olives, passing
into history both through the activity of the Mission Fathers
and also the renowned set-to between Micheltorena and Cas-
tro when, after hours of cannonading and grotesque swinging
of the would-be terrifying reata, the total of the dead was a
single mule! Then, or somewhat subsequently, General
Andres Pico began to occupy what was the most preten-
tious adobe in the State, formerly the abode of the padres a
building three hundred feet long, eighty feet wide and with
walls four feet thick.
In 1853, there was but one newspaper in the city a weekly
known as La Estrella de los Angeles or The Los Angeles Star,
1853] In and Near the Old Pueblo 93
printed half in Spanish, half in English. It was founded on
May i yth, 1851, by John A. Lewis and John McElroy, who had
their printing office in the lower room of a small wooden house
on Los Angeles Street, near the corral of the Bella Union hotel.
This firm later became Lewis, McElroy & Rand. There was
then no telegraphic communication with the outside world,
and the news ordinarily conveyed by the sheet was anything
but important. Indeed, all such information was known, each
week, by the handful of citizens in the little town long before
the paper was published, and delays in getting mail from a dis-
tance in one case the post from San Francisco to Los Angeles
being under way no less than fifty-two days! led to Lewis
giving up the editorship in disgust. When a steamer arrived,
some little news found its way into the paper; but even then
matters of national and international moment became known
in Los Angeles only after the lapse of a month or so. The
admission of California to the Union in 1850, for example, was
first reported on the Coast six weeks after Congress had voted
in California's favor; while in 1852, the deaths of Clay and
Webster were not known in the West until more than a month
after they had occurred. This was a slight improvement,
however, over the conditions in 1841 when (it used to be said)
no one west of the Rockies knew of President Harrison's demise
until over three months and a half after he was buried! Our
first Los Angeles newspaper was really more of an advertising
medium than anything else, and the printing outfit was de-
cidedly primitive, though the printers may not have been as
badly off as were the typos of the Calif ornian. The latter,
using type picked up in a Mexican cloister, found no W's
among the Spanish letters and had to set double F's until
more type was brought from the Cannibal or Sandwich Islands !
Which reminds me of Jose de la Rosa, born in Los Angeles
about 1790, and the first journeyman to set type in California,
who died over one hundred years old. But if the Estrella made a
poor showing as a newspaper, I have no doubt that, to add to
the editor's misfortunes, the advertising rates were so low that
his entire income was but small. In 1854, the St ar an d its
94 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853
imprenta, as it was then styled, were sold to a company or-
ganized by James S. Waite, who, a year later, was appointed
Postmaster of the city. Speaking of the Star, I should add that
one of its first printers was Charles Meyrs Jenkins, later City
Zanjero, who had come to California, a mere stripling, with his
stepfather, George Dalton, Sr.
The Post Office, too, at this time, was far from being an
important institution. It was located in an adobe building on
Los Angeles, between Commercial and Arcadia streets, and Dr.
William B. Osburn, sometimes known as Osbourn who came
to California from New York in 1847, in Colonel Stevenson's
regiment, and who had established a drug store, such as it was,
in 1850 had just been appointed Postmaster. A man who in
his time played many parts, Osburn had half a dozen other
irons in the fire besides politics (including the interests of a
floral nursery and an auction room), and as the Postmaster
was generally away from his office, citizens desiring their
mail would help themselves out of a soap box subdivided like
a pigeon house, each compartment being marked with a letter;
and in this way the city's mail was distributed! Indifferent
as Dr. Osburn was to the postmastership (which, of course,
could not have paid enough to command anyone's exclusive
services), he was rather a clever fellow and, somewhat naturally
perhaps for a student of chemistry, is said to have made as
early as August 9th, 1851, (and in connection with one Moses
Searles, a pioneer house and sign painter) the first daguerreo-
type photographs produced in Los Angeles. For two years or
more, Dr. Osburn remained Postmaster, resigning his office
on November ist, 1855. While he was a notary public, he
had an office in Keller's Building on Los Angeles Street. J. H.
Blond was another notary; he had an office opposite the Bella
Union on Main Street. Osburn died in Los Angeles on July
3 ist, 1867.
No sooner had I arrived in San Francisco, than I became
aware of the excitement incidental to the search for gold, and on
reaching Los Angeles, I found symptoms of the same fever.
That year, as a matter of fact, recorded the highest output of
In and Near the Old Pueblo 95
gold, something like sixty-five million dollars' worth being
mined; and it was not many months before all was bustle in
and about our little city, many people coming and going, and
comparatively few wishing to settle, at least until they had first
tried their luck with the pick and pan. Not even the discovery
of gold in the San Feliciano Canon, near Newhall, in the early
forties for I believe the claim is made that Southern Cali-
fornians, while searching for wild onions, had the honor of
digging out, in the despised "cow-counties," the first lump of the
coveted metal had set the natives so agog; so that while the
rush to the mines claimed many who might otherwise have be-
come permanent residents, it added but little to the prosperity
of the town, and it is no wonder that, for a while, the local news-
papers refused to give events the notice which they deserved.
To be sure, certain merchants among them dealers in tinware,
hardware and groceries, and those who catered especially to
miners, carrying such articles as gold- washers, canteens and
camp-outfits increased their trade ; but many prospective gold-
seekers, on their way to distant diggings, waited until they got
nearer the scene of their adventures before buying tools and
supplies, when they often exhausted their purses in paying the
exorbitant prices which were asked. Barring the success of
Francisco Garcia who used gangs of Indians and secured in the
one year 1855 over sixty thousand dollars' worth of gold
one nugget being nearly two thousand dollars in value the
placer gold-mining carried on in the San Gabriel and San Fran-
cisquito canons was on the whole unimportant, and what gold-
dust was produced at these points came to Los Angeles without
much profit to the toiling miners; so that it may be safely
stated that cattle- and horse-raising, of which I shall speak in
more detail, were Southern California's principal sources of
income. As for the gold dust secured, San Francisco was the
clearing-house for the Coast, and all of the dust ultimately
found its way there until sometime later Sacramento developed
and became a competitor. Coming, as I did, from a part of the
world where gold dust was never seen, at least by the layman,
this sudden introduction to sacks and bottles full of the fas-
96 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853!
cinating yellow metal produced upon me, as the reader may
imagine, another one of those strange impressions fixing so
indelibly my first experiences in the new, raw and yet altogether
romantic world.
CHAPTER VIII
ROUND ABOUT THE PLAZA
1853-1854
AT the time of my arrival, the Plaza, long the nucleus of the
original settlement, was the center of life in the little
community, and around it clustered the homes of many
of those who were uppermost in the social scale, although some
of the descendants of the finest Spanish families were living in
other parts of the city. This was particularly so in the case of Jose
Andres Sepulveda, who had a beautiful old adobe on some acreage
that he owned northwest of Sonora Town, near the place where
he constructed a stone reservoir to supply his house with water.
Opposite the old Plaza Church dwelt a number of families of
position and, for the most part, of wealth in many cases the
patrons of less fortunate or dependent ones, who lived nearby.
The environment was not beautiful, a solitary pepper, some-
what north of the Plaza, being the only shade- tree there ; yet the
general character of the homes was somewhat aristocratic, the
landscape not yet having been seriously disturbed by any utili-
tarian project such as that of the City Fathers who, by later
granting a part of the old square for a prosaic water tank,
created a greater rumpus than had the combative soldiers
some years before. The Plaza was shaped much as it is at
present, having been reduced considerably, but five or six
years earlier, by the Mexican authorities : they had planned to
improve its shape, but had finished their labors by contract-
ing the object before them. There was no sign of a park ; on
the contrary, parts of the Plaza itself, which had suffered the
7 97
98 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853-
same fate as the Plaza in San Francisco, were used as a dump-
ing-ground for refuse. From time to time many church and other
festivals were held at this square a custom no doubt traceable
to the Old World and to earlier centuries ; but before any such
affair could take place requiring the erecting of booths and
banks of vegetation in front of the neighboring houses all rub-
bish had to be removed, even at the cost of several days' work.
Among the distinguished citizens of Los Angeles whose
residences added to the social prestige of the neighborhood
was Don Ygnacio Del Valle, father of R. F. Del Valle. Until
1861, he resided on the east side of the square, in a house
between Calle de los Negros and Olvera Street, receiving there
his intimate friends as well as those who wished to pay him
their respects when he was Alcalde, Councilman and member
of the State Legislature. In 1 86 1, Del Valle moved to his ranch,
Camulos. Ygnacio Coronel was another eminent burgher
residing on the east side of the Plaza, while Cristobal Aguilar's
home faced the South.
Not far from Del Valle's that is, back of the later site of
the Pico House, between the future Sanchez Street and Calle
de los Negros lived Don Pio Pico, then and long after a
striking figure, not merely on account of his fame as the last of
the Mexican governors, but as well because of his physique
and personality. I may add that as long as he lived, or at
least until the tide of his fortune turned and he was forced to
sell his most treasured personal effects, he invariably adorned
himself with massive jewelry of much value; and as a further
conceit, he frequently wore on his bosom Mexican decorations
that had been bestowed upon him for past official services.
Don Pio really preferred country life at the Ranchito, as his
place was called; but official duties and, later, illness and the
need of medical care, kept him in town for months at a time.
He had three sisters, two of whom married in succession Jos6
Antonio Carrillo, another resident at the Plaza and the then
owner of the site of the future Pico House ; while the third was
the wife of Don Juan Forster, in whose comfortable home Don
Pio found a retreat when distressing poverty overtook him in
1854] Round About the Plaza 99
old age. Sanchez Street recalls still another don of the neigh-
borhood, Vicente Sanchez, grandfather of Tomas A. Sanchez,
who was domiciled in a two-story and rather elaborate dwelling
near Carrillo, on the south side of the Plaza. Sanchez Hall
stood there until the late seventies.
The Beau Brummel of Los Angeles in the early fifties was
Don Vicente Lugo, whose wardrobe was made up exclusively
of the fanciest patterns of Mexican type; his home, one of the
few two-story houses in the pueblo, was close to Ygnacio Del
Valle's. Lugo, a brother of Don Jose Maria, was one of the
heavy taxpayers of his time; as late as 1860, he had herds of
twenty-five hundred head of cattle, or half a thousand more
than Pio and Andres Pico together owned. Maria Ballestero,
Lugo's mother-in-law, lived near him.
Don Agustin Olvera dwelt almost opposite Don Vicente
Lugo's, on the north side of the Plaza, at the corner of the
street perpetuating his name. Don Agustin arrived from Mex-
ico, where he had been Juez de Paz, in 1834, or about the same
time that Don Ygnacio Coronel came, and served as Captain in
the campaign of Flores against Fremont, even negotiating peace
with the Americans ; then he joined Dr. Hope's volunteer police,
and was finally chosen, at the first election in Los Angeles,
Judge of the First Instance, becoming the presiding officer of
the Court of Sessions. Five or six years later, he was School
Commissioner. He had married Dona Concepcion, one of not
less than twenty- two children of Don Santiago Arguello, son of
a governor of both Calif ornias, and his residence was at the
northeast end of the Plaza, in an adobe which is still standing.
There, while fraternizing with the newly-arrived Americans,
he used to tell how, in 1850, when the movement for the ad-
mission of California as a State was under way, he acted as
secretary to a meeting called in this city to protest against the
proposal, fearing lest the closer association with Northern
California would lead to an undue burden of taxes upon the
South. Olvera Street is often written by mistake, Olivera.
Francisco O'Campo was another man of means whose
home was on the east side of the Plaza. Although he was also a
ioo Sixty Years in Southern California [1853-
member of the new Ayuntamiento, inaugurated in 1849, and al-
though he had occupied other offices, he was very improvident,
like so many natives of the time, and died, in consequence, a
poor man. In his later years, he used to sit on the curbstone
near the Plaza, a character quite forlorn, utterly dejected in
appearance, and despondently recalling the by-gone days of his
prosperity.
Don Cristobal Aguilar, several times in his career an
Alcalde, several times a City Councilman beginning with the
first organization of Los Angeles, and even twice or thrice
Mayor, was another resident near the Plaza. His adobe on
upper Main Street was fairly spacious; and partly, perhaps,
for that reason, was used by the Sisters of Charity when they
instituted the first hospital in Los Angeles.
A short distance from the Plaza, on Olvera Street, had long
stood the home of Don Jose Maria Abila, who was killed in
battle in the early thirties. It was there that Commodore
Stockton made his headquarters, and the story of how this
was brought about is one of the entertaining incidents of this
warlike period. The widow Abila, who had scant love for the
Americans, had fled with her daughters to the home of Don
Luis 1 Vignes, but not before she placed a native boy on guard,
cautioning him against opening either doors or windows.
When the young custodian, however, heard the flourishes of
Stockton's brass band, he could not resist the temptation to
learn what the excitement meant; so he first poked his head
out of a window, and finally made off to the Plaza. Some of
Stockton's staff, passing by, and seeing the tasteful furniture
within, were encouraged to investigate, with the result that
they selected the widow Abila's house for Stockton's abode.
Another Abila Francisco had an adobe at the present
southeast corner of San Fernando and Alpine streets.
Francisca Gallardo, daughter of one of the Sepulvedas,
lived in the vicinity of the Plaza.
The only church in Los Angeles at this time was that of
Nuestm Senora la Reyna de los Angeles, known as Our Lady, the
1 Often spoken of as Don Louis.
1854] Round About the Plaza 101
Queen of the Angels, at the Plaza ; and since but few changes
were made for years in its exterior, I looked upon the edifice as
the original adobe built here in the eighties of the preceding
century. When I came to inquire into the matter, however, I was
astonished to learn that the Church dated back no farther than
the year 1822, although the first attempt at laying a corner-
stone was made in 1815, probably somewhat to the east of the
old Plaza and a year or two after rising waters frustrated the
attempt to build a chapel near the river and the present Aliso
Street. Those temporary foundations seem to have marked
the spot where later the so-called Woman's Gun once buried
by Mexicans, and afterward dug up by women and used at
the Battle of Dominguez Ranch was long exposed to view,
propped up on wooden blocks. The venerable building I then
saw, in which all communicants for want of pews knelt on the
floor or stood while worshiping, is still admired by those to
whom age and sacred tradition, and the sacrifices of the early
Spanish Fathers, make appeal. In the first years of my residence
here, the bells of this honored old pile, ringing at six in the morn-
ing and at eight in the evening, served as a curfew to regulate
the daily activities of the town.
Had Edgar Allan Poe lived in early Los Angeles, he might
well have added to his poem one more stanza about these old
church bells, whose sweet chimes, penetrating the peace and
quiet of the sleepy village, not alone summoned the devout to
early mass or announced the time of vespers, but as well called
many a merchant to his day's labor and dismissed him to his
home or the evening's rendezvous. That was a time of senti-
ment and romance, and the memory of it lingers pleasantly in
contrast with the rush and bustle of to-day, when cold and
chronometrical exactitude, instead of a careless but, in its time,
sufficient measure of the hours, arranged the order of our
comings and our goings.
Incidental to the ceremonial activity of the old Church on
the Plaza, the Corpus Christi festival was one of the events of
the year when not the least imposing feature was the opening
procession around the Plaza. For all these occasions, the
iO2 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853-
square was thoroughly cleaned, and notable families, such as
the Del Valles, the Olveras, the Lugos and the Picos erected
before their residences temporary altars, decorated with silks,
satins, laces and even costly jewelry. The procession would
start from the Church after the four o'clock service and
proceed around the Plaza from altar to altar. There the
boys and girls, carrying banners and flowers, and robed
or dressed in white, paused for formal worship, the progress
through the square, small as the Plaza was, thus taking
a couple of hours. Each succeeding year the procession be-
came more resplendent and inclusive, and I have a distinct
recollection of a feature incidental to one of them when
twelve men, with twelve great burning candles, represented
the Apostles.
These midwinter festivities remind me that, on Christmas
Eve, the young people here performed pastoral plays. It was
the custom, much as it still is in Upper Bavaria, to call at the
homes of various friends and acquaintances and, after giving
little performances such as Los Pastores, to pass on to the next
house. A number of the Apostles and other characters asso-
ciated with the life of Jesus were portrayed, and the Devil, who
scared half to death the little children of the hamlet, was never
overlooked. The bunuelo, or native doughnut, also added its
delight to these celebrations.
And now a word about the old Spanish Missions in this
vicinity. It was no new experience for me to see religious
edifices that had attained great age, and this feature, therefore,
made no special impression. I dare say that I visited the
Mission of San Gabriel very soon after I arrived in Los Angeles;
but it was then less than a century old, and so was important
only because it was the place of worship of many natives.
The Protestant denominations were not as numerous then as
now, and nearly all of the population was Catholic. With
the passing of the years, sentimental reverence for the Span-
ish Fathers has grown greater and their old Mission homes
have acquired more and more the dignity of age. Helen
Hunt Jackson's Ramona, John S. McGroarty's Mission Play
Captain and Mrs. J. S. Garcia
Captain Salisbury Haley
El Palacio, Home of Abel and Arcadia Stearns
From a photograph of the seventies
The Lugo Ranch-house, in the Nineties
Round About the Plaza 103
(in which, by the by, Senorita Lucretia, daughter of R. F. and
granddaughter of Don Ygnacio Del Valle, so ably portrays the
character of Dona Josefa Yorba) and various other literary
efforts have increased the interest in these institutions of the
ast.
The missions and their chapels recall an old Mexican woman
who had her home, when I came to Los Angeles, at what is now
the southeast corner of San Pedro and First streets. She
dwelt in a typical adobe, and in the rear of her house was a
vineyard of attractive aspect. Adjoining one of the rooms of
her dwelling was a chapel, large enough, perhaps, to hold ten or
twelve people and somewhat like those on the Dominguez and
Coronel estates; and this chapel, like all the other rooms, had
an earthen floor. In it was a gaudily-decorated altar and crucifix.
The old lady was very religious and frequently repaired to her
sanctuary. From the sale of grapes, she derived, in part, her
income ; and many a time have I bought from her the privilege
of wandering through her vineyard and eating all I could of this
refreshing berry. If the grape-season was not on, neighbors
were none the less always welcome there; and it was in this
quiet and delightful retreat that, in 1856, I proposed marriage
to Miss Sarah Newmark, my future wife, such a mere girl that a
few evenings later I found her at home playing jackstones
then a popular game with Mrs. J. G. Downey, herself a child.
But while Catholics predominated, the Protestant churches
had made a beginning. Rev. Adam Bland, Presiding Elder
f the Methodists in Los Angeles in 1854, had come here a
couple of years before, to begin his work in the good, old-
fashioned way; and, having bought the barroom, El Dorado,
and torn down Hughes's sign, he had transformed the place into
a chapel. But, alas for human foresight, or the lack of it : on at
least a part of the new church lot, the Merced Theater later
stood !
Two cemeteries were in existence at the time whereof I
write: the Roman Catholic abandoned a few years ago
which occupied a site on Buena Vista Street, and one, now long
deserted, for other denominations. This cemetery, which we
104 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853-
shall see was sadly neglected, thereby occasioning bitter
criticism in the press, was on Fort Hill. Later, another
burial-ground was established in the neighborhood of what is
now Flower and Figueroa streets, near Ninth, many years be-
fore there was any thought of Rosedale or Evergreen.
As for my co-religionists and their provision of a cemetery,
when I first came to Los Angeles they were without a definite
place for the interment of their dead; but in 1854 the first
steps were taken to establish a Jewish cemetery here, and
it was not very long before the first Jewish child to die in Los
Angeles, named Mahler, was buried there. This cemetery, on
land once owned and occupied by Jose Andres Sepulveda's
reservoir, was beautifully located in a recess or little pocket,
as it were, among the hills in the northwest section of the city,
where the environment of nature was in perfect harmony
with the Jewish ideal "Home of Peace."
Mrs. Jacob Rich, by the way, had the distinction of being
the first Jewess to settle in Los Angeles; and I am under the
impression that Mrs. E. Greenbaum became the mother of the
first Jewish child born here.
Sam Prager arrived in 1854, an d after clerking a while,
associated himself with the Morrises, who were just getting
nicely established. For a time, they met with much suc-
cess and were among the most important merchants of their
day. Finally they dissolved, and the Morris Brothers bought
the large tract of land which I have elsewhere described as
having been refused by Newmark, Kremer & Company in
liquidation of Major Henry Hancock's account. Here, for
several years, in a fine old adobe lived the Morris family, dis-
pensing a bountiful hospitality quite in keeping with the open-
handed manner of the times. In the seventies, the Morris
Brothers sold this property later known as Morris Vineyard
after they had planted it to vines, for the insignificant
sum of about twenty thousand dollars.
Following Sam Prager, came his brother Charles. For a
short time they were associated, but afterward they operated
independently, Charles Prager starting on Commercial Street,
Round About the Plaza 105
on May igth, 1869. Sam Prager, long known as "Uncle Sam,"
was a good-natured and benevolent man, taking a deep interest
in Masonic matters, becoming Master of 42, and a regular
attendant at the annual meetings of the Grand Lodge of
California. He was also Chairman of the Masonic Board of
Relief until the time of his death. Charles Prager and the
Morrises have all gone to that
undiscovered country, from whose bourn
No traveler returns.
In the summer of 1853, a movement was inaugurated,
through the combined efforts of Mayors Nichols and Coronel,
aided by John T. Jones, to provide public schools; and three
citizens, J. Lancaster Brent, Lewis Granger and Stephen C.
Foster, were appointed School Commissioners. As early as
1838, Ygnacio Coronel, assisted by his wife and daughter, had
accepted some fifteen dollars a month from the authorities
to permit the exercise of official supervision and opened a
school which, as late as 1854, ne conducted in his own home;
thereby doubtless inspiring his son Antonio to take marked
interest in the education of the Indians. From time to time,
private schools, partly subsidized from public funds, were com-
menced. In May, 1854, Mayor Foster pointed out that, while
there were fully five hundred children of school age and the
pueblo had three thousand dollars surplus, there was still no
school building which the City could call its own. New trustees
Manuel Requena, Francis Mellus and W. T. B. Sanford
were elected; and then happened what, perhaps, has not oc-
curred here since, or ever in any other California town : Foster,
still Mayor, was also chosen School Superintendent. The
new energy put into the movement now led the Board to build,
late in 1854 or early in 1855, a two-story brick schoolhouse,
known as School No. I, on the northwest corner of Spring and
Second streets, on the lot later occupied, first by the old City
Hall and secondly by the Bryson Block. This structure cost
six thousand dollars. Strange as it now seems, the location
was then rather "out in the country;" and I dare say the
io6 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853-
selection was made, in part, to get the youngsters away from
the residential district around the Plaza. There school was
opened on March igth, 1855; William A. Wallace, a botanist
who had been sent here to study the flora, having charge of the
boys' department and Miss Louisa Hayes directing the division
for girls. Among her pupils were Sarah Newmark and her
sisters; Mary Wheeler, who married William Pridham; and
Lucinda Macy, afterward Mrs. Foy, who recalls participating
in the first public school examination, in June, 1856. Dr.
John S. Griffin, on June yth, 1856, was elected Superintendent.
Having thus established a public school, the City Council
voted to discontinue all subsidies to private schools.
One of the early school-teachers was the pioneer, James F.
Burns. Coming with an emigrant train in 1853, Burns arrived
in Los Angeles, after some adventures with the Indians near
what was later the scene of the Mountain Meadow Massacre,
in November of the same year. Having been trained in Kala-
mazoo, Michigan, as a teacher, Burns settled, in 1854, m San
Gabriel; and there with Caesar C. Twitchell, he conducted
a cross-roads school in a tent. Later, while still living at
San Gabriel, Burns was elected County School Superintend-
ent. Before reaching here that is, at Provo, Utah, on
September 25th the young schoolmaster had married Miss
Lucretia Burdick, aunt of Fred Eaton's first wife. Burns,
though of small stature, became one of the fighting sheriffs of
the County.
Among others who conducted schools in Los Angeles or
vicinity, in the early days, were Mrs. Adam Bland, wife of the
missionary; H. D. Barrows and the Hoyts. Mrs. Bland taught
ten or twelve poor girls, in 1853, for which the Common Council
allowed her about thirty-five dollars. Barrows was one of
several teachers employed by William Wolfskill at various
times, and at Wolfskin's school not merely were his own
children instructed but those of the neighboring families of
Carpenter, Rowland and Pleasants as well. Mrs. Gertrude
Lawrence Hoyt was an Episcopal clergyman's wife from New
York who, being made a widow, followed her son, Albert H.
1854] Round About the Plaza 107
Hoyt, to Los Angeles in 1853. Young Hoyt, a graduate of
Rutgers College and a teacher excited by the gold fever,
joined a hundred and twenty men who chartered the bark
Clarissa Perkins to come around the Horn, in 1849; but failing
as a miner, he began farming near Sacramento. When Mrs.
Hoyt came to Los Angeles, she conducted a private school in a
rented building north of the Plaza, beginning in 1854 and
continuing until 1856; while her son moved south and took up
seventy or eighty acres of land in the San Gabriel Valley, near
El Monte. In 1855, young Hoyt came into town to assist his
mother in the school; and the following year Mrs. Hoyt's
daughter, Mary, journeyed West and also became a teacher here.
Later, Miss Hoyt kept a school on Alameda Street near the
site of the Los Angeles & San Pedro Railroad depot. Mrs.
Hoyt died in Los Angeles in 1863. Other early teachers were
William McKee, Mrs. Thomas Foster and Miss Anna Mc-
Arthur.
As undeveloped as the pueblo was, Los Angeles boasted, in
her very infancy, a number of physicians, although there were
few, if any, Spanish or Mexican practitioners. In 1850, Drs.
William B. Osburn, W. W. Jones, A. W. Hope, A. P. Hodges
and a Dr. Overstreet were here; while in 1851, Drs. Thomas
Foster, John Brinckerhoff and James P. McFarland followed,
to be reenforced, in 1852, by Dr. James B. Winston and, soon
after, by Drs. R. T. Hayes, T. J. White and A. B. Hayward.
Dr. John Strother Griffin (General Albert Sidney Johnston's
brother-in-law and the accepted suitor of Miss Louisa Hayes)
came to Los Angeles in 1848, or rather to San Gabriel where,
according to Hugo Reid, no physician had settled, though the
population took drugs by the barrel ; being the ranking surgeon
under Kearney and Stockton when, on January 8th, they drove
back the Mexican forces. He was also one of the hosts to young
W. T. Sherman. Not until 1854, however, after Griffin had
returned to Washington and had resigned his commission, did he
actually settle in Los Angeles. Thereafter, his participation in
local affairs was such that, very properly, one of our avenues
is named after him. Dr. Richard S. Den antedated all of these
io8 Sixty Years in Southern California [1853-
gentlemen, having resided and practiced medicine in Los
Angeles in 1843, 1844 and again in the early fifties, though he
did not dwell in this city permanently until January, 1866.
Den I knew fairly well, and Griffin was my esteemed physician
and friend. Foster and Griffin were practitioners whom I best
recall as being here during my first years, one or two others, as
Dr. Osburn and Dr. Winston, having already begun to devote
their time to other enterprises.
Dr. Richard S. Den, an Irishman of culture and refinement,
having been for awhile with his brother, Nicholas Den, in
Santa Barbara, returned to Los Angeles in 1851. I say, "re-
turned," because Den had looked in on the little pueblo before
I had even heard its name. While in the former place, in the
winter of 1843-44, Den received a call from Los Angeles to
perform one or two surgical operations, and here he practiced
until drawn to the mines by the gold excitement. He served,
in 1846-47, as Chief Physician and Surgeon of the Mexican
forces during the Mexican War, and treated, among others, the
famous American Consul Larkin, whose surety he became when
Larkin was removed to better quarters in the home of Louis
Vignes. Den had only indifferent luck as a miner, but was soon
in such demand to relieve the sufferers from malaria that it is
said he received as much as a thousand dollars in a day for
his practice. In 1854, ne returned to Santa Barbara County,
remaining there for several years and suffering great loss, on
account of the drought and its effects on his cattle. Nicholas
Den, who was also known in Los Angeles, and was esteemed for
both his integrity and his hospitality, died at Santa Barbara in
1862.
Old Dr. Den will be remembered, not only with esteem, but
with affection. He was seldom seen except on horseback, in
which fashion he visited his patients, and was, all in all, some-
what a man of mystery. He rode a magnificent coal-black
charger, and was himself always dressed in black. He wore,
too, a black felt hat; and beneath the hat there clustered a
mass of wavy hair as white as snow. In addition to all
this, his standing collar was so high that he was compelled
Round About the Plaza 109
to hold his head erect ; and as if to offset the immaculate linen,
he tied around the collar a large black-silk scarf. Thus attired
and seated on his richly-caparisoned horse, Dr. Den appeared
always dignified, and even imposing. One may therefore
easily picture him a friendly rival with Don Juan Bandini at
the early Spanish balls, as he was on intimate terms with
Don and Dona Abel Stearns, acknowledged social leaders. Dr.
Den was fond of horse-racing and had his own favorite race-
horses sent here from Santa Barbara, where they were bred.
Dr. Osburn, the Postmaster of 1853, had two years before
installed a small variety of drugs on a few shelves, referred to
by the complimentary term of drug store. Dr. Winston also
kept a stock of drugs. About the same time, and before Dr.
A. W. Hope opened the third drug store in September, 1854,
John Gately Downey, an Irishman by birth, who had been
apprenticed to the drug trade in Maryland and Ohio, formed
a partnership with James P. McFarland, a native of Tennessee,
buying some of Winston's stock. Their store was a long, one-
story adobe on the northwest corner of Los Angeles and Com-
mercial streets, and was known as McFarland & Downey's.
The former had been a gold-miner ; and this experience intensi-
fied the impression of an already rugged physique as a frontier
type. Entering politics, as Osburn and practically every other
professional man then did doubtless as much as anything
else for the assurance of some definite income McFarland
secured a seat in the Assembly in 1852, and in the Senate in
1853-54. About 1858, he returned to Tennessee and in
December, 1860, revisited California; after which he settled
permanently in the East. Downey, in 1859, having been
elected Lieutenant-Governor, was later made Governor,
through the election of Latham to the United States Senate;
>ut his suddenly-revealed sympathies with the Secessionists,
)gether with his advocacy of a bill for the apprenticing of
idians, contributed toward killing him politically and he
retired to private life. Dr. H. R. Myles, destined to meet with
tragic death in a steamboat disaster which I shall narrate,
ras another druggist, with a partner, Dr. J. C. Welch, a South
no Sixty Years in Southern California [1853-
Carolinian dentist who came here in the early fifties and died
in August, 1869. Their drug store on Main Street, nearly
opposite the Bella Union, filled the prescriptions of the city's
seven or eight doctors. Considerably later, but still among the
pioneer druggists, was Dr. V. Gelcich, who came here as Surgeon
to the Fourth California Infantry.
Speaking of druggists, it may be interesting to add that
medicines were administered in earlier days to a much greater
extent than now. For every little ailment there was a pill, a
powder or some other nostrum. The early botica, or drug
store, kept only drugs and things incidental to the drug business.
There was also more of home treatment than now. Every
mother did more or less doctoring on her own account, and had
her well-stocked medicine-chest. Castor oil, ipecac, black
draught and calomel were generally among the domestic supply.
The practice of surgery was also very primitive ; and he was
unfortunate, indeed, who required such service. Operations
had to be performed at home; there were few or none of the
modern scientific appliances or devices for either rendering the
patient immune or contending with active disease.
Preceded by a brother, Colonel James C. Foy who visited
Calif ornia in 1850 and was killed in 1864, while in Sherman's
army, by the bursting of a shell Samuel C. Foy started for San
Francisco, by way of New Orleans and the Isthmus, when he was
but twenty- two years old and, allured by . the gold-fever,
wasted a year or two in the mines. In January, 1854, he made
his way south to Los Angeles ; and seeing the prospect for trade
in harness, on February iQth of that year opened an American
saddlery, in which business he was joined by his brother, John
M. Foy. Their store was on Main Street, between Commercial
and Requena. The location was one of the best; and the Foy
Brothers offering, besides saddlery, such necessities of the
times as tents, enjoyed one of the first chances to sell to passing
emigrants and neighboring rancheros, as they came into town.
Some spurs, exhibited in the County Museum, are a souvenir
of Foy's enterprise in those pioneer days. In May, 1856, Sam
Foy began operating in cattle and continued in that business
1854] Round About the Plaza in
until 1865, periodically taking herds north and leaving his
brother in charge of the store.
In the course of time, the Foys moved to Los Angeles Street,
becoming my neighbors; and while there, in 1882, S. C. Foy, in
a quaint advertisement embellished with a blanketed horse,
announced his establishment as the "oldest business house in
Los Angeles, still at the old stand, 17 Los Angeles Street, next
to H. Newmark & Company's." John Foy, who later removed
to San Bernardino, died many years ago, and Sam Foy also has
long since joined the silent majority ; but one of the old signs of
the saddlery is still to be seen on Los Angeles Street, where
the son, James Calvert Foy, conducts the business. The Foys
first lived on Los Angeles Street, and then on Main. Some
years later, they moved to the corner of Seventh and Pearl
streets, now called Figueroa, and came to control much val-
uable land there, still in possession of the family. A daughter
of Samuel C. Foy is Miss Mary Foy, formerly a teacher and
later Public Librarian. Another daughter married Thomas
Lee Woolwine, the attorney.
Wells Fargo & Company formerly always styled Wells,
Fargo & Company were early in the field here. On March
28th, 1854, they were advertising, through H. R. Myles, their
agent, that they were a joint stock company with a capital
of five hundred thousand dollars!
M
CHAPTER IX
FAMILIAR HOME-SCENES
1854
ANY of the houses, as I have related, were clustered
around and north of the Plaza Church, while the. hills
surrounding the pueblo to the West were almost bare.
These same hills have since been subdivided and graded to
accommodate the Westlake, the Wilshire, the West Temple
and other sections. Main and Spring streets were laid out
beyond First, but they were very sparsely settled; while to the
East of Main and extending up to that street, there were many
large vineyards without a single break as far south as the
Ninth Street of to-day, unless we except a narrow and short
lane there. To enable the reader to form an accurate impression
of the time spent in getting to a nearby point, I will add that, to
reach William Wolfskin's home, which was in the neighborhood
of the present Arcade Depot, one was obliged to travel down
to Aliso Street, thence to Alameda, and then south on Alameda
to Wolfskill's orchard. From Spring Street, west and as far
as the coast, there was one huge field, practically unimproved
and undeveloped, the swamp lands of which were covered with
tules. All of this land, from the heart of the present retail
district to the city limits, belonged to the municipality. I
incline to the opinion that both Ord and Hancock had
already surveyed in this southwestern district; but through
there, nevertheless, no single street had as yet been cut.
Not merely at the Plaza, but throughout Los Angeles, most
112
HHHBBHHHHHHHHHH1HH
J. P. Newmark
From a vignette of the sixties
Jacob Rich
O. W. Childs
John O. Wheeler
Benjamin D. Wilson
George Hansen
Dr. Obed Macy
Samuel C. Foy
[1854] Familiar Home-Scenes 113
of the houses were built of adobe, or mud mixed with straw and
dried for months in the sun ; and several fine dwellings of this
kind were constructed after I came. The composition was
of such a nature that, unless protected by roofs and verandas, 1
the mud would slowly wash away. The walls, however, also re-
quiring months in which to dry, were generally three or four
feet thick; and to this as well as to the nature of the material
may be attributed the fact that the houses in the summer
season were cool and comfortable, while in winter they were
warm and cheerful. They were usually rectangular in shape,
and were invariably provided with patios and corridors. There
was no such thing as a basement under a house, and floors were
frequently earthen. Conventionality prescribed no limit as to
the number of rooms, an adobe frequently having a sitting-
room, a dining-room, a kitchen and as many bedrooms as were
required; but there were few, if any, "frills" for the mere sake
of style. Most adobes were but one story in height, although
there were a few two-story houses ; and it is my recollection that,
in such cases, the second story was reached from the outside.
Everything about an adobe was emblematic of hospitality:
the doors, heavy and often apparently home-made, were
wide, and the windows were deep. In private houses, the
doors were locked with a key; but in some of the stores, they
were fastened with a bolt fitted into iron receptacles on either
side. The windows, swinging on hinges, opened inward and
were locked in the center. There were few curtains- or blinds;
wooden shutters, an inch thick, also fastening in the center,
being generally used instead. If there were such conveniences
as hearths and fireplaces, I cannot recollect them, although I
think that here and there the brasero, or pan and hot coals, was
still employed. There were no chimneys, and the smoke, as
from the kitchen stove, escaped through the regular stacks
leading out through a pane in the window or a hole in the wall.
The porches, also spoken of as verandas and rather wide,
were supported by equidistant perpendicular posts ; and when
1 Verandas, spoken of locally as corridors; from which fact I may use both
terms interchangeably.
8
H4 Sixty Years in Southern California [1854
an adobe had two stories, the veranda was also double-storied.
Few if any vines grew around these verandas in early days,
largely because of the high cost of water. For the same reason,
there were almost no gardens.
The roofs which, as I have intimated, proved as necessary
to preserve the adobe as to afford protection from the semi-
tropical sun, were generally covered with asphalt and were
usually flat in order to keep the tar from running off. As well
as I can recollect, Vicente Salsido or Salcito, as his name
was also written who lived in or somewhere near Nigger
Alley, was the only man then engaged in the business of
mending pitch-roofs. When winter approached and the
first rainfall produced leaks, there was a general demand
for Salsido's services and a great scramble among owners
of buildings to obtain them. Such was the need, in fact,
that more than one family, drowned out while waiting, was
compelled to move to the drier quarters of relatives or
friends, there to stay until the roofer could attend to their
own houses. Under a huge kettle, put up in the public
street, Salsido set fire to some wood, threw in his pitch and
melted it. Then, after he or a helper had climbed onto the
roof, the molten pitch was hauled up in buckets and poured
over the troublesome leaks. Much of this tar was im-
ported from the North, but some was obtained in this locality,
particularly from so-called springs on the Hancock ranch, which
for a long time have furnished great quantities of the useful, if
unattractive, substance. This asphalt was later used for side-
walks, and even into the eighties was employed as fuel. To
return to Salsido, I might add that in summer the pitch-roofer
had no work at all.
Besides the adobes with their asphalt roofs, some houses,
erected within the first quarter of the Nineteenth Century,
were covered with tiles. The most notable tiled building was
the old Church, whose roof was unfortunately removed when
the edifice was so extensively renovated. The Carrillo home
was topped with these ancient tiles, as were also Jose Maria
Abila's residence; Vicente Sanchez's two-story adobe south of
1854] Familiar Home-Scenes 115
the Plaza, and the Alvarado house on First Street, between
Main and Los Angeles streets.
It was my impression that there were no bricks in Los
Angeles when I first came, although about 1854 or 1855 Jacob
Weixel had the first regular brickyard. In conversation with
old-timers, however, many years ago, I was assured that Cap-
tain Jesse Hunter, whom I recall, had built a kiln not far from
the later site of the Potomac Block, on Fort Street, between
Second and Third; and that, as early as 1853, he had put up a
brick building on the west side of Main Street, about one
hundred and fifty feet south of the present site of the Bullard
Block. This was for Mayor Nichols, who paid Hunter thirty
dollars a thousand for the new and more attractive kind of
building material. This pioneer brick building has long since
disappeared. Hunter seems to have come to Los Angeles
alone, and to have been followed across the plains by his wife,
two sons and three daughters, taking up his permanent resi-
dence here in 1856. One of the daughters married a man
named Burke, who conducted a blacksmith and wagon shop
in Hunter's Building on Main Street. Hunter died in 1874.
Dr. William A. Hammel, father of Sheriff William Hammel,
who came to California during the gold excitement of '49, had
one of the first red brick houses in Los Angeles, on San Pedro
Street, between Second and Third.
Sometime in 1853, or perhaps in 1854, the first building
erected by the public in Los Angeles County was put together
here of brick baked in the second kiln ever fired in the city.
It was the Town Jail on the site of the present Phillips Block, x
at the northwest corner of Spring and Franklin streets. This
building took the place of the first County Jail, a rude adobe
that stood on the hill back of the present National Government
Building. In that jail, I have understood, there were no cells,
and prisoners were fastened by chains to logs outside.
Zanja water was being used for irrigation when I arrived.
A system of seven or eight zanjas, or open ditches originated, I
have no doubt, by the Catholic Fathers was then in operation,
1 Recently razed.
ii6 Sixty Years in Southern California [1854
although it was not placed under the supervision of a Zanjero,
or Water Commissioner, until 1854. These small surface canals
connected at the source with the zanja madre, or mother ditch,
on the north side of the town, from which they received their
supply; the zanja madre itself being fed from the river, at a
point a long way from town. The Zanjero issued permits, for
which application had to be made some days in advance,
authorizing the use of the water for irrigation purposes. A
certain amount was paid for the use of this water during
a period of twelve hours, without any limit as to the quantity
consumed, and the purchaser was permitted to draw his supply
both day and night.
Water for domestic uses was a still more expensive luxury.
Inhabitants living in the immediate neighborhood of zanjas, or
near the river, helped themselves; but their less-fortunate
brethren were served by a carrier, who charged fifty cents a
week for one bucket a day, while he did not deliver on Sunday
at all. Extra requirements were met on the same basis; and
in order to avoid an interruption in the supply, prompt settle-
ment of the charge had to be made every Saturday evening.
This character was known as Bill the Waterman. He was a tall
American, about thirty or thirty-five years old; he had a mus-
tache, wore long, rubber boots coming nearly to his waist, and
presented the general appearance of a laboring man; and his
somewhat rickety vehicle, drawn by two superannuated
horses, slowly conveyed the man and his barrel of about sixty
gallons capacity from house to house. He was a wise dispenser,
and quite alert to each household's needs.
Bill obtained his supply from the Los Angeles River, where
at best it was none too clean, in part owing to the frequent
passage of the river by man and beast. Animals of all kinds,
including cattle, horses, sheep, pigs, mules and donkeys,
crossed and recrossed the stream continually, so that the mud
was incessantly stirred up, and the polluted product proved
unpalatable and even, undoubtedly, unhealthful. To make
matters worse, the river and the zanjas were the favorite
bathing-places, all the urchins of the hamlet disporting them-
1854] Familiar Home-Scenes 117
selves there daily, while most of the adults, also, frequently
immersed themselves. Both the yet unbridged stream and
the zanjas^ therefore, were repeatedly contaminated, although
common sense should have protected the former to a greater or
less extent ; while as to the latter there were ordinances drawn
up by the Common Council of 1850 which prohibited the
throwing of filth into fresh water designed for common use,
and also forbade the washing of clothes on the zanja banks.
This latter regulation was disobeyed by the native women,
who continued to gather there, dip their soiled garments in
the water, place them on stones and beat them with sticks, a
method then popular for the extraction of dirt.
Besides Bill the Waterman, Dan Schieck was a water-ven-
der, but at a somewhat later date. Proceeding to the zanja
in a curious old cart, he would draw the water he needed, fresh
every morning, and make daily deliveries at customers' houses
for a couple of dollars a month. Schieck forsook this business,
however, and went into draying, making a specialty of meeting
Banning' s coaches and transferring the passengers to their
several destinations. He was a frugal man, and accumulated
enough to buy the southwest corner of Franklin and Spring
streets. As a result, he left property of considerable value.
He died about twenty-five years ago ; Mrs. Schieck, who was a
sister of John Frohling, died in 1874.
Just one more reference to the drinking-water of that
period. When delivered to the customer, it was emptied into
ollas, or urn-shaped vessels, made from burned clay or terra
cotta. Every family and every store was provided with at
least one of these containers which, being slightly porous, pos-
sessed the virtue (of particular value at a time when there was
no ice) of keeping the water cool and refreshing. The olla com-
monly in use had a capacity of four or five gallons, and was
usually suspended from the ceiling of a porch or other con-
venient place; while attached to this domestic reservoir, as a
rule, was a long-handled dipper generally made from a gourd.
Filters were not in use, in consequence of which fastidious
people washed out their ollas very frequently. These wide-
n8 Sixty Years in Southern California I l8 54
mouthed pots recall to me an appetizing Spanish dish, known
as olla-podrida, a stew consisting of various spiced meats,
chopped fine, and an equally varied assortment of vegetables,
partaken of separately; all bringing to mind, perhaps,
Thackeray's sentimental Ballad of Bouillabaisse. Considering
these inconveniences, how surprising it is that the Common
Council, in 1853, should have frowned upon Judge William
G. Dryden's proposition to distribute, in pipes, all the water
needed for domestic use.
On May i6th, 1854, tne fi rs t Masonic lodge then and now
known as 42 received its charter, having worked under
special dispensation since the preceding December. The first
officers chosen were: H. P. Dorsey, Master; J. Elias, Senior
Warden; Thomas Foster, Junior Warden; James R. Barton,
Treasurer; Timothy Foster, Secretary; Jacob Rich, Senior
Deacon ; and W. A. Smith, Tyler.
For about three decades after my arrival, smallpox epi-
demics visited us somewhat regularly every other year, and the
effect on the town was exceedingly bad. The whole population
was on such a friendly footing that every death made a very
great impression. The native element was always averse to
vaccination and other sanitary measures; everybody objected
to isolation, and disinfecting was unknown. In more than one
familiar case, the surviving members of a stricken family went
into the homes of their kinsmen, notwithstanding the danger
of contagion. Is it any wonder, therefore, when such ignorance
was universal, that the pest spread alarmingly and that the
death-rate was high?
The smallpox wagon, dubbed the Black Maria, was a
frequent sight on the streets of Los Angeles during these
sieges. There was an isolated pesthouse near the Chavez Ra-
vine, but the patients of the better class were always treated
at home, where the sanitation was never good; and at best the
community was seriously exposed. Consternation seized the
public mind, communication with the outside world was dis-
turbed, and these epidemics were the invariable signal for
business disorder and crises.
1854] Familiar Home-Scenes 119
This matter of primitive sanitation reminds me of an expe-
rience. To accommodate an old iron bath-tub that I wished
to set up in my Main Street home in the late sixties, I was
obliged to select one of the bedrooms; since, when my adobe
was built, the idea of having a separate bathroom in a house
had never occurred to any owner. I connected it with the
zanja at the rear of my lot by means of a wooden conduit ; which,
although it did not join very closely, answered all purposes for
the discharge of waste water. One of my children for several
years slept in this combination bath- and bedroom ; and although
the plumbing was as old-fashioned as it well could be, yet during
all that time there was no sickness in our family.
It was fortunate indeed that the adobe construction of the
fifties rendered houses practically fireproof since, in the absence
of a water-system, a bucket-brigade was all there was to fight
a fire with, and this rendered but poor service. I remember
such a brigade at work, some years after I came, in the vicinity
of the Bell Block, when a chain of helpers formed a relay
from the nearest zanja to the blazing structure. Buckets were
passed briskly along, from person to person, as in the animated
scene described by Schiller in the well-known lines of Das Lied
von der Glocke :
Durch der Hande lange Kette
Um die Wette
Fliegt der Eimer; 1
a process which was continued until the fire had exhausted
itself. Francis Mellus had a little hand-cart, but for lack of
water it was generally useless. Instead of fire-bells announcing
to the people that a conflagration was in progress, the discharg-
ing of pistols in rapid succession gave the alarm and was the
signal for a general fusillade throughout the neighboring streets.
Indeed, this method of sounding a fire-alarm was used as late
1 Translated by Perry Worden for the centenary of The Song of the Bell :
Through each hand close-joined and waiting,
Emulating,
Flies the pail.
I2o Sixty Years in Southern California [1854
as the eighties. On the breaking out of fires, neighbors and
friends rushed to assist the victim in saving what they could
of his property.
On account of the inadequate facilities for extinguishing
anything like a conflagration, it transpired that insurance
companies would not for some time accept risks in Los Angeles.
If I am not mistaken, S. Lazard obtained the first protection
late in the fifties and paid a premium of four per cent. The
policy was issued by the Hamburg-Bremen Company, through
Adelsdorfer Brothers of San Francisco, who also imported
foreign merchandise ; and Lazard, thereafter, as the Los Angeles
agent for the Hamburg-Bremen Company, was the first
insurance underwriter here of whom I have any knowledge.
Adelsdorfer Brothers, it is also interesting to note, imported
the first Swedish matches brought into California, perhaps hav-
ing in mind cause and effect with profit at both ends; they
put them on the retail market in Los Angeles at twenty-five
cents a package.
This matter of fires calls to mind an interesting feature of
the city when I first saw it. When Henry, or Enrique Dalton
sailed from England, he shipped a couple of corrugated iron
buildings, taking them to South America where he used them
for several years. On coming to Los Angeles, he brought
the buildings with him, and they were set up at the site of
the present corner of Spring and Court streets. In a sense,
therefore, these much-transported iron structures (one of which,
in 1858, I rented as a storeroom for wool) came to be among
the earliest "fire-proof" buildings here.
As early as 1854, the need of better communication between
Los Angeles and the outside world was beginning to be felt;
and in the summer of that year the Supervisors D. W.
Alexander, S. C. Foster, J. Sepulveda, C. Aguilar and S. S.
Thompson =voted to spend one thousand dollars to open a
wagon road over the mountains between the San Fernando
Mission and the San Francisco rancho. A rather broad trail
already existed there; but such was its grade that many a
pioneer, compelled to use a windlass or other contrivance to let
1854] Familiar Home-Scenes 121
down his wagon in safety, will never forget the real perils of the
descent. For years it was a familiar experience with stages, on
which I sometimes traveled, to attach chains or boards to retard
their downward movement ; nor were passengers even then with-
out anxiety until the hill- or mountain-side had been passed.
During 1854, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Newmark and family,
whom I had met, the year before, for a few hours in San Fran-
cisco, arrived here and located in the one-story adobe owned
by John Goller and adjoining his blacksmith shop. There were
six children Matilda, Myer J., Sarah, Edward, Caroline and
Harriet all of whom had been born in New York City. With
their advent, my personal environment immediately changed:
they provided me with a congenial home ; and as they at once
began to take part in local social activities, I soon became well
acquainted. My aunt took charge of my English education,
and taught me to spell, read and write in that language; and I
have always held her efforts in my behalf in grateful apprecia-
tion. As a matter of fact, having so early been thrown into
contact with Spanish-speaking neighbors and patrons, I learned
Spanish before I acquired English.
The Newmarks had left New York on December I5th, 1852,
on the ship Carrington, T. B. French commanding, to make the
trip around the Horn, San Francisco being their destination.
After a voyage for the most part pleasant, although not alto-
gether free from disagreeable features and marked by much
rough weather, they reached the Golden Gate, having been
four months and five days on the ocean. One of the enjoy-
able incidents en route was an old-fashioned celebration in which
Neptune took part when they crossed the equator. In a diary
of that voyage kept by Myer J. Newmark, mention is made
that "our Democratic President, Franklin Pierce, and Vice-
President, William R. King, were inaugurated March 4th, 1853 ;"
which reminds me that some forty years later Judge H. A.
Pierce, the President's cousin, and his wife who was of literary
proclivities, came to be my neighbors in Los Angeles. Mr.
and Mrs. Newmark and their family remained in San Francisco
until 1854.
122 Sixty Years in Southern California [1854
Joseph Newmark, formerly Neumark, born June I5th, 1799,
was, I assume, the first to adopt the English form of the name.
He was genuinely religious and exalted in character. His wife,
Rosa, whom he married in New York in 1835, was born in
London on March lyth, 1808. He came to America in 1824,
spent a few years in New York, and resided for a while in Somer-
set, Connecticut, where, on January 2ist, 1831, he joined the
Masonic fraternity. During his first residence in New York, he
started the Elm Street Synagogue, one of the earliest in America.
In 1840, we find him in St. Louis, a pioneer indeed. Five years
later he was in Dubuque, Iowa, then a frontier village. In 1846,
he once more pitched his tent in New York; and during this
sojourn he organized . the Wooster Street Congregation. Im-
mediately after reaching Los Angeles, he brought into
existence the Los Angeles Hebrew Benevolent Society, which
met for some time at his home on Sunday evenings, and which,
I think, was the first charitable institution in this city. Its
principal objects were to care for the sick, to pay proper re-
spect, according to Jewish ritual, to the dead, and to look after
the Jewish Cemetery which was laid out about that time; so
that the Society at once became a real spiritual force and
continued so for several years. The first President was Jacob
Elias. Although Mr. Newmark had never served, as a salaried
Rabbi, he had been ordained and was permitted to officiate;
and one of the immediate results of his influence was the es-
tablishment of worship on Jewish holidays, under the auspices
of the Society named. The first service was held in the rear
room of an adobe owned by John Temple. Joseph Newmark
also inspired the purchase of land for the Jewish Cemetery.
After Rabbi Edelman came, my uncle continued on various
occasions to assist him. When, in course of time, the popula-
tion of Los Angeles increased, the responsibilities of the He-
brew Benevolent Society were extended. Although a Jewish
organization, and none but Jews could become members of it
or receive burial in the Jewish Cemetery, its aim was to give
relief, as long as its financial condition would permit, to every
worthy person that appeared, whoever he was or whatever his
1854] Familiar Home-Scenes 123
creed. Recalling this efficient organization, I may say that I
believe myself to be one of but two survivors among the char-
ter members S. Lazard being the other.
Kiln Messer was another pioneer who came around the
Horn about that time, although he arrived here from Germany
a year later than I did; and during his voyage, he had a trying
experience in a shipwreck off Cape Verde where, with his com-
rades, he had to wait a couple of months before another vessel
could be signaled. Even then he could get no farther toward
his destination the Golden Gate than Rio de Janeiro, where
he was delayed five or six months more. Finally reaching San
Francisco, he took to mining; but, weakened by fever (an
experience common among the gold-seekers) , he made his way
to Los Angeles. After brewing beer for a while at the corner of
Third and Main streets, Messer bought a twenty-acre vineyard
which, in 1857, he increased by another purchase to forty-five
or fifty acres; and it was his good fortune that this property
was so located as to be needed by the Santa Fe Railroad, in
1888, as a terminal. Toward the end of the seventies, Messer,
moderately well-to-do, was a grocer at the corner of Rose and
First streets; and about 1885, he retired.
Joseph Newmark brought with him to Los Angeles a
Chinese servant, to whom he paid one hundred dollars a month;
and, as far as I know, this Mongolian was the first to come to
our city. This domestic item has additional interest, perhaps,
because it was but five or six years before that the first Chi-
nese to emigrate from the Celestial Kingdom to California
two men and a lone woman had come to San Francisco
in the ship Eagle from Hong Kong. A year later, there were
half a hundred Chinamen in the territory, while at the end of
still another year, during the gold excitement, nearly a thousand
Chinese entered the Golden Gate.
The housekeeping experiences of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph
Newmark remind me that it was not easy in the early days to
get satisfactory domestic service. Indians, negroes and some-
times Mexicans were employed, until the arrival of more
Chinese and the coming of white girls. t Joseph Newmark,
124 Sixty Years in Southern California [1854
when I lived with his family, employed, in addition to the
Chinaman, an Indian named Pedro who had come with his
wife from Temecula and whose remuneration was fifty cents a
day; and these servants attended to most of the household
duties. The annual fiesta at Temecula used to attract Pedro
and his better-half ; and while they were absent, the Newmark
girls did the work.
My new home was very congenial, not the least of its attrac-
tions being the family associations at meal-time. The oppor-
tunities for obtaining a variety of food were not as good
perhaps as they are to-day, and yet some delicacies were more
in evidence. Among these I might mention wild game and
chickens. Turkeys, of all poultry, were the scarcest and most-
prized. All in all, our ordinary fare has not changed so much
except "in the use of mutton, certain vegetables, ice and a
few dainties.
There was no extravagance in the furnishing of pioneer
homes. Few people coming to Los Angeles expected to locate
permanently ; they usually planned to accumulate a small com-
petency and then return to their native heaths. In conse-
quence, little attention was paid to quality or styles, and it is
hard to convey a comprehensive idea of the prevailing lack of
ordinary comforts. For many years the inner walls of adobes
were whitewashed a method of mural finish not the most
agreeable, since the coating so easily "came off;" and only in
the later periods of frame houses, did we have kalsomined and
hard-finished wall surfaces. Just when papered and tinted
walls came in, I do not remember; but they were long delayed.
Furniture was plain and none too plentiful; and glassware
and tableware were of an inferior grade.
Certain vegetables were abundant, truck-gardening having
been introduced here in the early fifties by Andrew Briswalter, an
Alsatian by birth and an original character. He first operated
on San Pedro Street, where he rented a tract of land and
peddled his vegetables in a wheelbarrow, charging big prices.
So quickly did he prosper that he was soon able to buy a piece
of land, as well as a horse and wagon. When he died, in the
1854] Familiar Home-Scenes 125
eighties, he bequeathed a large estate, consisting of City and
County acreage and lots, in the disposition of which he un-
righteously cut off his only niece. Playa del Rey was later
built on some of this land. Acres of fruit trees, fronting
on Main, in the neighborhood of the present Ninth and
Tenth streets, and extending far in an easterly direction,
formed another part of his holding. It was on this land that
Briswalter lived until his last illness. He bought this tract
from O. W. Childs, it having originally belonged to H. C.
Car dwell, a son-in-law of William Wolf skill the same Card-
well who introduced here, on January 7th, 1856, the heretofore
unknown seedling strawberries.
One Mumus was in the field nearly as soon as Briswalter.
A few years later, Chinese vegetable men came to monopolize
this trade. Most of their gardens neighbored on what is now
Figueroa Street, north of Pico; and then, as now, they peddled
their wares from wagons. Wild celery grew in quantities
around the zanjas, but was not much liked. Cultivated celery,
on the other hand, was in demand and was brought from the
North, whence we also imported most of our cabbage, cauli-
flower and asparagus. But after a while, the Chinese also culti-
vated celery; and when, in the nineties, E. A. Curtis, D. E.
Smeltzer and others failed in an effort to grow celery, Curtis
fell back on the Chinese gardeners. The Orientals, though
pestered by envious workmen, finally made a success of the
industry, helping to establish what is now a most important
local agricultural activity.
These Chinese vegetable gardeners, by the way, came to
practice a trick 1 designed t6 reduce their expenses, and at
which they were sometimes caught. Having bargained with
the authorities for a small quantity of water, they would cut
the zanjas, while the Zanjero or his assistants slept, steal the
additional water needed, and, before the arrival of the Zanjero
at daybreak, close the openings!
1 History repeats itself: in 1915, ranchers at Zelzah were accused of appro-
priating water from the new aqueduct, under cover of the night, without paying
for it.
126 Sixty Years in Southern California [1854
J. Wesley Potts was an early arrival, having tramped across
the Plains all the way from Texas, in 1852, reaching Los Angeles
in September. At first, he could obtain nothing to do but haul
dirt in a hand-cart for the spasmodic patching-up of the streets ;
but when he had earned five or six dollars in that way, he took
to peddling fruit, first carrying it around in a basket. Then
he had a fruit stand. Getting the gold-fever, however, Potts
went to the mines ; but despairing at last of realizing anything
there, he returned to Los Angeles and raised vegetables, in-
troducing, among other things, the first locally-grown sweet
potatoes put on the market a stroke of enterprise recalling
J. E. Pleasants's early venture in cultivating garden pease.
Later he was widely known as a "weather prophet" with
predictions quite as likely to be worthless as to come true.
The prickly pear, the fruit of the cactus, was common in
early Los Angeles. It grew in profusion all over this Southern
country, but particularly so around San Gabriel at which place
it was found in almost obstructing quantities; and prickly
pears bordered the gardens of the Round House where they were
plucked by visitors. Ugly enough things to handle, they were,
nevertheless, full of juice, and proved refreshing and palatable
when properly peeled. Pomegranates and quinces were also
numerous, but they were not cultivated for the trade. Syca-
more and oak trees were seen here and there, while the willow
was evident in almost jungle prof useness, especially around river
banks and along the borders of lanes. Wild mustard charmingly
variegated the landscape and chaparral obscured many of the
hills and rising ground. In winter, the ground was thickly
covered with burr-clover and the poetically-named alfilaria.
Writing of vegetables and fruit, I naturally think of one of
California's most popular products, the sandia or watermelon,
and of its plenteousness in those more monotonous days when
many and many a carreta load was brought to the indulging
town. The melons were sold direct from the vehicles, as well as
in stores, and the street seemed to be the principal place for the
consumption of the luscious fruit. It was a very common sight
to see Indians and others sitting along the roads, their faces
1854] Familiar Home-Scenes 127
buried in the green-pink depths. Some old-timers troubled
with diseases of the kidney, believing that there was virtue in
watermelon seeds, boiled them and used the tea medicinally.
Fish, caught at San Pedro and peddled around town, was a
favorite item of food during the cooler months of the year.
The pescadero, or vender, used a loud fish horn, whose deep
but not melodious tones announced to the expectant house-
wife that he was at hand with a load of sea-food. Owing to
the poorer facilities for catching them, only a few varieties of
deep-water fish, such as barracuda, yellowtail and rockfish
were sold.
Somewhere I have seen it stated that, in 1854, O. W. Childs
brought the first hive of bees from San Francisco at a cost of
one hundred and fifty dollars; but as nearly as I can recollect,
a man named Logan owned the first beehives and was, there-
fore, the pioneer honey-producer. I remember paying him
three dollars for a three-pound box of comb-honey, but I have
forgotten the date of the transaction. In 1860, Cyrus Burdick
purchased several swarms of bees and had no difficulty in
selling the honey at one dollar a pound. By the fall of 1861,
the bee industry had so expanded that Perry & Woodworth,
as I have stated, devoted part of their time to the making of
beehives. J. E. Pleasants, of Santiago Canon, known also for
his Cashmere goats, was another pioneer bee-man and received
a gold medal for his exhibit at the New Orleans Exposition.
CHAPTER X
EARLY SOCIAL LIFE
1854
IN June, 1854, m Y brother sold out, and I determined to
establish myself in business and thus become my own
master. My lack of knowledge of English was some-
what of a handicap; but youth and energy were in my favor,
and an eager desire to succeed overcame all obstacles. Upon
computing my worldly possessions, I found that I had saved
nearly two hundred and forty dollars, the sum total of my eight
months' wages; and this sum I invested in my first venture.
My brother, J. P. Newmark, opened a credit for me, which
contributed materially to my success; and I rented the store
on the north side of Commercial Street, about one hundred
feet west of Los Angeles, owned by Mateo Keller and just
vacated by Prudent JBeaudry. Little did I think, in so doing,
that, twelve years later, some Nemesis would cause Beaudry
to sell out to me. I fully realized the importance of suc-
ceeding in my initial effort, and this requited me for seven
months of sacrifices, until January ist, 1855, when I took an
inventory and found a net profit of fifteen hundred dollars.
To give some idea of what was then required to attain such
success, I may say that, having no assistance at all, I was abso-
lutely a prisoner from early morning until late in the evening
the usual hour of closing, as I have elsewhere explained,
being eight o'clock. From sweeping out to keeping books, I
attended to all my own work ; and since I neither wished to go
out and lock up nor leave my stock long unprotected, I remained
128
Myer J. and Harris Newmark
From a Daguerreotype
George Carson
John G. Nichols
David W. Alexander
Thomas E. Rowan
Matthew Keller
Samuel Meyer
[1854] Early Social Life 129
on guard all day, giving the closest possible attention to my
little store.
Business conditions in the fifties were necessarily very
different from what they are to-day. There was no bank in
Los Angeles for some years, although Downey and one or two
others may have had some kind of a safe. People generally
hoarded their cash in deep, narrow buckskin bags, hiding it
behind merchandise on the shelves until the departure of a
steamer for San Francisco, or turning it into such vouchers as
were negotiable and could be obtained here. John Temple,
who had a ranch or two in the North (from which he sent cattle
to his agent in San Francisco) , generally had a large reserve of
cash to his credit with butchers or bankers in the Northern city,
and he was thus able to issue drafts against his balances there ;
being glad enough to make the exchange, free of cost. When,
however, Temple had exhausted his cash, the would-be remitter
was compelled to send the coin itself by express. He would
then take the specie to the company's agent; and the latter,
in his presence, would do it up in a sealed package and charge
one dollar a hundred for safe transmission. No wonder, there-
fore, that people found expressing coin somewhat expensive,
and were more partial to the other method.
In the beginning of the fifties, too, silver was irregular in
supply. Nevada's treasures still lay undiscovered within the
bowels of the earth, and much foreign coin was in use here,
leading the shrewdest operators to import silver money from
France, Spain, Mexico and other countries. The size of coins,
rather than their intrinsic value, was then the standard. For
example, a five-franc piece, a Mexican dollar or a coin of simi-
lar size from any other country passed for a dollar here ; while
a Mexican twenty-five-cent piece, worth but fourteen cents,
was accepted for an American quarter, so that these importers
did a " land-office " business. Half-dollars and their equiva-
lents were very scarce; and these coins being in great demand
among gamblers, it often happened that they would absorb the
supply. This forced such a premium that eighteen dollars in
.silver would commonly bring twenty dollars in gold.
130 Sixty Years in Southern California [1854
Most of the output of the mines of Southern California-
then rated as the best dust went to San Francisco assayers,
who minted it into octagonal and round pieces known as slugs.
Among those issuing privately-stamped coins were- J. S.
Ormsby (whose mark, /. 5. 0., became familiar) and Augustus
Humbert, both of whom circulated eight-cornered ingots; and
Wass Molitor & Co., whose slugs were always round. Pieces
of the value of from one to twenty-five dollars, and even minia-
ture coins for fractional parts of a dollar, were also minted;
while F. D. Kohler, the State Assayer, made an oblong ingot
worth about fifty dollars. Some of the other important assay-
ing concerns were Moffatt & Co., Kellogg & Co. and Templeton
Reid. Baldwin & Co. was another firm which issued coins of
smaller denomination ; and to this firm belonged David Colbert
Broderick, who was killed by Terry.
Usurers were here from the beginning, and their tax was
often ruinously exorbitant. So much did they charge for money,
in fact, that from two to twelve and a half per cent, a week was
paid; this brought about the loss of many early estates. I rec-
ollect, for example, that the owner of several thousand acres of
land borrowed two hundred dollars, at an interest charge of
twelve and a half per cent, for each week, from a resident
of Los Angeles whose family is still prominent in California;
and that when principal and interest amounted to twenty-two
thousand dollars, the lender foreclosed and thus ingloriously
came into possession of a magnificent property.
For at least twenty years after I arrived in Los Angeles, the
credit system was so irregular as to be no system at all. Land
and other values were exceedingly low, there was not much
ready money, and while the credit of a large rancher was small
compared with what his rating would be to-day because of the
tremendous advances in land and stock, much longer time was
then given on running accounts than would be allowed now.
Bills were generally settled after the harvest. The wine-grower
would pay his score when the grape crop was sold; and the
cattleman would liquidate what he could when he sold his
cattle. In other words, there was no credit foundation what-
1854] Early Social Life 131
ever; indeed, I have known accounts to be carried through
three and four dry seasons.
It is true, also, that many a fine property was lost through
the mania of the Californian for gambling, and it might be
just as well to add that the loose credit system ruined many.
I believe, in fact, it is generally recognized in certain lines of
business that the too flexible local fiscal practice of to-day is the
descendant of the careless methods of the past.
My early experiences as a merchant afforded me a good
opportunity to observe the character and peculiarities of the
people with whom I had to deal. In those days a disposition to
steal was a common weakness on the part of many, especially
Indians, and merchants generally suffered so much from the
evil that a sharp lookout had to be kept. On one occasion, I
saw a native woman deftly abstract a pair of shoes and cleverly
secrete them on her person; and at the conclusion of her pur-
chases, as she was about to leave the store, I stepped up to her,
and with a " /Dispense me Vd.f" quietly recovered the zapatos.
The woman smiled, each of us bowed, the pilfering patron
departed, and nothing further was ever said of the affair.
This proneness to steal was frequently utilized by early and
astute traders, who kept on hand a stock of very cheap but
gaudy jewelry which was placed on the counter within easy
reach a device which prevented the filching of more valuable
articles, while it attracted, at the same time, this class of cus-
tomers ; and as soon as the esteemed customers ceased to buy,
the trays of tempting trinkets were removed.
Shyness of the truth was another characteristic of many a
native that often had to be reckoned with by merchants wishing
to accommodate, as far as possible, while avoiding loss.
One day in 1854, a middle-aged Indian related to me that
his mother (who was living half a block north on Main
Street, and was between eighty and ninety years of age)
had suddenly died, and that he would like some candles, for
which he was unable to pay, to place around the bed holding
the remains of the departed. I could not refuse this filial
request, and straightway gave him the wax tapers which were
132 Sixty Years in Southern California (1854
to be used for so holy a purpose. The following day, however,
I met the old woman on the street and she was as lively a
corpse as one might ever expect to see; leaving me to conclude
that she was lighted to her room, the previous night, by one of
the very candles supposed to be then lighting her to eternity.
The fact that I used to order straw hats which came tele-
scoped in dozens and were of the same pattern (in the crown
of one of which, at the top, I found one morning a litter of
kittens tenderly deposited there by the store cat), recalls an
amusing incident showing the modesty of the times, at least
in the style of ladies' bonnets. S. Lazard & Company once
made an importation of Leghorn hats which, when they arrived,
were found to be all trimmed alike a bit of ribbon and a little
bunch of artificial flowers in front being their only ornamenta-
tion! Practically, all the fair damsels and matrons of the
town were limited, for the season, to this supply a fact that
was patent enough, a few days later, at a picnic held at
Sainsevain's favorite vineyard and well patronized by the
feminine leaders in our little world.
But to return to one or two pioneers. David Workman
died soon after he came here, in 1854, with his wife whose
maiden name was Nancy Hook. He was a brother of William
Workman and followed him to Los Angeles, bringing his three
sons, Thomas H. killed in the explosion of the Ada Hancock
Elijah H. and William H., who was for a while a printer and
later in partnership with his brother in the saddlery business.
Elijah once owned a tract of land stretching from what is now
Main to Hill streets and around Twelfth. Workman Street is
named after this family.
Henry Mellus, brother of Francis Mellus, to whom I else-
where more fully refer, who had returned to New England,
was among us again in 1854. Whether this was the occa-
sion of Mellus's unfortunate investment, or not, I cannot say;
but on one of his trips to the East, he lost a quarter of a
million through an unlucky investment in iron.
Jean B. Trudell (a nephew of Damien Marchessault and a
cousin of P. Beaudry), for a short time in partnership with
1854] Early Social Life 133
S. Lazard, was an old-timer who married Anita, the widow of
Henry Mellus ; and through this union a large family resulted.
He conducted salt works, from which he supplied the town with
all grades of cheap salt ; and he stood well in the community.
Mrs. Trudell took care of her aunt, Mrs. Bell, during her later
years.
With the growth of our little town, newspapers increased,
even though they did not exactly prosper. On the 2Oth of
July, 1854, C. N. Richards & Company started the Southern
Calif ornian, a name no doubt suggested by that of the San
Francisco journal, with William Butts as editor; and on Novem-
ber 2d, Colonel John O. Wheeler joined Butts and bought out
Richards & Company. Their paper was printed in one of Dai-
ton's corrugated iron houses. The Southern Californian was a
four-page weekly, on one side of which news, editorials and
advertisements, often mere translations of matter in the other
columns, were published in Spanish. One result of the appear-
ance of this paper was that Waite & Company, a month or so
later, reduced the subscription price of the Star their new rate
being nine dollars a year, or six dollars in advance.
In 1853, a number of Spanish- American restaurant keepers
plied their vocation, so that Mexican and Spanish cooking were
always obtainable. Then came the cafeteria, but the term was
used with a different significance from that now in vogue. It
was rather a place for drinking than for eating, and in this re-
spect the name had little of the meaning current in parts of
Mexico to-day, where a cafeteria is a small restaurant serving
ordinary alcoholic drinks and plain meals. Nor was the insti-
tution the same as that familiarly known in Pacific Coast
towns, and particularly in Los Angeles one of the first American
cities to experiment with this departure ; where a considerable
variety of food (mostly cooked and warm) is displayed to view,
and the prospective diner, having secured his tray and napkin,
knife, fork and spoons, indicates his choice as he passes by the
steam-heated tables and is helped to whatever he selects, and
then carries both service and viands to a small table.
The native population followed their own cuisine, and the
134 Sixty Years in Southern California [1854
visitor to Spanish- American homes naturally partook of native
food. All the Mexican dishes that are common now, such as
tamales, enchiladas and frijoles, were favorite dishes then.
There were many saloons in Sonora Town and elsewhere, and
mescal and aguardiente, popular drinks with the Mexicans, were
also indulged in by the first white settlers. Although there
were imported wines, the wine-drinkers generally patronized
the local product. This was a very cheap article, costing about
fifteen cents a gallon, and was usually supplied with meals,
without extra charge. Tamales in particular were very popular
with the Calif ornians, but it took some time for the incoming
epicure to appreciate all that was claimed for them and other
masterpieces of Mexican cooking.
The tortilla was another favorite, being a generous-sized
maize cake, round and rather thin, in the early preparation of
which the grain was softened, cleaned and parboiled, after
which it was rolled and crushed between two pieces of flat stone.
Deft hands then worked the product into a pancake, which was
placed, sometimes on a piece of stoneware, sometimes on a
plate of iron, and baked, first on one side and then on the other.
A part of the trick in tortilla-baking consisted in its delicate
toasting; and when just the right degree of parching had been
reached, the crisp, tasty tortilla was ready to maintain its
position even against more pretentious members of the pan-
cake family.
Pan de huevos, or bread of eggs, was peddled around town
on little trays by Mexican women and, when well-prepared,
was very palatable. Panocha, a dark Mexican sugar made into
cakes, was also vended by native women. Pinole was brought
in by Indians; and as far as I can remember, it could not have
had a very exact meaning, since I have heard the term ap-
plied both to ground pinenuts and ground corn, and it may
also have been used to mean other food prepared in the same
manner. Be this as it may, the value to the Indian came from
the fact that, when mixed with water, pinole proved a cheap,
but nutritious article of diet.
I have told of the old-fashioned, comfortable adobes, broad
Early Social Life 135
and liberal, whose halls, rooms, verandas and patios bespoke
at least comfort if not elaborateness. Among the old Califor-
nia families dwelling within these houses, there was much
visiting and entertainment, and I often partook of this prover-
bial and princely hospitality. There was also much merry-
making, the firing of crackers, bell-ringing and dancing the
fandango, jota and cachucha marking their jolly and whole-
souled fiestas. Only for the first few years after I came was the
real fandango so popular when Dana visited Los Angeles
and first saw Don Juan Bandini execute the dance witnessed
here; little by little it went out of fashion, perhaps in part
because of the skill required for its performance. Balls and
hops, however, for a long time were carelessly called by that
name. When the fandango really was in vogue, Bandini, Antonio
Coronel, Andres Pico, the Lugos and other native Calif ornians
were among its most noted exponents; they often hired a hall,
gave a, fandango in which they did not hesitate to take the lead-
ing parts, and turned the whole proceeds over to some church or
charity. On such occasions not merely the plain people
(always so responsive to music and its accompanying pleasures)
were thefandangueros, but the flower of our local society turned
out en masse, adding to the affair a high degree of eclat. There
was no end, too, of good things to eat and drink, which people
managed somehow to pass around; and the enjoyment was
not lessened by the fact that every such dance hall was crowded
to the walls, and that the atmosphere, relieved by but a narrow
door and window or two, was literally thick with both dust and
smoke.
Still living are some who have memories of these old fan-
dango days and the journeys taken from suburb to town in
order to participate in them. Dona Petra Pilar Lanfranco used
to tell me how, as a young girl, she came up from the old Palos
Verdes ranch house in a carreta and was always chaperoned
by a lady relative. On such occasions, the carreta would be
provided with mattresses, pillows and covers, while at the
end, well strapped, was the trunk containing the finery to be
worn at the ball. To reach town even from a point that would
136 Sixty Years in Southern California [1854
now be regarded as near, a start was generally made by four
o'clock in the morning; and it often took until late the same
evening to arrive at the Bella Union, where final preparations
were made.
One of the pleasant features of a fandango or hop was the
use of cascarones, or egg-shells, filled with one thing or another,
agreeable when scattered, and for the time being sealed up.
These shells were generally painted; and most often they
contained many-colored pieces of paper, or the tinsel, oropel,
cut up very fine. Not infrequently the shell of the egg was
filled with perfume ; and in the days when Calif ornians were
flush, gold leaf or even gold dust was sometimes thus inclosed,
with a wafer, and kept for the casamiento, when it would be
showered upon the fortunate bride. The greatest compli-
ment that a gentleman could pay a lady was to break one of
these cascarones over her head, and often the compliment
would be returned; the floor, at the termination of such
festivities, being literally covered with the bits of paper and
egg-shell. When the fandango was on in all its mad delight,
a gentleman would approach a lady to salute her, upon which
she would bow her head slightly and permit him, while he
gently squeezed the egg-shell, to let its contents fall grace-
fully over her head, neck and shoulders; and very often she
would cleverly choose the right moment perhaps when he
was not looking to politely reciprocate the courtesy, under
which circumstances he was in duty bound to detect, if he
could, among the smiling, blushing ladies, the one who had
ventured so agreeably to offend. Such was the courtliness, in
fact, among the native population that even at fandangos, in
which the public participated and the compliment of the
cascaron was almost universally observed, there was seldom a
violation of regard for another's feelings. When such rowdyism
did occur, however (prompted perhaps by jealousy), and bad
eggs or that which was even less aromatic, were substituted,
serious trouble ensued; and one or two fatalities are on record
as growing out of such senseless acts. Speaking of fandangos,
it may be aded that in January, 1861, the Common Council of
Early Social Life 137
Los Angeles passed an ordinance requiring the payment in
advance of ten dollars for a one-night license to hold any
public dance within the city limits.
The pueblo was so small in the fifties, and the number of
white people so limited that, whenever a newcomer arrived, it
caused considerable general excitement; and when it infre-
quently happened that persons of note came for even a single
night, a deputation of prominent citizens made their short stay
both noisy with cannonading and tiresome with spread-eagle
oratory.
A very important individual in early days was Peter Biggs,
or Nigger Pete, a pioneer barber who came here in 1852, having
previously been sold as a slave to an officer at Fort Leaven-
worth and freed, in California, at the close of the Mexican War.
He was a black-haired, good-natured man, then about forty
years of age, and had a shop on Main Street, near the Bella
Union. He was, indeed, the only barber in town who catered
to Americans, and while by no means of the highest tonsorial
capacity, was sufficiently appreciative of his monopoly to
charge fifty cents for shaving and seventy-five cents for hair-
cutting. When, however, a Frenchman named Felix Signoret
(whose daughter married Ed. McGinnis, the high-toned saloon
keeper) appeared, some years later a barber by trade, of
whom we shall hear more later it was not long before Pete
was seriously embarrassed, being compelled, first to reduce
his prices and then to look for more humble work. In the
early sixties, Pete was advertising as follows:
NEW ORLEANS SHAVING SALOON
OPPOSITE MELLUS' STORE ON MAIN STREET.
PRICES REDUCED!
To Keep Pace with the Times
Shaving I2^c.
Hair-cutting 250.
Shampoowing 250.
Peter Biggs will always be on hand and ready to attend to all
business in his line, such as cleaning and polishing the "under-
138 Sixty Years in Southern California [1854
standing" together with an Intelligence Office and City Express.
Also washing and ironing done with all neatness and despatch, at
reasonable rates.
Recalling Biggs and his barber shop, I may say that, in
fitting up his place, he made little or no pretension. He had an
old-fashioned, high-backed chair, but otherwise operated much
as barbers do to-day. People sat around waiting their turn ; and
as Biggs called "Next!" he sprinkled the last victim with Flor-
ida water, applying to the hair at the same time his Bear Oil
(sure to leave its mark on walls and pillows), after which, with
a soiled towel he put on the finishing touch for one towel in
those days served many customers. But few patrons had
their private cups. Biggs served only men and boys, as ladies
dressed their own hair. To some extent, Biggs was a maker
or, at least, a purveyor of wigs.
Besides Peter Biggs, a number of colored people lived in
Los Angeles at an early date five of whom belonged to the
Mexican Veterans Bob Owens and his wife being among the
most prominent. Owens who came here from Texas in Decem-
ber, 1853 was known to his friends as Uncle Bob, while Mrs.
Owens was called Aunt Winnie. The former at first did all
kinds of odd jobs, later profiting through dealings with the
Government; while his good wife washed clothes, in which
capacity she worked from time to time for my family. They
lived in San Pedro Street, and invested their savings in a lot
extending from Spring to Fort streets, between Third and.
Fourth. Owens died in 1865. Their heirs are wealthy as a
result of this investment ; in fact, I should not be surprised if
they are among the most prosperous negroes in America.
Another colored man of the sixties was named Berry, though
he was popularly known as Uncle George. He was indeed a
local character, a kind of popinjay ; and when not busy with
janitor or other all-around scrubwork, sported among the
negroes as an ultra-fashionable.
Elsewhere I have spoken of the versatility of Dr. William
B. Osburn, who showed no little commendable enterprise.
1854] Early Social Life 139
In October, 1854, he shipped to an agricultural convention in
Albany, New York, the first Los Angeles grapes ever sent to the
East; and the next year he imported roses, shrubbery and fruit
trees from Rochester.
On October I3th, 1854, a good-for-nothing gambler, Dave
Brown who had planned to rob John Temple on one of his
business trips, but was thwarted because Temple changed his
route murdered a companion, Pinckney Clifford, in a livery
stable at what was later to become the corner of Main and
Court streets ; and next day the lawless act created such general
indignation that vengeance on Brown would undoubtedly then
and there have been wreaked had not Stephen C. Foster, who
was Mayor, met the crowd of citizens and persuaded them
quietly to disperse. In order to mollify the would-be Vigilantes,
Foster promised that, if the case miscarried in the courts and
Brown was not given his due, he would resign his office
and would himself lead those who favored taking the law into
their own hands; and as Foster had been a Lieutenant in the
Rangers under Dr. Hope, showing himself to be a man of nerve,
the crowd had confidence in him and went its way.
On November 3Oth, Brown was tried in the District Court,
and Judge Benjamin Hayes sentenced him to hang on January
I2th, 1855 the same date on which Felipe Alvitre, a half -breed
Indian, was to pay the penalty for killing James Ellington at
El Monte. Brown's counsel were J. R. Scott, Cameron E.
Thorn and J. A. Watson ; and these attorneys worked so hard
and so effectively for their client that on January loth, or two
days before the date set for the execution, Judge Murray of the
Supreme Court granted Brown a stay, although apparently no
relief was provided for Alvitre. The latter was hanged in
the calaboose or jail yard, in the presence of a vast number of
people, at the time appointed. Alvitre having been strung up
by Sheriff Barton and his assistants, the rope broke, letting the
wretch fall to the ground, more dead than alive. This bungling
so infuriated the crowd that cries of "Arriba! Arriba!" (Up
with him ! up with him !) rent the air. The executioners sprang
forward, lifted the body, knotted the rope together and once
140 Sixty Years in Southern California [1854
more drew aloft the writhing form. Then the gallows was
dismantled and the guards dismissed.
The news that one execution had taken place, while the
Court, in the other case, had interfered, was speedily known by
the crowds in the streets and proved too much for the patience
of the populace ; and only a leader or two were required to focus
the indignation of the masses. That leader appeared in Foster
who, true to his word, resigned from the office of Mayor
and put himself at the head of the mob. Appeals, evoking
loud applause, were made by one speaker after another, each
in turn being lifted to the top of a barrel; and then the
crowd began to surge toward the jail. Poles and crowbars
were brought, and a blacksmith called for; and the prison
doors, which had been locked, bolted and barred, were broken
in, very soon convincing the Sheriff and his assistants
if any such conviction were needed that it was useless to
resist. In a few minutes, Brown was reached, dragged out
and across Spring Street, and there hanged to the cross-
beam of a corral gateway opposite the old jail, the noose
being drawn tight while he was still attempting to address the
crowd.
When Brown was about to be disposed of, he was asked if
he had anything to say; to which he replied that he had no
objection to paying the penalty of his crime, but that he did
take exception to a "lot of Greasers" shuffling him off! Brown
referred to the fact that Mexicans especially were conspicuous
among those who had hold of the rope; and his coarsely-ex-
pressed objection striking a humorous vein among the auditors,
the order was given to indulge his fancy and accommodate him
whereupon, Americans strung him up ! One of those who had
previously volunteered to act as hangman for Brown was Juan
Gonzales; but within four months, that is, in May, 1855,
Gonzales himself was sent to the penitentiary by Judge Myron
Norton, convicted of horse-stealing.
A rather amusing feature of this hanging was the manner in
which the report of it was served up to the public. The lynch-
ing-bee seemed likely to come off about three o'clock in the after-
Early Social Life 141
noon, while the steamer for San Francisco was to leave at ten
o'clock on the same morning; so that the schedules did not
agree. A closer connection was undoubtedly possible at least
so thought Billy Workman, then a typo on the Southern Cali-
fornian, who planned to print a full account of the execution
in time to reach the steamer." So Billy sat down and wrote
out every detail, even to the confession of the murderer on the
improvised gallows ; and several hours before the tragic event
actually took place, the wet news-sheet was aboard the vessel
and on its way north. A few surplus copies gave the lynch-
ers the unique opportunity, while watching the stringing-
up, of comparing the written story with the affair as it actually
occurred.
While upon the subject of lynching, I wish to observe that
I have witnessed many such distressing affairs in Los Angeles ;
and that, though the penalty of hanging was sometimes too
severe for the crime (and I have always deplored, as much as
any of us ever did, the administration of mob-justice) yet the
safety of the better classes in those troublous times often de-
manded quick and determined action, and stern necessity knew
no law. And what is more, others besides myself who have also
repeatedly faced dangers no longer common, agree with me in
declaring, after half a century of observation and reflection,
that milder courses than those of the vigilance committees of
our young community could hardly have been followed with
wisdom and safety.
Wood was the only regular fuel for many years, and people
were accustomed to buy it in quantities and to pile it care-
fully in their yards. When it was more or less of a drug on the
market, I paid as little as three dollars and a half a cord; in
winter I had to pay more, but the price was never high. No tree
was spared, and I have known magnificent oaks to be wanton-
ly felled and used for fuel. Valuable timber was often destroyed
by squatters guilty of a form of trespassing that gave much
trouble, as I can testify from my own experience.
Henry D wight Barrows, who had been educated as a Yan-
kee schoolmaster, arrived in Los Angeles in December, 1854, ^
142 Sixty Years in Southern California [1854
private tutor to William Wolfskill. Other parts of Barrows's
career were common to many pioneers : he was in business for a
while in New York, caught the gold-fever, gave up everything
to make the journey across the Isthmus of Panama, on which
trip he was herded as one of seventeen hundred passengers on a
rickety Coast vessel; and finally, after some unsuccessful ex-
periences as a miner in Northern California, he made his way to
the Southland to accept the proffered tutorship, hoping to be
cured of the malarial fever which he had contracted during his
adventures. Barrows taught here three years, returned East by
steamer for a brief trip in 1857, and in 1859-60 tried his hand at
cultivating grapes, in a vineyard owned by Prudent Beaudry.
On November I4th, 1860, Barrows was married to Wolfskill's
daughter, Senorita Juana; and later he was County School
Superintendent . In 1 86 1 , President Lincoln appointed B arrows
United States Marshal, the duties of which office he performed
for four years. In 1864, having lost his wife he married the
widow (formerly Miss Alice Woodworth) of Thomas Workman.
The same year he formed a partnership with J. D. Hicks,
under the firm name of J. D. Hicks & Company, and sold
tin and hardware for twelve or fifteen years. In 1868, be-
reaved of his second wife, Barrows married Miss Bessie Ann
Greene, a native of New York. That year, too, he was joined
by his brother, James Arnold Barrows, x who came by way of
Panama and bought thirty-five acres of land afterward obtained
by the University of Southern California. About 1874, Bar-
rows was manufacturing pipe. For years he dwelt with his
daughter, Mrs. R. G. Weyse, contributing now and then to the
activities of the Historical Society, and taking a keen interest 2
in Los Angeles affairs.
About 1854 or I 855, I. M. f Samuel and Herman (who must
not be confused with H. W.) Hellman, arrived here, I. M. pre-
ceding his brothers by a short period. In time, I. M. Hellman,
in San Francisco, married Miss Caroline Adler; and in 1862
her sister, Miss Adelaide, came south on a visit and married
1 Died, June gth, 1914.
'Died, August 7th, 1914.
1854] Early Social Life 143
Samuel Hellman. One of the children of this union is Maurice
S. Hellman, who, for many years associated with Joseph F.
Sartori, has occupied an important position in banking and
financial circles.
In 1854 or l &55> Bishop & Beale, a firm consisting of Samuel
A. Bishop and E. F. Beale, became owners of an immense tract
of Kern County land consisting of between two and three-
hundred thousand acres. This vast territory was given to
them in payment for the work which they had done in surveying
the Butterfield Route, later incorporated in the stage road
connecting San Francisco with St. Louis. Recently I read an
account of Beale's having been an Indian Agent at the Reserva-
tion; but if he was, I have forgotten it. I remember Colonel
James F. Vineyard, an Indian Agent and later Senator from
Los Angeles; one of whose daughters was married, in 1862,
to Congressman Charles De Long, of Nevada City, after-
ward United States Minister to Japan, and another daughter
to Dr. Hayes, of Los Angeles.
Bishop, after a while, sold out his interest in the land
and moved to San Jose, where he engaged in street-car opera-
tions. He was married near San Gabriel to Miss Frances Young,
and I officiated as one of the groomsmen at the wedding. After
Bishop disposed of his share, Colonel R. S. Baker became
interested, but whether or not he bought Bishop's interest at
once, is not clear in my memory. It is worth noting that
Bakersfield, which was part of this great ranch, took its name
from Colonel Baker. Some time later, Baker sold out to Beale
and then came South and purchased the San Vicente Ranch.
This rancho comprised the whole Santa Monica district
and consisted of thirty thousand acres, which Baker stocked
with sheep. On a part of this land, the Soldiers' Home now
stands.
Hilliard P. Dorsey, another typical Western character,
was Register of the Land Office and a leading Mason of early
days. He lived in Los Angeles in 1853, and I met him on the
Goliah in October of that year, on the way south, after a brief
visit to San Francisco, and while I was bound for my new
144 Sixty Years in Southern California [1854
home. We saw each other frequently after my arrival here;
and I was soon on good terms with him. When I embarked
in business.on my own account, therefore, I solicited Dorsey's
patronage.
One day, Dorsey bought a suit of clothes from me on
credit. A couple of months passed by, however, without any
indication on his part that he intended to pay; and as the sum
involved meant much to me at that time, I was on the lookout
for my somewhat careless debtor. In due season, catching
sight of him on the other side of the street, I approached, in
genuine American fashion, and unceremoniously asked him to
liquidate his account. I had not then heard of the notches in
Friend Dorsey's pistol, and was so unconscious of danger that
my temerity seemed to impress him. I believe, in fact, that
he must have found the experience novel. However that may
be, the next day he called and paid his bill.
In relating this circumstance to friends, I was enlightened
as to Dorsey's peculiar propensities and convinced that youth
and ignorance alone had saved me from disaster. In other
words, he let me go, as it were, on probation. Dorsey himself
was killed sometime later by his father-in-law, William Ru-
bottom, who had come to El Monte with Ezekiel Rubottom, in
1852 or 1853. After quarreling with Rubottom, Dorsey, who
was not a bad fellow, but of a fiery temper, had entered
the yard with a knife in his hand; and Rubottom had threat-
ened to shoot him if he came any nearer. The son-in-law
continued to advance; and Rubottom shot him dead. M. J.
Newmark, Rubottom's attorney, who had been summoned to
El Monte for consultation as to Dorsey's treatment of Rubot-
tom's daughter, was present at the fatal moment and wit-
nessed the shooting affray.
Uncle Billy Rubottom, as he was familiarly called, came to
Los Angeles County after losing heavily through the bursting
of Yuba Dam and was one of the founders of Spadra. He
named the settlement, laid out on a part of the San Jose rancho,
after his home town, Spadra Bluffs in Arkansas, and opened a
hotel which he made locally famous, during a decade and a
1854] Early Social Life 145
half, for barbecues and similar events, giving personal attention
(usually while in shirt-sleeves) to his many guests. In his
declining years, Uncle Billy lived with Kewen H. Dorsey, his
grandson, who was also prominent in masonic circles.
CHAPTER XI
THE RUSH FOR GOLD
1855
A~> I have already related, I made fifteen hundred dollars
in a few months, and in January, 1855, my brother
advised me to form a partnership with men of maturer
years. In this I acquiesced. He thereupon helped to organize
the firm of Rich, Newmark & Company, consisting of Elias
Laventhal (who reached here in 1854 and died on January 2Oth,
1902), Jacob Rich and myself. Rich was to be the San Fran-
cisco resident partner, while Laventhal and I undertook the
management of the business in Los Angeles. We prospered from
the beginning, deriving much benefit from our San Francisco
representation which resulted in our building up something
of a wholesale business.
In the early fifties, Los Angeles was the meeting-place of a
Board of Land Commissioners appointed by the National
Government to settle land-claims and to prepare the way for
that granting of patents to owners of Southern California
ranches which later awakened from time to time such interest
here. This interest was largely due to the fact that the Mexi-
can authorities, in numerous instances, had made the same
grant to different persons, often confusing matters badly.
Cameron E. Thorn, then Deputy Land Agent, took testi-
mony for the Commissioners. In 1855, this Board com-
pleted its labors. The members were Hiland Hall (later
Governor of Vermont,) Harry I. Thornton and Thompson
Campbell; and during the season they were here, these Land
146
The Rush for Gold 147
Commissioners formed no unimportant part of the Los Angeles
legal world.
Thomas A. Delano, whose name is perpetuated in our local
geography, was a sailor who came to Los Angeles on January 4th,
1855, after which, for fifteen or sixteen years, he engaged in
freighting. He married Senorita Soledad, daughter of John
C. Vejar, the well-known Spanish Californian.
Slowness and uncertainty of mail delivery in our first
decades affected often vital interests, as is shown in the case of
the half-breed Alvitre who, as I have said, was sentenced to be
executed. One reason why the Vigilantes, headed by Mayor
Foster, despatched Brown was the expectation that both he
and Alvitre would get a stay from higher authority ; and sure
enough, a stay was granted Alvitre, but the document was
delayed in transit until the murderer, on January I2th, 1855,
had forfeited his life! Curiously enough, another Alvitre
an aged Californian named Jose Claudio also of El Monte,
but six years later atrociously murdered his aged wife ; and on
April 28th, 1861, he was hanged. The lynchers placed him on a
horse under a tree, and then drove the animal away, leaving
him suspended from a limb.
Washington's Birthday, in 1855, was made merrier by
festivities conducted under the auspices of the City Guards, of
which W. W. Twist a grocer and commission merchant at
Beaudry's Block, Aliso Street, and afterward in partnership
with Casildo Aguilar was Captain. The same organization
gave its first anniversary ball in May. Twist was a Ranger,
or member of the volunteer mounted police ; and it was he who,
in March, 1857, formed the first rifle company. In the early
sixties, he was identified with the sheriff's office, after which,
venturing into Mexico, he was killed.
Henry C. G. Schaeffer came to Los Angeles on March i6th,
1855, an d opened the first gunsmith shop in a little adobe on
the east side of Los Angeles Street near Commercial, which he
soon surrounded with an attractive flower garden. A year after
Schaeffer came, he was followed by another gunsmith, August
Stoermer. Schaeffer continued, however, to sell and mend
148 Sixty Years in Southern California U8ss
guns and to cultivate flowers; and twenty years later found
him on Wilmington Street, near New Commercial, still encir-
cled by one of the choicest collections of flowers in the city,
and the first to have brought here the night-blooming cereus.
With more than regret, therefore, I must record that, in the
middle seventies, this warm-hearted friend of children, so
deserving of the good will of everyone, committed suicide.
Gold was discovered at Havilah, Kern County, in 1854; an d
by the early spring of 1855 exaggerated accounts of the find
had spread broadcast over the entire State. Yarn after yarn
passed from mouth to mouth, one of the most extravagant
of the reports being that a Mexican doctor and alchemist
suddenly rode into Mariposa from the hills, where he had
found a gulch paved with gold, his horse and himself being
fairly covered with bags of nuggets. The rush by gold-seekers
on their way from the North to Los Angeles (the Southern
gateway to the fields) began in January, 1855, and continued a
couple of years, every steamer being loaded far beyond the
safety limit; and soon miles of the rough highways leading to
the mines were covered with every conceivable form of vehicle
and struggling animals, as well as with thousands of footsore
prospectors, unable to command transportation at any price.
For awhile, ten, twelve and even fifteen per cent, interest a
month was offered for small amounts of money by those of the
prospectors who needed assistance, a rate based on the cal-
culation that a wide-awake digger would be sure of eight to ten
dollars a day, and that with such returns one should certainly
be satisfied. This time the excitement was a little too much for
the Los Angeles editors to ignore; and in March the publisher
of the Southern Californian, himself losing his balance, issued
an "extra" with these startling announcements:
STOP THE PRESS!
GLORIOUS NEWS FROM KERN RIVER!
BRING OUT THE BIG GUN!
There are a thousand gulches rich with gold, and room for
ten thousand miners ! Miners average $50.00 a day. One man
The Rush for Gold 149
with his own hands took out $160.00 in a day. Five men in
ten days took out $4,500.00.
The affair proved, however, a ridiculous failure; and Wil-
liam Marsh, an old Los Angeles settler and a very decent chap,
who conducted a store at Havilah, was among those who suffered
heavy loss. Although some low-grade ore was found, it was
generally not in paying quantities. The dispersion of this
adventurous mass of humanity brought to Los Angeles many
undesirable people, among them gamblers and desperadoes,
who flocked in the wake of the gold-diggers, making another
increase in the rough element. Before long, four men were
fatally shot and half a dozen wounded near the Plaza, one
Sunday night.
When the excitement about the gold-finds along the Kern
River was at its height, Frank Lecouvreur arrived here,
March 6th, on the steamship America, lured by reports then
current in San Francisco. To save the fare of five dollars, he
trudged for ten hours all the way from San Pedro, carrying on
his shoulders forty pounds of baggage ; but on putting up at the
United States Hotel, then recently started, he was dissuaded
by some experienced miners from venturing farther up the
country. Soon after, he met a fellow-countryman from
Konigsberg, named Arnold, who induced him, on account of his
needy condition, to take work in his saloon; but disliking his
duties and the rather frequent demands upon his nervous
system through being shot at, several times, by patrons not
exactly satisfied with Lecouvreur's locomotion and his method
of serving, the young German quit the job and went to
work as a carriage-painter for John Goller. In October, Cap-
tain Henry Hancock, then County Surveyor, engaged Le-
couvreur as flagman, at a salary of sixty dollars; which was
increased twenty-five per cent, on the trip of the surveyors
to the Mojave.
March 29th, 1855, witnessed the organization of the first
Odd Fellows' lodge No. 35 instituted here. General Ezra
Drown was the leading spirit; and others associated with him
150 Sixty Years in Southern California [1855
were E. Wilson High, Alexander Crabb, L. C. Goodwin, William
C. Ardinger, Morris L. Goodman and M. M. Davis.
During the fifties, the Bella Union passed under several
successive managements. On July 22d, 1854, Dr. Macy sold it to
W. G. Ross and a partner named Crockett. They were suc-
ceeded, on April yth, 1855, by Robert S. Hereford. Ross was
killed, some years afterward, by C. P. Duane in San Francisco.
In pursuit of business, in 1855, I made a number of trips to
San Bernardino, some of which had their amusing incidents, and
most of which afforded pleasure or an agreeable change. Meet-
ing Sam Meyer on one of these occasions, just as I was mounted
and ready to start, I invited him to accompany me ; and as Sam
assured me that he knew where to secure a horse, we started
down the street together and soon passed a shop in which
there was a Mexican customer holding on to a reata leading out
through the door to his saddled nag. Sam walked in; and
having a casual acquaintance with the man, asked him if he
would lend him the animal for a while? People were generous
in those days; and the good-hearted Mexican, thinking perhaps
that Sam was "just going around the corner," carelessly an-
swered, "Si, Senor," and proceeded with his bartering. Sam,
on the other hand, came out of the shop and led the horse
away ! After some days of minor adventures, when we lost our
path near the Old Mission and had to put back to El Monte
for the night, we arrived at San Bernardino ; and on our return,
after watering the horses, Sam found in his unhaltered steed
such a veritable Tartar that, in sheer desperation, he was about
to shoot the borrowed beast !
On another one of these trips I was entertained by Simon
Jackson, a merchant of that town, who took me to a restaurant
kept by a Captain Weiner. This, the best eating-place in town,
was about ten feet square and had a mud floor. It was a
miserably hot day so hot, in fact, that I distinctly remember
the place being filled with flies, and that the butter had run to
oil. Nature had not intended Weiner to cater to sensitive
stomachs, at least not on the day of which I speak, and to make
matters worse, Weiner was then his own waiter. He was
i8ss] Ine Rush for Gold 151
wallowing around in his bare feet, and was otherwise unkempt
and unclean; and the whole scene is therefore indelibly im-
pressed on my memory. When the slovenly Captain bawled out :
"Which will you have chops or steak?" Jackson straightened
up, threw out his chest, and in evidence of the vigor of his
appetite, just as vociferously answered: "I want a steak as big
as a mule's foot!' 1
Living in San Bernardino was a customer of ours, a celeb-
rity by the name of Lewis Jacobs. He had joined the Mormon
Church and was a merchant of worth and consequence. Jacobs
was an authority on all matters of finance connected with his
town, and anyone wishing to know the condition of business
men in that neighborhood had only to apply to him. Once
when I was in San Bernardino, I asked him for information
regarding a prospective patron who was rather a gay sort of
individual; and this was Jacobs's characteristic reply: "A very
fine fellow: he plays a little poker, and drinks a little whiskey!"
Jacobs became a banker and in 1900 died on shipboard while
returning from Europe, leaving a comfortable fortune and the
more valuable asset of a good name.
In referring to Alexander & Mellus and their retirement from
business, I have said that merchandise required by Southern Cal-
ifornians in the early days, and before the absorption of the Los
Angeles market by San Francisco, was largely transported by
sailing vessels from the East. When a ship arrived, it was an
event worthy of special notice, and this was particularly the
case when such sailing craft came less and less often into port.
Sometimes the arrival of the vessel was heralded in advance;
and when it was unloaded, the shrewd merchants used decidedly
modern methods for the marketing of their wares. In 1855, for
example, Johnson & Allanson advertised as follows:
NEW GOODS! NEW GOODS!
Direct from the Atlantic States, 1 12 Days' Passage.
Samples of the Cargo at our Store in the Stearns Building;
and the entire Cargo will be disposed of cheap, for cash.
Goods delivered at San Pedro or Los Angeles.
152 Sixty Years in Southern California [1855
From the above announcement, it must not be inferred that
these Los Angeles tradesmen brought to this port the whole
shipload of merchandise. Such ships left but a small part of
their cargo here, the major portion being generally consigned
to the North.
The dependence on San Francisco continued until the com-
pletion of our first transcontinental railway. In the mean-
time, Los Angeles had to rely on the Northern city for nearly
everything, live stock being about the only exception; and this
relation was shown in 1855 by the publication of no less than
four columns of San Francisco advertisements in the regular
issue of a Los Angeles newspaper. Much of this commerce
with the Southland for years was conducted by means of
schooners which ran irregularly and only when there was cargo.
They plied between San Francisco and San Pedro, and by
agreement put in at Santa Barbara and other Coast places
such as Port San Luis, when the shipments warranted such
stops. N. Pierce & Company were the owners. One of these
vessels in 1855 was the clipper schooner Laura Bevan, cap-
tained by F. Morton and later wrecked at sea when Frank
Lecouvreur just escaped taking passage on her; and an-
other was the Sea Serpent, whose Captain bore the name of
Fish.
I have said that in 1849 the old side-wheeler Gold Hunter
had commenced paddling the waters around here ; but so far as
I can remember, she was not operating in 1853. The Goliah, on
the other hand, was making two round trips a month, carrying
passengers, mail and freight from San Francisco to San Diego,
and stopping at various Coast points including San Pedro.
In a vague way, I also remember the mail steamer Ohio under
one of the Haleys, the Sea Bird, at one time commanded by
Salisbury Haley, and the Southerner; and if I am uncertain
about others, the difficulty may be due to the fact that, because
of unseaworthiness and miserable service, owners changed the
names of ships from time to time in order to allay the popular
prejudice and distrust, so that during some years, several names
were successively applied to the same vessel. It must have been
The Rush for Gold 153
about 1855 or 1856 that the Senator (brought to the Coast by
Captain Coffin, January 28th, 1853) was put on the Southern run,
and with her advent began a considerably improved service.
As the schooners were even more irregular than the steamers,
I generally divided my shipments, giving to the latter what I
needed immediately, and consigning by the schooners, whose
freight rates were much lower, what could stand delay. One
more word about the Goliah: one day in the eighties I heard
that she was still doing valiant service, having been sold to a
Puget Sound company.
Recalling these old-time side-wheelers whose paddles
churned the water into a frothing foam out of all proportion to
the speed with which they drove the boat along her course, I
recall, with a feeling almost akin to sentiment, the roar of the
signal-gun fired just before landing, making the welcome
announcement, as well to the traveler as to his friends
awaiting him on shore, that the voyage had been safely
consummated.
Shortly after my arrival in Los Angeles, the transportation
service was enlarged by the addition of a stage line from San
Francisco which ran along the Coast from the Northern city to
the Old Town of San Diego, making stops all along the road, in-
cluding San Jose, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and San
Buenaventura, and particularly at Los Angeles, where not only
horses, but stages and supplies were kept. The stage to San
Diego followed, for the most part, the route selected later
by the Santa Fe Railroad.
These old-time stages remind me again of the few varieties
of vehicles then in use. John Goller had met with much skepti-
cism and ridicule, as I have said, when he was planning an im-
provement on the old and clumsy carreta; and when his new ideas
did begin to prevail, he suffered from competition. E. L. Scott
& Company came as blacksmiths and carriage-makers in 1855;
and George Boorham was another who arrived about the same
time. Ben McLoughlin was also an early wheelwright. Among
Goller's assistants who afterward opened shops for themselves,
were the three Louis's Roeder, Lichtenberger and Breer;
154 Sixty Years in Southern California [1855
Roeder and Lichtenberger 1 having a place on the west side of
Spring Street just south of First.
Thomas W. Seeley, Captain of the Senator, was very fond
of Los Angeles diversions, as will appear from the following
anecdote of the late fifties. After bringing his ship to anchor
off the coast, he would hasten to Los Angeles, leaving his
vessel in command of First Mate Butters to complete the
voyage to San Diego and return, which consumed forty-eight
hours; and during this interval, the old Captain regularly made
his headquarters at the Bella Union. There he would spend
practically all of his time playing poker, then considered the
gentleman's game of chance, and which, since the mania for
Chemical Purity had not yet possessed Los Angeles, was looked
upon without criticism. When the steamer returned from San
Diego, Captain Seeley, if neither his own interest in the game
nor his fellow-players' interest in his pocketbook, had ebbed,
would postpone the departure of his ship, frequently for even
as much as twenty-four hours, thus adding to the irregularity of
sailings which I have already mentioned. Many, in fact, were
the inconveniences to which early travelers were subjected
from this infrequency of trips and failure to sail at the
stated hour; and to aggravate the trouble, the vessels were all
too small, especially when a sudden excitement due, per-
haps, to some new report of the discovery of gold increased
the number of intending travelers. It even happened, some-
times, that persons were compelled to postpone their trip
until the departure of another boat. Speaking of anchoring
vessels off the coast, I may add that high seas frequently made
it impossible to reach the steamers announced to leave at a
certain time; in which case the officers used to advertise in the
newspapers that the time of departure had been changed.
When Captain Seeley was killed in the Ada Hancock dis-
aster, in 1863, First Mate Butters was made Captain and
continued for some time in command. Just what his real
fitness was, I cannot say; but it seemed to me that he did not
know the Coast any too well. This impression also existed in
1 Lichtenberger died some years ago; Roeder died February 2Oth, 1915.
Louis Sainsevain
Manuel Dominguez
1 Aliso, the Sainsevain Winery
From an old lithograph
Jacob Ellas
John T. Lanfranco
J. Frank Burns
Henry D. Barrows
The Rush for Gold 155
the minds of others; and once, when we were supposed to be
making our way to San Francisco, the heavy fog lifted and re-
vealed the shore thirty miles north of our destination; where-
upon a fellow-passenger exclaimed : "Why, Captain, this isn't
at all the part of the Coast where we should be!" The remark
stung the sensitive Butters, who probably was conscious enough
of his shortcomings ; and straightway he threatened to put the
offending passenger in irons !
George F. Lamson was an auctioneer who arrived in Los
Angeles in 1855. Aside from the sale of live stock, there was
not much business in his line; although, as I have said, Dr. Os-
burn, the Postmaster, also had an auction room. Sales of
household effects were held on a Tuesday or a Wednesday ; while
horses were offered for sale on Saturdays. Lamson had the
typical auctioneer's personality; and many good stories were
long related, illustrating his humor, wit and amusing im-
pudence by which he often disposed, even to his friends, of
almost worthless objects at high prices. A daughter Gertrude,
widely known as Lillian Nance O'Neill, never married; another
daughter, Lillian, is the wife of William Desmond, the actor.
In 1854, Congress made an appropriation of fifty thousand
dollars which went far toward opening up the trade that later
flourished between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City. This
money was for the survey and location of a wagon-road between
San Bernardino and the Utah capital; and on the first of May,
1855, Gilbert & Company established their Great Salt Lake
Express over that Government route. It was at first a pony
express, making monthly trips, carrying letters and stopping
at such stations as Coal Creek, Fillmore City, Summit Creek
and American Fork, and finally reaching Great Salt Lake ; and
early having good Los Angeles connections, it prospered
sufficiently to substitute a wagon-service for the pony express.
Although this was at first intended only as a means of con-
necting the Mormon capital with the more recently-founded
Mormon settlement at San Bernardino, the extension of the
service to Los Angeles eventually made this city the terminus.
Considerable excitement was caused by the landing at San
156 Sixty Years in Southern California [1855]
Pedro, in 1855, of a shipload of Mormons from Honolulu.
Though I do not recall that any more recruits came subse-
quently from that quarter, the arrival of these adherents of
Brigham Young added color to his explanation that he had es-
tablished a Mormon colony in California, as a base of opera-
tions and supplies for converts from the Sandwich Islands.
Thomas Foster, a Kentuckian, was the sixth Mayor of Los
Angeles, taking office in May, 1855. He lived opposite Masonic
Hall on Main Street, with his family, among whom were some
charming daughters, and was in partnership with Dr. R. T.
Hayes, in Apothecaries' Hall near the Post Office. He was one
of the first Masons here and was highly esteemed ; and he early
declared himself in favor of better school and water facilities.
About the second week of June, 1855, appeared the first
Spanish newspaper in Los Angeles under the American regime.
It was called El Clamor Pfiblico, and made its appeal, socially,
to the better class of native Californians. Politically, it was
edited for Republicans, especially for the supporters, in 1 856, of
Fremont for President. Its editor was Francisco P. Ramirez;
but though he was an able journalist and a good typo becom-
ing, between 1860 and 1862, State Printer in Sonoraand, in 1865,
Spanish Translator for the State of California the Clamor, on
December 3ist, 1859, went the way of so many other local
journals.
CHAPTER XII
THE GREAT HORSE RACE
1855
FROM all accounts, Fourth of July was celebrated in Los
Angeles with more or less enthusiasm from the time of
the City's reorganization, although afterward, as we
shall see, the day was often neglected; but certainly in 1855 the
festivities were worthy of remembrance. There was less for-
mality, perhaps, and more cannonading than in later years;
music was furnished by a brass band from Fort Tejon; and
Phineas Banning was the stentorian "orator of the day."
Two years previously, Banning had provided a three days' cele-
bration and barbecue for the Fourth, attended by my brother;
and I once enjoyed a barbecue at San Juan Capistrano
where the merriment, continuing for half a week, marked
both the hospitality and the leisurely habits of the people. In
those days (when men were not afraid of noise) boys, in cele-
brating American Independence, made all the hullabaloo
possible, untrammeled by the nonsense of "a sane Fourth."
On the Fourth of July and other holidays, as well as on
Sundays, men from the country came to town, arrayed in their
fanciest clothes; and, mounted upon their most spirited and
gaily-caparisoned caballos de silla, or saddle-horses, they pa-
raded the streets, as many as ten abreast, jingling the metallic
parts of their paraphernalia, admired and applauded by the
populace, and keenly alive to the splendid appearance they
and their outfits made, and to the effect sure to be produced on
the fair senoritas. The most popular thoroughfare for this
J57
158 Sixty Years in Southern California [1855
purpose was Main Street. On such occasions, the men wore
short, very tight-fitting jackets of bright-colored material
blue, green and yellow being the favorite colors and trim-
med with gold and silver lace or fringe. These jackets
were so tight that often the wearers put them on only with
great difficulty. The calzoneras, or pantaloons, were of the
same material as the jackets, open on the side and flanked with
brass buttons. The openings exposed the calzoncillos, or drawers.
A fashionable adjunct was the Mexican garter, often costing
ten to fifteen dollars, and another was the high-heeled boot, so
small that ten minutes or more were required to draw it on.
This boot was a great conceit; but though experiencing much
discomfort, the victim could not be induced to increase the size.
The serape, worn by men, was the native substitute for the
overcoat. It was a narrow, Mexican blanket of finest wool, mul-
ticolored and provided with a hole near the center large enough
to let the wearer's head through; and when not in actual use,
it was thrown over the saddle. The head-gear consisted in win-
ter of a broad-rimmed, high-crowned, woolen sombrero, usually
brown, which was kept in place during fast travel or a race by a
ribbon or band fastened under the chin ; often, as in the familiar
case of Ygnacio Lugo, the hat was ornamented with beads.
In summer, the rider substituted a shirt for the serape and
a Panama for the sombrero. The caballero's outfit, in the case
of some wealthy dons, exceeded a thousand dollars in value; and
it was not uncommon for fancy costumes to be handed down
as heirlooms.
The women, on the other hand, wore skirts of silk, wool or
cotton, according to their wealth or the season. Many of the
female conceits had not appeared in 1853; the grandmothers of
the future suffragettes wore, instead of bonnets and hats, a
rebozo, or sort of scarf or muffler, which covered their heads
and shoulders and looked delightfully picturesque. To don this
gracefully was, in fact, quite an art. Many of the native
California ladies also braided their hair, and wore circular
combs around the back of their heads ; at least this was so until,
with the advent of a greater number of American women, their
The Great Horse Race 159
more modern, though less romantic, styles commenced to prevail,
when even the picturesque mantilla was discarded.
Noting these differences of dress in early days, I should not
forget to state that there were both American and Mexican
tailors here; among the former being one McCoy and his son,
merry companions whose copartnership carousals were pro-
verbial. The Mexican tailor had the advantage of knowing
just what the native requirements were, although in the course
of time his Gringo rival came to understand the tastes and pre-
judices of the paisano, and to obtain the better share of the
patronage. The cloth from which the caballero's outfit was
made could be found in most of the stores.
As with clothes and tailors, so it was with other articles of
apparel and those who manufactured them ; the natives had their
own shoe- and hat-makers, and their styles were unvarying.
The genuine Panama hat was highly prized and often copied ;
and Francisco Velardes who used a grindstone bought of John
Temple in 1852, now in the County Museum was one who
sold and imitated Panamas of the fifties. A product of the
bootmakers' skill were leathern leggings, worn to protect the
trousers when riding on horseback. The Gringos were then
given to copying the fashions of the natives; but as the
pioneer population increased, the Mexican came more and
more to adopt American styles.
Growing out of these exhibitions of horsemanship and of
the natives' fondness for display, was the rather important
industry of making Mexican saddles, in which quite a num-
ber of skilled paisano s were employed. Among the most ex-
pert was Francisco Moreno, who had a little shop on the
south side of Aliso Street, not far from Los Angeles. One of
these hand-worked saddles often cost two hundred dollars or
more, in addition to which expensive bridles, bits and spurs
were deemed necessary accessories. Antonio Maria Lugo had
a silver-mounted saddle, bridle and spurs that cost fifteen
hundred dollars.
On holidays and even Sundays, Upper Main Street for-
merly called the Calle de las Virgenes, or Street of the Maids,
160 Sixty Years in Southern California [1855
later San Fernando Street was the scene of horse races and
their attendant festivities, just as it used to be when money
or gold was especially plentiful, if one may judge from the
stories of those who were here in the prosperous year, 1850.
People from all over the county visited Los Angeles to
take part in the sport, some coming from mere curiosity, but the
majority anxious to bet. Some money, and often a good deal of
stock changed hands, according to the success or failure of the
different favorites. It cannot be claimed, perhaps, that the
Mexican, like the Gringo, made a specialty of developing horse-
flesh to perfection ; yet Mexicans owned many of the fast horses,
such as Don Jose Sepulveda's Sydney Ware and Black Swan,
and the Californian Sarco belonging to Don Pio Pico.
The most celebrated of all these horse races of early days
was that between Jose Andres Sepulveda's Black Swan and
Pio Pico's Sarco, the details of which I learned, soon after I
came here, from Tom Mott. Sepulveda had imported the Black
Swan from Australia, in 1852, the year of the race, while Pico
chose a California steed to defend the honors of the day. Sepul-
veda himself went to San Francisco to receive the consignment
in person, after which he committed the thoroughbred into the
keeping of Bill Brady, the trainer, who rode him down to Los
Angeles, and gave him as much care as might have been be-
stowed upon a favorite child. They were to race nine miles, the
carrera commencing on San Pedro Street near the city limits,
and running south a league and a half and return; and the
reports of the preparation having spread throughout California,
the event came to be looked upon as of such great importance,
that, from San Francisco to San Diego, whoever had the money
hurried to Los Angeles to witness the contest and bet on the
result. 'Twenty-five thousand dollars, in addition to five
hundred horses, five hundred mares, five hundred heifers, five
hundred calves and five hundred sheep were among the princely
stakes put up; and the wife of Jose Andres was driven to the
scene of the memorable contest with a veritable fortune in
gold slugs wrapped in a large handkerchief. Upon arriving
there, she opened her improvised purse and distributed the
The Great Horse Race 161
shining fifty-dollar pieces to all of her attendants and servants,
of whom there were not a few, with the injunction that they
should wager the money on the race; and her example was
followed by others, so that, in addition to the cattle, land and
merchandise hazarded, a considerable sum of money was bet by
the contending parties and their friends. The Black Swan
won easily. The peculiar character of some of the wagers re-
calls to me an instance of a later date when a native customer
of Louis Phillips tried to borrow a wagon, in order to bet the
same on a horse race. If the customer won, he was to return
the wagon at once; but if he lost, he was to pay Phillips a certain
price for the vehicle.
Many kinds of amusements marked these festal occasions,
and bull-fights were among the diversions patronized by some
Angelenos, the Christmas and New Year holidays of 1854-55
being celebrated in that manner. I dare say that in earlier days
Los Angeles may have had its Plaza de Toros, as did the ancient
metropolis of the great country to the South ; but in the later
stages of the sport here, the toreador and his colleagues con-
ducted their contests in a gaudily-painted corral, in close
proximity to the Plaza. They were usually proclaimed as
professionals from Mexico or Spain, but were often engaged
for a livelihood, under another name, in a less dangerous and
romantic occupation near by. Admission was charged, and
some pretense to a grandstand was made; but through the
apertures in the fence of the corral those who did not pay
might, by dint of hard squinting, still get a peep at the
show. In this corral, in the fifties, I saw a fight between
a bear and a bull. I can still recollect the crowd, but I cannot
say which of the infuriated animals survived. Toward the
end of 1858, a bull-fight took place in the Calle de Toros, and
there was great excitement when a horse was instantly killed.
Cock-fights were also a very common form of popular
entertainment, and sports were frequently seen going around
the streets with fighting cocks under each arm. The fights
generally took place in Sonora Town, though now and then
they were held in San Gabriel. Mexicans carried on quite a
162 Sixty Years in Southern California [1855
trade in game roosters among the patrons of this pastime, of
whom M. G. Santa Cruz was one of the best known. Some-
times, too, roosters contributed to still another brutal diversion
known as correr el gallo: their necks having been well greased,
they would be partially buried in the earth alongside a public
highway, when riders on fleet horses dashed by at full speed,
and tried to seize the fowls and pull them out ! This reminds
me of another game in which horsemen, speeding madly by a
succession of suspended, small rings, would try, by the skillful
handling of a long spear, to collect as many of the rings as
they could a sport illustrated in one of the features of the
modern merry-go-round.
The easy-going temperament of the native gave rise to many
an amusing incident. I once asked a woman, as we were discuss-
ing the coming marriage of her daughter, whom the dark-eyed
senorita was to marry; whereupon she replied, "I forget;"
and turning to her daughter, she asked: "tComo se llama?"
(What did you say was his name ?)
George Dalton bought a tract of land on Washington, east
of San Pedro Street, in 1855, and set out a vineyard and orchard
which he continued to cultivate until 1887, when he moved to
Walnut Avenue. Dalton was a Londoner who sailed from Liver-
pool on the day of Queen Victoria's coronation, to spend some
years wandering through Pennsylvania and Ohio. About 1851,
he followed to the Azusa district his brother, Henry Dalton, who
had previously been a merchant in Peru; but, preferring the
embryo city to the country, he returned to Los Angeles to live.
Two sons, E. H. Dalton, City Water Overseer, in 1886-87, and
Winnall Travelly Dalton, the vineyardist, were offspring of
Dal ton's first marriage. Elizabeth M., a daughter, married Wil-
liam H. Perry. Dalton Avenue is named after the Dalton family.
In another place I have spoken of the dearth of trees in the
town when I came, though the editor of the Star and others
had advocated tree-planting. This was not due to mere neglect ;
there was prejudice against such street improvement. The
School Trustees had bought a dozen or more black locust-trees,
"at eight bits each," and planted them on the school lot at
The Great Horse Race 163
Second and Spring streets. Drought and squirrels in 1855 at-
tacked the trees, and while the pedagogue went after the "var-
mints" with a shot-gun, he watered the trees from the school
barrel. The carrier, however, complained that drinking-water
was being wasted; and only after several rhetorical bouts was
the schoolmaster allowed to save what was already invested.
The locust-trees flourished until 1884, when they were hewn
down to make way for the City Hall.
Two partially-successful attempts were made, in 1855, to
introduce the chestnut-tree here. Jean Louis Sainsevain,
coming to Los Angeles in that year, brought with him some
seed; and this doubtless led Solomon Lazard to send back to
Bordeaux for some of the Italian variety. William Wolfskill,
who first brought here the persimmon-tree, took a few of the
seeds imported by Lazard and planted them near his home-
stead ; and a dozen of the trees later adorned the beautiful gar-
den of O. W. Childs who, in the following year, started some
black walnut seed obtained in New York. H. P. Dorsey was
also a pioneer walnut grower.
My brother's plans at this time included a European visit,
commencing in 1855 and lasting until 1856, during which trip,
in Germany, on November nth, 1855, he was married. After
his Continental tour, he returned to San Francisco and was
back in Los Angeles some time before 1857. On this European
voyage, my brother was entrusted with the care and delivery
of American Government documents. From London he car-
ried certain papers to the American Minister in Denmark; and
in furtherance of his mission, he was given the following intro-
duction and passport from James Buchanan, then Minister
Plenipotentiary to the Court of St. James and later President
of the United States:
No. 282 BEARER OF DESPATCHES
LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
AT LONDON.
To all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting ;
164 Sixty Years in Southern California [1855
Know Ye, that the bearer hereof, Joseph P. Newmark, Esq.,
is proceeding to Hamburgh and Denmark, bearing Despatches
from this Legation, to the United States' Legation at Copen-
hagen.
These are therefore to request all whom it may concern, to
permit him to pass freely without let or molestation, and to
extend to him such friendly aid and protection, as would be
extended to Citizens and Subjects of Foreign Countries, re-
sorting to the United States, bearing Despatches.
In testimony whereof, I, James Buchanan, Envoy Extra-
ordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, of the United States of
America, at London, have hereunto set my hand, and caused
the Seal of this Legation to be affixed this Tenth day of July
A.D. 1855 and of the Independence of the United States the
Eightieth.
(Signed,)
JAMES BUCHANAN.
(Seal of the Legation of the U. S.
of America to Great Britain.)
I have always accepted the fact of my brother's selection to
convey these documents as evidence that, in the few years since
his arrival in America, he had attained a position of some respon-
sibility. Aside from this, I am inclined to relate the experience
because it shows the then limited resources of our Federal
authorities abroad, especially as compared with their compre-
hensive facilities to-day, including their own despatch agents,
messengers and Treasury representatives scattered throughout
Europe.
A trip of Prudent Beaudry abroad about this time reminds
me that specialization in medical science was as unknown in early
Los Angeles as was specialization in business, and that persons
suffering from grave physical disorders frequently visited even
remoter points than San Francisco in search of relief. In 1855,
Beaudry's health having become seriously impaired, he went
to Paris to consult the famous oculist, Sichel ; but he received
little or no benefit. While in Europe, Beaudry visited the
Exposition of that year, and was one of the first Angelenos, I
suppose, to see a World's Fair.
The Great Horse Race 165
These early tours to Europe by Temple, Beaudry and my
brother, and some of my own experiences, recall the changes
in the manner of bidding Los Angeles travelers bon-voyage.
Friends generally accompanied the tourist to the outlying
steamer, reached by a tug or lighter; and when the leave-taking
came, there were cheers, repetitions of adios and the waving of
hats and handkerchiefs, which continued until the steamer had
disappeared from view.
The first earthquake felt throughout California, of which I
have any recollection, occurred on July nth, 1855, somewhat
after eight o'clock in the evening, and was a most serious local
disturbance. Almost every structure in Los Angeles was dam-
aged, and some of the walls were left with large cracks. Near
San Gabriel, the adobe in which Hugo Reid's Indian wife dwelt
was wrecked, notwithstanding that it had walls four feet thick,
with great beams of lumber drawn from the mountains of San
Bernardino. In certain spots, the ground rose; in others, it fell;
and with the rising and falling, down came chimneys, shelves
full of salable stock or household necessities, pictures and even
parts of roofs, while water in barrels, and also in several of the
zanjas, bubbled and splashed and overflowed. Again, on the
I4th of April, the 2d of May and the 2Oth of September of
the following year, we were alarmed by recurring and more or
less continuous shocks which, however, did little or no damage.
CHAPTER XIII
PRINCELY RANCHO DOMAINS
1855
OF the wonderful domains granted to the Spanish dons some
were still in the possession of their descendants ; some
had passed into the hands of the Argonauts ; but nothing
in the way of subdividing had been attempted. The private
ownership of Los Angeles County in the early fifties, therefore,
was distinguished by few holders and large tracts, one of the
most notable being that of Don Abel Stearns, who came here in
1829, and who, in his early adventures, narrowly escaped exile
or being shot by an irate Spanish governor. Eventually,
Stearns became the proud possessor of tens of thousands of
acres between San Pedro and San Bernardino, now covered
with cities, towns and hamlets. The site of the Long Beach
of to-day was but a small part of his Alamitos r'ancho, a portion
of the town also including some of the Cerritos acres of John
Temple. Los Coyotes, La Habra and San Juan Cajon de
Santa Ana were among the Stearns ranches advertised for sale
in 1869. Later, I shall relate how this Alamitos land came to
be held by Jotham Bixby and his associates.
Juan Temple owned the Los Cerritos rancho, consisting of
some twenty-seven thousand acres, patented on December 27th,
1867, but which, I have heard, he bought of the Nieto heirs in
the late thirties, building there the typical ranch-house, later
the home of the Bixbys and still a feature of the neighborhood.
Across the Cerritos Stockton's weary soldiers dragged their
way; and there, or near by, Carrillo, by driving wild horses
1 66
Princely Rancho Domains 167
back and forth in confusion, and so creating a great noise and
dust, tricked Stockton into thinking that there were many
more of the mounted enemy than he had at first supposed.
By 1853, Temple was estimated to be worth, in addition to his
ranches, some twenty thousand dollars. In 1860, Los Cerritos
supported perhaps four thousand cattle and great flocks of
sheep; on a portion of the same ranch to-day, as I have
remarked, Long Beach stands.
Another citizen of Los Angeles who owned much property
when I came, and who lived upon his ranch, was Francis
Phinney Fisk Temple, one of the first Los Angeles supervisors,
a man exceptionally modest and known among his Spanish-
speaking friends as Templito, because of his five feet four stat-
ure. He came here, by way of the Horn, in 1841, when he was
but nineteen years of age, and for a while was in business with
his brother John. Marrying Sefiorita Antonia Margarita Work-
man, however, on September 3Oth, 1845, Francis made his home
at La Merced Ranch, twelve miles east of Los Angeles, in the
San Gabriel Valley, where he had a spacious and hospitable
adobe after the old Spanish style, shaped something like a U,
and about seventy by one hundred and ten feet in size. Around
this house, later destroyed by fire, Temple planted twenty acres
of fruit trees and fifty thousand or more vines, arranging the
whole in a garden partly enclosed by a fence the exception
rather than the rule for even a country nabob of that time.
Templito also owned other ranches many miles in extent; but
misfortune overtook him, and by the nineties his estate pos-
sessed scarcely a single acre of land in either the city or the
county of Los Angeles ; and he breathed his last in a rude sheep
herder's camp in a corner of one of his famous properties.
Colonel Julian Isaac Williams, who died some three years
after I arrived, owned the celebrated Cucamonga and Chino
ranches. As early as 1842, after a nine or ten years' residence in
Los Angeles, Williams moved to the Rancho del Chino, which
included not merely the Santa Ana del Chino grant some
twenty-two thousand acres originally given to Don Antonio
Maria Lugo, in 1841 but the addition of twelve to thirteen
1 68 Sixty Years in Southern California [1855
thousand acres, granted in 1843 to Williams (who became
Lugo's son-in-law) making a total of almost thirty-five thou-
sand acres. On that ranch Williams built a house famed far
and wide for its spaciousness and hospitality ; and it was at his
hacienda that the celebrated capture of B D. Wilson and
others was effected when they ran out of ammunition. Wil-
liams was liberal in assisting the needy, even despatching mes-
sengers to Los Angeles, on the arrival at his ranch of worn-out
and ragged immigrants, to secure clothing and other supplies for
them ; and it is related that, on other occasions, he was known to
have advanced to young men capital amounting in the aggre-
gate to thousands of dollars, with which they established them-
selves in business. By 1851, Williams had amassed personal
property estimated to be worth not less than thirty-five thousand
dollars. In the end, he gave his ranchos to his daughters as
marriage-portions: the Chino to Francisca, or Mrs. Robert
Carlisle, who became the wife of Dr. F. A. McDougall, Mayor
in 1877-78, and, after his death, Mrs. Jesurun; and the Cuca-
monga to Maria Merced, or Mrs. John Rains, mother-in-law of
ex-Governor Henry T. Gage, who was later Mrs. Carrillo.
Benjamin Davis Wilson, or Benito Wilson, as he was usually
called, who owned a good part of the most beautiful land in the
San Gabriel Valley and who laid out the trail up the Sierra
Madre to Wilson's Peak, was one of our earliest settlers, having
come from Tennessee via New Mexico, in 1841. In June, 1846,
Wilson joined the riflemen organized against Castro, and in
1848, having been put in charge of some twenty men to protect
the San Bernardino frontier, he responded to a call from Isaac
Williams to hasten to the Chino rancho where, with his com-
patriots, he was taken prisoner. Somewhat earlier I have
understood about 1844 Wilson and Albert Packard formed
a partnership, but this was dissolved near the end of 1851.
In 1850, Wilson was elected County Clerk; and the following
year, he volunteered to patrol the hills and assist in watching
for Garra, the outlaw, the report of whose coming was terroriz-
ing the town. In 1853, he was Indian Agent for Southern Cali-
fornia. It must have been about 1849 that Wilson secured
Maurice Kremer
Solomon Lazard
Mellus's, or Bell's Row
From a lithograph of 1858
William H. Workman and John King
Prudent Beaudry
James S. Mallard
John Behn
Princely Rancho Domains 169
control, for a while, of the Bella Union. His first wife was
Ramona Yorba, a daughter of Bernardo Yorba, whom he
married in February, 1844, and who died in 1849. On February
1st, 1853, Wilson married again, this time Mrs. Margaret S.
Hereford, a sister-in-law of Thomas S. Hereford; they spent
many years together at Lake Vineyard, where he became one
of the leading producers of good wine, and west of which he
planted some twenty-five or thirty thousand raisin grape
cuttings, and ten or twelve hundred orange trees, thus founding
Oak Knoll. I shall have occasion to speak of this gentleman
somewhat later. By the time that I came to know him, Wilson
had accumulated much real estate, part of his property being a
residence on Alameda Street, corner of Macy; but after a
while he moved to one of his larger estates, where stands the
present Shorb station named for his son-in-law and associate
J. De Barth Shorb, who also had a place known as Mountain
Vineyard. Don Benito died in March, 1878.
Colonel Jonathan Trumbull Warner, master of Warner's
Ranch, later the property of John G. Downey, and known
from his superb stature of over six feet both as Juan Jose
Warner and as Juan Largo, "Long John," returned to Los
Angeles in 1857. Warner had arrived in Southern California,
on December 5th, 1831, at the age of twenty-eight, having come
West, from Connecticut, via Missouri and Salt Lake, partly
for his health, and partly to secure mules for the Louisiana
market. Like many others whom I have known, Warner did
not intend to remain; but illness decided for him, and in 1843
he settled in San Diego County, near the California border, on
what (later known as Warner's Ranch) was to become, with its
trail from old Sonora, historic ground. There, during the
fourteen years of his occupancy, some of the most stirring
episodes of the Mexican War occurred ; during one of which
Ensign Espinosa's attack Don Juan having objected to the
forcible searching of his house, he had his arm broken. There,
also, Antonio Garra and .his lawless band made their assault,
and were repulsed by Long John, who escaped on horseback,
leaving in his wake four or five dead Indians. For this, and
170 Sixty Years in Southern California [1855
not for military service, Warner was dubbed Colonel; nor was
there anyone who cared to dispute his right to the title. In
1837, Juan married Miss Anita Gale, an adopted daughter of
Don Pio Pico, and came to Los Angeles; but the following year,
Mrs. Warner died. Warner once ran against E. J. C. Kewen
for the Legislature but, after an exceedingly bitter campaign,
was beaten. In 1874 Warner was a notary public and Span-
ish-English interpreter. For many years his home was in an
orchard occupying the site of the Burbank Theater on Main
Street. Warner was a man of character and lived to a venerable
age; and after a decidedly arduous life he had more than his
share of responsibility and affliction, even losing his sight
in his declining years.
William Wolf skill, who died on October 3d, 1866, was another
pioneer well-established long before I had even thought of Cal-
ifornia. Born in Kentucky at the end of the Eighteenth Cen-
tury of a family originally of Teutonic stock (if we may credit
a high German authority) traced back to a favorite soldier of
Frederick the Great Wolf skill in 1830 came to Los Angeles,
for a short time, with Ewing Young, the noted beaver-trapper.
Then he acquired several leagues of land in Yolo and Solano
counties, sharing what he had with his brothers, John and Mateo.
Later he sold out, returned to Los Angeles, and bought and
stocked the rancho Lomas de Santiago, which he afterward dis-
posed of to Flint , Bixby & Company . He also bought of Corbitt,
Dibblee & Barker the Santa Anita rancho (comprising between
nine and ten thousand acres), and some twelve thousand be-
sides; the Santa Anita he gave to his son, Louis, who later sold
it for eighty-five thousand dollars. Besides this, Wolfskill ac-
quired title to a part of the rancho San Francisquito, on which
Newhall stands, disposing of that, however, during the first oil
excitement, to the Philadelphia Oil Company, at seventy-five
cents an acre a good price at that time. Before making these
successful realty experiments, this hero of desert hardships had
assisted to build, soon after his arrival, here, one of the first ves-
sels ever constructed and launched in California a schooner
fitted out at San Pedro to hunt for sea otter. In January, 1841,
i8ss] Princely Rancho Domains 171
Wolfskill married Dona Magdalena Lugo, daughter of Don Jose
Ygnacio Lugo, of Santa Barbara. A daughter, Senorita Magda-
lena, in 1865 married Frank Sabichi, a native of Los Angeles,
who first saw the light of day in 1842. Sabichi, by the way,
always a man of importance in this community, is the son
of Mateo and Josefa Franco Sabichi (the mother, a sister
of Antonio Franco Coronel), buried at San Gabriel Mission.
J. E. Pleasants, to whom I elsewhere refer, first made a
good start when he formed a partnership with Wolfskill in a
cattle deal.
Concerning Mateo, I recall an interesting illustration of
early fiscal operations. He deposited thirty thousand dollars
with S. Lazard & Company and left it there so long that they
began to think he would never come back for it. He did return,
however, after many years, when he presented a certificate of
deposit and withdrew the money. This transaction bore no
interest, as was often the case in former days. People de-
posited money with friends in whom they had confidence, not
for the purpose of profit but simply for safety.
Elijah T. Moulton, a Canadian, was one of the few pioneers
who preceded the Forty-niners and was permitted to see Los
Angeles well on its way toward metropolitan standing. In
1844 he had joined an expedition to California organized by
Jim Bridger; and having reached the Western country, he
volunteered to serve under Fremont in the Mexican campaign.
There the hardships which Moulton endured were far severer
than those which tested the grit of the average emigrant ; and
Moulton in better days often told how, when nearly driven to
starvation, he and a comrade had actually used a remnant of
the Stars and Stripes as a seine with which to fish, and so saved
their lives. About 1850, Moulton was Deputy Sheriff under
George T. Burrill; then he went to work for Don Louis Vignes.
Soon afterward, he bought some land near William Wolfskill's,
and in 1855 took charge of Wolfskill's property. This resulted
in his marriage to one of Wolfskill's daughters, who died in
1861. In the meantime, he had acquired a hundred and fifty
acres or more in what is now East Los Angeles, and was thus
172 Sixty Years in Southern California [1855
one of the first to settle in that section. He had a dairy, for a
while, and peddled milk from a can or two carried in a wagon.
Afterward, Moulton became a member of the City Council.
William Workman and John Rowland, father of William
or Billy Rowland, resided in 1853 on La Puente rancho, which
was granted them July 22d, 1845, some four years after they had
arrived in California. They were leaders of a party from New
Mexico, of which B. D. Wilson, Lemuel Carpenter and others
were members ; and the year following they operated with Pico
against Micheltorena and Sutter, Workman serving as Captain,
and Rowland as Lieutenant, of a company of volunteers they
had organized. The ranch, situated about twenty miles east of
Los Angeles, consisted of nearly forty-nine thousand acres,
and had one of the first brick residences erected in this neigh-
borhood. Full title to this splendid estate was confirmed by the
United States Government in April, 1867, a couple of years
before Workman and Rowland, with the assistance of Cameron
E. Thorn, divided their property. Rowland, who in 1851 was
supposed to own some twenty-nine thousand acres and about
seventy thousand dollars' worth of personal property, further
partitioned his estate, three or four years before his death in
1873, among his nearest of kin, giving to each heir about three
thousand acres of land and a thousand head of cattle. One
of these heirs, the wife of General Charles Forman, is the half-
sister of Billy Rowland by a second marriage.
John Reed, Rowland's son-in-law, was also a large land-
proprietor. Reed had fallen in with Rowland in New Mexico,
and while there married Rowland's daughter, Nieves ; and when
Rowland started for California, Reed came with him and
together they entered into ranching at La Puente, finding
artesian water there, in 1859. Thirteen years before, Reed
was in the American army and took part in the battles fought
on the march from San Diego to Los Angeles. After his death
on the ranch in 1874, his old homestead came into possession
of John Rowland's son, William, who often resided there; and
Rowland, later discovering oil on his land, organized the Puente
Oil Company.
1855] Princely Rancho Domains 173
Juan Forster, an Englishman, possessed the Santa Mar-
garita rancho, which he had taken up in 1864, some years
after he married Dona Ysidora Pico. She was a sister of Pio
and Andres Pico, and there, as a result of that alliance, General
Pico found a safe retreat while fleeing from Fremont into Lower
California. Forster for a while was a seaman out of San Pedro.
When he went to San Juan Capistrano, where he became a
sort of local Alcalde and was often called Don San Juan or even
San Juan Capistrano, he experimented with raising stock and
became so successful as a ranchero that he remained there
twenty years, during which time he acquired a couple of other
ranches, in San Diego and Los Angeles counties, comprising
quite sixty thousand acres. Forster, however, was compara-
tively land-poor, as may be inferred from the fact that even
though the owner of such a princely territory, he was assessed
in 1851 on but thirteen thousand dollars in personal property.
Later Don Juan lorded it over twice as much land in the
ranches of Santa Margarita and Las Flores. His fourth son,
a namesake, married Senorita Josef a del Valle, daughter of Don
Ygnacio del Valle.
Manuel, Pedro, Nasario and Victoria Dominguez owned in
the neighborhood of forty-eight thousand acres of the choicest
land in the South. More than a century ago, Juan Jose
Dominguez received from the King of Spain ten or eleven
leagues of land, known as the Rancho de San Pedro; and this
was given by Governor de Sola, after Juan Jose's death in 1822,
to his brother, Don Cristobal Dominguez, a Spanish officer.
Don Cristobal married a Mexican commissioner's daugh-
ter, and one of their ten children was Manuel, who, educated
by wide reading and fortunate in a genial temperament and
high standard of honor, became an esteemed and popular
officer under the Mexican regime, displaying no little chivalry
in the battle of Dominguez fought on his own property. On the
death of his father, Don Manuel took charge of the Rancho de
San Pedro (buying out his sister Victoria's interest of twelve
thousand acres, at fifty cents an acre) until in 1855 ^ was
partitioned between himself, his brother, Don Pedro and two
174 Sixty Years in Southern California [1855
nephews, Jose Antonio Aguirre and Jacinto Rocha. One daugh-
ter, Victoria, married George Carson in 1857. At his death, in
1882, Dominguez bequeathed to his heirs twenty odd thousand
acres, including Rattlesnake Island in San Pedro Bay. James A.
Watson, an early-comer, married a second daughter; John F.
Francis married a third, and Dr. del Amo married a fourth.
Henry Dalton, who came here sometime before 1845,
having been a merchant in Peru, owned the Azusa Ranch of
over four thousand acres, the patent to which was finally issued
in 1876, and also part of the San Francisquito Ranch of eight
thousand acres, allowed him somewhat later. Besides these,
he had an interest, with Ygnacio Palomares and Ricardo Vejar,
in the San Jose rancho of nearly twenty-seven thousand acres.
As early as the twenty-first of May, 1851, Dalton, with keen
foresight, seems to have published a plan for the subdivision of
nine or ten thousand acres into lots to suit limited ranchers ; but
it was some time before Duarte and other places, now on the
above-mentioned estates, arose from his dream. On a part of his
property, Azusa, a town of the Boom period, was founded some
twenty-two miles from Los Angeles, and seven or eight hundred
feet up the Azusa slope; and now other towns also flourish near
these attractive foothills. One of Dalton's daughters was
given in marriage to Louis, a son of William Wolfskill. Dal-
ton's brother, George, I have already mentioned as having like-
wise settled here.
Of all these worthy dons, possessing vast landed estates,
Don Antonio Maria Lugo, brother of Ygnacio Lugo, was one of
the most affluent and venerable. He owned the San Antonio
rancho, named I presume after him; and in 1856, when he
celebrated his seventy-fifth birthday, was reputed to be the
owner of fully twenty-nine thousand acres and personal
property to the extent of seventy- two thousand dollars. Three
sons, Jose Maria, Jose del Carmen and Vicente Lugo, as early
as 1842 also acquired in their own names about thirty-seven
thousand acres.
Louis Robidoux, a French- American of superior ability who,
like many others, had gone through much that was exciting
Louis Robidoux
Julius G. Weyse
John Behn
Louis Breer
William J. Brodrick
Isaac R. Dunkelberger
Frank J. Carpenter
Augustus Ulyard
Princely Rancho Domains 175
and unpleasant to establish himself in this wild, open country,
eventually had an immense estate known as the Jurupa rancho,
from which on September 26th, 1846, during the Mexican War,
B. D. Wilson and others rode forth to be neatly trapped and
captured at the Chino; and where the outlaw Irving later
encamped. Riverside occupies a site on this land; and the
famous Robidoux hill, usually spoken of as the Roubidoux
mountain, once a part of Louis's ranch and to-day a Mecca for
thousands of tourists, was named after him.
Many of the rancher os kept little ranch stores, from which
they sold to their employees. This was rather for convenience
than for profit. When their help came to Los Angeles, they
generally got drunk and stayed away from work longer than
the allotted time; and it was to prevent this, as far as possible,
that these outlying stores were conducted.
Louis Robidoux maintained such a store for the accommo-
dation of his hands, and often came to town, sometimes for
several days, on which occasions he would buy very liberally
anything that happened to take his fancy. In this respect he
occasionally acted without good judgment, and if opposed would
become all the more determined. Not infrequently he called
for so large a supply of some article that I was constrained to
remark that he could not possibly need so much ; whereupon he
would repeat the order with angry emphasis. I sometimes
visited his ranch and recall, in particular, one stay of two or
three days there in 1857 when, after an unusually large pur-
chase, Robidoux asked me to assist him in checking up the in-
voices. The cases were unpacked in his ranchhouse; and I
have never forgotten the amusing picture of the numerous little
Robidoux, digging and delving among the assorted goods for
all the prizes they could find, and thus rendering the process of
listing the goods much more difficult. When the delivery had
been found correct, Robidoux turned to his Mexican wife and
asked her to bring the money. She went to the side of the room,
opened a Chinese trunk such as every well-to-do Mexican family
had (and sometimes as many as half a dozen), and drew there-
from the customary buckskin, from which she extracted the
176 ' Sixty Years in Southern California [1855
required and rather large amount. These trunks were made of
cedar, were gaudily painted, and had the quality of keeping
out moths. They were, therefore, displayed with pride by the
owners. Recently on turning the pages of some ledgers in
which Newmark, Kremer & Company carried the account of
this famous ranchero, I was interested to find there full con-
firmation of what I have elsewhere claimed that the now
renowned Frenchman spelled the first syllable of his name Ro-,
and not Ru-, nor yet Ron-, as it is generally recorded in books
and newspapers.
I should refrain from mentioning a circumstance or two in
Robidoux's life with which I am familiar but for the fact that
I believe posterity is ever curious to know the little failings as
well as the pronounced virtues of men who, through exceptional
personality or association, have become historic characters;
and that some knowledge of their foibles should not tarnish
their reputation. Robidoux, as I have remarked, came to town
very frequently, and when again he found himself amid livelier
scenes and congenial fellows, as in the late fifties, he always
celebrated the occasion with a few intimates, winding up his
befuddling bouts in the arms of Chris Fluhr, who winked at
his weakness and good-naturedly tucked him away in one of
the old-fashioned beds of the Lafayette Hotel, there to remain
until he was able to transact business. After all, such celebrat-
ing was then not at all uncommon among the best of Southern
California people, nor, if gossip may be credited, is it entirely
unknown to-day. Robert Hornbeck, of Redlands, by the way,
has sought to perpetuate this pioneer's fame in an illustrated
volume, Roubidoux's Ranch in the /o's, published as I am
closing my story.
Robidoux's name leads me to recur to early judges and to
his identification with the first Court of Sessions here, when
there was such a sparseness even of rancherias. Robidoux then
lived on his Jurupa domain, and not having been at the meeting
of township justices which selected himself and Judge Scott
to sit on the bench, and enjoying but infrequent communica-
tion with the more peopled districts of Southern California, he
Princely Rancho Domains 177
knew nothing of the outcome of the election until sometime
after it had been called. More than this, Judge Robidoux never
actually participated in a sitting of the Court of Sessions until
four or five weeks after it had been almost daily transacting
business !
Speaking of ranches, and of the Jurupa in particular, I may
here reprint an advertisement a miniature tree and a house
heading the following announcement in the Southern Califor-
nian of June 2Oth, 1855:
The Subscriber, being anxious to get away from Swindlers,
offers for sale one of the very finest ranches, or tracts of land,
that is to be found in California, known as the Rancho de
Jurupa, Santa Ana River, in the County of San Bernardino.
Bernardo Yorba was another great landowner; and I am
sure that, in the day of his glory, he might have traveled fifty
to sixty miles in a straight line, touching none but his own
possessions. His ranches, on one of which Pio Pico hid from
Santiago Arguello, were delightfully located where now stand
such places as Anaheim, Orange, Santa Ana, Westminster,
Garden Grove and other towns in Orange County then a
part of Los Angeles County.
This leads me to describe a shrewd trick. Schlecinger
Sherwinsky, traders in general merchandise in 1853, when
they bought a wagon in San Francisco, brought it here by
steamer, loaded it with various attractive wares, took it out
to good-natured and easy-going Bernardo Yorba, and wheedled
the well-known rancher o into purchasing not only the contents,
but the wagon, horses and harness as well. Indeed, their in-
genuity was so well rewarded, that soon after this first lucky
hit, they repeated their success, to the discomfiture of their
competitors; and if I am not mistaken, they performed the
same operation on the old don several times.
The Verdugo family had an extensive acreage where such
towns as Glendale now enjoy the benefit of recent suburban
development, Governor Pedro Pages having granted, as early
as 1784, some thirty -six thousand acres to Don Jose Maria
178 Sixty Years in Southern California [1855
Verdugo, which grant was reaffirmed in 1798, thereby affording
the basis of a patent issued in 1882, to Julio Verdugo et al,
although Verdugo died in 1858. To this Verdugo rancho,
Fremont sent Jesus Pico the Mexican guide whose life he had
spared, as he was about to be executed at San Luis Obispo
to talk with the Californians and to persuade them to deal
with Fremont instead of Stockton; and there on February 2ist,
1845, Micheltorena and Castro met. Near there also, still
later, the celebrated Casa Verdugo entertained for many years
the epicures of Southern California, becoming one of the best-
known restaurants for Spanish dishes in the State. Little by
little, the Verdugo family lost all their property, partly through
their refusal or inability to pay taxes; so that by the second
decade of the Twentieth Century the surviving representa-
tives, including Victoriano and Guillermo Verdugo, were re-
duced to poverty. 1
Recalling Verdugo and his San Rafael Ranch let me add
that he had thirteen sons, all of whom frequently accompan-
ied their father to town, ' especially on election day. On those
occasions, J. Lancaster Brent, whose political influence with
the old man was supreme, took the Verdugo party in hand and
distributed, through the father, fourteen election tickets, on
which were impressed the names of Brent's candidates.
Manuel Garfias, County Treasurer a couple of years before
I came, was another land-baron, owning in his own name some
thirteen or fourteen thousand acres of the San Pasqual Ranch.
There, among the picturesque hills and valleys where both
Pico and Flores had military camps, now flourish the cities
of Pasadena and South Pasadena, which include the land where
stood the first house erected on the ranch. It is my impression
that beautiful Altadena is also on this land.
Ricardo Vejar, another magnate, had an interest in a wide
area of rich territory known as the San Jose Ranch. Not less
than twenty- two thousand acres made up this rancho which, as
early as 1837, had been granted by Governor Alvarado to Vejar
1 Julio Chrisostino Verdugo died early in March, 1915, supposed to be about
one hundred and twelve years old.
Princely Rancho Domains 179
and Ygnacio Palomares who died on November 25th, 1 864. Two
or three years later, Luis Arenas joined the two, and Alvarado
renewed his grant, tacking on a league or two of San Jose land
lying to the West and nearer the San Gabriel mountains.
Arenas, in time, disposed of his interest to Henry Dalton ; and
Dalton joined Vejar in applying to the courts for a partitioning
of the estate. This division was ordered by the Spanish Alcalde
six or seven years before my arrival; but Palomares still ob-
jected to the decision, and the matter dragged along in the
tribunals many years, the decree finally being set aside by the
Court. Vejar, who had been assessed in 1851 for thirty-four
thousand dollars' worth of personal property, sold his share of
the estate for twenty-nine thousand dollars, in the spring of
1874. It is a curious fact that not until the San Jose rancho had
been so cut up that it was not easy to trace it back to the origi-
nal grantees, did the authorities at Washington finally issue a
patent to Dalton, Palomares and Vejar for the twenty-two
thousand acres which originally made up the ranch.
The Machados, of whom there were several brothers
Don Agustin, who died on May I7th, 1865, being the head of
the family had title to nearly fourteen thousand acres.
Their ranch, originally granted to Don Ygnacio Machado in
1839 and patented in 1873, was known as La Ballona and
extended from the city limits to the ocean; and there, among
other stock, in 1860, were more than two thousand head of
cattle.
The Picos acquired much territory. There were two broth-
ers Pio, who as Mexican Governor had had wide supervision
over land, and Andres, who had fought throughout the San
Pasqual campaigns until the capitulation at Cahuenga, and
still later had dashed with spirit across country in pursuit of
the murderers of Sheriff Barton. Pio Pico alone, in 1851, was
assessed for twenty-two thousand acres as well as twenty-one
thousand dollars in personal property. Besides controlling
various San Fernando ranches (once under B. H. Lancaro's
management) , Andres Pico possessed La Habra, a ranch of over
six thousand acres, for which a patent was granted in 1872, and
i8o Sixty Years in Southern California [1855
the ranch Los Coyotes, including over forty-eight thousand
acres, patented three years later; while Pio Pico at one time
owned the Santa Margarita and Las Flores ranches, and had,
in addition, some nine thousand acres known as Paso de Bar-
tolo. In his old age the Governor who, as long as I knew him,
had been strangely loose in his business methods, and had bor-
rowed from everybody found himself under the necessity of
obtaining some thirty or forty thousand dollars, even at the
expense of giving to B. Cohn, W. J. Brodrick and Charles
Prager, a blanket mortgage covering all of his properties.
These included the Pico House, the Pico Ranch on the other
side of the San Gabriel River the homestead on which has for
some time been preserved by the ladies of Whittier and prop-
erty on Main Street, north of Commercial, besides some other
holdings. When his note fell due Pico was unable to meet it;
and the mortgage was foreclosed. The old man was then left
practically penniless, a suit at law concerning the interpreta-
tion of the loan-agreement being decided against him.
Henry C. Wiley must have arrived very early, as he had
been in Los Angeles some years before I came. He married
a daughter of Andres Pico and for a while had charge of his
San Fernando Ranch. Wiley served, at one time, as Sheriff
of the County. He died in 1898.
The rancho Los Nietos or, more properly speaking, perhaps,
the Santa Gertrudis, than whose soil (watered, as it is, by the
San Gabriel River) none more fertile can be found in the world,
included indeed a wide area extending between the Santa Ana
and San Gabriel rivers, and embracing the ford known as
Pico Crossing. It was then in possession of the Carpenter
family, Lemuel Carpenter having bought it from the heirs of
Manuel Nieto, to whom it had been granted in 1784. Carpen-
ter came from Missouri to this vicinity as early as 1833, when
he was but twenty-two years old. For a while, he had a small
soap-factory on the right bank of the San Gabriel River, after
which he settled on the ranch; and there he remained until No-
vember 6th, 1859, when he committed suicide. Within the bor-
ders of this ranch to-day lie such places as Downey and Rivera.
Princely Rancho Domains 181
Francisco Sanchez was another early ranchero probably
the same who figured so prominently in early San Francisco;
and it is possible that J. M. Sanchez, to whom, in 1859, was re-
granted the forty-four hundred acres of the Potrero Grande,
was his heir.
There were two large and important landowners, second
cousins, known as Jose Sepulveda; the one, Don Jose Andres,
and the other, Don Jose Loreto. The father of Jose Andres
was Don Francisco Sepulveda, a Spanish officer to whom the
San Vicente Ranch had been granted; and Jose Andres, born in
San Diego in 1804, was the oldest of eleven children. His
brothers were Fernando, Jose del Carmen, Dolores and Juan
Maria; and he also had six sisters. To Jose Andres, or Jose as
he was called, the San Joaquin Ranch was given, an enormous
tract of land lying between the present Tustin, earlier known
as Tustin City, and San Juan Capistrano, and running from the
hills to the sea ; while, on the death of Don Francisco, the San
Vicente Ranch, later bought by Jones and Baker, was left to
Jose del Carmen, Dolores and Juan Maria. Jose, in addition,
bought eighteen hundred acres from Jose Antonio Yorba, and
on this newly-acquired property he built his ranchhouse, al-
though he and his family may be said to have been more or
less permanent residents of Los Angeles. Fernando Sepulveda
married a Verdugo, and through her became proprietor of much
of the Verdugo rancho. The fact that Jose was so well provided
for, and that Fernando had come into control of the Verdugo
acres, made it mutually satisfactory that the San Vicente Ranch
should have been willed to the other sons. The children of Jose
Andres included Miguel, Mauricio, Bernabe, Joaquin, Andro-
nico and Ygnacio, and Francisca, wife of James Thompson,
Tomasa, wife of Frank Rico, Ramona, wife of Captain Salis-
bury Haley of the Sea Bird, Ascencion, wife of Tom Mott, and
Tranquilina. The latter, with Mrs. Mott and Judge Ygnacio,
are still living here.
Don Jose Loreto, brother of Juan and Diego Sepulveda,
father of Mrs. John T. Lanfranco, and a well-known resident
of Los Angeles County in early days, presided over the destinies
1 82 Sixty Years in Southern California [1855
of thirty-one thousand acres in the Palos Verdes rancho, where
Flores had stationed his soldiers to watch the American ship
Savannah. Full patent to this land was granted in 1880.
There being no fences to separate the great ranches, cattle
roamed at will; nor were the owners seriously concerned, for
every man had his distinct, registered brand and in proper
season the various herds were segregated by means of rodeos,
or round-ups of strayed or mixed cattle. On such occasions,
all of the rancheros within a certain radius drove their herds
little by little into a corral designated for the purpose, and each
selected his own cattle according to brand. After segregation
had thus been effected, they were driven from the corral,
followed by the calves, which were also branded, in anticipation
of the next rodeo.
Such round-ups were great events, for they brought all the
rancheros and vaqueros together. They became the raison d'etre
of elaborate celebrations, sometimes including horse-races, bull-
fights and other amusements ; and this was the case particularly
in 1 86 1, because of the rains and consequent excellent season.
The enormous herds of cattle gathered at rodeos remind me,
in fact, of a danger that the rancheros were obliged to contend
with, especially when driving their stock from place to place:
Indians stampeded the cattle, whenever possible, so that in the
confusion those escaping the vaqueros and straggling behind
might the more easily be driven to the Indian camps; and
sometimes covetous ranchmen caused a similar commotion
among the stock in order to make thieving easier.
While writing of ranches, one bordering on the other, un-
fenced and open, and the enormous number of horses and
cattle, as well as men required to take care of such an
amount of stock, I must not forget to mention an institution
that had flourished, as a branch of the judiciary, in palmier
Mexican days, though it was on the wane when I arrived here.
This was the Judgeship of the Plains, an office charged directly
with the interests of the ranchman. Judges of the Plains were
officials delegated to arrange for the rodeos, and to hold informal
court, in the saddle or on the open hillside, in order to settle
Princely Rancho Domains 183
disputes among, and dispense justice to, those living and work-
ing beyond the pales of the towns. Under Mexican rule, a
Judge of the Plains, who was more or less a law unto himself,
served for glory and dignity (much as does an English Justice
of the Peace) ; and the latter factor was an important part of the
stipulation, as we may gather from a story told by early Ange-
lenos of the impeachment of Don Antonio Maria Lugo. Don
Antonio was then a Judge of the Plains, and as such was
charged with having, while on horseback, nearly trampled upon
Pedro Sanchez, for no other reason than that poor Pedro had
refused to "uncover" while the Judge rode by, and to keep his
hat off until his Honor was unmistakably out of sight! When,
at length, Americans took possession of Southern California,
Judges of the Plains were given less power, and provision was
made, for the first time, for a modest honorarium in return for
their travel and work.
For nearly a couple of decades after the organization of Los
Angeles under the incoming white pioneers, not very much was
known of the vast districts inland and adjacent to Southern
California; and one can well understand the interest felt by
our citizens on July I7th, 1855, when Colonel Washington, of the
United States Surveying Expedition to the Rio Colorado, put
up at the Bella Union on his way to San Francisco. He was
bombarded with questions about the region lying between the
San Bernardino Mountain range and the Colorado, hitherto
unexplored; and being a good talker, readily responded with
much entertaining information.
In July, 1855, I attained my majority and, having by this
time a fair command of English, I took a more active part in
social affairs. Before he married Margarita, daughter of Juan
Bandini, Dr. J. B. Winston, then interested in the Bella Union,
organized most of the dances, and I was one of his committee
of arrangements. We would collect from the young men of our
acquaintance money enough to pay for candles and music; for
each musician playing either a harp, a guitar or a flute
charged from a dollar to a dollar and a half for his services.
Formal social events occurred in the evening of almost any day
1 84 Sixty Years in Southern California [1855
of the week. Whenever Dr. Winston or the young gallants
of that period thought it was time to have a dance, they just
passed around the hat for the necessary funds, and announced
the affair. Ladies were escorted to functions, although we did
not take them in carriages or other vehicles but tramped
through the dust or mud. Young ladies, however, did not
go out with gentlemen unless they were accompanied by a
chaperon, generally some antiquated female member of the
family.
These hops usually took place at the residence of Widow
Blair, opposite the Bella Union and north of the present Post
Office. There we could have a sitting-room, possibly eighteen
by thirty feet square ; and while this was larger than any other
room in a private house in town, it will be realized that, after
all, the space for dancing was very limited. We made the
best, however, of what we had ; the refreshments, at these impro-
vised affairs, were rarely more than lemonade and otta water.
Many times such dances followed as a natural termination
to another social observance, transmitted to us, I have no doubt,
by the romantic Spanish settlers here, and very popular for
some time after I came. This good old custom was serenading.
We would collect money, as if for dancing; and in the even-
ing a company of young men and chaperoned young ladies
would proceed in a body to some popular girl's home where,
with innocent gallantry, the little band would serenade her.
After that, of course, we were always glad to accept an
invitation to come into the house, when the ladies of the house-
hold sometimes regaled us with a bit of cake and wine.
Speaking of the social life of those early days, when
warm, stimulating friendships and the lack of all foolish caste
distinctions rendered the occasions delightfully pleasant,
may it not be well to ask whether the contrast between
those simple, inexpensive pleasures, and the elaborate and
extravagant demands of modern society, is not worth sober
thought? To be sure, Los Angeles then was exceedingly small,
and pioneers here were much like a large family in plain, un-
pretentious circumstances. There were no such ceremonies
Princely Rancho Domains 185
as now; there were no four hundred, no three hundred, nor
even one hundred. There was, for example, no flunky at the
door to receive the visitor's card; and for the very good reason
that visiting cards were unknown. In those pastoral, pueblo
days it was no indiscretion for a friend to walk into an-
other friend's house without knocking. Society of the early
days could be divided, I suppose, into two classes : the respect-
able and the evil element; and people who were honorable
came together because they esteemed each other and liked one
another's company. The "gold fish" of the present age had
not yet developed. We enjoyed ourselves together, and without
distinction were ready to fight to the last ditch for the protec-
tion of our families and the preservation of our homes.
In the fall of 1855, Dr. Thomas J. White, a native of St.
Louis and Speaker of the Assembly in the first California
Legislature convened at San Jose, in December, 1849, arrived
from San Francisco with his wife and two daughters, and
bought a vineyard next to Dr. Hoover's ten-acre place where,
in three or four years, he became one of the leading wine-
producers. Their advent created quite a stir, and the house,
which was a fine and rather commodious one for the times, soon
became the scene of extensive entertainments. The addition
of this highly-accomplished family was indeed quite an
accession to our social ranks. Their hospitality compared
favorably even with California's open-handed and open-
hearted spirit, and soon became notable. Their evening parties
and other receptions were both frequent and lavish, so that the
Whites quickly took rank as leaders in Los Angeles. While
yet in Sacramento, one of the daughters, who had fallen in love
with E. J. C. Kewen when the latter was a member of the
White party in crossing the great Plains, married the Colonel ;
id in 1862, another daughter, Miss Jennie, married Judge
[urray Morrison. A son was T. Jeff White, who named his
)lace Casalinda. In the late fifties, Dr. White had a drug-store
the Temple Building on Main Street.
It was long before Los Angeles had anything like a regular
theater, or even enjoyed such shows as were provided by
1 86 Sixty Years in Southern California [1855
itinerant companies, some of which, when they did begin to
come, stayed here for weeks; although I remember having
heard of one ambitious group of players styling themselves
The Rough and Ready Theater, who appeared here very early
and gave sufficient satisfaction to elicit the testimony from a
local scribe, that "when Richmond was conquered and laid
off for dead, the enthusiastic auditors gave the King a smile of
decided approval!" Minstrels and circuses were occasionally
presented, a minstrel performance taking place sometime in the
fifties, in an empty store on Aliso Street, near Los Angeles.
About the only feature of this event that is now clear in my
memory is that Bob Carsley, played the bones; he remained
in Los Angeles and married, later taking charge of the foundry
which Stearns established when he built his Arcadia Block on
Los Angeles Street. An Albino also was once brought to Los
Angeles and publicly exhibited; and since anything out of the
ordinary challenged attention, everybody went to see a curiosity
that to-day would attract but little notice. Speaking of theatri-
cal performances and the applause bestowed upon favorites,
I must not forget to mention the reckless use of money and the
custom, at first quite astounding to me, of throwing coins
often large, shining slugs upon the stage or floor, if an actor
or actress particularly pleased the spendthrift patron.
In October, 1855, William Abbott, who was one of the
many to come to Los Angeles in 1853, and who had brought
with him a small stock of furniture, started a store in a little
wooden house he had acquired on a lot next to that which
later became the site of the Pico House. Abbott married
Dona Merced Garcia; and good fortune favoring him, he not
only gradually enlarged his stock of goods, but built a more
commodious building, in the upper story of which was the
Merced Theater, named after Abbott's wife, and opened in the
late sixties. The vanity of things mundane is well illustrated
in the degeneration of this center of early histrionic effort,
which entered a period of decay in the beginning of the eighties
and, as the scene of disreputable dances, before 1890 had
been pronounced a nuisance.
i8ss] Princely Rancho Domains 187
During the first decade under the American regime, Los
Angeles gradually learned the value of reaching toward the
outside world and welcoming all who responded. In 1855, as
I have said, a brisk trade was begun with Salt Lake, through
the opening up of a route leading along the old Spanish
trail to Santa Fe. Banning & Alexander, with their usual enter-
prise, together with W. T. B. Sanford, made the first shipment
in a heavily-freighted train of fifteen wagons drawn by one
hundred and fifty mules. The train, which carried thirty tons,
was gone four months; having left Los Angeles in May, it re-
turned in September. In every respect the experiment was
a success, and naturally the new route had a beneficial effect
on Southern California trade. It also contributed to the de-
velopment of San Bernardino, through which town it passed.
Before the year was out, one or two express companies were
placarding the stores here with announcements of rates "To
Great Salt Lake City." Banning, by the way, then purchased
in Salt Lake the best wagons he had, and brought here some
of the first vehicles with spokes to be seen in Los Angeles.
The school authorities of the past sometimes sailed on waters
as troubled as those rocking the Educational Boards to-day. I
recall an amusing incident of the middle fifties, when a new
set of Trustees, having succeeded to the control of affairs,
were scandalized, or at least pretended to be, by an action
of their predecessors, and immediately adopted the following
resolution :
Resolved, that page seven of the School Commissioners'
Record be pasted down on page eight, so that the indecorous
language written therein by the School Commissioners of 1855,
can never again be read or seen, said language being couched
in such terms that the present School Commissioners are not
willing to read such record.
Richard Laugh in died at his vineyard, on the east side of
Alameda Street, in or soon after 1855. Like William Wolf skill,
Ewing Young who fitted out the Wolfskill party and Moses
Carson, brother of the better-known Kit and at one time a
1 88 Sixty Years in Southern California [1855]
trader at San Pedro, Laughlin was a trapper who made his way
to Los Angeles along the Gila River. This was a waterway
of the savage Apache country traversed even in 1854
according to the lone ferryman's statistics by nearly ten
thousand persons.- In middle life, Laughlin supported himself
by carpentry and hunting.
With the increase in the number and activity of the Chinese
in California, the prejudice of the masses was stirred up vio-
lently. This feeling found expression particularly in 1 855, when
a law was passed by the Legislature, imposing a fine of fifty
dollars on each owner or master of a vessel bringing to Califor-
nia anyone incapable of becoming a citizen ; but when suit was
instituted, to test the act's validity, it was declared un-
constitutional. At that time, most of the opposition to the
Chinese came from San Franciscans, there being but few coolies
here.
Certain members of the same Legislature led a movement
to form a new State, to be called Colorado and to include all
the territory south of San Luis Obispo; and the matter was
repeatedly discussed in several subsequent sessions. Nothing
came of it, however; but Kern County was formed, in 1866,
partly from Los Angeles County and partly from Tulare.
About five thousand square miles, formerly under our County
banner, were thus legislated away; and because the mountain-
ous and desert area seemed of little prospective value, we sub-
mitted willingly. In this manner, unenlightened by modern
science and ignorant of future possibilities, Southern Cali-
fornia, guided by no clear and certain vision, drifted and
stumbled along to its destiny.
m
v c
M o
+3 P.
< S
I
Myer J. Newmark
Edward J. C. Kewen
Dr. John S. Griffin
William C. Warren
CHAPTER XIV
ORCHARDS AND VINEYARDS
1856
DURING 1856, I dissolved with my partners, Rich and
Laventhal, and went into business with my uncle,
Joseph Newmark, J. P. Newmark and Maurice
Kremer, under the title of Newmark, Kremer & Company.
Instead of a quasi wholesale business, we now had a larger
assortment and did more of a retail business. We occupied a
room, about forty by eighty feet in size, in the Mascarel and
Barri block on the south side of Commercial Street (then
known as Commercial Row), between Main and Los Angeles
streets, our modest establishment being almost directly oppo-
site the contracted quarters of my first store and having the
largest single storeroom then in the city; and there we con-
tinued with moderate success, until 1858.
To make this new partnership possible, Kremer had sold
out his interest in the firm of Lazard & Kremer, dry goods
merchants, the readjustment providing an amusing illustration
of the manner in which business, with its almost entire lack of
specialization, was then conducted. When the stock was taken,
a large part of it consisted, not of dry goods, as one might well
suppose, but of cigars and tobacco !
About the beginning of 1856, Sisters of Charity made their
first appearance in Los Angeles, following a meeting called by
Bishop Amat during the preceding month, to provide for their
coming, when Abel Stearns presided and John G. Downey acted
as Secretary. Benjamin Hayes, Thomas Foster, Ezra Drown,
189
190 Sixty Years in Southern California [1856
Louis Vignes, Ygnacio del Valle and Antonio Coronel co-
operated, while Manuel Requena collected the necessary funds.
On January 5th, Sisters Maria Scholastica, Maria Corzina,
Ana, Clara, Francisca and Angela arrived three of them
coming almost directly from Spain; and immediately they
formed an important adjunct to the Church in matters per-
taining to religion, charity and education. It was to them that
B. D. Wilson sold his Los Angeles home, including ten acres of
fine orchard, at the corner of Alameda and Macy streets, for
eight thousand dollars ; and there for many years they conducted
their school, the Institute and Orphan Asylum, until they sold
the property to J. M. Griffith, who used the site for a lumber-
yard. Griffith, in turn, disposed of it to the Southern Pacific
Railroad Company. Sister Scholastica, who celebrated in
1889 her fiftieth anniversary as a sister, was long the Mother
Superior.
The so-called First Public School having met with popular
approval, the Board of Education in 1856 opened another
school on Bath Street. The building, two stories in height, was
of brick and had two rooms.
On January 9th, John P. Brodie assumed charge of the
Southern Calif ornian. Andres Pico was then proprietor; and
before the newspaper died, in .1857, Pico lost, it is said, ten
thousand dollars in the venture.
The first regular course of public lectures here was given in
1856 under the auspices of a society known as the Mechanics'
Institute, and in one of Henry Dalton's corrugated iron
buildings.
George T. Burrill, first County Sheriff, died on February
2d, his demise bringing to mind an interesting story. He was
Sheriff, in the summer of 1850, when certain members of
the infamous Irving party were arraigned for murder, and
during that time received private word that many of the
prisoners' friends would pack the little court room and attempt
a rescue. Burrill, however, who used to wear a sword and had
a rather soldierly bearing, was equal to the emergency. He'
quickly sent to Major E. H. Fitzgerald and had the latter
1856] Orchards and Vineyards 191
come post-haste to town and court with a detachment of
soldiers; and with this superior, disciplined force he overawed
the bandits' companeros who, sure enough, were there and fully
armed to make a demonstration.
Thomas E. Rowan arrived here with his father, James
Rowan, in 1856, and together they opened a bakery. Tom
delivered the bread for a short time, but soon abandoned that
pursuit for politics, being frequently elected to office, serving
in turn as Supervisor, City and County Treasurer and even,
from 1893 to 1894, as Mayor of Los Angeles. Shortly before
Tom married Miss Josephine Mayerhofer in San Francisco in
1862 and a handsome couple they made the Rowans bought
from Louis Mesmer the American Bakery, located at the
southwest corner of Main and First streets and originally
established by August Ulyard. When James Rowan died
about forty years ago, Tom fell heir to the bakery ; but as he
was otherwise engaged, he employed Maurice Mauricio as man-
ager, and P. Galta, afterward a prosperous business man of Bak-
ersfield, as driver. Tom, who died in 1899, was also associated
as cashier with I. W. Hellman and F. P. F. Temple in their
bank. Rowan Avenue and Rowan Street were both -named
after this early comer.
The time for the return of my brother and his European
bride now approached, and I felt a natural desire to meet
them. Almost coincident, therefore, with their arrival in San
Francisco, I was again in that growing city in 1856, although I
had been there but the year previous.
On April 9th, occurred the marriage of Matilda, daughter
of Joseph NeWmark, to Maurice Kremer. The ceremony was
performed by the bride's father. For the subsequent festivities,
ice, from which ice cream was made, was brought from San
Bernardino; both luxuries on this occasion being used in Los
Angeles, as far as I can remember, for the first time.
To return to the Los Angeles Star. When J. S. Waite
became Postmaster, in 1855, he found it no sinecure to continue
even such an unpretentious and, in all likelihood, unprofitable
news-sheet and at the same time attend to Uncle Sam's mail-
192 Sixty Years in Southern California [1856
bags; and early in 1856 he offered "the entire establishment
at one thousand dollars less than cost." Business was so slow
at that time, in fact, that Waite after, perhaps, ruefully look-
ing over his unpaid subscriptions announced that he would
"take wood, butter, eggs, flour, wheat or corn" in payment of
bills due. He soon found a ready customer in William A. Wal-
lace, the Principal of the boys' school who, on the twelfth of
April, bought the paper ; but Waite's disgust was nothing to that
of the schoolteacher who, after two short months' trial with the
editorial quill, scribbled a last doleful adios. "The flush times
of the pueblo, the day of large prices and pocket-books, are
past," Wallace declared; and before him the editor saw "only
picayunes, bad liquor, rags and universal dullness, when neither
pistol-shots nor dying groans" could have any effect, and "when
earthquakes would hardly turn men in their beds!" Nothing
was left for such a destitute and discouraged quillman "but to
wait for a can eta and get out of town." Wallace sold the paper,
therefore, in June, 1856, to Henry Hamilton, a native of Ireland
who had come to California in 1848 an apprenticed printer,
and was for some years in newspaper work in San Francisco;
and Hamilton soon put new life into the journal.
In 1856, the many-sided Dr. William B. Osburn organized
a company to bore an artesian well west of the city; but when
it reached a depth of over seven hundred feet, the prospectors
went into bankruptcy.
George Lehman, early known as George the Baker (whose
shop at one time was on the site of the Hayward Hotel), was
a somewhat original and very popular character who, in 1856,
took over the Round House on Main Street, between Third
and Fourth, and there opened a pleasure-resort extending to
Spring Street and known as the Garden of Paradise. The
grounds really occupied on the one hand what are now the sites
of the Pridham, the Pinney and the Turnverein, and on the
other the Henne, the Breed and the Lankershim blocks. There
was an entrance on Main Street and one, with two picket
gates, on Spring. From the general shape and appearance of
the building, it was always one of the first objects in town
1856] Orchards and Vinej'ards 193
to attract attention ; and Lehman (who, when he appeared on
the street, had a crooked cane hanging on his arm and a lemon
in his hand), came to be known as "Round House George."
The house had been erected in the late forties by Raimundo,
generally called Ramon, or Raymond Alexander, a sailor, who
asserted that the design was a copy of a structure he had once
seen on the coast of Africa ; and there Ramon and his native
California wife had lived for many years. Partly because he
wished to cover the exterior with vines and flowers, Lehman
nailed boards over the outer adobe walls and thus changed the
cylinder form into that of an octagon. An ingenious arrange-
ment of the parterre and a peculiar distribution of some trees,
together with a profusion of plants and flowers affording cool
and shady bowers, somewhat similar to those of a typical beer
or wine garden of the Fatherland gave the place great popu-
larity ; while two heroic statues one of Adam and the other of
Eve with a conglomeration of other curiosities, including the
Apple Tree and the Serpent all illustrating the world-old story
of Eden and a moving panorama made the Garden unique and
rather famous. The balcony of the house provided accommo-
dation for the playing of such music, perhaps discordant, as
Los Angeles could then produce, and nearby was a frame-
work containing a kind of swing then popular and known as
"flying horses." The bar was in the Garden, near a well-sweep ;
and at the Main Street entrance stood a majestic and noted
cactus tree which was cut down in 1886. The Garden of Par-
adise was opened toward the end of September, 1858, and so
large were the grounds that when they were used, in 1876,
for the Fourth of July celebration, twenty-six hundred people
were seated there.
This leads me to say that Arthur McKenzie Dodson, who
established a coal- and wood-yard at what was later the corner
of Spring and Sixth streets, started there a little community
which he called Georgetown as a compliment, it was said,
to the famous Round House George whose bakery, I have
remarked, was located on that corner.
On June 7th, Dr. John S. Griffin, who had an old fashioned,
13
194 Sixty Years in Southern California [1856
classical education, and was a graduate, in medicine, of the
University of Pennsylvania, succeeded Dr. William B. Osburn
as Superintendent of the Los Angeles City Schools.
In these times of modern irrigation and scientific methods,
it is hard to realize how disastrous were climatic extremes in an
earlier day: in 1856, a single electric disturbance, accompanied
by intense heat and sandstorms, left tens of thousands of dead
cattle to tell the story of drought and destruction.
During the summer, I had occasion to go to Fort Tejon to
see George C. Alexander, a customer, and I again asked Sam
Meyer if he would accompany me. Such a proposition was
always agreeable to Sam; and, having procured horses, we
started, the distance being about one hundred and fifteen miles.
We left Los Angeles early one afternoon, and made our
first stop at Lyons's Station, where we put up for the night.
One of the brothers, after whom the place was named, pre-
pared supper. Having to draw some thick blackstrap from a
keg, he used a pitcher to catch the treacle ; and as the liquid
ran very slowly, our sociable host sat down to talk a bit, and
soon forgot all about what he had started to do. The molas-
ses, however, although it ran pretty slowly, ran steadily, and
finally, like the mush in the fairy-tale of the enchanted bowl,
overflowed the top of the receptacle and spread itself over the
dirt floor. When Lyons had finished his chat, he saw, to his
intense chagrin, a new job upon his hands, and one likely to
busy him for some time.
Departing next morning at five o'clock we met Cy Lyons,
who had come to Los Angeles in 1849 and was then engaged
with his brother Sanford in raising sheep in that neighborhood.
Cy was on horseback and had two pack animals, loaded with
provisions. "Hello, boys! where are you bound?" he asked;
and when we told him that we were on our way to Fort Tejon,
he said that he was also going there, and volunteered to save
us forty miles by guiding us over the trail. Such a shortening
of our journey appealed to us as a good prospect, and we fell
in behind the mounted guide.
It was one of those red-hot summer days characteristic of
1856] Orchards and Vineyards 195
that region and season, and in a couple of hours we began to
get very thirsty. Noticing this, Cy told us that no water
would be found until we got to the Rancho de la Liebre, and
that we could not possibly reach there until evening. Having
no bota de agua handy, I took an onion from Lyons's pack and
ate it, and that afforded me some relief; but Sam, whose
decisions were always as lasting as the fragrance of that
aromatic bulb, would not try the experiment. To make a long
story short, when we at last reached the ranch, Sam, completely
fagged out, and unable to alight from his horse, toppled off into
our arms. The chewing of the onion had refreshed me to some
extent, but just the same the day's journey proved one of the
most miserable experiences through which I have ever passed.
The night was so hot at the ranch that we decided to sleep
outdoors in one of the wagons; and being worn out with the
day's exposure and fatigue, we soon fell asleep. The soundness
of our slumbers did not prevent us from hearing, in the middle
of the night, a snarling bear, scratching in the immediate
neighborhood. A bear generally means business ; and you may
depend upon it that neither Sam, myself nor even Cy were
very long in bundling out of the wagon and making a dash for
the more protecting house. Early next morning, we recom-
menced our journey toward Fort Tejon, and reached there
without any further adventures worth relating.
Coming back, we stopped for the night at Gordon's Station,
and the next day rode fully seventy miles not so inconsider-
able an accomplishment, perhaps, for those not accustomed to
regular saddle exercise.
A few months later, I met Cy on the street. "Harris,"
said he, "do you know that once, on that hot day going to Fort
Tejon, we were within three hundred feet of a fine, cool spring?"
"Then why in the devil," I retorted, "didn't you take us to it?"
To which Cy, with a chuckle, answered: "Well, I just wanted
to see what would happen to you!"
My first experience with camp meetings was in the year
[856, when I attended one in company with Miss Sarah New-
rk, to whom I was then engaged, and Miss Harriet, her
196 Sixty Years in Southern California [1856
sister later Mrs. Eugene Meyer. I engaged a buggy from
George Carson's livery stable on Main Street; and we rode to
Ira Thompson's grove at El Monte, in which the meeting was
held. These camp meetings supplied a certain amount of social
attraction to residents, in that good-hearted period when
creeds formed a bond rather than a hindrance.
It was in 1856 that, in connection with our regular business,
we began buying hides. One day a Mexican customer came
into the store and, looking around, said: "jCompra cueros?"
(Do you buy hides?) "Si, senor," I replied, to which he then
said: "Tengo muchos en mi rancho " (I have many at my ranch).
"Where do you live?" I asked. "Between Cahuenga and San
Fernando Mission," he answered. He had come to town in his
carreta, and added that he would conduct me to his place, if I
wished to go there.
I obtained a wagon and, accompanied by Samuel Cohn,
went with the Mexican. The native jogged on, carreta-fashion,
the oxen lazily plodding along, while the driver with his
ubiquitous pole kept them in the road by means of continual
and effective prods, delivered first on one side, then on the other.
It was dark when we reached the ranch; and the night being
balmy, we wrapped ourselves up in blankets, and slept under
the adobe veranda.
Early in the morning, I awoke and took a survey of the
premises. To my amazement, I saw but one little kipskin
hanging up to dry! When at length my Mexican friend
appeared on the scene, I asked him where he kept his hides?
QDonde tiene usted los cueros?} At which he pointed to the
lone kip and, with a characteristic and perfectly indifferent
shrug of the shoulders, said: "/No tengo mds!" (I have no
more !)
I then deliberated with Sam as to what we should do;
and having proceeded to San Fernando Mission to collect
there, if possible, a load of hides, we were soon fortunate
in obtaining enough to compensate us for our previous trou-
ble and disappointment. On the way home, we came to a
rather deep ditch preventing further progress. Being obliged,
1856] Orchards and Vineyards 197
however, to get to the other side, we decided to throw the
hides into the ditch, placing one on top of the other, until the
obstructing gap was filled to a level with the road; and then
we drove across, if not on dry land, at least on dry hides,
which we reloaded onto the wagon. Finally, we reached
town at a late hour.
In this connection, I may remind the reader of Dana's
statement, in his celebrated Two Years before the Mast, that San
Pedro once furnished more hides than any other port on the
Coast; and may add that from the same port, more than forty
years afterward, consignments of this valuable commodity
were still being made, I myself being engaged more and more
extensively in the hide trade.
Colonel Isaac Williams died on September I3th, having
been a resident of Los Angeles and vicinity nearly a quarter of
a century. A Pennsylvanian by birth, he had with him in the
West a brother, Hiram, later of San Bernardino County.
Happy as was most of Colonel Williams' life, tragedy entered
his family circle, as I shall show, when both of his sons-in-law,
John Rains and Robert Carlisle, met violent deaths at the
hands of others.
Jean Louis Vignes came to Los Angeles in 1829, and set out
the Aliso Vineyard of one hundred and four acres which derived
its name, as did the street, from a previous and incorrect appli-
cation of the Castilian aliso, meaning alder, to the sycamore
tree, a big specimen of which stood on the place. This tree,
possibly a couple of hundred years old, long shaded Vignes'
wine-cellars, and was finally cut down a few years ago to make
room for the Philadelphia Brew House. From a spot about
fifty feet away from the Vignes adobe extended a grape arbor
perhaps ten feet in width and fully a quarter of a mile long,
thus reaching to the river; and this arbor was associated with
many of the early celebrations in Los Angeles. The northern
boundary of the property was Aliso Street ; its western boundary
was Alameda; and part of it was surrounded by a high adobe
wall, inside of which, during the troubles of the Mexican War,
Don Louis enjoyed a far safer seclusion than many others.
198 Sixty Years in Southern California [1856
On June 7th, 1851, Vignes advertised El Aliso for sale, but it
was not subdivided until much later, when Eugene Meyer and
his associates bought it for this purpose. Vignes Street recalls
the veteran viticulturist.
While upon the subject of this substantial old pioneer
family, I may give a rather interesting reminiscence as to the
state of Aliso Street at this time. I have said that this street
was the main road from Los Angeles to the San Bernardino
country; and so it was. But in the fifties, Aliso Street stopped
very abruptly at the Sainsevain Vineyard, where it narrowed
down to one of the willow-bordered, picturesque little lanes so
frequently found here, and paralleled the noted grape-arbor as
far as the river-bank. At this point, Andrew Boyle and other
residents of the Heights and beyond were wont to cross the
stream on their way to and from town. The more important
travel was by means of another lane known as the Aliso Road,
turning at a corner occupied by the old Aliso Mill and winding
along the Hoover Vineyard to the river. Along this route the
San Bernardino stage rolled noisily, traversing in summer or
during a poor season what was an almost dry wash, but encoun-
tering in wet winter raging torrents so impassable that all inter-
course with the settlements to the east was disturbed. For
a whole week, on several occasions, the San Bernardino stage
was tied up, and once at least Andrew Boyle, before he had
become conversant with the vagaries of the Los Angeles River,
found it impossible for the better part of a fortnight to come
to town for the replenishment of a badly-depleted larder.
Lovers' Lane, willowed and deep with dust, was a narrow
road now variously located in the minds of pioneers ; my im-
pression being that it followed the line of the present Date
Street, although some insist that it was Macy.
Pierre Sainsevain, a nephew of Vignes, came in 1839 and
for a while worked for his uncle. Jean Louis Sainsevain,
another nephew, arrived in Los Angeles in 1849 or soon after,
and on April I4th, 1855, purchased for forty- two thousand dol-
lars the vineyard, cellars and other property of his uncle.
This was the same year in which he returned to France for
1856] Orchards and Vineyards 199
his son Michel and remarried, leaving another son, Paul, in school
there. Pierre joined his brother; and in 1857 Sainsevain
Brothers made the first California champagne, first shipping
their wine to San Francisco. Paul, now a resident of San Diego,
came to Los Angeles in 1861. The name endures in Sainsevain
Street.
The activity of these Frenchmen reminds me that much
usually characteristic of country life was present in what was
called the city of Los Angeles, when I first saw it, as may be
gathered from the fact that, in 1853, there were a hundred or
more vineyards hereabouts, seventy-five or eighty of which
were within the city precincts. These did not include the once
famous "mother vineyard" of San Gabriel Mission, which the
padres used to claim had about fifty thousand vines, but which
had fallen into somewhat picturesque decay. Near San Gabriel,
however, in 1855, William M. Stockton had a large vineyard
nursery. William Wolfskill was one of the leading vineyardists,
having set out his first vine, so it was said, in 1838, when he
affirmed his belief that the plant, if well cared for, would flour-
ish a hundred years ! Don Jose Serrano, from whom Dr. Leonce
Hoover bought many of the grapes he needed, did have vines,
it was declared, that were nearly a century old. When I first
passed through San Francisco, en route to Los Angeles, I saw
grapes from this section in the markets of that city bringing
twenty cents a pound; and to such an extent for a while did
San Francisco continue to draw on Los Angeles for grapes, that
Banning shipped thither from San Pedro, in 1857, no less than
twenty-one thousand crates, averaging forty-five pounds each.
It was not long, however, before ranches nearer San Francisco
began to interfere with this monopoly of the South, and, as, a
consequence, the shipment of grapes from Los Angeles fell off.
This reminds me that William Wolfskill sent to San Francisco
some of the first Northern grapes sold there; they were grown
in a Napa Valley vineyard that he owned in the middle of the
fifties, and when unloaded on the Long Wharf, three or four
weeks in advance of Los Angeles grapes, brought at wholesale
twenty-five dollars per hundred weight!
2oo Sixty Years in Southern California [1856
With the decline in the fresh fruit trade, however, the
making and exportation of wine increased, and several who
had not ventured into vineyarding before, now did so, acquiring
their own land or an interest in the establishments of others.
By 1857, Jean Louis Vignes boasted of possessing some white
wine twenty years old possibly of the same vintage about
which Dr. Griffin often talked, in his reminiscences of the days
when he had been an army surgeon; and Louis Wilhart occa-
sionally sold wine which was little inferior to that of Jean
Louis. Dr. Hoover was one of the first to make wine for the
general market, having, for a while, a pretty and well-situated
place called the Clayton Vineyard ; and old Joseph Huber, who
had come to California from Kentucky for his health, began in
1855 to make wine with considerable success. He owned the
Foster Vineyard, where he died in July, 1866. B. D. Wilson
was also soon shipping wine to San Francisco. L. J. Rose, who
first entered the field in January, 1861, at Sunny Slope, not far
from San Gabriel Mission, was another producer, and had a
vineyard famous for brandy and wine. He made a departure
in going to the foothills, and introduced many varieties of
foreign grapes. By the same year, or somewhat previously,
Matthew Keller, Stearns & Bell, Dr. Thomas J. White, Dr.
Parrott, Kiln Messer, Henry Dalton, H. D. Barrows, Juan
Bernard and Ricardo Vejar had wineries, and John Schumacher
had a vineyard opposite the site of the City Gardens in the
late seventies. L. H. Titus, in time, had a vineyard, known as
the Dewdrop, near that of Rose. Still another wine producer
was Antonio Maria Lugo, who set out his vines on San Pedro
Street, near the present Second, and often dwelt in the long
adobe house where both Steve Foster, Lugo's son-in-law, and
Mrs. Wallace Woodworth lived, and where I have been many
times pleasantly entertained.
Dr. Leonce Hoover, who died on October 8th, 1862, was a
native of Switzerland and formerly a surgeon in the army
of Napoleon, when his name later changed at the time of
naturalization had been Huber. Dr. Hoover in 1849 came
to Los Angeles with his wife, his son, Vincent A. Hoover,
Orchards and Vineyards 201
then a young man, and two daughters, the whole family
traveling by ox-team and prairie schooner. They soon dis-
covered rich placer gold-beds, but were driven away by hostile
Indians. A daughter, Mary A., became the wife of Samuel
Briggs, a New Hampshire Yankee, who was for years Wells
Fargo T s agent here. For a while the Hoovers lived on the
Wolfskill Ranch, after which they had a vineyard in the neigh-
borhood of what is now the property of the Cudahy Packing
Company. Vincent Hoover was a man of prominence in his
time; he died in 1883. Mrs. Briggs, whose daughter married
the well-known physician, Dr. Granville MacGowan, sold
her home, on Broadway between Third and Fourth streets,
to Homer Laughlin when he erected the Laughlin Building.
Hoover Street is named for this family.
Accompanied by his son William, Joseph Huber, Sr., in
1855 came to Los Angeles from Kentucky, hoping to improve his
health ; and when the other members of his family, consisting
of his wife and children, Caroline, Emeline, Edward and
Joseph, followed him here, in 1859, by way of New York and the
Isthmus, they found him settled as a vineyardist, occupying
the Foster property running from Alameda Street to the river,
in a section between Second and Sixth streets. The advent of
a group of young people, so well qualified to add to what has
truthfully been described by old-time Angel efios as our family
circle, was hailed with a great deal of interest and satisfaction.
In time, Miss Emeline Huber was married to O. W. Childs, and
Miss Caroline was wedded to Dr. Frederick Preston Howard, a
druggist who, more than forty years ago, bought out Theodore
Wollweber, selling the business back to the latter a few years
later. The prominence of this family made it comparatively
easy for Joseph Huber, Jr., in 1865, to secure the nomination
and be elected County Treasurer, succeeding M. Kremer, who
had served six years. Huber, Sr., died about the middle sixties.
Mrs. Huber lived to be eighty-three years old.
Jose de Rubio had at least two vineyards when I came
one on Alameda Street, south of Wolfskin's and not far from
Coronel' s, and one on the east side of the river. Riibio came
202 Sixty Years in Southern California [1856
here very early in the century, after having married Juana, a
daughter of Juan Maria Miron, a well-known sea captain, and
built three adobe houses. The first of these was on the site of
the present home of William H. Workman, on Boyle Heights;
the second was near what was later the corner of Alameda and
Eighth streets, and the third was on Alameda Street near the
present Vernon Avenue. One of his ranches was known as
" Rtibio's," and there many a barbecue was celebrated. In 1859,
Rubio leased the Sepulveda Landing, at San Pedro, and com-
menced to haul freight, to and fro. Senor and Seiiora Rubio 1
had twenty-five children, of whom five are now living. An-
other Los Angeles vineyardist who lived near the river when I
came was a Frenchman named Clemente.
Julius Weyse also had a vineyard, living on what is now
Eighth Street near San Pedro. A son, H. G. Weyse, has distin-
guished himself as an attorney and has served in the Legislature ;
another, Otto G., married the widow of Edward Naud, while a
third son, Rudolf G., married a daughter of H. D. Barrows.
The Reyes family was prominent here ; a daughter married
William Nordholt. Ysidro had a vineyard on Washington
Street; and during one of the epidemics, he died of smallpox.
His brother, Pablo, was a rancher.
While on the subject of vineyards, I may describe the
method by which wine was made here in the early days and the
part taken in the industry by the Indians, who always in-
terested and astounded me. Stripped to the skin, and wearing
only loin-cloths, they tramped with ceaseless tread from morn
till night, pressing from the luscious fruit of the vineyard the
juice so soon to ferment into wine. The grapes were placed in
elevated vats from which the liquid ran into other connecting
vessels; and the process exhaled a stale acidity, scenting the
surrounding air. These Indians were employed in the early
fall, the season of the year when wine is made and when the
thermometer as a rule, in Southern California, reaches its
1 Senora de Rubio survived her husband many years, dying on October 27th,
1914, at the age of one hundred and seven, after residing in Los Angeles ninety-
four years.
1856] Orchards and Vineyards 203
highest point; and this temperature coupled with incessant
toil caused the perspiration to drip from their swarthy bodies
into the wine product, the sight of which in no wise increased
my appetite for California wine.
A staple article of food for the Indians in 1856, by the
way, was the acorn. The crop that year, however, was very
short; and streams having also failed, in many instances, to
yield the food usually taken from them, the tribes were in a
distressed condition. Such were the aborigines' straits, in
fact, that rancheros were warned of the danger, then greater
than ever, from Indian depredations on stock.
In telling of the Sisters of Charity, I have forgotten to add
that, after settling here, they sent to New York for a portable
house, which they shipped to Los Angeles by way of Cape
Horn. In due time, the house arrived; but imagine their vex-
ation on discovering that, although the parts were supposed
to have been marked so that they might easily be joined to-
gether, no one here could do the work. In the end, the Sisters
were compelled to send East for a carpenter who, after a long
interval, arrived and finished the house.
Soon after the organization of a Masonic lodge here, in
1854, many of my friends joined, and among them my brother,
J. P. Newmark, who was admitted on February 26th, 1855, on
which occasion J. H. Stuart was the Secretary ; and through their
participation in the celebration of St. John's Day (the twenty-
fourth of June,) I was seized with a desire to join the order.
This I did at the end of 1856, becoming a member of Los Angeles
Lodge No. 42, whose meetings were held over Potter's store on
Main Street. Worshipful Master Thomas Foster initiated me,
and on January 22d, 1857, Worshipful Master Jacob Elias offi-
ciating, I took the third degree. I am, therefore, in all probabil-
ity, the oldest living member of this now venerable Masonic
organization.
CHAPTER XV
SHERIFF BARTON AND THE BANDIDOS
1857
IN the beginning of 1857, we had a more serious earthquake
than any in recent years. At half -past eight o'clock on the
morning of January Qth, a tremor shook the earth from
North to South; the first shocks being light, the quake grew
in power until houses were deserted, men, women and children
sought refuge in the streets, and horses and cattle broke
loose in wild alarm. For perhaps two, or two and a half
minutes, the temblor continued and much damage was done.
Los Angeles felt the disturbance far less than many other places,
although five to six shocks were noted and twenty times during
the week people were frightened from their homes ; at Temple's
rancho and at Fort Tejon great rents were opened in the earth and
then closed again, piling up a heap or dune of finely -powdered
stone and dirt. Large trees were uprooted and hurled down the
hillsides; and tumbling after them went the cattle. Many
officers, including Colonel B. L. Beall well known in Los
Angeles social circles barely escaped from the barracks with
their lives; and until the cracked adobes could be repaired,
officers and soldiers lived in tents. It was at this time, too,
that a so-called tidal wave almost engulfed the Sea Bird,
plying between San Pedro and San Francisco, as she was
entering the Golden Gate. Under the splendid seamanship
of Captain Salisbury Haley, however, his little ship weathered
the wave, and he was able later to report her awful experience
to the scientific world.
204
[1857] Sheriff Barton and the Bandidos 205
This year also proved a dry season; and, consequently,
times became very bad. With two periods of adversity, even
the richest of the cattle-kings felt the pinch, and many began
to part with their lands in order to secure the relief needed to
tide them over. The effects of drought continued until 1858,
although some good influences improved business conditions.
Due to glowing accounts of the prospects for conquest and
fortune given out by Henry A. Crabb, a Stockton lawyer who
married a Spanish woman with relatives in Sonora, a hundred
or more filibusters gathered in Los Angeles, in January, to
meet Crabb at San Pedro, when he arrived from the North on
the steamer Sea Bird. They strutted about the streets here,
displaying rifles and revolvers; and this would seem to have
been enough to prevent their departure for Sonita, a little
town a hundred miles beyond Yuma, to which they finally
tramped. The filibusters were permitted to leave, however, and
they invaded the foreign soil; but Crabb made a mess of the
undertaking, even failing in blowing up a little church he
attacked; and those not killed in the skirmish were soon
surrounded and taken prisoners. The next morning, Crabb
and some others who had paraded so ostentatiously while here,
were tied to trees or posts, and summarily executed. Crabb's
body was riddled with a hundred bullets and his head cut off
and sent back in mescal; only one of the party was spared
Charley Evans, a lad of fifteen years, who worked his way to
Los Angeles and was connected with a somewhat similar inva-
sion a while later.
In January, also, when threats were made against the white
population of Southern California, Mrs. Griffin, the wife of
Dr. J. S. Griffin, came running, in all excitement, to the home
of Joseph Newmark, and told the members of the family to
lock all their doors and bolt their windows, as it was reported
that some of the outlaws were on their way to Los Angeles,
to murder the white people. As soon as possible, the ladies of
the Griffin, Nichols, Foy, Mallard, Workman, Newmark and
other families were brought together for greater safety in
Armory Hall, on Spring Street near Second, while the men took
206 Sixty Years in Southern California [1857
their places in line with the other citizens to patrol the hills and
streets.
A still vivid impression of this startling episode recalls an
Englishman, a Dr. Carter, who arrived here some three years
before. He lived on the east side of Main Street near First,
where the McDonald Block now stands ; and while not promi-
nent in his profession, he associated with some estimable families.
When others were volunteering for sentry- work or to fight, the
Doctor very gallantly offered his services as a Committee of
One to care for the ladies far from the firing line !
On hearing of these threats by native bandidos, James R.
Barton, formerly a volunteer under General S. W. Kearny
and then Sheriff, at once investigated the rumors; and the
truth of the reports being verified, our small and exposed
community was seized with terror.
A large band of Mexican outlaws, led by Pancho Daniel, a
convict who had escaped from San Quentin prison, and includ-
ing Luciano Tapia and Juan Flores, on January 226. had killed
a German storekeeper named George W. Pflugardt, in San
Juan Capistrano, while he was preparing his evening meal;
and after having placed his body on the table, they sat around
and ate what the poor victim had provided for himself. On
the same occasion, these outlaws plundered the stores of Manuel
Garcia, Henry Charles and Miguel Kragevsky or Kraszewski;
the last named escaping by hiding under a lot of wash in a
large clothes-basket. When the news of this murder reached
Los Angeles, excitement rose to fever-heat and we prepared
for something more than defense.
Jim Barton, accompanied by William H. Little and Charles
K. Baker, both constables, Charles F. Daley, an early black-
smith here, Alfred Hardy and Frank Alexander all volun-
teers left that evening for San Juan Capistrano, to capture
the murderers, and soon arrived at the San Joaquin Ranch,
about eighteen miles from San Juan. There Don Jose Andres
Sepulveda told Barton of a trap set for him, and that the
robbers outnumbered his posse, two to one; and urged him to
send back to Los Angeles for more volunteers. Brave but
Sheriff Barton and the Bandidos 207
reckless Barton, however, persisted in pushing on the next day,
and so encountered some of the marauders in Santiago Canyon.
Barton, Baker, Little and Daley were killed; while Hardy and
Alexander escaped.
When Los Angeles was apprised of this second tragedy,
the frenzy was indescribable, and steps were taken toward the
formation of both a Committee of Safety and a Vigilance
Committee the latter to avenge the foul deed and to bring in
the culprits. In meeting this emergency, the El Monte boys,
as usual, took an active part. The city was placed under
martial law, and Dr. John S. Griffin was put in charge of the
local defenses. Suspicious houses, thought to be headquarters
for robbers and thieves, were searched; and forty or fifty per-
sons were arrested. The State Legislature was appealed to
and at once voted financial aid.
Although the Committee of Safety had the assistance of
special foot police in guarding the city, the citizens made a
requisition on Fort Tejon, and fifty soldiers were sent from
that post to help pursue the band. Troops from San Diego,
with good horses and plenty of provisions, were also placed at
the disposition of the Los Angeles authorities. Companies of
mounted Rangers were made up to scour the country, Ameri-
can, German and French citizens vying with one another for the
honor of risking their lives; one such company being formed
at El Monte, and another at San Bernardino. There were also
two detachments of native Calif ornians ; but many Sonorans
and Mexicans from other States, either from sympathy or fear,
aided the murdering robbers and so made their pursuit doubly
difficult. However, the outlaws were pursued far into the
mountains; and although the first party sent out returned
without effecting anything (reporting that the desperadoes
were not far from San Juan and that the horses of the pursuers
had given out) practically all of the band, as will be seen,
were eventually captured.
Not only were vigorous measures taken to apprehend and
punish the murderers, but provision was made to rescue the
bodies of the slain, and to give them decent and honor-
208 Sixty Years in Southern California [1857
able burial. The next morning, after nearly one hundred
mounted and armed men had set out to track the fugitives,
another party, also on horseback, left to escort several wagons
filled with coffins, in which they hoped to bring back the
bodies of Sheriff Barton and his comrades. In this effort, the
posse succeeded; and when the remains were received in Los
Angeles on Sunday about noon, the city at once went into
mourning. All business was suspended, and the impressive
burial ceremonies, conducted on Monday, were attended by
the citizens en masse. Oddly enough, there was not a Protes-
tant clergyman in town at the time; but the Masonic Order
took the matter in hand and performed their rites over those
who were Masons, and even paid their respects, with a portion
of the ritual, to the non-Masonic dead.
General Andres Pico, with a company of native mounted
Californians, who left immediately after the funeral, was
especially prominent in running down the outlaws, thus again
displaying his natural gift of leadership; and others fitted
themselves out and followed as soon as they could. General
Pico knew both land and people; and on capturing Silvas and
Ardillero, two of the worst of the bandidos, after a hard resist-
ance, he straightway hung them to trees, at the very spot where
they had tried to assassinate him and his companions.
In the pursuit of the murderers, James Thompson (suc-
cessor, in the following January, to the murdered Sheriff
Getman) led a company of horsemen toward the Tejunga;
and at the Simi Pass, high upon the rocks, he stationed United
States soldiers as a lookout. Little San Gabriel, in which J. F.
Burns, as Deputy Sheriff, was on the watch, also made its con-
tribution to the restoration of order and peace; for some of its
people captured and executed three or four of Daniels's and
Flores's band. Flores was caught on the top of a peak in the
Santiago range ; all in all, some fifty- two culprits were brought
to Los Angeles and lodged in jail; and of that number eleven
were lynched or legally hung.
When the Vigilance Committee had jailed a suspected
murderer, the people were called to sit in judgment. We met
1857] Sheriff Barton and the Bandidos 209
near the veranda of the Montgomery, and Judge Jonathan R.
Scott having been made Chairman, a regular order of procedure,
extra-legal though it was, was followed; after announcing the
capture, and naming the criminal, the Judge called upon the
crowd to determine the prisoner's fate. Thereupon some one
would shout : ' ' Hang Mm ! ' ' Scott would then put the question
somewhat after the following formula : ' ' Gentlemen, you have
heard the motion ; all those in favor of hanging So-and-So, will
signify by saying, Aye! "
And the citizens present unanimously answered, A ye!
Having thus expressed their will, the assemblage proceeded
to the jail, a low, adobe building behind the little Municipal
and County structure, and easily subdued the jailer, Frank
J. Carpenter, whose daughter, Josephine, became Frank
Burns's second wife. The prisoner was then secured, taken
from his cell, escorted to Fort Hill a rise of ground behind
the jail where a temporary gallows had been constructed,
and promptly despatched ; and after each of the first batch of
culprits had there successively paid the penalty for his crime,
the avengers quietly dispersed to their homes to await the
capture and dragging in of more cutthroats.
Among those condemned by vote at a public meeting in
the way I have described, was Juan Flores, who was hanged
on February I4th, 1857, well up on Fort Hill, in sight of such
a throng that it is hardly too much to say that practically
every man, woman and child in the pueblo was present, not to
mention many people drawn by curiosity from various parts
of the State who had nocked into town. Flores was but
twenty-one years of age; yet, the year previous he had been
sent to prison for horse-stealing. At the same time that Flores
was executed, Miguel Blanco, who had stabbed the militia-
man, Captain W. W. Twist, in order to rob him of a thousand
dollars, was also hanged.
Espinosa and Lopez, two members of the robber band, for a
while eluded their pursuers. At San Buenaventura, however,
they were caught, and on the following morning, Espinosa
was hung. Lopez again escaped; and it was not until Feb-
14
2io Sixty Years in Southern California [1857
ruary 1 6th that he was finally recaptured and despatched to
other realms.
Two days after Juan Flores was sent to a warmer clime,
Luciano Tapia and Thomas King were executed. Tapia's
case was rather regrettable, for he had been a respectable
laborer at San Luis Obispo until Flores, meeting him, persuaded
him to abandon honest work. Tapia came to Los Angeles,
joined the robber band and was one of those who helped to
kill Sheriff Barton.
In 1857, the Sisters of Charity founded the Los Angeles
Infirmary, the first regular hospital in the city, with Sister
Ana, for years well known here, as Sister Superior. For a while,
temporary quarters were taken in the house long occupied by
Don Jose Maria Aguilar and family, which property the Sisters
soon purchased ; but the next year they bought some land from
Don Luis Arenas, adjoining Don Jose Andres Sepulveda's, and
were thus enabled to enlarge the hospital. Their service being
the best, in time they were enabled to acquire a good-sized,
two-story building of brick, in the upper part of the city; and
there their patients enjoyed the refreshing and health-restoring
environment of garden and orchard.
It was not until this year that, on the corner of Alameda
and Bath streets, Oscar Macy, City Treasurer in 1887-88,
opened the first public bath house, having built a water-wheel
with small cans attached to the paddles, to dip water up from
the Alameda zanja, as a medium for supplying his tank. He
provided hot water as well as cold. Oscar charged fifty cents
a bath, and furnished soap and towels.
In 1857, the steamship Senator left San Francisco on the
fifth and twentieth of each month and so continued until the
people wanted a steamer at least once every ten days.
Despite the inconvenience and expense of obtaining water
for the home, it was not until February 24th that Judge W. G.
Dryden who, with a man named McFadden, had established
the nucleus of a system was granted a franchise to distribute
water from his land, and to build a water-wheel in the zanja
madre. The Dryden, formerly known as the Abila Springs
1857] Sheriff Barton and the Bandidos 211
and later the source of the Beaudry supply, were near the site
selected for the San Fernando Street Railway Station; and
from these springs water was conveyed by a zanja to the Plaza.
There, in the center, a brick tank, perhaps ten feet square and
fifteen feet high, was constructed; and this was filled by means
of pumps, while from the tank wooden pipes distributed water
to the consumer.
So infrequently did we receive intelligence from the remoter
parts of the world throughout the fifties that sometimes a
report, especially if apparently authentic, when finally it
reached here, created real excitement. I recall, more or less
vividly, the arrival of the stages from the Senator, late in March,
and the stir made when the news was passed from mouth to
mouth that Livingstone, the explorer, had at last been heard
from in far-off and unknown Africa.
Los Angeles schools were then open only part of the year,
the School Board being compelled, in the spring, to close them
for want of money. William Wolfskill, however, rough pioneer
though he was, came to the Board's rescue. He was widely
known as an advocate of popular education, having, as I have
said, his own private teachers ; and to his lasting honor, he gave
the Board sufficient funds to make possible the reopening of one
of the schools.
In 1857, I again revisited San Francisco. During the four
years since my first visit a complete metamorphosis had taken
place. Tents and small frame structures were being largely
replaced with fine buildings of brick and stone; many of the
sand dunes had succumbed to the march of improvement;
gardens were much more numerous, and the uneven char-
acter of streets and sidewalks had been wonderfully improved.
In a word, the spirit of Western progress was asserting itself,
and the city by the Golden Gate was taking on a decidedly
metropolitan appearance.
Notwithstanding various attempts at citrus culture in
Southern California, some time elapsed before there was much
of an orange or lemon industry in this vicinity. In 1854, a Dr.
Halsey started an orange and lime nursery, on the Rowland
212 Sixty Years in Southern California [1857
place, which he soon sold to William Wolfskill, for four thou-
sand dollars; and in April, 1857, when there were not many
more than a hundred orange trees bearing fruit in the whole
county, Wolfskill planted several thousand and so established
what was to be, for that time, the largest orange orchard
in the United States. He had thrown away a good many
of the lemon trees received from Halsey, because they were
frost-bitten; but he still had some lemon, orange and olive
trees left. Later, under the more scientific care of his son,
Joseph Wolfskill, who extended the original Wolfskill grove,
this orchard was made to yield very large crops.
In 1857, a group of Germans living in San Francisco bought
twelve hundred acres of waste, sandy land, at two dollars an
acre, from Don Pacifico Onteveras, and on it started the town
of Anaheim a name composed of the Spanish Ana, from
Santa Ana, and the German Heim, for home ; and this was the
first settlement in the county founded after my arrival. This
land formed a block about one and a quarter miles square,
some three miles from the Santa Ana River, and five miles
from the residence of Don Bernardo Yorba, from whom the
company received special privileges. A. Langenberger, a
German, who married Yorba's daughter, was probably one of
the originators of the Anaheim plan ; at any rate, his influence
with his father-in-law was of value to his friends in completing
the deal. There were fifty shareholders, who paid seven hun-
dred and fifty dollars each, with an Executive Council composed
of Otmar Caler, President; G. Charles Kohler, Vice-President ;
Cyrus Beythien, Treasurer; and John Fischer, Secretary;
while John Frohling, R. Emerson, Felix Bachman, who was a
kind of Sub-treasurer, and Louis Jazyinsky, made up the Los
Angeles Auditing Committee. George Hansen, afterward
the colony's Superintendent, surveyed the tract and laid it
out in fifty twenty-acre lots, with streets and a public park;
around it a live fence of some forty to fifty thousand willow
cuttings, placed at intervals of a couple of feet, was planted.
A main canal, six to seven miles long, with a fall of fifteen to
twenty feet, brought abundant water from the Santa Ana
Sheriff Barton and the Bandidos 213
River, while some three hundred and fifty miles of lateral
ditches distributed the water to the lots. On each lot, some
eight or ten thousand grape vines were set out, the first as
early as January, 1858. On December I5th, 1859, the stock-
holders came south to settle on their partially-cultivated land;
and although but one among the entire number knew anything
about wine-making, the dream of the projectors to estab-
lish there the largest vineyard in the world bade fair to come
true. The colonists were quite a curious mixture two or
three carpenters, four blacksmiths, three watchmakers, a
brewer, an engraver, a shoemaker, a poet, a miller, a book-
binder, two or three merchants, a hatter and a musician; but
being mostly of sturdy, industrious German stock, they soon
formed such a prosperous and important little community
that, by 1876, the settlement had grown to nearly two thousand
people. A peculiar plan was adopted for investment, sale and
compensation: each stockholder paid the same price at the
beginning, and later all drew for the lots, the apportionment
being left to chance ; but since the pieces of land were conceded
to have dissimilar values, those securing the better lots equal-
ized in cash with their less lucky associates. Soon after 1860,
when Langenberger had erected the first hotel there, Anaheim
took a leading place in the production of grapes and wine ; and
this position of honor it kept until, in 1888, a strange disease
suddenly attacked and, within a single year, killed all the vines,
after which the cultivation of oranges and walnuts was under-
taken. Kohler and Frohling had wineries in both San Francisco
and Los Angeles, the latter being adjacent to the present
corner of Central Avenue and Seventh Street; and this firm
purchased most of Anaheim's grape crop, although some vine-
yard owners made their own wine. Morris L. Goodman, by
the way, was here at an early period, and was one of the first
settlers of Anaheim.
Hermann Heinsch, a native of Prussia, arrived in Los
Angeles in 1857 and soon after engaged in the harness and
saddlery business. On March 8th, 1863, he was married to
Mary Haap. Having become proficient at German schools in
214 Sixty Years in Southern California [1857
both music and languages, Heinsch lent his time and efforts to
the organization and drill of Germans here, and contributed
much to the success of both the Teutonia and the Turnverein.
In 1869, the Heinsch Building was erected at the corner of Com-
mercial and Los Angeles streets; and as late as 1876 this was
a shopping district, a Mrs. T. J. Baker having a dressmaking
establishment there. After a prosperous career, Heinsch died
on January I3th, 1883; his wife followed him on April I4th,
1906. R. C. Heinsch, a son, survives them.
Major Walter Harris Harvey, a native of Georgia once a
cadet at West Point, but dismissed for his pranks (who about
the middle of the fifties married Eleanor, eldest full sister of
John G. Downey, and became the father of J. Downey Harvey,
now living in San Francisco), settled in California shortly after
the Mexican War. During the first week in May, 1857, or
some four years before he died, Major Harvey arrived from
Washington with an appointment as Register of the Land
Office, in place of H. P. Dorsey. At the same time, Don
Agustin Olvera was appointed Receiver, in lieu of General
Andres Pico. These and other rotations in office were due, of
course, to national administration changes, President Buchanan
having recently been inaugurated.
One of the interesting legal inquiries of the fifties was
conducted in 1857 when, in the District Court here, Antonio
Maria Lugo, crowned with the white of seventy-six winters,
testified, at a hearing to establish certain claims to land, as to
what he knew of old ranches hereabouts, recalling many details
of the pueblo and incidents as far back as 1785. He had seen
the San Rafael Ranch, for example, in 1790, and he had also
roamed, as a young man, over the still older Dominguez and
Nietos hills.
Charles Henry Forbes, who was born at the Mission San
Jose, came to Los Angeles County in 1857 and, though but
twenty-two years old, was engaged by Don Abel Stearns to
superintend his various ranchos, becoming Stearns's business
manager in 1866, with a small office on the ground-floor of
the Arcadia Block. In 1864, Forbes married Dona Luisa
Sheriff Barton and the Bandidos ,215
Olvera, daughter of Judge Agustin Olvera, and a graduate
of the Sisters' school. On the death of Don Abel, in 1871,
Forbes settled up Stearns's large estate, retaining his pro-
fessional association with Dona Arcadia, after her marriage to
Colonel Baker, and even until he died in May, 1894.
As I have intimated, the principal industry throughout Los
Angeles County, and indeed throughout Southern California, up
to the sixties, was the raising of cattle and horses an under-
taking favored by a people particularly fond of leisure and
knowing little of the latent possibilities in the land ; so that this
entire area of magnificent soil supported herds which provided
the whole population in turn, directly or indirectly, with a
livelihood. The live stock subsisted upon the grass growing
wild all over the county, and the prosperity of Southern Cali-
fornia therefore depended entirely upon the season's rainfall.
This was true to a far greater extent than one might suppose,
for water-development had received no attention outside of Los
Angeles. If the rainfall was sufficient to produce feed, dealers
came from the North and purchased our stock, and everybody
thrived; if, on the other hand, the season was dry, cattle and
horses died and the public's pocket-book shrank to very un-
pretentious dimensions. As an incident in even a much later
period than that which I here have in mind, I can distinctly re-
member that I would rise three or four times during a single
meal to see if the overhanging clouds had yet begun to give
that rain which they had seemed to promise, and which was
so vital to our prosperity.
As for rain, I am reminded that every newspaper in those
days devoted much space to weather reports or, rather, to gos-
sip about the weather at other points along the Coast, as
well as to the consequent prospects here. The weather was the
one determining factor in the problem of a successful or a
disastrous season, and became a very important theme when
ranchers and others congregated at our store.
And here I may mention, d, propos of this matter of rainfall
and its general effects, that there were millions of ground-
squirrels all over this country that shared with other animals
216 Sixty Years in Southern California [1857
the ups and downs of the season. When there was plenty of
rain, these squirrels fattened and multiplied; but when evil
days came, they sickened, starved and perished. On the other
hand, great overflows, due to heavy rainfalls, drowned many
of these troublesome little rodents.
The raising of sheep had not yet developed any importance
at the time of my arrival; most of the mutton then consumed
in Los Angeles coming from Santa Cruz Island, in the Santa
Barbara Channel, though some was brought from San Clemente
and Santa Catalina islands. On the latter, there was a herd
of from eight to ten thousand sheep in which Oscar Macy later
acquired an interest; and L. Harris, father-in-law of H. W.
Frank, the well- and favorably-known President and member
of the Board of Education, also had extensive herds there.
They ran wild and needed very little care, and only semi-yearly
visits were made to look after the shearing, packing and ship-
ping of the wool. Santa Cruz Island had much larger herds,
and steamers running to and from San Francisco often stopped
there to take on sheep and sheep-products.
Santa Catalina Island, for years the property of Don Jose
Maria Covarrtibias and later of the eccentric San Francisco
pioneer James Lick, who crossed the plains in the same party
with the Lanfranco brothers and tried to induce them to settle
in the North was not far from San Clemente; and there,
throughout the extent of her hills and vales, roamed herd after
herd of wild goats. Early seafarers, I believe it has been sug-
gested, accustomed to carry goats on their sailing vessels,
for a supply of milk, probably deposited some of the animals
on Catalina; but however that may be, hunting parties to
this day explore the mountains in search of them.
Considering, therefore, the small number of sheep here
about 1853, it is not uninteresting to note that, according to
old records of San Gabriel for the winter of 1828-29, there were
then at the Mission no less than fifteen thousand sheep ; while
in 1858, on the other hand, according to fairly accurate reports,
there were fully twenty thousand sheep in Los Angeles County.
Two years later, the number had doubled.
1857] Sheriff Barton and the Bandidos 217
George Carson, a New Yorker who came here in 1852, and
after whom Carson Station is named, was one of the first to
engage in the sheep industry. Soon after he arrived, he went
into the livery business, to which he gave attention even when
in partnership successively with Sanford, Dean and Hicks in
the hardware business, on Commercial Street. On July 3Oth,
1857, Carson married Dona Victoria, a daughter of Manuel
Dominguez; but it was not until 1864 that, having sold out his
two business interests (the livery to George Butler and the
hardware to his partner), he moved to the ranch of his father-
in-law, where he continued to live, assisting Dominguez with the
management of his great property. Some years later, Carson
bought four or five hundred acres of land adjoining the Domin-
guez acres and turned his attention to sheep. Later still, he
became interested in the development of thoroughbred cattle and
horses, but continued to help his father-in-law in the directing
of his ranch. When rain favored the land, Carson, in common
with his neighbors, amassed wealth ; but during dry years he suf-
fered disappointment and loss, and on one occasion was forced
to take his flocks, then consisting of ten thousand sheep, to the
mountains, where he lost all but a thousand head. It cost him
ten thousand dollars to save the latter, which amount far
exceeded their value. In this movement of stock, he took with
him, as his lieutenant, a young Mexican named Martin Cruz
whom he had brought up on the rancho. Carson was one of my
cronies, while I was still young and single; and we remained
warm friends until he died.
Almost indescribable excitement followed the substantiated
reports, received in the fall of 1857, that a train of emigrants
from Missouri and Arkansas, on their way to California, had
been set upon by Indians, near Mountain Meadow, Utah, on
September 7th, and that thirty-six members of the party had
been brutally killed. Particularly were the Gentiles of the
Southwest stirred up when it was learned that the assault had
been planned and carried through by one Lee, a Mormon,
whose act sprang rather from the frenzy of a madman than
from the deliberation of a well-balanced mind. The attitude
218 Sixty Years in Southern California [1857
of Brigham Young toward the United States Government, at
that time, and his alleged threat to "turn the Indians loose"
upon the whites, added color to the assertion that Young's
followers were guilty of the massacre ; but fuller investigation
has absolved the Mormons, I believe, as a society, from any
complicity in the awful affair. Some years later the two Oat-
man girls were rescued from the Indians (by whom they had
been tattooed), and for a while they stayed at Ira Thompson's,
where I saw them.
In 1857, J. G. Nichols was reelected Mayor of Los Angeles,
and began several improvements he had previously advocated,
especially the irrigating of the plain below the city. By August
2d, Zanja No. 2 was completed; and this brought about the
building of the Aliso Mill and the further cultivation of much
excellent land.
One of the passengers that left San Francisco with me for
San Pedro on October i8th, 1853, who later became a success-
ful citizen of Southern California, was Edward N. McDonald,
a native of New York State. We had sailed from New York
together, and together had finished the long journey to the
Pacific Coast, after which I lost track of him. McDonald had
intended proceeding farther south, and I was surprised at
meeting him on the street, some weeks after my arrival, in Los
Angeles. Reaching San Pedro, he contracted to enter the
service of Alexander & Banning, and remained with Banning
for several years, until he formed a partnership with John O.
Wheeler's brother, who later went to Japan. McDonald, sub-
sequently raised sheep on a large scale and acquired much ranch
property; and in 1876, he built the block on Main Street bear-
ing his name. Sixteen years later, he erected another structure,
opposite the first one. When McDonald died at Wilmington,
on June loth, 1899, he left his wife an estate valued at about
one hundred and sixty thousand dollars which must have in-
creased in value, since then, many fold.
N. A. Potter, a Rhode Islander, came to Los Angeles in
1855, bringing with him a stock of Yankee goods and open-
ing a store; and two years later he bought a two-story brick
Sheriff Barton and the Bandidos 219
building on Main Street, opposite the Bella Union. Louis
Jazynsky was a partner with Potter, for a while, under the
firm name of Potter & Company; but later Jazynsky left Los
Angeles for San Francisco. Potter died here in 1868.
Possibly the first instance of an Angeleno proffering a gift
to the President of the United States and that, too, of some-
thing characteristic of this productive soil and climate was
when Henry D. Barrows, in September, called on President
Buchanan, in Washington and, on behalf of William Wolfskill,
Don Manuel Requena and himself, gave the Chief Executive
some California fruit and wine.
I have before me a Ledger of the year 1857; it is a medium-
sized volume bound in leather, and on the outside cover is
inscribed, in the bold, old-fashioned handwriting of fifty-odd
years ago, the simple legend,
NEWMARK, KREMER & COMPANY
Each page is headed with the name of some still-remembered
worthy of that distant day who was a customer of the old firm ;
and in 1857, a customer was always a friend. According to the
method of that period the accounts are closed, not with balanc-
ing entries and red lines but, in the blackest of black ink, with
the good, straightforward and positive inscription, Settled.
The perusal of this old book carries me back over the
vanished years. As the skull in the hand of the ancient monk,
so does this antiquated volume recall to me how transitory is
this life and all its affairs. A few remain to tell a younger
generation the story of the early days; but the majority, even
as in 1857 they carefully balanced their scores in this old Ledger,
have now closed their accounts in the great Book of Life.
They have settled with their heaviest Creditor; they have gone
before Him to render their last account. With few or no ex-
ceptions, they were a manly, sterling race, and I have no doubt
that He found their assets far greater than their liabilities.
CHAPTER XVI
MARRIAGE THE BUTTERFIELD STAGES
^1858
IN January, 1858, I engaged, in the sheep business. After
some investigation, I selected and purchased for an in-
significant sum, just west of the present Hollenbeck Home
on Boyle Avenue, a convenient site, which consisted of twenty
acres of land, through which a ditch conducted water to Don
Felipe Lugo's San Antonio rancho a flow quite sufficient, at
the time, for my herd. These sheep I pastured on adjacent
lands belonging to the City ; and as others often did the same,
no one said me Nay. Everything progressed beautifully until
the first of May, when the ditch ran dry. Upon making inquiry,
I learned that the City had permitted Lugo to dig a private
ditch across this twenty-acre tract to his ranch, and to use
what water he needed during the rainy season ; but that in May,
when the authorities resumed their irrigation service, the
privilege was withdrawn. I was thus deprived of water for
the sheep.
Despite the fact that there was an adobe on the land, I
could not dispose of the property at any price. One day a
half-breed known as the Chicken Thief called on me and offered
a dozen chickens for the adobe, but not a chicken for the
land! Stealing chickens was this man's profession; and I
suppose that he offered me the medium of exchange he was
most accustomed to have about him.
Sheriff William C. Getman had been warned, in the tragic
days of 1858, to look out for a maniac named Reed; but almost
220
[1858] Marriage The Butterfield Stages 221
courting such an emergency, Getman (once a dashing Lieu-
tenant of the Rangers and bearing grapeshot wounds from his
participation in the Siege of Mexico) went, on the seventh of
January, with Francis Baker to a pawnbroker, whose estab-
lishment, near Los Angeles and Aliso streets, was popularly
known as the Monte Pio. There the officers found Reed locked
and barricaded in a room ; and while the Sheriff was endeavoring
to force an entrance, Reed suddenly threw open the door, ran
out and, to the dismay of myself and many others gathered to
witness the arrest, pulled a pistol from his pocket, discharged
the weapon, and Getman dropped on the spot. The maniac
then retreated into the pawnbroker's from which he fired
at the crowd. Deputy Baker later assistant to Marshal
Warren, who was shot by Dye finally killed the desperado,
but not before Reed had fired twenty to thirty shots, four or
five of which passed through Baker's clothing. When the
excited crowd broke into the shop, it was found that the mad-
man had been armed with two derringers, two revolvers and a
bowie knife a convenient little arsenal which he had taken
from the money-lender's stock. The news of the affray spread
rapidly through the town and everywhere created great regret.
Baker, who had sailed around the Horn a couple of years be-
fore I arrived, died on May lyth, 1899, after having been City
Marshal and Tax Collector.
Such trouble with men inclined to use firearms too freely
was not confined to maniacs or those bent on revenge or
robbery. On one occasion, for example, about 1858, while
passing along the street I observed Gabriel Allen, known
among his intimates as Gabe Allen, a veteran of the War with
Mexico and some years later a Supervisor on one of his
jollifications, with Sheriff Getman following close at his heels.
Having arrived in front of a building, Gabe suddenly raised
his gun and aimed at a carpenter who was at work on the roof.
Getman promptly knocked Allen down; whereupon the latter
said, "You've got me, Billy!" Allen's only purpose, it ap-
peared, was to take a shot at the innocent stranger and thus
test his marksmanship.
222 Sixty Years in Southern California [1858
This Gabe Allen was really a notorious character, though
not altogether bad. When sober, he was a peaceable man ; but
when on a spree, he was decidedly warlike and on such occasions
always "shot up the town." While on one of these jamborees,
for example, he was heard to say, "I'll shoot, if I only kill six
of them!" In later life, however, Allen married a Mexican
lady who seems to have had a mollifying influence; and there-
after he lived at peace with the world.
During the changing half-century or more of which I
write, Los Angeles has witnessed many exciting street scenes,
but it is doubtful if any exhibition here ever called to doors,
windows and the dusty streets a greater percentage of the
entire population than that of the Government camels driven
through the town on January 8th, 1858, under the martial and
spectacular command of Ned, otherwise Lieutenant, and later
General and Ambassador E. F. Beale, and the forbear of the
so-called hundred million dollar McLean baby; the same
Lieutenant Beale who opened up Beale's Route from the Rio
Grande to Fort Tejon. The camels had just come in from the
fort, having traveled forty or more miles a day across the
desert, to be loaded with military stores and provisions. As
early as the beginning of the fifties, Jefferson Davis, then in
Congress, had advocated, but without success, the appropria-
tion of thirty thousand dollars for the purchase of such animals,
believing that they could be used on the overland routes and
would prove especially serviceable in desert regions; and when
Davis, in 1854, as Secretary of War, secured the appropriation
for which he had so long contended, he despatched American
army officers to Egypt and Arabia to make the purchase.
Some seventy or seventy-five camels were obtained and trans-
ported to Texas by the storeship Supply; and in the Lone Star
State the herd was divided into two parts, half being sent to the
Gadsden Purchase, afterward Arizona, and half to Albuquerque.
In a short time, the second division was put in charge of Lieu-
tenant Beale who was assisted by native camel-drivers brought
from abroad. Among these was Philip Tedro, or Hi Jolly
who had been picked up by Commodore Dave Porter and
Marriage The Butterfield Stages 223
Greek George, years afterward host to bandit Vasquez; and
camels and drivers made several trips back and forth across
the Southwest country. Once headquartered at Fort Tejon,
they came to Los Angeles every few weeks for provisions ; each
time creating no little excitement among the adult population
and affording much amusement, as they passed along the
streets, to the small boy.
To return to Pancho Daniel, the escaped leader of the Bar-
ton murderers. lie was heard from occasionally, as foraging
north toward San Luis Obispo, and was finally captured, after
repeated efforts to entrap and round him up, by Sheriff Murphy,
on January I9th, 1858, while hiding in a haystack near San Jose.
When he was brought to Los Angeles, he was jailed, and then
released on bail. Finally, Daniel's lawyers secured for him a
change of venue to Santa Barbara; and this was the last abuse
that led the public again to administer a little law of its own.
Early on the morning of November 3Oth, Pancho's body was
found hanging by the neck at the gateway to the County Jail
yard, a handful of men having overpowered the keeper, secured
the key and the prisoner, and sent him on a journey with a
different destination from Santa Barbara.
On February 25th, fire started in Childs & Hicks' s store, on
Los Angeles Street, and threatened both the Bella Union and
El Palacio, then the residence of Don Abel Stearns. The brick in
the building of Felix Bachman & Company and the volunteer
bucket-brigade prevented a general conflagration. Property
worth thousands of dollars was destroyed, Bachman & Com-
pany alone carrying insurance. The conflagration demon-
strated the need of a fire engine, and a subscription was started
to get one.
Weeks later workmen, rummaging among the debris, found
five thousand dollars in gold, which discovery produced no little
excitement. Childs claimed the money as his, saying that it
had been stolen from him by a thieving clerk; but the workmen,
undisturbed by law, kept the treasure.
A new four-page weekly newspaper appeared on March
24th, bearing the suggestive title, the Southern Vineyard,
224 Sixty Years in Southern California [1858
and the name of Colonel J. J. Warner, as editor. By December,
it had become a semi-weekly. Originally Democratic, it now
favored the Union party; it was edited with ability, but died
on June 8th, 1860.
On March 24th, I married Sarah, second daughter of Joseph
Newmark, to whom I had been engaged since 1856. She was
born on January 9th, 1841, and had come to live in Los Angeles
in 1854. The ceremony, performed by the bride's father, took
place at the family home, at what is now 501 North Main
Street, almost a block from the Plaza, on the site of the Bruns-
wig Drug Company ; and there we continued to live until about
1860.
At four o'clock, a small circle of intimates was wel-
comed at dinner; and in the evening there was a house-party
and dance, for which invitations printed on lace-paper, in the
typography characteristic of that day, had been sent out.
Among the friends who attended, were the military officers
stationed at Fort Tejon, including Major Bell, the commanding
officer, and Lieutenant John B. Magruder, formerly Colonel at
San Diego and later a Major General in the Civil War, com-
manding Confederate forces in the Peninsula and in Texas,
and eventually serving under Maximilian in Mexico. Other
friends still living in Los Angeles who were present are Mr.
and Mrs. S. Lazard, Mrs. S. C. Foy, William H. Workman,
C. E. Thorn and H. D. Barrows. Men rarely went out un-
armed at night, and most of our male visitors doffed their
weapons both pistols and knives as they came in, spreading
them around in the bedrooms. The ladies brought their
babies with them for safe-keeping, and the same rooms were
placed at their disposal. Imagine, if you can, the appearance
of this nursery-arsenal!
It was soon after we were married that my wife said to me
one day, rather playfully, but with a touch of sadness, that our
meeting might easily have never taken place; and when I in-
quired what she meant, she described an awful calamity that
had befallen the Greenwich Avenue school in New York City,
which she attended as a little girl, and where several hun-
Facsimile of Harris and Sarah Newmark's Wedding Invitation
1858] Marriage The Butterfield Stages 225
dred pupils were distributed in different classrooms. The
building was four stories in height; the ground floor paved
with stones, was used as a playroom; the primary department
was on the second floor; the more advanced pupils occupied
the third; while the top floor served as a lecture-room.
On the afternoon of November 2Oth, 1851, Miss Harrison,
the Principal of the young ladies' department, suddenly fell in a
faint, and the resulting screams for water, being misunderstood,
led to the awful cry of Fire! It was known that the pupils
made a dash for the various doors and were soon massed around
the stairway, yet a difference of opinion existed as to the cause
of the tragedy. My wife always said that the staircase, which
led from the upper to the first floor, en caracole, gave way, letting
the pupils fall; while others contended that the bannister
snapped asunder, hurling the crowded unfortunates over the
edge to the pavement beneath. A frightful fatality resulted.
Hundreds of pupils of all ages were precipitated in heaps on to
the stone floor, with a loss of forty-seven lives and a hundred
or more seriously crippled.
My wife, who was a child of but eleven years, was just
about to jump with the rest when a providential hand re-
strained and saved her.
News of the disaster quickly spread, and in a short time
the crowd of anxious parents, kinsfolk and friends who had
hastened to the scene in every variety of vehicle and on
foot, was so dense that the police had the utmost difficulty
in removing the wounded, dying and dead.
From Geneva, Switzerland, in 1854, a highly educated French
lady, Mile. Theresa Bry, whose oil portrait hangs in the
County Museum, reached Los Angeles, and four years later
married Francois Henriot, a gardener by profession, who had
come from la belle France in 1851. Together, on First Street
near Los Angeles, they conducted a private school which
enjoyed considerable patronage; removing the institution, in
the early eighties, to the Arroyo Seco district. This matrimonial
transaction, on account of the unequal social stations of the
respective parties, caused some little flurry: in contrast to
is
226 Sixty Years in Southern California [1858
her own beauty and ladylike accomplishments, Francois's
manners were unrefined, his stature short and squatty, while
his full beard (although it inspired respect, if not a certain
feeling of awe, when he came to exercise authority in the school)
was scraggy and unkempt. Mme. Henriot died in 1888,
aged eighty-seven years, and was followed to the grave by
her husband five years later.
In 1858, the outlook for business brightened in Los Angeles;
and Don Abel Stearns, who had acquired riches as a rancher o,
built the Arcadia Block, on the corner of Los Angeles and
Arcadia streets, naming it after his wife, Dona Arcadia, who,
since these memoirs were commenced, has joined the silent
majority. The structure cost about eighty thousand dollars,
and was talked of for some time as the most notable business
block south of San Francisco. The newspapers hailed it as an
ornament to the city and a great step toward providing what
the small and undeveloped community then regarded as a fire-
proof structure for business purposes. Because, however, of
the dangerous overflow of the Los Angeles River in rainy seasons,
Stearns elevated the building above the grade of the street
and to such an extent that, for several years, his store-rooms
remained empty. But the enterprise at once bore some good
fruit; to make the iron doors and shutters of the block, he
started a foundry on New High Street and soon created some
local iron-casting trade.
On April 24th, Senora Guadalupe Romero died at the age,
it is said, of one hundred and fifteen years. She came to Los
Angeles, I was told, as far back as 1781, the wife of one of the
earliest soldiers sent here, and had thus lived in the pueblo
about seventy-seven years.
Some chapters in the life of Henry Mellus are of more than
passing interest. Born in Boston, he came to California in
1835, with Richard Henry Dana, in Captain Thompson's
brig Pilgrim made famous in the story of Two Years before the
Mast; clerked for Colonel Isaac Williams when that Chino
worthy had a little store where later the Bella Union stood;
returned to the East in 1837 and came back to the Coast the
1858] Marriage The Butterfield Stages 227
second time as supercargo. Settling in San Francisco, he
formed with Howard the well-known firm of Howard & Mellus,
which was wiped out, by the great fire, in 1851. Again Mellus
returned to Massachusetts, and in 1858 for a third time came
to California, at length casting his fortune with us in growing
Los Angeles. On Dana's return to San Pedro and the Pacific
Coast in 1859, Mellus who had married a sister of Francis
Mellus 's wife and had become a representative citizen
entertained the distinguished advocate and author, and drove
him around Los Angeles to view the once familiar and but little-
altered scenes. Dana bore all his honors modestly, apparently
quite oblivious of the curiosity displayed toward him and
quite as unconscious that he was making one of the memorable
visits in the early annals of the town. Dana Street serves as
a memorial to one who contributed in no small degree to render
the vicinity of Los Angeles famous.
Just what hotel life in Los Angeles was in the late fifties,
or about the time when Dana visited here, may be gathered from
an anecdote often told by Dr. W. F. Edgar, who came to the
City of the Angels for the first time in 1858. Dr. Edgar had
been ordered to join an expedition against the Mojave Indians
which was to start from Los Angeles for the Colorado River, and
he put up at the old Bella Union, expecting at least one good
night's rest before taking to the saddle again and making for
the desert. Dr. Edgar found, however, to his intense disgust,
that the entire second story was overcrowded with lodgers.
Singing and loud talking were silenced, in turn, by the protests
of those who wanted to sleep ; but finally a guest, too full for
expression but not so drunk that he was unable to breathe
hoarsely, staggered in from a Sonora Town ball, tumbled into
bed with his boots on, and commenced'to snort, much like a pig.
Under ordinary circumstances, this infliction would have been
grievous enough; but the inner walls of the Bella Union were
never overthick, and the rhythmic snoring of the late-comer
made itself emphatically audible and proportionately obnoxious.
Quite as emphatic, however, were the objections soon raised
by the fellow-guests, who not only raised them but threw them,
228 Sixty Years in Southern California [1858
one after another boots, bootjacks and sticks striking, with
heavy thud, the snorer's portal; but finding that even these
did not avail, the remonstrants, in various forms of deshabille,
rushed out and began to kick at the door of the objectionable
bedroom. Just at that moment the offender turned over with
a grunt ; and the excited army of lodgers, baffled by the unresist-
ing apathy -of the sleeper, retreated, each to his nest. The
next day, breathing a sigh of relief, Edgar forsook the heavenly
regions of the Bella Union and made for Cajon Pass, eventu-
ally reaching the Colorado and the place where the expedition
found the charred remains of emigrants' wagons, the mournful
evidence of Indian treachery and atrocity.
Edgar's nocturnal experience reminds me of another in the
good old Bella Union. When Cameron E. Thorn arrived here
in the spring of 1854, he engaged a room at the hotel which he
continued to occupy for several months, or until the rains of
1855 caused both roof and ceiling to cave in during the middle
of the night, not altogether pleasantly arousing him from his
slumbers. It was then that he moved to Joseph Newmark's,
where he lived for some time, through which circumstance we
became warm friends.
Big, husky, hearty Jacob Kuhrts, by birth a German and
now living here at eighty-one years of age, left home, as a mere
boy, for the sea, visiting California on a vessel from China
as early as 1848, and rushing off to Placer County on the out-
break of the gold-fever. Roughing it for several years and
narrowly escaping death from Indians, Jake made his first
appearance in Los Angeles in 1858, soon after which I met him,
when he was eking out a livelihood doing odd jobs about town,
a fact leading me to conclude that his success at the mines was
hardly commensurate with the privations endured. It was
just about that time, when he was running a dray, that,
attracted by a dance among Germans, Jake dropped in as he
was; but how sorry an appearance he made may perhaps be
fancied when I say that the door-keeper, eyeing him suspi-
ciously, refused him admission and advised him to go home and
put on his Sunday go-to-meetings. Jake went and, what is
1858] Marriage The Butterfield Stages 229
more important, fortunately returned; for while spinning around
on the knotty floor, he met, fell in love with and ogled Frau-
lein Susan Buhn, whom somewhat later he married. In 1864,
Kuhrts had a little store on Spring Street near the adobe City
Hall ; and there he prospered so well that by 1 866 he had bought
the northwest corner of Main and First streets, and put up
the building he still owns. For twelve years he conducted a
grocery in a part of that structure, living with his family in
the second story, after which he was sufficiently prosperous to
retire. Active as his business life has been, Jake has proved
his patriotism time and again, devoting his efforts as a City
Father, and serving, sometimes without salary, as Superinten-
dent of Streets, Chief of the Fire Department and Fire Com-
missioner.
In 1858, John Temple built what is now the south wing of
the Temple Block standing directly opposite the Bullard
Building; but the Main Street stores being, like Stearns's
Arcadia Block, above the level of the sidewalk and, therefore,
reached only by several steps, proved unpopular and did not
rent, although Tischler & Schlesinger, heading a party of
grain-buyers, stored some wheat in them for a while or until
the grain, through its weight, broke the flooring, and was pre-
cipitated into the cellar; and even as late as 1859, after telegraph
connection with San Francisco had been completed, only one
little space on the Spring Street side, in size not more than eight
by ten feet, was rented, the telegraph company being the
tenants. One day William Wolfskill, pointing to the structure,
exclaimed to his friends: "What a pity that Temple put all his
money there ! Had he not gone into building so extravagantly,
he might now be a rich man." Wolfskill himself, however,
later commenced the construction of a small block on Main
Street, opposite the Bella Union, to be occupied by S. Lazard
& Company, but which he did not live to see completed.
Later on, the little town grew and, as this property became
more central, Temple removed the steps and built the stores
flush with the sidewalk, after which wide-awake merchants
began to move into them. One of Temple's first important
230 Sixty Years in Southern California [1858
tenants on Main Street was Daniel Desmond, the hatter. His
store was about eighteen by forty feet. Henry Slotterbeck,
the well-known gunsmith, was another occupant. He always
carried a large stock of gunpowder, which circumstance did not
add very much to the security of the neighborhood.
On the Court Street side, Jake Philippi was one of the first
to locate, and there he conducted a sort of Kneipe. His was a
large room, with a bar along the west side. The floor was
generously sprinkled with sawdust, and in comfortable arm-
chairs, around the good, old-fashioned redwood tables, fre-
quently sat many of his German friends and patrons, gathered
together to indulge in a game of Pedro, Skat or whist, and to pass
the time pleasantly away. Some of those who thus met to-
gether at Jake Phillippi's, at different periods of his occupancy,
were Dr. Joseph Kurtz, H. Heinsch, Conrad Jacoby, Abe Haas,
C. F. Heinzeman, P. Lazarus, Edward Pollitz, A. Elsaesser and
B. F. Drackenfeld, who was a brother-in-law of Judge Erskine
M. Ross and claimed descent from some dwellers on the
Rhine. He succeeded Frank Lecouvreur as bookkeeper for H.
Newmark & Company, and was in turn succeeded, on re-
moving to New York, by Pollitz ; while the latter was followed
by John S. Stower, an Englishman now residing in London,
whose immediate predecessor was Richard Altschul. Dracken-
feld attained prominence in New York, and both Altschul and
Pollitz in San Francisco. Of these, Drackenfeld and Pollitz
are dead.
Most of these convivial frequenters at Phillipi's belonged to
a sort of Deutscher Klub which met, at another period, in a little
room in the rear of the corner of Main and Requena streets,
just over the cool cellar then conducted by Bayer & Sattler.
A stairway connected the two floors, and by means of that
communication the Klub obtained its supply of lager beer.
This fact recalls an amusing incident. When Philip Lauth and
Louis Schwarz succeeded Christian Henne in the management
of the brewery at the corner of Main and Third streets, the
Klub was much dissatisfied with the new brew and forthwith
had Bayer & Sattler send to Milwaukee for beer made by
Marriage The Butterfield Stages 231
Philip Best. Getting wind of the matter, Lauth met the
competition by at once putting on the market a brand more
wittily than appropriately known as "Philip's Best." Sattler
left Los Angeles in the early seventies and established a
coffee-plantation in South America where, one day, he was
killed by a native wielding a machete.
The place, which was then known as Joe Bayer's, came to
belong to Bob Eckert, a German of ruddy complexion and
auburn hair, whose good-nature brought him so much patron-
age that in course of time he opened a large establishment at
Santa Monica.
John D. Woodworth, a cousin, so it was said, of Samuel
Woodworth, the author of The Old Oaken Bucket, and father of
Wallace Woodworth who died in 1883, was among the citizens
active here in 1858, being appointed Postmaster, on May I9th
of that year, by President Buchanan. Then the Post Office, for
a twelvemonth in the old Lanfranco Block, was transferred
north on Main Street until, a year or two later, it was located
near Temple and Spring streets.
In June, the Surveyor-General of California made an
unexpected demand on the authorities of Los Angeles County
for all the public documents relating to the County history
under Spanish and Mexican rule. The request was at first
refused; but finally, despite the indignant protests of the press,
the invaluable records were shipped to San Francisco.
I believe it was late in the fifties that O. W. Childs con-
tracted with the City of Los Angeles to dig a water-ditch, per-
haps sixteen hundred feet long, eighteen inches wide and about
eighteen inches deep. As I recollect the transaction, the City
allowed him one dollar per running foot, and he took land in
payment. While I cannot remember the exact location of this
land, it comprised in part the wonderfully important square
beginning at Sixth Street and running to Twelfth, and taking
in everything from Main Street as far as and including the pre-
sent Figueroa. When Childs put this property on the market,
his wife named several of the streets. Because of some grass-
hoppers in the vicinity, she called the extension of Pearl Street
232 Sixty Years in Southern California [1858
(now Figueroa) Grasshopper or Calle de los Chapules T ; her Faith
Street has been changed to Flower; for the next street to the
East, she selected the name of Hope; while as if to complete
the trio of the Graces, she christened the adjoining roadway
since become Grand Charity. The old Childs home place
sold to Henry E. Huntington some years ago, and which has
been subdivided, was a part of this land.
None of the old settlers ever placed much value on real
estate, and Childs had no sooner closed this transaction than
he proceeded to distribute some of the land among his own
and his wife's relatives. He also gave to the Catholic Church
the block later bounded by Sixth and Seventh streets, between
Broadway and Hill; where, until a few years ago, stood St.
Vincent's College, opened in 1855 on the Plaza, on the site now
occupied by the Pekin Curio Store. In the Boom year of 1887,
the Church authorities sold this block for one hundred thousand
dollars and moved the school to the corner of Charity and
Washington streets.
Andrew A. Boyle, for whom the eastern suburb of Los
Angeles, Boyle Heights, was named by William H. Workman,
arrived here in 1858. As early as 1848, Boyle had set out from
Mexico, where he had been in business, to return to the United
States, taking with him some twenty thousand Mexican dol-
lars, at that time his entire fortune, safely packed in a forti-
fied claret box. While attempting to board a steamer from
a frail skiff at the mouth of the Rio Grande, the churning by
the paddle-wheels capsized the skiff, and Boyle and his treasure
were thrown into the water. Boyle narrowly escaped with his
life ; but his treasure went to the bottom, never to be recovered.
It was then said that Boyle had perished; and his wife, on
hearing the false report, was killed by the shock. Quite as
serious, perhaps, was the fact that an infant daughter was left
on his hands the same daughter who later became the wife
of my friend, William H. Workman. Confiding this child to an
aunt, Boyle went to the Isthmus where he opened a shoe store;
'A Mexican corruption of the Aztec chapollin, grasshopper. Cf. Chapulte-
pec, Grasshopper Hill. CHARLES F. LUMMIS.
1858] Marriage The Butterfield Stages 233
and later coming north, after a San Francisco experience in
the wholesale boot and shoe business, he settled on the bluff
which was to be thereafter associated with his family name.
He also planted a small vineyard, and in the early seventies
commenced to make wine, digging a cellar out of the hill to
store his product.
The brick house, built by Boyle on the Heights in 1858 and
always a center of hospitality, is still standing, although
recently remodeled by William H. Workman, Jr. (brother of
Boyle Workman, the banker), who added a third story and
made a cosy dwelling; and it is probably, therefore, the oldest
brick structure in that part of the town.
Mendel was a younger brother of Sam Meyer, and it is
my impression that he arrived here in the late fifties. He orig-
inally clerked for his brother, and for a short time was in part-
nership with him and Hilliard Loewenstein. In time, Meyer
engaged in business for himself. During a number of his best
years, Mendel was well thought of socially, with his fiddle often
affording much amusement to his friends. All in all, he
was a good-hearted, jovial sort of a chap, who too readily
gave to others of his slender means. About 1875, he made
a visit to Europe and spent more than he could afford. At
any rate, in later life he did not prosper. He died in Los
Angeles a number of years ago.
Thomas Copley came here in 1858, having met with
many hardships while driving an ox-team from Fort Leaven-
worth to Salt Lake and tramped the entire 'eight hundred
miles between the Mormon capital and San Bernardino. On
arriving, he became a waiter and worked for a while for the
Sisters' Hospital; subsequently he married a lady of about
twice his stature, retiring to private life with a competence.
Another arrival of the late fifties was Manuel Ravenna,
an Italian. He started a grocery store and continued the
venture for some time; then he entered the saloon busi-
ness on Main Street. Ravenna commissioned Wells Fargo
& Company to bring by express the first ice shipped to Los
Angeles for a commercial purpose, paying for it an initial price
234 Sixty Years in Southern California [1858
of twelve and a half cents per pound. The ice came packed
in blankets ; but the loss by melting, plus the expense of getting
it here, made the real cost about twenty-four cents a pound.
Nevertheless, it was a clever and profitable move, and brought
Ravenna nearly all of the best trade in town.
John Butterfield was originally a New York stage-driver and
later the organizer of the American Express Company, as well
as projector of the Morse telegraph line between New York and
Buffalo. As the head of John Butterfield & Company, he was
one of my customers in 1857. He contracted with the United
States, in 1858, as President of the Overland Mail Company, to
carry mail between San Francisco and the Missouri River. To
make this possible, sections of the road, afterward popularly
referred to as the Butterfield Route, were built; and the sur-
veyors, Bishop and Beale, were awarded the contract for part
of the work. It is my recollection that they used for this
purpose some of the camels imported by the United States
Government, and that these animals were in charge of Greek
George to whom I have already referred.
Butterfield chose a route from San Francisco coming down
the Coast to Gilroy, San Jose and through the mountain passes ;
on to Visalia and Fort Tejon, and then to Los Angeles, in all
some four hundred and sixty-two miles. From Los Angeles it
ran eastward through El Monte, San Bernardino, Temecula
and Warner's Ranch to Fort Yuma, and then by way of El Paso
to St. Louis. In this manner, Butterfield arranged for what
was undoubtedly the longest continuous stage-line ever estab-
lished, the entire length being about two thousand, eight hun-
dred and eighty miles. The Butterfield stages began running in
September, 1858; and when the first one from the East reached
Los Angeles on October 7th, just twenty days after it started,
there was a great demonstration, accompanied by bon-fires and
the firing of cannon. On this initial trip, just one passenger
made the through journey W. L. Ormsby, a reporter for the
New York Herald. This stage reached San Francisco on October
loth, and there the accomplishment was the occasion, as we
soon heard, of almost riotous enthusiasm.
1858] Marriage The Butterfield Stages 235
Stages were manned by a driver and a conductor or mes-
senger, both heavily armed. Provender and relief stations were
established along the route, as a rule not more than twenty
miles apart, and sometimes half that distance. The schedule
first called for two stages a week, then one stage in each direc-
tion, every other day; and after a while this plan was altered to
provide for a stage every day. There was little regularity,
however, in the hours of departure, and still less in the time
of arrival, and I recollect once leaving for San Francisco at
the unearthly hour of two o'clock in the morning.
So uncertain, indeed, were the arrival and departure of
stages, that not only were passengers often left behind, but mails
were actually undelivered because no authorized person was on
hand, in the lone hours of the night, to receive and distribute
them. Such a ridiculous incident occurred in the fall of 1858,
when bags of mail destined for Los Angeles were carried on
to San Francisco, and were returned by the stage making its
way south and east, fully six days later! Local newspapers
were then more or less dependent for their exchanges from
the great Eastern centers on the courtesy of drivers or
agents; and editors were frequently acknowledging the
receipt of such bundles, from which, with scissors and paste,
they obtained the so-called news items furnished to their
subscribers.
George Lechler, here in 1853, who married Henry Hazard's
sister, drove a Butterfield stage and picked up orders for me
from customers along the route.
B. W. Pyle, a Virginian by birth, arrived in Los Angeles in
1858, and became, as far as I can recall, the first exclusive
jeweler and watchmaker, although Charley Ducommun, as
I have said, had handled jewelry and watches some years
before in connection with other things. Pyle's store adjoined
that of Newmark, Kremer & Company on Commercial Street,
and I soon became familiar with his methods. He com-
missioned many of the stage-drivers to work up business for him
on the Butterfield Route ; and as his charges were enormous, he
was enabled, within three or four years, to establish himself in
236 Sixty Years in Southern California [1858
New York. He was an exceedingly clever and original man and
a good student of human affairs, and I well remember his pre-
diction that, if Lincoln should be elected President, there would
be Civil War. When the United States Government first had
under consideration the building of a trans-isthmian canal,
Pyle bought large tracts of land in Nicaragua, believing that the
Nicaraguan route would eventually be chosen. Shortly after
the selection of the Panama survey, however, I read one day in
a local newspaper that B. W. Pyle had shot himself, at the age
of seventy years.
In 1857, Phineas Banning purchased from one of the Do-
minguez brothers an extensive tract some miles to the North
of San Pedro, along the arm of the sea, and established a new
landing which, in a little while, was to monopolize the harbor
business and temporarily affect all operations at the old place.
Here, on September 25th, 1858, he started a community called at
first both San Pedro New Town and New San Pedro, and later
Wilmington the latter name suggested by the capital of
Banning's native State of Delaware. Banning next cultivated
a tract of six hundred acres, planted with grain and fruit
where, among other evidences of his singular enterprise, there was
soon to be seen a large well, connected with a steam pump of
sufficient force to supply the commercial and irrigation wants of
both Wilmington and San Pedro. Banning's founding of the
former town was due, in part, to heavy losses sustained through
a storm that seriously damaged his wharf, and in part to his
desire to outdo J. J. Tomlinson, his chief business rival. The
inauguration of the new shipping point, on October 1st, 1858,
was celebrated by a procession on the water, when a line of
barges loaded with visitors from Los Angeles and vicinity, and
with freight, was towed to the decorated landing. A feature
of the dedication was the assistance rendered by the ladies,
who even tugged at the hawser, following which host and guests
liberally partook of the sparkling beverages contributing to
enliven the festive occasion.
In a short time, the shipping there gave evidence of Ban-
ning's wonderful go-ahead spirit. He had had built, in San
1858] Marriage The Butterfield Stages 237
Francisco, a small steamer and some lighters, for the purpose of
carrying passengers and baggage to the large steamships lying
outside the harbor. The enterprise was a shrewd move, for it
shortened the stage-trip about six miles and so gave the new
route a considerable advantage over that of all competitors.
Banning, sometimes dubbed "the Admiral," about the same
time presented town lots to all of his friends (including Eugene
Meyer and myself) , and with Timms Landing, the place became
a favorite beach resort ; but for want of foresight, most of these
same lots were sold for taxes in the days of long ago. I kept
mine for many years and finally sold it for twelve hundred
dollars; while Meyer still owns his. As for Banning himself,
he built a house on Canal Street which he occupied many years,
until he moved to a more commodious home situated half a
mile north of the original location.
At about this period, three packets plied between San
Francisco and San 'Diego every ten days, leaving the Com-
mercial Street wharf of the Northern city and stopping at
various intermediate points including Wilmington. These
packets were the clipper-brig Pride of the Sea, Captain Joseph
S. Garcia; the clipper-brig Boston, Commander W. H. Martin;
and the clipper-schooner Lewis Perry, then new and in charge
of Captain Hughes.
In the fall of 1858, finding that our business was not suffi-
ciently remunerative to support four families, Newmark,
Kremer & Company dissolved. In the dissolution, I took the
clothing part of the business, Newmark & Kremer retaining
the dry goods.
In November or December, Dr. John S. Griffin acquired
San Pasqual rancho, the fine property which had once been
the pride of Don Manuel Garfias. The latter had borrowed
three thousand dollars, at four per cent, per month, to complete
his manorial residence, which cost some six thousand dollars
to build; but the ranch proving unfavorable for cattle, and Don
Manuel being a poor manager, the debt of three thousand dol-
lars soon grew into almost treble the original amount. When
Griffin purchased the place, he gave Garfias an additional two
238 Sixty Years in Southern California [1858
thousand dollars to cover the stock, horses and ranch- tools;
but even at that the doctor drove a decided bargain. As early
as 1852, Garfias had applied to the Land Commission for a
patent; but this was not issued until April 3d, 1863, and the
document, especially interesting because it bore the signature of
Abraham Lincoln, brought little consolation to Garfias or his
proud wife, nee Abila, who had then signed away all claim to
the splendid property which was in time to play such a role in
the development of Los Angeles, Pasadena and their environs.
On November 2Oth, Don Bernardo Yorba died, bequeathing
to numerous children and grandchildren an inheritance of one
hundred and ten thousand dollars' worth of personal property,
in addition to thirty-seven thousand acres of land.
Sometime in December, 1858, Juan Domingo or, as he
was often called, Juan Cojo or "Lame John," because of a
peculiar limp died at his vineyard on the south side of
Aliso Street, having for years enjoyed the esteem of the
community as a good, substantial citizen. Domingo, who
successfully conducted a wine and brandy business, was a
Hollander by birth, and in his youth had borne the name of
Johann Groningen; but after coming to California and settling
among the Latin element, he had changed it, for what reason
will never be known, to Juan Domingo, the Spanish for John
Sunday. The coming of Domingo, in 1827, was not without
romance; he was a ship's carpenter and one of a crew of twenty-
five on the brig Danube which sailed from New York and was
totally wrecked off San Pedro, only two or three souls (among
them Domingo) being saved and hospitably welcomed by the
citizens. On February I2th, 1839, he married a Spanish woman,
Reymunda Feliz, by whom he had a large family of children.
A son, J. A. Domingo, was living until at least recently. A
souvenir of Domingo's lameness, in the County Museum, is a
cane with which the doughty sailor often defended himself.
Samuel Prentiss, a Rhode Islander, was another of the Danube's
shipwrecked sailors who was saved. He hunted and fished for
a living and, about 1864 or 1865, died on Catalina Island; and
there, in a secluded spot, not far from the seat of his labors,
1858] Marriage The Butterfield Stages 239
he was buried. As the result of a complicated lumber deal,
Captain Joseph S. Garcia, of the Pride of the Sea, obtained an
interest in a small vineyard owned by Juan Domingo and
Sainsevain; and through this relation Garcia became a minor
partner of Sainsevain in the Cucamonga winery. Mrs. Garcia
is living in Pomona; the Captain died some ten years ago at
Ontario.
A propos of the three Louis, referred to Breer, Lichtenberger
and Roeder all of that sturdy German stock which makes for
good American citizenship, I do not suppose that there is any
record of the exact date of Breer's arrival, although I imagine
that it was in the early sixties. Lichtenberger, who served both as
a City Father and City Treasurer, arrived in 1864, while Roeder
used to boast that the ship on which he sailed to San Francisco,
just prior to his coming to Los Angeles, in 1856 brought the
first news of Buchanan's election to the Presidency. Of the
three, Breer who was known as Iron Louis, on account of his
magnificent physique, suggesting the poet's smith, "with large
and sinewy hands," and muscles as "strong as iron bands," was
the least successful; and truly, till the end of his days, he earned
his living by the sweat of his brow. In 1865, Lichtenberger
and Roeder formed a partnership which, in a few years, was
dissolved, each of them then conducting business independently
until, in comfortable circumstances, he retired. Roeder, an
early and enthusiastic member of the Pioneers, is never so proud
as when paying his last respects to a departed comrade: his
unfeigned sorrow at the loss apparently being compensated for,
if one may so express it, by the recognition he enjoyed as one
of the society's official committee. Two of the three Louis are
dead. r Other early wheelwrights and blacksmiths were Richard
Maloney, on Aliso Street, near Lambourn & Turner's grocery,
and Page & Gravel, who took John Goller's shop when he
joined F. Foster at his Aliso Street forge.
'Louis Roeder died on February 20, 1915
CHAPTER XVII
ADMISSION TO CITIZENSHIP
1859
IN 1858, my brother, to whom the greater opportunities of
San Francisco had long appealed, decided upon a step
that was to affect considerably my own modest affairs.
This was to remove permanently to the North, with my sister-
in-law; and in the Los Angeles Star of January 22d, 1859, there
appeared the following:
Mr. Joseph P. Newmark has established a commission-
house in San Francisco, with a branch in this city. From his
experience in business, Mr. Newmark will be a most desirable
agent for the sale of .our domestic produce in the San Francisco
market, and we have no doubt will obtain the confidence of our
merchants and shippers.
This move of my brother's was made, as a matter of fact, at
a time when Los Angeles, in one or two respects at least, seemed
promising. On September 3Oth, the building commenced by
John Temple in the preceding February, on the site of the pres-
ent Bullard Block, was finished. Most of the upper floor was
devoted to a theater, and I am inclined to think that the balance
of the building was leased to the City, the court room being
next to the theater, and the ground floor being used as a
market. To the latter move there was considerable opposi-
tion, affecting, as the expenditures did, taxes and the public
treasury; and one newspaper, after a spirited attack on the
"Black Republicans," concluded its editorial with this patri-
otic appeal:
240
[1859] Admission to Citizenship 241
Citizens! Attend to your interests; guard your pocket-
books !
This building is one of the properties to which I refer as sold
by Hinchman, having been bought by Dr. J. S. Griffin and B.
D. Wilson who resold it in time to the County.
A striking feature of this market building was the town clock,
whose bell was pronounced "fine- toned and sonorous." The
clock and bell, however, were destined to share the fate of the
rest of the structure which, all in all, was not very well con-
structed. At last, the heavy rains of the early sixties played
havoc with the tower, and toward the end of 1861 the clock
had set such a pace for itself regardless of the rest of the uni-
verse that the newspapers were full of facetious jibes concerning
the once serviceable timepiece, and many were the queries as
to whether something could not be done to roof the mechanism ?
The clock, however, remained uncovered until Bullard de-
molished the building to make room for the present structure.
Elsewhere I have referred to the attempt, shortly after I
arrived here, or during the session of the Legislature of 1854-55,
to divide California into two states the proposition, be it
added of a San Bernardino County representative. A committee
of thirteen, from different sections of the commonwealth, later
substituted a bill providing for three states: Shasta, in the
North; California, at the middle; Colorado, in the South; but
nothing evolving as a result of the effort, our Assemblyman,
Andres Pico, in 1859 fathered a measure for the segregation of
the Southern counties under the name of Colorado, when this
bill passed both houses and was signed by the Governor. It
had to be submitted to the people, however, at the election in
September, 1859; and although nearly twenty-five hundred
ballots were cast in favor of the division, as against eight
hundred in the negative, the movement was afterward stifled
in Washington.
Damien Marchessault and Victor Beaudry having enthusi-
astically organized the Santa Anita Mining Company in 1858,
H. N. Alexander, agent at Los Angeles for Wells Fargo &
Company, in 1859 announced that the latter had provided
16
242 Sixty Years in Southern California [1859
scales for weighing gold-dust and were prepared to transact a
general exchange business. This was the same firm that had
come through the crisis with unimpaired credit when Adams
& Company and many others went to the wall in the great
financial crash of 1855.
I have mentioned the Mormon Colony at San Bernardino
and its connection, as an offshoot, with the great Mormon city,
Salt Lake; now I may add that each winter, for fifteen or
twenty years, or until railroad connection was established, a
lively and growing trade was carried on between Los Angeles
and Utah. This was because the Mormons had no open road
toward the outside world, except in the direction of South-
ern California; for snow covered both the Rockies and the
Sierra Nevadas, and closed every other highway and trail.
A number of Mormon wagon-trains, therefore, went back and
forth every winter over the seven hundred miles or more of
fairly level, open roadways, between Salt Lake and Los Angeles,
taking back not only goods bought here but much that was
shipped from San Francisco to Salt Lake via San Pedro. I
remember that in February, 1859, these Mormon wagons
arrived by the Overland Route almost daily.
The third week in February witnessed one of the most
interesting gatherings of rancheros characteristic of Southern
California life I have ever seen. It was a typical rodeo, last-
ing two or three days, for the separating and re-grouping of cat-
tle and horses, and took place at the residence of William
Workman at La Puente rancho. Strictly speaking, the rodeo
continued but two days, or less; for, inasmuch as the cattle to
be sorted and branded had to be deprived for the time being of
their customary nourishment, the work was necessarily one of
despatch. Under the direction of a Judge of the Plains on
this occasion, the polished cavalier, Don Felipe Lugo they
were examined, parted and branded, or re-branded, with hot
irons impressing a mark (generally a letter or odd mono-
gram) duly registered at the Court House and protected by
the County Recorder's certificate. Never have I seen finer
horsemanship than was there displayed by those whose task it
Admission to Citizenship 243
was to pursue the animal and throw the lasso around the
head or leg; and as often as most of those present had probably
seen the feat performed, great was their enthusiasm when each
vaquero brought down his victim. Among the guests were
most of the rancheros of wealth and note, together with their
attendants, all of whom made up a company ready to enjoy
the unlimited hospitality for which the Workmans were so
renowned.
Aside from the business in hand of disposing of such an
enormous number of mixed-tip cattle in so short a time, what
made the occasion one of keen delight was the remarkable,
almost astounding ability of the horseman in controlling his
animal ; for lassoing cattle was not his only forte. The vaquero of
early days was a clever rider and handler of horses, particularly
the bronco so often erroneously spelled broncho sometimes
a mustang, sometimes an Indian pony. Out of a drove that
had never been saddled, he would lasso one, attach a halter to
his neck and blindfold him by means of a strap some two or
three inches in width fastened to the halter; after which he
would suddenly mount the bronco and remove the blind, when
the horse, unaccustomed .to discipline or restraint, would buck
and kick for over a quarter of a mile, and then stop only because
of exhaustion. With seldom a mishap, however, the vaquero
almost invariably broke the mustang to the saddle within three
or four days. This little Mexican horse, while perhaps not
so graceful as his American brother, was noted for endurance;
and he could lope from morning till night, if necessary, without
evidence of serious fatigue.
Speaking of this dexterity, I may add that now and then
the early Californian vaquero gave a good exhibition of his
prowess in the town itself. Runaways, due in part to the
absence of hitching posts but frequently to carelessness,
occurred daily ; and sometimes a clever horseman who happened
to be near would pursue, overtake and lasso the frightened
steed before serious harm had been done.
Among the professional classes, J. Lancaster Brent was
always popular, but never more welcomed than on his return
244 Sixty Years in Southern California [1859
from Washington on February 26th, 1859, when he brought the
United States patent to the Dominguez rancho, dated December
1 8th, 1858, and the first document of land conveyance from the
American Government to reach California.
In mercantile circles, Adolph Portugal became somewhat
prominent, conducting a flourishing business here for a number
of years after opening in 1854, and accumulating, before 1865,
about seventy-five thousand dollars. With this money he then
left Los Angeles and went to Europe, where he made an ex-
tremely unprofitable investment. He returned to Los Angeles
and again engaged in mercantile pursuits ; but he was never able
to recover, and died a pauper.
Corbitt, who at one time controlled, with Dibblee, great
ranch areas near Santa Barbara, and in 1859 was m partnership
with Barker, owned the Santa Anita rancho, which he later
sold to William Wolfskill. From Los Angeles, Corbitt went to
Oregon, where he became, I think, a leading banker.
Louis Mesmer arrived here in 1858, then went to Fraser
River and there, in eight months, he made twenty thousand
dollars by baking for the Hudson Bay Company's troops.
A year later he was back in Los Angeles; and on Main Street,
somewhere near Requena, he started a bakery. In time he
controlled the local bread trade, supplying among others the
Government troops here. In 1864, Mesmer bought out the
United States Hotel, previously run by Webber & Haas, and
finally purchased from Don Juan N. Padilla the land on which
the building stood. This property, costing three thousand
dollars, extended one hundred and forty feet on Main Street
and ran through to Los Angeles, on which street it had a
frontage of about sixty feet. Mesmer's son Joseph is still
living and is active in civic affairs.
William Nordholt, a Forty-niner, was also a resident of
Los Angeles for some time. He was a carpenter and worked
in partnership with Jim Barton ; and when Barton was elected
Sheriff, Nordholt continued in business for himself. At length,
in 1859, he opened a grocery store on the northwest corner of
Los Angeles and First streets, which he conducted for many
1859] Admission to Citizenship 245
years. Even in 1853, when I first knew him, Nordholt had
made a good start ; and he soon accumulated considerable real
estate on First Street, extending from Los Angeles to Main.
He shared his possessions with his Spanish wife, who attended
to his grocery; but after his death, in perhaps the late seventies,
his children wasted their patrimony.
Notwithstanding the opening of other hotels, the Bella
Union continued throughout the fifties to be the representa-
tive headquarters of its kind in Los Angeles and for a wide
area around. On April iQth, 1856, Flashner & Hammell took
hold of the establishment; and a couple of years after that,
Dr. J. B. Winston, who had had local hotel experience, joined
Flashner and together they made improvements, adding the
second story, which took five or six months to complete. This
step forward in the hostelry was duly celebrated, on April I4th,
1859, at a dinner, the new dining-room being advertised, far
and wide, as "one of the finest in all California."
Shortly after this, however, Marcus Flashner (who owned
some thirty-five acres at the corner of Main and Washington
streets, where he managed either a vineyard or an orange
orchard), met a violent death. He used to travel to and from
this property in a buggy; and one day June 29th, 1859 his
horse ran away, throwing him out and killing him. In 1860,
John King, Flashner's brother-in-law, entered the management
of the Bella Union; and by 1861, Dr. Winston had sole control.
Strolling again, in imagination, into the old Bella Union of
this time, I am reminded of a novel method then employed to
call the guests to their meals. When I first came to Los Angeles
the hotel waiter rang a large bell to announce that all was ready ;
but about the spring of 1859 the fact that another meal had
been concocted was signalized by the blowing of a shrill steam-
whistle placed on the hotel's roof. This brought together
both the "regulars" and transients, everyone scurrying to be
first at the dining-room door.
About the middle of April, Wells Fargo & Company's
rider made a fast run between San Pedro and Los Angeles,
bringing all the mail matter from the vessels, and covering the
246 Sixty Years in Southern California [1859
more than twenty-seven miles of the old roundabout route in
less than an hour.
The Protestant Church has been represented in Los Angeles
since the first service in Mayor Nichols' home and the mission-
ary work of Adam Bland; but it was not until May 4th, 1859,
that any attempt was made to erect an edifice for the Protestants
in the community. Then a committee, including Isaac S. K.
Ogier, A. J. King, Columbus Sims, Thomas Foster, William H.
Shore, N. A. Potter, J. R. Gitchell and Henry D. Barrows
began to collect funds. Reverend William E. Boardman, an
Episcopalian, was invited to take charge; but subscriptions
coming in slowly, he conducted services, first in one of the
school buildings and then in the Court House, until 1862 when
he left.
Despite its growing communication with San Francisco,
Los Angeles for years was largely dependent upon sail and
steamboat service, and each year the need of a better highway
to the North, for stages, became more and more apparent.
Finally, in May, 1859, General Ezra Drown was sent as a
commissioner to Santa Barbara, to discuss the construction of
a road to that city; and on his return he declared the project
quite practicable. The Supervisors had agreed to devote a
certain sum of money, and the Santa Barbarenos, on their part,
were to vote on the proposition of appropriating fifteen thousand
dollars for the work. Evidently the citizens voted favorably;
for in July of the following year James Thompson, of Los
Angeles, contracted for making the new road through Santa
Barbara County, from the Los Angeles to the San Luis Obispo
lines, passing through Ventura or San Buenaventura, as it
was then more poetically called Santa Barbara and out by
the Gaviota Pass; in all, a distance of about one hundred and
twenty-five miles. Some five or six months were required
to finish the rough work, and over thirty thousand dollars
was expended for that alone.
Winfield Scott Hancock, whom I came to know well and
who had been here before, arrived in Los Angeles in May,
1859, to establish a depot for the Quartermaster's Department
1859] Admission to Citizenship 247
which he finally located at Wilmington, naming it Drum
Barracks, after Adjutant-General Richard Coulter Drum, for
several years at the head of the Department of the West.
Hancock himself was Quartermaster and had an office in a
brick building on Main Street near Third ; and he was in charge
of all Government property here and at Yuma, Arizona Terri-
tory, then a military post. He thus both bought and sold;
advertising at one time, for example, a call for three or four
hundred thousand pounds of barley, and again offering for sale,
on behalf of poor Uncle Sam, the important item of a lone,
braying mule! Hancock invested liberally in California
projects, and became interested, with others, in the Bear
Valley mines ; and at length had the good luck to strike a rich
and paying vein of gold quartz.
Beaudry & Marchessault were among the first handlers of
ice in Los Angeles, having an ice-house in 1859, where, in the
springtime, they stored the frozen product taken from the
mountain lakes fifty miles away. The ice was cut into cubes
of about one hundred pounds each, packed down the canons
by a train of thirty to forty mules, and then brought in wagons
to Los Angeles. By September, 1860, wagon-loads of San
Bernardino ice or perhaps one would better say compact
snow were hawked about town and bought up by saloon-
keepers and others, having been transported in the way I have
just described, a good seventy-five miles. Later, ice was shipped
here from San Francisco ; and soon after it reached town, the
saloons displayed signs soliciting orders.
Considering the present popularity of the silver dollar
along the entire Western Coast, it may be interesting to recall
the stamping of these coins, for the first time in California, at
the San Francisco mint. This was in the spring of 1859, soon
after which they began to appear in Los Angeles. A few years
later, in 1863, and for ten or fifteen years thereafter, silver
half-dimes, coined in San Francisco, were to be seen here
occasionally; but they were never popular. The larger silver
piece, the dime, was more common, although for a while it
also had little purchasing power. As late as the early seventies
248 Sixty Years in Southern California [1859
it was not welcome, and many a time I have seen dimes
thrown into the street as if they were worthless. This pre-
judice against the smaller silver coins was much the same as
the feeling which even to-day obtains with many people on the
Coast against the copper cent. When the nickel, in the eight-
ies, came into use, the old Californian tradition as to coinage
began to disappear; and this opened the way for the intro-
duction of the one-cent piece, which is more and more coming
into popular favor.
In the year 1859, the Hellman brothers, Isaias W. and
Herman W., arrived here in a sailing-vessel with Captain
Morton. I. W. Hellman took a clerkship with his cousin,
I. M. Hellman, who had arrived in 1854 and was established
in the stationery line in Mellus's Row, while H. W. Hellman
went to work in June, 1859, for Phineas Banning, at Wil-
mington. I. W. Hellman immediately showed much ability
and greatly improved his cousin's business. By 1865, he was
in trade for himself, selling dry-goods at the corner of Main
and Commercial streets as the successor to A. Portugal ; while
H. W. Hellman, father of Marco H. Hellman, the banker,
and father-in-law of the public-spirited citizen, Louis M. Cole,
became my competitor, as will be shown later, in the wholesale
grocery business.
John Philbin, an Irishman, arrived here penniless late in the
fifties, but with my assistance started a small store at Fort
Tejon, then a military post necessary for the preservation of
order on the Indian Reservation; and there, during the short
space of eighteen months, he accumulated twenty thousand
dollars. Illness compelled him to leave, and I bought his
business and property. After completing this purchase, I en-
gaged a clerk in San Francisco to manage the new branch. As
John Philbin had been very popular, the new clerk also called
himself "John " and soon enjoyed equal favor. It was only
when Bob Wilson came into town one day from the Fort and
told me, "That chap John is gambling your whole damned
business away; he plays seven-up at twenty dollars a game,
and when out of cash, puts up blocks of merchandise," that I
Admission to Citizenship 249
investigated and discharged him, sending Kaspare Cohn, who
had recently arrived from Europe, to take his place.
It was in 1859, or a year before Abraham Lincoln was
elected President, that I bought out Philbin, and at the break-
ing out of the War, the troops were withdrawn from Fort
Tejon, thus ending my activity there as a merchant. We
disposed of the stock as best we could; but the building,
which had cost three thousand dollars, brought at forced sale just
fifty. Fort Tejon, established about 1854, I mav add, after
it attained some fame as the only military post in Southern
California where snow ever fell, and also as the scene of the
earthquake phenomena I have described, was abandoned alto-
gether as a military station on September nth, 1864. Philbin
removed to Los Angeles, where he invested in some fifty acres
of vineyard along San Pedro Street, extending as far south as
the present Pico ; and I still have a clear impression of the typi-
cal old adobe there, so badly damaged by the rains of 1890.
Kaspare remained in my employ until he set up in business
at Red Bluff, Tehama County, where he continued until Jan-
uary, 1866. In more recent years, he has come to occupy an
enviable position as a successful financier.
Somewhat less than six years after my arrival (or, to be
accurate, on the fifteenth day of August, 1859, about the time
of my mother's death at Loebau) , and satisfying one of my most
ardent ambitions, I entered the family of Uncle Sam, carrying
from the District Court here a red-sealed document, to me of
great importance ; my newly-acquired citizenship being attested
by Ch. R. Johnson, Clerk, and John O. Wheeler, Deputy.
On September 3d, the Los Angeles Star made the following
announcement and salutation :
CALLED TO THE BAR At the present term of the District
Court for the First Judicial District, Mr. M. J. Newmark was
called to the bar. We congratulate Mr. Newmark on his
success, and wish him a brilliant career in his profession.
This kindly reference was to my brother-in-law, who had
read law in the office of E. J. C. Kewen, then on Main Street,
250 Sixty Years in Southern California [1859
opposite the Bella Union, and had there, in the preceding
January, when already eleven attorneys were practicing here,
hung out his shingle as Notary Public and Conveyancer
an office to which he was reappointed by the Governor in 1860,
soon after he had been made Commissioner for the State of
Missouri to reside in Los Angeles. About that same time he
began to take a lively interest in politics; being elected, on
October I3th, 1860, a delegate to the Democratic County Con-
vention. A. J. King was also admitted to the Bar toward the
end of that year.
We who have such praise for the rapid growth of the
population in Los Angeles must not forget the faithful mid-
wives of early days, when there was not the least indication
that there would ever be a lying-in hospital here. First, one
naturally recalls old Mrs. Simmons, the Sarah Gamp of the
fifties; while her professional sister of the sixties was Lydia
Rebbick, whose name also will be pleasantly spoken by old-
timers. A brother of Mrs. Rebbick was James H. Whitworth,
a rancher, who came to Los Angeles County in 1857.
Residents of Los Angeles to-day have but a faint idea, I
suppose, of what exertion we cheerfully submitted to, forty or
fifty years ago, in order to participate in a little pleasure.
This was shown at an outing in 1859, on and by the sea, made
possible through the courtesy of my hospitable friend, Phineas
Banning, details of which illustrate the social conditions then
prevailing here.
Banning had invited fifty or sixty ladies and gentlemen to
accompany him to Catalina ; and at about half-past five o'clock
on a June morning the guests arrived at Banning's residence
where they partook of refreshments. Then they started in
decorated stages for New San Pedro, where the host (who, by
the way, was a man of most genial temperament, fond of a joke
and sure to infuse others with his good-heartedness) regaled
his friends with a hearty breakfast, not forgetting anything
likely to both warm and cheer. After ample justice had been
done to this feature, the picknickers boarded Banning's little
steamer Comet and made for the outer harbor.
1859] Admission to Citizenship 251
There they were transferred to the United States Coast
Survey ship Active, which steamed away so spiritedly that in
two hours the passengers were off Catalina ; nothing meanwhile
having been left undone to promote the comfort of everyone
aboard the vessel. During this time Captain Alder and his
officers, resplendent in their naval uniforms, held a reception ;
and unwilling that the merrymakers should be exposed without
provisions to the wilds of the less-trodden island, they set be-
fore them a substantial ship's dinner. Once ashore, the visitors
strolled along the beach and across that part of the island
then most familiar; and at four o'clock the members of the
party were again walking the decks of the Government vessel.
Steaming back slowly, San Pedro was reached after sundown;
and, having again been bundled into the stages, the excursionists
were back in Los Angeles about ten o'clock.
I have said that most of the early political meetings took
place at the residence of Don Ygnacio del Valle. I recall,
however, a mass meeting and barbecue, in August, 1859, m a
grove at El Monte owned by inn-keeper Thompson. Benches
were provided for the ladies, prompting the editor of the Star to
observe, with characteristic gallantry, that the seats "were
fully occupied by an array of beauty such as no other portion of
the State ever witnessed. "
On September nth, Eberhard & Koll opened the Lafayette
Hotel on Main Street, on the site opposite the Bella Union
where once had stood the residence of Don Eulogio de Celis.
Particular inducements to families desiring quiet and the
attraction of a table "supplied with the choicest viands and
delicacies of the season" were duly advertised; but the pro-
prietors met with only a moderate response. On January 1st,
1862, Eberhard withdrew and Frederick W. Koll took into
partnership Henry Dockweiler father of two of our very promi-
nent young men, J. H. Dockweiler, the civil engineer and, in
1889, City Surveyor, and Isidore B. Dockweiler, the attorney
and Chris Fluhr. In two years, Dockweiler had withdrawn,
leaving Fluhr as sole proprietor; and he continued as such until,
in the seventies, he took Charles Gerson into partnership with
252 Sixty Years in Southern California [1859
him. It is my recollection, in fact, that Flu.hr was associated
with this hotel in one capacity or another until its name was
changed, first to the Cosmopolitan and then to the St. Elmo.
Various influences contributed to causing radical social
changes, particularly throughout the county. When Dr. John
S. Griffin and other pioneers came here, they were astonished at
the hospitality of the ranch-owners, who provided for them, how-
ever numerous, shelter, food and even fresh saddle-horses ; and
this bounteous provision for the wayfarer continued until the
migrating population had so increased as to become something
of a burden and economic conditions put a brake on unlimited
entertainment. Then a slight reaction set in, and by the
sixties a movement to demand some compensation for such
service began to make itself felt. In 1859, Don Vicente de la
Osa advertised that he would afford accommodation for travel-
ers by way of his ranch, El Encino; but that to protect himself,
he must consider it "an essential part of the arrangement that
visitors should act on the good old rule and pay as one goes ! "
In 1859, C. H. Classen, a native of Germany, opened a cigar
factory in the Signoret Building on Main Street, north of
Arcadia; and believing that tobacco could be successfully
grown in Los Angeles County, he sent to Cuba for some seed
and was soon making cigars from the local product. I fancy
that the plants degenerated because, although others experi-
mented with Los Angeles tobacco, the growing of the leaf here
was abandoned after a few years. H. Newmark & Company
handled much tobacco for sheep- wash, and so came to buy the
last Southern California crop. When I speak of sheep-wash,
I refer to a solution made by steeping tobacco in water and
used to cure a skin disease known as scab. It was always
applied after shearing, for then the wool could not be affected
and the process was easier.
Talking of tobacco, I may say that the commercial cigarette
now for sale everywhere was not then to be seen. People
rolled their own cigarettes, generally using brown paper, but
sometimes the white, which came in reams of sheets about six
by ten inches in size. Kentucky leaf was most in vogue ; and
Admission to Citizenship 253
the first brand of granulated tobacco that I remember was
known as Sultana. Clay pipes, then packed in barrels, were
used a good deal more than now, and brier pipes much less.
There was no duty on imported cigars, and their consequent
cheapness brought them into general consumption. Practi-
cally all of the native female population smoked cigarettes,
for it was a custom of the country ; but the American ladies
did not indulge. While spending an enjoyable hour at the
County Museum recently, I noticed a cigarette-case of finely-
woven matting that once belonged to Antonio Maria Lugo,
and a bundle of cigarettes, rolled up, like so many matches, by
Andres Pico; and both the little cigarillos and the holder will
give a fair understanding of these customs of the past.
Besides the use of tobacco in cigar and cigarette form, and
for pipes, there was much consumption of the weed by chewers.
Peachbrand, a black plug saturated with molasses and packed
in caddies a term more commonly applied to little boxes for
tea was the favorite chewing tobacco fifty years or more ago.
It would hardly be an exaggeration to say that nine out of ten
Americans in Los Angeles indulged in this habit, some of whom
certainly exposed us to the criticism of Charles Dickens and
others, who found so much fault with our manners.
The pernicious activity of rough or troublesome characters
brings to recollection an aged Indian named Polonia, whom
pioneers will easily recollect as having been bereft of his sight,
by his own people, because of his unnatural ferocity. He was
six feet four inches in height, and had once been endowed with
great physical strength; he was clad, for the most part, in a
tattered blanket, so that his mere appearance was sufficient to
impress, if not to intimidate, the observer. Only recently, in
fact, Mrs. Solomon Lazard told me that to her and her girl
playmates Polonia and his fierce countenance were the terror
of their lives. He may thus have deserved to forfeit his life for
many crimes ; but the idea of cutting a man's eyes out for any of-
fense whatever, no matter how great, is revolting in the extreme.
The year I arrived, and for some time thereafter, Polonia
slept by night in the corridor of Don Manuel Requena's house.
254 Sixty Years in Southern California [1859
With the aid of only a very long stick, this blind Indian was
able to find his way all over the town.
Sometime in 1859, Daniel Sexton, a veteran of the battles of
San Bartolo and the Mesa, became possessed of the idea that
gold was secreted in large sacks near the ruins of San Juan
Capistrano ; and getting permission, he burrowed so far beneath
the house of a citizen that the latter, fearing his whole home
was likely to cave in, frantically begged the gold-digger to
desist. Sexton, in fact, came near digging his own grave
instead of another's, and was for a while the good-natured
butt of many a pun.
Jacob A. Moerenhout, a native of Antwerp, Belgium, who
had been French Consul for a couple of years at Monterey, in
the latter days of the Mexican regime, removed to Los Angeles
on October 29th, 1859, on which occasion the Consular flag of
France was raised at his residence in this city. As early as
January I3th, 1835, President Andrew Jackson had appointed
Moerenhout "U. S. Consul to Otaheite and the Rest of the
Society Islands," the original Consular document, with its
quaint spelling and signed by the vigorous pen of that Presi-
dent, existing to-day in a collection owned by Dr. E. M. Clinton
of Los Angeles ; and the Belgian had thus so profited by experi-
ence in promoting trade and amicable relations between foreign
nations that he was prepared to make himself persona grata
here. Salvos of cannon were fired, while the French citizens,
accompanied by a band, formed in procession and marched
to the Plaza. In the afternoon, Don Louis Sainsevain in
honor of the event set a groaning and luxurious table for a
goodly company at his hospitable residence. There patriotic
toasts were gracefully proposed and as gracefully responded to.
The festivities continued until the small hours of the morning,
after which Consul Moerenhout was declared a duly-initiated
Angelefio.
Surrounded by most of his family, Don Juan Bandini, a dis-
tinguished Southern Calif ornian and a worthy member of one of
the finest Spanish families here, after a long and painful illness,
died at the home of his daughter and son-in-law, Dona Arcadia
San Pedro Street, near Second, in the Early Seventies
HE i ii
Commercial Street, Looking East from Main, about 1870
View of Plaza, Showing the Reservoir
Old Lanfranco Block
1859] Admission to Citizenship 255
and Don Abel Stearns, in Los Angeles, on November 4th, 1859.
Don Juan had come to California far back in the early twenties,
and to Los Angeles so soon thereafter that he was a familiar
and welcome figure here many years before I arrived.
It is natural that I should look back with pleasure and
satisfaction to my association with a gentleman so typically
Calif ornian, warm-hearted, genial and social in the extreme;
and one who dispensed so large and generous a hospitality.
He came with his father who eventually died here and was
buried at the old San Gabriel Mission and at one time pos-
sessed the Jurupa rancho, where he lived. Don Juan was a
lawyer by profession, and had written the best part of a
history of early California, the manuscript of which went to
the State University. The passing glimpse of Bandini, in
sunlight and in shadow, recorded by Dana in his classic Two
Years before the Mast, adds to the fame already enjoyed by
this native Calif ornian.
Himself of a good-sized family, Don Juan married twice.
His first wife, courted in 1823, was Dolores, daughter of Captain
Jose Estudillo, a comandante at Monterey; and of that union
were born Dona Arcadia, first the wife of Abel Stearns and later of
Colonel R. S. Baker; Dona Ysidora, who married Lieutenant
Cave J. Coutts, a cousin of General Grant; Dona Josefa, later
the wife of Pedro C. Carrillo (father of J. J. Carrillo, formerly
Marshal here and now Justice of the Peace at Santa
Monica), and the sons, Jose Maria Bandini and Juanito Ban-
dini. Don Juan's second wife was Refugio, a daughter of
Santiago Arguello and a granddaughter of the governor
who made the first grants of land to rancheros of Los An-
geles. She it was who nursed the wounded Kearny and
who became a friend of Lieutenant William T. Sherman, once
a guest at her home; and she was also the mother of Dona
Dolores, later the wife of Charles R. Johnson, and of Dona
Margarita whom Dr. James B. Winston married after his
rollicking bachelor days. By Bandini's second marriage
there were three sons : Juan de la Cruz Bandini, Alfredo Bandini
and Arturo Bandini.
256 Sixty Years in Southern California [1859
The financial depression of 1859 affected the temperament of
citizens so much that little or no attention was paid to holi-
days, with the one exception, perhaps, of the Bella Union's
poorly-patronized Christmas dinner; and during 1860 many
small concerns closed their doors altogether.
I have spoken of the fact that brick was not much used
when I first came to Los Angeles, and have shown how it
soon after became more popular as a building material. This
was emphasized during 1859, when thirty-one brick buildings,
such as they were, were put up.
In December, Benjamin Hayes, then District Judge and
holding court in the dingy old adobe at the corner of Spring and
Franklin streets, ordered the Sheriff to secure and furnish
another place ; and despite the fact that there was only a depleted
treasury to meet the new outlay of five or six thousand dollars,
few persons attempted to deny the necessity. The fact of the
matter was that, when it rained, water actually poured through
the ceiling and ran down the court-room walls, spattering over
the Judge's desk to such an extent that umbrellas might very
conveniently have been brought into use ; all of which led to the
limit of human patience if not of human endurance.
In 1859, one f the first efforts toward the formation of a
Public Library was made when Felix Bachman, Myer J.
Newmark, William H. Workman, Sam Foy, H. S. Allanson and
others organized a Library Association, with John Temple as
President; J. J. Warner, Vice-President ; Francis Mellus,
Treasurer; and Israel Fleishman, Secretary. The Association
established a reading-room in Don Abel Stearns's Arcadia Block.
An immediate and important acquisition was the collection of
books that had been assembled by Henry Mellus for his own
home ; other citizens contributed books, periodicals and money ;
and the messengers of the Overland Mail undertook to get
such Eastern newspapers as they could for the persual of the
library members. Five dollars was charged as an initiation
fee, and a dollar for monthly dues ; but insignificant as was the
expense, the undertaking was not well patronized by the public,
and the project, to the regret of many, had to be abandoned.
Admission to Citizenship 257
This effort to establish a library recalls an Angeleno of the
fifties, Ralph Emerson, a cousin, I believe, though somewhat
distantly removed, of the famous Concord philosopher. He
lived on the west side of Alameda Street, in an adobe known
as Emerson's Row, between First and Aliso streets, where Miss
Mary E. Hoyt, assisted by her mother, had a school; and
where at one time Emerson, a strong competitor of mine in the
hide business, had his office. Fire destroyed part of their
home late in 1859, and again in the following September.
Emerson served as a director on the Library Board, both he
and his wife being among the most refined and attractive
people of the neighborhood.
It must have been late in November that Miss Hoyt
announced the opening of her school at No. 2 Emerson Row,
in doing which she followed a custom in vogue with private
schools at that time and published the endorsements of
leading citizens, or patrons.
Again in 1861, Miss Hoyt advertised to give "instruction
in the higher branches of English education, with French,
drawing, and ornamental needlework, " for five dollars a month;
while three dollars was asked for the teaching of the common
branches and needlework, and only two dollars for teaching the
elementary courses. Miss Hoyt's move was probably due to
the inability of the Board of Education to secure an appropri-
ation with which to pay the public school teachers. This
lack of means led not only to a general discussion of the prob-
lem, but to the recommendation that Los Angeles schools
be graded and a high school started.
Following a dry year, and especially a fearful heat wave in
October which suddenly ran the mercury up to one hundred
and ten degrees, December witnessed heavy rains in the moun-
tains inundating both valleys and towns. On the fourth
of December the most disastrous rain known in the history
of the Southland set in, precipitating, within a single day
and night, twelve inches of water; and causing the rise
of the San Gabriel and other rivers to a height never be-
fore recorded and such a cataclysm that sand and debris
17
258 Sixty Years in Southern California [1859
were scattered far and wide. Lean and weakened from
the ravaging drought through which they had just passed,
the poor cattle, now exposed to the elements of cold rain
and wind, fell in vast numbers in their tracks. The bed of
the Los Angeles River was shifted for, perhaps, a quarter of a
mile. Many houses in town were cracked and otherwise
damaged, and some caved in altogether. The front of the old
Church, attacked through a leaking roof, disintegrated, swayed
and finally gave way, filling the neighboring street with
impassable heaps.
I have spoken of the Market House built by John Temple
for the City. On December 29th, there was a sale of the
stalls by Mayor D. Marchessault ; and all except six booths
were disposed of, each for the term of three months. One
hundred and seventy-three dollars was the rental agreed
upon ; and Dodson & Company bid successfully for nine out of
thirteen of the stalls. By the following month, however,
complaints were made in the press that, though the City Fathers
had "condescended to let the suffering public" have another
market, they still prevented the free competition desired;
and by the end of August, it was openly charged that the
manner in which the City Market was conducted showed "a
gross piece of favoritism," and that the City Treasury on this
account would suffer a monthly loss of one hundred dollars in
rents alone.
About 1859, John Murat, following in the wake of Henry
Kuhn, proprietor of the New York Brewery, established the
Gambrinus in the block bounded by Los Angeles, San Pedro
and First and what has become Second streets. The brewery,
notwithstanding its spacious yard, was anything but an
extensive institution, and the quality of the product dispensed
to the public left much to be desired; but it was beer, and
Murat has the distinction of having . been one of the first
Los Angeles brewers. The New York's spigot, a suggestive
souvenir of those convivial days picked up by George W.
Hazard, now enriches a local museum.
These reminiscences recall still another brewer Christian
Admission to Citizenship 259
Henne at whose popular resort on Main Street, on the last
evening of 1859, following some conferences in the old Round
House, thirty-eight Los Angeles Germans met and formed an
association which they called the Teutonia.-Concordia. The
object was to promote social intercourse, especially among
Germans, and to further the study of German song. C. H.
Classen was chosen first President; H. Hammel, Vice-President ;
H. Heinsch, Secretary; and Lorenzo Leek, Treasurer.
How great were the problems confronting the national
government in the development of our continent may be
gathered from the strenuous efforts and their results to
encourage an overland mail route. Six hundred thousand
dollars a year was the subsidy granted the Butterfield Com-
pany for running two mail coaches each way a week; yet the
postal revenue for the first year was but twenty-seven thou-
sand dollars, leaving a deficit of more than half a million! But
this was not all that was discouraging : politicians attacked the
stage route administration, and then the newspapers had to
come to the rescue and point out the advantages as compared
with the ocean routes. Indians, also, were an obstacle; and
with the arrival of every stage, one expected to hear the sen-
sational story of ambushing and murder rather than the yarn
of a monotonous trip. When new reports of such outrages were
brought in, new outcries were raised and new petitions, calling
on the Government for protection, were hurriedly circulated.
CHAPTER XVIII
FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH THE TELEGRAPH
i860
IN 1860, Maurice Kremer was elected County Treasurer,
succeeding H. N. Alexander who had entered the service
of Wells Fargo & Company ; and he attended to this new
function at his store on Commercial Street, where he kept the
County funds. I had my office in the same place ; and the
salary of the Treasurer at the time being but one hundred and
twenty-five dollars a month, with no allowance for an assistant,
I agreed to act as Deputy Treasurer without pay. As a
matter of fact, I was a sort of Emergency Deputy only, and
accepted the responsibility as an accommodation to Kremer,
in order that when he was out of town there might be some-
one to take charge of his affairs. It is very evident, however,
that I did not appreciate the danger connected with this little
courtesy, since it often happened that there were from forty
to fifty thousand dollars in the money-chest. An expert
burglar could have opened the safe without special effort, and
might have gone scot-free, for the only protector at night was
my nephew, Kaspare Cohn, a mere youth, who clerked for me
and slept on the premises.
Inasmuch as no bank had as yet been established in Los
Angeles, Kremer carried the money to Sacramento twice a year;
nor was this transportation of the funds, first by steamer to
San Francisco, thence by boat inland, without danger. The
State was full of desperate characters who would cut a throat
or scuttle a ship for a great deal less than the amount involved.
260
i86o] First Experience with the Telegraph 261
At the end of five or six years, Kremer was succeeded as County
Treasurer by J. Huber, Jr. I may add, incidentally, that the
funds in question could have been transported north by Wells
Fargo & Company, but their charges were exorbitant. At a
later period, when they were better equipped and rates had
been reduced, they carried the State money.
On January 2d, Joseph Paulding, a Marylander, died.
Twenty-seven years before, he came by way of the Gila, and
boasted having made the first two mahogany billiard tables
constructed in California.
The same month, attention was directed to a new industry,
the polishing and mounting of abalone shells, then as now found
on the coast of Southern California. A year or so later, G.
Fischer was displaying a shell brooch, colored much like an
opal and mounted in gold. By 1866, the demand for abalone
shells had so increased that over fourteen thousand dollars'
worth was exported from San Francisco, while a year later
consignments valued at not less than thirty-six thousand dol-
lars were sent out through the Golden Gate. Even though
the taste of to-day considers this shell as hardly deserving
of such a costly setting, it is nevertheless true that these early
ornaments, much handsomer than many specimens of quartz
jewelry, soon became quite a fad in Los Angeles. Natives and
Indians, especially, took a fancy to the abalone shell, and
even much later earrings of that material were worn by the
Crow scout Curley, a survivor of the Custer Massacre. In
1874, R- W. Jackson, a shell-jeweler on Montgomery Street,
San Francisco, was advertising here for the rarities, offering as
much as forty and fifty dollars for a single sound red, black or
silver shell, and from fifty to one hundred dollars for a good
green or blue one. Incidentally, it is interesting to note that
the Chinese consumed the abalone meat in large quantities.
Broom-making was a promising industry in the early six-
ties, the Carpenters of Los Nietos and F. W. Gibson of El
Monte being among the pioneers in this handiwork. Several
thousand brooms were made in that year; and since they
brought three dollars a dozen, and cost but eleven cents each
262 Sixty Years in Southern California [1860
for the handles and labor, exclusive of the corn, a good profit
was realized.
Major Edward Harold Fitzgerald, well known for campaigns
against both Indians and bandits, died on January 9th and
was buried with military honors.
On January loth, Bartholomew's Rocky Mountain Circus
held forth on the Plaza, people coming in from miles around to
see the show. It was then that the circus proprietor sought
to quiet the nerves of the anxious by the large-lettered an-
nouncement, "A strict Police is engaged for the occasion!"
The printing of news, editorials and advertisements in both
English and Spanish recalls again not only some amusing
incidents in court activities resulting from the inability of
jurists and others to understand the two languages, but also the
fact that in the early sixties sermons were preached in the
Catholic Church at Los Angeles in English and Spanish, the for-
mer being spoken at one mass, the latter at another. English
proper names such as John and Benjamin were Spanished
into Juan and Benito, and common Spanish terms persisted in
English advertisements, as when Don Juan Avila and Fer-
nando Sepulveda, in January, announced that they would run
the horse Coyote one thousand varas, for three thousand dollars.
In 1862, also, when Syriaco Arza was executed for the murder
of Frank Riley, the peddler, and the prisoner had made a speech
to the crowd, the Sheriff read the warrant for the execution in
both English and Spanish. Still another illustration of the use
of Spanish, here, side by side with English, is found in the fact
that in 1858 the Los Angeles assessment rolls were written in
Spanish, although by 1860 the entries were rhade in English
only.
A letter to the editor of the Star, published on January 28th,
1860, will confirm my comments on the primitive school condi-
tions in Los Angeles in the first decade or two after I came. The
writer complained of the filthy condition of the Boys' Depart-
ment, School No. i, in which, to judge by the mud, " the floor
did not seem to have been swept for months ! " The editor then
took up the cudgel, saying that the Board formerly paid a man
i86o] First Experience with the Telegraph 263
for keeping the schoolroom clean, but that the Common Council
had refused any longer to pass the janitor's bills ; adding that,
in his opinion, the Council had acted wisely! If the teacher
had really wished the schoolroom floor to be clean, contended
the economical editor, he should have appointed a pupil to swing
a broom each day or, at least, each week, and otherwise perform
the necessary duties on behalf of the health of the school.
The year 1860 witnessed the death of Don Antonio Maria
Lugo brother of Don Jose Ygnacio Lugo, grandfather of the
Wolf skills uncle of General Vallejo and the father-in-law of
Colonel Isaac Williams, who preceded Lugo to the grave by four
years. For a long time, Lugo lived in a spacious adobe built
in 1819 near the present corner of East Second and San Pedro
streets, and there the sons, for whom he obtained the San
Bernardino rancho, were born. In earlier days, or from 1813,
Don Antonio lived on the San Antonio Ranch near what is
now Compton; and so well did he prosper there that eleven
leagues were not enough for the support of his cattle and flocks.
It was a daughter of Lugo who, having married a Perez and
being made a widow, became the wife of Stephen C. Foster, her
daughter in turn marrying Wallace Woodworth and becoming
Maria Antonia Perez de Woodworth; and Lugo, who used to
visit them and the business establishments of the town, was
a familiar figure as a sturdy caballero in the streets of Los
Angeles, his ornamental sword strapped in Spanish-soldier
fashion to his equally-ornamental saddle. Don Antonio died
about the first of February, aged eighty-seven years.
About the middle of February, John Temple fitted up the
large hall over the City Market as a theater, providing for it a
stage some forty-five by twenty feet in size in those days
considered an abundance of platform space and a "private
box" on each side, whose possession became at once the ambi-
tion of every Los Angeles gallant. Temple brought an artist
from San Francisco to paint the scenery, Los Angeles then
boasting of no one clever enough for the work; and the same
genius surpervised the general decoration of the house. What
was considered a record-breaking effort at making the public
264 Sixty Years in Southern California [1860
comfortable was undertaken in furnishing the parquet with
armchairs and in filling the gallery with two tiers of raised
benches, guaranteeing some chance of looking over any broad
sombreros in front ; and to cap the enterprise, Temple brought
down a company of players especially to dedicate his new house.
About February 2Oth, the actors arrived on the old Senator; and
while I do not recall who they were or what they produced, I
believe that they first held forth on Washington's Birthday
when it was said: "The scenery is magnificent, surpassing
anything before exhibited in this city. "
The spring of 1860 was notable for the introduction of the
Pony Express as a potent factor in the despatch of trans-
continental mail ; and although this new service never included
Los Angeles as one of its terminals, it greatly shortened the
time required and, naturally if indirectly, benefited the
Southland. Speed was, indeed, an ambition of the new man-
agement, and some rather extraordinary results were attained.
About April 2Oth, soon after the Pony Express was started, mes-
sages were rushed through from St. Louis to San Francisco in
eight and a half days ; and it was noised about that the Butter-
fields planned a rival pony express, over a route three hundred
miles shorter, that would reach the Coast in seven days. About
the end of April, mail from London and Liverpool reached Los
Angeles in twenty or twenty-one days; and I believe that the
fastest time that the Pony Express ever made was in March,
1 86 1, when President Lincoln's message was brought here in
seven days and seventeen hours. This was somewhat quicker
than the passage of the report about Fort Sumter, a month
afterward, which required twelve days, and considerably faster
than the transmission, by the earlier methods of 1850, of the
intelligence that California had been admitted to the Union a
bit of news of the greatest possible importance yet not at all
known here, I have been told, until six weeks after Congress
enacted the law! Which reminds me that the death of Eliza-
beth Barrett Browning, the poet, although occurring in Italy
on June 29th, 1861, was first announced in Los Angeles on the
seventeenth of the following August!
i86o] First Experience with the Telegraph 265
In February or March, the sewer crossing Los Angeles
Street and connecting the Bella Union with the zanja (which
passed through the premises of Francis Mellus) burst, probably
as the result of the recent rains, discharging its contents into
the common yard; and in short order Mellus found himself
minus two very desirable tenants. For a while, he thought of
suing the City ; and then he decided to stop the sewer effectu-
ally. As soon as it was plugged up, however, the Bella
Union found itself cut off from its accustomed outlet, and there
was soon a great uproar in that busy hostelry. The upshot of
the matter was that the Bella Union proprietors commenced
suit against Mellus. This was the first sewer really a small,
square wooden pipe whose construction inaugurated an early
chapter in the annals of sewer-building and control in Los
Angeles.
Competition for Government trade was keen in the sixties,
and energetic efforts were made by merchants to secure their
share of the crumbs, as well as the loaves, that might fall from
Uncle Sam's table. For that reason, Captain Winfield Scott
Hancock easily added to his popularity as Quartermaster, early
in 1860, by preparing a map in order to show the War Depart-
ment the relative positions of the various military posts in this
district, and to emphasize the proximity of Los Angeles.
One day in the Spring a stranger called upon me with the
interesting information that he was an inventor, which led me
to observe that someone ought to devise a contrivance with
which to pluck oranges an operation then performed by
climbing into the trees and pulling the fruit from the branches.
Shortly after the interview, many of us went to the grove of
Jean Louis Sainsevain to see a simple, but ingenious appliance
for picking the golden fruit. A pair of pincers on a light pole
were operated from below by a wire; and when the wire was
pulled, the fruit, quite unharmed by scratch or pressure, fell
safely into a little basket fastened close to the pincers. In the
same year, Pierre Sainsevain established the first California
wine house in New York and bought the Cucamonga vine-
yard, where he introduced new and better varieties of grapes.
266 Sixty Years in Southern California [1860
But bad luck overtook him. In 1870, grasshoppers ate the
leaves and destroyed the crop.
Small as was the population of Los Angeles County at about
this time, there was nevertheless for a while an exodus to
Texas, due chiefly to the difficulty experienced by white
immigrants in competing with Indian ranch and vineyard
laborers.
Toward the middle of March, much interest was manifested
in the welfare of a native Calif ornian named Serbo sometimes
erroneously given as Serbulo and even Cervelo Varela who,
under the influence of bad whiskey, had assaulted and nearly
killed a companion, and who seemed certain of a long term in
the State prison. It was recalled, however, that when in the
fall of 1846, the fiendish Flores, resisting the invasion of the
United States forces, had captured a number of Americans
and condemned them to be dragged out and shot, Varela, then
a soldier under Flores, and a very brave fellow, broke from the
ranks, denounced the act as murder, declared that the order
should never be carried out except over his dead body, and said
and did such a number of things more or less melodramatic that
he finally saved the lives of the American prisoners. Great
sympathy was expressed, therefore, when it was discovered
that this half -forgotten hero was in the toils ; and few persons,
if any, were sorry when Varela was induced to plead guilty to
assault and battery, enabling the court to deal leniently with
him. Varela became more and more addicted to strong drink ;
and some years later he was the victim of foul play, his body
being found in an unfrequented part of the town.
A scrap-book souvenir of the sixties gives us an idyllic view
of contemporaneous pueblo life, furnishing, at the same time,
an idea of the newspaper English of that day. It reads as
follows:
With the exception of a little legitimate shooting affair last
Saturday night, by which some fellow had well-nigh the top
of his head knocked off, and one or two knock-downs and drag-
outs, we have had a very peaceful week indeed. Nothing has
occurred to disturb the even tenor of our way, and our good
i86o] First Experience with the Telegraph 267
people seem to be given up to the quiet enjoyment of delicious
fruits and our unequalled climate, each one literally under his
own vine and fig tree, revelling in fancy's flights, or luxuriating
among the good things which he finds temptingly at hand.
The demand for better lighting facilities led the Common
Council to make a contract, toward the end of March, with
Tiffany & Wethered, who were given a franchise to lay pipes
through the streets and to establish gas-works here; but the
attempt proved abortive.
In this same year, the trip east by the Overland Stage
Route, which had formerly required nearly a month, was
accomplished in eighteen or nineteen days ; and toward the end
of March, the Overland Company replaced the "mud- wagons"
they had been using between Los Angeles and San Francisco
with brightly-painted and better-upholstered Concord coaches.
Then the Los Angeles office was on Spring Street, between First
and second on the lot later bought by Louis Rceder for a
wagon-shop, and now the site of the Roeder Block ; and there,
for the price of two hundred dollars, tickets could be obtained
for the entire journey to St. Louis.
Foreign coin circulated in l^os Angeles, as I have said, for
many years, and even up to the early sixties Mexican money
was accepted at par with our own. Improved facilities for
intercourse with the outside world, however, affected the mar-
kets here, and in the spring of that year several merchants
refused to receive the specie of our southern neighbor at more
than its actual value as silver. As a result, these dealers,though
perhaps but following the trend elsewhere, were charged openly
with a combination to obtain an illegitimate profit.
In 1860, while Dr. T. J. White was Postmaster, a regulation
was made ordering all mail not called for to be sent to the
Dead Letter Office in Washington, within a week after such
mail had been advertised; but it was not until the fall of 1871
that this order was really put into operation in our neighbor-
hood. For some time this worked great hardship on many
people living in the suburbs who found it impossible to call
268 Sixty Years in Southern California Ii86o
promptly for their mail, and who learned too late that letters in-
tended for them had been returned to the sender or destroyed.
Political enthusiasm was keen in early days, as is usual in
small towns, and victorious candidates, at least, knew how to
celebrate. On Monday, May yth, 1860, Henry Mellus was
elected Mayor; and next day, he and the other City officers
paraded our streets in a four-horse stagecoach with a brass
band. The Mayor-elect and his confreres were stuffed inside
the hot, decorated vehicle, while the puffing musicians bounced
up and down on the swaying top outside, like pop-corn in a
frying-pan.
More than a ripple of excitement was produced in Los
Angeles about the middle of May, when Jack Martin, Billy
Holcomb and Jim Ware, in from Bear Valley, ordered provi-
sions and paid for the same 'in shining gold dust. It was pre-
viously known that they had gone out to hunt for bear, and
their sudden return with this precious metal, together with
their desire to pick up a few appliances such as are not ordi-
narily used in trapping, made some of the hangers-on about the
store suspicious. The hunters were secretly followed, and were
found to return to what is now Holcomb Valley; and then it
was learned that gold had been discovered there about the first
of the month. For a year or two, many mining camps were
formed in Holcomb and Upper Holcomb valleys, and in that
district the town of Belleville was founded ; but the gold, at first
apparently so plentiful, soon gave out, and the excitement
incidental to the discovery subsided.
While some men were thus digging for treasure, others
sought fortune in the deep. Spearing sharks, as well as whales,
was an exciting industry at this period ; sharks running in large
numbers along the coast, and in the waters of San Pedro Bay.
In May, Orin Smith of Los Angeles, with the aid of his son,
in one day caught one hundred and three sharks, from which
he took only the livers ; these, when boiled, yielding oil which,
burned fairly well, even in its crude state. During the next
year, shark-hunting near Rattlesnake Island continued mod-
erately remunerative.
i86o] First Experience with the Telegraph 269
Sometime in the spring, another effort was made to establish
a tannery here and hopes were entertained that an important
trade might thus be founded. But the experiment came to
naught, and even to-day Los Angeles can boast of no tannery
such as exists in several other California cities.
With the approach of summer, Elijah and William H.
Workman built a brick dwelling on Main Street, next to Tom
Rowan's bakery, and set around it trees of several varieties.
The residence, then one of the prettiest in town, was built for
the boys' mother ; and there, with her, they dwelt.
That sectarian activity regarding public schools is nothing
new in Los Angeles may be shown from an incident, not without
its humorous side, of the year 1860. T. J. Harvey appeared
with a broadside in the press, protesting against the reading of
the Bible in schoolrooms, and saying that he, for one, would
"never stand it, come what may." Some may still remember
his invective and his pyrotechnical conclusion: " Revolution 1
War!! Blood!!!"
During Downey's incumbency as Governor, the Legislature
passed a law, popularly known as the Bulkhead Bill, authorizing
the San Francisco Dock and Wharf Company to build a stone
bulkhead around the water-front of the Northern city, in return
for which the company was to have the exclusive privilege of
collecting tolls and wharfage for the long period of fifty years,
a franchise the stupendous value of which even the projectors
of that date could scarcely have anticipated. Downey, when
the measure came before him for final action, vetoed the bill
and thus performed a judicious act perhaps the most
meritorious of his administration.
Whether Downey, who on January Qth had become Govern-
or, was really popular for any length of time, even in the vicinity
of his home, may be a question; but his high office and the
fact that he was the first Governor from the Southland as-
sured him a hearty welcome whenever he came down here from
the capital. In June Downey returned to Los Angeles, accom-
panied by his wife, and took rooms at the Bella Union hotel, and
besides the usual committee visits, receptions and speeches from
270 Sixty Years in Southern California [1860
the balcony, arranged in honor of the distinguished guests,
there was a salute of thirteen guns, fired with all ceremony,
which echoed and re-echoed from the hillsides.
In 1860, a number of delegates, including Casper Behrendt
and myself, were sent to San Francisco to attend the laying of
the corner-stone, on the twenty-fifth of June, of the Masonic
Temple at the corner of Post and Montgomery streets. We
made the trip when the weather was not only excessively hot,
but the sand was a foot deep and headway very slow; so
that, although we were young men and enjoyed the excursion,
we could not laugh down all of the disagreeable features of the
journey. It was no wonder, therefore, that when we arrived at
Visalia, where we were to change horses, Behrendt wanted a
shave. While he was in the midst of this tonsorial refreshment,
the stage started on its way to San Francisco ; and as Behrendt
heard it passing the shop, he ran out with one side of his face
smooth and clean, while the other side was whiskered and
grimy and tried to stop the disappearing vehicle. Despite all
of his yelling and running, however, the stage did not stop;
and finally, Behrendt fired his pistol several times into the air.
This attracted the attention of the sleepy driver, who took the
puffing passenger on board; whereupon the rest of us chaffed
him about his singular appearance. Behrendt 1 did not have
much peace of mind until we reached the Plaza Hotel at San
Juan Bautista ("a relic," as someone has said," of the distant
past, where men and women played billiards on horseback,
and trees bore human fruit"), situated in a sweet little val-
ley, mountain-girdled and well watered ; where he was able to
complete his shave and thus restore his countenance to its
normal condition.
In connection with this anecdote of the trip to San Fran-
cisco, I may add another story. On board the stage was
Frederick J. McCrellish, editor of the Alto, California the
principal Coast paper, bought by McCrellish & Company in
1858 and also Secretary of the telegraph company at that
time building its line between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
'Died November igth, 1913.
i86o] First Experience with the Telegraph 271
When we reached a point between Gilroy and Visalia, which was
the temporary terminus of the telegraph from San Francisco,
McCrellish spoke with some enthusiasm of the Morse invention
and invited everybody on the stage to send telegrams, at his
expense, to his friends. I wrote out a message to my brother in
San Francisco, telling him about the trip as far as I had com-
pleted it, and passed the copy to the operator at the clicking
instrument. It may be hard for the reader to conceive that
this would be an exciting episode in a man's life; but since my
first arrival in the Southland there had been no telegraphic
communication between Los Angeles and the outside world,
and the remembrance of this experience at the little wayside
station was never to be blotted from my mind. I may also
add that of that committee sent to the Masonic festivities in
San Francisco, Behrendt and I are now the only surviving
members.
It has been stated that the population of Los Angeles in
1850 was but sixteen hundred and ten. How true that is I
cannot tell. When I came to the city in 1853, there were some
twenty-six hundred people. In the summer of 1860 a fairly
accurate census was made, and it was found that our little
town had four thousand three hundred and ninety-nine
inhabitants.
Two distinguished military men visited Los Angeles in the
midsummer of 1860. The first was General James Shields
who, in search of health, arrived by the Overland Route on the
twenty-fourth of July, having just finished his term in the
Senate. The effect of wounds received at the battle of Cerro
Gordo, years before, and reports as to the climate of California
started the General westward ; and quietly he alighted from the
stage at the door of the Bella Union. After a while, General
Shields undertook the superintending of a Mexican mine ; but at
the outbreak of the Civil War, although not entirely recovered,
he hastened back to Washington and was at once appointed a
Brigadier-General of volunteers. The rest of his career is
known.
A week later, General, or as he was then entitled, Colonel
272 Sixty Years in Southern California [1860
John C. Fremont drew up at the Plaza. His coming to this
locality in connection with the Temescal tin mine and Mariposa
forestry interests had been heralded from Godey's ranch some
days before; and when he arrived on Tuesday, July 3ist, in
company with Leonidas Haskell and Joseph C. Palmer, the
Republicans were out in full force and fired a salute of twenty-
five guns. In the evening, Colonel Fremont was waited upon
in the parlors of the Bella Union by a goodly company, under
the leadership of the Republican Committee, although all
classes, irrespective of politics, united to pay the celebrated
California pioneer the honors due him.
Alexander Godey, to whose rancho I have just referred, was a
man of importance, with a very extensive cattle-range in Kern
County not far from Bakersfield, where he later lived. He
occasionally came to town, and was an invariable visitor at
my store, purchasing many supplies from me. These and
other provisions, which Godey and his neighbors sent for, were
transported by burro- or mule- train to the ranches in care
of Miguel Ortiz, who had his headquarters in Los Angeles.
Loading these so-called pack-trains was an art : by means of
ropes and slats of wood, merchandise was strapped to the
animal's sides and back in such a fashion that it could not slip,
and thus a heavy, well-balanced load was conveyed over the
plain and the mountain trails.
By 1860, the Germans were well-organized and active here
in many ways, a German Benevolent Society, called the Ein-
tracht, which met Tuesday and Friday evenings in the Arcadia
Block for music drill under Director Heinsch, affording stimu-
lating entertainment and accomplishing much good. The
Turnverein, on the other hand, took an interest in the success of
the Round House, and on March I2th put up a liberty pole on
top of the oddly-shaped building. Lager beer and other things
deemed by the Teutonic brethren essential to a Garden of
Paradise and to such an occasion were freely dispensed; and
on that day Lehman was in all his glory.
A particular feature of this Garden of Paradise was a cab-
bage, about which have grown up some traditions of the Brob-
i86o] First Experience with the Telegraph 273
dingnagian sort that the reader may accept in toto or with
a grain of salt. It was planted when the place was opened,
and is said to have attained, by December, 1859, a height
of twelve feet, "with a circumference" (so averred an ambigu-
ous chronicler of the period, referring doubtless to crinolines)
"equal to that of any fashionably-attired city belle measuring
eight or ten feet." By July, 1860, the cabbage attained a
growth, so the story goes, of fourteen feet four inches although,
George always claimed, it had been cropped twenty or more
times and its leaves used for Kohlslau, Sauerkraut and good-
ness knows what. I can afford the modern reader ho better
idea of Lehman's personality and resort than by quoting the
following contemporaneous, if not very scholarly, account :
THE GARDEN OF PARADISE. Our friend George of the
Round House, who there keeps a garden with the above capti-
vating name, was one of the few who done honor to the Fourth.
He kept the National Ensign at the fore, showed his fifteen-
foot cabbage, and dealt Lager to admiring crowds all day.
Among the popular pleasure-resorts of 1860 was the
Tivoli Garden on the Wolfskill Road, conducted by Charles
Kaiser, who called his friends together by placarding the legend,
"Hurrah for the Tivoli!" Music and other amusements were
provided every Sunday, from two o'clock, and dancing could be
enjoyed until late in the night ; and as there was no charge for
admission, the place was well patronized.
When the Fourth of July, 1859, approached and no prepa-
ration had been made to observe the holiday, some children
who were being instructed in calisthenics by A. F. Tilden began
to solicit money, their childish enthusiasm resulting in the
appointing of a committee, the collecting of four hundred dol-
lars, and a picnic in Don Luis Sainsevain's enclosed garden.
A. year later, Tilden announced that he would open a place
for gymnastic exercises in "Temple's New Block;" charging
men three dollars for the use of the apparatus and the privilege
of a shower-bath, and training boys at half rates. This was
the origin of systematic physical culture in Los Angeles.
18
CHAPTER XIX
STEAM-WAGON ODD CHARACTERS
i860
EARLY in 1860, Phineas Banning and J. J. Tomlinson,
the energetic rivals in lighterage and freighting at
San Pedro, embarked as lumber merchants, thereby
anticipating the enormous trade that has flowed for years past
from the North through Los Angeles to Southern California
and Arizona. Having many teams, they hauled lumber, when
traffic was not sufficient to keep their wagon-trains busy,
from the harbor to the city or even, when there was need, to
the ranches. It must have been in the same year that F. P. F.
Temple, at a cost of about forty thousand dollars for lumber
alone, fenced in a wide acreage, at the same time building large
and substantial barns for his stock. By the summer of that
year, Banning was advertising lumber, delivered in Los Angeles;
and from October 1st, Banning & Hinchman had an office near
the northern junction of Main and Spring streets. A couple
of years before, Banning in person had directed the driving of
seventeen mule teams, from San Pedro to Fort Yuma, covering,
in twelve or thirteen days, the two hundred and thirty miles of
barely passable road. The following March, Banning and Tom-
linson, who had so often opposed each other even in the courts,
came to an understanding and buried the hatchet for good.
At this time, Joseph Everhardt, who, with Frederick W.
Koll, had conducted the Lafayette Hotel, sold out and moved to
San Francisco, marrying Miss R. Mayer, now John Lang's
widow, sister-in-law of Kiln Messer. Later, Everhardt went
to Sonoma and then to Victoria, B. C., in each place making
his mark ; and in the latter city he died.
274
[i86o] Steam- Wagon Odd Characters 275
Like both Messer and Lang, Everhardt had passed through
varied and trying experiences. The owner of the Russ Garden res-
taurant in 1849, in lively San Francisco, he came to Los Angeles
and took hold of the hotel Lafayette. With him was a partner
named Fucht ; but a free fight and display of shooting irons, such
as of ten enlivened a California hotel, having sent the guests and
hangers-on scurrying to quarters, induced Fucht to sell out his
interests in very short order, whereupon Everhardt took in with
him Frederick W. Koll, who lived on a site now the southeast
corner of Seventh and Spring streets where he had an orange-
grove.
Pursuing Indians was dangerous in the extreme, as Robert
Wilburn found when he went after some twenty head of cattle
stolen from Felix Bachman by Pi-Ute or Paiute Indians in
January, 1860, during one of their marauding expeditions into
California. Wilburn chased the red men but he never came
back; and when his body was found, it was pierced with three
or four arrows, probably shot at him simultaneously by as
many of the cattle-thieves.
Don Tomas A. Sanchez, Sheriff from 1860 to 1867, had a
record for physical courage and prowess, having previously been
an officer under Pico in the Mexican War days, and having
later aided Pico in his efforts to punish Barton's murderers.
Sanchez had property; and in 1887 a patent was granted his
estate for four thousand or more acres in the ranch known as
Cienega 6 Paso de la Tijera.
Destructive fires in the open country, if not as common as
now, still occasionally stirred our citizens. Such a fire broke out
in the San Fernando Valley in the middle of July, and spread
so rapidly that a square mile and a half of territory was denuded
and charred. Not only were there no organized means to
fight such fires, but men were compelled to sound the alarm
through couriers on horsebacb; and if the wind happened to
be blowing across the plains, even the fleetest horseman had all
he could do to avoid the flames and reach in time the widely-
separated rancheros. Here I may add that as late as the sixties
all of the uninhabited parts of Los Angeles, especially to the
276 Sixty Years in Southern California [1860
west of Main Street, were known as plains, and "crossing the
plains" was an expression commonly used with a peculiarly
local significance.
So wretched were the roads in the early decades after my
arrival, and so many were the plans proposed for increasing
the rapidity of travel, that great curiosity was excited in 1860
when it was announced that Phineas Banning had bought a
"steam-wagon " and would soon introduce a kind of vehicle such
as Los Angeles, at least, had never before seen. This steam-
wagon was a traction engine built by J. Whitman & Sons, at
Leeds, England, and was already on its way across the ocean.
It had been ordered by Richard A. Ogden, of San Francisco,
for the Patagonia Copper Mining Company, a trial before
shipping having proved that, with a load of thirty-eight tons,
the engine could attain a speed of five miles an hour; and
Banning paid handsomely for the option of purchasing the
vehicle, on condition that it would ultimately prove a success.
The announcement was made in April, and by early June
the engine had reached San Francisco where it made the run
to Mission Dolores in three-quarters of an hour. All the San
Francisco papers told of "the truly wonderful machine," one
reporter averring that "the engineer had so perfect control that
a visit was made to various parts of the city, to the astonish-
ment and gratification of the multitude;" and since these
accounts were immediately copied by the Los Angeles papers
(which added the official announcement that Captain Hughes
had loaded the engine on board his schooner, the Lewis Perry,
and was bringing it south as fast as he could) , popular excite-
ment rose like the mercury in summer, and but one more
report was needed to make it the absorbing talk of the hour.
That came on the twenty-eighth of July, when the Star an-
nounced: "The steam- wagon has arrived at San Pedro;" and
it was not long before many persons went down to the port
to get a sight of the wonderful object.
And wait they did. Although the Star said that "all our
citizens were anxiously, hourly, expecting to see Major Banning
heave in sight at the foot of Main Street," no Banning hove!
i86o] Steam- Wagon Odd Characters 277
Instead, on the fourth of August, the same Star broke forth
with this lament: "The steam-wagon is at San Pedro, and we
regret to learn that it is likely to remain there. So far, all
attempts to reach this city with freight have failed. " And that
was the end of the steam- wagon experiment here.
In every community there are characters who, for one
reason or another, develop among their fellows a reputation for
oddity. We have all seen the good-natured, rather stout old
gentleman, whose claim to dignity is his old-fashioned Prince
Albert and rather battered-looking silk hat, but who, although
he boasts many friends, is never successful in the acquisition
of this world's goods. We have seen, too, the vender of ice-
cream, tamales or similar commodity, who in his youth had
been an opera singer or actor, but whose too intensive thirst
rendered him impossible in his profession and brought him far
down in the world. Some were dangerous criminals; some
were harmless, but obnoxious; others still were harmless and
amusing. Many such characters I have met during my sixty
years in Los Angeles ; and each filled a certain niche, even those
whose only mission was to furnish their fellows with humor
or amusement having thus contributed to the charm of life.
Vie jo Cholo, or Old Half-breed, a Mexican over sixty years
of age who was never known by any other name, was such an
eccentric character. He was half blind; wore a pair of white
linen pantaloons, and for a mantle used an old sheet. This he
threw over his shoulders ; and thus accoutered, he strutted about
the streets like a Spanish cavalier. His cane was a broom-
handle; his lunch-counter, the swill-bucket; and when times
were particularly bad, Viejo begge'd. The youngsters of the
pueblo were the bane of Cholo's existence and the torment of his
infirmity and old age.
Cholo was succeeded by Pinikahti, who was half Indian and
half Mexican. He was not over four feet in height and had a
flat nose, a stubby beard and a face badly pockmarked ; and he
presented, altogether, as unkempt and obnoxious an appearance
as one might imagine. Pinikahti was generally attired in a
well-worn straw hat, the top of which was missing, and his long,
278 Sixty Years in Southern California [1860
straight hair stuck out in clumps and snarls. A woolen under-
shirt and a pair of overalls completed his costume, while his
toes, as a rule, protruded from his enormous boots. Unlike
Viejo Cholo, Pinikahti was permitted to go unmolested by the
juvenile portion of the population, inasmuch as, though half-
witted, he was somewhat of an entertainer ; for it was natural for
him to play the flute and what was really interesting he made
his own instruments out of the reed that grew along the river
banks. Pinikahti cut just the holes, I suppose, that produced
what seemed to him proper harmony, and on these home-made
flutes performed such airs as his wandering fancy suggested.
He always played weird tunes and danced strange Indian dances ;
and through these crude gifts he became, as I have said, suf-
ficiently popular to enjoy some immunity. Nevertheless, he
was a professional beggar; and whatever he did to afford
amusement, was done, after all, for money. This was easily
explained, for money alone would buy aguardiente, and Pinikahti
had little use for anything else. Aguardiente, as the word was
commonly used in Southern California, was a native brandy,
full of hell fire; and so the poor half-breed was always drunk.
One day Pinikahti drank a glass too much, and this brought
about such a severance of his ties with beautiful Los Angeles
that his absorption of one spirit released, at last, the other.
Sometime -in the eventful sixties, a tall, angular, muscular-
looking woman was here, who went by the singular sobriquet of
Captain Jinks, a title which she received from a song then very
popular, the first couplet of which ran something like this :
I'm Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines,
I feed my horse on pork and beans !
She half strode, half jerked her way along the street, as though
scanning the lines of that ditty with her feet. She was strong
for woman's rights, she said; and she certainly looked it.
Chinamen were not only more numerous by 1860, but
they had begun to vary their occupations, many working as
servants, laundrymen or farm hands. In March, a Chinese
company was also organized to compete for local fish trade.
x86o] Steam- Wagon Odd Characters 279
In 1860, Emile Bordenave & Company opened the Louisiana
Coffee Saloon as a French restaurant. Roast duck and oysters
were their specialty, and they charged fifty cents a meal. But
they also served "a plate at one bit." 1 Some years later, there
was a two-bit restaurant known as Brown's on Main Street,
near the United States Hotel, where a good, substantial meal
was served.
James, often called Santiago Johnson, who, for a short time
prior to his death about 1860 or 1861, was a forwarder of
freight at San Pedro, came to Los Angeles in 1833 with a
cargo of Mexican and Chinese goods, and after that owned
considerable ranch property. In addition to ranching, he also
engaged extensively in cattle-raising.
Peter, popularly known as Pete or Bully Wilson, a native of
Sweden, came to Los Angeles about 1860. He ran a one horse
dray ; and as soon as he had accumulated sufficient money, he
bought, for twelve hundred dollars, the southeast corner of
Spring and First streets, where he had his stable. He continued
to prosper ; and his family still enjoy the fruits of his industry.
The same year, George Smith started to haul freight and
baggage. He had four horses hitched to a sombre-looking
vehicle nicknamed the Black Swan.
J. D. Yates was a grocer and provision-dealer of 1860,
with a store on the Plaza.
I have referred to Bishop Amat as presiding over the Dio-
cese of Monterey and Los Angeles ; but Los Angeles was linked
with Monterey, for a while, even in judicial matters. Beginning
with 1860 or 1861 (when Fletcher M. Haight, father of Governor
H. H. Haight, was the first Judge to preside) , the United States
Court for the Southern District of California was held alternately
in the two towns mentioned, Colonel J. O. Wheeler serving as
Clerk and the Court for the Southern term occupying seven
rooms of the second story of John Temple's Block. These al-
ternate sessions continued to be held until about 1866 when
the tribunal for the Southern District ceased to exist and An-
gelefios were compelled to apply to the court in San Francisco.
1 Twelve and one-half cents.
280 Sixty Years in Southern California I l86
For years, such was the neglect of the Protestant burial
ground that in 1860 caustic criticism was made by each news-
paper discussing the condition of the cemetery: there was no
fence, headstones were disfigured or demolished, and there was
little or no protection to the graves. As a matter of fact, when
the cemetery on Fort Hill was abandoned, but few of the bodies
were removed.
By 1860, the New England Fire Insurance Company, of
Hartford, Connecticut, was advertising here through its local
agent, H. Hamilton our friend of the Los Angeles Star.
Hamilton used to survey the applicants' premises, forward the
data to William Faulkner, the San Francisco representative,
who executed the policy and mailed the document back
to Los Angeles. After a while, Samuel Briggs, with Wells
Fargo & Co., represented the Phcenix Insurance Company.
H. Newmark & Company also sold insurance somewhat
later, representing the Commercial Union Insurance Company.
About 1880, however, they disposed of their insurance interests
to Maurice Kremer, whose main competitor was W. J. Brodrick;
and from this transaction developed the firm of Kremer, Camp-
bell & Company, still in that business. Not only in this con-
nection but elsewhere in these memoirs it may be noted how
little specialization there was in earlier days in Los Angeles ; in
fact it was not until about 1880 that this process, distinctive
of economic progress, began to appear in Los Angeles. I my-
self have handled practically every staple that makes up the
very great proportion of merchandising activity, whereas my
successors of to-day, as well as their competitors, deal only in
groceries and kindred lines.
Two brothers, Emile and Theophile Vache, in the fall of
1860, started what has become the oldest firm Vache Freres
in the local wine business, at first utilizing the Bernard residence
at Alameda and Third streets, in time used by the Govern-
ment as a bonded warehouse. Later, they removed to the
building on Aliso Street once occupied by the Medical College,
where the cellars proved serviceable for a winery. There
they attempted the manufacture of cream of tartar from wine-
i86o] Steam-Wagon Odd Characters 281
crystals, but the venture was not remunerative. In 1881, the
Vaches, joined by their brother Adolphe, began to grow grapes
in the Barton Vineyard in San Bernardino County, and some
time afterward they bought near-by land and started the
famous Brookside Vineyard. Emile is now dead; while Theo-
phile, who retired and returned to Europe in 1892, retaining
an interest in the firm of T. Vache & Company, passes his hours
pleasantly on the picturesque island of St. George d'Oleron, in
the Charente Inferieure, in his native France.
On September 2 1 st, Captain W. S. Hancock, who first came
to Los Angeles in connection with the expedition against the
Mojave Indians in 1858, sought to establish a new kind of
express between Los Angeles and Fort Mojave, and sent out a
camel in charge of Greek George to make the trial trip. When
they had been gone two and a half days, the regular express
messenger bound for Los Angeles met them at Lane's Crossing,
apparently in none too promising a condition ; which later gave
rise to a report that the camel had died on the desert. This
occasioned numerous newspaper squibs d propos of both the
speed and the staying powers of the camel as contrasted with
those of the burro; and finally, in October, the following
announcement appeared placarded throughout the town:
BY POULTERER, DE Ro &.ELDRIDGE
OFFICE AND SALESROOM, CORNER CALIFORNIA &
FRONT STREETS, SAN FRANCISCO.
PEREMPTORY SALE
OF
BACTRIAN CAMELS
IMPORTED FROM THE AMOOR RIVER
Ex CAROLINE E. FOOTE.
ON WEDNESDAY, OCT. 10, 1860,
WE WILL SELL AT PUBLIC AUCTION]
IN LOTS TO SUIT PURCHASERS,
FOR CASH,
13 BACTRIAN CAMELS,
From a cold and mountainous country, comprising 6 males and 7 females,
(5 being with young,) all in fine health and condition.
* * * For further particulars, inquire of the Auctioneers.
282 Sixty Years in Southern California [1860
In 1858, Richard Garvey came to Los Angeles and entered
the Government service as a messenger, between this city and
New Mexico, for Captain W. S. Hancock. Later, he went to the
Holcomb Valley mines, where he first met Lucky Baldwin ; and
by 1872 he had disposed of some San Bernardino mine proper-
ties at a figure which seemed to permit his retirement and ease
for the rest of his life. For the next twenty years, he was
variously employed, at times operating for Baldwin. Garvey
is at present living in Los Angeles.
What was one of the last bullfights here, toward the end
of September, when a little child was trodden upon in the ring,
reminds me not only of the succeeding sports, including horse-
racing, but as well that Francis Temple should be credited with
encouraging the importation and breeding of good horses.
In 1860 he paid sevea thousand dollars, then considered an
enormous sum, for Black Warrior; and not long afterward he
bought Billy Blossom at a fancy figure.
A political gathering or two enlivened the year 1860. In
July, when the local sentiment was, to all appearances, strongly
in favor of Breckenridge and Lane, the Democratic candidates
for President and Vice-President, one hundred guns were fired
in their honor; and great was the jubilation of the Democratic
hosts. A later meeting, under the auspices of the Breckenridge
Club, was held in front of the Montgomery saloon on Main
Street. Judge Dryden presided, and Senator Milton S. Latham
was the chief speaker. A number of ladies graced the oc-
casion, some seated in chairs near by and others remaining
in their vehicles drawn up in a semicircle before the speaker's
stand. As a result of all this effort, the candidates in question
did lead in the race here, but only by four votes. On counting
the ballots the day after election, it was found that Brecken-
ridge had two hundred and sixty-seven votes, while Douglas,
the Independent Democratic nominee, had polled two hundred
and sixty-three. Of permanent interest, perhaps, as showing
the local sentiment on other questions of the time, is that Lincoln
received in Los Angeles only one hundred and seventy-nine
votes.
1860] Steam- Wagon Odd Characters 283
Generally, a candidate persuaded his friends to nominate
and endorse him, but now and then one came forward and ad-
dressed the public directly. In the fall of 1860, the following
announcement appeared in the Southern News:
To THE VOTERS OF Los ANGELES TOWNSHIP:
I am a candidate for the office of Justice of the Peace, and
I desire to say to you, frankly, that I want you all to vote for me
on the 6th of November next. I aspire to the office for two
reasons, first, because I am vain enough to believe that I
am capable of performing the duties required, with credit to
myself and to the satisfaction of all good citizens; second,
because I am poor, and am desiring of making an honest living
thereby.
WILLIAM G. STILL.
During my first visit to San Francisco, in the fall of 1853, and
while en route to Los Angeles, my attention was called to a line of
electric telegraph, then just installed between the Golden Gate
and the town, for use in reporting the arrival of vessels. About
a month later a line was built from San Francisco to Sacra-
mento, Stockton and around to San Jose. Nothing further,
however, was done toward reaching Southern California with
the electric wire until the end of May or the beginning of
June, 1860, when President R. E. Raimond and Secretary Fred.
J. McCrellish (promoters of the Pacific & Atlantic Telegraph
Company, organized in 1858 to reach San Antonio, Texas, and
Memphis, Tennessee) came to Los Angeles to lay the matter
before our citizens. Stock was soon subscribed for a line
through the city and as far as Fort Yuma, and in a few days
Banning had fifty teams ready to haul the telegraph poles,
which were deposited in time along the proposed route. In
the beginning, interest was stimulated by the promise that the
telegraph would be in operation by the Fourth of July; but
Independence Day came and went, and the best that the
telegraph company could do was to make the ambiguous report
284 Sixty Years in Southern California [1860
that there were so and so many "holes in the ground. " Worse
than that, it was announced, toward the end of July, that the
stock of wire had given out; and still worse, that no more could
be had this side of the Atlantic States ! That news was indeed
discouraging; but by the middle of August, twenty tons of wire
were known to be on a clipper bound for San Francisco, around
the Horn, and five tons were being hurried here by steamer.
The wire arrived, in due season, and the most energetic efforts
were made to establish telegraphic communication between
Los Angeles and San Francisco. It was while McCrellish was
slowly returning to the North, in June, that I met him as
narrated in a previous chapter.
Finally, at eight o'clock on October 8th, 1860, a few magic'
words from the North were ticked out in the Los Angeles office
of the telegraph company. Two hours later, as those familiar
with our local' history know, Mayor Henry Mellus sent the
following memorable message to H. F. Teschemacher, President
of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors:
Allow me, on behalf of the citizens of Los Angeles, to send
you greeting of fellowship and good-feeling on the comple-
tion of the line of telegraph which now binds the two cities
together.
Whereupon, the next day, President Teschemacher (who, by
the way, was a well-known importer, having brought the first
almond seed from the Mediterranean in the early fifties) replied
to Mayor Mellus:
, Your despatch has just been received. On behalf of the
citizens of San Francisco, I congratulate Los Angeles, trusting
that the benefit may be mutual.
A ball in Los Angeles fittingly celebrated the event, as
will be seen from the following despatch, penned by Henry D.
Barrows, who was then Southern California correspondent of
the Bulletin:
i86o] Steam-Wagon Odd Characters 285
Los ANGELES, October 9, 1860,
10.45 A. M.
Here is the maiden salutation of Los Angeles to San Fran-
cisco by lightning ! This despatch the first to the press from
this point the correspondent of the Bulletin takes pleasure in
communicating in behalf of his fellow-citizens. The first
intelligible communication by the electric wire was received
here last night at about eight o'clock, and a few hours later,
at a grand and brilliant ball, given in honor of the occasion,
despatches were received from San Francisco announcing the
complete working of the entire line. Speeches were made
in the crowded ball-room by E. J. C. Kewen and J. McCrellish.
News of Colonel Baker's election in Oregon to the United States
Senate electrified the Republicans, but the Breckenridges
doubted it at first. Just before leaving yesterday, Senator
Latham planted the first telegraph pole from this point east,
assisted by a concourse of citizens.
Barrows' telegram concluded with the statement, highly sug-
gestive of the future commercial possibilities of the telegraph,
that the steamer Senator would leave San Pedro that evening
with three thousand or more boxes of grapes.
On October i6th, the steamer J. T. Wright, named after the
boat-owner and widely advertised as "new, elegant, and fast,"
arrived at San Pedro, in charge of Captain Robert Haley; and
many persons professed to see in her appearance on the scene
new hope for beneficial coastwise competition. After three or
four trips, however, the steamer was withdrawn.
Leonard John Rose, a German by birth, and brother-in-
law of H. K. S. O'Melveny, arrived with his family by the
Butterfield Stage Route in November, having fought and con-
quered, so to speak, every step of his way from Illinois, from
which State, two years before, he had set out. Rose and
other pioneers tried to reach California along the Thirty-fifth
parallel, a route surveyed by Lieutenant Beale but presenting
terrific hardships; on the sides of mountains, at times, they had
to let down their wagons by ropes, and again they almost died
of thirst. The Mojave Indians, too, set upon them and did not
desist until seventeen Indians had been killed and nine whites
were slain or wounded, Rose himself not escaping injury. With
286 Sixty Years in Southern California [1860
the help of other emigrants, Rose and his family managed to
reach Albuquerque, where within two years in the hotel busi-
ness he acquired fourteen thousand dollars. Then, coming to
Los Angeles, he bought from William Wolf skill one hundred
and sixty acres near the old Mission of San Gabriel, and so
prospered that he was soon able to enlarge his domain to over
two thousand acres. He laid out a splendid vineyard and
orange grove, and being full of ambition, enterprise and taste,
it was not long before he had the show-place of the county.
Apparently, Temple really inaugurated his new theater
with the coming to Los Angeles in November of that year of
"the Great Star Company of Stark & Ryer, " as well as with
the announcement made at the time by their management:
"This is the first advent of a theatrical company here. " Stark
& Ryer were in Los Angeles for a week or two; and though I
should not vouch for them as stars, the little hall was crowded
each night, and almost to suffocation. There were no fire
ordinances then as to filling even the aisles and the window-
sills, nor am I sure that the conventional fire-pail, more often
empty than filled with water, stood anywhere about; but
just as many tickets were sold, regardless of the seating ca-
pacity. Tragedy gave way, alternately, to comedy, one of
the evenings being devoted to The Honeymoon; and as this
was not quite long enough to satisfy the onlookers, who had
neither trains nor boats to catch, there was an after-piece.
In those days, when Los Angeles was entirely dependent on
the North for theatrical and similar talent, it sometimes
happened that the steamer was delayed or that the "star"
failed to catch the ship and so could not arrive when expected ;
as a result of which patrons, who had journeyed in from the
ranches, had to journey home again with their curiosity and
appetite for the histrionic unsatisfied.
Prisoners, especially Indians, were employed on public works.
As late as November, 1860, the Water Overseer was empowered
to take out any Indians who might be in the calaboose, and
to use them for repairing the highways and bridges.
About 1860, Nathan Jacoby came to Los Angeles, on my
1860] Steam-Wagon Odd Characters 287
invitation, as I had known him in Europe ; and he was with me
about a year. When I sold out, he entered the employ of M.
Kremer and later went into business for himself. As the
senior partner of Jacoby Brothers, he died suddenly in 1911.
Associated with Nathan at different periods were his brothers,
Herman, Abraham, Morris, Charles and Lesser Jacoby, all of
them early arrivals. Of this group, Charles and Lesser, both
active in business circles in their day, are also dead.
Toward the end of 1860, Solomon Lazard returned to
France, to visit his mother; but no sooner had he arrived at his
old home and registered, according to law, with the police,
than he was arrested, charged with having left his fatherland at
the age of seventeen, without having performed military duty.
In spite of his American citizenship, he was tried by court-
martial and sentenced to a short imprisonment; but through
the intervention of the United States Minister, Charles J.
Faulkner the author of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850
and the clemency of the Emperor Napoleon III., he was finally
released. He had to furnish a substitute, however, or pay a
fine of fifteen hundred francs; and he paid the fine. At length,
notwithstanding his unpleasant experience, Lazard arrived in
Los Angeles about the middle of March, 1861.
Tired of the wretched sidewalks, John Temple, in Decem-
ber, 1860, set to work to introduce an improvement in front
of his Main Street block, an experiment that was watched with
interest. Bricks were covered with a thick coating of asphalt
brought from La Brea Ranch, which was smoothed while still
warm and then sprinkled with sand ; the combination promising
great durability. In the summer season, however, the coating
became soft and gluey, and was not comfortable to walk upon.
I have already spoken of the effect of heat and age on
foodstuffs such as eggs and butter, when brought over the hot
desert between San Bernardino and Los Angeles. This dis-
advantage continued for years; nor was the succeeding plan
of bringing provisions from San Francisco and the North by
way of the ocean without its obstacles. A. Ulyard, the baker,
realized the situation, and in December advertised "fresh
288 Sixty Years in Southern California [1860]
crackers, baked in Los Angeles, and superior to those half
spoiled by the sea voyage."
Previous to the days of warehouses, and much before the
advent of railroads, the public hay-scale was an institution,
having been constructed by Francis Mellus in the dim past.
Exposed to the elements, it stood alone out in the center
of Los Angeles Street, somewhat south of Aliso; and in the
lawless times of the young town was a silent witness to the
numerous crimes perpetrated in the adjacent Calle de Los
Negros. Onto its rough platform the neighboring farmers
drove their heavy loads, often waiting an hour or two for the
arrival of the owner, who alone had the key to its mysterious
mechanism. Speaking of this lack of a warehouse brings to
my mind the pioneer of 1850, Edouard Naud, who first at-
tracted attention as a clever pastryman with a little shop on
Commercial Street where he made a specialty of lady-fingers
selling them at fifty cents a dozen. Engaging in the wool in-
dustry, he later become interested in wool and this led him in
1878 to erect Naud's warehouse on Alameda Street, at present
known as the Union Warehouse. I Naud died in 188 1 . His son,
Edward, born in Los Angeles, is famous as an amateur chef
who can prepare a French dinner that even a professional
might be proud of.
In May, as elsewhere stated, Henry Mellus was elected
Mayor of Los Angeles; and on the twenty-sixth of December
he died the first to yield that office to the inexorable
demands of Death. The news of his demise called forth
unfeigned expressions of regret ; for Mellus was not only a man
of marked ability, but he was of genial temperament and the
soul of honor.
1 Destroyed by fire on September 22d, 1915.
CHAPTER XX
THE RUMBLINGS OF WAR
1861
TE year 1861 dawned dark and foreboding. On the
twentieth of the preceding December, South Carolina
had seceded, and along the Pacific, as elsewhere, men
were anxiously wondering what would happen next. Threats
and counter-threats clearly indicated the disturbed state of
the public mind; and when, near Charleston Harbor, a hostile
shot was fired at the Star of the West, the certainty of further
trouble, particularly with the coming inauguration of Lincoln,
was everywhere felt.
Aside, however, from these disturbing events so much
affecting commercial life, the year, sandwiched between two
wet seasons, was in general a prosperous one. There were evil
effects of the heavy rains, and business in the spring was
rather dull ; but cattlemen, upon whose success so many other
people depended, took advantage of the favoring conditions
and profited accordingly.
During the period of the flood in 1859-60, the river, as
we have seen, was impassable, and for months there was so
much water in the bed, ordinarily dry, that foot-passage was
interrupted. In January, 1861, therefore, the Common
Council, under the influence of one of its members, E. Moulton,
whose dairy was in East Los Angeles, provided a flimsy foot-
bridge in his neighborhood. If my memory serves me, con-
struction was delayed, and so the bridge escaped the next
winter's flood, though it went down years later.
19 289
290 Sixty Years in Southern California [1861
On January 9th, the schooner Lewis Perry arrived at anchor-
age, to be towed across the bar and to the wharf by the little
steamer 1 Comet. This was the first sea-going vessel that had
ever visited New San Pedro with a full cargo, and demon-
strated, it was thought by many, that the port was easily
navigable by vessels drawing eleven feet of water or less!
Comments of all kinds were made upon this event, one scribe
writing :
We expect to see coasting steamers make their regular
trips to New Town, discharging freight and loading passengers
on the wharf, safe from the dangers of rough weather, instead
of lying off at sea, subjecting life and property to the perils of
southeast gales and the breakers. The Senator even, in the
opinion of experienced persons, might easily enter the channel
on the easterly side of Dead Man's Island, and thence find a safe
passage in the Creek. It will yet happen i
John M. Griffith came to Los Angeles in 1861, having four
years previously married a sister of John J. Tomlinson. With
the latter he formed a partnership in the passenger and freight-
carrying business, their firm competing with Banning & Com-
pany until 1868, when Tomlinson died.
This same year, at the age of about eighteen, Eugene Meyer
arrived. He first clerked for Solomon Lazard, in the retail dry-
goods business; and in 1867 he was admitted into partnership.
On November 2Oth of that year Meyer married Miss Harriet,
the youngest daughter of Joseph Newmark who officiated.
Felix Bachman, who came in 1853, was at various times
in partnership with Philip Sichel (after whom Sichel Street is
named, and Councilman in 1862), Samuel Laubheim and Ben
Schloss, the firm being known as Bachman & Company; and
on Los Angeles Street near Commercial they carried on the
largest business in town. Bachman secured much Salt Lake
trade and in 1861 opposed high freight rates; but although
well off when he left here, he died a poor man in San Francisco,
at the age of nearly one hundred years.
In 1 86 1, Adolph Junge arrived and established a drug-
1 A term locally applied to tugs.
Los Angeles County in 1854
From a contemporary map
The Morris Adobe, once Fremont's Headquarters
i86i] The Rumblings of War 291
store in the Temple Block, his only competitor being Theodore
Wollweber ; and there he continued for nearly twenty years, one
of his prescription books, now in the County Museum, evi-
dencing his activity. For a while, F. J. Gieze, the well-known
druggist for so many years on North Main Street, and an
arrival of '74, clerked for Junge. At the beginning of the
sixties, Dr. A. B. Hay ward practiced medicine here, his office
being next to Workman Brothers' saddlery, on Main Street.
Wollweber's name recalls a practical joke of the late sixties,
when some waggish friend raised the cry that there was a bear
across the river, and induced my Teutonic neighbor to go in
hot pursuit. After bracing himself for the supreme effort,
Wollweber shot the beast dead; only to learn that the bear,
a blind and feeble animal, was a favorite pet, and that
it would take just twenty-five dollars to placate the irate
owner!
The absence in general of shade trees was so noticeable that
when John Temple, on January 3 1st, planted a row facing
Temple Building there was the usual town gossip. Charley
Ducommon followed Temple's example. Previously, there had
been several wide-spreading trees in front of the Bella Union
hotel, and it came to pass within the next five years that many
pepper-trees adorned the streets.
In 1 86 1, the Post Office was removed from North Spring
Street to a frame building on Main Street, opposite Commer-
cial. About the same time when, owing to floods, no mail
arrived for three or four weeks and someone facetiously hung
out a sign announcing the office "To Let!" the Washington
postal authorities began issuing stamped envelopes, of the
values of twelve and twenty-four cents, for those business men
of Los Angeles and the Pacific Coast who were likely to use the
recently-developed Pony Express.
Matthew Keller, or Don Mateo, as he was called, who died
in 1 88 1, was a quaint personality of real ability, who had a
shop on the northwest corner of Los Angeles and Commercial
streets, and owned the adjoining store in which P. Beaudry had
been in business. His operations were original and his adver-
292 Sixty Years in Southern California [1861
tising unique, as will be seen from his announcement in the
Star in February:
M. KELLER, TO His CUSTOMERS
You are hereby notified that the time has at last arrived
when you must pay up, without further delay, or I shall be
obliged to invoke the aid of the law and the lawyers.
Your most ob't servant,
M. KELLER.
Which warning was followed, in the next issue, by this :
M. KELLER, TO His CUSTOMERS
The Right of Secession Admitted!
You are hereby notified that the time has arrived when
you must pay up, without further delay, or I shall be obliged
to invoke the aid of the law and the lawyers.
After such settlement, slow-payers are requested to secede.
M. KELLER.
(to be augmented next week)
This later advertisement, with the line in parenthesis,
continued to be printed, week after week, without change,
for at least twelve months.
The following year, Keller, in flaring headlines, offered for
sale the front of his Los Angeles vineyard, facing on Aliso
Street, in building lots of twenty by one hundred feet, saying,
in his prospectus:
Great improvements are on the tapis in this quarter.
Governor Downey and the intrepid Beaudry propose to open a
street to let the light of day shine in upon their dark domains.
On the Equerry, side of Aliso Street, "what fine legs your master
has," must run to give way for more permanent fixtures.
Further on, the Prior estates are about to be improved by the
astute and far-seeing Templito; and Keller sells lots on the
sunny side of Aliso Street. The map is on view at my office;
come in and make your selections, first come, first served!
Terms will be made handy !
M. KELLER.
l86l l The Rumblings of War 293
Nathaniel Pry or sometimes known as Don Miguel N.
Pryor or Prior is the pioneer referred to by Keller. At the
age of thirty, it is said, in 1828, he came here, and fifteen or
twenty years later, about the time that he was a Regidor or
Councilman, was one of eight or ten Easterners who had farms
within the pueblo district. His property, in part a vineyard,
included what is now Commercial to First streets and possibly
from Los Angeles Street to the river; on it was an adobe which
is still standing on Jackson Street, and is the only mud-
brick structure in that section. For a while, and probably
because he had loaned Pryor some money, F. P. F. Temple had
an interest in the estate. Pryor was twice married, having
a son, Charles, by his first wife, and a son, Nathaniel, Jr., by his
second. Pablo Pryor of San Juan was another son. The
first Mrs. Pryor died about 1840, and is one of the few with
the mother of Pio Pico buried inside of the old church at the
Plaza. The second Mrs. Pryor, who inherited the property, died
about 1857. A granddaughter, Mrs. Lottie Pryor, is a sur-
viving member of this family.
During the administration of Padre Bias Raho, a genial,
broad-minded Italian, several attempts were made, beginning
with 1857 or 1858, to improve the old church at the Plaza; and
in 1861, the historic edifice, so long unchanged, was practically
rebuilt. The front adobe wall, which had become damaged by
rains, was taken down and reconstructed of brick; some alter-
ations were made in the tower; and the interesting old tiled
roof was replaced to the intense regret of later and more
appreciative generations with modern, less durable shingles.
A fence was provided, and trees, bushes and plants were set out.
The church was also frescoed, inside and out, by Henri Penelon,
the French pioneer artist and photographer, who painted upon
the wall the following inscription :
Los Fieles de Esta Parroquia d la Reina de los Angeles, 1861. r
Early in March, Sanchez Street was opened by the Common
Council. It was opposite the northern section of Arcadia
'" The Faithful of this Parish, to the Queen of the Angels."
294 Sixty Years in Southern California [1861
Block, passed through the properties of Sanchez, Pico, Coronel
and others, and terminated at the Plaza.
The Los Angeles Mounted Rifles, part of the five thousand
militia wanted by California, was organized on March 6th at a
meeting in the Court House presided over by George W. Gift,
with M. J. Newmark, who became an officer in the company,
as Secretary.
Late in March, John Frohling rented from the City Fathers
a space under the Temple Market building for a wine cellar;
and in December, 1860, at the close of his vintage, when he had
conducted a hearty harvest-home celebration, he filled the
vault with pipes and other casks containing twenty thousand
or more gallons of native wines. In a corner, a bar was speedily
built; and by many Angelenos that day not associated with
at least one pilgrimage to Frohling's cool and rather obscure
recesses was considered incomplete.
Few who witnessed the momentous events of 1861 will
forget the fever-heat of the nation. The startling news of the
attack on Fort Sumter took twelve days by Pony Express to
reach the Coast, the overland telegraph not being completed
until six months later; but when, on the twenty-fourth of April,
the last messenger in the relay of riders dashed into San Fran-
cisco with the story, an excited population was soon seething
about the streets. San Francisco instantly flashed the details
south, awakening here much the same mingled feelings of
elation and sorrow.
When the war thus broke out, Albert Sidney Johnston,
a fellow- townsman who had married a sister of Dr. J. S. Griffin,
and who, in 1857, had successfully placed Utah under Federal
control, resigned from his command as head of the Department
of the Pacific General Edwin V. Sumner succeeding him and,
being a Southerner, left for the South, by way of Warner's
Ranch and the Overland Route, with about a hundred com-
panions, most of whom were intercepted at Fort Yuma through
the orders of Captain W. S. Hancock. According to Senator
Cornelius Cole, Sumner arrived at Johnston's headquarters in
San Francisco after dark; and in spite of Johnston's protest,
i86i] The Rumblings of War 295
insisted on assuming command at once. Johnston took up
arms for the Confederacy, and was made a Brigadier-General;
but at Shiloh he was killed, the news of his death causing here
the sincerest regret. I shall speak of the loss of one of General
Johnston's sons in the disaster to the Ada Hancock; another
son, William Preston, became President of Tulane University.
Others of our more enthusiastic Southerners, such as
Cameron E. Thorn and J. Lancaster Brent, also joined the
Rebellion and proceeded to the seat of war. Thom, who has
since attained much distinction, returned to Los Angeles,
where he is still living 1 . Brent never came back here, having
settled near New Orleans ; and there I again met him, while I
was attending the Exposition. He had fought through the
War, becoming a General before its close ; and he told me that
he had been arrested by Federal officers while on his way to
the South from Los Angeles, but had made his escape.
Among the very few who went to the front on the Union side
and returned here was Charles Meyrs Jenkins, already referred
to as a city Zanjero. Owing to the possible need of troops
here, as well as to the cost of transportation, volunteers from the
Pacific slope were not called for and Jenkins joined an Eastern
cavalry battalion organized in October, 1862. Even then, he
and his comrades were compelled to pay their own way to the
Atlantic seaboard, where they were incorporated into the
Second Massachusetts Cavalry. Jenkins engaged in twenty
battles, and for fifteen months was a prisoner of war confined
at both Andersonville and Libby; suffering such terrible hard-
ships that he was but one of three, out of a hundred and fifty
of his battalion, who came out alive.
Not everyone possibly even among those familiar with the
building of the Los Angeles & San Pedro Railroad, knows
that an effort was made, as far back as 1861, to finance a rail-
road here. About the middle of February in that year, Murray
Morrison and Abel Stearns, Assemblymen, learned of the
willingness of Eastern capitalists to build such a road within
eighteen months, providing the County would subscribe one
1 Captain Thom died on February 2d, 1915.
296 Sixty Years in Southern California
hundred thousand dollars toward the undertaking, and the
City fifty thousand. The Legislature therefore on May I7th,
1 86 1, granted the franchise; but important as was the matter
to our entire district, nothing further was done until 1863
to give life to the movement.
For almost a decade after I came here, St. Valentine's Day
was seldom observed in Los Angeles; but about 1861 or 1862,
the annual exchange of decorated cards, with their sentimen-
tal verses, came to be somewhat general.
Phineas Banning was a staunch Republican and an ardent
Abolitionist; and it was not extraordinary that on May 25th,
at a grand Union demonstration in Los Angeles, he should
have been selected to present to the Union Club, in his charac-
teristically vigorous manner, an American flag made for the
occasion. Columbus Sims, as President, accepted the emblem,
after which there was a procession, led by the First Dragoons'
band, many participants being on horseback. In those days
such a procession had done its duty when it tramped along
Main Street and around the Plaza and back, by way of Spring
Street, as far as First ; and everyone was in the right frame of
mind to hear and enjoy the patriotic speeches made by Captain
Winfield Scott Hancock, General Ezra Drown and Major James
Henry Carleton, while in the distance was fired a salute of
thirty-four guns one for each State in the Union.
Senator William McKendree Gwin was another man of
prominence. Following his search for gold with the Forty-
niners due, he used to say, to advice from John C. Calhoun,
who, probably taking his cue from Dana's prophecy in Two
Years Before the Mast, one day put his finger on the map and
predicted that, should the bay now called San Francisco ever
be possessed by Americans, a city rivaling New York would
spring up on its shores Gwin came to Los Angeles occasion-
ally, and never forgot to visit me at my home. In 1861, he
was arrested by the Federal Government for his known sym-
pathy with the South, and was kept a prisoner for a couple of
years; after which he went to France and there planned to
carry through, under force of arms, the colonization of Sonora,
The Rumblings of War 297
Mexico, depending in vain on Napoleon III. and Maximilian
for support. Notwithstanding this futile effort, Gwin became
a leader in national Democratic councils, and was an intimate
adviser of Samuel J. Tilden in his historic campaign.
Oscar Macy, son of Dr. Obed Macy, having as a news-
paper man enthusiastically advocated the election of Fremont
in 1856, was appointed, on Lincoln's inauguration, to the
Collectorship of Customs at San Pedro ; a post which he con-
tinued to fill even after the office had been reduced to an in-
spectorship, later resigning in favor of George C. Alexander.
This recalls another appointment by Lincoln that of Major
Antonio Maria Pico, a nephew of Pio Pico, to the Receivership
of Public Moneys at Los Angeles. Pico lived at San Jose;
and finding that his new duties exiled him from his family, he
soon resigned the office.
Old-time barbers, as the reader may be aware, were often
surgeons, and the arrival in Commercial Street, in the early
sixties, of J. A. Meyer, "late of San Francisco," was an-
nounced in part as follows :
Gentlemen will be waited on and have Shaving, Hair- Dress-
ing, and Shampooing prepared in the most luxurious manner,
and in the finest style of the art ; while Cupping, Bleeding, and
Teeth-Extracting will also be attended to!
Fort Tejon had been pretty well broken up by June, when
a good deal of the army property was moved to Los Angeles.
Along with Uncle Sam's bag and baggage, came thirty or more
of the camels previously mentioned, including half a dozen
"young uns." For some months they were corralled uncom-
fortably near the genial Quartermaster's Main Street office;
but in October they were removed to a yard fixed up for them
on D. Anderson's premises, opposite the Second Street school-
house.
Starting with the cook brought to Los Angeles by Joseph
Newmark, the Chinese population in 1861 had increased to
twenty-one men and eight women a few of them cooks and
298 Sixty Years in Southern California [1861]
servants, but most of them working in five or six laundries.
About the middle of June of that year, Chun Chick arrived
from San Francisco and created a flurry, not merely in China-
town, but throughout our little city, by his announcement that
he would start a store here ; and by the thirteenth of July, this
pioneer Chinese shop, a veritable curiosity shop, was opened.
The establishment was on Spring Street, opposite the Court
House; and besides a general assortment of Chinese goods,
there was a fine display of preserves and other articles hitherto
not obtainable in town. Chun Chick was clever in his appeals
of "A Chinese Merchant to the Public;" but he nevertheless
joined the celebrities advertised for delinquent taxes. Chun
Chick or, as he appeared on the tax collector's list, Chick
Chun was down for five hundred dollars in merchandise, with
one dollar and twenty-five cents for City, and the same
amount for school taxes. Sing Hop, Ching Hop and Ah
Hong were other Chinamen whose memory failed at the critical
tax time of that year.
For years, until wharves made possible for thousands the
pleasures of rod and reel, clams, since used for bait, were almost
a drug on the market, being hawked about the streets in 1861
at a dollar a bucket a price not very remunerative consider-
ing that they came from as far north as San Buenaventura.
CHAPTER XXI
HANCOCK LADY FRANKLIN THE DELUGE
1861
WHEN the Civil War began, California and the neigh-
boring territory showed such pronounced Southern
sympathies that the National Government kept
both under close surveillance, for a time stationing Major,
afterward General James Henry Carleton in 1862 sent across
the Colorado River when the Government drove out the
Texans with a force at Camp Latham, near Ballona, and
dispatching another force to Drum Barracks, near Wilming-
ton. The Government also established a thorough system
of espionage over the entire Southwest. In Los Angeles and
vicinity, many people, some of whom I mention elsewhere,
were arrested; among them being Henry Schaeffer who was
taken to Wilmington Barracks but through influential friends
was released after a few days. On account of the known politi-
cal views of their proprietors, some of the hotels also were
placed under watch for a while ; but beyond the wrath of the
innkeepers at the sentinels pacing up and down their verandas,
nothing more serious transpired. Men on both sides grew hot-
headed and abused one another roundly, but few bones were
broken and little blood was shed. A policy of leniency was
adopted by the authorities, and sooner or later persons
arrested for political offenses were discharged.
The ominous tidings from beyond the Colorado, and their
effect, presaging somewhat the great internecine conflict,
recalls an unpublished anecdote of Winfield Scott Hancock,
299
300 Sixty Years in Southern California [1861
who was a graduate of West Point, an intense patriot and a
"natural born" fighter. One day in 1861, coincident with the
Texan invasion, and while I was visiting him in his office on
Main Street near Third (after he had removed from the upstairs
rooms adjoining the Odd Fellows' Hall in the Temple Build-
ing) , John Goller dropped in with the rumor that conspirators,
in what was soon to become Arizona, were about to seize the
Government stores. Hancock was much wrought up when he
heard the report, and declared, with angry vehemence, that he
would "treat the whole damned lot of them as common thieves!"
In the light of this demonstration and his subsequent part as
a national character of great renown, Hancock's speech at the
Fourth of July celebration, in 1861, when the patriotic An-
gelenos assembled at the Plaza and marched to the shady grove
of Don Luis Sainsevain, is worthy of special note. Hancock
made a sound argument for the preservation of the Union, and
was heartily applauded; and a few days afterward one of the
local newspapers, in paying him a deserved tribute, almost
breathed an augury in saying:
Captain Hancock's loyalty to the Stars and Stripes has
never for a moment been doubted, and we hope he may be
advanced in rank and honors, and live to a green old age, to see
the glorious banner of our country yet waving in peaceful glory
over a united, prosperous, and happy people.
Few of us, however, who heard Hancock speak on that
occasion, dreamed to what high position he would eventually
attain.
Soon after this episode, that is, in the early part of August,
1 86 1, Hancock left for the front, in company with his wife;
and taking with him his military band, he departed . from San
Pedro on the steamer Senator. Some of my readers may know
that Mrs. Hancock after whom the ill-fated Ada Hancock
was named was a Southern woman, and though very devoted
to her husband, had certain natural sympathies for the South;
but none, I dare say, will have heard how she perpetrated
an amusing joke upon him on their way north. When once
i86i] Hancock Lady Franklin The Deluge 301
out upon the briny deep, she induced the musicians to play
Dixie, to the great amusement of the passengers. Like many
Southerners, Mrs. Hancock was an Episcopalian and frequently
contributed her unusual musical talent to the service of the choir
of St. Athanasius Church, the little edifice for a while at the foot
of Pound Cake Hill first the location of the Los Angeles High
School and now of the County Courthouse and the forerunner
of the Episcopal Pro- Cathedral, on Olive Street opposite
Central Park.
Having in mind the sojourn in Los Angeles for years of
these representative Americans, the following editorial from
the Los Angeles Star 'on the departure of the future General
and Presidential nominee, seems to me now of more than pass-
ing significance:
While resident here, Captain Hancock took great interest in
our citizens, the development of our resources, and the welfare
of this section of the country; and as a public-spirited, enter-
prising gentleman, he will be missed from among us, and his
most estimable lady will long live in the hearts of her many
friends. We desire their prosperity, happiness, and long life,
wherever their lot may be cast.
The establishing of Drum Barracks and Camp Drum at
Wilmington was a great contribution to the making of that
town, for the Government not only spent over a million dollars
in buildings and works there, and constantly drew on the town
for at least part of its supplies, but provisions of all kinds were
sent through Wilmington to troops in Southern California,
Utah, Yuma, Tucson and vicinity, and New Mexico.
P. H., popularly known as Major Downing, was em-
ployed by Banning for some time during the War to take
charge of the great wagon-trains of Government supplies sent
inland; and later he opened a general merchandise store in
Wilmington, after which he transacted a large volume of
business with H. Newmark & Company.
At the breaking out of the War, the Southern Overland Mail
Route was discontinued and a contract was made with Butter-
302 Sixty Years in Southern California [1861
field for service along a more central course, by way of Great
Salt Lake. There was then a stage six times a week; and a
branch line ran to Denver, the terminus having been changed
from St. Joseph to Omaha. Twenty days was the time allowed
the company to get its stages through during eight months of
the year, and twenty-three days for the more uncertain winter
months. This contract was made for three years, and one
million dollars a year was the compensation allowed the Butter-
fields. After the War, the old route was resumed.
J. De Barth Shorb came to Los Angeles at the commence-
ment of the War, as Assistant Superintendent of the Phila-
delphia & California Oil Company; and in 1867 he bought the
Temescal grant and began to mine upon the property. The
same year he married a daughter of B. D. Wilson, establishing a
relationship which brought him a partnership in the San Gabriel
Wine Company, of which he eventually became manager.
His position in this community, until he died in 1895, was
important, the little town of Shorb testifying to one of his
activities.
Not only were the followers of the indefatigable padres
rather tardy in taking up the cultivation of olives, but the
olive-oil industry hereabouts was a still later venture. As an
illustration, even in 1861 somewhat less than five hundred
gallons of olive oil was made in all Los Angeles County, and
most of that was produced at the San Fernando Mission.
How important was the office of the Zanjero, may be gath-
ered from the fact that in 1861 he was paid twelve hundred
dollars a year, while the Mayor received only eight hundred dol-
lars and the Treasurer two hundred dollars less than the Mayor.
At the same time, the Marshal, owing to the hazardous duties
of his office, received as much as the Mayor; the City Attorney
one hundred dollars less than the Treasurer ; and the Clerk but
three hundred and fifty.
By 1 86 1, there were serious doubts as to the future of
cattle-raising in Southern California, but Banning & Company
came forward proposing to slaughter at New San Pedro and
contracted with John Temple, John Rains and others, to do
Hancock Lady Franklin The Deluge 303
their killing. For a while, the enterprise was encouraged;
Temple alone having six hundred head so disposed of and sold.
In September, Columbus Sims, the popular attorney of
unique personality who from 1856 to 1860 had been Clerk of
the United States District Court, was appointed Lieutenant-
Colonel in the United States Army and placed in charge of
Camp Alert, at the Pioneer Race Course, San Francisco, where
twelve companies were soon assembled; and a month or two
later he was made Colonel in the Second Cavalry. Late in
December of that year, however, he had an altercation with
D. D. Colton, in San Francisco, when blows were exchanged
and Sims drew "a deadly weapon." For this, the doughty
Colonel was arrested and held to await the action of the Grand
Jury; but I am under the impression that nothing very serious
befell the belligerent Sims as a result.
On September nth, H. Stassforth, after having bought out
A. W. Schulze, announced a change in the control of the
United States Hotel, inviting the public, at the same time, to a
"free lunch," at half -past four o'clock the following Sunday.
Stassforth was an odd, but interesting character, and stated in
his advertisement that guests were at liberty, when they had
partaken of the collation, to judge if he could "keep a hotel."
Whether successful or otherwise, Stassforth did not long con-
tinue in control, for in November, 1862, he disposed of the busi-
ness to Webber & Haas, who in turn sold it to Louis Mesmer.
In the fall, an atrocious murder took place here, proving
but the first in a series of vile deeds for which, eventually, the
culprit paid with his own life at the hands of an infuriated popu-
lace. On Sunday evening, September 3Oth, some Frenchmen
were assembled to sit up with the body of one of their recently-
deceased countrymen; and at about eleven o'clock a quarrel
arose between two of the watchers, A. M. G., or Michel Lache-
nais a man once of good repute, who had cast some slurs
at the French Benevolent Society and Henry Delaval, a re-
spected employee of the Aliso Mills who spiritedly defended the
organization. Lachenais drew a weapon, approached Delaval
and tried to shoot him; but the pistol missed fire. Thereupon
304 Sixty Years in Southern California [1861
Lachenais, enraged, walked toward a lamp, adjusted two other
caps, and deliberately shot Delaval through the body. The
next day his victim died. Lachenais made his escape and
so eluded the authorities that it was not until the middle of
February, 1866, that he surrendered himself to Deputy Sheriff
Henderson. Then he was tried, but was acquitted.
About October, Remi Nadeau, a Canadian, after whom
Nadeau Street is named and father of George A. Nadeau, came
across the Plains to Los Angeles, having spent the previous
winter, en route, in Salt Lake City ; and for a while he teamed
between here and Montana. Within the year, believing that
San Francisco offered a larger field, he moved to that city
and continued his operations there.
In the front part of a little building on Main Street, between
Second and Third, Lorenzo Leek, whom I have already men-
tioned, conducted a grocery, living with his family in the rear.
He was a plain, unassuming, honest Dane of the old school,
who attended scrupulously to his business and devoted his
Sundays and holidays to modest amusements. On such days,
he would put his wife, Caroline, and their children on a little
wagon that he owned and take them to his vineyard on the
outskirts of the town; and there he would enjoy with them
those rural pastimes to which he had been accustomed in the
Fatherland, and which to many early-comers here were a source
of rest and delight.
On the afternoon of Saturday, October lyth, Francisco
Cota, a Mexican boy fifteen years of age, entered Leek's store
while he was out, and, taking advantage of the fact that Frau
Leek was alone, whipped out a knife, stabbed her to death, stole
what cash was in sight and then escaped to a vineyard, where
he hid himself. John W. Henderson, the son of A. J. Hender-
son, a Deputy Sheriff here still living in Los Angeles, came in
soon after and finding Mrs. Leek horribly disfigured, he gave
the alarm. Neighbors and friends at once started in pursuit
and caught Cota; and having tied a rope around the murderer's
neck during the excitement they dragged him down to Alameda
Street, where I witnessed the uproar. As they proceeded by
i86i] Hancock Lady Franklin The Deluge 305
way of Aliso Street, the mob became more and more in-
furiated, so that before it reached the spot which had been
selected for his execution, the boy had been repeatedly stabbed
and was nearly dead. At length, he was strung up as a warning
to other malefactors.
A short time after this melancholy event, I was driving with
my wife to the Cerritos rancho and, missing our road, we
stopped at a Mexican home to inquire the way. The woman
who answered our summons proved to be one who knew, and
was known by all Los Angeles merchants on account of her
frequent excursions to town; she was, in fact, the mother
of the Mexican boy who had been mobbed and hung for the
murder of poor Leek's wife ! The sight of Gringos kindled
anew her maternal wrath ; and she set up such a hue and cry
as to preclude any further intelligible conversation.
California being so far removed from the seat of war did
not awake to its full significance until the credit of the Govern-
ment began to decline. Four weeks were required, it is well
to remember, to complete the trip from New York to San
Francisco via Panama, and our knowledge of events in the
East was far from perfect. Until the completion of the con-
tinental telegraph in October, 1861, the only immediate news
that reached the Coast came privately and we were, therefore,
pretty much in the dark until the arrival of Eastern papers,
and even after that telegraphing was so expensive that our
poorly-patronized little news-sheets could not afford the out-
lay. A few of us therefore made up a purse of one hundred
dollars a month, which small sum enabled us to allay our
anxiety at least in the case of very important happenings.
It must not be forgotten, though, that we then had a little
relief from San Francisco, whose newspapers, containing some
telegraphic despatches, arrived in town perhaps three to four
days after their publication. I may add, in fact, that it was
not until about the beginning of the eighties that Los Angeles
dailies could afford the luxury of regular direct telegrams.
In other respects as well, editing a local newspaper during
the War was apt to entail financial loss. The Los Angeles
306 Sixty Years in Southern California [1861
News, for instance, was outspoken for the Union and so escaped
the temporary eclipse suffered by the Star through Government
censorship; but the Unionists being in a decided minority in
the community, pickings for the News were mighty poor.
Perhaps this want of patronage suggested the advisability, in
1863 (when that paper was published by C. R. Conway and
Alonzo Waite, on Main Street, opposite the express office),
of reducing the subscription rate to five dollars a year.
Probably one of the most interesting visits to Los Angeles
ever made by a well-known personage was the sudden call
with which Lady Franklin, the wife of the eminent, lost
Arctic explorer, honored our little town far back in 1861. The
distinguished lady, accompanied by Mrs. Cracroft, her niece,
Commodore and Madame Watkins and Collector and Mrs.
Rankin, arrived at San Pedro on the Golden State during the first
week in November and was driven, with her companions, to the
Bella Union hotel, from which she made such short excursions
about the city as were then possible; and as sympathy for her
in her sorrow, and admiration for her long years of plucky
though vain search for her husband were still general, every
courtesy possible was afforded her. During Lady Franklin's
stay Benjamin D. Wilson arranged a delightful garden party
at his hospitable mansion at Lake Vineyard in her ladyship's
honor, and Phineas Banning also entertained her with a re-
ception and collation at his San Pedro home; and these recep-
tions and collations were as enjoyable as they were notable.
After a day or two, Lady Franklin and her party left on the
Senator for San Francisco, being accorded, as the vessel
weighed anchor, a marked ovation.
For many years funerals were attended by men on horseback
and by women on foot, as hacks were unknown in early days ;
and while the good citizens were doubtless then conducted to
their last resting-place in a manner just as satisfactory to them-
selves as are their descendants who are buried according to
present-day customs, those who followed in the train were very
seriously inconvenienced by the melancholy, dusty processions
to the old and now-forgotten burial-grounds ; for in those days
Hancock Lady Franklin The Deluge 307
the trip, in summer exceedingly hot and in winter through rain
and mud, was a long, fatiguing one.
Speaking of funerals, a strange sight was witnessed in
our streets about the end of November, 1861, attending the
burial of a child. The father and mother, both native Califor-
nians, were seated in a wagon, in which was also placed the
strikingly plain little coffin or box containing the dead. Be-
side the wagon walked an old man, playing a fiddle. Two or
three persons followed in the deep mud; the whole forming
a weird picture, said to be the relic of an almost obsolete
back-woods custom.
Banning & Hinchman's Comet proving insufficient, the
Gondolier was put on in the fall of 1861 and became a familiar
craft in the conveying of passengers and freight between New
San Pedro and the ships lying off the harbor.
Two years previous to the completion of the telegraph from
San Francisco to Los Angeles that is, in 1858 the first
continental telegraph was undertaken; and by October, 1861,
Governor Downey of California sent a congratulatory message
to President Lincoln. On November 7th, the line was open to the
public. Several months before, all the companies in the State
had consolidated into the California State Telegraph Company.
Banning & Hinchman having succeeded, for a short season,
Phineas Banning, the sub-contractor for the building of the
first telegraph, they made an effort, following the establishment
of communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific, to
secure a line to New San Pedro; and at the end of October, 1861,
the first telegraph pole in the long row from Los Angeles to the
harbor was formally set. About the middle of November, this
line was completed; and though it was widely proclaimed as
"working like a charm," the apparatus soon got out of order
and by the following January there were many complaints
that both poles and wire had fallen to the ground, blocking the
thoroughfares and entangling animals in such a way as to
become a nuisance. Indeed, there was soon a public demand
either to repair the telegraph or to remove it altogether and
throw the equipment away. Soon after the first of February,
308 Sixty Years in Southern California [1861
1862, the line was working again; but by that time the telegraph
to San Francisco had gotten out of order! And- so great were
the difficulties in repairing that line, that Los Angeles was not
again talking uninterruptedly over the wire with its neighbor
until July.
On November I5th, the first number of El Amigo del
Pueblo, printed in Spanish, appeared from the shop of Jose
E. Gonzales & Company; but native support being withheld,
"The Friend of the People" starved to death in the following
May.
Whaling, like shark-hunting, continued brisk in 1861 and
1862, and many vessels were fitted out at San Pedro; Los
Angeles merchants selling them most of their supplies. The
sea-monsters usually moved up the coast about the first of the
year, the males keeping in toward the shore going up, and
the females hugging the coast, coming down; and small boats
such as Captain W. Clark's Ocean, used to take from four
hundred and fifty to five hundred barrels of oil in five or six
weeks. For six days, in March, 1862, San Pedro whalers
harpooned a whale a day, bringing to the landing over two
hundred barrels of oil as a result of the week's labor.
The bitter fight between Abolitionists and Southern sym-
pathizers was immediately reflected in the public schools.
Defenders of the Union worked for a formal oath of allegiance
to the National Government, as a preliminary to granting
teachers' certificates; while the Confederates, incensed at what
they deemed a violation of personal rights, assailed the institu-
tions. The result was that attendance at the public schools
gradually fell off until, in the winter of 1865-66, only about three
hundred and fifty children of school age were being instructed
by public teachers ; another third of a thousand was in private
schools, while some three hundred and sixty-nine were not on
any roster.
The gloom naturally caused by the outbreak of war was
sometimes penetrated by the brightness of social life, and
among the happier occasions of the winter of 1861 was the
marriage, on December 23d, in the presence of a large circle
1861] Hancock Lady Franklin The Deluge 309
of friends, of Tom D. Mott to Ascencion, daughter of Don Jos6
Andres and Dona Francisca Abila Sepulveda.
The winter of 1861-62 recorded the greatest of all floods,
especially in the North where, in December and January, some-
thing like thirty-five inches of rain was precipitated. In Los
Angeles County the rivers soon rose and overflowed the low-
lands ; but the rise was gradual, causing the loss of but few or no
lives and permitting the stock to reach the neighboring hills
in safety. In Anaheim the water was four feet deep in the
streets and people had to seek flight to the uplands or retreat
to the roofs of their little houses. Vineyards were sometimes
half -ruined with the layers of deep sand ; banks of streams were
lined for miles with driftwood ; and ranchers saw many a clod of
their farms carried off and deposited to enrich their neighbors,
miles away. For a month it rained so steadily that the sun
peeped out for scarcely an hour.
I witnessed this inundation in Los Angeles, where much
damage was done to business buildings, especially to Mellus's
Row, and saw merchants in water up to their waists, trying
to save their goods. The wall of the room occupied by Sam
Meyer fell first, whereupon Hellman & Brother became in-
tensely interested in the removal of their stock, while poor Sam,
knee-deep in water, sadly contemplated his losses. Before the
Hellmans had made much headway, they observed a tendency
on the part of their walls to crumble, and their exit was neither
graceful nor delayed. After that the store occupied by Meyer
& Breslauer caved in, smashing show cases and shelves, and
ruining a large amount of merchandise. The ludicrous picture
of this rush for "safety first " is not a fit reflection of the feelings
of those pioneers who saw the results of years of labor obliterated
in a moment. Friends and neighbors lent assistance to the
unfortunate, and helped to save what they could. After this
flood, Hellman & Brother and Sam Meyer removed to the
Arcadia Block, while Meyer & Breslauer secured accommoda-
tions north of the Plaza Church.
CHAPTER XXII
DROUGHTS THE ADA HANCOCK DISASTER
1862-1863
ON the first of January, 1862, after an experience of
about five years, I retired from the selling of clothing,
which was never congenial to me; and as I had been
buying hides and wool on a small scale since the middle of the
fifties, I forthwith devoted myself to the commission business.
Frenchmen from the Basque country, among whom were Mi-
guel Leonis, Gaston Oxarart, Domingo Amestoy and Domingo
Bastanchury, had commenced to appear here in 1858 and
to raise sheep; so that in 1859 large flocks were brought into
Southern California, the sheep commanding a price of three
dollars and a half per head. My own operations, exceedingly
small in the beginning, increased in importance, and by 1862
I was fairly equipped for this venture. Corn, barley and
wheat were also then being raised, and I busied myself with
these commodities as well.
Most of the early sheepmen prospered and in time bought
large tracts of land for their flocks, and with all of them I
had dealings of more or less importance. Amestoy's career is
worthy of particular mention as exemplifying the three cardinal
virtues of business: honesty, application and frugality. He
and his wife took in washing; and while the husband went
from house to house, leading a horse with a large basket
strapped to either side, to collect and deliver the clothes, the
wife toiled at the tub. In the end, what they together had
310
Eugene Meyer
Jacob A. Moerenhout
Frank Lecouvreur
Thomas D. Mott
Leonard J. Rose
H. K. S. O'Melveny
Remi Nadeau
John M. Griffith
[1862-1863] Droughts Ada Hancock Disaster 311
saved became the foundation of their important investments
in sheep and land. Pedro Larronde, another early sheepman,
married the widow of his Basque fellow-countryman, Etche-
mendy, the tippling baker.
Having regularly established a commission business, I
brought consignments of varied merchandise from San Fran-
cisco on the semi-monthly steamer Goliah, whose Captain at
one time was Robert Haley, and at another his brother
Salisbury Haley, a brother-in-law of Tom Mott ; and I disposed
of them to small dealers with whom I thus became pretty well
acquainted. These consignments were sold almost as soon
as they arrived. I was careful to bring in only staple articles
in the grocery line, and it was long before I appreciated the
advantage of carrying sufficient stock to supply a regular
demand. On the return trips of the steamer to San Francisco
I forwarded such produce as I had accumulated.
I do not recall any important changes in 1862, the declin-
ing months of which saw the beginning of the two years'
devastating drought. The Civil War was in progress, but we
were so far from the scene of strife that we were not materially
affected. Sympathy was very general here for the Confederate
cause, and the Government therefore retained in Wilmington
both troops and clerks who were paid in a badly-depreciated
currency, which they were obliged to discount at exorbitant
rates, to get money at all ; while other employees had to accept
vouchers which were subject to a still greater discount. Not-
withstanding these difficulties, however, pay-day increased the
resources of the pueblo considerably.
Hellman & Brother, a partnership consisting of I. M. and
Samuel Hellman, dissolved, on January 2d, I. M. continuing
in the dry goods business while Sam took the books and sta-
tionery. Another brother and associate, H. M. Hellman, a
couple of years before had returned to Europe, where he died.
If my memory is accurate, I. W. remained with I. M. Hellman
until the former, in 1865, bought out A. Portugal. Samuel A.
Widney, who later had a curio store, was for a while with Sam
Hellman in a partnership known as Hellman & Widney.
312 Sixty Years in Southern California [1862-
On January i/th, Don Louis Vignes passed away in Los
Angeles, at the age of ninety-one years.
January also witnessed one of those typical scenes, in the
fitting out of a mule- and wagon-train, never likely to be seen
in Los Angeles again. Two hundred wagons and twelve
hundred mules, mostly brought from San Francisco on
steamers, were assembled for a trip across the desert to convey
Government stores.
M. J. Newmark became a partner, on February 1st, in the
firm of Howard, Butterworth & Newmark, Federal and State
Attorneys with offices in the Temple Building, Los Angeles,
and Armory Hall, San Francisco; and it was considered at the
time a rapid advance for a man of but twenty-three years of
age. The Los Angeles Star of that date, in fact, added a word
of good fellowship: "We congratulate friend Newmark on the
association."
The intimate relations characteristic of a small community
such as ours, and the much more general effect then than nowa-
days of any tragical occurrence have already been described.
Deep sympathy was therefore awakened, early in February, on
the arrival of the steamer Senator and the rapid dissemination
of the report that Dr. Thomas Foster, the ex-Mayor, had been
lost overboard, on January 29th, on the boat's trip northward.
Just what happened to Foster will never -be known; in San
Francisco it was reported that he had thrown himself into the
sea, though others who knew him well looked upon the cause of
his death as accidental.
But slight attention was paid to the report, brought in by
horsemen from San Bernardino on February 4th, that an earth-
quake had occurred there in the morning, until Captain Tom
Seeley returned with the Senator to San Pedro and told about
a seismic disturbance at sea, during which he struck the wildest
storm off Point Conception, in all his sea-faring experience.
Sailors were then better all-round seamen than now; yet
there was greater superstition in Jack Tar's mind, and such
a storm made a deep impression upon his imagination.
I have alluded to the dependence of Los Angeles on the
1863] Droughts Ada Hancock Disaster 313
outside world, no better evidence of which, perhaps, can be
cited than that on the twenty-second of February George W.
Chapin & Company of San Francisco advertised here to fur-
nish servants and other help to anyone in the Southland.
About the same time, San Bernardino parties, wishing to bore
a little artesian well, had to send to the Northern metropolis for
the necessary machinery.
In October, 1860, as I have intimated, Phineas Banning took
A. F. Hinchman into partnership, the firm being known as
Banning & Hinchman, and they seemed to prosper; but on
February I2th, 1862, the public was surprised at the announce-
ment of the firm's dissolution. Banning continued as pro-
prietor, and Hinchman became Banning' s Los Angeles agent.
Although cattle-raising was the mainstay of Southern
California for many years, and gold-mining never played a
very important part here, Wells Fargo & Co., during the
spring, frequently shipped thousands of dollars' worth of gold
at a time, gathered from Santa Anita, San Gabriel and San
Fernando placers, while probably an equally large amount was
forwarded out through other channels.
I have already pointed to the clever foresight shown by Abel
Stearns when he built the Arcadia Block and profited by the
unhappy experience of others, with rain that flooded their
property; but I have not stated that in elevating his new
building considerably above the grade of the street, somewhat
regardless of the rights of others, he caused the surplus water
to run off into neighboring streets and buildings. Following
the great storm of 1861-62, the City sued Stearns for damages,
but he won his case. More than that, the overflow was a God-
send to him, for it induced a number of people to move from
Mellus's Row to Arcadia Block at a time when the owner of vast
ranches and some of the best town property was already feeling
the pinch of the alternate dry and over-wet seasons. The fact
is, as I shall soon make clear, that before Stearns had seen the
end of two or three successive dry seasons yet to come, he was
temporarily bankrupt and embarrassed to the utmost.
By April, the walls and roof for the little Protestant Church
314 Sixty Years in Southern California [1862-
at Temple and New High streets had been built, and there the
matter rested for two years, when the structure, on which the
taxes were unpaid, was advertised for sale.
We have seen that the first Jewish services here were held
soon after the arrival of Joseph Newmark in 1854; under
the same disadvantageous conditions as had hampered the
Protestant denominations, Mr. Newmark volunteered to offici-
ate on the principal holidays until 1862, when the Reverend
Abraham Wolf Edelman arrived. Born at Warsaw in 1832,
Rabbi Edelman came to America in 1851, immediately after he
was married to Miss Hannah Pessah Cohn, and settled suc-
cessively in New York, Paterson and Buffalo. Coming to
California in 1859, he resided in San Francisco until 1862, when
he was chosen Rabbi of the orthodox Congregation B'nai B'rith
of Los Angeles, and soon attained distinction as a Talmudic
scholar and a preacher. The first services under Rabbi Edel-
man were held in Stearns's,or Arcadia Hall; next, the Congrega-
tion worshipped in Leek's Hall on Main Street between Second
and Third; and finally, through the courtesy of Judge Ygnacio
Sepulveda, the court room was used. In 1873 the Jews of
Los Angeles erected their first synagogue, a brick building
entered by a steep stairway leading to a platform, and located
on the east side of Fort Street between Second and Third, on
what is now the site of the Copp Building next to the City
Hall. In 1886, when local Jewry instituted a much more
liberal ritual, Rabbi Edelman's convictions induced him to re-
sign. The purchase of a lot for a home on the corner of Sixth
and Main streets proved a fortunate investment, later enabling
him to enjoy a well-deserved comfort and to gratify his chari-
table inclinations. It is a strange coincidence that Reverend
Edelman's first marriage ceremony was that which blessed
Samuel Prager ; while the last occasion on which he performed
the solemn rites for the dead shortly before his own death in
1907 : was for the same friend. A. M. Edelman, the architect,
and Dr. D. W. Edelman, both well-known here, are sons of
the Rabbi.
As late in the season as April, hail and snow fell in and near
1863] Droughts Ada Hancock Disaster 315
Los Angeles. To the North of the city, the white mantle quite
hid the mountains and formed a new and lower snow-line;
while within the city, the temperature so lowered that at several
intervals during the day, huge hail-stones beat against the
window-panes a very unusual experience for Angelenos.
Because of political charges preferred against A. J. King,
then Under Sheriff of the County, the latter, on April loth, was
arrested by Henry D. Barrows, United States Marshal, who
had been appointed by President Lincoln, the year previous.
Colonel Carleton, Commander of the Southern Military Di-
vision, however, soon liberated King. On the last day of the
year, the Under Sheriff married the estimable Miss Laura C.
Evertsen.
Travelers to Europe have often suffered much annoyance
through safe-conduct regulations, but seldom have Americans
had their liberty thus restricted by their own authorities.
Toward the middle of June, word was received in Los Angeles
that, owing to the suspicion lest disloyalists were embarking
for Aspinwall, all passengers for California ma the Isthmus
would be required to take out passports.
Anticipating, by forty years or more, Luther Burbank's
work, attention was directed, as early as 1862, to the possibility
of eating the cactus and thus finding, in this half-despised plant
of the desert, relief from both hunger and thirst. Half a
century later, in 1913, Los Angeles established the cactus candy
industry through which the boiled pulp of the bisnaga, often
spoken of as the fishhook, barrel and nigger-head variety, is
made deliciously palatable when siruped from ten to thirty
days.
Ygnacio Sepulveda, declared by the Los Angeles Star "a
young gentleman of liberal education, and good, natural endow-
ments, already versed in legal studies," on September 6th
was admitted to the District Court Bar.
On January i8th, 1860, the first number of the Semi-Weekly
Southern News appeared, containing advertisements in both
English and Spanish. It was issued by C. R. Conway and
Alonzo Waite, who charged twenty-five cents a copy, or seven
316 Sixty Years in Southern California [1862-
dollars a year. On October 8th, 1862, the title was changed
to the Los Angeles Semi-Weekly News.
In 1860, the Bella Union, as I have said, was under the
management of John King, who came here in 1856; while in
1 86 1 J. B. Winston & Company, who were represented by
Henry Reed, controlled the hotel. In 1862 or 1863, John King
and Henry Hammel were the managers.
I have told of the purchase of the San Pasqual rancho by
Dr. J. S. Griffin. On December nth, Dr. and Mrs. Griffin
for five hundred dollars sold to B. D. Wilson and wife some
six hundred and forty acres of that property; and a few hours
afterward the Wilsons disposed of two hundred and sixty-two
acres for one thousand dollars. The purchaser was Mrs.
Eliza G. Johnston, wife of General Albert Sidney Johnston.
Mrs. Johnston at once built a neat residence on the tract and
called it Fair Oaks, after the plantation in Virginia on which
she had been born ; and from this circumstance the name of the
now well-known Fair Oaks Avenue in Pasadena is derived. At
the time of her purchase Mrs. Johnston had hoped to reside
there permanently; but the tragic fate of her son in the Ada
Hancock disaster, following the untimely death of her husband
at Shiloh, and the apparent uselessness of the land, led her to
sell to Judge B. S. Eaton what to-day would be worth far more
than thousands of acres in many parts. of the Southern States.
A curious coincidence in the relations of General Sumner,
who superseded General Johnston, to the hero of Shiloh is
that, later in the War, Sumner led a corps of Union troops at
Fair Oaks, Virginia!
Don Ygnacio Coronel, father of Antonio Franco Coronel,
and the early school patron to whom I have referred, died in
Los Angeles on December iQth, aged seventy years. He had
come to California in 1834, and had long been eminent in po-
litical councils and social circles. I recall him as a man of
strong intellect and sterling character, kind-hearted and
popular.
Another effort, without success, to use camels for trans-
portation over the California and adjacent sands, was made in
1863] Droughts Ada Hancock Disaster 317
January, 1863, when a camel express was sent out from New
San Pedro to Tucson.
Elsewhere I have indicated the condition of the public
cemetery. While an adobe wall enclosed the Roman Catholic
burial-place, and a brick wall surrounded the Jewish resting-
place for the dead, nothing was done until 1863 to improve the
Protestant cemetery, although desecration went so far that
the little railing around the grave of poor Mrs. Leek, the grocer's
wife who had been murdered, was torn down and burned.
Finally, the matter cried to Heaven so audibly that in Janu-
ary Los Angeles Masons appropriated one hundred and fifty
dollars, to be added to some five hundred dollars raised by popu-
lar subscription; and the Common Council having appointed a
committee to supervise the work, William H. Perry put up
the fence, making no charge for his services.
About the middle of January word was received in Los
Angeles of the death, at Baltimore, of Colonel B. L. Beall,
commander for years of the Fort Tejon garrison, and active in
the Mojave and Kern River campaigns.
Death entered our home for the first time, when an infant
daughter, less than a month old, died this year on February
1 4th.
In February, the editor of the News advised the experi-
ment of growing cotton as an additional activity for the Colorado
Indians, who were already cultivating corn, beans and melons.
Whether this suggestion led William Workman into cotton
culture, I do not know; at any rate, late in November of the
same year F. P. F. Temple was exhibiting about town some
well-matured bolls of cotton raised on Workman's ranch, and
the next spring saw in El Monte a number of fields planted
with cotton seed. A year later, J. Moerenhout sent Los Angeles
cotton to an exhibition in France, and received from across
the water official assurance that the French judges regarded our
product as quite equal to that grown in the Southern States.
This gave a slight impetus to cotton-culture here and by
January, 1865, a number of immigrants had arrived, looking
for suitable land for the production of this staple. They soon
3i 8 Sixty Years in Southern California [1862-
went to work, and in August of that year many fields gave
promise of good crops, far exceeding the expectations of the
experimenters.
In the month of March a lively agitation on behalf of a
railroad began in the public press, and some bitter things
were said against those who, for the sake of a little trade in
horses or draying, were opposed to such a forward step; and
under the leadership of E. J. C. Kewen and J. A. Watson, our
Assemblymen at that session, the Legislature of 1863 passed an
act authorizing the construction of the Los Angeles & San
Pedro Railroad. A public meeting was called to discuss the
details and to further the project; but once more no railroad
was built or even begun. Strange as it seems, the idea of a
railroad for Los Angeles County in 1863 was much too advanced
for the times.
Billed as one who had "had the honor of appearing before
King William IV. and all the principal crowned heads of
Europe," Professor Courtier held forth with an exhibition of
magic in the Temple Theatre; drawing the usual crowd of
royalty-haters !
In 1863, Santa Catalina was the scene of a gold-mining
boom which soon came to naught, and through an odd enough
occurrence. About .April, Martin M. Kimberly and Daniel
E. Way staked out a claim or two, and some miners agreed on
a code of laws for operations in what was to be known as the
San Pedro Mining District, the boundaries of which were
to include all the islands of the County. Extensive claims,
chiefly in Cherry and Joly valleys and on Mineral Hill, were
recorded, and streets were laid out for a town to be known
as Queen City; but just as the boom seemed likely to mature,
the National Government stepped in and gave a quietus to
the whole affair. With or without foundation, reports had
reached the Federal authorities that the movement was but
a cloak to establish there well-fortified Confederate headquar-
ters for the fitting out and repair of privateers intended to prey
upon the coast- wise traders; and on February 5th, 1864, Cap-
tain B. R. West, commanding the Fourth California Infantry,
1863] Droughts Ada Hancock Disaster 319
ordered practically all of the miners and prospectors to leave
the island at once. The following September the National
troops were withdrawn, and after the War the Federal author-
ities retained control of a point on the island deemed service-
able for lighthouse purposes.
In the spring of 1863, feeling ill, I went to San Fran-
cisco to consult Dr. Toland, who assured me that there was
nothing serious the matter with me; but wishing to sat-
isfy myself more thoroughly, I resorted to the same means
that I dare say many others have adopted a medical ex-
amination for life insurance! Bernhard Gattel, general agent
of the Germania Life Insurance Company, at 315 Mont-
gomery Street, wrote out my application ; and on March 2Oth,
a policy, numbered 1472, was issued, making me, since the fall
of 1913, the oldest living policy-holder in the Southwest, and
the twentieth oldest of the Germania's patrons in the world.
Californians, during that period of the War when the North
was suffering a series of defeats, had little use for greenbacks.
At one time, a dollar in currency was worth but thirty-five
cents, though early in April it was accepted at sixty-five,
late in August at ninety, and about the first of October at
seventy-five cents ; even interest-bearing gold notes being worth
no more. This condition of the money market saw little change
until some time in the seventies ; and throughout the War green-
backs were handled like any other commodity. Frank Lecou-
vreur, in one of these periods, after getting judgment in a suit
against Deputy Surveyor William Moore, for civil engineering
services, and being paid some three hundred and eighty-three
dollars in greenbacks, was disconcerted enough when he found
that his currency would command but one hundred and eighty
dollars in gold. San Francisco merchants realized fortunes
when a decline occurred, as they bought their merchandise in
the East for greenbacks and sold it on the Coast for gold. Los
Angeles people, on the other hand, enjoyed no such benefit, as
they brought their wares from San Francisco and were there-
fore obliged to liquidate in specie.
Among the worst tragedies in the early annals of Los Angeles,
32O Sixty Years in Southern California [1862-
and by far the most dramatic, was the disaster on April 27th
to the little steamer Ada Hancock. While on a second trip,
in the harbor of San Pedro, to transfer to the Senator the
remainder of the passengers bound for the North, the vessel
careened, admitting cold water to the engine-room and explod-
ing the boiler with such force that the boat was demolished
to the water's edge ; fragments being found on an island even
half to three-quarters of a mile away. Such was the intensity of
the blast and the area of the devastation that, of the fifty-three
or more passengers known to have been on board, twenty-six at
least perished. Fortunate indeed were those, including Phineas
Bannimg, the owner, who survived with minor injuries, after
being hurled many feet into the air. Among the dead were
Thomas W. Seeley, Captain of the Senator; Joseph Bryant,
Captain of the Ada Hancock; Dr. H. R. Myles, the druggist,
who had been in partnership, opposite the Bella Union, with
Dr. J. C. Welch, an arrival of the early fifties who died in
1869; Thomas H. Workman, Banning's chief clerk; Albert
Sidney Johnston, Jr.; William T. B. Sanford, once Post-
master; Louis Schlesinger and William Ritchie, Wells
Fargo's messenger, to whom was entrusted ten thousand dollars,
which, as far as my memory goes, was lost. Two Mormon
missionaries, en route to the Sandwich Islands, were also
killed. Still another, who lost not only his treasure but his
life, was Fred E. Kerlin of Fort Tejon: thirty thousand dol-
lars which he carried with him, in greenbacks, disappeared
as mysteriously as did the jewelry on the persons of others,
and from these circumstances it was concluded that, even
in the presence of Death, these bodies had been speedily
robbed. Mrs. Banning and her mother, Mrs. Sanford, and a
daughter of B. D. Wilson were among the wounded; while Miss
M. Hereford, Mrs. Wilson's sister and the fiancee of Dr. Myles,
was so severely injured that, after long suffering, she also died.
Although the accident had happened about five o'clock in the
afternoon, the awful news, casting a general and indescrib-
able gloom, was not received in town until nearly eight o'clock;
when Drs. Griffin and R. T. Hayes, together with an Army sur-
1863] Droughts Ada Hancock Disaster 321
geon named Todd, hastened in carriages to the harbor where
soldiers from Camp Drum had already asserted their authority.
Many of the victims were buried near the beach at New
San Pedro. While I was calling upon Mrs. Johnston to express
my sympathy, the body of her son was brought in ; and words
cannot describe the pathos of the scene when she addressed
the departed as if he were but asleep.
In June the Government demanded a formal profession
of loyalty from teachers, when Miss Mary Hoyt and Miss
Eliza Madigan took the oath, but Mrs. Thomas Foster and
William McKee refused to do so. The incident provoked bitter
criticism, and nothing being done to punish the recalcitrants,
the Los Angeles Board of Education was charged witlf 'indif-
ference as to the allegiance of its public servants.
During 1863 sectional feeling had grown so bitter on
account of the War that no attempt was made to celebrate
the Fourth of July in town. At Fort Latham, however, on the
Ballona Ranch, the soldiers observed the day with an appropri-
ate demonstration. By the end of July, troops had been sent
from Drum Barracks to camp in the city for the protection,
so it was asserted, of Union men whose lives were said to be in
danger, although some people claimed that this movement was
rather for the purpose of intimidating certain leaders with
known sympathy for the South. This military display gave
Northerners more backbone; and on the twenty-sixth of
September a Union mass-meeting was held on Main Street in
front of the Lafayette Hotel.
Eldridge Edwards Hewitt, a Mexican War veteran who
came to California in 1849 to search for gold, arrived in Los
Angeles on July 3ist and soon went on a wild-goose chase to
the Weaver Diggings in Arizona, actually tramping with lug-
gage over five hundred miles of the way ! After his return, he
did odd jobs for his board, working in a stationery and toy
store on Main Street, kept by the Goldwater Brothers, Joe and
Mike, who had arrived in the early sixties; and later he entered
the employ of Phineas Banning at Wilmington, with whom he
remained until the completion of the Los Angeles & San Pedro
322 Sixty Years in Southern California [1862-
Railroad in 1870, when he became its Superintendent. When
the Southern Pacific obtained control of that road in 1873,
Hewitt was made Agent, and after the extension of the line
from San Francisco he was appointed Division Superintendent.
In that capacity he brought Senator Leland Stanford to me, as
I shall elsewhere relate, to solicit H. Newmark and Company's
patronage.
It was in 1863 that Dr. J. S. Griffin, father of East Los
Angeles, purchased two thousand acres in that section, at fifty
cents an acre; but even at that price he was only induced to
buy it by necessity. Griffin wanted sheep-pasture, and had
sought to secure some eight hundred acres of City land along the
river; but as this would prevent other cattle or sheep from
approaching the water to drink, the Common Council refused
Griffin's bid on the smaller area of land and he was com-
pelled to buy the mesa farther back. It seems to me that B.
D. Wilson, J. G. Downey and Hancock M. Johnston, General
Johnston's son, also had something to do with this transaction.
Both Downey and Griffin avenues derived their names from
the association of these two gentlemen with that section.
A smallpox epidemic which had started in the previous
fall spread through Los Angeles in 1863, and owing possibly
to the bad sanitary and climatic conditions much vigilance
and time were required to eradicate it ; compulsory vaccination
not having been introduced (as it finally was at the suggestion
of Dr. Walter Lindley) until the summer of 1876. The dread
disease worked its ravages especially among the Mexicans and
Indians, as many as a dozen of them dying in a single day ; and
these sufferers and their associates being under no quarantine,
and even bathing ad libitum in the zanjas, the pest spread alarm-
ingly. For a time fatalities were so frequent and the nature of
the contagion so feared that it was difficult to persuade under-
takers to bury the dead, even without funeral or other ceremony.
Following the opening of the Owens River Mines this year,
Los Angeles merchants soon established a considerable trade
with that territory. Banning inaugurated a system of wagon-
trains, each guarded by a detachment of soldiers. The San
1863] Droughts Ada Hancock Disaster 323
Fernando mountains, impassable for heavy teaming, were
an obstacle to regular trade with the new country and com-
pelled the use of a circuitous route over poor roads. It became
necessary, therefore, to consider a means of overcoming the
difficulty, much money having already been spent by the
County in an abortive attempt to build a tunnel. This second
plan likewise came to naught, and it was in fact more than
a decade before the Southern Pacific finally completed the
famous bore.
Largely because of political mistakes, including a mani-
festation of sympathy for the Southern Confederacy that drew
against him Northern resentment and opposition, John G.
Downey, the Democratic nominee for Governor, was defeated
at the election in September; Frederick F. Low, a Republican,
receiving a majority of over twenty thousand votes.
In October, a peddler named Brun was murdered near
Chino. Brun's brother, living at San Bernardino and sub-
sequently a merchant of prominence there, offered two hundred
dollars of his slender savings as a reward for the capture of
the slayer; but nothing ever came of the search.
In November the stern necessities of war were at last driven
home to Angelenos when, on the ninth of that'somber month,
Don Juan Warner, Deputy Provost Marshal, appeared with his
big blank books and began to superintend the registering of all
able-bodied citizens suitable for military service. To many,
the inquisition was not very welcome and, had it not been
for the Union soldiers encamped at Drum Barracks, this first
step toward compulsory enrollment would undoubtedly have
resulted in riotous disturbances.
I have frequently named Tom Mott, but I may not have
said that he was one of the representative local Democratic
politicians of his day. He possessed, indeed, such influence
with all classes that he was not only elected Clerk of Los Angeles
County in 1863, but succeeded himself in 1865, 1867 and 1869,
afterward sitting in the State Assembly; and in 1876, he was
appointed a delegate to the National Convention that nomi-
nated Samuel J. Tilden for the Presidency. His relations in
324 Sixty Years in Southern California [1862-
time with Stanford, Crocker, Huntington and Hopkins were
very close, and for at least twenty-five years he acted as their
political adviser in all matters appertaining to Southern Cali-
fornia. Tall, erect and dignified, scrupulously attired and
distinguished by his flowing beard, Tom was for more than half
a century a striking figure in Los Angeles.
A most brutal murder took place on November I5th on
the desert not far from Los Angeles, but few days passing before
it was avenged. A poor miner, named R. A. Hester, was
fatally attacked by a border ruffian known as Boston Daim-
wood, while some confederates, including the criminals Chase,
Ybarra and Olivas, stood by to prevent interference. In a
few hours officers and citizens were in the saddle in pursuit of
the murderous band; for Daimwood had boasted that Hester
was but the first of several of our citizens to whom he intended
to pay his respects. Daimwood and his three companions
were captured and lodged in jail, and on the twenty-first of
November two hundred or more armed Vigilantes forced the
jail doors, seized the scoundrels and hung them to the portico
of the old City Hall on Spring Street. Tomas Sanchez, the
Sheriff, talked of organizing a posse comitatus to arrest the
committee leaders; but so positive was public sentiment, as
reflected in the newspapers, in support of the summary execu-
tions, that nothing further was heard of the threat.
An incident of value in the study of mob-psychology
accentuated the day's events. During the lynching, the clatter-
ing of horses' hoofs was heard, when the cry was raised that
cavalry from Drum Barracks was rushing to rescue the pris-
oners; and in a twinkling those but a moment before most
demonstrative were seen scurrying to cover in all directions.
Instead, however, of Federal soldiers, the horsemen were the
usual contingent of El Monte boys, coming to assist in the
neck- tie party.
Besides the murderers lynched, there was an American boy
named Wood of about eighteen years; and although he had com-
mitted no offense more vicious than the theft of some chickens,
he paid the penalty with his life, it having been the verdict of
1863] Droughts Ada Hancock Disaster 325
the committee that while they were at it, the jail might as well
be cleared of every malefactor. A large empty case was secured
as a platform on which the victim was to stand; and I shall
never forget the spectacle of the youth, apparently oblivious
of his impending doom, as he placed his hands upon the box
and vaulted lightly to the top (just as he might have done at an
innocent gymnastic contest), and his parting salutation, "I'm
going to die a game 'hen-chicken!'' 1 The removal of the case a
moment later, after the noose had been thrown over and drawn
about the lad's head, left the poor victim suspended beyond
human aid.
On that same day, a sixth prisoner barely escaped. When
the crowd was debating the lynchings, John P. Lee, a resident
of El Monte who had been convicted of murder, was already
under sentence of death; and the Vigilantes, having duly
considered his case, decided that it would be just as well to per-
mit the law to take its course. Some time later, J. Lancaster
Brent, Lee's attorney, appealed the case and obtained for his
client a new trial, finally clearing Lee of the charges against
him, so that, in the end, he died a natural death.
I frequently saw Lee after this episode, and vividly recall
an unpleasant interview years later. The regularity of his
visits had been interrupted, and when he reappeared to get
some merchandise for a customer at El Monte, I asked him
where he had been. He explained that a dog had bitten a
little girl, and that while she was suffering from hydrophobia
she had in turn attacked him and so severely scratched his
hands and face that, for a while, he could not snow himself in
public. After that, whenever I saw Lee, I was aware of a lurk-
ing, if ridiculous, suspicion that the moment might have arrived
for a new manifestation of the rabies.
Speaking of the Civil War and the fact that in Southern
California there was less pronounced sentiment for the Union
than in the Northern part of the State, I am reminded of a
relief movement that emphasized the distinction. By the
middle of November San Francisco had sent over one hundred
and thirty thousand dollars to the United States Sanitary
326 Sixty Years in Southern California [1862-
Commission, and an indignant protest was voiced in some
quarters that Los Angeles, up to that date, had not partici-
pated. In time, however, the friends of the Union here did
make up a small purse.
In 1863 interest in the old San Juan Capistrano Mission
was revived with the reopening of the historic structure so
badly damaged by the earthquake of 1812, and a considerable
number of townspeople went out to the first services under the
new roof. When ' I first saw the Mission, near Don Juan
Forster's home, there was in its open doors, windows and cut-
stone and stucco ruins, its vines and wild flowers, much of
the picturesque.
On November i8th, 1862, our little community was greatly
stirred by the news that John Rains, one of Colonel Isaac
Williams' sons-in-law and well known in Los Angeles, had
been waylaid and killed on the highway near the Azusa rancho
the night before. It was claimed that one Ramon Carrillo
had hired the assassins to do the foul deed; and about the
middle of February, 1863, a Mexican by the name of Manuel
Cerradel was arrested by Thomas Trafford, the City Marshal,
as a participant. In time, he was tried and sentenced to ten
years in San Quentin Prison. On December Qth, Sheriff Tomas
Sanchez started to take the prisoner north, and at Wilmington
boarded the little steamer Cricket to go out to the Senator, which
was ready to sail. A goodly number of other passengers also
boarded the tugboat, though nothing in particular was thought
of the circumstance; but once out in the harbor, a group of
Vigilantes, indignant at the light sentence imposed, seized the
culprit at a prearranged signal, threw a noose about his neck
and, in a jiffy, hung him to the flagstaff. When he was dead,
the body was lowered and stones brought aboard in packages
by the committee, who had evidently considered every detail
were tied to the feet, and the corpse was thrown overboard
before the steamer was reached. This was one of the acts of the
Vigilantes that no one seemed to deprecate.
Toward the end of 1861, J. E. Pleasants, while overseeing
one of Wolfskill's ranches, hit the trail of some horse thieves
1863] Droughts Ada Hancock Disaster 327
and, assisted by City Marshal William C. Warren, pursued and
captured several, who were sent to the penitentiary. One, how-
ever, escaped. This was Charles Wilkins, a veritable scoundrel
who, having stolen a pistol and a knife from the Bella Union
and put the same into the hands of young Wood (whose lynch-
ing I have described), sent the lad on his way to the gallows. A
couple of years later Wilkins waylaid and murdered John San-
ford, a rancher iving near Fort Tejon and a brother of Captain
W. T. B. Sanford, the second Postmaster of Los Angeles; and
when the murderer had been apprehended and was being tried,
an exciting incident occurred, to which I was an eye-witness.
On November i6th, 1854, Phineas Banning had married Miss
Rebecca Sanford, a sister of the unfortunate man; and as
Banning caught sight of Wilkins, he rushed forward and en-
deavoured to avenge the crime by shooting the culprit. Ban-
ning was then restrained; but soon after, on December 1 7th,
1863, he led the Vigilance Committee which strung up Wil-
kins on Tomlinson & Griffith's corral gateway where nearly a
dozen culprits had already forfeited their lives.
CHAPTER XXIII
ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN
1864-1865
OF all years of adversity before, during or since the Civil
War, the seemingly interminable year of 1864 was for
Southern California the worst. The varying moves
in the great struggle, conducted mostly by Grant and Lee, Sher-
man and Farragut, buoyed now one, now the other side; but
whichever way the tide of battle turned, business and financial
conditions here altered but little and improved not a whit.
The Southwest, as I have already pointed out, was more
dependent for its prosperity on natural conditions, such as rain,
than upon the victory of any army or fleet ; and as this was the
last of three successive seasons of annihilating drought,
ranchman and merchant everywhere became downhearted.
During the entire winter of 1862-63 no more than four inches
of rain had fallen, and in 1864 not until March was there a
shower, and even then the earth was scarcely moistened. With
a total assessment of something like two million dollars in the
County, not a cent of taxes (at least in the city) was collected.
Men were so miserably poor that confidence mutually weak-
ened, and merchants refused to trust those who, as land and
cattle-barons, but a short time before had been so influential
and most of whom, in another and more favorable season or two,
were again operators of affluence. How great was the depreci-
ation in values may be seen from the fact that notes given by
Francis Temple, and bearing heavy interest, were peddled
about at fifty cents on the dollar and even then found few
purchasers.
328
[1864-1865] Assassination of Lincoln 329
As a result of these very infrequent rains, grass started up
only to wither away, a small district around Anaheim inde-
pendent of the rainfall on account of its fine irrigation system,
alone being green ; and thither the lean and thirsty cattle came
by thousands, rushing in their feverish state against the great
willow-fence I have elsewhere described. This stampede became
such a menace, in fact, that the Anaheimers were summoned to
defend their homes and property, and finally they had to place
a mounted guard outside of the willow enclosures. Every-
where large numbers of horses and cattle died, as well as many
sheep, the plains at length being strewn with carcasses and
bleached bones. The suffering of the poor animals beggars
description; and so distressed with hunger were they that
I saw famished cattle (during the summer of 1864 while on a
visit to the springs at Paso de Robles) crowd around the hotel
veranda for the purpose of devouring the discarded matting-
containers which had held Chinese rice. I may also add that
with the approach of summer the drought became worse and
worse, contributing in no small degree to the spread of small-
pox, then epidemic here. Stearns lost forty or fifty thousand
head of live stock, and was much the greatest sufferer in this
respect; and as a result, he was compelled, about June, 1865,
to mortgage Los Alamitos rancho, with its twenty-six thousand
acres, to Michael Reese of San Francisco, for the almost paltry
sum of twenty thousand dollars. Even this sacrifice, however,
did not save him from still greater financial distress.
In 1864, two Los Angeles merchants, Louis Schlesinger and
Hyman Tischler, owing to the recent drought foreclosed a
mortgage on several thousand acres of land known as the
Ricardo Vejar property, lying between Los Angeles and San
Bernardino. Shortly after this transaction, Schlesinger was
killed while on his way to San Francisco, in the Ada Hancock
explosion ; after which Tischler purchased Schlesinger's interest
in the ranch and managed it alone.
In January, Tischler invited me to accompany him on one
of the numerous excursions which he made to his newly-ac-
quired possession, but, though I was inclined to go, a business
33 Sixty Years in Southern California [1864-
engagement interfered and kept me in town. Poor Edward
Newman, another friend of Tischler's, took my place. On
the way to San Bernardino from the rancho, the travelers were
ambushed by some Mexicans, who shot Newman dead. It was
generally assumed that the bullets were intended for Tischler,
in revenge for his part in the foreclosure ; at any rate, he would
never go to the ranch again, and finally sold it to Don Louis
Phillips, on credit, for thirty thousand dollars. The inventory
included large herds of horses and cattle, which Phillips (during
the subsequent wet season) drove to Utah, where he realized
sufficient from their sale alone to pay for the whole property.
Pomona and other important places now mark the neighbor-
hood where once roamed his herds. Phillips died some years
ago at the family residence which he had built on the ranch
near Spadra.
James R. Toberman, after a trying experience with Texan
Redskins, came to Los Angeles in 1864, President Lincoln
having appointed him United States Revenue Assessor here,
an office which he held for six years. At the same time, as
an exceptional privilege for a Government officer, Toberman
was permitted to become agent for Wells Fargo & Company.
Again the Fourth of July was not celebrated here, the two
factions in the community still opposing each other with
bitterness. Hatred of the National Government had increased
through an incident of the previous spring which stirred the
town mightily. On the eighth or ninth of May, a group stood
discussing the Fort Pillow Massacre, when J. F. Bilderback
indiscreetly expressed the wish that the Confederates would an-
nihilate every negro taken with arms, and every white man, as
well, who might be found in command of colored troops; or
some such equally dangerous and foolish sentiment. The in-
discretion was reported to the Government authorities, and
Bilderback was straightway arrested by a lieutenant of cavalry,
though he was soon released.
Among the most rabid Democrats, particularly during the
Civil War period, was Nigger Pete the barber. One hot day in
August, patriotic Biggs vociferously proclaimed his ardent at-
1865] Assassination of Lincoln 331
tachment to the cause of Secession ; whereupon he was promptly
arrested, placed in charge of half a dozen cavalrymen, and
made to foot it, with an iron chain and ball attached to his
ankle, all the way from Los Angeles to Drum Barracks at Wil-
mington. Not in the least discouraged by his uncertain
position, however, Pete threw his hat up into the air as he
passed some acquaintances on the road, and gave three hearty
cheers for Jeff Davis, thus bringing about the completion of
his difficulty.
For my part, I have good reason to remember the drought
and crisis of 1864, not alone because times were miserably hard
and prosperity seemed to have disappeared forever, or that the
important revenue from Uncle Sam, although it relieved the
situation, was never sufficient to go around, but also because
of an unfortunate investment. I bought and shipped many
thousands of hides which owners had taken from the carcasses
of their starved cattle, forwarding them to San Francisco by
schooner or steamer, and thence to New York by sailing vessel.
A large number had commenced to putrefy before they were
removed, which fact escaped my attention ; and on their arrival
in the East, the decomposing skins had to be taken out to sea
again and thrown overboard, so that the net results of this
venture were disastrous. However, we all met the difficulties
of the situation as philosophically as we could.
There were no railroads in California until the late sixties
and, consequently, there was no regular method of concentra-
tion, nor any systematic marketing of products; and this had
a very bad economic effect on the whole State. Prices were
extremely high during her early history, and especially so in
1864. Barley sold at three and a half cents per pound; pota-
toes went up to twelve and a half cents ; and flour reached fifteen
dollars per barrel, at wholesale. Much flour in wooden barrels
was then brought from New York by sailing vessels; and my
brother imported a lot during a period of inflation, some of
which he sold at thirteen dollars. Isaac Friedlander, a San
Francisco pioneer, who was not alone the tallest man in that
city but was as well a giant operator in grain and its products,
33 2 Sixty Years in Southern California [1864-
practically monopolized the wheat and flour business of the
town; and when he heard of this interference, he purchased all
the remainder of my brother's flour at thirteen dollars a barrel,
and so secured control of the situation.
Just before this transaction, I happened to be in San
Francisco and noticing the advertisement of an approaching
flour auction, I attended the sale. This particular lot was
packed in sacks which had been eaten into by rats and mice
and had, in consequence, to be resacked, sweepings and all. I
bought one hundred barrels and shipped the flour to Los
Angeles, and B. Dubordieu, the corpulent little French baker,
considered himself fortunate in obtaining it at fifteen dollars
per barrel.
Speaking of foodstuffs, I may note that red beans then
commanded a price of twelve and a half cents per pound,
until a sailing vessel from Chile unexpectedly landed a cargo in
San Francisco and sent the price dropping to a cent and a
quarter; when commission men, among them myself, suffered
heavy losses.
In 1864, F. Bachman & Company sold out. Their retire-
ment was ascribed in a measure to the series of bad years, but
the influence of their wives was a powerful factor in inducing
them to withdraw. The firm had been compelled to accept
large parcels of real estate in payment of accounts; and now,
while preparing to leave, Bachman & Co. sacrificed their fine
holdings at prices considered ridiculous even then. The only
one of these sales that I remember was that of a lot with a
frontage of one hundred and twenty feet on Fort Street, and
a one-story adobe house, which they disposed of for four hundred
dollars.
I have told of Don Juan Forster's possessions the Santa
Margarita rancho, where he lived until his death, and also the
Las Flores. These he obtained in 1864, when land was worth
but the merest song, buying the same from Pio Pico, his
brother-in-law. The two ranches included over a hundred and
forty thousand acres, and pastured some twenty-five thousand
cattle, three thousand horses and six or seven thousand sheep ;
1865] Assassination of Lincoln 333
yet the transaction, on account of the season, was a fiscal
operation of but minor importance.
The hard times strikingly conduced to criminality and,
since there were then probably not more than three or four
policemen in Los Angeles, some of the desperadoes, here in large
numbers and not confined to any particular nationality or
color, took advantage of the conditions, even making several
peculiar nocturnal assaults upon the guardians of the peace.
The methods occasionally adopted satisfied the community
that Mexican bandidos were at work. Two of these worthies on
horseback, while approaching a policeman, would suddenly dash
in opposite directions, bringing a reata (in the use of which
they were always most proficient) taut to the level of their sad-
dles; and striking the policeman with the hide or hair rope,
they would throw him to the ground with such force as to
disable him. Then the ingenious robbers would carry out their
well-planned depredations in the neighborhood and disappear
with their booty.
J. Ross Browne, one of the active Forty-niners in San
Francisco and author of Crusoe's Island and various other vol-
umes dealing with early life in California and along the Coast,
was on and off a visitor to Los Angeles, first passing through
here in 1859, en route to the Washoe Gold fields, and stopping
again in 1864.
Politics enlivened the situation somewhat in the fall of
this year of depression. In September, the troops were with-
drawn from Catalina Island, and the following month most
of the guard was brought in from Fort Tejon; and this, creating
possibly a feeling of security, paved the way for still larger
Union meetings in October and November. Toward the end
of October, Francisco P. Ramirez, formerly editor of El Clamor
Publico, was made Postmaster, succeeding William G. Still,
upon whose life an attempt had been, made while he was in
office.
As an illustration of how a fortunate plunger acquired prop-
erty now worth millions, through the disinclination on the part
of most people here to add to their taxes in this time of drought,
334 Sixty Years in Southern California [1864-
I may mention two pieces of land included in the early Ord
survey, one hundred and twenty by one hundred and sixty-five
feet in size one at the southwest corner of Spring and Fourth
streets, the other at the southeast corner of Fort and Fourth
which were sold on December I2th, 1864, for two dollars and
fifty-two cents, delinquent taxes. The tax on each lot was
but one dollar and twenty-six cents, yet only one purchaser
appeared !
About that very time, there was another and noteworthy
movement in favor of the establishment of a railroad between
Los Angeles and San Pedro. In December, committees from
outside towns met here with our citizens to debate the sub-
ject; but by the end of the several days' conference, no real
progress had been made.
The year 1865 gave scant promise, at least in its opening,
of better times to come. To be sure, Northern arms were
more and more victorious, and with the approach of Lincoln's
second inauguration the conviction grew that under the leader-
ship of such a man national prosperity might return. Little
did we dream that the most dramatic of all tragedies in our
history was soon to be enacted. In Southern California the
effects of the long drought continued, and the certainty that
the cattle-industry, once so vast and flourishing, was now but a
memory, discouraged a people to whom the vision of a far more
profitable use of the land had not yet been revealed.
For several years my family, including three children, had
been shifting from pillar to post owing to the lack of residences
such as are now built to sell or lease, and I could not postpone
any longer the necessity of obtaining larger quarters. We
had occupied, at various times, a little shanty on Franklin Street,
owned by a carpenter named Wilson; a small, one-story brick
on Main Street near First, owned by Henne, the brewer; and
once we lived with the Kremers in a one-story house, none too
large, on Fort Street. Again we dwelt on Fort Street in a little
brick house that stood on the site of the present Chamber of
Commerce building, next door to Governor Downey's, before he
moved to Main Street. The nearest approach to convenience
1865] Assassination of Lincoln 335
was afforded by our occupancy of Henry Dalton's two-story
brick on Main Street near Second. One day a friend told me
that Jim Easton had an adobe on Main Street near Third,
which he wished to sell ; and on inquiry, I bought the place,
paying him a thousand dollars for fifty-four feet, the entire
frontage being occupied by the house. Main Street, beyond
First, was practically in the same condition as at the time of
my arrival, no streets running east having been opened south
of First.
After moving in, we were inconvenienced because there was
no driveway, and everything needed for housekeeping had to be
carried, in consequence, through the front door of the dwelling.
I therefore interviewed my friend and neighbor, Ygnacio Garcia,
who owned a hundred feet adjoining me, and asked him if he
would sell or rent me twenty feet of his property ; whereupon he
permitted me the free use of twenty feet, thus supplying me with
access to the rear of my house. A few months later, Alfred
B. Chapman, Garcia's legal adviser (who, by the way, is still
alive) T brought me a deed to the twenty feet of land, the only
expense being a fee of twenty-five dollars to Chapman for
making out the document ; and later Garcia sold his remaining
eighty feet to Tom Mott for five dollars a foot. This lot is
still in my possession. In due time, I put up a large, old-
fashioned wooden barn with a roomy hay-loft, stalls for a
couple of horses or mules, and space for a large flat-truck, the
first of the kind for years in Los Angeles. John Simmons had
his room in the barn and was one of my first porters. I had
no regular driver for the truck, but John usually served in that
capacity.
Incidentally to this story of my selecting a street on which
to live, I may say that during the sixties Main and San Pedro
streets were among the chief residential sections, and Spring
Street was only beginning to be popular for homes. The fact
that some people living on the west side of Main Street built
their stables in back-yards connecting with Spring Street, re-
tarded the latter's growth.
1 Died, January 22d, 1915.
336 Sixty Years in Southern California [1864-
Here I may well repeat the story of the naming of Spring
Street, particularly as it exemplifies the influence that ro-
mance sometimes has upon affairs usually prosaic. Ord, the
surveyor, was then more than prepossessed in favor of the
delightful Senorita Trinidad de la Guerra, for whose hand he
was, in fact, a suitor and to whom he always referred as Mi
Primavera "My Springtime;" and when asked to name the
new thoroughfare, he gallantly replied, "Primavera, of course!
Primavera!"
On February 3d, a wind-storm, the like of which the
proverbial "oldest inhabitant" could scarcely recall, struck
Los Angeles amidships, unroofing many houses and blowing
down orchards. Wolf skill lost heavily, and Banning & Com-
pany's large barn at the northeast corner of Fort and Second
streets, near the old schoolhouse, was demolished, scarcely a
post remaining upright. A curious sight, soon after the storm
began to blow, was that of many citizens weighing down and
lashing fast their roofs, just as they do in Sweden, Norway
and Switzerland, to keep them from being carried to un-
expected, not to say inconvenient, locations.
In early days, steamers plying up and down the Pacific
Coast, as I have pointed out, were so poor in every respect that
it was necessary to make frequent changes in their names, to
induce passengers to travel on them at all. As far back as
1860, one frequently heard the expression, "the old tubs;" and
in 1865, even the best-known boat on the Southern run was
publicly discussed as "the rotten old Senator, 1 ' "the old hulk"
and "the floating coffin." At this time, there was a strong
feeling against the Steam Navigation Company for its ar-
bitrary treatment of the public, its steamers sometimes leaving
a whole day before the date on which they were advertised to
depart; and this criticism and dissatisfaction finally resulted
in the putting on of the opposition steamer Pacific which for
the time became popular.
In 1865, Judge Benjamin S. Eaton tried another agricultural
experiment which many persons of more experience at first
predicted would be a failure. He had moved into the cottage
1865] Assassination of Lincoln 337
at Fair Oaks, built by the estimable lady of General Albert
Sidney Johnston, and had planted five thousand or more grape-
vines in the good though dry soil; but the lack of surface
water caused vineyardists to shake their heads incredulously.
The vines prospered so well that, in the following year,
Eaton planted five or six times as many more. He came to
the conclusion, however, that he must have water; and so
arranged to bring some from what is now known as Eaton's
Canon. I remember that, after his vines began to bear,
the greatest worry of the Judge was not the matter of irrigation,
but the wild beasts that preyed upon the clustering fruit.
The visitor to Pasadena and Altadena to-day can hardly realize
that in those very localities both coyotes and bears were
rampant, and that many a night the irate Judge was roused
by the barking dogs as they drove the intruders out of the
vineyard.
Tomlinson & Company, always energetic competitors in
the business of transportation in Southern California, began
running, about the first of April, a new stage line between Los
Angeles and San Bernardino, making three trips a week.
On the fifteenth of April, my family physician, Dr. John S.
Griffin, paid a professional visit to my house on Main Street,
which might have ended disastrously for him. While we were
seated together by an open window in the dining-room, a man
named Kane ran by on the street, shouting out the momentous
news that Abraham Lincoln had been shot ! Griffin, who was a
staunch Southerner, was on his feet instantly, cheering for Jeff
Davis. He gave evidence, indeed, of great mental excitement,
and soon seized his hat and rushed for the door, hurrahing for
the Confederacy. In a flash, I realized that Griffin would be in
awful jeopardy if he reached the street in that unbalanced con-
dition, and by main force I held him back, convincing him at
last of his folly. In later years the genial Doctor frankly
admitted that I had undoubtedly saved him from certain
death.
This incident brings to mind another, associated with
Henry Baer, whose father, Abraham, a native of Bavaria and
33 8 Sixty Years in Southern California [1864-
one of the earliest tailors here, had arrived from New Orleans
in 1854. When Lincoln's assassination was first known,
Henry ran out of the house, singing Dixie and shouting for the
South; but his father, overtaking him, brought him back and
gave him a sound whipping an act nearly breaking up the
Baer family, inasmuch as Mrs. Baer was a pronounced
Secessionist.
The news of Lincoln's assassination made a profound im-
pression in Los Angeles, though it cannot be denied that some
Southern sympathizers, on first impulse, thought that it would
be advantageous to the Confederate cause. There was, there-
fore, for the moment, some ill-advised exultation; but this was
promptly suppressed, either by the military or by the firm stand
of the more level-headed members of the community. Soon
even radically-inclined citizens, in an effort to uphold the
fair name of the town, fell into line, and steps were taken
fittingly to mourn the nation's loss. On the seventeenth of
April, the Common Council passed appropriate resolutions;
and Governor Low having telegraphed that Lincoln's funeral
would be held in Washington on the nineteenth, at twelve
o'clock noon, the Union League of Los Angeles took the initia-
tive and invited the various societies of the city to join in a
funeral procession.
On April iQth all the stores were closed, business was sus-
pended and soldiers as well as civilians assembled in front
of Arcadia Block. There were present United States officers,
mounted cavalry under command of Captain Ledyard; the
Mayor and Common Council; various lodges; the Hebrew
Congregation B'nai-B'rith; the Teutonia, the French Benevo-
lent and the Junta Patriotica societies, and numerous citi-
zens. Under the marshalship of S. F. Lamson the procession
moved slowly over what to-day would be regarded as an
insignificantly short route: west on Arcadia Street to Main;
down Main Street to Spring as far as First ; east on First Street
to Main and up Main Street, proceeding back to the City Hall
by way of Spring, at which point the parade disbanded.
Later, on the same day, there were memorial services in the
1865] Assassination of Lincoln 339
upper story of the old Temple Court House, where Rev. Elias
Birdsall, the Episcopal clergyman, delivered a splendid oration
and panegyric; and at the same time, the members of the
Hebrew Congregation met at the house of Rabbi A. W. Edel-
man. Prayers for the martyred President were uttered, and
supplication was made for the recovery of Secretary of State
Seward. The resolutions presented on this occasion concluded
as follows:
RESOLVED, that with feelings of the deepest sorrow we
deplore the loss our country has sustained in the untimely end
of our late President; but as it has pleased the Almighty to
deprive this Country of its Chief and great friend, we bow with
submission to the All-wise Will.
I may add that, soon after the assassination of the President,
the Federal authorities sent an order to Los Angeles to arrest
anyone found rejoicing in the foul deed; and that several per-
sons, soon in the toils, were severely dealt with. In San Fran-
cisco, too, when the startling news was flashed over the wires,
Unionist mobs demolished the plants of the Democratic Press,
the News Letter and a couple of other journals very abusive
toward the martyred Emancipator; the editors and pub-
lishers themselves escaping with their lives only by flight and
concealment.
Notwithstanding the strong Secessionist sentiment in Los
Angeles during much of the Civil War period, the City elec-
tion resulted in a Unionist victory. Jose Mascarel was elected
fylayor; William C. Warren, Marshal; J. F. Burns, Treasurer;
J. H. Lander, Attorney; and J. W. Beebe, Assessor. The
triumph of the Federal Government doubtless at once began to
steady and improve affairs throughout the country ; but it was
some time before any noticeable progress was felt here. Par-
ticularly unfortunate were those who had gone east or south for
actual service, and who were obliged to make their way, finally,
back to the Coast. Among such volunteers was Captain
Cameron E. Thorn who, on landing at San Pedro, was glad to
34 Sixty Years in Southern California [1864-
have J. M. Griffith advance him money enough to reach Los
Angeles and begin life again.
Outdoor restaurant gardens were popular in the sixties.
On April 23d, the Tivoli Garden was reopened by Henry Sohms,
and thither, on holidays and Sundays, many pleasure-lovers
gravitated.
Sometime in the spring and during the incumbency of
Rev. Elias Birdsall as rector, the Right Reverend William
Ingraham Kip, who had come to the Pacific Coast in 1853,
made his first visit to the Episcopal Church in Los Angeles, as
Bishop of California, although really elevated to that high
office seven years before. Bishop Kip was one of the young
clergy who pleaded with the unresponsive culprits strung up by
the San Francisco Vigilance Committee of 1856; and later he
was known as an author. The Reverend Birdsall, by the way,
was Rector of St. Paul's School on Olive Street, between
Fifth and Sixth, as late as 1887.
John G. Downey subdivided the extensive Santa Gertrudis
rancho on the San Gabriel River in the spring, and the first
deed was made out to J. H. Burke, a son-in-law of Captain
Jesse Hunter. Burke, a man of splendid physique, was a
blacksmith whose Main Street shop was next to the site of the
present Van Nuys Hotel. Downey and he exchanged proper-
ties, the ex-Governor building a handsome brick residence on
Burke's lot, and Burke removing his blacksmith business to
Downey's new town where, by remaining until the property
had appreciated, he became well-to-do.
I have alluded to the Dominguez rancho, known as the San
Pedro, but I have not said that, in 1865, some four thousand
acres of this property were sold to Temple & Gibson at thirty-
five cents an acre, and that on a portion of this land G. D.
Compton founded the town named after him and first called
Comptonville. It was really a Methodist Church enterprise,
planned from the beginning as a pledge to teetotalism, and is of
particular interest because it is one of the oldest towns in Los
Angeles County, and certainly the first "dry" community.
Compton paid Temple & Gibson five dollars an acre.
1865] Assassination of Lincoln 341
Toward the end of the War, that is, in May, Major-General
Irwin McDowell, the unfortunate commander of the Army of the
Potomac who had been nearly a year in charge of the Depart-
ment of the Pacific, made Los Angeles a long-announced visit,
coming on the Government steamer Saginaw. The distin-
guished officer, his family and suite were speedily whirled to
the Bella Union, the competing drivers shouting and cursing
themselves hoarse in their efforts to get the General or the
General's wife, in different stages, there first. As was cus-
tomary in those simpler days, most of the townsfolk whose
politics would permit called upon the guest ; and Editor Con-
way and other Unionists were long closeted with him. After
thirty-six hours or more, during which the General inspected
the local Government headquarters and the ladies were driven
to, and entertained at, various homes, the party, accompanied
by Collector James and Attorney-General McCullough, boarded
the cutter and made off for the North.
Anticipating this visit of General McDowell, due prepara-
tions were made to receive him. It happened, however, as I
have indicated, that Jose Mascarel was then Mayor; and since
he had never been able to express himself freely in English,
though speaking Spanish as well as French, it was feared that
embarrassment must follow the meeting of the civil and mili-
tary personages. Luckily, however, like many scions of early
well-to-do American families, McDowell had been educated in
France, and the two chiefs were soon having a free and easy
talk in Mascarel's native tongue.
An effort, on May 2d, better to establish St. Vincent's
College as the one institution of higher learning here was but
natural at that time. In the middle of the sixties, quite as
many children attended private academies in Los Angeles
County as were in the public schools, while three-fifths of all
children attended no school at all. At the beginning of the
Twentieth Century, two-thirds of all the children in the
county attended public schools.
CHAPTER XXIV
H. NEWMARK & CO. CARLISLE-KING DUEL
1865-1866
FROM 1862 I continued for three years, as I have told, in
the commission business ; and notwithstanding the bad
seasons, I was thus pursuing a sufficiently easy and
pleasant existence when a remark which, after the lapse of
time, I see may have been carelessly dropped, inspired me with
the determination to enter again upon a more strenuous and
confining life.
On Friday, June i8th, 1865, 1 was seated in my little office,
when a Los Angeles merchant named David Solomon, whose
store was in the Arcadia Block, called upon me and, with
much feeling, related that while returning by steamer from
the North, Prudent Beaudry had made the senseless boast
that he would drive every Jew in Los Angeles out of business.
Beaudry, then a man of large means, conducted in his one-
story adobe building on the northeast corner of Aliso and Los
Angeles streets the largest general merchandise establishment
this side of San Francisco. I listened to Solomon's recital
without giving expression to my immediately-formed resolve;
but no sooner had he left than I closed my office and started
for Wilmington.
During the twelve years that I had been in California the
forwarding business between Los Angeles and the Coast had
seen many changes. Tomlinson & Company, who had bought
out A. W. Timms, controlled the largest tonnage in town,
including that of Beaudry, Jones, Childs and others; while
342
NEWMARK&C
H. Newmark & Co.'s Store, Arcadia Block, about 1875, Including (left) John Jones's
Former Premises
H. Newmark & Co.'s Building, Amestoy Block, about 1884
[1865-1866] H. Newmark & Co. -Carlisle-King Duel 343
Banning & Company, although actively engaged in the trans-
portation to Yuma of freight and supplies for the United States
Government, were handicapped for lack of business into Los
Angeles. I thought, therefore, that Phineas Banning would
eagerly seize an opportunity to pay his score to the numerous
local merchants who had treated him with so little considera-
tion. Besides, a very close intimacy existed between him and
myself, which may best be illustrated by the fact that, for years
past when short of cash, Banning used to come to my old
sheet-iron safe and help himself according to his requirements.
Arriving in Wilmington, I found Banning loading a lot of
teams with lumber. I related the substance of Solomon's
remarks and proposed a secret partnership, with the under-
standing that, providing he would release me from the then
existing charge of seven dollars and a half per ton for hauling
freight from Wilmington to Los Angeles, I should supply the
necessary capital, purchase a stock of goods, conduct the busi-
ness without cost to him and then divide the profits if any
should accrue. Banning said, "I must first consult Don
David," meaning Alexander, his partner, promising at the
same time to report the result within a few days. While I
was at dinner, therefore, on the following Sunday, Patrick
Downey, Banning's Los Angeles agent, called on me and stated
that "the Chief" was in his office in the Downey Block, on
the site of Temple's old adobe, and would be glad to see me.
Without further parleying, Banning accepted my propo-
sition; and on the following morning, or June 2ist, I rented
the last vacant store in Stearns's Arcadia Block on Los Angeles
Street, which stands to-day, by the way, much as it was erected
in 1858. It adjoined John Jones's, and was nearly opposite the
establishment of P. Beaudry. There I put up the sign of H.
Newmark, soon to be changed to H. Newmark & Company;
and it is a source of no little gratification to me that from this
small beginning has developed the wholesale grocery firm of
M. A. Newmark & Company. 1
1 Fifty years after this unpretentious venture in Arcadia Block, that is, in the
summer of 1915, the half -centenary of M. A. Newmark & Company and their pre-
344 Sixty Years in Southern California [1865-
At that time, Stearns's property was all in the hands of the
Sheriff, Tomas Sanchez, who had also been appointed Receiver;
and like all the other tenants, I rented my storeroom from
Deputy A. J. King. Rents and other incomes were paid to
the Receiver, and out of them a regular monthly allowance of
fifty dollars was made to Stearns for his private expenses. The
stock on Stearns's ranches, by the way, was then in charge of
Pierre Domec, a well-known and prosperous man, who was here
perhaps a decade before I came.
My only assistant was my wide-awake nephew, M. A.
Newmark, then fifteen years of age, who had arrived in Los
Angeles early in 1865. At my request Banning & Company
released their bookkeeper, Frank Lecouvreur, and I engaged
him. He was a thoroughly reliable man and had, besides, a
technical knowledge of wagon materials, in which, as a side-
line, I expected to specialize. While all of these arrangements
were being completed, the local business world queried and
buzzed as to my intentions.
Having rented quarters, I immediately telegraphed my
brother, J. P. Newmark, to buy and ship a quantity of flour,
sugar, potatoes, salt and other heavy staples ; and these I sold,
upon arrival, at cost and steamer freight plus seven dollars
and a half per ton. Since the departure of my brother from
Los Angeles for permanent residence in San Francisco (where
he entered into partnership with Isaac Lightner, forming J. P.
Newmark & Company), he had been engaged in the com-
mission business; and this afforded me facilities I might
decessors was celebrated with a picnic in the woodlands belonging to Universal
City, the holiday and its pleasures having been provided by the firm as a compli-
ment to its employees. On that occasion, a loving-cup was presented by the
employees to M. A. Newmark, who responded feelingly to the speech by M. H.
Newmark. Another, but somewhat differently inscribed cup was tendered Harris
Newmark in an address by Herman Flatau, bringing from the venerable recipient
a hearty reply, full of genial reminiscence and natural emotion, in which he happily
likened his commercial enterprise, once the small store in Los Angeles Street, to
a snowball rolling down the mountain-side, gathering in momentum and size
and, fortunately, preserving its original whiteness. Undoubtedly, this Fifty- Year
Jubilee will take its place among the pleasantest experiences of a long and varied
career. THE EDITORS.
i866] H. Newmark & Co. Carlisle-King Duel 345
otherwise not have had. Inasmuch also, as all of my neigh-
bors were obliged to pay this toll for hauling, while I was
not, they were forced to do business at cost. About the
first of July, I went to San Francisco and laid in a complete
stock paralleling, with the exception of clothing and dry goods,
the lines handled by Beaudry. Banning, who was then build-
ing prairie schooners for which he had ordered some three
hundred and fifty tons of iron and other wagon materials,
joined me in chartering the brig Tanner on which I loaded
an equal tonnage of general merchandise, wagon parts and
blacksmith coal. The very important trade with Salt Lake
City, elsewhere described, helped us greatly, for we at once
negotiated with the Mormon leaders; and giving them credit
when they were short of funds, it was not long before we were
brought into constant communication with Brigham Young and
through his influence monopolized the Salt Lake business.
Thinking over these days of our dealings with the Latter-
day Saints, I recall a very amusing experience with an apostle
named Crosby, who once brought down a number of teams and
wagons to load with supplies. During his visit to town, I
invited him and several of his friends to dinner ; and in answer
to the commonplace inquiry as to his preference for some par-
ticular part of a dish, Crosby made the logical Mormonite reply
that quantity was what appealed to him most a flash of wit
much appreciated by all of the guests. During this same visit,
Crosby tried hard to convert me to Mormonism; but, after
several ineffectual interviews, he abandoned me as a hopeless
case.
At another time, while reflecting on my first years as a
wholesale grocer, I was led to examine a day-book of 1867 and
to draw a comparison between the prices then current and now,
when the high cost of living is so much discussed. Raw sugar
sold at fourteen cents; starch at sixteen; crushed sugar at
seventeen; ordinary tea at sixty; coal oil at sixty-five cents a
gallon; axle- grease at seventy-five cents per tin; bluing at one
dollar a pound; and wrapping paper at one dollar and a half
per ream. Spices, not yet sold in cans, cost three dollars for a
34 6 Sixty Years in Southern California lisas-
dozen bottles; yeast powders, now superseded by baking
powder, commanded the same price per dozen; twenty-five
pounds of shot in a bag cost three dollars and a half; while in
October of that year, blacksmith coal, shipped in casks holding
fifteen hundred and ninety-two pounds each, sold at the rate
of fifty dollars a ton.
The steamers Oriflamme, California, Pacific and Sierra
Nevada commenced to run in 1866 and continued until about
the middle of the seventies. The Pacific was later sunk in the
Straits of San Juan de Fuca; and the Sierra Nevada was lost
on the rocks off Port Harford. The Los Angeles, the Ventura
and the Constantine were steamers of a somewhat later date,
seldom going farther south than San Pedro and continuing
to run until they were lost.
To resume the suggestive story of I. W. Hellman, who
remained in business with his cousin until he was able in 1865
to buy out Adolph Portugal and embark for himself, at the
corner of Main and Commercial streets : during his association
with large landowners and men of affairs, who esteemed
him for his practicality, he was fortunate in securing their
confidence and patronage; and being asked so often to op-
erate for them in financial matters, he laid the foundation for
his subsequent career as a banker, in which he has attained such
success.
The Pioneer Oil Company had been organized about the
first of February, with Phineas Banning, President; P. Downey,
Secretary; Charles Ducommon, Treasurer; and Winfield S.
Hancock, Dr. John S. Griffin, Dr. J. B. Winston, M. Keller,
B. D. Wilson, J. G. Downey and Volney E. Howard among the
trustees; and the company soon acquired title to all brea, petro-
leum or rock oil in San Pasqual rancho. In the early summer,
Sackett & Morgan, on Main Street near the Post Office,
exhibited some local kerosene or "coal-oil;" and experimenters
were gathering the .oil that floated on Pico Spring and refining
it, without distillation, at a cost of ten cents a gallon. Coming
just when Major Stroble announced progress in boring at la
Canada de Brea, these ventures increased here the excitement
i866] H. Newmark & Co. Carlisle-King Duel 347
about oil and soon after wells were sunk in the Camulos
rancho.
On Wednesday afternoon, July 5th, at four o'clock, occurred
one of the pleasant social occasions of the mid-sixties the
wedding of Solomon Lazard and Miss Caroline, third daughter
of Joseph Newmark. The bride's father performed the cere-
mony at M. Kremer's residence on Main Street, near my own
adobe and the site on which, later, C. E. Thorn built his charm-
ing residence, with its rural attractions, diagonally across from
the pleasant grounds of Colonel J. G. Howard. The same even-
ing at half -past eight a ball and dinner at the Bella Union cele-
brated the event.
While these festivities were taking place, a quarrel, ending
in a tragedy, began in the hotel office below. Robert Carlisle,
who had married Francisca, daughter of Colonel Isaac Wil-
liams, and was the owner of some forty-six thousand acres
comprising the Chino Ranch, fell into an altercation with A. J.
King, then Under Sheriff, over the outcome of a murder trial ; but
before any further damage was done, friends separated them.
About noon on the following day, however, when people
were getting ready to leave for the steamer and everything was
life and bustle about the hotel, Frank and Houston King,
the Under Sheriff's brothers, passing by the bar-room of the
Bella Union and seeing Carlisle inside, entered, drew their
six-shooters and began firing at him. Carlisle also drew a
revolver and shot Frank King, who died almost instantly.
Houston King kept up the fight, and Carlisle, riddled with
bullets, dropped to the sidewalk. There King, not yet seriously
injured, struck his opponent on the head, the force of the
blow breaking his weapon ; but Carlisle, a man of iron, put forth
his little remaining strength, staggered to the wall, raised his
pistol with both hands, took deliberate aim and fired. It
was his last, but effective shot, for it penetrated King's body.
Carlisle was carried into the hotel and placed on a billiard-
table; and there, about three o'clock, he expired. At the first
exchange of shots, the people nearby, panic-stricken, fled, and
only a merciful Providence prevented the sacrifice of other
34 8 Sixty Years in Southern California [1865-
lives. J. H. Lander was accidentally wounded in the thigh;
some eight or ten bystanders had their clothes pierced by stray
bullets; and one of the stage-horses dropped where he stood
before the hotel door. When the first shot was fired, I was on
the corner of Commercial Street, only a short distance away,
and reached the scene in time to see Frank King expire and
witness Carlisle writhing in agony a death more striking,
considering the murder of Carlisle's brother-in-law, John Rains.
Carlisle was buried from the Bella Union at four o'clock the
next day. King's funeral took place from A. J. King's resi-
dence, two days later, at eight o'clock in the morning.
Houston King having recovered, he was tried for Carlisle's
murder, but was acquitted; the trial contributing to make the
affair one of the most mournful of all tragic events in the
early history of Los Angeles, and rendering it impossible to
express the horror of the public. One feature only of the
terrible contest afforded a certain satisfaction, and that was
the splendid exhibition of those qualities, in some respects
heroic, so common among the old Californians of that time.
July was clouded with a particularly gruesome murder.
George Williams and Cyrus Kimball of San Diego, while
removing with their families to Los Angeles, had spent the
night near the Santa Ana River, and while some distance from
camp, at sunrise next morning, were overtaken by seven armed
desperadoes, under the leadership of one Jack O'Brien, and
without a word of explanation, were shot dead. The women,
hearing the commotion, ran toward the spot, only to be com-
manded by the robbers to deliver all money and valuables in
their possession. Over three thousand dollars the entire sav-
ings of their husbands was secured, after which the murderers
made their escape. Posses scoured the surrounding country,
but the cutthroats were never apprehended.
Stimulated, perhaps, by the King-Carlisle tragedy, the
Common Council in July prohibited everybody except officers
and travelers from carrying a pistol, dirk, sling-shot or sword;
but the measure lacked public support, and little or no atten-
tion was paid to the law.
i866] H. Newmark & Co. Carlisle-King Duel 349
Some idea of the modest proportion of business affairs in
the early sixties may be gathered from the fact that, when the
Los Angeles Post Office, on August loth, was made a money-
deposit office, it was obligatory that all cash in excess of
five hundred dollars should be despatched by steamer to San
Francisco.
In 1865, W. H. Perry, having been given a franchise to light
the city with gas, organized the Los Angeles City Gas Company,
five years later selling out his holdings at a large profit. A
promise was made to furnish free gas for lamps at the principal
crossings on Main Street and for lights in the Mayor's office, and
the consumers' price at first agreed upon was ten dollars a
thousand cubic feet.
The history of Westlake Park is full of interest. About
1865, the City began to sell part of its public land, in lots of
thirty-five acres, employing E. W. Noyes as auctioneer. Much
of it went at five and ten dollars an acre ; but when the district
now occupied by the park and lake was reached, the auctioneer
called in vain for bids at even a dollar an acre ; nobody wanted
the alkali hillocks. Then the auctioneer offered the area at twen-
ty-five cents an acre, but still received no bids, and the sale was
discontinued. In the late eighties, a number of citizens who
had bought land in the vicinity came to Mayor Workman and
promised to pay one-half of the cost of making a lake and laying
out pleasure grounds on the unsightly place; and as the Mayor
favored the plan, it was executed, and this was the first step in
the formation of Westlake Park.
On September 2d, Dr. J. J. Dyer, a dentist from San
Francisco, having opened an office in the Bella Union hotel,
announced that he would visit the homes of patrons and there
extract or repair the sufferers' teeth. The complicated equip-
ment of a modern dentist would hardly permit of such peri-
patetic service to-day, although representatives of this pro-
fession and also certain opticians still travel to many of the
small inland towns in California, once or twice a year, stopping
in each for a week or two at a time.
I have spoken of the use, in 1853, of river water for drink-
35 Sixty Years in Southern California [1865-
ing, and the part played by the private water-carrier. This
system was still largely used until the fall when David W.
Alexander leased all the public water-works for four years,
together with the privilege of renewing the lease another four
or six years. Alexander was to pay one thousand dollars
rental a year, agreeing also to surrender the plant to the
City at the termination of his contract. On August 7th,
Alexander assigned his lease to Don Louis Sainsevain, and
about the middle of October Sainsevain made a new contract.
Damien Marchessault associated himself with Don Louis and
together they laid pipes from the street now known as Macy
throughout the business part of the city, and as far (!) south as
First Street. These water pipes were constructed of pine logs
from the mountains of San Bernardino, bored and made to
join closely at the ends; but they were continually bursting,
causing springs of water that made their way to the surface of
the streets.
Conway & Waite sold the News, then a "tri-weekly" sup-
posed to appear three times a week, yet frequently issued
but twice, to A. J. King & Company, on November nth;
and King, becoming the editor, made of the newspaper a semi-
weekly.
To complete what I was saying about the Schlesingers :
In 1865, Moritz returned to Germany. Jacob had arrived in
Los Angeles in 1860, but disappearing four years later, his
whereabouts was a mystery until, one fine day, his brother
received a letter from him dated, "Gun Boat Pocahontas"
Jake had entered the service of Uncle Sam! The Pocahontas
was engaged in blockade work under command of Admiral
Farragut ; and Jake and the Admiral were paying special atten-
tion to Sabine Pass, then fortified by the Confederacy.
On November 2yth, Andrew J. Glassell and Colonel
James G. Howard arrived together in Los Angeles. The
former had been admitted to the California Bar some ten or
twelve years before; but in the early sixties he temporarily
abandoned his profession and engaged in ranching near Santa
Cruz. After the War, Glassell drifted back to the practice
1866] H. Newmark & Co. Carlisle-King Duel 351
of law; and having soon cast his lot with Los Angeles, formed a
partnership with Alfred B. Chapman. Two or three years
later, Colonel George H. Smith, a Confederate Army officer
who in the early seventies lived on Fort Street, was taken
into the firm; and for years Glassell, Chapman and Smith
were among the leading attorneys at the Los Angeles Bar.
Glassell died on January 28th, 1901.
To add to the excitement of the middle sixties, a picturesque
street encounter took place, terminating almost fatally. Col-
onel, the redoubtable E. J. C. Kewen, and a good-natured
German named Fred Lemberg, son-in-law to the old miller
Bors, having come to blows on Los Angeles Street near Mel-
lus's Row, Lemberg knocked Kewen down; whereupon friends
interfered and peace was apparently restored. Kewen, a
Southerner, dwelt upon the fancied indignity to which he
had been subjected and went from store to store until he
finally borrowed a pistol; after which, in front of John
Jones's, he lay in wait. When Lemberg, who, because of his
nervous energy, was known as the Flying Dutchman, again
appeared, rushing across the street in the direction of Mellus's
Row, the equally excited Colonel opened fire, drawing from his
adversary a retaliatory round of shots. I was standing nearly
opposite the scene and saw the Flying Dutchman and Kewen,
each dodging around a pillar in front of The Row, until finally
Lemberg, with a bullet in his abdomen, ran out into Los
Angeles Street and fell to the ground, his legs convulsively
assuming a perpendicular position and then dropping back.
After recovering from what was thought to be a fatal wound,
Lemberg left Los Angeles for Arizona or Mexico ; but before he
reached his destination, he was murdered by Indians.
I have told of the trade between Los Angeles and Salt Lake
City, which started up briskly in 1855, and grew in importance
until the completion of the transcontinental railroad put an
end to it. Indeed, in 1865 and 1866 Los Angeles enterprise
pushed forward until merchandise was teamed as far as Ban-
nock, Idaho, four hundred and fifty miles beyond Salt Lake, and
Helena, Montana, fourteen hundred miles away. This indicates
35 2 Sixty Years in Southern California [1865-
to what an extent the building of railroads ultimately affected
the early Los -Angeles merchants.
The Spanish drama was the event of December lyth, when
Senor Don Guirado L. del Castillo and Senora Amelia Estrella
del Castillo played La Trenza de sus Cabellos to an enthusiastic
audience.
In 1865 or 1866, William T. Glassell, a younger brother
of Andrew Glassell, came to Los Angeles on a visit; and being
attracted by the Southwest country, he remained to assist Glas-
sell & Chapman in founding Orange, formerly known as Rich-
land. No doubt pastoral California looked good to young
Glassell, for he had but just passed eighteen weary months in a
Northern military prison. Having thought out a plan for
blowing up the United States ironclads off Charleston Harbor,
Lieutenant Glassell supervised the construction of a cigar-
shaped craft, known as a David, which carried a torpedo at-
tached to the end of a fifteen-foot pole; and on October 5th,
1863, young Glassell and three other volunteers steamed out
in the darkness against the formidable new Ironsides. The
torpedo was exploded, doing no greater damage than to send
up a column of water, which fell onto the ship, and also to
hurl the young officers into the bay. Glassell died here at an
early age.
John T. Best, the Assessor, was another pioneer who had an
adventurous life prior to, and for a long time after, coming
to California. Having run away to sea from his Maine home
about the middle fifties, Best soon found himself among
pirates ; but escaping their clutches, he came under the domi-
nation of a captain whose cruelty, off desolate Cape Horn, was
hardly preferable to death. Reaching California about 1858,
Best fled from another captain's brutality and, making his
way into the Northern forests, was taken in and protected by
kind-hearted woodmen secluded within palisades. Successive
Indian outbreaks constantly threatened him and his comrades,
and for years he was compelled to defend himself against the
savages. At last, safe and sound, he settled within the pale of
civilization, at the outbreak of the Civil War enlisting as a
i866] H. Newmark & Co. Carlisle-King Duel 353
Union officer in the first battalion of California soldiers.
Since then Best has resided mostly in Los Angeles.
The year 1866 is memorable as the concluding period of
the great War. Although Lee had surrendered in the preced-
ing April, more than fifteen months elapsed before the Wash-
ington authorities officially proclaimed the end of the Titanic
struggle which left one-half of the nation prostrate and the
other half burdened with new and untold responsibilities. By
the opening of the year, however, one of the miracles of mod-
ern history the quiet and speedy return of the soldier to the
vocations of peace began, and soon some of those who had
left for the front when the War broke out were to be seen again
in our Southland, starting life anew. With them, too, came
a few pioneers from the East, harbingers of an army soon to
settle our valleys and seasides. All in all, the year was the
beginning of a brighter era.
Here it may not be amiss to take up the tale of the mimic
war in which Phineas Banning and I engaged, in the little
commercial world of Los Angeles, and to tell to what an extent
the fortunes of my competitors were influenced, and how the
absorption of the transportation charge from the seaboard
caused their downfall. 0. W. Childs, in less than three months,
found the competition too severe and surrendered "lock,
stock and barrel;" P. Beaudry, whose vain-glorious boast had
stirred up this rumpus, sold out to me on January 1st, 1866,
just a few months after his big talk. John Jones was the last
to yield.
In January, 1866, I bought out Banning, who was soon to
take his seat in the Legislature for the advancing of his San
Pedro Railroad project, and agreed to pay him, in the future,
seven dollars and a half per ton for hauling my goods from
Wilmington to Los Angeles, which was mutually satisfactory;
and when we came to balance up, it was found that Banning
had received, for his part in the enterprise, an amount equal
to all that would otherwise have been charged for transportation
and a tidy sum besides.
Sam, brother of Kaspare Cohn, who had been in Carson
354 Sixty Years in Southern California [1865-
City, Nevada, came to Los Angeles and joined me. We
grew rapidly, and in a short time became of some local impor-
tance. When Kaspare sold out at Red Bluff, in January,
1866, we tendered him a partnership. We were now three very
busy associates, besides M. A. Newmark, who clerked for us.
Several references have been made to the trade between
Los Angeles and Arizona, due in part to the needs of the Army
there. I remember that early in February not less than
twenty-seven Government wagons were drawn up in front of
H. Newmark & Company's store, to be loaded with seventy to
seventy-five tons of groceries and provisions for troops in the
Territory.
Notwithstanding the handicaps in this wagon-train traffic,
there was still much objection to railroads, especially to the plan
for a line between Los Angeles and San Pedro, some of the
strongest opposition coming from El Monte where, in February,
ranchers circulated a petition, disapproving railroad bills
introduced by Banning into the Legislature. A common
argument was that the railroad would do away with horses and
the demand for barley ; and one wealthy citizen who succeeded
in inducing many to follow his lead, vehemently insisted that
two trains a month, for many years, would be all that could
be expected! By 1874, however, not less than fifty to
sixty freight cars were arriving daily in Los Angeles from
Wilmington.
Once more, in 1866, the Post Office was moved, this time to
a building opposite the Bella Union hotel. There it remained
until perhaps 1868, when it was transferred to the northwest
corner of Main and Market streets.
In the spring of 1866, the Los Angeles Board of Education
was petitioned to establish a school where Spanish as well as
English should be taught probably the first step toward the
introduction into public courses here of the now much-studied
castellano.
In noting the third schoolhouse, at the corner of San Pedro
and Washington streets, I should not forget to say that Judge
Dryden bought the lot for the City, at a cost of one hundred
1866] H. Newmark & Co. Carlisle-King Duel 355
dollars. When the fourth school was erected, at the corner of
Charity and Eighth streets, it was built on property secured
for three hundred and fifty dollars by M. Kremer, who served
on the School Board for nine years, from 1866, with Henry
D. Barrows and William Workman. There, a few years ago,
a brick building replaced the original wooden structure. Be-
sides Miss Eliza Madigan, teachers of this period or later
were the Misses Hattie and Frankie Scott, daughters of Judge
Scott, the Misses Maggie Hamilton, Eula P. Bixby, Emma L.
Hawkes, Clara M. Jones, H. K. Saxe and C. H. Kimball; a
sister of Governor Downey, soon to become Mrs. Peter Martin,
was also a public school teacher.
Piped gas as well as water had been quite generally brought
into private use shortly after their introduction, all pipes
running along the surface of walls and ceilings, in neither a
very judicious nor ornamental arrangement. The first gas-
fixtures consisted of the old-fashioned, unornamented drops
from the ceiling, connected at right angles to the cross-pipe,
with its two plain burners, one at either end, forming an inverted
T (X) ; and years passed before artistic bronzes and globes, such
as were displayed in profusion at the Centennial Exposition,
were seen to any extent here.
In September, Leon Loeb arrived in Los Angeles and
entered the employ of S. Lazard & Company, later becoming
a partner. When Eugene Meyer left for San Francisco on
the first of January, 1884, resigning his position as French Con-
sular Agent, Loeb succeeded him, both in that capacity and
as head of the firm. After fifteen years' service, the French
Government conferred upon Mr. Loeb the decoration of an
Officer of the Academy. As Past Master of the Odd Fel-
lows, he became in time one of the oldest members of Lodge
No. 35. On March 23d, 1879, Loeb married my eldest daughter,
Estelle; and on July 22d, 1911, he died. Joseph P. and Edwin
J. Loeb, the attorneys and partners of Irving M. Walker,
(son-in-law of Tomas Lorenzo Duque), 1 are sons of Leon Loeb.
In the summer there came to Los Angeles from the North-
'Died on AprU 6th, 1915.
35 6 Sixty Years in Southern California [1865-
ern part of California an educator who already had established
there and in Wisconsin an excellent reputation as a teacher.
This was George W. Burton, who was accompanied by his
wife, a lady educated in France and Italy. With them they
brought two assistants, a young man and a young woman,
adding another young woman teacher after they arrived.
The company of pedagogues made quite a formidable array;
and their number permitted the division of the school then on
Main near what is now Second Street into three departments :
one a kind of kindergarten, another for young girls and a third
for boys. The school grew and it soon became necessary to
move the boys' department to the vestry-room of the little
Episcopal Church on the corner of Temple and New High
streets.
Not only was Burton an accomplished scholar and expe-
rienced teacher, but Mrs. Burton was a linguist of talent and
also proficient in both instrumental and vocal music. Our
eldest children attended the Burton School, as did also those
of many friends such as the .Kremers, Whites, Morrises,
Griffiths, the Volney Howards, Kewens, Scotts, Nichols, the
Schumachers, Joneses and the Bannings.
Daniel Bohen, another watchmaker and jeweler, came
after Pyle, establishing himself, on September nth, on the
south side of Commercial Street. He sold watches, clocks,
jewelry and spectacles ; and he used to advertise with the figure
of a huge watch. S. Nordlinger, who arrived here in 1868,
bought Bohen out and continued the jewelry business during
forty- two years, until his death in 1911, when, as a pioneer
jeweler, he was succeeded by Louis S. and Melville Nord-
linger, who still use the title of S. Nordlinger & Sons.
Charles C. Lips, a German, came to Los Angeles from
Philadelphia in 1866 and joined the wholesale liquor firm of
E. Martin & Company, later Lips, Craigue & Company, in the
Baker Block. As a volunteer fireman, he was a member of
the old Thirty-Eights; a fact adding interest to the appoint-
ment, on February 28th, 1905, of his son, Walter Lips, as Chief
of the Los Angeles Fire Department.
i866] H. Newmark & Co. Carlisle-King Duel 357
On October 3d, William Wolfskill died, mourned by many.
Though but sixty-eight years of age, he had witnessed much in
the founding of our great Southwestern commonwealth; and
notwithstanding the handicaps to his early education, and the
disappointments of his more eventful years, he was a man of
marked intelligence and remained unembittered and kindly
disposed toward his fellow-men.
A good example of what an industrious man, following an
ordinary trade, could accomplish in early days was afforded
by Andrew Joughin, a blacksmith, who came here in 1866, a
powerful son of the Isle of Man, measuring over six feet and
tipping the beam at more than two hundred pounds. He had
soon saved enough money to buy for five hundred dollars a
large frontage at Second and Hill streets, selling it shortly
after for fifteen hundred. From Los Angeles, Joughin went to
Arizona and then to San Juan Capistrano, but was back here
again in 1870, opening another shop. Toward the middle
seventies, Joughin was making rather ingenious plows of iron
and steel which attracted considerable attention. As fast as
he accumulated a little money, he invested it in land, buying
in 1874, for six thousand dollars, some three hundred and sixty
acres comprising a part of one of the Cienega ranches, to
which he moved in 1876. Seven years later, he purchased three
hundred and five acres once called the Tom Gray Ranch, now
known by the more pretentious name of Arlington Heights.
In 1888, three years after he had secured six hundred acres
of the Palos Verdes rancho near Wilmington, the blacksmith
retired and made a grand tour of Europe, revisiting his beloved
Isle of Man.
Pat Goodwin was another blacksmith, who reached Los
Angeles in 1866 or 1867, shoeing his way, as it were, south
from San Francisco, through San Jose, Whisky Flat and other
picturesque places, in the service of A. O. Thorn, one of the
stage-line proprietors. He had a shop first on Spring Street,
where later the Empire Stables were opened, and afterward
at the corner of Second and Spring streets, on the site in time
bought by J. E. Hollenbeck.
358 Sixty Years in Southern California [1865-1866]
Still another smith of this period was Henry King (brother
of John King, formerly of the Bella Union), who in 1879-80
served two terms as Chief of Police. Later, A. L. Bath was a
well-known wheelwright who located his shop on Spring Street
near Third.
In 1866, quite a calamity befell this pueblo: the abandon-
ment by the Government of Drum Barracks. As this had
been one of the chief sources of revenue for our small com-
munity, the loss was severely felt, and the immediate effect dis-
astrous. About the same time, too, Samuel B. Caswell (father
of W. M. Caswell, first of the Los Angeles Savings Bank and
now of the Security) , who had come to Los Angeles the year be-
fore, took into partnership John F. Ellis, and under the title of
Caswell & Ellis, they started a good-sized grocery and mer-
chandise business; and between the competition that they
brought and the reduction of the circulating medium, times
with H. Newmark & Company became somewhat less pros-
perous. Later, John H. Wright was added to the firm, and
it became Caswell, Ellis & Wright. On September 1st, 1871,
the firm dissolved.
CHAPTER XXV
REMOVAL TO NEW YORK, AND RETURN
1867-1868
THE reader may already have noted that more than one
important move in my life has been decided upon with
but little previous deliberation. During August, 1866,
while on the way to a family picnic at La Ballona, my brother
suggested the advisability of opening an office for H. Newmark
& Company in New York; and so quickly had I expressed my
willingness to remove there that, when we reached the rancho, I
announced to my wife that we would leave for the East as soon
as we could get ready. Circumstances, however, delayed our
going a few months.
My family at this time consisted of my wife and four chil-
dren; and together on January 29th, 1867, we left San Pedro for
New York, by way of San Francisco and Panama, experiencing
frightfully hot weather. Stopping at Acapulco, during Maxi-
milian's revolution, we were summarily warned to keep away
from the fort on the hill ; while at Panama yellow fever, spread
by travelers recently arrived from South America, caused the
Captain to beat a hasty retreat. Sailing on the steamer Henry
Chancey from Aspinwall, we arrived at New York on the sixth
of March; and having domiciled my family comfortably, my
next care was to establish an office on the third floor at 31 and
33 Broadway, placing it in charge of M. J. Newmark, who
had preceded me to the metropolis a year before. In a short
time, I bought a home on Forty-ninth Street, between Sixth
and Seventh avenues, then an agreeable residence district. An
359
360 Sixty Years in Southern California [1867-
intense longing to see my old home next induced me to return
to Europe, and I sailed on May i6th for Havre on the steam-
propeller Union; the band playing The Highland Fling as the
vessel left the pier. In mid-ocean, the ship's propeller broke,
and she completed the voyage under sail. Three months later,
I returned on the Russia. The recollection of this journey
gives me real satisfaction ; for had I not taken it then, I should
never again have seen my father. On the twenty-first of the
following November, or a few months after I last bade him
good-bye, he died at Loebau, in the seventy-fifth year of his
age. My mother had died in the summer of 1859.
It was during this visit that, tarrying for a week in the
brilliant French capital, I saw the Paris Exposition, housed
to a large extent in one immense building in the Champ de
Mars. I was wonderfully impressed with both the city and the
fair, as well as with the enterprising and artistic French people
who had created it, although I was somewhat disappointed
that, of the fifty thousand or more exhibitors represented, but
seven hundred were Americans.
One little incident may be worth relating. While I was
standing in the midst of the machinery one day, the gendarmes
suddenly began to force the crowd back, and on retreating with
the rest, I saw a group of ladies and gentlemen approaching.
It was soon whispered that they were the Empress Eugenie
and her suite, and that we had been commanded to retire in
order to permit her Majesty to get a better view of a new rail-
road coach that she desired to inspect.
Not long ago I was reading of a trying ordeal in the life
of Elihu B. Washburne, American Minister to France, who,
having unluckily removed his shoe at a Court dinner, was
compelled to rise with the company on the sudden appearance
of royalty, and to step back with a stockinged foot! The
incident recalled an experience of my own in London. I had
ordered from a certain shoemaker in Berlin a pair of patent-
leather gaiters which I wore for the first time when I went to
Covent Garden with an old friend and his wife. It was a very
warm evening and the performance had not progressed far
i868] Removal to New York, and Return 361
before it became evident that the shoes were too small. I was,
in fact, nearly overcome with pain, and in my desperation
removed the gaiters (when the lights were low), quietly shoved
them under the seat and sat out the rest of the performance
with a fair degree of comfort and composure. Imagine my
consternation, however, when I sought to put the shoes on
again and found the operation almost impossible! The
curtain fell while I was explaining and apologizing to my
friends; and nearly every light was extinguished before I was
ready to emerge from the famous opera house and limp to a
waiting carriage.
A trifling event also lingers among the memories of this
revisit to my native place. While journeying towards Loebau
in a stage, I happened to mention that I had married since
settling in America; whereupon one of my fellow-passengers
inquired whether my wife was white, brown or black?
Major Ben C. Truman was President Johnson's private
secretary until he was appointed, in 1866, special agent for the
Post Office department on the Pacific Coast. He came to Los
Angeles in February, 1867, to look after postal matters in
Southern California and Arizona, but more particularly to
reestablish, between Los Angeles and points in New Mexico, the
old Butterfield Route which had been discontinued on account
of the War. Truman opened post offices at a number of places
in Los Angeles County. On December 8th, 1869, the Major
married Miss Augusta Mallard, daughter of Judge J. S.
Mallard. From July, 1873, until the late summer of 1877, he
controlled the Los Angeles Star, contributing to its columns
many excellent sketches of early life in Southern California,
some of which were incorporated in one or more substantial
volumes; and of all the pioneer journalists here, it is probable
that none have surpassed this affable gentleman in brilliancy
and genial, kindly touch. Among Truman's books is an illus-
trated work entitled Semi-Tropical California, dedicated, with
a Dominus vobiscum, to Phineas Banning and published in
San Francisco, 1874; while another volume, issued seven years
later, is devoted to Occidental Sketches.
362 Sixty Years in Southern California [1867-
A fire, starting in Bell's Block on Los Angeles Street, on
July 1 3th, during my absence from the city, destroyed prop-
erty to the value of sixty-four thousand dollars ; and the same
season, S. Lazard & Company moved their dry goods store
from Bell's Row to Wolfskin's building on Main Street, opposite
the Bella Union hotel.
Germain Pellissier, a Frenchman from the Hautes-Alpes,
came to Los Angeles in August, and for twenty-eight years
lived at what is now the corner of Seventh and Olive streets.
Then the land was in the country; but by 1888, Pellissier had
built the block that bears his name. On settling here, Pellissier
went into sheep-raising, scattering stock in Kern and Ventura
counties, and importing sheep from France and Australia in
order to improve his breed ; and from one ram alone in a year,
as he demonstrated to some doubting challengers, he clipped
sixty-two and a half pounds of wool.
P. Beaudry began to invest in hill property in 1867, at once
improving the steep hillside of New High Street, near Sonora
Town, which he bought in, at sheriff's sale, for fifty-five dollars.
Afterward, Beaudry purchased some twenty acres between
Second, Fourth, Charity and Hill streets, for which he paid
five hundred and seventeen dollars ; and when he had subdivided
this into eighty lots, he cleared about thirty thousand dollars.
Thirty-nine acres, between Fourth and Sixth, and Pearl and
Charity streets, he finally disposed of at a profit, it is said, of
over fifty thousand dollars.
John G. Downey having subdivided Nieto's rancho, Santa
Gertrudis, the little town of Downey, which he named, soon
enjoyed such a boom that sleepy Los Angeles began to sit up
and take notice. Among the early residents was E. M. Sanford,
a son-in-law of' General John W. Gordon, of Georgia. A short
time before the founding of Downey, a small place named
Galatin had been started near by, but the flood of 1868 caused
our otherwise dry rivers to change their courses, and Galatin was
washed away. This subdividing at once stimulated the com-
ing of land and home-seekers, increased the spirit of enterprise
and brought money into circulation.
i868] Removal to New York, and Return 363
Soon afterward, Phineas Banning renewed the agitation to
connect Los Angeles with Wilmington by rail. He petitioned
the County to assist the enterprise, but the larger taxpayers,
backed by the over-conservative farmers, still opposed
the scheme, tooth and nail, until it finally took all of Ban-
ning's influence to carry the project through to a successful
termination.
George S. Patton, whose father, Colonel Patton of the
Confederate Army, was killed at Winchester, September ipth,
1864, is a nephew of Andrew Glassell and the oldest of
four children who came to Los Angeles with their mother
and her father, Andrew Glassell, Sr., in 1867. Educated in
the public schools of Los Angeles, Patton afterward attended
the Virginia Military Institute, where Stonewall Jackson
had been a professor, returning to Los Angeles in September,
1877, when he entered the law firm of Glassell, Smith &
Patton. In 1884, he married Miss Ruth, youngest daughter
of B. D. Wilson, after which he retired to private life. One of
Patton's sisters married Tom Brown; another sister became the
wife of the popular physician, Dr. W. Le Moyne Wills. In
1871, his mother, relict of Colonel George S. Patton, married
her kinsman, Colonel George H. Smith.
John Moran, Sr., conducted a vineyard on San Pedro Street
near the present Ninth, in addition to which he initiated the
soda-water business here, selling his product at twenty-five
cents a bottle. Soda water, however, was too "soft" a drink
to find much favor and little was done to establish the trade
on a firm basis until 1867, when H. W. Stoll, a German, drove
from Colorado to California and organized the Los Angeles Soda
Water Works. As soon as he began to manufacture the
aerated beverages, Stevens & Wood set up the first soda-
water fountain in Los Angeles, on North Spring Street near
the Post Office. After that, bubbling water and strangely-
colored syrups gained in popularity until, in 1876, quite an
expensive fountain was purchased by Preuss & Pironi's drug
store, on Spring Street opposite Court. And what is more,
they brought in hogsheads from Saratoga what would be dif-
364 Sixty Years in Southern California [1867-
ficult to find in all Los Angeles to-day : Congress, Vichy and
Kissingen waters. Stoll, by the way, in 1873, married Fraulein
Louisa Behn, daughter of John Behn.
An important industry of the late sixties and early seventies
was the harvesting of castor beans, then growing wild along the
zanjas. They were shipped to San Francisco for manufacturing
purposes, the oil factories there both supplying the ranchmen
with seed and pledging themselves to take the harvest when
gathered. In 1867, a small castor-oil mill was set up here.
The chilicothe derived, according to Charles F. Lummis,
from the Aztec, chilacayote, the wild cucumber, or echinocystes
fabacea is the name of a plaything supplied by diversified na-
ture, which grew on large vines, especially along the slope
leading down to the river on what is now Elysian Park, and in
the neighborhood of the hills adjacent to the Mallard and
Nichols places. Four or five of these chilicothes, each shaped
much like an irregular marble, came in a small burr or gourd;
and to secure them for games, the youngsters risked limb,
if not life, among the trees and rocks. Small circular holes
were sometimes cut into the nuts; and after the meat, which
was not edible, had been extracted, the empty shells were
strung together like beads and presented, as necklaces and
bracelets, to sisters and sweethearts.
Just about the time when I first gazed upon the scattered
houses of our little pueblo, the Pacific Railway Expedition, sent
out from Washington, prepared and published a tinted litho-
graph sketch of Los Angeles, now rather rare. In 1867, Stephen
A. Kendall, an Englishman of Angora goat fame, who had been
here, off and on, as a photographer, devised one of the first
large panoramas of Los Angeles, which he sold by advance
subscription. It was made in sections; and as the only view
of that year extant, it also has become notable as an historical
souvenir.
Surrounded by his somewhat pretentious gallery and his
mysterious darkroom on the top floor of Temple's new block,
V. Wolfenstein also took good, bad and indifferent photo-
graphs, having arrived here, perhaps, in the late sixties, and
i868] Removal to New York, and Return 365
remaining a decade or more, until his return to his native
Stockholm where I again met him. He operated with slow
wet-plates, and pioneers will remember the inconvenience,
almost tantamount to torture, to which the patron was sub-
jected in sitting out an exposure. The children of pioneers,
too, will recall his magic, revolving stereoscope, filled with
fascinating views at which one peeped through magnifying
glasses.
Louis Lewin must have arrived here in the late sixties.
Subsequently, he bought out the stationery business of W. J.
Brodrick, and P. Lazarus, upon his arrival from Tucson in 1874,
entered into partnership with him; Samuel Hellman, as was
not generally known at the time, also having an interest in the
firm which was styled Louis Lewin & Company. When the
Centennial of the United States was celebrated here in 1876, a
committee wrote a short historical sketch of Los Angeles; and
this was published by Lewin & Company. Now the firm is known
as the Lazarus Stationery Company, P. Lazarus 1 being Presi-
dent. Lewin and Lazarus married into families of pioneers:
Mrs. Lewin is a daughter of S. Lazard, while Mrs. Lazarus is a
daughter of M. Kremer. Lewin died at Manilla on April 5th,
1905.
On November i8th, the Common Council contracted with
Jean Louis Sainsevain to lay some five thousand feet of two-
and three-inch iron pipe at a cost of about six thousand dollars
in scrip ; but the great flood of that winter caused Sainsevain so
many failures and losses that he transferred his lease, in the
spring or summer of 1868, to Dr. J. S. Griffin, Prudent Beaudry,
and Solomon Lazard, who completed Sainsevain's contract
with the City.
Dr. Griffin and his associates then proposed to lease the
water- works from the City for a term of fifty years, but soon
changed this to an offer to buy. When the matter came up
before the Council for adoption, there was a tie vote, where-
upon Murray Morrison, just before resigning as President of
the Council, voted in the affirmative, his last official act being
1 Died on. September 3Oth, 1914.
366 Sixty Years in Southern California [1867-
to sign the franchise. Mayor Aguilar, however, vetoed the
ordinance, and then Dr. Griffin and his colleagues came forward
with a new proposition. This was to lease the works for a
period of thirty years, and to pay fifteen hundred dollars a year
in addition to performing certain things promised in the pre-
ceding proposition.
At this stage of the negotiations, John Jones made a
rival offer, and P. McFadden, who had been an unsuccess-
ful bidder for the Sainsevain lease, tried with Juan Bernard
to enter into a twenty-year contract. Notwithstanding these
other offers, however, the City authorities thought it best,
on July 22d, 1868, to vote the franchise to Dr. Griffin, S.
Lazard and P. Beaudry, who soon transferred their thirty-
year privileges to a corporation known as the Los Angeles City
Water Company, in which they became trustees. Others
associated in this enterprise were Eugene Meyer, I. W. Hell-
man, J. G. Downey, A. J. King, Stephen Hathaway Mott
Tom's brother W. H. Perry and Charles Lafoon. A spirited
fight followed the granting of the thirty-year lease, but the
water company came out victorious.
In the late sixties, when the only communities of much con-
sequence in Los Angeles County were Los Angeles, Anaheim
and Wilmington, the latter place and Anaheim Landing were
the shipping ports of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Arizona.
At that time, or during some of the especially prosperous days
of Anaheim, the slough at Anaheim Landing (since filled up by
flood) was so formed, and of such depth, that heavily-loaded
vessels ran past the warehouse to a considerable distance inland,
and there unloaded their cargoes. At the same time the leading
Coast steamers began to stop there. Not many miles away
was the corn-producing settlement, Gospel Swamp.
I have pointed out the recurring weakness in the wooden
pipes laid by Sainsevain and Marchessault. This distressing
difficulty, causing, as it did, repeated losses and sharp criticism
by the public, has always been regarded as the motive for ex-
Mayor Marchessault 's death on January 2Oth, when he com-
mitted suicide in the old City Council room.
i868] Removal to New York, and Return 367
Jacob Loew arrived in America in 1865 and spent three
years in New York before he came to California in 1868. Clerk-
ing for a while in San Francisco, he went to the Old Town of
San Diego, then to Galatin, and in 1872 settled in Downey;
and there, in conjunction with Jacob Baruch, afterward of
Haas, Baruch & Company, he conducted for years the princi-
pal general merchandise business of that section. On coming to
Los Angeles in 1883, he bought, as I have said, the Deming
Mill now known as the Capitol Mills. Two years later, on the
second of August, he was married to my daughter Emily.
Dr. Joseph Kurtz, once a student at Giessen, arrived in Los
Angeles on February 3d, with a record for hospital service at
Baltimore during the Civil War, having been induced to come
here by the druggist, Adolf Junge, with whom for a while he had
some association. Still later he joined Dr. Rudolph Eichler in
conducting a pharmacy. For some time prior to his graduation
in medicine, in 1872, Dr. Kurtz had an office in the Lanfranco
Building. For many years, he was surgeon to the Southern
^Pacific Railroad Company and consulting physician to the
Santa Fe Railroad Company, and he also served as President
of the Los Angeles College Clinical Association. I shall have
further occasion to refer to this good friend. Dr. Carl Kurtz
is distinguishing himself in the profession of his father.
Hale fellow well met and always in favor with a large circle,
was my Teutonic friend, Lewis Ebinger, who, after coming
to Los Angeles in 1868, turned clay into bricks. Perhaps this
also recalled the days of his childhood when he made pies of the
same material; but be that as it may, Lewis in the early
seventies made his first venture in the bakery business, opening
shop on North Spring Street. In the bustling Boom days
when real estate men saw naught but the sugar-coating,
Ebinger, who had moved to elaborate quarters in a building at
the southwest corner of Spring and Third streets, was dispen-
sing cream puffs and other baked delicacies to an enthusiastic
and unusually large clientele. But since everybody then
had money, or thought that he had, one such place was not
enough to satisfy the ravenous speculators; with the result
368 Sixty Years in Southern California [1867-
that John Koster was soon conducting a similar establishment
on Spring Street near Second, while farther north, on Spring
Street near First, the Vienna Bakery ran both Lewis and John
a merry race.
Dr. L. W. French, one of the organizers of the Odontological
Society of Southern California, also came to Los Angeles in 1868
so early that he found but a couple of itinerant dentists, who
made their headquarters here for a part of the year and then
hung out their shingles in other towns or at remote ranches.
One day in the spring of 1868, while I was residing in New
York City, I received a letter from Phineas Banning, accom-
panied by a sealed communication, and reading about as follows :
DEAR HARRIS :
Herewith I enclose to you a letter of the greatest im-
portance, addressed to Miss Mary Hollister (daughter, as you
know, of Colonel John H. Hollister), who will soon be on her
way to New York, and who may be expected to arrive there by
t!ie next steamer.
This letter I beg you to deliver to Miss Hollister personally,
immediately upon her arrival in New York, thereby obliging
Yours obediently,
(Signed) PHINEAS BANNING.
The steamer referred to had not yet arrived, and I lost
no time in arranging that I should be informed, by the company's
agents, of the vessel's approach, as soon as it was sighted.
This notification came, by the by, through a telegram received
before daylight one bitterly cold morning, when I was told that
the ship would soon be at the dock; and as quickly as I could,
I procured a carriage, hastened to the wharf and, before any
passengers had landed, boarded the vessel. There I sought
out Miss Hollister, a charming lady, and gave her the
mysterious missive.
I thought no more of this matter until I returned to Los
Angeles when, welcoming me back, Banning told me that the
letter I had had the honor to deliver aboard ship in New York
contained nothing less than a proposal of marriage, his solicita-
tion of Miss Hollister's heart and hand!
i868] Removal to New York, and Return 369
One reason why the Bella Union played such an important
role in the early days of Los Angeles, was because there was no
such thing as a high-class restaurant ; indeed, the first recollec-
tion I have of anything like a satisfactory place is that of Louis
Vielle, known by some as French Louis and nicknamed by
others Louis Gordo, or Louis the Fat. Vielle came to Los
Angeles from Mexico, a fat, jolly little French caterer, not
much over five feet in height and weighing, I should judge,
two hundred and fifty pounds; and this great bulk, supported
as it was by two peg-like legs, rendered his appearance truly
comical. His blue eyes, light hair and very rosy cheeks accen-
tuated his ludicrous figure. Louis, who must have been about
fifty-four years of age when I first met him, then conducted his
establishment in John Lanfranco's building on Main Street,
between Commercial and Requena; from which fact the place
was known as the Lanfranco, although it subsequently received
the more suggestive title, the What Cheer House. Louis was
an acknowledged expert in his art, but he did not always choose
to exert himself. Nevertheless his lunches, for which he
charged fifty or seventy-five cents, according to the number of
dishes served, were well thought of, and it is certain that Los
Angeles had never had so good a restaurant before. At one
time, our caterer's partner was a man named Frederico Guiol,
whom he later bought out. Louis could never master the
English language, and to his last day spoke with a strong
French accent. His florid cheeks were due to the enormous
quantity of claret consumed both at and between meals. He
would mix it with soup, dip his bread into it and otherwise
absorb it in large quantities. Indeed, at the time of his fatal
illness, while he was living with the family of Don Louis Sain-
sevain, it was assumed that over-indulgence in wine was the
cause. Be that as it may, he sickened and died, passing away
at the Lanfranco home in 1872. Vielle had prospered, but
during his sickness he spent largely of his means. After his
death, it was discovered that he had been in the habit of hiding
his coin in little niches in the wall of his room and in other
secret places ; and only a small amount of the money was found.
37 Sixty Years in Southern California [1867-
A few of the real pioneers recollect Louis Gordo as one who
added somewhat to the comfort of those who then patronized
restaurants ; while others will associate him with the introduction
here of the first French dolls, to take the place of rag-babies.
Both Judge Robert Maclay Widney and Dr. Joseph P.
Widney, the surgeon, took up their residence in Los Angeles in
1868. R. M. Widney set out from Ohio about 1855 and, having
spent two years in exploring the Rockies, worked for a while in
the Sacramento Valley, where he chopped wood for a living, and
finally reached Los Angeles with a small trunk and about a
hundred dollars in cash. Here he opened a law and real-estate
office and started printing the Real Estate Advertiser. Dr.
Widney crossed the Continent in 1862, spent two years as sur-
geon in the United States Army in Arizona, after which he
proceeded to Los Angeles and soon became one of the charter
members of the Los Angeles Medical Society, exerting himself
in particular to extend Southern California's climatic fame.
I have spoken of the ice procured from the San Bernardino
mountains in rather early days, but I have not said that in
summer, when we most needed the cooling commodity, there
was none to be had. The enterprising firm of Queen & Gard,
the first to arrange for regular shipments of Truckee River ice
in large quantities by steamer from the North, announced their
purpose late in March, 1868, of building an ice house on Main
Street ; and about the first of April they began delivering daily,
in a large and substantial wagon especially constructed for that
purpose and which, for the time being, was an object of much
curiosity. Liberal support was given the enterprise; and per-
haps it is no wonder that the perspiring editor of the News,
going into ecstasies because of a cooling sample or two deposited
in his office, said, in the next issue of his paper:
The founding of an ice depot is another step forward in the
progress that is to make us a great City. We have Water and
Gas, and now we are to have the additional luxury of Ice !
Banning's fight for the Los Angeles & San Pedro Railroad
has been touched upon more than once. Tomlinson, his rival,
Dr. Truman H. Rose
Andrew Glassell
Dr. Vincent Gelcich
Charles . Miles, in Uniform of 38*8
rj LOS AN CELLS PIONER OIL CO,
"-" 7 - :
Facsimile of Stock Certificate, Pioneer Oil Co.
American Bakery, Jake Kuhrts's Building, about 1880
i868] Removal to New York, and Return 371
opposed the project; but his sudden death, about two weeks
before the election in 1868, removed one of the serious obstacles.
When the vote was taken, on March 24th, as to whether the
City and County should bond themselves to encourage the build-
ing of the railroad, seven hundred votes were cast in favor of,
and six hundred and seventy- two votes against, the under-
taking, leaving Banning and his associates ready to go ahead.
By the way, as a reminder of the quondam vogue of Spanish
here, it may be noted that the proclamation regarding the rail-
road, published in 1868, was printed in both English and
Spanish.
On May i6th, Henry Hamilton, whose newspaper, the Star,
during part of the War period had been suspended through
the censorship of the National Government, again made his
bow to the Los Angeles public, this time in a half-facetious
leader in which he referred to the "late unpleasantness" in
the family circle. Hamilton's old-time vigor was immediately
recognized, but not his former disposition to attack and criticize.
Dr. H. S. Orme, once President of the State Board of Health
of California, arrived in Los Angeles on July 4th and soon
became as prominent in Masonic as in medical circles. Dr.
Harmon, an early successor to Drs. Griffin and Den, first settled
here in 1868, although he had previously visited California in
1853.
Carl Felix Heinzeman, at one time a well-known chemist and
druggist, emigrated from Germany in 1868 and came direct
to Los Angeles, where after succeeding J. B. Saunders & Com-
pany, he continued, in the Lanfranco Building, what grew to be
the largest drug store south of San Francisco. Heinzeman died
on April 29th, 1903. About the same period, a popular apothe-
cary shop on Main Street, near the Plaza, was known as
Chevalier's. In the seventies, when hygiene and sanitation were
given more attention, a Welshman named Hughes conducted
a steam-bath establishment on Main Street, almost opposite
the Baker Block, and the first place of its kind in the city.
Charles F. Harper 1 of Mississippi, and the father of ex-
on September I3th, 1915.
37 2 Sixty Years in Southern California [1867-
Mayor Harper, in 1868 opened with R. H. Dalton a hardware
store in the Allen Block, corner of Spring and Temple streets,
thus forerunning Coulter & Harper, Harper & Moore, Harper,
Reynolds & Company and the Harper- Reynolds Company.
Michel Levy, an Alsatian, arrived in San Francisco when
but seventeen years of age, and after various experiences in
California and Nevada towns, he came to Los Angeles in 1868,
soon establishing, with Joe Coblentz, the wholesale liquor house
of Levy & Coblentz. The latter left here in 1879, and Levy
continued under the firm name of M. Levy & Company until
his death in 1905.
Anastacio Cardenas, a dwarf who weighed but one and
a half pounds when born, came to Los Angeles in 1867 and
soon appeared before the public as a singer and dancer. He
carried a sword and was popularly dubbed "General." A
brother, Ruperto, long lived here.
When the Canal & Reservoir Company was organized 'with
George Hansen as President and J. J. Warner as Secretary,
P. Beaudry contributed heavily to construct a twenty-foot dam
across the canon, below the present site of Echo Park, and a
ditch leading down to Pearl Street. This first turned atten-
tion to the possibilities in the hill-lands to the West; and in
return, the City gave to the company a large amount of land,
popularly designated as canal and reservoir property.
In 1868, when there was still not a three-story house in Los
Angeles, James Alvinza Hayward, a San Franciscan, joined
John G. Downey in providing one hundred thousand dollars with
which to open, in the old Downey Block on the site of the
Temple adobe, the first bank in Los Angeles, under the firm
name of Hayward & Company. The lack of business afforded
this enterprise short shrift and they soon retired. In July of
the same year, I. W. Hellman, William Workman, F. P. F.
Temple and James R. Toberman started a bank, with a capital
of one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, under the title
of Hellman, Temple & Company, Hellman becoming manager.
I do not remember when postal lock-boxes were first brought
into use, but I do recollect that in the late sixties Postmaster
i868] Removal to New York, and Return 373
Clarke had a great deal of trouble collecting quarterly rents,
and that he finally gave notice that boxes held by delinquents
would thereafter be nailed up.
A year or two after the Burtons had established themselves
here, came another pedagogue in the person of W. B. Lawlor,
a thick-set, bearded man with a flushed complexion, who
opened a day-school called the Lawlor Institute; and after the
Burtons left here to settle at Portland, Oregon, where Burton
became headmaster of an academy for advanced students,
many of his former pupils attended Lawlor 's school. The
two institutions proved quite different in type: the Burton
training had tended strongly to languages and literature, while
Lawlor, who was an adept at short-cut methods of calculation,
placed more stress on arithmetic and commercial education.
Burton, who returned to Los Angeles, has been for years a
leading member of the Times editorial staff, and Burton's Book
on California and its Sunlit Skies is one of this author's contri-
butions to Pacific Coast literature ; his wife, however, died many
years ago. Lawlor, who was President of the Common Council
in 1880, is also dead.
The most popular piano-teacher of about that time was
Professor Van Gilpin.
William Pridham came to Los Angeles in August, having
been transferred from the San Francisco office of Wells Fargo
& Company, in whose service as pony rider, clerk at Austin,
Nevada, and at Sacramento, and cashier in the Northern me-
tropolis he had been for some ten years. Here he succeeded
Major J. R. Toberman, when the latter, after long service,
resigned; and with a single office-boy, at one time little Joe
Binford, he handled all the business committed to the com-
pany's charge. John Osborn was the outside expressman.
Then most of the heavy express matter from San Francisco was
carried by steamers, but letters and limited packages of moment
were sent by stage. With the advent of railroads, Pridham
was appointed by Wells Fargo & Company Superintendent of
the Los Angeles district. On June I2th, 1880, he married Miss
Mary Esther, daughter of Colonel John O. Wheeler, and later
374 Sixty Years in Southern California [1867-
moved to Alameda. Now, after fifty-one years of association
with the express business, Pridham still continues to be
officially connected with the Wells Fargo company.
Speaking of that great organization, reminds me that it con-
ducted for years a mail-carrying business. Three-cent stamped
envelopes, imprinted with Wells Fargo & Company's name,
were sold to their patrons for ten cents each; and to com-
pensate for this bonus, the Company delivered the letters en-
trusted to them perhaps one to two hours sooner than did the
Government.
This recalls to me a familiar experience on the arrival of the
mail from the North. Before the inauguration of a stage-line,
the best time in the transmission of mail matter between San
Francisco and Los Angeles was made by water, and Wells
Fargo messengers sailed with the steamers. Immediately upon
the arrival of the boat at San Pedro, the messenger boarded
the stage, and as soon as he reached Los Angeles, pressed on
to the office of the Company, near the Bella Union, where he
delivered his bagful of letters. The steamer generally got in by
five o'clock in the morning; and many a time, about seven,
have I climbed Signal or Pound Cake Hill higher in those days
than now, and affording in clear weather a view of both ocean
and the smoke of the steamer upon whose summit stood a
house, used as a signal station, and there watched for the rival
stages, the approach of which was indicated by clouds of dust.
I would then hurry with many others to the Express Company's
office where, as soon as the bag was emptied, we would all help
ourselves unceremoniously to the mail.
In August, General Edward Bouton, a Northern Army
officer, came to Los Angeles and soon had a sheep ranch on
Boyle Heights a section then containing but two houses ; and
two years later he camped where Whittier now lies. In 1 874, he
bought land for pasture in the San Jacinto Valley, and for
years owned the ocean front at Alamitos Bay from Devil's Gate
to the Inlet, boring artesian wells there north of Long Beach.
Louis Robidoux, who had continued to prosper as a ranchero,
died in 1868 at the age of seventy-seven years.
i868] Removal to New York, and Return 375
With the usual flourish of spades, if not of trumpets, ground
was broken tor the Los Angeles & San Pedro Railroad at
Wilmington on September iQth, and toward the end of
November, the rails had been laid about a mile out from
Wilmington.
The last contract for carrying the Overland Mail was given
to Wells Fargo & Company on October 1st and pledged a
round remuneration of one million, seven hundred and fifty
thousand dollars per annum, while it also permitted passengers
and freight to be transported ; but the Company came to have a
great deal of competition. Phineas Banning, for example, had
a stage-line between Los Angeles and Yuma, in addition to which
mail and passengers were carried in buckboards, large wagons
and jerkies. Moreover there was another stage-line between
Tucson and El Paso, and rival stage-lines between El Paso and
St. Louis; and in consequence, the Butterfield service was
finally abandoned.
This American vehicle, by the by, the jerky, was so named
for the very good reason that, as the wagon was built without
springs, it jerked the rider around unmercifully. Boards were
laid across the wagon-box or bed for seats, accommodating
four passengers ; and some space was provided in the back for
baggage. To maintain one's position in the bumping, squeak-
ing vehicle at all, was difficult ; while to keep one's place on the
seat approached the impossible.
Of the various Los Angeles roadways in 1868, West
Sixth Street was most important in its relation to travel.
Along this highway the daily Overland stages entered and
departed from the city; and by this route came all the Havilah,
Lone Pine, Soledad and Owens River trade, as well as that of
the Ballona and Cienega districts. Sixth Street also led to the
Fair Grounds, and over its none too even surface dashed most
of the sports and gallants on their way to the race course.
I have said that I returned to New York, in 1867, presum-
ably for permanent residence. Soon after I left Los Angeles,
however, Samuel Cohn became desperately ill, and the sole
management of H. Newmark & Company suddenly devolved
376 Sixty Years in Southern California [1867-
on Sam's brother Kaspare. This condition of affairs grew so
bad that my return to Los Angeles became imperative. Ac-
cordingly, leaving my family, I took passage on October 3ist,
1868, for San Francisco, and returned to Los Angeles without
delay. Then I wired my wife to start with the children for the
Coast, and to have the furniture, including a Chickering grand
piano, just purchased, shipped after them; and when they
arrived, we once more took possession of the good old adobe
on Main Street, where we lived contentedly until 1874. This
piano, by the way, which came by freight around Cape Horn,
was one of the first instruments of the kind seen here, John
Schumacher having previously bought one. While we were
living in New York, Edward J. Newmark, my wife's brother,
died here on February iyth, 1868.
Before I left for New York, hardly anything had been done,
in subdividing property, save perhaps by the Lugos and
Downey, and at Anaheim and Wilmington. During the time
that I was away, however, newspapers and letters from home
indicated the changes going on here; and I recall what an
impression all this made upon me. On my way down from
San Francisco on Captain Johnson's Orizaba in December
about the same time that the now familiar locomotive San
Gabriel reached Wilmington land-agents were active and
people were talking a great deal about these subdivisions ; and
by the time I reached Los Angeles I, too, was considerably
stirred up over the innovations and as soon as possible
after my return hastened out to see the change. The im-
provements were quite noticeable, and among other alterations
surprising me were the houses people had begun to build on the
approaches to the western hills. I was also to learn that
there was a general demand for property all over the city,
Colonel Charles H. Larrabee, City Attorney in 1868, especially
having bought several hundred feet on Spring and Fort streets.
Later, I heard of the experiences of other Angel efios aboard
ship who were deluged with circulars advertising prospective
towns.
To show the provincial character of Los Angeles fifty years
i868] Removal to New York, and Return 377
ago, I will add an anecdote or two. While I was in New York,
members of my family reported by letter, as a matter of ex-
traordinary interest, the novelty of a silver name-plate on a
neighboring front door; and when I was taken to inspect it, a
year later, I saw the legend, still novel :
cw-cz
4d. (Quaene
In the metropolis I had found finger-bowls in common use,
and having brought back with me such a supply as my family
would be likely to need, I discovered that it had actually fallen
to my lot to introduce these desirable conveniences into Los
Angeles.
William Ferguson was an arrival of 1868, having come
to settle up the business of a brother and remaining to open a
livery stable on North Main Street near the Plaza, which he
conducted for ten years. Investing in water company stock,
Ferguson abandoned his stable to make water-pipes, a couple
of years later, perhaps, than J. F. Holbrook had entered the
same field. Success enabled Ferguson to build a home at 303
South Hill Street, where he found himself the only resident
south of Third.
This manufacture here of water pipe recalls a cordial ac-
quaintance with William Lacy, Sr., an Englishman, who was
interested with William Rowland in developing the Puente oil
fields. His sons, William, Jr., and Richard H., originators of
the Lacy Manufacturing Company, began making pipe and
tanks a quarter of a century ago.
C. R. Rinaldi started a furniture business here in 1868,
opening his store almost opposite the Stearns 's home on North
Main Street. Before long he disposed of an interest to Charles
Dotter, and then, I think, sold out to I. W. Lord and moved to
the neighborhood of the San Fernando Mission. About the same
time, Sidney Lacey, who arrived in 1870 and was a popular
clerk with the pioneer carpet and wall-paper house of Smith
& Walter, commenced what was to be a long association with
this establishment. In 1876, C. H. Bradley bought out Lord,
37 8 Sixty Years in Southern California [1867-1868]
and the firm of Dotter & Bradley, so well known to householders
of forty years ago, came into existence. In 1884, H. H. Mark-
ham (soon to be Congressman and then Governor of the State),
with General E. P. Johnson bought this concern and organized
the Los Angeles Furniture Company, whose affairs since 1910,
(when her husband died), have been conducted by the
President, Mrs. Katherine Fredericks.
Conrad Hafen, a German-Swiss, reached Los Angeles in
December, 1868, driving a six-horse team and battered wagon
with which he had braved the privations of Death Valley; and
soon he rented a little vineyard, two years later buying for the
same purpose considerable acreage on what is now Central
Avenue. Rewarded for his husbandry with some affluence,
Hafen built both the old Hafen House and the new on South
Hill Street, once a favorite resort for German arrivals. He re-
tired in 1905.
CHAPTER XXVI
THE CERRO GORDO MINES
1869
IT was early in 1869 that I was walking down Spring Street
one day and saw a crowd at the City Hall. On a large box
stood Mayor Joel H. Turner, and just as I arrived a man
leaning against the adobe wall called out, "Seven dollars!"
The Mayor then announced the bid for an auction was in
progress " Seven dollars once, seven dollars twice, seven dollars
three times!" and as he raised his hand to conclude the sale, I
called out, "A half!" This I did in a spirit of fun; in fact, I
did not even know what was being offered! "Seven dollars
fifty once, seven dollars fifty twice, seven dollars fifty three
times, and sold to Harris Newmark!" called the Mayor. I
then inquired what I had bought, and was shown the location
of about twenty acres, a part of nine hundred being sold by
the City at prices ranging from five to ten dollars an acre.
The piece purchased was west of the city limits, and I kept
it until 1886 when I had almost forgotten that I was the owner.
Then George Williamson, one of the first salesmen of H.
Newmark & Company, who became a boomer of the period,
bought it from me for ten thousand dollars and resold it within
two weeks for fourteen thousand, the Sunset Oil Company
starting there, as the land was within what was known as the
oil district. Since the opening of streets in all directions, I have
lost trace of this land, but incline to the belief that it lies in
the immediate vicinity of the Wilshire district.
My experience reminds me of Colonel John O. Wheeler's
379
380 Sixty Years in Southern California [1869
investment in fifty or sixty acres at what is now Figueroa and
Adams streets. Later, going to San Francisco as a Customs
officer, he forgot about his purchase until one day he received
a somewhat surprising offer.
On January ist, A. J. King and R. H. Offutt began to pub-
lish a daily edition of the News, hitherto a semi-weekly, making
it strongly Democratic. There was no Sunday issue and
twelve dollars was the subscription. On October i6th, Offutt
sold his interest to Alonzo Waite, and the firm became King
& Waite. In another year King had retired.
How modest was the status of the Post Office in 1869 may
be gathered from the fact that the Postmaster had only one
assistant, a boy, both together receiving fourteen hundred
dollars in greenbacks, worth but a thousand dollars in gold.
Henry Hammel, for years connected with the Bella Union,
and a partner named Bremerman leased the United States
Hotel on February ist from Louis Mesmer; and in March, John
King succeeded Winston & King as manager of the Bella Union.
King died in December, 1871.
In the winter of 1868-69, when heavy rains seriously
interfered with bringing in the small supply of lumber at San
Pedro, a cooperative society was proposed, to insure the
importation each summer of enough supplies to tide the com-
munity over during the wintry weather. Over one hundred
persons, it was then estimated, had abandoned building, and
many others were waiting for material to complete fences
and repairs.
Thanks to Contractor H. B. Tichenor's vigor in constructing
the Los Angeles & San Pedro Railroad, public interest in the
venture, by the beginning of 1869, had materially increased.
In January, a vessel arrived with a locomotive and a steam
pile-driver; and a few days later a schooner sailed into San
Pedro with ties, sleepers and rails enough for three miles of the
track. Soon, also, the locomotive was running part of the way.
The wet winter made muddy roads, and this led to the pro-
posal to lay the tracks some eight or ten miles in the direction of
Los Angeles, and there to transfer the freight to wagons.
1869] The Cerro Gordo Mines 381
Stearns Hall and the Plaza were amusement places in 1869.
At the latter, in January, the so-called Paris Exposition Circus
held forth ; while Joe Murphy and Maggie Moore, who had just
favored the passengers on the Orizaba, on coming south from
San Francisco, with a show, trod the hall's more classic boards.
Ice a quarter of an inch thick was formed here for several
days during .the third week in January, and butchers found
it so difficult to secure fat cattle that good beef advanced to
sixteen and a quarter cents a pound.
On January 2Oth, I purchased from Eugene Meyer the
southern half of lots three and four in block five, fronting on
Fort Street between Second and Third, formerly owned by
William Buffum and J. F. Burns. Meyer had paid one thou-
sand dollars for one hundred and twenty feet front and three
hundred and thirty feet depth; and when I bought half of this
piece for one thousand dollars, it was generally admitted that I
had paid all that it was worth.
Isaac Lankershim father of J. B. Lankershim and Mrs.
I. N. Van Nuys who first visited Calif orna in 1854, came from
San Francisco in 1869 and bought, for one hundred and fifteen
thousand dollars, part of Andres Pico's San Fernando rancho,
which he stocked with sheep. Levi Strauss & Company,
Scholle Brothers, L. and M. Sachs & Company of San Francisco
and others, were interested in this partnership, then known as
the San Fernando Farm Association; but Lankershim was
in control until about one year later, when Isaac Newton Van
Nuys arrived from Monticello, where he had been merchan-
dising, and was put permanently in charge of the ranch. At this
period Lankershim lived there, for he had not yet undertaken
milling in Los Angeles. A little later, Lankershim and Van
Nuys successfully engaged in the raising of wheat, cultivating
nearly sixty thousand acres, and consigning some of their har-
vests to Liverpool. This fact recalls a heavy loss in the spring
of 1 88 1, when the Parisian, which left Wilmington under Cap-
tain Reaume, foundered at sea with nearly two hundred and
fifty tons of wheat and about seventy-five tons of flour belong-
ing to them.
382 Sixty Years in Southern California [1869
J. B. Lankershim, owner of the well-known hotel bearing
his name, after the death of his father made some very im-
portant investments in Los Angeles real estate, including the
northwest corner of Broadway and Seventh Street, now occu-
pied by the building devoted to Bullock's department store.
M. N. Newmark, a nephew of mine and President of the
Newmark Grain Company, arrived in 1869, and clerked for H.
Newmark & Company until 1871, in which year he established
a partnership with S. Grand in Compton, selling general mer-
chandise. This partnership lasted until 1878, when Newmark
bought out Grand. He finally disposed of the business in 1889
and, with D. K. Edwards, organized the firm of Newmark &
Edwards. In 1895 Edwards sold out his interest.
Victor Ponet, a native of Belgium, and once Belgian Con-
sul here, while traveling around the world, landed in Califor-
nia in 1867 and two years later came to Los Angeles.
Attracted by the climate and Southern California's possible
future, Ponet settled here, engaging first in the pioneer man-
ufacture and importation of mirrors and picture frames ; and
before his retirement to live in Sherman, he had had experience
both as undertaker and banker. *
In 1869, General W. S. Rosecrans came south in the interest
of the proposed San Diego & Gila Railroad, never constructed.
The General, as a result, took up land around Sausal Redondo,
and there by the summer of 1869 so many people (who insisted
that Rosecrans had appropriated public land) had squatted,
that he was put to no end of trouble in ejecting them.
Though I have witnessed most of the progress in Southern
California, it is still difficult to realize that so much could have
been accomplished within the life-time of one man. During
1868-69 only twenty- two hundred boxes of oranges were
shipped from Los Angeles, while the Southern counties' crop of
oranges and lemons for 1913-14 is estimated, I am told, at
about twelve million boxes!
Due to the eight-day shindy marking the celebration of
the Chinese New Year, demand for a more concentrated rumpus
'Died, February gth, 1914.
1869] The Cerro Gordo Mines 383
was voiced in February, 1869, threatening an agitation against
John Chinaman.
The same month, residents, wishing a school in which Ger-
man should be taught, and a gymnasium, petitioned the Com-
mon Council to acquire a lot in New High Street for the purpose.
About 1869, the Los Angeles Social Club which, to the
best of my recollection, was the first of its kind in the city, was
organized, with headquarters in the earliest building erected by
I. W. Hellman, at the northwest corner of Los Angeles and
Commercial streets. Among other pioneer members were
Captain Cameron E. Thorn, Tom Mott, Eugene Meyer, Sam
and Charles Prager, Tom Rowan, I. W. and H. W. Hellman,
S. Lazard, W. J. Brodrick, John Jones, Kaspare Cohn, A. C.
Chauvin, M. and J . L. Morris, Leon Loeb, Sam Meyer, Dr.
F.A. McDougal, B. Cohn and myself. Somewhat later, the
Club moved to the east side of Los Angeles Street, between
Commercial and Aliso. Still later, it dissolved; and although
it did not become the direct ancestor of any of the several well-
known social organizations in the Los Angeles of to-day, I feel
that it should be mentioned as having had the honor of being
their precursor and model.
Speaking of social organizations, I may say that several
Los Angeles clubs were organized in the early era of sympathy,
tolerance and good feeling, when the individual was appreci-
ated at his true worth and before the advent of men whose
bigotry has sown intolerance and discord, and has made a
mockery of both religion and professed ideals.
It must have been early in the sixties that Alexander Bell
sold the southern end of his property to H. Heinsch, the
saddler. On February 23d, 1869, the directors of the San
Pedro Railroad selected the Mike Madigan lot on Alameda
Street, on a part of which the owner was conducting a livery-
stable, as the site for the depot in Los Angeles ; and Heinsch
having allowed the authorities to cut through his property, the
extension of Commercial and Requena streets eastward from
Los Angeles to Alameda was hastened.
Late on February I4th, the news was circulated of a shock-
384 Sixty Years in Southern California [1869
ing tragedy in the billiard saloon of the Lafayette Hotel, and at
once aroused intense regret, affecting, as the affair did, the
standing and happiness of two well-known Los Angeles families.
About eight o'clock, Charles Howard, a young lawyer of
prominence and a son of Volney E. Howard, met Daniel B.
Nichols, son of the ex-Mayor; and some dispute between them
having reached its climax, both parties drew weapons and fired.
Howard was killed and Nichols wounded, though not fatally, as
was at first thought. The tragedy the cause of which was
never generally known made a profound impression.
The work of extending water mains along Fort, Spring and
other streets progressed steadily until the Los Angeles Water
Company struck a snag which again demonstrated the city's
dependence. Difficulty in coupling pipes called a halt, and the
management had to send all the way to San Francisco for a
complete set of plumbers 1 tools/
In the spring, Tileston, Emery & Company, a Los Angeles
and San Gabriel firm, brought south the first steam separator
seen here and took contracts to thrash the farmers' grain.
On June 3d they started the machine, and many persons went out
to see it work. Among features pointed out were precautions
against fire from the engine, which the contractors declared
made "everything perfectly safe."
From its inception, Wilmington sought, in one way or
another, to rival Los Angeles, and in April threw down the
gauntlet. A. A. Polhamus, a workshop engineer of the Los
Angeles & San Pedro Railroad, (in 1887, a manufacturer of
straw wrapping paper somewhere between here and Wilming-
ton,) had built a velocipede; and no sooner was it noised
about than John Goller set to work to eclipse the achieve-
ment. About one o'clock, therefore, on April 25th one of
Goller 's apprentices suddenly appeared ready to make the first
experiment. The streets were soon crowded and interest was
at fever heat. The young fellow straddled the wheels, moved
about half a block, and then, at the junction of Main and
Spring streets, executed a first-class somersault ! Immediately,
however, other intrepid ones tried their skill, and the velocipede
Loebau Market Place, near the House in which Harris Newmark was Bora
Street in Loebau, Showing (right) Remnant of ancient City Wall
Robert M. Widney
Dr. Joseph Kurtz
Isaac N. Van Nuys
Abraham Haas
1869] The Cerro Gordo Mines 385
was voted a successful institution of our young and progressive
city.
By the first week in May, the velocipede craze had spread,
crowds congregating daily on Main Street to see the antics of
the boys; and soon H. F. Laurence announced the opening
in Stearns's Hall, on May I4th, of a Velocipede School, where
free instruction would be given: afternoons to ladies and
evenings to men; and to further stimulate interest, Laurence
announced a raffle on May I5th of "a splendid velocipede."
By May 22d, J. Eastman had obtained permission of the Com-
mon Council to build a velocipede track on the historic old
Plaza; but evidently he did not make use of the privilege,
for a newspaper writer was soon giving vent to the following
sarcasm :
Our City Fathers tried to make a little coin by leasing the
Plaza as a velocipede circle or square; but, so far, the veloci-
pedist has failed to connect. I dare say the cost of cleaning
up the place of weeds backed the poor soul out !
It happened in 1869 that Judson, the financier, and Bel-
shaw, a practical miner, began working their lead mines in
Cerro Gordo, in the Owens River country ; and as the handling
of the ore necessitated a great many wagons, Remi Nadeau
obtained the contract for the transportation of the ore brought
down to Wilmington and then shipped by boat to San Francisco.
Remi had returned here about 1866, after having been in San
Francisco for four or five years; and eventually he built the
Nadeau Hotel at the corner of Spring and First streets, where
A. Bouelle, father of Frank A. Bouelle, had formerly kept a
little grocery store in an adobe. This ore was loaded on to very
large wagons, each drawn on level stretches by twelve or
fourteen mules, but requiring as many as twenty or more
mules while crossing the San Fernando Mountains always
regarded as one of the worst places on the route. In order
not to return with empty wagons, Nadeau purchased supplies
of every description, which he sold to people along the route;
386 Sixty Years in Southern California [1869
and in this way he obtained the best financial results. This
was about the same time that Victor Beaudry (Prudent's
brother, who came in 1855, to mine at San Gabriel) opened a
store at Camp Independence, Inyo County, and became a
stockholder in the Cerro Gordo mines. In the early eighties,
Beaudry was interested with his brother in local real estate
movements. He died in Montreal in 1888.
After a time, the mines yielded so much ore that Nadeau
found himself short of transportation facilities; but with the
assistance of Judson & Belshaw, as well as H. Newmark &
Company, he was enabled to increase his capacity until he
operated thirty-two teams. Los Angeles was then the south-
ern terminus of his operations, although, during the building
of the numerous Southern Pacific tunnels, his headquarters
were removed to San Fernando, and still later, on the com-
pletion of the railroad, to Mojave. Nadeau's assistant, Wil-
lard G. Halstead, son-in-law of H. K. W. Bent, handled most
of the business when Nadeau was absent ; A. E. Lott was fore-
man of teams and continually rode up and down the line of
operations; while Thomas O'Brien was station-agent at Cerro
Gordo. The contract had been very profitable to Judson &
Belshaw; yet when the agreement expired on January ist, 1872,
they wished to renew it at a lower figure. Nadeau, believing
that no one else could do the work satisfactorily, refused the
new terms offered; whereupon Judson & Belshaw entered into
an arrangement with William Osborn, a liveryman, who owned a
few teams.
The season of 1871-72 was by no means a good one and
barley was high, involving a great expense to Nadeau in feeding
four or five hundred animals; and right there arose his chief
difficulty. He was in debt to H. Newmark & Company and
therefore proposed that he should turn his outfit over to us;
but as we had unlimited confidence both in his integrity and in
his ability, we prevailed on him to keep and use his equipment
to the best advantage. The suggestion was a fortunate one, for
just at this time large deposits qf borax were discovered in the
mountains at Wordsworth, Nevada, and Nadeau commenced
1869] The Cerro Gordo Mines 387
operations there with every promise of success. In his work of
hauling between Cerro Gordo and Los Angeles, Nadeau had
always been very regular, his teams with rare exceptions arriv-
ing and leaving on schedule time ; and even when, occasionally,
a wagon did break down, the pig-lead would be unloaded with-
out delay, tossed to the side of the trail and left there for the
next train; a method that was perfectly safe, since thieves never
disturbed the property. Osborn, on the other hand, soon proved
uncertain and unreliable, his wagons frequently breaking down
and causing other accidents and delays. To protect themselves,
Judson & Belshaw were compelled to terminate their contract
with him and reopen negotiations with Nadeau ; but the latter
then rejected their advances unless they would buy a half-
interest in his undertaking and put up one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars for the construction and maintenance of the
numerous stations that had become necessary for the proper
development of his business. Nadeau also made it a condition
that H. Newmark & Company be paid. The stations already
constructed or proposed were Mud Springs, Lang's Station,
Mojave, Red Rock, Panamint, Indian Wells, Little Lake, Hai-
wee Meadows and Cartago. Before these were built, the
teamsters camped in the open, carrying with them the provisions
necessary for man and beast. Cartago was on the south side
of Owens Lake, Cerro Gordo being on the north side, eighteen
miles opposite; and between these points the miniature side-
wheeler Bessie, of but twenty tons capacity, operated.
An interesting fact or two in connection with Owens Lake
may be recorded here. Its water was so impregnated with
borax and soda that no animal life could be sustained. In the
winter, the myriads of wild duck were worth talking about;
but after they had remained near the lake for but a few days,
they were absolutely unpalatable. The teamsters and miners
operating in the vicinity were in the habit of sousing their
clothes in the lake for a few minutes, and when dried, the
garments were found to be as clean as if they had passed through
the most perfect laundry. Even a handful of the water applied
to the hair would produce a magnificent lather and shampoo.
388 Sixty Years in Southern California [1869
Judson & Belshaw were compelled to accept Nadeau's terms;
and Nadeau returned from Nevada, organized in 1873 the
Cerro Gordo Freighting Company, and operated more exten-
sively than ever before until he withdrew, perhaps five years
after the completion of the Southern Pacific Railroad and just
before the petering out of the Cerro Gordo Mines. In their
palmy days, these deposits were the most extensive lead-produc-
ers of California ; and while the output might not have been so
remarkable in comparison with those of other lead mines in the
world, something like eighty-five to ninety bars, each weighing
about one hundred pounds, were produced there daily. Most
of this was shipped, as I have said, to San Francisco ; and for
a while, at least, from there to Swansea, Wales.
Nadeau at one time was engaged in the industr}' of raising
sugar-beets at the Nadeau rancho, near Florence, now Nadeau
Station; and then he attempted to refine sugar. But it was
bad at best, and the more sugar one put in coffee, the blacker
the coffee became.
On April 24th, 1869, under Mayor Joel Turner's admin-
istration, the Los Angeles Board of Education came into
existence.
In the early sixties, the City authorities promised to set out
trees at the Plaza, providing neighboring property-owners would
fence in the place; but even though Governor Downey sup-
plied the fence, no trees were planted, and it was not until
the spring of 1869 that any grew on the public square. This
loud demand for trees was less for the sake of the usual benefits
than to hide the ugliness of the old water tank.
On May 9th, F. G. Walther issued the first number of
the Los Angeles Chronik, a German weekly journal that sur-
vived scarcely three months.
The tenth of May was another red-letter day for the
Pacific Coast, rejoicing, as it did, in the completion of the Cen-
tral Pacific at Promontory Point in Utah. There, with a silver
Rammer, Governor Stanford drove the historic gold spike
into a tie of polished California laurel, thus consummating the
vast work on the first trans-continental railroad. This event
1869] The Cerro Gordo Mines 389
recalls the fact that, in the railway's construction, Chinese
labor was extensively employed, and that in 1869 large numbers
of the dead bodies of Celestials were gathered up and shipped
to Sacramento for burial.
William J. Brodrick, after wandering in Peru and Chile,
came to Los Angeles in 1869 and started as a stationer; then he
opened an insurance office, and still later became interested in
the Main Street Railway and the water company. On May
8th, 1877, Brodrick married Miss Laura E., daughter of Robert
S. Carlisle. On October i8th, 1898, Brodrick died, having
been identified with many important activities.
Hacks and omnibuses first came into use in 1869. Toward
the end of May of that year, J. J. Reynolds, who had long
been popular as a driver between Los Angeles and Wilming-
ton, purchased a hack and started in business for himself, ap-
pealing to his "reputation for good driving and reliability"
as a reasonable assurance that he would bring his patrons
right side up to their scattered homes; and so much was he in
demand, both in the city and its suburbs, that a competitor,
J. Hewitt, in the latter part of June ordered a similar hack to
come by steamer. It arrived in due time and was chronicled
as a "luxurious vehicle." Hewitt regularly took up his stand
in the morning in front of the Lafayette Hotel; and he also
had an order slate at George Butler's livery-stable on Main
Street.
During the sixties, Dr. T. H. Rose, who had relinquished
the practice of medicine for the career of a pedagogue, com-
menced work as Principal of the Boys' Grammar School on
Bath Street, and in 1869 was elected Superintendent of City
Schools. He held this office but about a year, although he did
not resign from educational work here until 1873. During his
incumbency, he was Vice-Principal of the first Teachers' In-
stitute ever held here, contributing largely toward the founding
of the first high school and the general development of the
schools prior to the time when Dr. Lucky, the first really pro-
fessional teacher, assumed charge. On leaving Los Angeles,
Dr. Rose became Principal of the school at Healdsburg, Sonoma
39 Sixty Years in Southern California [1869
County, where he married a Mrs. Jewell, the widow of an old-
time, wealthy miner; but he was too sensitive and proud to live
on her income and, much against her wishes, insisted on teach-
ing to support himself. In 1874, ne took charge of the high
school at Petaluma, where the family of Mrs. Rose's first hus-
band had lived ; and the relationship of the two families proba-
bly lead to Rose and his wife separating. Later, Dr. Rose
went to the Sandwich Islands to teach, but by 1883, shortly
before he died, he was back in Los Angeles, broken in health
and spirit. Dr. Rose was an excellent teacher, a strict dis-
ciplinarian and a gentleman.
The retirement of Dr. Rose calls to mind a couple of years
during which Los Angeles had no City School Superintendent.
While Rose was Principal, a woman was in charge of the girls'
department ; and the relations between the schoolmaster and the
schoolmistress were none too friendly. When Dr. Rose became
Superintendent, the schoolma'am instantly disapproved of the
choice and rebelled; and there being no law which authorized
the governing of Los Angeles schools in any other manner than
by trustees, the new Superintendent had no authority over
his female colleague. The office of Superintendent of City
Schools, consequently, remained vacant until 1873.
Dr. James S. Crawford had the honor, as far as I am aware,
of being one of the first regular dentists to locate in Los Ange-
les. As an itinerant he had passed the winters of 1863, 1864
and 1865 in this city, afterward going east; and on his return
to California in 1869 he settled in the Downey Block at Spring
and Main streets, where he practiced until, on April I4th,
1912, he died in a Ventura County camp.
In 1864, the California Legislature, wishing to encourage the
silk industry, offered a bounty of two hundred and fifty dollars
for every plantation of five thousand mulberry trees of two years'
growth, and -a bounty of three hundred dollars for each one
hundred thousand salable cocoons; and in three years an enor-
mous number of mulberry trees, in various stages of growth, was
registered. Prominent among silk-growers was Louis Prevost,
who rather early had established here an extensive mulberry-
1869] The Cerro Gordo Mines 391
tree nursery and near it a large cocoonery for the rearing
of silk worms; and had planned, in 1869, the creation of a
colony of silk-worms whose products would rival even those
of his native belle France. The California Silk Center Association
of Los Angeles was soon formed, and four thousand acres of
the rancho once belonging to Juan Bandini, fourteen hundred and
sixty acres of the Hartshorn Tract and three thousand one
hundred and sixty-nine acres of the Jurupa, on the east side
of the Santa Ana River, were purchased. That was in June
or July; but on August i6th, in the midst of a dry season, Louis
Prevost died, and the movement received a serious setback.
To add to the reverses, the demand for silk-worm eggs fell off
amazingly; while finally, to give the enterprise its death-blow,
the Legislators, fearful that the State Treasury would be de-
pleted through the payment of bounties, withdrew all State
aid.
The Silk Center Association, therefore, failed ; but the South-
ern California Colony Association bought all the land, paying
for it something like three dollars and a half an acre. To
many persons, the price was quite enough : old Louis Robidoux
had long refused to list his portion for taxes, and some one had
described much of the acreage as so dry that even coyotes,
in crossing, took along their canteens for safety! A town
called at first Jurupa, and later Riverside, was laid out; a
fifty thousand-dollar ditch diverted the Santa Ana River to a
place where Nature had failed to arrange for its flowing; and
in a few months a number of families had settled beside the
artificial waterway. Riversiders long had to travel back and
forth to Los Angeles for most of their supplies (a stage, still
in existence, being used by ordinary passengers), and this made
a friendly as well as profitable business relation with the older
and larger town; but experiments soon showing that oranges
could grow in the arid soil, Riverside in course of time had
something to sell as well as to buy.
Who was more familiar both to the youth of the town and to
grown-ups than Nicolas Martinez, in summer the purveyor of
cooling ice cream, in winter the vender of hot tamales! From
39 2 Sixty Years in Southern California [1869]
morning till night, month in and month out during the sixties
and seventies, Martinez paced the streets, his dark skin made
still swarthier in contrast to his white costume a shirt, scarcely
tidy, together with pantaloons none too symmetrical and
hanging down in generous folds at the waist. On his head, in
true native fashion, he balanced in a small hooped tub what he
had for sale; he spoke with a pronounced Latin accent, and
his favorite method of announcing his presence was to bawl
out his wares. The same receptacle, resting upon a round board
with an opening to ease the load and covered with a bunch
of cloths, served both to keep the tamales hot and the ice
cream cool ; while to dispense the latter, he carried in one hand
a circular iron tray, in which were holes to accommodate three
or four glasses. Further, for the convenience of the exacting
youth of the town, he added a spoon to each cream-filled glass ;
and what stray speck of the ice was left on the spoon after the
youngster had given it a parting lick, Nicolas, bawling anew
to attract the next customer, fastidiously removed with his
tobacco-stained fingers!
CHAPTER XXVII
COMING OF THE IRON HORSE
f
1869
' I THE Los Angeles & San Pedro Railroad continued in 1869
to be the local theme of most importance, although its
construction did not go on as rapidly as had been
promised. The site for a depot, it is true, had been selected;
but by June I4th, only six miles were finished. Farmers were
loud in complaints that they had been heavily taxed, and in
demanding that the road be rushed to completion, in order to
handle the prospectively-large grain crop. Additional gangs
were therefore employed, and by the twentieth of July, seven
more miles of track had been laid. In the meantime, the Sun-
day School at Compton enjoyed the first excursion, the mem-
bers making themselves comfortable on benches and straw in
some freight cars.
As the work on the railroad progressed, stages, in addition
to those regularly running through from Los Angeles to Wil-
mington, began connecting with the trains at the temporary
terminus of the railroad. People went down to Wilmington to
see the operations, not merely on the track, but in the machine
shops where the cars for freight, express, baggage, smoking
and passenger service (designed by A. A. Polhamus, the machin-
ist) were being built under the superintendence of Samuel
Atkinson, who had been brought West by the San Fran-
cisco & San Jose Valley Railroad, because of a reputation
for railroad experience enjoyed by few, if by any other
persons on the Coast. The Company also had a planing
393
394 Sixty Years in Southern California [1869
mill and wheelwright shop under the charge of George W.
Oden.
By the first of August, both the railroad and connecting
stages were advertising Sunday excursions to the beach,
emphasizing the chance to travel part of the way by the new
means of transit. Curiously, however, visitors were allowed
to enjoy the sea-breezes but a short time: arriving at Wilming-
ton about ten or half -past, they were compelled to start back
for Los Angeles by four in the afternoon. Many resorters
still patronized the old service; and frequently the regular
stages, racing all the way up from the steamer, would actually
reach the city half an hour earlier than those transferring the
passengers from the railway terminus which was extended by
August 1st to a point within four miles of town.
When eighteen miles had been finished, it was reported
that General Stoneman and his post band would make an
excursion on the first train, accompanied by General Banning
and leading citizens of the town; but strong opposition to
the Company laying its tracks through the center of "The
Lane, " now Alameda Street, having developed, the work was
stopped by injunction. The road had been constructed to a
point opposite the old Wolf skill home, then "far from town,"
and until the matter was settled, passengers and freight were
unloaded there.
Great excitement prevailed here shortly after sundown on
Wednesday evening, August 2ist, when the mail-stage which
had left for Gilroy but a short time before came tearing back
to town, the seven or eight passengers excitedly shouting that
they had been robbed. The stage had proceeded but two
miles from Los Angeles when four masked highwaymen stepped
into the road and ordered, "Hands up!" Among the passen-
gers was the well-known and popular Ben Truman who, having
learned by previous experience just what to do in such a ticklish
emergency and "being persuaded that the two barrels of cold
steel had somewhat the porportions of a railway tunnel, " sadly
but promptly unrolled one hundred and eighty dollars in bills,
and quite as sadly deposited, in addition, his favorite chro-
1869] Coming of the Iron Horse 395
nometer. The highwayman picked up the watch, looked it
over, shook his head and, thanking Ben, returned it, expressing
the hope that, whatever adversity might overwhelm him, he
should never be discovered with such a timepiece ! All in all,
the robbers secured nearly two thousand dollars ; but, strange to
relate, they overlooked the treasure in the Wells Fargo chest,
as well as several hundred dollars in greenbacks belonging to
the Government. Sheriff J. F. Burns and Deputy H. C. Wiley
pursued and captured the robbers; and within about a week
they were sent to the Penitentiary.
On the same evening, at high tide, the little steamer
christened Los Angeles and constructed by P. Banning &
Company to run from the wharf to the outside anchorage,
was committed to the waters, bon-fires illuminating quite
distinctly both guests and the neighboring landscape, and
lending to the scene a weird and charming effect.
In a previous chapter I have given an account of Lady
Franklin's visit to San Pedro and Los Angeles, and of the
attention shown her. Her presence awakened new interest
in the search for her lamented husband, and paved the way
for the sympathetic reception of any intelligence likely to
clear up the mystery. No little excitement, therefore, was
occasioned eight years later by the finding of a document at
San Buenaventura that seemed "like a voice from the dead."
According to the story told, as James Daly (of the lumber firm
of Daly & Rodgers) was walking on the beach on August 3Oth,
he found a sheet of paper a foot square, much mutilated but
bearing, in five or six different languages, a still legible request
to forward the memoranda to the nearest British Consul or the
Admiralty at London. Every square inch of the paper was
covered with data relating to Sir John Franklin and his party,
concluding with the definite statement that Franklin had died
on June 1 1 th, 1 847. Having been found within a week of the time
that the remnant of Dr. Hall's party, which went in search of
the explorer, had arrived home in Connecticut with the an-
nouncement that they had discovered seven skeletons of
Franklin's men, this document, washed up on the Pacific Coast,
39 6 Sixty Years in Southern California [1869
excited much comment; but I am unable to say whether it
was ever accepted by competent judges as having been written
by Franklin's associates.
In 1869, the long-familiar adobe of Jose Antonio Carrillo
was razed to make way for what, for many years, was the
leading hotel of Los Angeles. This was the Pico House, in its
decline known as the National Hotel, which, when erected on
Main Street opposite the Plaza at a cost of nearly fifty thou-
sand dollars, but emphasized in its contrasting showiness
the ugliness of the neglected square. Some thirty-five thou-
sand dollars were spent in furnishing the eighty-odd rooms,
and no little splurge was made that guests could there enjoy
the luxuries of both gas and baths! In its palmy days, the
Pico House welcomed from time to time travelers of wide dis-
tinction; while many a pioneer, among them not a few newly-
wedded couples now permanently identified with Los Angeles
or the Southland, look back to the hostelry as the one surviv-
ing building fondly associated with the olden days. Charles
Knowlton was an early manager; and he was succeeded by
Dunham & Schieffelin.
Competition in the blacking of boots enlivened the fall,
the Hotel Lafayette putting boldly in printer's ink the ques-
tion, "Do You Want to Have Your Boots Blacked in a Cool,
Private Place?" This challenge was answered with the
following proclamation :
Champion Boot-Black! Boots Blacked Neater and
Cheaper than Anywhere Else in the City, at the Blue Wing
Shaving Saloon by D. Jefferson.
Brickmaking had become, by September, quite an import-
ant industry. Joe Mullally, whose brickyard was near the
Jewish Cemetery, then had two kilns with a capacity of two
hundred and twenty-five thousand ; and in the following month
he made over five hundred thousand brick.
In course of time, the Los Angeles & San Pedro Railroad
was completed to the Madigan lot, which remained for several
1869] Coming of the Iron Horse 397
years the Los Angeles terminus; and justly confident that
the difficulty with the authorities would be removed, the
Company pushed work on their depot and put in a turn-table
at the foot of New Commercial Street. There was but one
diminutive locomotive, though a larger one was on its way
around the Horn from the East and still another was coming
by the Continental Railway; and every few days the little
engine would go out of commission, so that traffic was con-
stantly interrupted. At such times, confidence in the enter-
prise was somewhat shaken; but new rolling stock served to
reassure the public. A brightly-painted smoking-car, with
seats mounted on springs, was soon the "talk of the town."
I have spoken of J. J. Reynolds's early enterprise and the
competition that he evoked. Toward the end of July, he went
up to San Francisco and outdid Hewitt by purchasing a hand-
some omnibus, suitable for hotel service and also adapted to
the needs of families or individuals clubbing together for picnics
and excursions. This gave the first impetus to the use of hotel
'buses, and by the first Sunday in September, when the cars
from Wilmington rolled in bringing passengers from the
steamer Orizaba, the travelers were met by omnibuses and
coaches from all three hotels, the Bella Union, the United States
and the Lafayette ; the number of vehicles, public and private,
giving the streets around the railroad depot a very lively
appearance.
Judge W. G. Dryden, so long a unique figure here, died
on September loth and A. J. King succeeded him as County
Judge.
A notable visit to Los Angeles was that of Secretary Wil-
liam H. Seward who, in 1869, made a trip across the Continent,
going as far north as Alaska and as far south as Mexico,
and being everywhere enthusiastically received. When Seward
left San Francisco for San Diego, about the middle of September,
he was accompanied by Frederick Seward and wife (his son
and daughter-in-law) , General W. S. Rosecrans, General Morton
C. Hunter, Colonel Thomas Sedgwick and Senator S. B. Axtell;
and the news of their departure having been telegraphed ahead,
39 8 Sixty Years in Southern California [1869
many people went down to greet them on the arrival of the
steamer Orizaba. After the little steamer Los Angeles had
been made fast to the wharf, it was announced, to everyone's
disappointment, that the Secretary was not coming ashore, as
he wished to continue on his way to San Diego.
Meanwhile, the Common Council had resolved to extend
the hospitality of the City to the distinguished party; and by
September I9th, posters proclaimed that Seward and his party
were coming and that citizens generally would be afforded an
opportunity to participate in a public reception at the Bella
Union on September 2ist. A day in advance, therefore, the
Mayor and a Committee from the Council set out for Anaheim,
where they met the distinguished statesman on his way, whence
the party jogged along leisurely in a carriage and four
until they arrived at the bank of the Los Angeles River; and
there Seward and his friends were met by other officials and
a cavalcade of eighty citizens led by the military band of
Drum Barracks. The guests alighted at the Bella Union
and in a few minutes a rapidly-increasing crowd was calling
loudly for Mr. Seward.
The Secretary, being welcomed on the balcony by Mayor
Joel H. Turner, said that he had been laboring under mistakes
all his life: he had visited Rome to witness celebrated ruins, but
he found more interesting ruins in the Spanish Missions (great
cheers) ; he had journeyed to Switzerland to view its glaciers,
but upon the Pacific Coast he had seen rivers of ice two hun-
dred and fifty feet in breadth, five miles long and God knows
how high (more cheers) ; he had explored Labrador to examine
the fisheries, but in Alaska he found that the fisheries came to
him (Hear! hear! and renewed applause) ; he had gone to Bur-
gundy to view the most celebrated vineyards of the world,
but the vineyards of California far surpassed them all ! (Vocif-
erous and deafening hurrahs, and tossing of bouquets.)
The next day the Washington guests and their friends
were shown about the neighborhood, and that evening Mr.
Seward made another and equally happy speech to the audience
drawn to the Bella Union by the playing of the band. There
1869] Coming of the Iron Horse 399
were also addresses by the Mayor, Senator Axtell, ex-Governor
Downey and others, after which, in good old American fashion,
citizens generally were introduced to the associate of the
martyred Lincoln. At nine o'clock, a number of invited guests
were ushered into the Bella Union's dining-room where, at a
bounteous repast, the company drank to the health of the
Secretary. This brought from the visitor an eloquent response
with interesting local allusions.
Secretary Seward remarked that he found people here
agitated upon the question of internal improvements for
everywhere people wanted railroads. Calif ornians, if they were
patient, would yet witness a railroad through the North,
another by the Southern route, still another by the Thirty-fifth
parallel, a fourth by the central route, and lastly, as the old
plantation song goes, one "down the middle!" California
needed more population, and railroads were the means by which
to get people.
Finally, Mr. Seward spoke of the future prospects of the
United States, saying much of peculiar interest in the light
of later developments. We were already great, he affirmed;
but a nation satisfied with its greatness is a nation without
a future. We should expand, and as mightily as we could;
until at length we had both the right and the power to move our
armies anywhere in North America. As to the island lying
almost within a stone's throw of our mainland, ought we not
to possess Cuba, too?
Other toasts, such as "The Mayor and Common Council,"
"The Pioneers," "The Ancient Hospitality of California,"
"The Press," "The Wine Press" and "Our Wives and Sweet-
hearts," were proposed and responded to, much good feeling
prevailing notwithstanding the variance in political sentiments
represented by guests and hosts; and everyone went home,
in the small hours of the morning, pleased with the manner in
which Los Angeles had received her illustrious visitors. The
next day, Secretary Seward and party left for the North by
carriages, rolling away toward Santa Barbara and the moun-
tains so soon to be invaded by the puffing, screeching iron horse.
400 Sixty Years in Southern California [1869
Recollecting this banquet to Secretary Seward, I may add
an amusing fact of a personal nature. Eugene Meyer and I
arranged to go to the dinner together, agreeing that we were
to meet at the store of S. Lazard & Company, almost directly
opposite the Bella Union. When I left Los Angeles in 1867,
evening dress was uncommon ; but in New York I had become
accustomed to its more frequent use. Rather naturally, there-
fore, I donned my swallowtail; Meyer, however, I found in a
business suit and surprised at my query as to whether he intended
going home to dress? Just as we were, we walked across the
street and, entering the hotel, whom should we meet but ex-
Mayor John G. Nichols, wearing a grayish linen duster, popu-
lar in those days, that extended to his very ankles; while Pio
and Andres Pico came attired in blue coats with big brass
buttons. Meyer, observing the Mayor's outfit, facetiously
asked me if I still wished him to go home and dress according
to Los Angeles fashion ; whereupon I drew off my gloves, but-
toned up my overcoat and determined to sit out the banquet
with my claw-hammer thus concealed. Mr. Seward, it is
needless to say, was faultlessly attired.
The Spanish archives were long neglected, until M. Kremer
was authorized to overhaul and arrange the documents; and
even then it was not until September i6th that the Council
built a vault for the preservation of the official papers. Two
years later, Kremer discovered an original proclamation of peace
between the United States and Mexico.
Elsewhere I allude to the slow development of Fort Street.
For the first time, on the twenty-fourth of September street
lamps burned there, and that was from six to nine months after
darkness had been partially banished from Nigger Alley, Los
Angeles, Aliso and Alameda streets.
Supplementing what I have said of the Los Angeles & San
Pedro Railroad depot : it was built on a lot fronting three hun-
dred feet on Alameda Street and having a depth of one hundred
and twenty feet, its situation being such that, after the exten-
sion of Commercial Street, the structure occupied the southwest
corner of the two highways. Really, it was more of a freight-
w
Carreta, Earliest Mode of Transportation
Alameda Street Depot and Train, Los Angeles & San Pedro Railroad
1869] Coming of the Iron Horse 401
shed than anything else, without adequate passenger facilities ;
a small space at the North end contained a second story in
which some of the clerks slept; and in a cramped little cage
beneath, tickets were sold. By the way, the engineer of the
first train to run through to this depot was James Holmes,
although B. W. Colling ran the first train stopping inside the
city limits.
About this time the real estate excitement had become still
more intense. In anticipation of the erection of this depot,
Commercial Street property boomed and the first realty agents
of whom I have any recollection appeared on the scene, Judge
R. M. Widney being among them. I remember that two lots
one eighty by one hundred and twenty feet in size at the north-
west corner of First and Spring streets, and the other having
a frontage of only twenty feet on New Commercial Street,
adjacent to the station were offered simultaneously at twelve
hundred dollars each. Contrary, no doubt, to what he would
do to-day, the purchaser chose the Commercial Street lot, be-
lieving that location to have the better future.
Telegraph rates were not very favorable, in 1869, to fre-
quent or verbose communication. Ten words sent from Los
Angeles to San Francisco cost one dollar and a half; and fifty
cents additional was asked for the next five words. After a
while, there was a reduction of twenty-five per cent, in the cost
of the first ten words, and fifty per cent, on the second five.
Twenty-four hundred voters registered in Los Angeles
this year.
In the fall, William H. Spurgeon founded Santa Ana some
five miles beyond Anaheim on a tract of about fifty acres,
where a number of the first settlers experimented in growing
flax.
It is not clear to me just when the rocky Arroyo Seco began
to be popular as a resort, but I remember going there on pic-
nics as early as 1857. By the late sixties, when Santa Monica
Canon also appealed to the lovers of sylvan life, the Arroyo
had become known as Sycamore Grove a name doubtless
suggested by the numerous sycamores there and Clois F.
26
402 Sixty Years in Southern California [1869
Henrickson had opened an establishment including a little
"hotel," a dancing-pavilion, a saloon and a shooting-alley.
Free lunch and free beer were provided for the first day, and
each Sunday thereafter in the summer season an omnibus
ran every two hours from Los Angeles to the Sycamores.
After some years, John Rumph and wife succeeded to the
management, Frau Rumph being a popular Wirtin; and then
the Los Angeles Turnverein used the grove for its public per-
formances, including gymnastics, singing and the old-time
sack-racing and target-shooting.
James Miller Guinn, who had come to California in Novem-
ber, 1 863 and had spent several years in various counties of the
State digging for gold and teaching school, drifted down to Los
Angeles in October and was soon engaged as Principal of the
public school at the new town of Anaheim, remaining there in
that capacity for twelve years, during part of which time he
also did good work on the County School Board.
Under the auspices of the French Benevolent Society and
toward the end of October, the corner-stone of the French
Hospital built on City donation lots, and for many years and
even now one of the most efficient institutions of our city, was
laid with the usual ceremonies.
On October 9th, the first of the new locomotives arrived at
Wilmington and a week later made the first trial trip, with a
baggage and passenger car. Just before departure a painter was
employed to label the engine and decorate it with a few scrolls ;
when it was discovered, too late, that the artist had spelled
the name : LOS ANGELOS. On October 23d, two lodges of
Odd Fellows used the railway to visit Bohen Lodge at Wil-
mington, returning on the first train, up to that time, run into
Los Angeles at midnight.
October 26th was a memorable day, for on that date the
Los Angeles & San Pedro Railroad Company opened the line
to the public and invited everybody to enjoy a free excursion to
the harbor. Two trains were dispatched each way, the second
consisting of ten cars ; and not less than fifteen hundred per-
sons made the round trip. Unfortunately, it was very warm
1869] Coming of the Iron Horse 403
and dusty, but such discomforts were soon forgotten in the
novelty of the experience. On the last trip back came the
musicians ; and the new Los Angeles depot having been cleared,
cleaned up and decorated for a dedicatory ball, there was a
stampede to the little structure, filling it in a jiffy.
Judge H. K. S. O'Melveny, who first crossed the Plains from
Illinois on horseback in 1849, came to Los Angeles with his
family in November, having already served four years as a
Circuit Judge, following his practice of law in Sacramento.
He was a brother-in-law of L. J. Rose, having married, in 1850,
Miss Annie Wilhelmina Rose. Upon his arrival, he purchased
the southwest corner of Second and Fort streets, a lot one hun-
dred and twenty by one hundred and sixty-five feet in size, and
there he subsequently constructed one of the fine houses of the
period; which was bought, some years later, by Jotham Bixby
for about forty-five hundred dollars, after it had passed through
various hands. Bixby lived in it for a number of years and
then resold it. In 1872, O'Melveny was elected Judge of Los
Angeles County; and in 1887, he was appointed Superior Judge.
H. W. O'Melveny, his second son, came from the East with
his parents, graduating in time from the Los Angeles High
School and the State University. Now he is a distinguished
attorney and occupies a leading position as a public-spirited
citizen, and a patron of the arts and sciences.
In his very readable work, From East Prussia to the Golden
Gate, Frank Lecouvreur credits me with having served the
commonwealth as Supervisor. This is a slight mistake: I was
an unwilling candidate, but never assumed the responsibilities
of office. In 1869, various friends waited upon me and requested
me to stand as their candidate for the supervisorship ; to which
I answered that I would be glad to serve my district, but that
I would not lift a finger toward securing my election. H.
Abila was chosen with six hundred and thirty-one votes, E. M.
Sanf ord being a close second with six hundred and sixteen ; while
five hundred and thirty-seven votes were cast in my favor.
Trains on the new railway began to run regularly on No-
vember 1st; and there still exists one of the first time-tables,
404 Sixty Years in Southern California [1869
bearing at the head, "Los Angeles & San Pedro Railroad"
and a little picture of a locomotive and train. At first, the
train scheduled for two stated round trips a day (except on
steamer days, when the time was conditioned by the arrival
and departure of vessels) left Wilmington at eight o'clock
in the morning and at one o'clock in the afternoon, returning at
ten in the morning and four in the afternoon. The fare between
Los Angeles and Wilmington was one dollar and fifty cents,
with an additional charge of one dollar to the Anchorage ; while
on freight from the Anchorage to Los Angeles, the tariff was:
dry goods, sixteen dollars per ton; groceries and other mer-
chandise, five dollars; and lumber, seven dollars per thousand
feet.
After the formal opening of the railroad, a permanent
staff of officers, crew and mechanicians was organized. The
first Superintendent was H. W. Hawthorne, who was succeeded
by E. E. Hewitt, editor of the Wilmington Journal. N. A.
McDonald, was the first conductor; Sam Butler was the first
and, for a while, the only brakeman, and the engineers were
James McBride and Bill Thomas. The first local agent was
John Milner; the first agent at Wilmington, John McCrea.
The former was succeeded by John E. Jackson, who from
1880 to 1882 served the community as City Surveyor. Worthy
of remark, perhaps, as a coincidence, is the fact that both
Milner and McCrea ultimately became connected in important
capacities with the Farmers & Merchants Bank.
The first advertised public excursion on the Los Angeles &
San Pedro Railroad after its opening was a trip to Wilmington
and around San Pedro Harbor, arranged for November 5th, 1869.
The cars, drawn by the locomotive Los Angeles and connecting
with the little steamer of the same name, left at ten and re-
turned at three o'clock in the afternoon. Two dollars was the
round-trip fare, while another dollar was exacted from those who
went out upon the harbor.
In the late seventies, a Portuguese named Fayal settled
near what is now the corner of Sixth and Front streets, San
Pedro; and one Lindskow took up his abode in another shack
1869] Coming of the Iron Horse 405
a block away. Around these rude huts sprang up the neigh-
borhoods of Fayal and Lindville, since absorbed by San Pedro.
Probably the first attempt to organize a fire company for
Los Angeles was made in 1869, when a meeting was called on
Saturday evening, November 6th, at Buffum's Saloon, to con-
sider the matter. A temporary organization was formed, with
Henry Wartenberg as President; W. A. Mix, Vice-President ;
George M. Fall, Secretary; and John H. Gregory, Treasurer.
An initiation fee of two dollars and a half, and monthly dues
of twenty-five cents, were decided upon; and J. F. Burns, B.
Katz, Emil Harris, George Pridham, E. B. Frink, C. D. Hatha-
way, P. Thompson, 0. W. Potter, C. M. Small and E. C.
Phelps were charter members. A committee appointed to
canvass for subscriptions made little progress, and the partial
destruction of Rowan's American Bakery, in December,
demonstrating the need of an engine and hose cart, brought
out sharp criticism of Los Angeles's penuriousness.
About the middle of November, Daniel Desmond, who had
come on October I4th of the preceding year, opened a hat
store on Los Angeles Street near New Commercial, widely
advertising the enterprise as a pioneer one and declaring,
perhaps unconscious of any pun, that he proposed to fill a want
that had "long been felt." The steamer Orizaba, which was to
bring down Desmond's goods, as ill luck would have it left
half of his stock lying on the San Francisco pier; and the
opening, so much heralded, had to be deferred several weeks.
As late as 1876, he was still the only exclusive hatter here.
Desmond died on January 23d, 1903, aged seventy years, and
was succeeded by his son, C. C. Desmond. Another son, D.
J. Desmond, is the well-known contractor.
Toward the close of November, Joseph Joly, a Frenchman,
opened the Chartres Coffee Factory on Main Street opposite
the Plaza, and was the pioneer in that line. He delivered to
both stores and families, and for a while seemed phenomenally
successful ; but one fine morning in December it was discovered
that the "Jolly Joseph" had absconded, leaving behind nu-
merous unpaid bills.
406 Sixty Years in Southern California [1869
The first marble-cutter to open a workshop in Los Angeles
was named Miller. He came toward the end of 1869 and
established himself in the Downey Block. Prior to Miller's
coming, all marble work was brought from San Francisco or
some source still farther away, and the delay and expense
debarred many from using that stone even for the pious
purpose of identifying graves.
With the growth of Anaheim as the business center of the
country between the new San Gabriel and the Santa Ana
rivers, sentiment had been spreading in favor of the division
of Los Angeles County; and at the opening of the Legislature
of 1869-70, Anaheim had its official representative in Sacra-
mento, ready to present the claims of the little German settle-
ment and its thriving neighbors. The person selected for
this important embassy was Major Max von Stroble; and he
inaugurated his campaign with such sagacity and energy that
the bill passed the Assembly and everything pointed to an
early realization of the scheme. It was not, however, until
Los Angeles awoke to the fact that the proposed segregation
meant a decided loss, that opposition developed in the Senate
and the whole matter was held up.
Stroble thereupon sent posthaste to his supporters for
more cash, and efforts were made to get the stubborn Senate to
reconsider. Doubtless somebody else had a longer purse than
Stroble; for in the end he was defeated, and the German's
dream did not come true until long after he had migrated to
the realms that know no subdivisions. One of the arguments
used in favor of the separation was that it took two days's time,
and cost six dollars, for the round trip to the Los Angeles Court-
house; while another contention then regarded as of great
importance was that 'the one coil of hose pipe owned by the
County was kept at Los Angeles ! Stroble, by-the-way, desired
to call the new county Anaheim.
Major von Stroble was a very interesting character.
He was a German who had stood shoulder to shoulder with
Carl Schurz and Franz Sigel in the German Revolution of
1848, and who, after having taken part in the adventures of
Coming of the Iron Horse 407
Walker's filibustering expedition to Nicaragua, finally landed in
Anaheim, where he turned his attention to the making of wine.
He soon tired of that, and in 1867 was found boring for oil on
the Brea Ranch, again meeting with reverses where others
later were so successful. He then started the movement to
divide Los Angeles County and once more failed in what was
afterward accomplished. Journalism in Anaheim next ab-
sorbed him an'd, having had the best of educational advantages,
Stroble brought to his newspaper both culture and the experi-
ence of travel.
The last grand effort of this adventurous spirit was the
attempt to sell Santa Catalina Island. Backed by the owners,
Stroble sailed for Europe and opened headquarters near Thread-
needle Street in London. In a few weeks he had almost ef-
fected the sale, the contract having been drawn and the time
actually set for the following day when the money a cool two
hundred thousand pounds was to be paid; but no Stroble
kept tryst to carry out his part of the transaction. Only the
evening before, alone and unattended, the old man had died
in his room at the very moment when Fortune, for the first
time, was to smile upon him ! Eighteen or twenty years later,
Catalina was sold for much less than the price once agreed
upon.
CHAPTER XXVIII
. THE LAST OF THE VIGILANTES
1870
AS I have somewhere related, I began buying hides as far
back as 1855, but it was not until 1870 that this
branch of our business assumed such importance as to
require more convenient quarters. Then we bought a place
on the southeast corner of Alameda and Commercial streets,
facing sixty feet on Alameda and having a depth of one
hundred and sixty-five feet, where we constructed a hide-house
and erected a press for baling. We paid P. Beaudry eleven
hundred dollars for the lot. The relatively high price shows
what the Los Angeles & San Pedro Railroad depot had done
for that section. In the days when hides were sent by sailing-
vessels to the East, a different method of preparing them for
shipment was in vogue. The wet hides having been stretched,
small stakes were driven into the ground along the edge of, and
through the skins, thus holding them in place until they had
dried and expanding them by about one-third ; in this condition
they were forwarded loose. Now that transportation is more
rapid and there are tanneries in California, all hides are
handled wet.
In 1870, business life was centered on Los Angeles Street
between Commercial and Arcadia; and all the hotels were
north of First Street. Fort Street ended in a little bluff at a
spot now between Franklin and First streets. Spring Street
was beginning to take on new life, and yet there was but
one gas lamp along the entire roadway, though many were
408
[1870] The Last of the Vigilantes 409
the appeals to add another lamp, "say, as far as First
Street!"
Sometime in January, a number of ladies of this city met
and, through the exertions of Mrs. Rosa Newmark, wife of
Joseph Newmark, formed the Ladies' Hebrew Benevolent So-
ciety. Mrs. Newmark, as was once pointed out in a notable
open-air meeting of women's clubs (to which I elsewhere refer),
never accepted any office in the Society ; but for years she was
untiring in her efforts in the cause of charity. The first officers
were: President, Mrs. W. Kalisher; Vice-President, Mrs. Harris
Newmark; Treasurer, Mrs. John Jones; Secretary, Mrs. B.
Katz ; and Collector, Mrs. A. Baer. Three Counselors Henry
Wartenberg, I. M. Hellman and myself occasionally met with
the ladies to advise them.
Aside from the fact of its importance as the pioneer ladies'
benevolent organization instituted in Los Angeles, the Society
found a much-needed work to do. It was then almost im-
possible to obtain nurses, and the duty devolved on members to
act in that capacity, where such assistance was required,
whether the afflicted were rich or poor. It was also their
function to prepare the dead for interment, and to keep
proper vigil over the remains until the time of burial.
During the year 1869 or 1870, as the result of occasional
gatherings in the office of Dr. Joseph Kurtz, the Los Angeles
Turnverein was organized with eleven members Emil Harris
leading in the movement, assisted by Dr. Kurtz, Ed. Preuss,
Lorenzo Leek, Philip and Henry Stoll, Jake Kuhrts, Fred
Morsch, C. C. Lips and Isaac Cohn. Dr. Kurtz was elected
President. They fraternized for a while at Frau Wiebecke's
Garden, on the west side of Alameda near First Street, about
where the Union Hardware and Metal Company now stands;
and there, while beer and wine were served in the open air, the
Teutons gratified their love of music and song. Needing for
their gymnastics more enclosed quarters, the Turnverein rented
of Kalisher & Wartenberg the barn on Alameda Street be-
tween Ducommon and First, used as a hide-house ; and in that
rough-boarded shack, whose none too aromatic odors are still
4i o Sixty Years in Southern California [1870
a souvenir to many a pioneer resident, the Turners swung and
vaulted to their heart's content. Classes were soon arranged
for boys ; and the envy of all was the lad who, after numerous
risks to limb and neck, proudly topped the human pyramid.
Another garden of this period often patronized by the Turn-
verein was Kiln Messer's, on First Street between Alameda
and the river.
The Post Office was moved this year from the corner of
North Main and Market streets to the middle of Temple
Block, but even there the facilities were so inadequate that
Wells Fargo & Company, in June, put up a letter-box at the
corner of Main and Commercial streets which was emptied
but once a day, at four o'clock in the afternoon, save on steamer
days when letters were taken out at half -past nine. One
other box was at the sole railroad depot, then at the corner of
Alameda and Commercial streets. The Post Office at that time
was also so miserably illuminated that citizens fumbled about
to find their letter-boxes, and ladies were timid about entering
the building at night. Postmasters were allowed small reserves ;
and, for some time in 1870 the Los Angeles Post Office was
entirely out of one- and two-cent stamps.
In February, the way was prepared for the first city directory
when the houses of Los Angeles were ordered to be numbered,
a public discussion of the need for a directory having taken
place the previous December. When the collaborators began
to. collect names and other data, there were many refusals to
answer questions; but the little volume of seventy pages was
finally published in 1871.
Until 1870 Los Angeles had no bookbinder, all binding
having had to be sent to San Francisco; and a call was then
sent out to induce a journeyman to settle here.
On the fourteenth of February, Phineas Banning was mar-
ried to Miss Mary, daughter of Colonel J. H. Hollister the
affair being the consummation of a series of courtly addresses
in which, as I have related, it was my pleasurable privilege
to play an intermediary part. As might be expected of one
who was himself an experienced and generous entertainer, the
1870] The Last of the Vigilantes 411
wedding was a social event to be long and pleasantly remem-
bered by the friends of the bride and groom. Mrs. Banning,
who for years maintained an attractive home on Fort Hill,
is now living on Commonwealth Avenue.
About this time, Colonel Isaac R. Dunkelberger came to
Los Angeles to live, having just finished his fifth year in the
army in Arizona, following a long service under Northern
banners during the Civil War. While here, the Colonel
met and courted Miss Mary Mallard, daughter of Judge
Mallard; and on February 26th, 1867, they were married.
For eight years, from March, 1877, Dunkelberger was Post-
master. He died on December 5th, 1904, survived by his
widow and six children. While writing about this estimable
family, it occurs to me that Mary, then a little girl, was one
of the guests at my wedding.
Frank Lecouvreur, who was Surveyor of Los Angeles
County from 1870 until 1873, was a native of East Prussia
and like his predecessor, George Hansen, came to California
by way of the Horn. For a while, as I have related, he was
my bookkeeper. In 1877, he married Miss Josephine Rosanna
Smith who had renounced her vows as a nun. Ten years later
he suffered a paralytic stroke and was an invalid until his
death, on January I7th, 1901.
Once introduced, the telegraph gradually grew in popu-
larity; but even in 1870, when the Western Union company
had come into the field and was operating as far as the
Coast, service was anything but satisfactory. The poles be-
tween Los Angeles and San Francisco had become rotten and
often fell, dragging the wires with them, and interrupting
communication with the North. There were no wires, up to
that time, to Santa Barbara or San Bernardino; and only in
the spring of that year was it decided to put a telegraph line
through to San Diego. When the Santa Barbara line was
proposed, the citizens there speedily subscribed twenty-two
hundred and forty-five dollars; it having been the company's
plan always to get some local stockholders.
As the result of real estate purchases and exchanges in the
Sixty Years in Southern California [1870
late sixties and early seventies between Dr. J. S. Griffin,
Phineas Banning, B. D. Wilson, P. Beaudry and others, a
fruit-growing colony was planned in April, when it was pro-
posed to take in some seventeen hundred and fifty acres of the
best part of the San Pasqual rancho, including a ten- thousand-
dollar ditch. A company, with a capital stock of two hundred
thousand dollars divided into four thousand shares of fifty
dollars each, was formed to grow oranges, lemons, grapes,
olives, nuts and raisins, John Archibald being President;
R. M. Widney, Vice-President ; W. J. Taylor, Secretary; and
the London & San Francisco Bank, Treasurer. But although
subscription books were opened and the scheme was adver-
tised, nothing was done with the land until D. M. Berry and
others came from Indiana and started the Indiana Colony.
A rather uncommon personality for about thirty years was
Fred Dohs, who came from Germany when he was twenty-
three and engaged in trading horses. By 1870 he was man-
aging a barber shop near the Downey Block, and soon after
was conducting a string band. For many years, the barber-
musician furnished the music for most of the local dances and
entertainments, at the same time (or until prices began to be
cut) maintaining his shop, where he charged two bits for a
shave and four bits for a hair-cut. During his prosperity,
Dohs acquired property, principally on East First Street.
The first foot-bridge having finally succumbed to the
turbulent waters of the erratic Los Angeles River, the great
flood of 1867-68 again called the attention of our citizens to the
necessity of establishing permanent and safe communication
between the two sides of the stream ; and this agitation resulted
in the construction by Perry & Woodworth of the first fairly
substantial bridge at the foot of the old Aliso Road, now Macy
Street, at an outlay of some twenty thousand dollars. Yet,
notwithstanding the great necessity that had always existed
for this improvement, it is my recollection that it was not con-
summated until about 1870. Like its poor little predecessor
carried away by the uncontrolled waters, the more dignified
structure was broken up by a still later flood, and the pieces
1870] The Last of the Vigilantes 413
of timber once so carefully put together by a confident and
satisfied people were strewn for a mile or two along the river
banks.
'Way back in the formative years of Los Angeles, there
were suddenly added to the constellation of noteworthy local
characters two jovial, witty, good-for-nothing Irishmen who
from the first were pals. The two were known as Dan Kelly
and Micky Free. Micky's right name was Dan Harrington;
but I never knew Kelly to go under any other appellation.
When sober, which was not very frequent, Dan and Micky
were good-natured, jocular and free from care, and it mattered
not to either of them whether the morrow might find them
well-fed and at liberty or in the jail then known as the
Hotel de Burns: "sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof"
was the only philosophy they knew. They were boon com-
panions when free from drink; but when saturated, they
immediately fought like demons. They were both in the
toils quite ten months of the year, while during the other two
months they carried a hod! Of the two, Micky was the most
irredeemable, and in time he became such a nuisance that the
authorities finally decided to ship him out of the country and
bought him a ticket to Oregon. Micky got as far as San Pedro,
where he traded his ticket for a case of delirium tremens;
but he did something more he broke his leg and was bundled
back to Los Angeles, renewing here the acquaintance of both
the bartender and the jailer. Some years later, he astonished
the town by giving up drink and entering the Veterans's
Home. When he died, they gave him a soldier's honors and
a soldier's grave.
In 1870, F. Bonshard imported into Los Angeles County
some five or six hundred blooded Cashmere goats; and about
the same time or perhaps even earlier, J. E. Pleasants conducted
at Los Nietos a similar enterprise, at one time having four or
five hundred of a superior breed, the wool of which brought
from twenty-five to thirty-five cents a pound. The goat-
fancying Pleasants also had some twelve hundred Angoras.
On June 1st, Henry Hamilton, who two years before had
4H Sixty Years in Southern California ['870
resumed the editorship of the Los Angeles Star, then a weekly,
issued the first number of the Daily Star. He had taken into
partnership George W. Barter, who three months later started
the Anaheim Gazette. In 1872, Barter was cowhided by a
woman, and a committee formally requested the editor to
vamose the town ! Barter next bought the Daily Star from
Hamilton, on credit, but he was unable to carry out his
contract and within a year Hamilton was again in charge.
At the beginning of this decade, times in Arizona were
really very bad. H. Newmark & Company, who had large
amounts due them from merchants in that Territory, were not en-
tirely easy about their outstanding accounts, and this prompted
Kaspare Cohn to visit our customers there. I urged him to
consider the dangers of the road and to abandon his project;
but he was determined to go. The story of the trip, in the
light of present methods and the comparative safety of travel,
is an interesting one, and I shall relate his experiences as he
described them to me.
He started on a Saturday, going by stage (in preference to
buckboard) from Los Angeles to San Bernardino, and from
there rode, as the only passenger, with a stage-driver named
Brown, passing through Frink's Ranch, Oilman's, White
River, Agua Caliente, Indian Wells, Toros, Dos Palmas,
Chuckawalla, Mule Springs and Willow Springs. H. New-
mark & Company had forwarded, on a prairie schooner driven
by Jesse Allen of Los Angeles, a considerable amount of
merchandise which it was their intention should be sold
in Arizona, and the freighting charge upon which was to
be twelve and a half cents per pound. In Chuckawalla, fa-
miliarly called Chucky Valley, the travelers overtook Allen and
the stock of goods; and this meeting in that lonesome region
was the cause of such mutual rejoicing that Kaspare provided
as abundant an entertainment as his limited stores would
permit. Resuming their journey from Chuckawalla, the driver
and his companion soon left Allen and his cumbersome load
in the rear.
It was near Granite Wash, as they were jogging along in the
1870] The Last of the Vigilantes 415
evening, that they noticed some Indian fire signals. These
were produced by digging a hole in the ground, filling it with
combustible material, such as dry leaves, and setting fire to it.
From the smoldering that resulted, smoke was emitted and
sparks burst forth. Observing these ticklish warnings, the
wayfarers sped away and escaped perhaps, a tragic fate.
Arriving at Ehrenberg on a Tuesday morning, Kaspare re-
mained there all night. Still the only passenger, he left the
next day; and it may be imagined how cheering, after the
previous experience, was the driver's remark that, on account
of the lonesome character of the trip, and especially the danger
from scalping Apaches, he would never have departed without
some company!
Somewhere between Granite Wash and Wickenberg, a
peculiar rattling revealed a near-by snake, whereupon Kaspare
jumped out and shot the reptile, securing the tail and rattles.
Changing horses or resting at Tyson's Wells, McMullen's and
Cullen's Station, they arrived the next night at Wickenberg, the
location of the Vulture Mines, where Kaspare called upon the
Superintendent a man named Peoples to collect a large
amount they owed us. Half of the sum was paid in gold bars,
at the rate of sixteen dollars per ounce, while the other half
we lost.
A niece of M. Kremer lived in Wickenberg, where her
husband was in business. She suffered a great deal from
headaches, and a friend had recommended, as a talisman, the
possession of snake rattles. Kaspare, with his accustomed
gallantry, produced the specimen which he had obtained and
gave it to the lady ; and it is to be hoped that she was as per-
manently relieved of her pain as so many nowadays are cured
of imaginary troubles by no more substantial superstitions.
Making short stops at Wilson's Station, Antelope Station,
Kirkland Valley, Skull Valley and Mint Valley, Kaspare reached
Prescott, some four hundred and thirty miles from San Ber-
nardino, and enquired after Dan Hazard, the ex-Mayor's
brother and one of our customers who died about the
middle of the eighties and learned that he was then on his
416 Sixty Years in Southern California [1870
way to St. Louis with teams to haul back freight for Levi
Bashford who, in addition to being an important trader, was
Government Receiver of Public Moneys. Kaspare decided to
remain in Prescott until Hazard returned; and as Jesse Allen
soon arrived with the merchandise, Kaspare had ample time
to sell it. Bashford, as a Government official, was not per-
mitted to handle such goods as matches and cigars, which bore
revenue stamps, but Kaspare sold him quantities of lard, beans,
coffee, sugar and other supplies. He sold the revenue-stamped
articles to Buffum & Campbell, the former of whom had once
been a well-known resident of Los Angeles. He also disposed
of some goods to Henderson Brothers, afterward prominent
bankers of Tucson and Globe, Arizona. In the meantime, Dan
Hazard returned and settled his account in full.
Kaspare remained in Prescott nearly four weeks. Between
the collections that he made and the money which he received
for the consigned merchandise, he had about thirteen thousand
dollars in currency to bring back with him. With this amount
of money on his person, the return trip was more than ever
fraught with danger. Mindful of this added peril, Kaspare kept
the time of his departure from Prescott secret, no one, with the
exception of Bashford, being in his confidence. He prepared
very quietly ; and at the last moment, one Saturday afternoon,
he slipped into the stage and started for California. Brown was
again his companion as far as Ehrenberg. There he met Frank
Ganahl and Charles Strong, both soon to become Southern
Calif ornians ; and knowing them very well, their companion-
ship contributed during the rest of the trip not only pleasure
but an agreeable feeling of security. His arrival in Los Angeles
afforded me much relief, and the story of his adventures and
success added more than a touch of interest.
The first street-sprinklers in Los Angeles were owned and
operated about the middle of July by T. W. McCracken, who
was allowed by the Council to call upon residents along the
route for weekly contributions to keep the water wagon going.
I have told of the establishing of Hellman, Temple &
Company as bankers. In September, the first-named bought
1870] The Last of the Vigilantes 417
out his partners and continued, until 1871, as Hellman &
Company.
With the commencement of autumn, when the belief
prevailed that little or nothing could be done toward persuading
the Common Council to beautify the Plaza, a movement to
lay out and embellish the five-acre tract bounded by Hill and
Olive, and Fifth and Sixth streets, met with such favor that, by
the first week in October, some eight hundred dollars had been
subscribed for the purpose. On November iQth a public meet-
ing was held, presided over by Prudent Beaudry, Major H. M.
Mitchell serving as Secretary; and it was suggested to call the
proposed square the Los Angeles Park, and to enclose it, at a
cost of about five hundred dollars, with a fence. Another two
hundred dollars was soon made up; and the services of L.
Carpenter, who offered to plow the land prior to sowing grass-
seed, were accepted in lieu of a subscription. Both George
Lehman and Elijah Workman showed their public spirit
by planting what have since become the largest trees there.
Sometime later, the name was changed to Central Park,
by which it is still known.
The first hackney coach ever built in Los Angeles was
turned out in September by John Goller for J. J. Reynolds
about the same time that the Oriental Stage Company
brought a dozen new Concord coaches from the East and
cost one thousand dollars. Goller was then famous for elabo-
rate vehicles and patented spring buggies which he shipped
even to pretentious and bustling San Francisco. Before the
end of November, however, friends of the clever and enterpris-
ing carriage-maker were startled to hear that he had failed
for the then not insignificant sum of about forty thousand
dollars.
Up to the fall of the year, no connection existed between
Temple and First Streets west of Spring; but on the first day of
September, a cut through the hill, effected by means of chain-
gang labor and continuing Fort Street north, was completed, to
the satisfaction of the entire community.
About the middle of October, a petition was presented to the
37
418 Sixty Years in Southern California [1870
Common Council calling attention to the fact that the Los
Angeles Water Company two years before had agreed to erect
a fountain on the Plaza; and declaring that the open place was
little short of a ' ' scarecrow for visitors. " The Company imme-
diately replied that it was ready to put up the fountain ; and in
November the Council ordered the brick tank taken away.
At the beginning of August, 1871, the fountain began playing.
During the second marshalship of William C. Warren, when
Joe Dye was one of his deputy officers, there was great traffic
in Chinese women, one of whom was kidnaped and carried
off to San Diego. A reward of a hundred dollars was offered
for her return, and she was brought back on a charge of theft
and tried in the Court of Justice Trafford, on Temple Street
near Spring. During the trial, on October 31 st, 1870, Warren
and Dye fell into a dispute as to the reward; and the quarrel
was renewed outside the courtroom. At a spot near the
corner of Spring and Temple streets Dye shot and killed
Warren; and in the scrimmage several other persons standing
near were wounded. Dye was tried, but acquitted. Later,
however, he himself was killed by a nephew, Mason Bradfield,
whose life he had frequently threatened and who fired the
deadly bullet from a window of the New Arlington Hotel,
formerly the White House, at the southeast corner of Com-
mercial and Los Angeles streets. Mrs. C. P. Bradfield, Brad-
field's mother and a teacher, who came in 1875, was the
author of certain text-books for drawing, published by A. S.
Barnes & Company of New York.
Failures in raising and using camels in the Southwest
were due, at least partially, to ignorance of the animal's wants,
a company of Mexicans, in the early sixties, overloading some
and treating them so badly that nearly all died. Later, French-
men, who had had more experience, secured the two camels left,
and by 1870 there was a herd of no less than twenty-five on a
ranch near the Carson River in Nevada, where they were used
in packing salt for sixty miles or more to the mills.
On October 3ist, the first Teacher's Institute held in Los
Angeles County was opened, with an attendance of thirty-five,
1870] The Last of the Vigilantes 419
in the old Bath Street schoolhouse, that center being selected
because the school building at Spring and Second streets,
though much better adapted to the purpose, was considered
to be too far out of town! County Superintendent W. M.
McFadden was President; J. M. Guinn was Vice-President ;
and P. C. Tonner was Secretary; while a leader in discussions
was Dr. Truman H. Rose, who there gave a strong impetus
to the founding of the first high school.
Soon after this Institute was held, the State Legislature
authorized bonds to the amount of twenty thousand dollars
for the purpose of erecting another schoolhouse; and the
building was soon to be known as the Los Angeles High School.
W. H. Workman, M. Kremer and H. D. Barrows were the
building committee.
Mentioning educators, I may introduce the once well-
known name of Professor Adams, an instructor in French
who lived here in the early seventies. He was so very
urbane that on one occasion, while overdoing his polite
attention to a lady, he fell off the sidewalk and badly broke
his leg!
In a previous chapter I have spoken of a Frenchman named
Lachenais who killed a fellow-countryman at a wake, the
murder being one of a succession of crimes for which he finally
paid the penalty at the hands of a Vigilance Committee in the
last lynching witnessed here.
Lachenais lived near where the Westminster Hotel now
stands, on the northeast corner of Main and Fourth streets,
but he also had a farm south of the city, adjoining that of
Jacob Bell who was once a partner in sheep-raising with
John Schumacher. The old man was respectable and quiet,
but Lachenais quarreled with him over water taken from the
zanja. Without warning, he rode up to Bell as he was work-
ing in his field and shot him dead ; but there being no witnesses
to the act, this murder remained, temporarily, a mystery.
One evening, as Lachenais (to whom suspicion had been
gradually directed) , was lounging about in a drunken condition,
he let slip a remark as to the folly of anyone looking for
420 Sixty Years in Southern California [1870]
Bell's murderer; and this indiscretion led to his arrest and
incarceration.
No sooner had the news of Lachenais's apprehension been
passed along than the whole town was in a turmoil. A meeting
at Stearns's Hall was largely attended; a Vigilance Committee
was formed; Lachenais's record was reviewed and his death at
the hands of an outraged community was decided upon. Every-
thing being arranged, three hundred or more armed men, under
the leadership of Felix Signoret, the barber Councilman in
1863 and proprietor of the Signoret Building opposite the Pico
House assembled on the morning of December 17th, marched
to the jail, overcame Sheriff Burns and his assistants, took
Lachenais out, dragged him along to the corral of Tomlinson &
Griffith (at the corner of Temple and New High streets) and
there summarily hanged him. Then the mob, without further
demonstration, broke up; the participants going their several
ways. The reader may have already observed that this was
not the first time that the old Tomlinson & Griffith gate had
served this same gruesome purpose.
The following January, County Judge Y. Sepulveda charged
the Grand Jury to do its duty toward ferreting out the leaders
of the mob, and so wipe out this reproach to the city; but the
Grand Jury expressed the conviction that if the law had
hitherto been faithfully executed in Los Angeles, such scenes
in broad daylight would never have taken place. The editor
of the News, however, ventured to assert that this report was
but another disgrace.
CHAPTER XXIX
THE CHINESE MASSACRE
HNEWMARK & COMPANY enjoyed associations with
nearly all of the most important wool men and rancher os
in Southern California, our office for many years being
headquarters for these stalwarts, as many as a dozen or more
of whom would ofttimes congregate, giving the store the ap-
pearance of a social center. They came in from their ranches
and discussed with freedom the different phases of their affairs
and other subjects of interest. Wheat, corn, barley, hay,
cattle, sheep, irrigation and kindred topics were passed upon ;
although in 1871 the price of wool being out of all proportion
to anything like its legitimate value, the uppermost topic of con-
versation was wool. These meetings were a welcome interrup-
tion to the monotony of our work. Some of the most important
of these visitors were Jotham, John W. and Llewellyn Bixby,
Isaac Lankershim, L. J. Rose, I. N. Van Nuys, R. S. Baker,
George Carson, Manuel Dominguez, Domingo Amestoy, Juan
Matias Sanchez, Dan Freeman, John Rowland, John Reed,
Joe Bridger, Louis Phillips, the brothers Gamier, Remi Na-
deau, E. J. Baldwin, P. Banning and Alessandro Repetto. There
was also not a weather prophet, near or far, who did not
manage to appear at these weighty discussions and offer his
oracular opinions about the pranks of the elements; on which
occasions, one after another of these wise men would step to the
door, look at the sky and broad landscape, solemnly shake his
head and then render his verdict to the speculating circle
421
422 Sixty Years in Southern California
within. According as the moon emerged "so that one could
hang something upon it," or in such a manner that "water
would run off" (as they pictured it), we were to have dry
or rainy weather; nor would volumes of talk shake their con-
fidence. Occasionally, I added a word, merely to draw out
these weather-beaten and interesting old chaps ; but usually I
listened quietly and was entertained by all that was said. Hours
would be spent by these friends in chatting and smoking the
time away; and if they enjoyed the situation half as much
as I did, pleasant remembrances of these occasions must have
endured with them. Many of those to whom I have referred
have ended their earthly careers, while others, living in different
parts of the county, are still hale and hearty.
A curious character was then here, in the person of the
reputed son of a former, and brother of the then, Lord Clan-
morris, an English nobleman. Once a student at Dr. Arnold's
famous Rugby, he had knocked about the world until, shabbily
treated by Dame Fortune, he had become a sheepherder in the
employ of the Bixbys.
M. J. Newmark, who now came to visit us from New York,
was admitted to partnership with H. Newmark & Company,
and this determined his future residence.
As was natural in a town of pueblo origin, plays were often
advertised in Spanish ; one of the placards, still preserved, thus
announcing the attraction for January 3Oth, at the Merced
Theater:
TEATRO MERCED
LOS ANGELES
Lunes, Enero 30, de 1871
Primero Funcion de la Gran Compania Dramatica, De Don
Tomas Maguire, El Empresario Veterano de San Francisco,
VEINTE Y CUATRO Artistas de ambos sexos, todos conocidos
como ESTRELLAS de primera clase.
In certain quarters of the city, the bill was printed in English.
Credit for the first move toward the formation of a County
1871] The Chinese Massacre 423
Medical Society here should probably be given to Dr. H. S.
Orme, at whose office early in 1871 a preliminary meeting was
held; but it was in the office of Drs. Griffin and Widney, on
January 3 1st, that the organization was effected, my friend
Griffin being elected President ; Dr. R. T. Hayes, Vice-President ;
Dr. Orme, Treasurer ; and Dr. E. L. Dow, Secretary. Thus began
a society which, in the intervening years, has accomplished
much good work.
Late in January, Luther H. Titus, one of several breeders
of fast horses, brought from San Francisco by steamer a fine
thoroughbred stallion named Echo, a half-brother of the
celebrated trotter Dexter which had been shipped from the East
in a Central Pacific car especially constructed for the pur-
pose in itself something of a wonder then. Sporting men
came from a distance to see the horse ; but interest was divided
between the stallion and a mammoth turkey of a peculiar
breed, also brought west by Titus, who prophesied that the
bird, when full grown, would tip the beam at from forty-five
to fifty pounds.
Early in February, the first steps were taken to reorganize
and consolidate the two banking houses in which Downey
and Hellman were interested, when it was proposed to start
the Bank of Los Angeles, with a capital of five hundred
thousand dollars. Some three hundred and eighty thousand
dollars of this sum were soon subscribed ; and by the first week
in April, twenty-five per cent, of the capital had been called in.
John G. Downey was President and I. W. Hellman was Cashier;
their office was in the former rooms of Hellman, Temple &
Company. On the tenth of April the institution was opened
as the Farmers & Merchants Bank; and on July loth, J. G.
Downey, Charles Ducommun, O. W. Childs, I. M. Hellman,
George Hansen, A. Glassell, J. S. Griffin, Jose Mascarel and
I. W. Hellman were chosen Trustees. From the first the
Bank prospered, so that when the crisis of 1875 tested the
substantiability of the financial institutions here, the Farmers
& Merchants rode the storm. In April, 1871, Hellman in-
augurated a popular policy when he offered to pay interest on
424 Sixty Years in Southern California
time deposits, for it brought many clients who had previously
been accustomed to do their banking in San Francisco; and
before long the Bank advertised one hundred thousand dollars
to lend on good security.
On February I4th, Stephen Samsbury, known as Buckskin
Bill, and a man named Carter murdered the twin brothers
Bilderback who had taken up some land very close to Verdugo
now incorporated in Glendale and were engaged in chopping
wood; the murderers coveting the land and planning to sell
the fuel. Deputy Sheriff Dunlap went in pursuit of the
desperadoes, and noticing some loose earth in the roadbed
near by, he thrust a stick into the ground and so uncovered
the blood-stained end of a blanket which led to the finding of
the bodies.
J. F. Burns, who, at eighty-three years of age, still manifests
his old time spirit, being then Sheriff, pursued Buckskin Bill
until the twenty-fourth of June. A young soldier on the way to
Fort Yuma met Burns at San Pedro, and having agreed to sell
him certain information about the fugitive, revealed the fact
that Bill had been seen near Tecate, mounted on a horse, with
his squaw and infant riding a mule. The chase had previously
taken the Sheriff from Verdugo Canon to White Pine, Nevada,
and back to Los Angeles; and acting on this new clue, Burns
obtained a requisition on the Mexican Governor from Judge
Ygnacio Sepulveda, and went to Lower California where, with
Felipe Zarate, a Mexican officer, he located the man after two
or three days' search. About twenty miles north of Real
Castillo, the Sheriff found the fugitive, and in the ensuing
fight Samsbury accidentally shot himself; and so terribly did
the wounded man suffer that he begged Burns to finish him at
once. The Sheriff, refusing, improved the opportunity to
secure a full confession of Bill's numerous crimes, among which
figured the killing of five other men besides the Bilderback
brothers in different parts of California.
After Samsbury died, Burns cut off his foot known to
have six toes and placed it in mescal, a popular and strongly-
intoxicating beverage of the Mexicans; and when later the
1871] The Chinese Massacre 425
Sheriff presented this trophy to the good citizens of California,
it was accepted as abundant proof that the man he had gone
after had been captured and disposed of. The Legislature
promptly paid Burns nearly five thousand dollars; but Los
Angeles County, which had pledged two hundred dollars*
reward, refused to recompense the doughty Sheriff and has
never since made good its promise. In 1889, Burns was
Chief of Police, with Emil Harris as his Captain.
The earliest move toward the formation of a Los Angeles
Board of Trade was made, not in 1883, nor even in 1873
when the first Chamber of Commerce began but in 1871,
a fact that seems to be generally forgotten. Late in February
of that year, a number of leading shippers came together
to discuss Coast trade and other interests; and B. L. Peel
moved that a Board of Trade be organized. The motion was
carried and the organization was effected ; but with the waning
of enthusiasm for the improvements proposed or, perhaps,
through the failure of its members to agree, the embryonic
Board of Trade soon died.
In February, B. L. Peel & Company installed the telegraph
in their commission office probably the first instance of a
private wire in local business history.
At the outset of the somewhat momentous decade of the
seventies, Hellman, Haas & Company was established, with H.
W. Hellman, Jacob Haas and B. Cohn partners; their first store
being on the east side of Los Angeles Street opposite H. New-
mark & Company's. Abraham Haas, who came in December,
1873, had a share in his brother's venture from the start; but
it was not until 1875, when he bought out Cohn's interest,
that he became a partner. Ten years after the firm commenced
business, that is, in 1881, Jacob Baruch, who had come to
California with J. Loew, and with him had made his start at
Galatin, was admitted to partnership; and in 1889, a year after
Jacob Haas's death, Haas & Baruch bought out H. W. Hellman.
Then it was that Haas, Baruch & Company, a name so agree-
ably known throughout Southern California, first entered the
field, their activity immediately felt permitting very little
426 Sixty Years in Southern California [1871
of the proverbial grass to grow under one's feet. On January
7th, 1909, Jacob Baruch died. Haas since December I2th,
1900 has been a resident of San Francisco.
This year the United States Government began the great
work of improving Wilmington or San Pedro Harbor. The
gap between Rattlesnake and Dead Man's islands was closed
by means of a breakwater, creating a regular current in the
channel; and dredging to a depth of seventeen or eighteen feet
first made it possible for vessels of size to cross the bar at low
tide. Among those active in preparing documents for Con-
gress and securing the survey was Judge R. M. Widney, of
whose public services mention has been made; while Phineas
Banning, at his own expense, made trips to Washington in
behalf of the project.
A genuine novelty was introduced in 1871, when Downs
& Bent late in February opened a roller-skating rink at
Teutonia Hall. Twenty-five cents was charged for admission,
and an additional quarter demanded for the use of skates.
Ladies and gentlemen flocked to enjoy the new sensation; a
second rink was soon opened in Los Angeles and another in
El Monte ; and among those who became proficient skaters was
Pancho Coronel, one of the social lions of his day. In time,
however, the craze waned, and what had been hailed as fash-
ionable because of its popularity in the great cities of the
East, lost in favor, particularly among those of social
pretensions.
In March, a call for a meeting to organize an Agricultural
Society for the Counties of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San
Bernardino, Kern and San Diego brought together a large
number of our citizens. L. J. Rose and his neighbor L. H.
Titus, Dr. J. S. Griffin, Colonel J. J. Warner, Judge H. K. S.
O'Melveny, Judge A. J. King, John G. Downey, F. N. Slaugh-
ter and many others including myself became actively in-
terested, and then and there started the Southern District
Agricultural Society which, for years, contributed so much
to advance the agricultural interests of Southern California.
Annual trotting races, lasting a week, lent impetus to the breed-
1871] The Chinese Massacre 427
ing of fine stock, for which this part of the State became
famous. L. J. Rose was the moving spirit in this enterprise;
and he it was who induced me and other friends to participate.
Even the first ice machine, in March, did not freeze the
price below four cents per pound.
Edited by Henry C. Austin, the Evening Express made its
first appearance on March 27th. It was started by the printers,
George and Jesse Yarnell, George A. Tiffany, J. W. Paynter
and Miguel Verelo; but James J. Ayers in 1882 State Printer
who was one of the founders of the San Francisco Morning
Call, succeeded Austin in 1875, and then the Yarnells and
Verelo retired.
L. V. Prudhomme, better known as Victor Prudhomme
a name sometimes, but probably incorrectly, spelled Prudhon
who is said to have come from France about the middle of the
thirties, died here on May 8th. His wife was a Spanish woman
and for a while they resided on the east side of Main Street
between Requena and First, not far from my brother's store.
As a rather active member of the French Colony, he was a
man in good standing, and was engaged, it seems to me, in the
wine industry. He also owned some land near San Bernardino
and was continually visiting that place.
On May 27th, S. J. Millington, announced as "the pioneer
dancing master of California, " opened a dancing academy at
Stearns's Hall, and it at once sprang into social favor. He
had morning classes for children and evening classes for adults.
I happen to recall the. circumstances more clearly for I was
one of his committee of patrons. Dances, by the way, were
given frequently, and were often attended in costume and even
in disguise. I remember such an occasion in the early seventies
when elaborate toilettes and variety of dress marked an ad-
vance in these harmless diversions. Conspicuous among the
guests was John Jones, elderly and seldom given to frivolity,
who appeared in the character of the Father of his Country.
In early June, a Chinese junk, cruising in search of abalones,
attracted no little attention at San Pedro as a primitive and
clumsy specimen of marine architecture.
428 Sixty Years in Southern California [1871
The sudden and abnormal demand for the abalone shell
offered such large returns as to tempt men to take desperate
chances in hunting for them among the rocks. Sometime in
the seventies, a Chinaman, searching near San Diego, thrust
his hand into an open shell and the abalone closed upon his
wrist with such an irresistible grip that the unfortunate shell-
hunter was held fast until overtaken by the rising tide and
drowned.
For many years Los Angeles booklovers were supplied
by merchants who sold other things, or who conducted a
limited loan library in conjunction with their business. Such a
circulating collection Samuel Hellman displayed in February,
1871. The first exclusively book and periodical store was
opened in the same year, by Brodrick Reilly, adjoining the
Post Office on Spring street.
Albert Fenner Kercheval, who took up his residence in
1871 on the west side of Pearl Street near the end of Sixth,
on what was formerly known as the Gelcich Place, first came
to California Hangtown in 1849 and experienced much the
same kind of mining adventure as inspired Bret Harte. On
his second visit to the Coast, Kercheval raised strawberries
and early tomatoes, for which he found a ready sale in San
Francisco ; and in his spare moments he wrote poems collected
and published in 1883 under the title of Dolores some of which
rather cleverly reflect California life.
On June iQth, the Teutonia-Concordia society merged
with the Los Angeles Turnverein, forming the Turnverein-
Germania; and about the same time, the original home of the
Verein, a frame building on South Spring Street, was erected.
In that year, also, the first German school was founded
the sessions being conducted at the old Round House.
Having had no fitting celebration of the Fourth of July for
years, a number of citizens in 1871 called a meeting to con-
sider the matter, and A. J. Johnston, L. Lichtenberger, W. H.
Perry, J. M. Griffith, John Wilson, O. W. Childs and myself
were appointed to make arrangements. A list of forty or
fifty leading merchants willing to close their places of business
1
w
bS
I
1
1871] The Chinese Massacre 429
on Independence Day was drawn up; a program was easily
prepared; and the music, display of flags and bunting, and the
patriotic addresses awakened, after such a neglect of the
occasion, new and edifying emotions.
Slight regard was formerly paid by officers to the safety or
life of the Indian, who had a persistent weakness for alcohol;
and when citizens did attend to the removal of these inebriates,
they frequently looked to the Municipality for compensation.
For instance: at a meeting of the Common Council, in July,
Pete Wilson presented a bill of two dollars and a half "for the
removal of a nuisance, " which nuisance, upon investigation,
was shown to have been a drunken squaw whom he had retired
from the street! The Council, after debating the momentous
question of reimbursement, finally reached a compromise by
which the City saved just twenty-five cents.
Alexander Bell died on July 24th, after a residence of
twenty-nine years in Los Angeles.
Beginning with the seventies, attention was directed to
Santa Monica as a possible summer resort, but it was some
years before many people saw in the Bay and its immediate
environment the opportunities upon which thousands have
since seized. In the summer of 1871 less than twenty families,
the majority in tents, sojourned there among the sycamore
groves in the Canon where J. M. Harned had a bar and "refresh-
ment parlor." The attractions of beach and surf, however,
were beginning to be appreciated, and so were the opportunities
for shooting at Tell's and elsewhere; and on Sundays two or
three hundred excursionists frequently visited that neighbor-
hood, Reynolds, the liveryman, doing a thriving business carry-
ing people to the beach.
Speaking of this gradual awakening to the attractions of
Santa Monica, I recall that school children of the late sixties
held their picnics at the Canon, going down on crowded stages
where the choicest seats were on the box; and that one of the
most popular drivers of that period was Tommy O'Campo.
He handled the reins with the dexterity of a Hank Monk,
and before sunrise Young America would go over to the corral,
43 Sixty Years in Southern California [1871
there to wait long and patiently in order to get an especially
desirable seat on Tommy's stage.
With the completion of the Los Angeles & San Pedro Rail-
road, excursions to Catalina began to be in vogue; but as the
local population was small, considerable effort was needed some-
times to secure enough patrons to make the trips pay. Thus
an excursion for Sunday, August I3th, was advertised by
the skipper of the steamer Vaquero, a couple of dollars for the
round trip being charged, with half price for children; but by
Saturday morning the requisite number of subscribers had not
been obtained, and the excursion was called off.
Otto J. and Oswald F. Zahn, sons of Dr. Johann Carl
Zahn who came here about 1871, were carrier-pigeon fanciers
and established a service between Avalon and Los Angeles,
fastening their messages, written on tissue paper, by delicate
wire to the birds' legs. For some time the Catalina Pigeon
Messengers, as they were called, left Avalon late in the after-
noon, after the last steamer, bringing news that appeared in the
Los Angeles newspapers of the following morning. Usually
the birds took a good hour in crossing the channel ; but on one
occasion, Blue Jim, the champion, covered the distance of
forty-eight miles in fifty minutes.
On the evening of August 23d, the announcement came
over the wires of Don Abel Stearns's death in San Francisco,
at five o'clock that afternoon, at the Grand Hotel. Late in
October, his body was brought to Los Angeles for final inter-
ment, the tombstone having arrived from San Francisco a
week or two previously. Awesome indeed was the scene that
I witnessed when the ropes sustaining the eight hundred pound
metallic casket snapped, pitching the coffin and its grim con-
tents into the grave. I shall never forget the unearthly shriek
of Dona Arcadia, as well as the accident itself.
With the wane of summer, we received the startling news
of the death, through Indians, of Frederick Loring, the young
journalist and author well known in Los Angeles, who was
with the United States Exploring Expedition to Arizona 'as a
correspondent of Appleton's Journal. "Bootless, coatless and
1871] The Chinese Massacre 431
everything but lifeless, " as he put it, he had just escaped
perishing in Death Valley, when the stage party was at-
tacked by Apaches, and Loring and four other passengers were
killed.
In September, during Captain George J. Clarke's adminis-
tration as Postmaster, foreign money-orders began to be issued
here for the first time, payable only in Great Britain and Ire-
land, twenty-five cents being charged for sending ten dollars
or less; and shortly afterward, international money-orders
were issued for Germany and some other Continental countries.
Then five or six hundred letters for Los Angeles County were
looked upon as rather a large dispatch by one steamer from
San Francisco and the North; and the canceling of from
twelve to fifteen dollars' worth of stamps a day was regarded
as "big business."
Vincent Collyer the Peace Commissioner sent out with
General 0. O. Howard by the Government in 1868 who
eventually made himself most unpopular in Arizona by
pleading the cause of the scalping Apaches in the fall of
1871, put up at the Pico House; when public feeling led
one newspaper to suggest that if the citizens wished "to see a
monster," they had "only to stand before the hotel and watch
Collyer pass to and fro !"
In the fall, tidings of Chicago's awful calamity by fire
reached Los Angeles, but strange to say, no public action was
taken until the editor of the Los Angeles News, on October
I2th, gave vent to his feelings in the following editorial:
Three days ago the press of this City called upon the
public generally to meet at a stated hour last evening, at the
County Courtroom, to do something towards alleviating
the sufferings of the destitute thousands in Chicago. The calam-
ity which has overtaken that unfortunate City has aroused the
sympathy of the world, and the heart and pulse of civilized
humanity voluntarily respond, extending assistance in deeds
as well as in words. From all parts of the globe, where the
name of Chicago is known, liberal donations flow into a common
treasury. We had hoped to be able to add the name of Los
Angeles among the list, as having done its duty. But in what-
43 2 Sixty Years in Southern California [1871
ever else she may excel, her charity is a dishonorable exception.
Her bowels are absolute strangers to sympathy, when called
upon to practically demonstrate it. At the place of meeting,
instead of seeing the multitude, we were astonished to find but
three persons, viz: Governor Downey, John Jones, and a
gentleman from Riverside, who is on a visit here. Anything
more disgraceful than this apathy on the part of her inhabitants
she could not have been guilty of. For her selfishness, she
justly deserves the fearful fate that has befallen the helpless
one that now lies stricken in the dust. Let her bow down her
head in shame. Chicago, our response to your appeal is,
Starve 1 What do we care ?
This candid rebuke was not without effect ; a committee
was immediately formed to solicit contributions from the
general public, and within an hour a tidy sum had been raised.
By October i8th the fund had reached over two thousand
dollars, exclusive of two hundred and fifty dollars given, by the
Hebrew Benevolent Society and still another hundred dollars
raised by the Jewish ladies.
About the twenty-first of October a "war" broke out near
Nigger Alley between two rival factions of the Chinese on ac-
count of the forcible carrying off of one of the companies' female
members, and the steamer California soon brought a batch of
Chinamen from San Francisco, sent down, it was claimed, to
help wreak vengeance on the abductors. On Monday, October
23d some of the contestants were arrested, brought before
Justice Gray and released on bail. It was expected that this
would end the trouble; but at five o'clock the next day the
factional strife broke loose again, and officers, accompanied by
citizens, rushed to the place to attempt an arrest. The Chinese
resisted and Officer Jesus Bilderrain was shot in the right
shoulder and wrist, while his fifteen-year-old brother received
a ball in the right leg. Robert Thompson, a citizen who
sprang to Bilderrain 's assistance, was met by a Chinaman
with two revolvers and shot to death. Other shots from Chi-
nese barricaded behind some iron shutters wounded a number
of bystanders.
News of the attacks and counter-attacks spread like wild-
1871] The Chinese Massacre 433
fire, and a mob of a thousand or more frenzied beyond control,
armed with pistols, guns, knives and ropes, and determined to
avenge Thompson's murder, assembled in the neighborhood of
the disturbance. While this solid phalanx was being formed
around Nigger Alley, a Chinaman, waving a hatchet, was seen
trying to escape across Los Angeles Street ; and Romo Sortorel,
at the expense of some ugly cuts on the hand, captured him.
Emil Harris then rescued the Mongolian; but a detachment of
the crowd, yelling "Hang him ! shoot him ! " overpowered Harris
at Temple and Spring streets, and dragged the trembling wretch
up Temple to New High street, where the familiar framework
of the corral gates suggested its use as a gallows. With the
first suspension, the rope broke; but the second attempt to
hang the prisoner was successful. Other Chinamen, whose
roofs had been smashed in, were rushed down Los Angeles
Street to the south side of Commercial, and there, near Goller's
wagon shop, between wagons stood on end, were hung.
Alarmed for the safety of their cook, Sing Ty, the Juan Lan-
francos hid the Mongolian for a week, until the excitement
had subsided.
Henry T. Hazard was lolling comfortably in a shaving
saloon, under the luxurious lather of the barber, when he heard
of the riot ; and arriving on the scene, he mounted a barrel and
attempted to remonstrate with the crowd. Some friends
soon pulled him down, warning him that he might be shot. A.
J. King was at supper when word was brought to him that
Chinese were slaughtering white people, and he responded by
seizing his rifle and two revolvers. In trying one of the
latter, however, it was prematurely discharged, taking the
tip off a finger and putting him hors de combat. Sheriff Burns
could not reach the scene until an hour after the row started
and many Chinamen had already taken their celestial flight.
When he arrived, he called for a posse comitatus to assist him
in handling the situation; but no one responded. He also
demanded from the leader of the mob and others that they
disperse ; but with the same negative result. About that time,
a party of rioters started with a Chinaman up Commercial
28
434 Sixty Years in Southern California [1871
Street to Main, evidently bent on hanging him to the Tomlin-
son & Griffith gate; and when Burns promised to attempt a
rescue if he had but two volunteers, Judge R. M. Widney and
James Goldsworthy responded and the Chinaman was taken
from his tormentors and lodged in jail. Besides Judge Widney,
Cameron E. Thorn and H. C. Austin displayed great courage in
facing the mob, which was made up of the scum and dregs of
the city; and Sheriff Burns is also entitled to much credit for
his part in preventing the burning of the Chinese quarters.
All the efforts of the better element, however, did not prevent
one of the most disgraceful of all disturbances which had oc-
curred since my arrival in Los Angeles. On October 25th,
when Coroner Joseph Kurtz impanelled his jury, nineteen
bodies of Chinamen alone were in evidence and the verdict
was : ' ' Death through strangulation by persons unknown to
the jury." Emil Harris's testimony at the inquest, that but
one of the twenty-two or more victims deserved his fate,
about hits the mark and confirms the opinion that the slight
punishment to half a dozen of the conspirators was very
inadequate.
At the time of the massacre, I heard a shot just as I was
about to leave my office, and learned that it had been fired from
that part of Chinatown facing Los Angeles Street; and I soon
ascertained that it had ended Thompson's life. Anticipating
no further trouble, however, I went home to dinner. When
I returned to town, news of the riot had spread, and with my
neighbors, Cameron E. Thom and John G. Downey, I hurried
to the scene. It was then that I became an eye-witness to the
heroic, if somewhat comical parts played by Thom and Burns.
The former, having climbed to the top of a box, harangued
the crowd, while the Sheriff, who had succeeded in mounting a
barrel, was also addressing the tumultuous rabble in an effort
to restore order. Unfortunately, this receptacle had been coop-
ered to serve as a container, not as a rostrum ; arid the head of
the cask under the pressure of two hundred pounds or more of
official avoirdupois suddenly collapsed and our Worthy Guard-
ian of the Peace dropped, with accelerated speed, clear through
1871] The Chinese Massacre 435
to the ground, and quite unintentionally, for the moment at
least, turned grim tragedy into grotesque comedy.
Following this massacre, the Chinese Government made
such a vigorous protest to the United States that the Washing-
ton authorities finally paid a large indemnity. During these
negotiations, Chinese throughout the country held lamentation
services for the Los Angeles victims; and on August 2 d, 1872,
four Chinese priests came from San Francisco to conduct the
ceremonies.
In 1870, F. P. F. Temple, who had seen constructed two
sections of the building now known as Temple Block, made the
fatal blunder of accepting the friendly advice that led him to
erect the third section at the junction of Spring and Main streets,
and to establish therein a bank under the name of Temple &
Workman. The building, costing in the neighborhood of one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars, was all that could have
been desired, proving by long odds the most ornamental
edifice in the city; and when, on November 23d, 1871, the bank
was opened in its comfortable quarters on the Spring Street
side of the block, nothing seemed wanting to success. The
furnishings were elaborate, one feature of the office outfit being
a very handsome counter of native cedar, a decided advance in
decoration over the primitive bare or painted wood then com-
mon here. Neither Temple, who had sold his fine ranch near
Fort Tejon to embark in the enterprise, nor Workman had had
any practical experience in either finance or commerce; and
to make matters worse, Workman, being at that time a very
old man, left the entire management to his son-in-law, Temple,
in whom he had full confidence. It soon became evident that
anybody could borrow money with or without proper security,
and unscrupulous people hastened to take advantage of the
situation. In due season I shall tell what happened to this
bank.
In the preceding spring when the Coast-line stage companies
were still the only rivals to the steamers, a movement favoring
an opposition boat was started, and by June leading shippers
were discussing the advisability of even purchasing a competi-
43 6 Sixty Years in Southern California [1871]
tive steamer; all the vessels up to that time having been owned
by companies or individuals with headquarters in the Northern
metropolis. Matthew Keller was then in San Francisco;
and having been led to believe that a company could be
financed, books were opened for subscriptions in Los Angeles,
Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and elsewhere. For lack of
the necessary support, this plan was abandoned; but late in
July a meeting was held in the Bella Union to further consider
the matter. Among those present was George Wright, long
engaged in coast shipping ; and he proposed to sell the control
of the Olympia.
H. Newmark & Company being considerably interested in
the movement, declared themselves ready to cooperate in
improving the situation; for which reason great surprise was
expressed when, in December, 1871, B. L. Peel, the commission
merchant, made an attack on us, openly charging that, although
"the largest shippers in the city," we had revoked our pledge
to sustain the opposition to high freight rates, and so had con-
tributed toward defeating the enterprise! It is true that we
finally discouraged the movement, but for a good and sufficient
reason: Wright was in the steamship business for anything
but his health. His method was to put on a tramp steamer
and then cut passenger and freight rates ridiculously low,
until the regular line would buy him out; a project which, on
former occasions, had caused serious disturbances to business.
When therefore Wright made this offer, in 1871, H. Newmark
& Company forthwith refused to participate. I shall show
that, when greater necessity required it, we took the lead in
a movement against the Southern Pacific which, for lack of
loyalty on the part of many of the other shippers, met not
only with disastrous failure but considerable pecuniary loss to
ourselves. '
On December i8th, 1871, Judge Murray Morrison died.
Three days later, his wife, Jennie, whom we knew as the attrac-
tive daughter of Dr. Thomas J. White, also breathed her last.
CHAPTER XXX
THE WOOL CRAZE
1872-1873
AS already stated, the price of wool in 1871 was exceedingly
high and continued advancing until in 1872 when, as
a result, great prosperity in Southern California was
predicted. Enough wool had been bought by us to make what
at that time was considered a very handsome fortune. We
commenced purchasing on the sheep's back in November,
and continued buying everything that was offered until April,
1872, when we made the first shipment, the product being sold
at forty -five cents per pound. As far as I am aware, the price
of wool had never reached fifty cents anywhere in the world,
it being ordinarily worth from ten to twelve cents ; and without
going into technicalities, which would be of no interest to the
average reader, I will merely say that forty-five cents was a tre-
mendously high figure for dirty, burry, California wool in the
grease. When the information arrived that this sale had been
effected, I became wool-crazy, the more so since I knew that
the particular shipment referred to was of very poor quality.
Colonel R. S. Baker, who was living on his ranch in Kern
County, came to Los Angeles about that time, and we offered
him fifty cents a pound for Beale & Baker's clip amounting to
one hundred and seventy-five thousand pounds. His reply
was that it would be impossible to sell without consulting
Beale; but Beale proved as wool-crazy as I, and would not sell.
It developed that Beale & Baker did not succeed in effecting
437
43 8 Sixty Years in Southern California [1872-
a sale in San Francisco, where they soon offered their product,
and that they concluded to ship it to Boston ; the New England
metropolis then, as now, being the most important wool-
center in the United States. Upon its arrival, the wool was
stored; and there it remained until, as Fate would have it, the
entire shipment was later destroyed in the great Boston fire
of 1872. As a result of this tremendous conflagration, the
insurance company which carried their policy failed and
Beale & Baker met with a great loss.
The brothers Philip, Eugene and Camille Gamier of the
Encino Ranch who, while generally operating separately,
clubbed together at that time in disposing of their product
had a clip of wool somewhat exceeding one hundred and
fifty thousand pounds. The spokesman for the three was
Eug&ne, and on the same day that I made Colonel Baker
the offer of fifty cents, I told Eugene that I would allow him
forty-eight and a half cents for the Gamier product. This
offer he disdainfully refused, returning immediately to his
ranch; and now, as I look back upon the matter, I do not
believe that in my entire commercial experience I ever wit-
nessed anything demonstrating so thoroughly, as did these
wool transactions, the monstrous greed of man. The sequel,
however, points the moral. My offer to the Garnier Brothers
was made on a Friday. During that day and the next, we
received several telegrams indicating that the crest of the
craze had been reached, and that buyers refused to take hold.
On Monday following the first visit of Eugene Garnier, he again
came to town and wanted me to buy their wool at the price
which I had quoted him on Friday; but by that time we had
withdrawn from the market. My brother wired that San Fran-
cisco buyers would not touch it ; hence the Garnier Brothers also
shipped their product East and, after holding it practically
a full year, finally sold it for sixteen and a half cents a pound
in currency, which was then worth eighty-five cents on the
dollar. The year 1872 is on record as the most disastrous wool
season in our history, when millions were lost ; and H. Newmark
& Company suffered their share in the disaster.
1873] I he Wool Craze 439
It was in March that we purchased from Louis Wolf-
skill, through the instrumentality of L. J. Rose, the Santa
Anita rancho, consisting of something over eight thousand
acres, paying him eighty-five thousand dollars for this beau-
tiful domain. The terms agreed upon were twenty thousand
dollars down and four equal quarterly payments for the
balance. In the light of the aftermath, the statement that
our expectations of prospective wool profits inspired this pur-
chase seems ludicrous, but it was far from laughable at the
time; for it took less than sixty days for H. Newmark & Com-
pany to discover that buying ranches on any such basis was
not a very safe policy to follow and would, if continued, result
in disaster. Indeed, the outcome wa's so different from our
calculations, that it pinched us somewhat to meet our obliga-
tions to Wolfskill. This purchase, as I shall soon show, proved
a lucky one, and compensated for the earlier nervous and
financial strain. John Simmons, who drove H. Newmark &
Company's truck and slept in a barn in my backyard on Main
Street, was so reliable a man that we made him overseer of the
ranch. When we sold the property, Simmons was engaged
by Lazard Freres, the San Francisco bankers, to do special
service that involved the carrying of large sums of money.
When we bought the Santa Anita, there were five eucalyptus
or blue gum trees growing near the house. I understood at
the time that these had been planted by William Wolfskill from
seed sent to him by a friend in Australia ; and that they were
the first eucalyptus trees cultivated in Southern California.
Sometime early in 1875, the Forest Grove Association started
the first extensive tract of eucalyptus trees seen in Los
Angeles, and in a decade or two the eucalyptus had become
a familiar object; one tree, belonging to Howard & Smith,
florists at the corner of Olive and Ninth streets, attaining, ' after
a growth of nineteen years, a height of one hundred and thirty-
four feet.
On the morning of March 26th, Los Angeles was visited
by an earthquake of sufficient force to throw people out of bed,
'Blown down, in a wind-storm, on the night of April I3th, 1915.
44 Sixty Years in Southern California [1872-
many men, women and children seeking safety by running out
in their night-clothes. A day or two afterward excited riders
came in from the Owens River Valley bringing reports which
showed the quake to have been the worst, so far as loss of life
was concerned, that had afflicted California since the mem-
orable catastrophe of 1812.
Intending thereby to encourage the building of railroads, the
Legislature, on April 4th, 1870, authorized the various Boards
of Supervisors to grant aid whenever the qualified voters so
elected. This seemed a great step forward, but anti-railroad
sentiment, as in the case of Banning' s line, again manifested
itself here. The Southern Pacific, just incorporated as a
subsidiary of the Central Pacific, was laying its tracks down the
San Joaquin Valley; yet there was grave doubt whether it
would include Los Angeles or not. It contemplated a line
through Tehachepi Pass; but from that point two separate
surveys had been made, one by way of Soledad Pass via Los
Angeles, through costly tunnels and over heavy grades; the
other, straight to the Needles, over an almost level plain along
the Thirty-fifth parallel, as anticipated by William H. Seward
in his Los Angeles speech. At the very time when every
obstacle should have been removed, the opposition so crystal-
lized in the Legislature that a successful effort was made to
repeal the subsidy law; but thanks to our representatives, the
measure was made ineffective in Los Angeles County, should
the voters specifically endorse the project of a railroad.
In April, 1872, Tom Mott and B. D. Wilson wrote Leland
Stanford that a meeting of the taxpayers, soon to be called,
would name a committee to confer with the railroad officials;
and Stanford replied that he would send down E. W. Hyde to
speak for the company. About the first of May, however, a few
citizens gathered for consultation at the Board of Trade room ;
and at that meeting it was decided unanimously to send to
San Francisco a committee of two, consisting of Governor
Downey and myself, there to convey to the Southern Pacific
Company the overtures of the City. We accordingly visited
Collis P. Huntington, whose headquarters were at the Grand
1873] The Wool Craze 441
Hotel ; and during our interview we canvassed the entire situa-
tion. In the course of this interesting discussion, Huntington
displayed some engineer's maps and showed us how, in his
judgment, the railroad, if constructed to Los Angeles at all,
would have to enter the city. When the time for action
arrived, the Southern Pacific built into Los Angeles along the
lines indicated in our interview with Huntington.
On Saturday afternoon, May i8th, 1872, a public meeting
was held in the Los Angeles Court-house. Governor Downey
called the assembly to order; whereupon H. K. S. O'Melveny
was elected President and Major Ben C. Truman, Secretary.
Speeches were made by Downey, Phineas Banning, B. D.
Wilson, E. J. C. Kewen and C. H. Larrabee; and resolutions
were adopted pledging financial assistance from the County,
provided the road was constructed within a given time. A
Committee was then appointed to seek general information con-
cerning railroads likely to extend their lines to Los Angeles ; and
on that Committee I had the honor of serving with F. P. F.
Temple, A. F. Coronel, H. K. S. O'Melveny, J. G. Downey, S. B.
Caswell, J. M. Griffith, Henry Dalton, Andres Pico, L. J. Rose,
General George Stoneman and D. W. Alexander. A few days
later, Wilson, Rose and W. R. Olden of Anaheim were sent
to San Francisco to discuss terms with the Southern Pacific;
and when they returned, they brought with them Stanford's
representative, Hyde. Temple, O'Melveny and I were made a
special committee to confer with Hyde in drawing up ordinances
for the County; and these statutes were immediately passed
by the Supervisors. The Southern Pacific agreed to build
fifty miles of its main trunk line through the County, with a
branch line to Anaheim ; and the County, among other condi-
tions, was to dispose of its stock in the Los Angeles & San
Pedro Railroad to the Southern Pacific Company.
When all this matter was presented to the people, the oppo-
sition was even greater than in the campaign of 1868. One
newspaper the Evening Express while declaring that "rail-
way companies are soulless corporations, invariably selfish,
with a love for money," even maintained that "because they
44 2 Sixty Years in Southern California [1872-
are rich, they have no more right to build to us than has
Governor Downey to build our schoolhouses." Public ad-
dresses were made to excited, demonstrative audiences by
Henry T. Hazard, R. M. Widney and others who favored the
Southern Pacific. On the evening of November 4th, or the
night before the election, the Southern Pacific adherents held
a torchlight procession and a mass-meeting, at the same time
illuminating the pueblo with the customary bonfires. When
the vote was finally counted, it was found that the Southern
Pacific had won by a big majority; and thus was made the
first concession to the railroad which has been of such para-
mount importance in the development of this section of the
State.
In 1872, Nathaniel C. Carter, who boasted that he made for
the Government the first American flag woven by machinery,
purchased and settled upon a part of the Flores rancho near
San Gabriel. Through wide advertising, Carter attracted
his Massachusetts friends to this section; and in 1874 ne
started the Carter excursions and brought train-loads of people
to Los Angeles.
Terminating a series of wanderings by sea and by land,
during which he had visited California in 1849, John Lang,
father of Gustav J. (once a Police Commissioner), came to Los
Angeles for permanent residence in 1872, bringing a neat little
pile of gold. With part of his savings he purchased the five
acres since known as the Laurel Tract on Sixteenth Street, where
he planted an orchard, and some of the balance he put into a
loan for which, against his will, he had to take over the lot on
Spring Street between Second and Third where the Lang Build-
ing now stands. Soon after his advent here, Lang found himself
one of four persons of the same name, which brought about such
confusion between him, the pioneer at Lang's Station and two
others, that the bank always labelled him "Lang No. I," while
it called the station master "Lang No. 2." In 1866, Lang
had married, in Victoria, Mrs. Rosine Everhardt a sister of
Mrs. Kiln Messer ; and his wife refusing to live at the lonesome
ranch, Lang bought, for four hundred dollars, the lot on Fort
1873] The Wool Craze 443
Street on which Tally's Theater now stands, and built there a
modest home from which he went out daily to visit his orchard.
Being of an exceedingly studious turn of mind, Lang devoted
his spare time to profitable reading ; and to such an extent had
he secluded himself that, when he died, on December 9th, 1900,
he had passed full thirty years here without having seen Santa
Monica or Pasadena. Nor had he entered the courtroom more
than once, and then only when compelled to go there to release
some property seized upon for taxes remaining unpaid by one
of the other John Langs. Regarded by his family as ideal-
istic and kind-hearted, John Lang was really such a hermit
that only with difficulty were friends enough found who could
properly serve as pall-bearers.
On June 2d, B. F. Ramirez and others launched the
Spanish newspaper, La Cronica, from the control of which
Ramirez soon retired to make way for E. F. de Celis. Under
the latter's leadership, the paper became notable as a Coast
organ for the Latin race. Almost simultaneously, A. J. King
and A. Waite published their City Directory.
On the seventeenth of July our family circle was gladdened
by the wedding festivities of Kaspare Cohn and Miss Hulda,
sister of M. A. Newmark. The bride had been living with us
for some time as a member of our family.
I have spoken of the attempt made, in 1859, to found a
Public Library. In 1872, there was another agitation that led
to a mass-meeting on December yth, in the old Merced Theatre
on Main Street ; and among others present were Judge Ygnacio
Sepulveda, General George H. Stoneman, Governor John G.
Downey, Henry Kirk White Bent, S. B. Caswell, W. J. Brod-
rick, Colonel G. H. Smith, W. B. Lawlor and myself. The Los
Angeles Library Association was formed; and Downey, Bent,
Brodrick, Caswell and I were appointed to canvas for funds
and donations of books. Fifty dollars was charged for a
life membership, and five dollars for yearly privileges; and
besides these subscriptions, donations and loans of books main-
tained the Library. The institution was established in four
small, dark rooms of the old Downey Block on Temple and
444 Sixty Years in Southern California [1872-
Spring streets, where the Federal Building now stands, and where
the Times, then the youngest newspaper in Los Angeles, was
later housed; and there J. C. Littlefield acted as the first Libra-
rian. In 1874, the State Legislature passed an enabling act for
a Public Library in Los Angeles, and from that time on public
funds contributed to the support of the worthy undertaking.
On January ist, 1873, M. A. Newmark, who had come to
Los Angeles eight years before, was admitted into partnership
with H. Newmark & Company; and three years later, on
February 27th, he married Miss Harriet, daughter of J. P.
Newmark. Samuel Cohn having died, the associates then
were: Kaspare Cohn, M. J. Newmark, M. A. Newmark and
myself.
On February ist, 1873, two job printers, Yarnell & Caystile,
who had opened a little shop at 14 Commercial Street, began
to issue a diminutive paper called the Weekly Mirror, with
four pages but ten by thirteen inches in size and three columns
to the page; and this miniature news-sheet, falling wet from the
press every Saturday, was distributed free. Success greeted
the advertising venture and the journal was known as the
smallest newspaper on the Coast. A month later, William
M. Brown joined the firm, thenceforth called Yarnell, Caystile
& Brown. On March I9th, the publishers added a column to
each page, announcing, rather prophetically perhaps, their
intention of attaining a greatness that should know no obstacle
or limit. In November, the Mirror was transferred to a build-
ing on Temple Street, near the Downey Block, erected for its
special needs; and there it continued to be published until, in
1887, it was housed with the Times.
Nels Williamson, to whom I have referred, married a native
Calif ornian, and their eldest daughter, Mariana, in 1873
became the wife of Antonio Franco Coronel, the gay couple
settling in one of the old pueblo adobes on the present site of
Bishop & Company's factory; and there they were visited by
Helen Hunt Jackson when she came here in the early eighties.
In 1886, they moved opposite to the home that Coronel built
on the southwest corner of Seventh Street and Central Avenue.
1873] The Wool Craze 445
Educated here at the public and the Sisters' schools, Mrs.
Coronel was a recognized leader in local society, proving very
serviceable in the preparation of Ramona and receiving, in
return, due acknowledgment from the distinguished authoress
who presented her with the first copy of the book published.
Daniel Freeman, a Canadian who came in 1873, was one of
many to be attracted to California through Nordhoff's famous
book. After looking at many ranches, Freeman inspected the
Centinela with Sir Robert Burnett, the Scotch owner then
living there. Burnett insisted that the ranch was too dry for
farming and cited his own necessity of buying hay at thirty
dollars a ton ; but Freeman purchased the twenty-five thousand
acres, stocked them with sheep and continued long in that busi-
ness, facing many a difficulty attendant upon the dry seasons,
notably in 1875-76, when he lost fully twenty- two thousand
head.
L. H. Titus, who bought from J. D. Woodworth the land
in his San Gabriel orchard and vineyard, early used iron water-
pipes for irrigation. A bold venture of the same year was the
laying of iron water-pipes throughout East Los Angeles, at
great expense, by Dr. John S. Griffin and Governor John G.
Downey. About the same time, the directors of the Orange
Grove Association which as we shall later see founded Pasadena,
used iron pipe for conducting water, first to a good reservoir
and then to their lands, for irrigating. In 1873 also, the
Alhambra Tract, then beginning to be settled as a fashionable
suburb of Los Angeles, obtained its water supply through the
efforts of B. D. Wilson and his son-in-law, J. De Barth Shorb,
who constructed large reservoirs near the San Gabriel Mission,
piped water to Alhambra and sold it to local consumers.
James R. Toberman, destined to be twice rechosen Mayor
of Los Angeles, was first elected in 1873, defeating Crist6bal
Aguilar, an honored citizen of early days, who had thrice been
Mayor and was again a candidate. Toberman made a record
for fiscal reform by reducing the City's indebtedness over thirty
thousand dollars and leaving a balance of about twenty-five
thousand in the Treasury; while, at the same time, he caused
44 6 Sixty Years in Southern California [1872-
the tax-rate during his administration to dwindle, from one
dollar and sixty cents per hundred to one dollar. Toberman
Street bears this Mayor's name.
In 1873, President Grant appointed Henry Kirk White
Bent, who had arrived in 1868, Postmaster of Los Angeles.
The several agitations for protection against fire had, for a
long time no tangible results due most probably to the lack of
water facilities; but after the incorporation of the Los Angeles
Water Company and the introduction of two or three hydrants,
thirty-eight loyal citizens of the town in April organized
themselves into the first volunteer fire company, popularly
termed the 38 's, imposing a fee of a dollar a month. Some of
the yeomen who thus set the ball a-rolling were Major Ben C.
Truman, Tom Rowan, W. J. Brodrick, Jake Kuhrts, Charley
Miles, George Tiffany, Aaron Smith, Henry T. Hazard, Cameron
E. Thorn, Fred Eaton, Matthew Keller, Dr. J. S. Crawford,
Sidney Lacey, John Cashin and George P. McLain; and such
was their devotion to the duty of both allaying and producing
excitement, that it was a treat to stand by the side of the dusty
street and watch the boys, bowling along, answer the fire-bell
the fat as well as the lean hitched to their one hose-cart. This
cart, pulled by men, was known as the jumper a name widely
used among early volunteer firemen and so applied because, when
the pufring and blowing enthusiasts drew the cart after them, by
means of ropes, the two-wheeled vehicle jumped from point to
point along the uneven surface of the road. The first engine of
the 38*5, known as Fire Engine No. I, was housed, I think,
back of the Pico House, but was soon moved to a building on
Spring Street near Franklin and close to the City Hall.
About 1873, or possibly 1874, shrimps first appeared in the
local market.
In 1873, the Los Angeles Daily News suspended publication.
A. J. King had retired on the first of January, 1870, to be suc-
ceeded by Charles E. Beane; on October loth, 1872, Alonzo
Waite had sold his interest and Beane alone was at the helm
when the ship foundered.
To resume the narrative of the Daily Star. In July, Henry
1873] The Wool Craze 447
Hamilton sold both the paper and the job-printing office for
six thousand dollars to Major Ben C. Truman, and the
latter conducted the Star for three or four years, filling it
brimful of good things just as his more fiery predecessor had
done.
John Lang "number two " the cultivator of fruit on what
was afterward Washington Gardens, who established Lang's Sta-
tion and managed the sulphur springs and the hotel there, in
July killed a bear said to have been one of the grizzliest grizzlies
ever seen on the Coast. Lang started after Mr. Bruin and,
during an encounter in the San Fernando range that nearly cost
his life, finally shot him. The bear tipped the beam forbid it
that anyone should question the reading of the scales ! at two
thousand, three hundred and fifty pounds; and later, as gossip
had it, the pelt was sold to a museum in Liverpool, England.
This adventure, which will doubtless bear investigation, recalls
another hunt, by Colonel William Butts, later editor of the
Southern Calif ornian, in which the doughty Colonel, while rolling
over and over with the infuriated beast, plunged a sharp blade
into the animal's vitals; but only after Butts's face, arms and
legs had been horribly lacerated. Butts's bear, a hundred
hunters in San Luis Obispo County might have told you,
weighed twenty-one hundred pounds or more.
Dismissing these bear stories, some persons may yet be
interested to learn of the presence here, in earlier days, of the
ferocious wild boar. These were met with, for a long time,
in the wooded districts of certain mountainous land-tracts
x
owned by the Abilas, and there wild swine were hunted as late
as 1873.
In the summer, D. M. Berry, General Nathan Kimball,
Calvin Fletcher and J. H. Baker came to Los Angeles from
Indianapolis, representing the California Colony of Indiana, a
cooperative association which proposed to secure land for
Hoosiers who wished to found a settlement in Southern Cali-
fornia. This scheme originated with Dr. Thomas Balch Elliott
of Indianapolis, Berry's brother-in-law and an army surgeon
who had established the first grain elevator in Indiana and
448 Sixty Years in Southern California [1872-
whose wife, now ill, could no longer brave the severe winters of
the middle West.
Soon after their arrival, Wall Street's crash brought ruin to
many subscribers and the members of the committee found them-
selves stranded in Los Angeles. Berry opened a. real estate
office on Main Street near Arcadia, for himself and the absent
Elliott; and one day, at the suggestion of Judge B. S. Eaton,
Baker visited the San Pasqual rancho, then in almost primeval
glory, and was so pleased with what he saw that he per-
suaded Fletcher to join Dr. Elliott, Thomas H. Croft of
Indianapolis and himself in incorporating the San Gabriel
Orange Grove Association, with one hundred shares at two
hundred and fifty dollars each. The Association then bought
out Dr. J. S. Griffin's interest, or some four thousand acres in
the ranch, paying about twelve dollars and a half per acre,
after which some fifteen hundred of the choicest acres were
subdivided into tracts of from fifteen to sixty acres each.
The San Pasqual settlement was thus called for a while
the Indiana Colony, though but a handful of Hoosiers had
actually joined the movement; and Dr. and Mrs. Elliott, reach-
ing Los Angeles on December 1st, 1874, immediately took
possession of their grant on the banks of the Arroyo Seco near
the Fremont Trail. On April 22d, 1875, The Indiana Colony
was discontinued as the name of the settlement ; it being seen
that a more attractive title should be selected. Dr. Elliott
wrote to a college-mate in the East for an appropriate Indian
name ; and Pasadena was adopted as Chippewa for ' ' Crown of
the Valley." Linguists, I am informed, do not endorse the
word as Indian of any kind, but it is a musical name, and now
famous and satisfactory. Dr. Elliott threw all his energy into
the cultivation of oranges, but it was not long before he saw,
with a certain prophetic vision, that not the fruit itself, but the
health-giving and charming- qualities of the San Pasqual cli-
mate were likely to prove the real asset of the colonists and the
foundation of their prosperity. Pasadena and South Pasadena,
therefore, owe their existence largely to the longing of a frail
Indiana woman for a less rigorous climate and her dream that
1873] The Wool Craze 449
in the sunny Southland along the Pacific she should find health
and happiness.
M. J. Newmark was really instrumental, more than any-
one else, in first persuading D. M. Berry to come to California.
He had met Berry in New York and talked to him of the
possibility of buying the Santa Anita rancho, which we were
then holding for sale ; and on his return he traveled homeward
by way of Indiana, stopping off at Indianapolis in order to
bring Berry out here to see the property. Owing to the high
price asked, however, Berry and his associates could not ne-
gotiate the purchase, and so the matter was dropped.
Lawson D. Hollingsworth and his wife, Lucinda, Quakers
from Indiana, opened the first grocery at the crossroads in the
new settlement, and for many years were popularly spoken of
as Grandpa and Grandma Hollingsworth. Dr. H. T. Hollings-
worth, their son, now of Los Angeles, kept the Post Office in the
grocery, receiving from the Government for his services the
munificent sum of twenty-five cents a week.
The summer of 1873 was marked by the organization of a
corporation designed to advance the general business interests
of Los Angeles and vicinity. This was the Chamber of Com-
merce or, as it was at first called, the Board of Trade; and had
its origin in a meeting held on August ist in the old Court-
House on the site of the present Bullard Block. Ex-Governor
John G. Downey was called to the chair; and J. M. Griffith was
made Secretary pro tern. Before the next meeting, over one
hundred representative merchants registered for membership,
and on August 9th, a constitution and by-laws were adopted,
a board of eleven Directors elected and an admission fee of five
dollars agreed upon. Two days later, the organization was
incorporated, with J. G. Downey, S. Lazard, M. J. Newmark,
H. W. Hellman, P. Beaudry, S. B. Caswell, Dr. J. S. Griffin,
R. M. Widney, C. C. Lips, J. M. Griffith and I. W. Lord, as
Directors; and these officers chose Solomon Lazard as the first
President and I. W. Lord as the first Secretary. Judge
Widney's office in the Temple Block was the meeting-place.
The Chamber unitedly and enthusiastically set to work to
29
450 Sixty Years in Southern California [1872-
push forward the commercial interests of Southern California;
and the first appropriation by Congress for the survey and
improvement of San Pedro Harbor was effected mainly through
the new society's efforts. Descriptive pamphlets setting forth
the advantages of our locality were distributed throughout the
East ; and steps were taken to build up the trade with Arizona
and the surrounding territory. In this way the Chamber of
Commerce labored through the two or three succeeding years,
until bank failures, droughts and other disasters, of which I
shall speak, threw the cold blanket of discouragement over
even so commendable an enterprise and for the time being
its activities ceased.
On October 3d, C. A. Storke founded the Daily and Weekly
Herald, editing the paper until August, 1874 when J. M.
Bassett became its editor. In a few months he retired and
John M. Baldwin took up the quill.
In the autumn of 1873, Barnard Brothers set in operation
the first woolen mill here, built in 1868 or 1869 by George
Hansen and his associates in the Canal and Reservoir Com-
pany. It was located on the ditch along the canon of the
Arroyo de Los Reyes now Figueroa Street; and for fifteen
years or more was operated by the Barnards and the Coulters,
after which it was turned into an ice factory.
In March of the preceding year, I sent my son Maurice
to New York, expecting him there to finish his education.
It was thought best, however, to allow him, in 1873, to pro-
ceed across the ocean and on to Paris where he might also
learn the French language, at that time an especially valuable
acquisition in Los Angeles. To this latter decision I was led
when Zadoc Kahn, Grand Rabbi of Paris and afterward Grand
Rabbi of France, and a brother-in-law of Eugene Meyer,
signified his willingness to take charge of the lad ; and for three
years the Grand Rabbi and his excellent wife well fulfilled
their every obligation as temporary guardians. How great
an advantage, indeed, this was will be readily recognized by
all familiar with the published life of Zadoc Kahn and his
reputation as a scholar and pulpit orator. He was a man
1873] The Wool Craze 451
of the highest ideals, as was proved in his unflinching activity,
with Emile Zola, in the defense and liberation of the long-
persecuted Dreyfus.
Sometime in December, L. C. Tibbetts, one of the early
colonists at Riverside, received a small package from a friend
at Washington, D. C., after having driven sixty-five miles to Los
Angeles to get it; and he took it out of the little express office
without attracting any more attention than to call forth the
observation of the clerk that some one must care a lot about
farming to make so much fuss about two young trees. '"Tis
nothing, says the fool!" The package in question contained
two small orange trees from Bahia, Brazil, brought to the
United States by the Agricultural Department and destined
to bestow upon Tibbetts the honor of having originated the
navel orange industry of California.
In 1873, Drum Barracks at Wilmington were offered by the
Government at public auction; and what had cost a million
dollars or so to install, was knocked down for less than ten
thousand dollars to B. D. Wilson, who donated it for
educational purposes.
During the winter of 1873-74, tne Southern Pacific com-
menced the construction of its Anaheim branch; and the first
train from Los Angeles to the thriving, expectant German
settlement made the run in January, 1875.
Max Cohn, a nephew, arrived in Los Angeles in 1873 and
clerked for H. Newmark & Company for a number of years.
In December, 1885, when I retired from the wholesale grocery
business, Max became a full partner. In 1888, failing health
compelled him, although a young man, to seek European
medical advice ; and he entered a sanatorium at Falkenstein, in
the Taunus Mountains where, in 1889, he died.
CHAPTER XXXI
THE END OF VASQUEZ
1874
ALTHOUGH a high school had been proposed for Los
Angeles as early as 1860, it was not until 1873, during
Dr. W. T. Lucky's superintendency and under his
teaching, that high-school courses were inaugurated here.
Then the more advanced students were accommodated in the
schoolhouse on Pound Cake Hill, where the Court-house now
stands ; and from this humble beginning the present high-school
system of Los Angeles has been evolved. Later, under Dr. T.
H. Rose's leadership, the grammar departments were removed
to the other school buildings and the High School was conducted
as an independent institution.
In 1874, S. Lazard & Company dissolved, Eugene and
Constant Meyer succeeding, on June I5th, under the firm
name of Eugene Meyer & Company or, as the store was better
known, the City of Paris.
Charles H., or Charley White, long prominent in the
passenger department of the Southern Pacific, entered the
service of the Los Angeles & San Pedro Railroad in 1874, as
John Milner's assistant, and soon became the regular ticket-
agent here. After forty years of invaluable service, he is still
with the Southern Pacific occupying the important position of
Chief Clerk of the General Passenger Office.
George H. Peck, County Superintendent of Schools be-
tween 1874 and 1876, was a Vermonter who came in 1869
and bought five hundred acres of land near El Monte. On his
452
Vasquez and his Captors
(Top) D. K. Smith. (Middle) Albert Johnson, (Bottom) Emil Harris,
William R. Rowland, Greek George's Home, Tiburcio Vasquez,
Walter E. Rodgers. G. A. Beers. J. S. Bryant.
Greek George
Nicolfis Martinez
[1874] The End of Vasquez 453
first visit to the Coast, Peck handled hay in San Francisco
when it was worth two hundred dollars a ton ; then he mined a
little; and subsequently he opened the first public school in
Sacramento and the first industrial school in San Francisco.
Andrew A. Weinschank, a veteran of the Battle of Vera
Cruz who came to Los Angeles in 1856, died on February i6th,
1874. For a while, he sold home-made sauerkraut, pickles and
condiments, and was one of a well-known family in the German
pioneer group here. Carrie, one of Weinschank 's daughters,
married a circus man named Lee who made periodical visits to
Los Angeles, erecting a small tent, at first somewhere in the
neighborhood of the present Times Building, in which to con-
duct his show. Later, Polly Lee became a rider in the circus
and with her father electrified the youth of the town when Lee,
in the character of Dick Turpin, and mounted on his charger,
Black Bess, carried off the weeping Polly to his den of free-
booters. A son, Frank A. Weinschank, was a pioneer plumber.
In the early seventies, while the Southern Pacific Railway
was building from San Francisco to San Jose, some twelve or
fifteen bandits, carousing at a country dance in the Mexican
settlement, Panama (about six miles south of Bakersfield)
planned to cross the mountains and hold up the pay-car. They
were unsuccessful ; whereupon, they turned their attention to
the village of Tres Pinos, robbed several store-keepers and
killed three or four men. They were next heard of at little
Kingston, in Tulare County, where they plundered practically
the whole town. Then they once more disappeared.
Presently various clues pointed to the identity of the chief
bandido as one Tiburcio Vasquez, born in Monterey in the
thirties, who had taken to the life of an outlaw because, as he
fantastically said, some Gringos had insolently danced off with
the prettiest girls at fandangos, among them being his sweet-
heart whom an American had wronged. With the exception of
his Lieutenant, Chavez, he trusted no- one, and when he
moved from place to place, Chavez alone accompanied him.
In each new field he recruited a new gang, and he never slept
in camp with his followers.
454 Sixty Years in Southern California [1874
Although trailed by several sheriffs, Vasquez escaped to
Southern California leading off the wife of one of his associ-
ates a bit of gallantry that contributed to his undoing, as
the irate husband at once gave the officers much information
concerning Vasquez's life and methods. One day in the
spring of 1874, Vasquez and three of his companions appeared
at the ranch of Alessandro Repetto, nine miles from town,
disguised as sheep-shearers. The following morning, while the
inmates of the ranch-house were at breakfast, the highwaymen
entered the room and held up the defenceless household.
Vasquez informed Repetto that he was organizing a revolution
in Lower California and merely desired to borrow the trifling
sum of eight hundred dollars. Repetto replied that he had no
money in the house; but Vasquez compelled the old man to
sign a check for the sum demanded, and immediately dis-
patched to town a boy working for Repetto, with the strict
injunction that if he did not return with the money alone, and
soon, his master would be shot.
When the check was presented at the Temple & Workman
Bank, Temple, who happened to be there, became suspicious
but could elicit from the messenger no satisfactory response
to his questions. The bank was but a block from the Court-
house; and when Sheriff Rowland hurriedly came, in answer to
a summons, he was inclined to detain the lad. The boy, how-
ever, pleaded so hard for Repetto's life that the Sheriff agreed
to the messenger's returning alone with the money. Soon
after, Rowland and several deputies started out along the
same trail; but a lookout sighted the approaching horsemen
and gave the alarm. Vasquez and his associates took to
flight and were pursued as far as Tejunga Pass; but as the cut-
throats were mounted on fresh horses, they escaped. Even while
being pursued, Vasquez had the audacity to fleece a party of
men in the employ of the Los Angeles Water Company who
were doing some work near the Alhambra Tract. The well-
known Angeleno and engineer in charge, Charles E. Miles, was
relieved of an expensive gold watch.
In April, 1874, Sheriff Rowland heard that Vasquez
1874] The End of Vasquez 455
had visited the home of "Greek George" the Smyrniot
camel-driver to whom I have referred and who was living
about ten miles from Los Angeles, near the present location of
Hollywood. Rowland took into his confidence D. K. Smith
and persuaded him to stroll that way, ostensibly as a farmer's
hand seeking employment ; and within two weeks Smith reported
to Rowland that the information as to Vasquez's whereabouts
was correct. Rowland then concluded to make up a posse, but
inasmuch as a certain element kept Vasquez posted regarding
the Sheriff's movements, Rowland had to use great precaution.
Anticipating this emergency, City Detective Emil Harris four
years later Chief of Police had been quietly transferred to the
Sheriff's office; in addition to whom, Rowland selected Albert
Johnson, Under Sheriff; B. F. Hartley, a local policeman;
J. S. Bryant, City Constable; Major Eenry M. Mitchell, an
attorney; D. K. Smith; Walter Rodgers, proprietor of the Palace
Saloon ; and G. A. Beers, a correspondent of the San Francisco
Chronicle. All these were ordered to report, one by one with
their horses, shortly after midnight, at Jones's Corral on Spring
Street near Seventh. Arms and ammunition, carefully
packed, were likewise smuggled in. Whether true or not that
Vasquez would speedily be informed of the Sheriff's where-
abouts, it is certain that, in resolving not to leave his office,
Rowland sacrificed, for the public weal, such natural ambition
that he cannot be too much applauded; not even the later
reward of eight thousand dollars really compensating him for
his disappointment.
By half -past one o'clock in the morning, the eight members
of the posse were all in the saddle and silently following a
circuitous route. At about daybreak, in dense fog, they camped
at the mouth of Nichols's Canyon two miles away from the
house of Greek George where Charles Knowles, an Ameri-
can, was living. When the fog lifted, Johnston, Mitchell,
Smith and. Bryant worked their way to a point whence they
could observe Greek George's farm; and Bryant, returning to
camp, reported that a couple of gray horses had been seen
tied near the ranch-house. Shortly thereafter, a four-horse
45 6 Sixty Years in Southern California (1874
empty wagon, driven by two Mexicans, went by the canon
and was immediately stopped and brought in. The Mexicans
were put in charge of an officer, and about the same time
Johnston came tearing down the ravine with the startling
statement that Vasquez was undoubtedly at Greek George's !
A quick consultation ensued and it was decided by the
posse to approach their goal in the captured vehicle, leaving
their own horses in charge of Knowles ; and having warned the
Mexicans that they would be shot if they "proved treacherous,
the deputies climbed into the wagon and lay down out of sight.
When a hundred yards from the house, the officers stealthily
scattered in various directions. Harris, Rodgers and Johnston
ran to the north side, and Hartley and Beers to the west.
Through an open door, Vasquez was seen at the breakfast table,
and Harris, followed by the others, made a quick dash for the
house. A woman waiting on Vasquez attempted to shut the
officers out ; but Harris injected his rifle through the half -open
door and prevented her. During the excitement, Vasquez
climbed through a little window, and Harris, yelling, "There
he goes!" raised his Henry rifle and shot at him. By the time
Harris had reached the other side of the house, Vasquez was a
hundred feet away and running like a deer toward his horse. In
the meantime, first Hartley and then the other officers used their
shotguns and slightly wounded him again. Vasquez then threw
up his hands, saying: "Boys, you've done well! but I've been
a damned fool, and it's my own fault!" The identity of the
bandit thus far had not been established; and when Harris
asked his name, he answered, "Alessandro Martinez." 1 In
the meantime, captors and prisoner entered the house; and
Vasquez, who was weakened from his wounds, sat down, while
the young woman implored the officers not to kill him. At
closer range, a good view was obtained of the man who had so
long terrorized the State. He was about five feet six or seven
inches in height, sparely built, with small feet and hands
in that respect by no means suggesting the desperado with
1 Not the Spanish Alejandro; a variation doubtless suggested by the Italian
Repetto's forename.
1874] The End of Vasquez 457
a low forehead, black, coarse hair and mustache, and furtive,
cunning eyes.
By this time, the entire posse, excepting Mitchell and Smith
(who had followed a man seen to leave Greek George's), pro-
ceeded to search the house. The first door opened revealed
a young fellow holding a baby in his arms. .He, the most
youthful member of the organization, had been placed on
guard. There were no other men in the house, although four
rifles and six pistols, all loaded and ready for use, were found.
Fearing no such raid, the other outlaws were afield in the
neighborhood; and being warned by the firing, they escaped.
One of Vasquez's guns, by the way, has been long preserved
by the family of Francisco Ybarra and now rests secure in
the County Museum.
Underneath one of the beds was found Vasquez's vest
containing Charley Miles 's gold watch, which Harris at once
recognized. The prisoner was asked whether he was seriously
hurt and he said that he expected to die, at the same time
admitting that he was Vasquez and asking Harris to write
down some of his bequests. He said that he was a single man,
although he had two children living at Elizabeth Lake ; and he
exhibited portraits of them. He protested that he had never
killed a human being, and said that the murders at Tres Pinos
were due to Chavez's disobedience of orders.
The officers borrowed a wagon from Judge Thompson who
lived in the neighborhood into which they loaded Vasquez, the
boy and the weapons, and so proceeded on their way. When
they arrived near town, Smith and Mitchell caught up with
them. Mitchell was then sent to give advance notice of Vas-
quez's capture and to have medical help on hand; and by the
time the party arrived, the excitement was intense. The City
Fathers, then in session, rushed out pellmell and crowds sur-
rounded the Jail. Dr. K. D. Wise, Health Officer, and Dr. J.
P. Widney, County Physician, administered treatment to the
captive. Vasquez, in irons, pleaded that he was dying; but Dr.
Widney, as soon as he had examined the captive, warned the
Sheriff that the prisoner, if he escaped, would still be game for a
45 8 Sixty Years in Southern California [1874
long day's ride. Everybody who could, visited him and I was
no exception. I was disgusted, however, when I found Vas-
quez's cell filled with flowers, sent by some white women of
Los Angeles who had been carried away by the picturesque
career of the bandido; but Sheriff Rowland soon stopped all
such foolish exuberance.
Vasquez admitted that he had frequently visited Mexicans
in Los Angeles, doing this against the advice of his lieutenant,
Chavez, who had warned him that Sheriff Rowland also had
good friends among the Mexicans.
Among those said to have been in confidential touch with
Vasquez was Mariano G. Santa Cruz, a prominent figure, in
his way, in Sonora Town. He kept a grocery about three
hundred feet from the old Plaza Church, on the east side of
Upper Main Street, and had a curiously-assorted household.
There on many occasions, it is declared, Vasquez found a safe
refuge.
Five days after the capture, Signer Repetto called upon the
prisoner, who was in chains, and remarked: "I have come
to say that, so far as / am concerned, you can settle that little
account with God Almighty!" Vasquez, with characteristic
flourishes, thanked the Italian and began to speak of repay-
ment, when Repetto replied : " I do not expect that. But I
beg of you, if ever you resume operations, never to visit me
again." Whereupon Vasquez, placing his hand dramatically
upon his breast, exclaimed: "Ah, Senor, I am a cavalier,
with a cavalier's heart!" / Senor Repetto, yo soy un caballero,
con el corazon de un caballero!
As soon as Vasquez's wounds were healed, he was taken by
Sheriff Rowland to Tres Pinos and there indicted for murder.
Miller & Lux, the great cattle owners, furnished the money, it
was understood, for his defense supposedly as a matter of
policy. His attorneys asked for, and obtained, a change of
venue, and Vasquez was removed to San Jose. There he was
promptly tried, found guilty and, in March, 1875, hanged.
Many good anecdotes were long told of Vasquez; one of
which was that he could size up a man quickly, as to whether
1874] The End of Vasquez 459
he was a native son or not, by the direction in which he
would roll a cigarette toward or away from himself! As
soon as the long-feared bandit was in captivity, local wits
began to joke at his expense. A burlesque on Vasquez was
staged late in May at the Merced Theater; and the day the
outlaw was captured, a merchant began his advertisement:
"VASQUEZ says that MENDEL MEYER has the Finest and
Most Complete Stock of Dry Goods and Clothing, etc."
In the spring of 1874, Charles Maclay, with whom were
associated George K. and F. B. Porter, purchased the San
Fernando rancho which consisted of fifty-six thousand acres
and embraced the old Spanish Mission; and on April 2Oth,
Maclay invited fifty of his friends to a picnic on his newly-
acquired possession. During the day some one suggested
founding a town there. The name of the new settlement was
to be decided by a vote of the participants, and almost unani-
mously they selected the title of San Fernando. Within a
couple of weeks, hundreds of lots were sold and the well-known
colony was soon on the way to prosperity. Boring for petro-
leum commenced in the San Fernando Mountains about that
time, and the new town became the terminus of the Southern
Pacific until the long tunnel was completed. Maclay, who was
a native of Massachusetts, came to California at about the
same time as I did; he was at first a tanner in Santa Cruz,
but later came south and, entering into politics in addition to
his other activities, became State Senator, in which position
he attained considerable local prominence.
A charming home of the seventies was that of Dr. and Mrs.
Shaw, pioneers situated, as I recollect, on San Pedro Street
perhaps as far south as what is now Adams. They conducted
a diversified nursery, including some orange trees, to obtain
which Shaw had journeyed all the way to Nicaragua.
Toward the end of April, 1874, General E. F. Beale and
Colonel R. S. Baker, representing themselves and New York
capitalists, sought support for a new railroad project a
single-track line to run from this city to Shoo-Fly Landing,
located, I think, near the present Playa del Rey and con-
460 Sixty Years in Southern California [1874
siderably north of San Pedro; where a town, Truxton
doubtless named after the General's son was to be founded.
The proposed railway was to be known as the Los Angeles &
Truxton Railroad, with a route from the western part of the
city in the direction of Cienega and the Rincon de los Bueyes,
and along a corner of the Ballona. The estimated length of
the line was fourteen miles, and the projectors claimed that it
would enable the Angeleno to reach San Francisco within thirty
hours, with but one night at sea, and so add to the comfort,
convenience and cheapness of passenger travel. A new harbor
and an additional pier stretching far into the ocean were to
be features of the enterprise; but for some reason or other,
nothing grew out of the movement. As late as the following
September, the promoters were still interviewing councilmen
and ranch-owners; but the Los Angeles & Truxton Railroad
remained a mere fancy of the financier and engineer.
For a resort that never came to be settled by a community,
Truxton acquired some fame in the early seventies, a rumor
also being current in the summer of 1874 that a fine sea-shore
hotel was to be built there. A clipping before me of the same
date even says that ' ' the roads to Santa Monica, Truxton and
Will Tell's are in splendid order the former being the finest
natural highway on the Pacific Coast."
F. X. Eberle and wife, Marsetes, came here in 1874, bought
six or seven acres on the corner of San Pedro and the present
Eighth streets, and fitted up the City Gardens, with bowling
alleys, swings, lawns and bowers, erecting there also a pictur-
esque windmill.
I have expressed the surprise that I felt, when, upon my re-
turn from New York in 1868, I observed that the approaches
to the hills were dotted here and there with little homes. This
extension of the residence area, together with the general lack
of street and sidewalk improvements making travel to and
from the town somewhat inconvenient, suggested, I have no
doubt, the need of the first street railroad here. In 1869, Judge
R. M. Widney, together with his associates, obtained a fifty-
year franchise; and by 1874, the little Spring and Sixth Street
1874] The End of Vasquez 461
line in time bought by S. C. Hubbell and j. E. Hollen-
beck had been built and was in operation. It is my re-
collection that this line (partly paid for by subscriptions from
property owners along the selected route, each of whom con-
tributed fifty cents per running foot) began at the Plaza and
extended as far out as Pearl and Sixth streets by way of Main,
Spring, First, Fort, Fourth, Hill, Fifth and Olive; and that it
was at the Sixth and Pearl Street terminus that the almost
miniature wooden barn was put up. For the convenience
of the traveling public, two bob-tailed, one-horse cars with a
small platform at each end were used over a single track
approximately but two and a half miles in length; and to
permit these cars to pass each other when they met halfway
along the line, a turnout or side-track was constructed.
Many a time at such a siding have I wasted precious minutes
awaiting the arrival of the other, belated car ; and the annoy-
ance of these delays was accentuated when, in winter, the cars
stuck in the mud and often required an hour or more to make
the run from one end of the line to the other. Indeed, the ties
having been laid almost on the surface of the streets, service in
bad weather was sometimes suspended altogether. Each car
was in charge of a driver who also acted as conductor and was
permitted to stop as often as he pleased to take on or let off
passengers; and while the single horse or mule jogged along
slowly, the driver, having wound his reins around the handle
of the brake, would pass through the never-crowded vehicle
and take up the fares. Single rides cost ten cents; four tickets
were sold for two bits; and twenty tickets were given for a
dollar. So provincial was the whole enterprise that passengers
were expected to purchase their tickets either at W. J. Brod-
rick's book store or of Dr. Fred. P. Howard, the druggist. At a
later period, a metal box with a glass front was installed, into
which the passenger was required to drop his coin or ticket.
In those modest days, small compensation in public utility
enterprises if such they could be called was quite acceptable ;
and since the Spring and Sixth Street line had proven rather
profitable, it was not long before W. J. Brodrick, Governor
462 Sixty Years in Southern California [1874
Downey, O. W. Childs, Dave Waldron, I. W. Hellman and
others inaugurated a second horse-railway. This was popu-
larly known as the Main Street line and extended straight down
Main Street from Temple Block to Washington Gardens.
Much the same kind of equipment was used, one horse or mule
poking along with a bob-tailed car in tow, seating at most eight
or ten passengers ; but the fare for adults was ten cents, and for
children five. At night, the motor power and the couple of cars
were housed in a barn at either Main or Washington Street.
Soon after this line was in running order, it was extended
from Washington south to Jefferson, out Jefferson to Wesley
(now University) Avenue, and thence to the race-track at
Agricultural Park; and there the shed for this section was
erected. Still later, a branch was built out Washington Street
to Figueroa, and down Figueroa to Jefferson, where it connected
with the first extension. No formal transfers were made,
transfer-tickets first coming into vogue in Los Angeles about
1889. Two routes for the cars were arranged, both running
between Temple Block and the race-track. The entire system
was controlled by the Main Street & Agricultural Park Railroad
Company, with which W. J. Brodrick was associated as its first
President, continuing in that office until his death in 1898. In
1877, Colonel John O. Wheeler, the quondam journalist, was
Manager. Later, E. M. Loricke was Superintendent the same
Loricke who built the line between Oakland and Berkeley, and
was finally killed by one of his own cars. James Gallagher,
who went to work for the Main Street & Agricultural Park
Railroad Company in October, 1888, and who had charge also
of one of the first electric cars run here, is still a street-car
conductor pleasantly known, with the longest record for service
of any conductor in the city. As I have said, travel in winter
was anything but expeditious and agreeable; and it was not
uncommon for passengers, when a car left the track, to get out
and assist in the operation of putting it back. Notwith-
standing these drawbacks, however, the mule-car novelty
became popular with some ; and one Spanish girl in particular,
whose father amply supplied her with pocket-money, was a fre-
1874] The End of Vasquez 463
quent passenger, riding back and forth, from hour to hour, for
months. As late as 1887, there were no cars before six o'clock
in the morning or after ten o'clock at night ; and in that same
year, serious complaint was made that, despite a city ordinance
forbidding any street railway company to carry more than forty
persons in a car drawn by a single horse, the ordinance was
shamefully disregarded. Another regulation then frequently
disobeyed was supposed to limit smoking to the rear end of
street cars.
The same year, D. V. Waldron bought about thirty-five
acres on the southwest corner of Main and Washington streets,
soon known as the Washington Gardens, later Chute's Park.
These Gardens, among the most popular pleasure resorts here,
were served by the Main Street cars which ran direct to the
gate. In addition to a Sunday afternoon variety show that
held forth in a small pavilion and secured most of its talent
from Wood's Opera House, there was also dancing for those
who wished to indulge. I may add that this so-called opera
house was nothing more than a typical Western song and dance
resort, the gallery being cut up into boxes where the actresses,
between the acts, mingled with the crowd. Patrons indulged
in drinking and smoking; and the bar in front did a thriving
business. An insignificant collection of animals one of which,
an escaping monkey, once badly bit Waldron attracted not
only the children, but their elders as well; and charmingly-
arranged walks, amid trees and bowers, afforded innocent
and healthful means of recreation. Waldron later went to
Alaska, where a tragic death closed his career: alone and in
want, he was found, in May, 1911, dead in his hut.
Waldron and Eberle's prosperity may have influenced
George Lehman's fortunes; but however that was, he always
maintained his popularity. Many a joke was cracked at his
expense; yet everybody had a good word for him. Here is a
newspaper note of '74 :
Round House George is making great improvements in his
property at Fort and Sixth streets. He has already, at great
expense, set out a post and whitewashed a cactus plant !
464 Sixty Years in Southern California [1874
The popularity of the 38*3 Fire Company soon inspired a
second group of the good men of Los Angeles; and in 1874 or
1875, George Furman, George E. Gard, Joe Manning, John R.
Brierly, Bryce McClellan and others started Confidence Engine
Company No. 2, obtaining a steamer known as an Amoskeag,
which they installed in a building on Main Street near First,
on what was later the site of Childs' Opera House. It soon
developed, as in the days of the San Pedro stages when the most
important feature of the trip was the race to town, that a
conflagration was a matter of secondary importance, the mad
dash, in rivalry, by the two companies being the paramount
object. This was carried to such an extent that the day
following a fire was largely given to discussing the race, and
the first thing that everybody wished to know was, who got
there first ? Indeed, I believe that many an alarm "was sounded
to afford the boys around town a good chance to stake
their bets! All this made the fire-laddies the most popular
groups in the pueblo ; and in every public parade for years the
volunteer fire companies were the chief attraction. In 1876,
Walter S. Moore, an arrival of 1875, became the Confidence
Engine Company's Secretary, that being the commencement
of his career as a builder of the department. In 1877, Moore
was elected President, occupying that office till 1883 when he
was made Chief Engineer of the Los Angeles Fire Department.
On May I3th, 1874, the Los Angeles Daily Star contained
the following reference to Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Newmark
and an event of particular interest to me and my family:
Mr. Newmark, pere and wife, were among the passengers
for San Francisco by the Senator yesterday. This well-known
and highly-esteemed couple go to attend the marriage of their
son, Judge M. J. Newmark, which event occurs on the seventh
proximo, as announced in the Star some time ago.
Eugene Meyer and myself attended the wedding, leaving
Los Angeles by stage and completely surprising the merry com-
pany a few moments before the groom's father performed the
Benjamin S. Eaton
Henry T. Hazard
Fort Street Home, Harris Newmark, Site of Blanchard Hall; Joseph Newmark
at the Door
Calle de los Negros (Nigger Alley), about 1870
Second Street, Looking East from Hill Street, Early Seventies
1874] The End of Vasquez 465
ceremony. The fair bride was Miss Sophie Cahen, and the
occasion proved one of the very agreeable milestones in an
interesting and successful career. The first-born of this union,
Henry M. Newmark, now of Morgan & Newmark, has attained
civic distinction, being President of the Library Board.
The reason we journeyed north by stage was to escape
observation, for since the steamer-service had been so con-
siderably improved, most of our friends were accustomed to
travel by water. The Pacific Mail Steamship Company at that
time was running the Senator, the Pacific, the Orizaba and the
Mohongo, the latter being the gunboat sold by the -Government
at the end of the War and which remained on the route until
1877; while the line controlled by Goodall, Nelson & Perkins
or Goodall, Nelson & Company had on their list the Con-
stantine, the Kalorama, the Monterey and the San Luis, some-
times also running the California, which made a specialty of
carrying combustibles. A year later, the Ancon commenced
to run between San Francisco and San Diego, and excepting
half a year when she plied between the Golden Gate and Port-
land, was a familiar object until 1884.
The Farmers & Merchants Bank, on June I5th, 1874, moved
to their new building on the west side of Main Street, opposite
the Bella Union.
On July 25th, 1874, Conrad Jacoby commenced in the old
Lanfranco Building the weekly Sued-Californische Post; and for
fifteen years or more it remained the only German paper
issued in Southern California. Jacoby's brother, Philo, was
the well-known sharpshooter.
Henry T. Payne, the early photographer, was probably
the first to go out of town to take views in suburbs then just
beginning to attract attention. Santa Monica was his favorite
field, and a newspaper clipping or two preserve the announce-
ments by which the wet-plate artist stimulated interest in his
venture. One of these reads :
Mr. Payne will be at Santa Monica next Sunday, and take
photographic views of the camp, the ocean, the surrounding
30
466 Sixty Years in Southern California [1874
scenery, and such groups of campers and visitors as may see fit to
arrange themselves for that purpose ;
while another and rather contradictory notice is as follows :
To make photographs of moving life, such as Mr. Payne's
bathing scenes at Santa Monica next Sunday, it is absolutely
necessary that everybody should keep perfectly still during the
few seconds the plate is being exposed, for the least move might
completely spoil an otherwise beautiful effect. Santa Monica,
with its bathers in nice costume, sporting in the surf, with here
and there an artistically-posed group basking in the sunshine,
ought to make a beautiful picture.
As late as 1874, Fort Street not yet called Broadway was
almost a plain, except for the presence of a few one-story adobe
houses. J. M. Griffith, the lumberman, put up the first two-
story frame dwelling-house between Second and Third streets,
and Judge H. K. S. O'Melveny the second; shortly after which
Eugene Meyer and myself built our homes in the same block.
These were put upon the lots formerly owned by Burns &
Buffum. Within the next two or three years, the west side of
Fort Street between Second and Third was the choicest residence
neighborhood in the growing city, and there was certainly not the
remotest idea at that time that this street would ever be used for
business purposes. Sometime later however, as I was going
home one day, I met Griffith and we walked together from
Spring Street down First, talking about the new County Bank
and its Cashier, J. M. Elliott whom Griffith had induced four
years previously to come to Los Angeles and take charge of
Griffith, Lynch & Company's lumber yard at Compton. We
then spoke of the city's growth, and in the course of the
conversation he said: "Newmark, Fort Street is destined to
be the most important business thoroughfare in Los Angeles."
I laughed at him, but Time has shown the wisdom of Griffith's
prophecy.
The construction of this Fort Street home I commenced
in the spring, contracting with E. F. Keysor as the architect,
1874] The End of Vasquez 467
and with Skinner & Small as the builders. In September, we
moved in ; and I shall never forget a happy compliment paid
us the first evening. We had already retired when the
sound of music and merriment made it unmistakable that we
were being serenaded. Upon opening the door, we saw a large
group of friends; and having invited them into the house,
the merrymakers remained with us until the early morning
hours.
In July, 1874, the Los Angeles County Bank was started
with a capital of three hundred thousand dollars, its first
directors being R. S. Baker, Jotham Bixby, George S. Dodge,
J. M. Griffith, Vincent A. Hoover, Jonathan S. Slauson and H.
B. Tichenor, with J. M. Elliott as Cashier. Its first location
was the room just rented by the Farmers & Merchants Bank
adjoining the Bella Union, the County Bank's step in that
direction being due, no doubt, to a benevolent desire to obtain
some of its predecessor's business; and in July, 1878, it moved
into the Temple & Workman banking-room, after the latter's
failure. For a while the County Bank did both a commercial
and a savings business ; but later it forfeited the savings clause
of its charter, and its capital was reduced to one hundred
thousand dollars. In time, John E. Plater, a well-known An-
geleno, became a controlling factor.
About the end of 1874, Edward F. Spence, who had come
to California by way of the Nicaragua route a year earlier
than myself, reached Los Angeles. In 1884, Spence was
elected Mayor on the Republican ticket. In the course of
time, he withdrew somewhat from activity in Los Angeles
and became a heavy investor in property at Monrovia.
In 1874 or J 875, there appeared on the local scene a man
who, like his second cousin, United States Senator Mallory of
Florida, was destined to become a character of national re-
nown ; a man who as such could and, as a matter of fact , did serve
his constituents faithfully and well. That man was Stephen M.
White. He was born in San Francisco a few weeks before I
saw that harbor city, and was, therefore, a Native Son, his
parents having come to the Coast in 1849. While a youth,
468 Sixty Years in Southern California [1874
he was sent to Santa Clara where, in June, 1871, he graduated
from the well-known college; he read law at Watsonville and
later at Santa Cruz; and having been admitted to the Bar in
1874, he shortly afterward came to the Southland.
Arriving in Los Angeles, White studied law with John D.
Bicknell, who afterward took him into partnership; and he
soon proved to be a brilliant lawyer. He was also an orator
of the first magnitude; and this combination of talent made
him not only prominent here, but attracted great attention to
him from beyond the confines of city and county. Standing
as a Democrat in 1882, he was elected District Attorney by a
large majority and in that capacity served with distinction,
in the end declining renomination. In 1886 he was elected
State Senator and soon became President of the Senate, and
then acting Lieutenant Governor. After a phenomenal career
both in his profession and in the public service during
which he was one of three counsel elected by the California
Legislature to maintain the Scott Exclusion Act before the
United States Supreme Court and thus conclude the contro-
versy in the Chae Chan Ping case he was elected to the
United States Senate, and there, too, his integrity and ability
shone resplendent.
The zeal with which White so successfully entered the
conflict against C. P. Huntington in the selection of a harbor
for Los Angeles was indefatigable; and the tremendous expendi-
tures of the Southern Pacific in that competition, commanding
the best of legal and scientific service and the most powerful
influence, are all well known. Huntington built a wharf four
thousand six hundred feet long at Port Los Angeles, north-
west of Santa Monica, after having obtained control of the en-
tire frontage; and it was to prevent a monopoly that White
made so hard a fight in Congress in behalf of San Pedro. The
virility of his repeated attacks, his freedom from all contami-
nating influence and his honesty of purpose these are some of
the elements that contributed so effectively to the final selection
of San Pedro Harbor. On February 21 st, 1901, Senator White
died. While at his funeral, I remarked to General H. G. Otis,
1874] The End of Vasquez 469
his friend and admirer, that a suitable monument to White's
memory ought to be erected; and on December I ith, 1908, the
statue in front of the County Courthouse was unveiled. T
Hotel competition was lively in 1874. Charles Knowlton
concluded his advertisement of the Pico House with a large
index-finger and the following assurance :
The unpleasant odor of gas has entirely disappeared since
the building of the new sewer !
Hammel & Denker announced for the United States (com-
monly known as the U. S.) :
We have all Spring Beds at this Hotel!
Fluhr & Gerson the latter long a popular chap about
town claimed for the Lafayette :
The Eating Department will be conducted with especial care ;
and this was some of the bait displayed by the Clarendon,
formerly the Bella Union :
Carriages are kept standing at the door for the use of the
guests, and every effort is being made by COL. B. L. BEAL,
the Present Manager, to render the guests comfortable and
happy.
A couple of years later, the name of the Clarendon was
changed to the St. Charles; next to which, during the Centen-
nial year, the Grand Central, pretentious of name though small
of dimension, opened with a splurge. Hammel & Denker
continued to manage the United States Hotel. The Lafa-
yette in time became, first the Cosmopolitan and then the
St. Elmo.
Octavius Morgan, a native of the old cathedral town of
Canterbury, England, came to Los Angeles in 1874
'Executive Committee of the Memorial Fund: M. P. Snyder, Chairman;
Joseph Scott, Secretary; James C. Kays, Treasurer; F. W. Braun, A. B. Cass, R.
F. Del Valle, I. B. Dockweiler, W. J. Hunsaker, M. H. Newmark and H. G. Otis.
470 Sixty Years in Southern California [1874
associated himself with the architect, E. F. Keysor, the two
forming the firm of Keysor & Morgan. They were charter
members of the Southern California Architects Association,
and for many years Morgan and his associates have largely
influenced the architectural styles of Los Angeles.
A really picturesque old-timer even now at the age of nearly
seventy, and one who, having withstood the lure of the modern
automobile, is still daily driving a "one-hoss" buggy to the
office of the Los Angeles Soap Company, is J. A. Forthman. In
1874, he brought a small stock of groceries from San Francisco
and started a store at what is now Sixth and Olive streets ; but
at the end of three months, having sold out at a loss, he bought
a quarter interest in a little soap plant conducted by C. W.
Gibson. Soon thereafter, vats and fat were moved to their
present site on First Street. In 1875, W. B. Bergin and in 1879,
Gideon Le Sage joined Forthman and Gibson; and in 1887,
the latter sold out to his associates. J. J., a brother of W. B.
Bergin, was added to the force in 1895. For many years the
concern dealt in hides, and this brought us into close business
relations. I have referred to the death of four children.
Edith, a child of six, was taken from us on October I5th, 1874.
While William F. Turner, son of the miller, was busy in his
little store near the Puente Mills about three miles from El
Monte, on the third of June, 1874, a Calif ornian named Romo,
who lived at Pio Pico's Ranchito, entered and bought some goods,
also asking to be shown a pair of boots. Turner stooped to
reach the articles, when the stranger drew a pruning-knife
across his throat. In defense, the storekeeper caught hold of
the sharp blade with both hands and thereby crippled himself
for the rest of his days.
Turner had been in the habit of closing before dark on ac-
count of the rough element near by ; and when he did not return
home at the accustomed hour, Mrs. Turner, taking with her a
little five-shooter, set out to find him and arrived in the
midst of the murderous assault. Her pistol missed fire, but
she succeeded in seizing the assassin and dragging him
away from her husband; after which, the Mexican shot her
1874] The End of Vasquez 471
just as Turner, bleeding, fell in the road. The explosion aroused
a neighbor who reached the scene after Romo had fled with
some boots mostly for one foot ! and seventy dollars in cash.
When the news passed from mouth to mouth in El Monte,
a posse started out to hunt for the Mexican ; but after two
days' unsuccessful search, they gave up the job. Then Fred
Lambourn, who had a share in Turner's business, rushed in on
Jake Schlesinger, shouting excitedly, "By God, Jake, I know,
where the fellow is ! " and Jake and others responded by saddling
their horses and hurrying to a rendezvous at Durfee's farm.
The party of nineteen, including John Broaded and Bill Cooper,
broke up into divisions of one or two and in time found them-
selves wading in and out of the San Gabriel River and the
Puente Creek. Soon old Dodson spied their quarry floundering
across stream; and when Schlesinger took a pop at him, the
culprit cried out, "Don't shoot!" and agreed to come ashore.
Of the money stolen, all but a few dollars was found on the
prisoner; nevertheless, the captors told him that, as soon as
Turner should identify him, he would be hung and that there
was not much time for foolishness. Romo said that he had
assaulted the storekeeper in order to get money with which, on
the following Sunday, to marry ; that his immediate need was a
cigar; and that, if he must die, he would like to have his friends
notified, that they might bury him. Jake handed the doomed
man his only weed ; and soon after, five or six masked men rode
up and announced that they would care for the criminal.
Then they drove under a tree on the bank of the river and
there, in short order, the cutthroat was hanged.
Pio Pico soon heard of the lynching and sent Jake and the
El Monte boys word that he would come over and "kill the
whole damned lot" of them; in reply to which, El Monte for-
warded to the last of the Mexican governors a cordial invita-
tion to come, at the same time pledging to receive him in true
California style with due hospitality and warmth. This was
contemporaneous with the Vasquez excitement, and Romo was
probably bent on imitating the outlaw.
CHAPTER XXXII
THE SANTA ANITA RANCHO
1875
UNTIL near the end of the seventies, there was very little
done toward the laying of sewers, although the reader
will remember that a private conveyor connected the
Bella Union with the zanja running through Mellus's Row. Los
Angeles Street from First to Second, in 1873, had one of brick
and wood; and in 1875, a brick sewer was built from the corner
of Main and Arcadia streets down to Winston and thence to
Los Angeles Street. It must have been in the early seventies
that a wooden sewer was constructed on Commercial Street
from Los Angeles to Alameda, and another on New High
Street for about one block. 
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