Historical and biographical record of Los Angeles and vicinity : containing a history of the city from its earliest settlement as a Spanish pueblo to the closing year of the nineteenth century ; also containing biographies of well known citizens of the past and present, Part 1

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago : Chapman Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 996

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Gc 979.402 L882g 1277607

GENEALOGY COLLECTION

ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01115 5592

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD

LOS ANGELES and VICINITY

Containing a history of the City from its earliest settlement as a Spanish Pueblo to the closing year of the Nineteenth Century

By J. M. GUINN, A. M.

Secretary of the Historical Society of Southern California. Member of the American Historical Association of Washington, D. C.

Also containing biographies of well-known citizens of the past and present

CHAPMAN PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO

1901

enmal-$ 20.00 9/25/64

1277607

"Let the record be made of the men and things of to-day, lest they pass out of memory to-morrow and are lost. Then perpetuate them not upon wood or stone that crumble to dust, but upon paper, chronicled in picture and in words that endure forever."-KIRKLAND.

"A true delineation of the smallest man and his scene of pilgrimage through life is capable of interesting the greatest man. All men are to an unspeakable degree brothers, each man's life a strange emblem of every man's; and human portraits, faithfully drawn, are, of all pictures, the welcomest on human walls."-THOMAS CARLYLE.

HISTORICAL

PREFACE.

That genial humorist, Robert J. Burdette, says: "Anybody can write novels; some people can write poetry; few people can write the history of a nation; one man in a million can write the history of a town so that anybody beside proofreaders can be hired to read it." Whether I anı "one man in a million " to write the history of a town -of this town - I leave it to the readers of this volume to judge. I have endeavored to make it, to quote from Burdette again, not "an advertisement of Smith's shoe shop or Brown's soap factory," but a story of a town-a story of Los Angeles from its inception to the present time, with something about other cities and towns in its vicinity. In writing it I have kept two objects in view,-to make that story readable and reliable.

In my narration of historical events I have endeavored to state what, after mnost careful investigation, I found to be the truth, although such a statement might destroy some beautiful myth which has been paraded as veritable history; because a story is generally believed to be true is not conclusive evidence that it is true. Some of the most improbable fictions that have found a place in our local histories pass current for historical facts. The story that Fremont built the old fort on Fort Hill and the other fiction that a Chinese wash house out at Sixteentli street was his headquarters in 1847, are generally accepted as historical facts, yet there is not a particle of truth in either statement.

In the preparation of the earlier portions of the historical part of this volume, Bancroft's History of California has been freely consulted and due credit given where extracts have been taken from that valuable work. Hittell's History of California, too, has been examined for data and for the verification of statements derived from other sources. To both these historians, Bancroft and Hittell, Californians owe a debt of gratitude-a debt that future generations will more gratefully acknowledge than their own has done.

The publications of the Historical Society of Southern California (four volumes) have been a fruitful source from which to draw historical material.

Much original historical matter relating to the Mexican era of our city's history has been drawn from the Proceedings (1828 to 1846) of the Ayuntamiento or Municipal Council of Los Angeles. These proceedings, written in provincial Spanish, have hitherto been inaccessible to those not understanding that language, and consequently have been but little consulted by our local historians. Their recent translation into English by order of the city council has made them available for research to the English reader.

The City and County Archives from 1850 to 1900 have been examined and valuable data culled from them. The collection of Spanish Manuscripts in possession of the Historical Society of Southern California, some of them dating back to the first years of the century, have also furnished valuable original material.

In the preparation of the historical sketch of Pasadena for this volume I found that Dr. H. A. Reid, in his History of Pasadena, had harvested the field of its local history.

PREFACE.

Indeed, so thoroughly has Dr. Reid reaped the field that he lias scarcely left a straw to the gleaners who may come after him. Few cities can boast of so correct and so complete a history as Pasadena.

Much of the material from which the story of Los Angeles has been derived was collected from interviews and conversations with early pioneers. Among the deceased pioneers from whom, while living, I obtained historical data, I recall the names of the following : Col. J. J. Warner, ex-Governor Pio Pico; Don Antonio F. Coronel, Andronica Sepulveda, Col. John O. Wheeler, Hon. Henry Hamilton, Col. J. J. Ayers, Hon. Stephen C. Foster, J. R. Brierly, Dr. William F. Edgar and J. W. Potts.

To the following named pioneers I tender my thanks for information received on various historical topics : Henry D. Barrows, Judge B. S. Eaton, Hon. William H. Workman, E. H. Workman, Charles M. Jenkins, Oscar Macy, Mrs. Laura Evertsen King, William W. Jenkins, J. Frank Burns, Theodore Rimpau, J. W. Venable, Major Horace Bell, Don Eulogio de Celis, Rev. J. Adam, V. G., J. R. Toberman, James D. Durfee, M. F. Quinn, George W. Hazard and Louis Roeder.

Among the many sources from which information in regard to the events and happenings in the American period of our city's history has been drawn, none has been so bountiful in returns as the examination of newspaper files. In the preparation of this work I have scanned thousands of newspaper pages. The following named papers, constituting a complete file from June 20, 1854, to November 1, 1900, are a few of the many that have been searched for items of information and records of the city's daily life: Southern Californian, Los Angeles Star, Los Angeles News, Los Angeles Evening Express, Los Angeles Daily Herald, Los Angeles Commercial, Los Angeles Republican, Los Angeles Daily Times, Los Angeles Tribune, Los Angeles Daily Record, Western Graphic, The Capital, Pomona Progress, Pomona Times, Pasadena Daily New's, Pasadena Star and Downey Champion.

A list of all the books and periodicals consulted in the preparation of the historical part of this volume would be altogether too lengthy for insertion here. To the authors from whom I have quoted credit has been given, either in the body of the work or in foot notes.

For information on special topics I wish to return my thanks to Frank Wiggins, the efficient secretary of the Chamber of Commerce; Prof. Melville Dozier, of the State Normal School; Prof. E. T. Pierce, president of the State Normal School; C. H. Hance, city clerk; T. E. Nichols, county auditor; Prof. James A. Foshay, superintendent Los Angeles city schools; Dr. H. A. Reid, historian of Pasadena; Hon. Walter S. Melick, editor Pasadena News; Dr. J. A. Munk; Rev. Frank L. Ferguson, president Pomona College; Rev. Guy Wadsworth, president Occidental College; W. R. Ream, of the Los Angeles Record; and Miss Celia Gleason, assistant librarian of the Los Angeles Public Library.

The subject matter of the historical part of this volume has been presented by topic, a chapter usually being devoted to some certain phase of our city's history. The topical plan, in the author's opinion, is preferable to a chronological presentation of events for the following reasons : First, it presents in a consecutive narrative all that has been said on some certain topic; and second, it renders it easy for the seeker after information on any certain topic to find what has been said, without reading over pages of matter foreign to the subject he is investigating.

The author has endeavored to present his readers with an unbiased history of the civic, the social and the industrial life of Los Angeles-to tell the story of its evolution from a pueblo of tule-thatched huts a hundred and twenty years ago, to the magnificent city of to-day. How well he has succeeded his readers will judge for themselves.

J. M. GUINN.

Los Angeles, November 12, 1900.

(HISTORIAN.)

J Pn. quinn

CHAPTER I.

SPANISH DISCOVERIES ON THE PACIFIC COAST OF NORTH AMERICA.

A DMIRAL CERVERA, just before sailing from Cape Verde Islands, on the expedition which ended in the destruction of his fleet by Admirals Sampson and Schley at San- tiago de Cuba, in an address to his officers and men, said, "Then, when I lead you to battle, have confidence in your chiefs; and the nation whose eye is upon you will see that Spain to-day is the Spain of all time." Cervera's address was in- tended to stimulate the courage of liis men by reference to the glorious achievements of their nation in the past and to arouse their patriotic impulses to emulate the daring deeds of their heroic ancestors. His appeal 110 doubt touched a responsive chord in the breasts of his men, for whatever else the Spaniard may have let go in the decadence of his nation there is one thing that he has clung to with a tenacious grip, and that is his pride of country. It requires a lively imagina- tion to trace a resemblance between "Spain to- day," beaten in war, torn by dissensions and discords at home and shorn of every vestige of her once vast colonial possessions, and the Spain of three hundred years ago; yet Spanish pride, no doubt, is equal to the task.

The unparalleled success of our army and navy in our recent war with Spain has bred in us a contempt for the Spanish soldier and sailor: and, in our overmastering Anglo-Saxon conceit, we are inclined to consider our race the conservator of enterprise, adventure and martial valor; while on the other hand we regard the Spanish Celt a prototype of indolence, and as lacking in energy and courage.

And yet there was a time when these race con- ditions were seemingly reversed. There was a time when "Spain to-day," moribund, dying of political conservatism, ignorance and bigotry. was the most energetic, the most enterprising and the most adventurous nation of Europe.

A hundred years before our Pilgrim Fathers landed on Plymouth Rock, Spain had flourishing colonies in America. Eighty-five years before the first cabin was built in Jamestown, Cortes had conquered and made tributary to the Spanishi crown the empire of Mexico-a country more

populous and many times larger than Spain her- self. Ninety years before the Dutch had planted the germ of a settlement on Manhattan Island- the site of the future metropolis of the new world -Pizarro, the swineherd of Truxillo, with a handful of adventurers, had conquered Peru, the richest, most populous and most civilized empire of America.

In less than fifty years after the discovery of America by Columbus, Balboa had discovered the Pacific Ocean; Magellan, sailing through the straits that still bear his name and crossing the wide Pacific, had discovered the Islands of the Setting Sun (now the Philippines) and his ship had circumnavigated the globe; Alvar Nuñez (better known as Cabeza de Vaca), with three companions, the only survivors of three hundred men Narvaez landed in Florida, after years of wandering among the Indians, had crossed the continent overland from the Atlantic to the Pacific; Coronado had penetrated the interior of the North American continent to the plains of Kansas; Alarcon had reached the head of the Gulf of California and sailed up the Rio Colorado; and Cabrillo, the discoverer of Alta California, had explored the Pacific Coast of America to the 44th parallel of North Latitude.

While the English were cautiously feeling their way along the North Atlantic Coast of America and taking possession of a few bays and harbors, the Spaniards had possessed themselves of nearly all of the South American continent and more than one third of the North American. When we consider the imperfect arms with which the Spaniards made their conquests, and the lumber- ing and unseaworthy craft in which they explored unknown and uncharted seas, we are surprised at their success and astonished at their enterprise and daring.

The ships of Cabrillo were but little better than floating tubs, square rigged, high decked, broad bottomed-they sailed almost equally well with broadside as with keel to the wave. Even the boasted galleons of Spain were but little better than caricatures of maritime architecture-huge, clumsy, round-stemmed vessels, with sides from

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

the water's edge upward sloping inward, and built up at stem and stern like castles-they rocked and rolled their way across the oceanl. Nor were stornis and shipwreck on unknown seas the mariner's greatest dread nor his deadliest enemies. That fearful scourge of the high seas, the dreaded escorbuto, or scurvy, always made its appearance on long voyages and sometimes exterminated the entire ship's crew. Sebastian Viscaino, in 1602, with three ships and two hun- dred men, sailed out of Acapulco to explore the Coast of California. At the end of a voyage of eleven months the San Tomas returned with nine men alive. Of the crew of the Tres Reys (Three Kings) only five returned; and his flag ship, the San Diego, lost more than half lier men.

A hundred and sixty-seven years later Galvez fitted out an expedition for the colonization of California. He despatched the San Antonio and the San Carlos as a complement of the land expe- ditions under Portolá and Serra. The Sau An- tonio, after a prosperous voyage of fifty-seven days from Cape San Lucas, anchored in San Diego harbor. The San Carlos, after a tedious voyage of one hundred and ten days from La Paz, drifted into San Diego Bay, her crew prostrated with scurvy, not enough able-bodied men to man a boat to reach the shore. When the plague had run its course, of the crew of the San Carlos one sailor and a cook were all that were alive. The San Jose, despatched several months later from San Jose del Cabo with mission supplies and a double crew to supply the loss of men on the other vessels, was never heard of after the day of her sailing. Her fate was doubtless that of many a gallant ship before lier time. Her crew, prostrated by the scurvy, none able to man the ship, not one able to wait on another, dying, dying, day by day until all are dead-then the vessel, a floating charnel house, tossed by the winds and buffeted by the waves, sinks at last into the ocean's depths and her ghastly tale of horrors forever remains untold.

It is to the energy and adventurous spirit of Hernan Cortes, the conqueror of Mexico, that we owe the discovery of California at so early a period in the age of discoveries. Scarcely had he con- pleted the conquest of Mexico before he began preparation for new conquests. The vast un- known regions to the north and northwest of Mexico proper held within them possibilities of illimitable wealth and spoils. To the explora- tion and conquest of these he bent his energies.

In 1522, but three years after his landing in Mexico, he had established a shipyard at Zaca- tula, on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, and began building an exploring fleet. But from the very beginning of his enterprise "unmerciful disaster

followed him fast and followed him faster." His warehouse at Zacatula, filled with ship-building material, carried at great expense overland from Vera Cruz, was burned. Shipwreck and mutiny at sea; disasters and defeat of his forces on land; treachery of his subordinates and jealousy of royal officials thwarted his plans and wasted his substance. After expending nearly a million dollars in explorations and attempts at coloniza- tion, disappointed, impoverished, fretted and worried by the ingratitude of a monarch for whom he had sacrificed so much, he died in 1547, at a little village near Seville, in Spain.

It was through a mutiny on one of Cortes' ships that the peninsula of California was discovered. In 1533 Cortes had fitted out two new ships for exploration and discoveries. On one of these, commanded by Becerra de Mendoza, a mutiny broke out headed by Fortuño Ximenez, the chief pilot. Mendoza was killed and his friends forced to go ashore on the coast of Jalisco, where they were abandoned. Ximenez and his mutinous crew sailed directly away from the coast and after being at sea for a number of days discovered what they supposed to be an island. They landed at a place now known as La Paz, in Lower California. Here Ximenez and twenty of his companions were reported to have been killed by the Indians. The remainder of the crew navigated the ship back to Jalisco, where they reported the discovery. In 1535 Cortes landed at the same port where Ximenez had been killed. Here he attempted to plant a colony, but the colony scheme was a fail- ure and the colonists returned to Mexico.

The last voyage of exploration made under the auspices of Cortes was that of Francisco de Ulloa in 1539-40. He sailed up the Gulf of California to its head, skirting the coast of the main land, then turning he sailed down the eastern shore of the peninsula, doubled Cape San Lucas and sailed up the Pacific Coast of Lower California to Cedros Island, where, on account of head winds and his provisions being nearly exhausted, he was forced to return. His voyage proved that what hitherto had been considered an island was a peninsula. The name California had been applied to the pen- insula when it was supposed to be an island, some time between 1535 and 1539. The name was undoubtedly taken from an old Spanish ro- mance, "The Sergas de Esplandian," written by Ordoñez de Montalvo, and published in Seville about 1510. This novel was quite popular in the times of Cortes and ran through several editions. This romance describes an island "on the right hand of the Indies, very near the Terrestrial Para- dise, which was peopled with black women with- out any men among them, because they were accustomed to live after the fashiou of Amazons."

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

The supposition that the Indies lay at no great distance to the left of the supposed island no doubt suggested the fitness of the name, but who first applied it is uncertain.

So far the explorations of the North Pacific had not extended to what in later years was known as Alta California. It is true Alàrcon, the dis- coverer of the Colorado River in 1540, may pos- sibly have set foot on Californian soil, and Melchoir Diaz later in the same year may have done so when he led an expedition to the mouth of the Colorado, or Buena Guia, as it was then called, but there were no interior boundary lines, and the whole country around the Colorado was called Pimeria. Alarcon had returned from his voyage up the Gulf of California without accom- plishing any of the objects for which he had been sent by Viceroy Mendoza. Coronado was still absent in search of Quivera and the fabulous seven cities of Cibola. Mendoza was anxious to prosecute the search for Quivera still further. Pedro de Alvarado had arrived at Navidad from Guatemala with a fleet of 12 ships and a license from the crown for the discovery and conquest of islands in the South Seas. Mendoza, by sharp practice, had obtained a half interest in the pro- jected discoveries. It was proposed before begin-

ning the voyage to the South Seas to employ Alvarado's fleet and men in exploring the Gulf of California and the country to the north of it, but before the expedition was ready to sail an insurrection broke out among the natives of Nueva Galacia and Jalisco. Alvarado was sent with a large part of his force to suppress it. In an attack upon a fortified stronghold he was killed by the insurgents. In the meantime Cor- onado's return dispelled the myths of Quivera and the seven cities of Cibola; disapproved Padre Niza's stories of their fabulous wealth and dissi- pated Mendoza's hopes of finding a second Mex- ico or Peru in the desolate regions of Pimeria. The death of Alvarado had left the fleet at Navi- dad without a commander, and Mendoza having obtained full possession of the fleet it became necessary for him to find something for it to do. Five of the ships were despatched under command of Ruy Lopez de Villalobos to the Islas de Poniente or the Islands of the Setting Sun (on this voyage Villalobos changed the name of these islands to the Philippines) to establish trade with the islanders, and two of the ships under Cabrillo were sent to explore the northwest coast of the mainland of North America.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

CHAPTER II.

THE DISCOVERY OF NUEVA OR ALTA CALIFORNIA.

UAN RODRIGUEZ CABRILLO (generally reputed to be a Portuguese by birth, but of this there is no positive evidence) sailed from Navidad, June 27, 1542, with two ships, the San Salvador and Vitoria. On the 20th of August he reached Cabo del Engaño, the Cape of Deceit, the highest point reached by Ulloa. From there he sailed on unknown seas. On the 28th of September he discovered "a land locked and very good harbor," which he named San Miguel, now supposed to be San Diego. Leaving there, October 3 he sailed along the coast eighteen leagues to the islands some seven leagues from the mainland. These he named after his ships, San Salvador and Vitoria, 110W Santa Catalina and San Clemente. On the 8th of October he crossed the channel between the · islands and the mainland and sailed into a port which he named Bahia de Los Fumos, the Bay of Smokes. The bay and the headlands were shrouded in a dense cloud of smoke, hence the name.

The Bahia de Los Fumos, or Fuegos, is now known as the Bay of San Pedro. Sixty-seven years before Hendrick Hudson entered the Bay of New York, Cabrillo had dropped anchor in the Bay of San Pedro, the future port of Los Angeles. After sailing six leagues farther, on October 9 Cabrillo anchored in a large ensenada or bight, which is supposed to be what is now the Bay of Santa Monica. It is uncertain whether he landed at either place. The next day he sailed eight leagues to an Indian town, which he named the Pueblo de Las Canoas (the town of canoes), this was probably located near the present site of San Buenaventura. Continuing his voyage up the coast he passed through the Santa Barbara Channel, discovering the Islands of Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa and San Miguel. He discovered and entered Monterey Bay and reached the latitude of San Francisco Bay, when he was forced by severe storms to return to the island now known as San Miguel, in the Santa Barbara Channel. There he died, January 3, 1543, from the effects of a fall, and was buried on the island,

The discoverer of California sleeps in an un- known grave in the land he discovered. No monument commemorates lis virtues or his deeds. His fellow voyagers named the island where he was buried Juan Rodriguez after their brave con- mander, but subsequent navigators robbed him of even this slight honor. Bartolomé Ferrelo, his chief pilot, continued the exploration of the coast and on March 1, 1543, discovered Cape Blanco, in the southern part of what is now Oregon. His provisions being nearly exhausted he was compelled to turn back. He ran down the coast, his ships having become separated in a storm at San Clemente Island; they came to- gether again at Cerros Island and both safely reached Navidad, April 18, 1543, after an ab- sence of nearly a year. Cabrillo's voyage was the last one undertakeu as a private enterprise by the Viceroys of New Spain. The law giving licenses to subjects to make explorations and discoveries was changed. Subsequent explora- tions were made under the auspices of the kings of Spain.

For nearly seventy years the Spaniards had held undisputed sway on the Pacific Coast of America. Their isolation had protected the cities and towns of the coast from the plundering raids of the buccaneers and other sea rovers. Immunity from danger had permitted the build- ing up of a flourishing trade along the coast and wealth had flowed into the Spanish coffers. But their dream of security was to be rudely broken.

Francis Drake, the bravest and most daring of the sea kings of the 16th century, had early won wealth and fame by his successful raids in the Spanish West Indies. When he proposed to fit out an expedition against the Spanish settlements on the Pacific, although England and Spain were at peace with each other, he found plenty of wealthy patrons to aid hin, even Queen Eliza- heth herself taking a share in his venture. He sailed from Plymouth, England, December 13, 1577, with five small vessels. When he reached the Pacific Ocean by way of the Straits of Magel- lan he had but one-the Golden Hind-a ship of

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

one hundred tons. All the others had turned back or been left behind. Sailing up the Coast of South America he spread terror among the Span- ish settlements, robbing towns and capturing ships, until, in the quaint language of a chronicler of the expedition, he "had loaded his vessel with a fabulous amount of fine wares from Asia, precious stones, church ornaments, gold plate and so mooch silver as did ballas the Goulden Hinde." With treasure amounting to "eight hundred, sixty sixe thousand pezos (dollars) of silver * * * a hundred thousand pezos of gold * * * and other things of great worth he thought it not good to returne by the (Magellan) streights : * * least the Spaniards should there waite, and attend for him in great numbers and strength whose hands, he being left but one ship, he could not possibly escape."

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Historical and biographical record of Los Angeles and vicinity : containing a history of the city from its earliest settlement as a Spanish pueblo to the closing year of the nineteenth century ; also containing biographies of well known citizens of the past and present, Part 1

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918 Publication date: 1901 Publisher: Chicago : Chapman Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 996

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago : Chapman Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 996