USA > California > San Diego County > San Diego > History of San Diego, 1542-1908 : an account of the rise and progress of the pioneer settlement on the Pacific coast of the United States, Volume II > Part 1
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M. A
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
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3 1833 01104 7765
HISTORY
OF
SAN DIEGO, California
1542-1908
AN ACCOUNT OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE PIONEER SETTLEMENT ON THE PACIFIC COAST OF THE UNITED STATES
VOLUME II. THE MODERN CITY
BY WILLIAM E. SMYTHE
Author of "The Conquest of Arid America," "Constructive Democracy," Etc.
SAN DIEGO THE HISTORY COMPANY 1908
Copyright 1907 by WILLIAM E. SMYTHE
1142892
PART THIRD The Horton Period
Sender- 32.50 (2vols)
CHAPTER I
THE FOUNDER OF THE MODERN CITY
N THIE 15th of April, 1867, something hap- O pened which radically changed the course of San Diego history. This was the arrival of a man from San Francisco on the steamer Pacific. He was not possessed of large means, represented no organization, and had no personal following, yet was destined to inaugurate a movement which should change the location of the city and start it on the road to real and enduring greatness. In the next chapter we shall have "Father" Horton's own account of the circumstances which led to his coming and of how he proceeded after his arrival. At this point it is important to get a glimpse of his previous career and to make some characterization of his work in founding the modern city.
Alonzo Erastus Horton was born at Union, Connecticut, Octo- ber 24, 1813. He was thus in his fifty-fourth year when he began his work in San Diego, an age at which very few men undertake a new task of such importance. He came of old New England stock and the story of his life is really a picture of his times. It begins with the clean, sweet poverty which went with the migration of the old stock into new countries in the early days of the Republic. The family began their westward march while the future founder of San Diego was two years old, moving from Connectieut to Madison County. New York. They next moved to Oswego County and, in 1824. they had reached the shore of Lake Ontario at the town of Seriba, and were living in a log house. Young Horton's father had become blind and the boy began to earn money by basket-making. while still going to school. Later, he contributed to the family sup- port by hewing timber, which was sold in the local market. By the time he reached his majority he had gained experience as a grocery clerk, as a lake sailor before the mast, and as cap- tain and owner of a small vessel engaged in the wheat trade between Oswego and Canada. He retired from the lake with several hundred dollars in his pocket and learned the trade of a cooper. In spite of his strength, and his local note as a
326
HISTORY OF SAN DIEGO
wrestler, a physician told him he had consumption and could not live a year unless he went West.
Acting upon the advice, he proceeded to Milwaukee in May, 1836. The next fifteen years he spent mostly in Wisconsin, with one or two trips to New York. He availed himself of the opportunity of the frontier to make money in various ventures, principally by trading in land and cattle.
After the Mexican War, when he had accumulated about $4,000, he went to St. Louis and bought land warrants from the soldiers at less than their face value. With these he returned to Wisconsin and located ten sections of land in the pinery on Wolf River, about twenty miles from Oshkosh, in what is now Ontagamie County. The land cast him 70 cents an acre and contained a good millsite and steamer landing. Here he laid out the town of Hortonville, which still flourishes. He encour- aged settlement by furnishing work, giving free lots, and sell- ing lumber at half-price, to those who would build houses. In less than three years he sold the mill and town for $7,000 and later the balance of the land at $15 an acre, so that his first important enterprise netted him a comfortable fortune. Then he joined the tide and went to California, arriving in 1851 and settling in the mining region. He opened a store at Pilot Hill and constructed a ditch over six miles in length to supply min- ers with water. At the end of his first year he disposed of his property for $6,500, which represented but a slight profit on his original investment, and began trading in gold-dust, first, acting on commission for the Adams Express Company, and later, on his own account.
The business of buying gold-dust in pioneer times, when the country swarmed with rough characters, involved considerable danger and Horton had his full share of adventure. The fol- lowing incident, related in the Horton Genealogy, published at Philadelphia in 1876, shows us how he drew upon his fund of Yankee shrewdness to avert trouble on one occasion :
He arrived one evening at one of the rough taverns of those times, with treasure enough about him to incite the gamblers about him to worse crimes for its possession. His good clothes were covered with very dirty overalls and cotton shirt. In cal- rulating Yankee phrase, he interrogated the proprietor as to his accommodations for man and beast, and the reasonableness of his charges. Card-playing ceased for a time in the general astonishment, then the party shouted with laughter at the groen chap from Connecticut. They bantered him to play off a Yankee trick. He showed them how to eat the mush and milk, which he had stipulated for as his supper, and with a vawn of indifference at the jests made at his expense, he sig- nified his desire to sleep. The door of his room was without Jock or bolt, but the landlord laughingly assured his guest that
327
GOLD-DUST SPECULATION
he would be the last man anyone would think of robbing. He awoke next morning from an undisturbed sleep, and at breakfast time was up and dressed. He passed over a small package of dust in settlement, which was accepted and pro- nounced all right. Word was sent to the stable, his horse could now be brought out-his bill was paid.
"Mister, want to buy some more of that stuff?"
"Yes"; replying with a surprised look.
"How much ?"
"Suppose I can buy all you have to sell."
"Will you treat this 'ere crowd if you can't?"
"Yes, I will, and yeou, too."'
Diminutive sacks of dust were handed to the wondering host, and the coin counted out in return. By the time $2,500 had changed hands, the landlord's $20 pieces were exhausted, and our Yankee had played the "trick" with a $250 pile still in reserve. The laugh came in then louder than the night before; and as the glasses were being filled the buyer of the gold-dust remarked, irreligiously, that he would have robbed the fellow himself if he had known how he was playing him.
The gold-dust speculation turned out profitably, sometimes paying as much as $1,000 a month. Horton was also highly fortunate in an ice speculation in El Dorado County. from which he realized $8,000 in a few months. In March, 1856, he was a passenger on the steamer Cortez for Panama, and found himself involved in the fight between the Americans and the natives, which occurred on the Isthmus. He took a conspic- nous part in protecting the passengers during their flight from the hotel to the ship, but lost $10,000 in gold as the result of the riot. On arriving in New York, he was sent to Washington to represent the passengers in reporting to the government. From that time until 1861, he repeatedly journeyed to Wash- ington in connection with the affair, making a strenuous fight for the recovery of heavy losses sustained by the passengers. A settlement was reached at last, but Horton had made himself so obnoxious to the commissioner from New Granada that his own name was stricken from the list of creditors.
Soon after the outbreak of the Civil War, Horton returned to the Pacific Coast. He extended his wanderings as far north as British Columbia, where he engaged in mining and trading without success. He then went to San Francisco to begin life over again. He first tried a stall in the market, then real estate, and finally went into the furniture business, where he was doing fairly well when the San Diego idea took possession of him.
The man who came in 1867 to lay the foundations of a new San Diego had had a rough, adventurous career and was a true product of frontier conditions. By instinct and training, he was a trader and a bold, shrewd speculator, but he was
328
HISTORY OF SAN DIEGO
also a man endowed with the creative cast of mind who pre- ferred to trade and speculate where he could also build and have the satisfaction of looking upon important things which had come from his labors. In estimating the work of such a man it is important to avoid extremes of praise or blame. Thus it would be unjust to say that he was actuated solely by avarice and took no pride in what he did beyond the amount of money it paid him. On the other hand, it would be a mistake to treat him as a philanthropist who thought only of social gains and the good of others. His predominant motive in coming to San Diego was to engage in what he rightly conceived to be a good real estate speculation. In carrying the scheme into effect he adopted a policy of liberality not always tempered with wisdom, but consistently designed to foster his own interests while ben- efitting the community as a whole. He was shrewd enough to see that whatever made San Diego larger or more prosperous must make him richer, and he was broad enough to pursue this object in a way that gave everyone a share of the results. He entered upon his work without any comprehensive training for the laying out of a modern city, and made some mistakes in conse- quence which have often been criticised. Such mistakes were never due to petty motives, for pettiness had no place in his character. His methods were always marked by boldness and generosity, springing from boundless faith in the future of the city.
Although Horton does not belong to the class of men who have founded communities in order to illustrate some great idea, or to facilitate human progress in some important direction, he nevertheless displayed high qualities in his work at San Diego. He exercised the soundest judgment in selecting the site upon which a city could be built. He was not the first to appreciate the importance of the location-that credit belongs to Lieuten- ant Gray, as we saw in a previous chapter-but he was the first to create a successful settlement here. The abortive attempt which preceded his undertaking certainly made his work no easier. In the opinion of many, it stamped it with failure in advance. IIe had a large measure of imagination, that gift of the gods which enables men to foresee what is to happen and to discern the practical steps by which events may be brought to pass. Undoubtedly the opportunity was much riper in 1867, when Horton began, than in 1850, when Gray had his inspira- tion in the same direction; but the ability to know when oppor- tunities are ripe is an important quality in itself. There were able men in San Diego when Horton came, and able men else- where in California, but they did not know that the time had come to make a new San Diego where the city now stands. Hor- ton not only saw his chance, but he had the courage to take his
329
ESTIMATE OF HORTON
chance at a time when his pecuniary capital was so small that it would have appalled most men to think of such an undertak- ing, much less to set their hands to it.
Not only did he have discernment, imagination, and courage,- the pioneer of modern San Diego had boundless confidence in himself and a tremendous amount of personal force. Had it been otherwise, he would have been no richer after buying his land for twenty-six cents an acre than before. The value of the land for townsite purposes was potential, not actual. To con- vert the potentiality into a reality, and to do it with no capital except his wits, required genuine ability, sustained by faith and backed by tireless energy. Horton was equal to the occasion- in three years new San Diego had three thousand people. It is easy enough to criticise the man who did it; it is not so easy to duplicate the achievement, nor was it ever done before by the will of a single individual, without capital, without the support of some religious, social, or commercial organization.
The founding of modern San Diego, under the circumstances, was a big thing, and the credit for the achievement belongs abso- lutely and indisputably to A. E. Horton. His title to the dis- tinction is as clear as that of Cabrillo to the discovery of the Bay, or that of Serra to the founding of the mission. It would be palpably absurd to pretend that Horton, alone, made San Diego what it is today. Thousands of people had a part in its making, and among these thousands were a few individuals who doubtless contributed more to the development of the city than Horton did. But they did not land in San Diego on April 15, 1867, purchase the vacant land, decree that the community (already a century old) should be moved three miles south. and initiate the era of true and enduring greatness. "Father" Hor- ton did that, and did it exceedingly well. as the result testifies.
CHAPTER II
HORTON'S OWN STORY
(The statement contained in this chapter, together with much other material for this volume, was dietated by Mr. Hor- ton to a stenographer in a series of interviews occurring in October, November and December, 1905. The white old pioneer had then just entered upon his ninety-third year, yet enjoyed vigorous health, with unimpaired sight and hearing, and with the keenest interest in all public affairs, present as well as past. Every day he drove alone through the streets of the city, as self-reliant as in the days of his prime. His memory seemed clear and strong, though it naturally dwelt largely in the past and lingered with especial fondness on the triumphs of his career. And as these words are written, nearly a year after the interviews described, "Father" Horton still lives in his suburban home, at the corner of State and Olive, from which spot he commands one of the finest views in the world.)
I
RETURNED to the Pacific Coast in 1861, and in May, 1867, was living in San Francisco. I had a store at the corner of Sixth and Mar- ket Streets where I dealt in furniture and household goods, and was doing well. One night a friend said to me :
"There is going to be a big meeting to- night" [at such a place], "and it might be interesting for you to attend."
"What is to be the subject of the talk?" I asked.
"It will be on the subject of what ports of the Pacific Coast will make big cities."
So I went, and the speaker commenced at Seattle and said it was going to be a big city; and then he came on down to San Francisco, which he said would be one of the biggest cities in California. Then he kept on down along the coast until he came to San Diego, and he said that San Diego was one of the health- iest places in the world, and that it had one of the best harbors in the world; that there was no better harbor.
I could not sleep that night for thinking about San Diego, and at two o'clock in the morning I got up and looked on a map to see where San Diego was, and then went back to bed satisfied. In the morning I said to my wife: "I am going to sell my goods and go to San Diego and build a city." She said I talked like a wild man, that I could not dispose of my goods in six months.
331
HORTON'S FIRST VISIT
But I commenced that morning and made a large sale that day. The second day it was the same and I had to hire two more help- ers. By the third day I had five men hired, and in these three days I had sold out all my stock. It was not an auction sale, but just a run of business which seemed providential. Then my wife said she would not oppose me any longer, for she had always noticed when it was right for me to do anything, it always went right in my favor; and as this had gone that way, she believed it was right for me to do so.
I went down to the office of the Pacific Mail Steamship Com- pany and inquired, and they said the steamer would be in on her return trip in about ten days; so I engaged passage down and back. I took passage on the steamer Pacific, and arrived in San Diego on the 15th of April. The steamer carried twenty- six tons of freight and six passengers. On the return trip she had a cargo of whale oil. I was the only passenger going to San Diego to stay. Wells, Fargo & Co.'s agent was on board. His name was Morgan, and he did business at all the places where the steamer stopped on the way down. E. W. Morse was the agent of the express company in Old Town at that time. This Morgan was bragging about San Diego all the way down, and telling me what a beautiful place it was.
We landed at the old wharf, near where the coal bunkers [Santa Fé wharves] now are, and had to wait there an hour for a wagon to come and take us up to San Diego (Old Town). While we were waiting, I walked up to where the court-house now is and looked over the ground. There was nothing there but sage-brush then. I thought San Diego must be a heaven-on- earth, if it was all as fine as that; it seemed to me the best spot for building a city I ever saw.
I made some inquiries about who had been here before. Some army officers had come in from the East before the war and started a town at what was called New San Diego. At the time of the discovery of gold the people all left that place. They said there could never be a town there. When I came, all the inhab- itants were at Old Town. There was not a man living south of Old Town for twenty miles, to the head of the Bay. There was one man living at the head of the Bay; his name was Santiago E. Argüello. The Spanish settlements at the old fort on Pre- sidio Hill, and at the old hide houses near where Roseville now is, were entirely deserted.
When we got to Old Town, they were taking the goods ont of the wagon, and this Mr. Morgan said to me:
"Well, Horton, how do you like the looks of San Diego?"'
"Is this the great San Diego you were talking so much about ?" said I.
"Yes."
332
HISTORY OF SAN DIEGO
"Look here, are you telling me the truth ?"
"Sure; this is San Diego; what do you think of it ?"
"I would not give you $5 for a deed to the whole of it-I would not take it as a gift. It doesn't lie right. Never in the world can you have a city here."
Mr. Morse was standing by and heard this. He had a store in Old Town and was one of the first men here in San Diego. He was one of the smartest men they had here, and has always been one of our best citizens. When he heard this he said to
GEORGE A. PENDLETON
A prominent figure of the early days, who as County Clerk, called the election in connection with the sale of Pueblo lands to A. E. Horton
me (and these were the first words he ever spoke to me) : "Where do you think the city ought to be ?"
"Right down there by the wharf," I replied. "I have been nearly all over the United States, and that is the prettiest place for a city I ever saw. Is there any land there for sale ?"
I thought then that if I could buy twenty or forty acres there, that I would be satisfied. Mr. Morse said :
"Yes, you can buy property there, by having it put up and sold at auction."
333
THE SPECIAL ELECTION
I found out that the old city trustees were holding over. The pueblo had some debts and no income, so they did not want to incur the expense of holding an election. I said right away that that was illegal, that the old trustees could not give a good title to the property, and that there would have to be an election called. They could call a special election by giving ten days' notice, and I asked who the man was to call the election. Morse pointed out a tall man on the other side of the plaza, and said : "There is Mr. Pendleton crossing the plaza. He is county clerk and clerk of the court and can call an election." I went across to meet this man, and said to him:
"Mr. Pendleton, I came down here to buy some land and help you build up a town, but I find the old town trustees are hold- ing over and cannot do anything legally, so I want you to call an election."
"I shan't do it, sir. The town owes me enough, already."
"Mr. Pendleton, how much would it cost for you to call an election ?"'
"Not less than five dollars."
I put my hand in my pocket and took out ten dollars and handed it to him and said: "Here is ten dollars; now call the election."
He wrote three notices and I put them up that night in con- spicuous places, and that was the starting of San Diego. Morse went with me to show me what would be good land to get hold of, and showed me what is now called Horton's Addition.
They had to give ten days' notice before the election could be held. While waiting for the time to pass, a doctor at Old Town asked me to go out on the mesa with him to shoot quail. I went out on the mesa with him, and I asked him how it was that since coming here my cough had left me? I had had a hard cough for six months and began to feel alarmed about it.
"Well," he said, "that is the way with everybody that comes here. They all get well right off, even if they have consumption."
When Sunday came, I went to the Catholic church service at Old Town. Father Ubach was the priest in charge, and he was a young man, then. When they passed around the plate I noticed that the contributions were in small coins, and the most I saw put in was ten cents. I had $5 in silver with me, rolled up, and I put that on the plate. This attracted considerable attention, and Father Ubach, among the rest, noticed it. After the service he came and talked with me; asked if I was a Cath- olic. I said no. What church did I belong to ? I told him none. What was I there for? I told him about that and about the election. He asked me who I wanted for the trustees. I said I wanted E. W. Morse for one, and I did not know the business men very well, but I thought Joseph S. Mannasse and Thomas
ALONZO E. HORTON, AS HE APPEARED IN 1867
"FATHER" HORTON IN HIS NINETY-FOURTH YEAR
336
HISTORY OF SAN DIEGO
H. Bush would be satisfactory for the other two. He said immediately: "You can have them." When the election came off, these three men were elected, having received just 32 votes each.
Mr. Morse was the auctioneer. The first tract put up extended from where the court-house now is, south to the water front and east to Fifteenth Street, and contained about 200 acres. My first bid was $100, and the people around me began to giggle and laugh when they heard it. I thought they were laughing because I had bid so little, but on inquiring what it was cus- tomary to pay for land, I was told that $20 was a good price if the land was smooth, or about $15 if it was rough. I did not bid so much after that. The pueblo lands had been surveyed into quarter-sections by the United States surveyors. I was the only bidder on all the parcels except one, and I bought in all about a thousand acres at an average of 26 cents an acre. On a fractional section near where Upas Street now is, Judge Hol- lister bid $5 over me. I told him he could have it, and then he begged me to bid again. I finally raised him 25 cents, and then he would not bid any more, but said :
"You can have it. I wouldn't give a mill an acre for all you've bought. That land has lain there for a million years. and nobody has built a city on it yet."
"Yes," I said, "and it would lay there a million years longer without any city being built on it, if it depended upon you to do it."
After the auction and before commencing work on my land, I thought I would go back to San Francisco and close out what business I had left there. I had the deeds from the trustees put on record and then when the steamer came took passage back to San Francisco. I told my wife I considered I had made a fortune while I had been away, and she was wonderfully well pleased.
I had lived in San Francisco about two years and was well known there, and after I returned large crowds came to ask for information about the new city by the only harbor south of San Francisco. I told them all about the harbor, the climate, and so forth, and what a beautiful site it was for a city. General Rosecrans was one of these visitors, although I did not know him at the time. He came to me a little while afterward and said he had heard about San Diego before, but had never heard its advantages so well explained. He thought he would like to go down and see it, and to make a trip from San Diego to the desert, to see if a railroad could be built from San Diego eastward. He said if it could, my property was worth a million dollars. "Well," I said, "come on." So we came down to San Diego (it did not cost him anything for steamer fare), and we
.
337
OPINION OF ROSECRANS
got two teams, one for passengers and the other for provisions, etc., and started. E. W. Morse and Jo Mannasse furnished the teams, and they and two or three other people went along. We went first down to Tia Juana and from there about a hundred miles east to Jacumba Pass, where we could see out across the desert. General Rosecrans said to me: "Horton, this is the best route for a railroad through the mountains that I have ever seen in California." He said he had been all over the state, and he was now satisfied that Horton's property was well worth a million dollars. I said: "I am glad you are so sanguine about the property." Coming back through where San Diego now is, he said to me: "If I ever have a lot in San Diego, I would like to have it right here." I said I would remember him when the survey was made, and after it was completed I made him a present of the block bounded by Fifth and Sixth, F and G streets-block 70, I think it is. He had not asked for anything and did not expect to be paid, but he thanked me very kindly. Two years from that time I paid him $4,000 to get that block back again, and I sold half of it afterwards for more than I paid him.
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