USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > A history of California and an extended history of Los Angeles and environs : also containing biographies of well-known citizens of the past and present, Volume I > Part 34
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Never in the world's history did any country develop an ocean commerce so quickly as did California after the discovery of gold. When the news spread abroad, the first ships to arrive came from Peru, Chile and the South Sea islands. The earliest published notice of the gold discovery appeared in the Baltimore Sun, September 20, 1848, eight months after it was made. At first the story was ridiculed, but as confirmatory reports came thick and fast, preparations began for a grand rush for the
gold mines. Vessels of all kinds, seaworthy and unseaworthy, were overhauled and fitted out for California. The American trade with California had gone by way of Cape Horn or the Straits of Magellan, and this was the route that was taken by the pioneers. Then there were short cuts by the way of the Isthmus of Panama, across Mexico and by Nicaragua. The first vessels left the Atlantic seaports in No- vember, 1848. By the middle of the winter one hundred vessels had sailed from Atlantic and Gulf seaports, and by spring one hundred and fifty more had taken their departure, all of them loaded with human freight and with supplies of every description. Five hundred and forty- nine vessels arrived in San Francisco in nine months, forty-five reaching that port in one day.
April 12, 1848, before the treaty of peace with Mexico had been proclaimed by the Presi- dent, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company was incorporated with a capital of $500,000. Asto- ria, Ore., was to have been the Pacific terminus of the company's line, but it never got there. The discovery of gold in California made San Francisco the end of its route. The contract with the government gave the company a sub- sidy of $200,000 for maintaining three steamers on the Pacific side between Panama and Asto- ria. The first of these vessels, the California, sailed from New York October 6, 1848, for San Francisco and Astoria via Cape Horn. She was followed in the two succeeding months by the Oregon and the Panama. On the Atlantic side the vessels of the line for several years were the Ohio, Illinois and Georgia. The ves- sels on the Atlantic side were fifteen hundred tons burden, while those on the Pacific were a thousand tons. Freight and passengers by the Panama route were transported across the isth- mus by boats up the Chagres river to Gorgona, and then by mule-back to Panama. In 1855 the Panama railroad was completed. This greatly facilitated travel and transportation. The At- lantic terminus of the road was Aspinwall, now called Colon.
Another line of travel and commerce between the states and California in early days was the Nicaragua route. By that route passengers on the Atlantic side landed at San Juan del Norte
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or Greytown. From there they took a river steamer and ascended the Rio San Juan to Lake Nicaragua, then in a larger vessel they crossed the lake to La Virgin. From there a distance of about twelve miles was made on foot or on mule-back to San Juan del Sur, where they re- embarked on board the ocean steamer for San Francisco.
The necessity for the speedy shipment of mer- chandise to California before the days of trans- continental railroads at a minimum cost evolved the clipper ship. These vessels entered quite early into the California trade and soon displaced the short, clumsy vessels of a few hundred tons burden that took from six to ten months to make a voyage around the Horn. The clipper ship Flying Cloud, which arrived at San Fran- cisco in August, 1851, made the voyage from New York in eighty-nine days. These vessels were built long and narrow and carried heavy sail. Their capacity ranged from one to two thousand tons burden. The overland railroads took away a large amount of their business.
Capt. Jedediah S. Smith, as previously stated, was the real pathfinder of the western moun- tains and plains. He marked out the route from Salt Lake by way of the Rio Virgin, the Colorado and the Cajon Pass to Los Angeles in 1826. This route was extensively traveled by the belated immigrants of the early '50S. Those reaching Salt Lake City too late in the season to cross the Sierra Nevadas turned southward and entered California by Smith's trail.
The early immigration to California came by way of Fort Hall. From there it turned south- erly. At Fort Hall the Oregon and California immigrants separated. The disasters that be- fell the Donner party were brought upon them by their taking the Hastings cut-off, which was represented to them as saving two hundred and fifty miles. It was shorter, but the time spent in making a wagon road through a rough coun- try delayed them until they were caught by the snows in the mountains. Lassen's cut-off was another route that brought disaster and delays to many of the immigrants who were induced to take it. The route up the Platte through the
South Pass of the Rocky mountains and down the Humboldt received by far the larger amount of travel.
The old Santa Fe trail from Independence to Santa Fe, and from there by the old Spanish trail around the north bank of the Colorado across the Rio Virgin down the Mojave river and through the Cajon Pass to Los Angeles, was next in importance. Another route by which much of the southern emigration came was what was known as the Gila route. It started at Fort Smith, Ark., thence via El Paso and Tucson and down the Gila to Yuma, thence across the desert through the San Gorgono Pass to Los Angeles. In 1852 it was estimated one thousand wagons came by this route. There was another route still further south than this which passed through the northern states of Mexico, but it was not popular on account of the hostility of the Mexicans and the Apaches.
The first overland stage line was established in 1857. The route extended from San Antonio de Bexar, Tex., to San Diego, via El Paso, Mes- sillo, Tucson and Colorado City (now Yuma). The service was twice a month. The contract was let to James E. Burch, the Postal Depart- ment reserving "the right to curtail or discon- tinue the service should any route subsequently put under contract cover the whole or any por- tion of the route." The San Diego Herald, August 12, 1857, thus notes the departure of the first mail by that route: "The pioneer mail train from San Diego to San Antonio, Tex., under the contract entered into by the govern- ment with Mr. James Burch, left here on the 9th inst. (August 9, 1857) at an early hour in the morning, and is now pushing its way for the east at a rapid rate. The mail was of course carried on pack animals, as will be the case until wagons which are being pushed across will have been put on the line. The first mail from the other side has not yet arrived, although somewhat overdue, and conjecture is rife as to the cause of the delay." The eastern mail arrived a few days later.
The service continued to improve, and the fifth trip from the eastern terminus to San Diego "was made in the extraordinary short
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time of twenty-six days and twelve hours," and the San Diego Herald on this arrival, October 6, 1857, rushed out an extra "announcing the very gratifying fact of the complete triumph of the southern route notwithstanding the croak- ings of many of the opponents of the adminis- tration in this state." But the "triumph of the southern route" was of short duration. In September, 1858, the stages of the Butterfield line began making their semi-weekly trips. This route from its western terminus, San Fran- cisco, came down the coast to Gilroy, thence through Pacheco Pass to the San Joaquin val- ley, up the valley and by way of Fort Tejon to Los Angeles; from there eastward by Temecula and Warner's to Yuma, thence following very nearly what is now the route of the Southern Pacific Railroad through Arizona and New Mex- ico to El Paso, thence turning northward to Fort Smith, Ark. There the route divided, one branch going to St. Louis and the other to Memphis. The mail route from San Antonio to San Diego was discontinued.
The Butterfield stage line was one of the long- est continuous lines ever organized. Its length was two thousand eight hundred and eighty miles. It began operation in September, 1858. The first stage from the east reached Los Angeles October 7 and San Francisco October IO. A mass-meeting was held at San Francisco the evening of October II "for the purpose of expressing the sense entertained by the people of the city of the great benefits she is to re- ceive from the establishment of the overland mail." Col. J. B. Crocket acted as president and Frank M. Pixley as secretary. The speaker of the evening in his enthusiasm said: "In my opinion one of the greatest blessings that could befall California would be to discontinue at once all communication by steamer between San Francisco and New York. On yesterday we received advices from New York, New Orleans and St. Louis in less than twenty-four days via El Paso. Next to the discovery of gold this is the most important fact yet developed in the history of California." W. L. Ormsby, special correspondent of the New York Herald, the first and only through passenger by the over-
land mail coming in three hours less than twenty-four days, was introduced to the audi- ence and was greeted with terrific applause. He gave a description of the route and some inci- dents of the journey.
The government gave the Butterfield com- pany a subsidy of $600,000 a year for a service of two mail coaches each way a week. In 1859 the postal revenue from this route was only $27,000, leaving Uncle Sam more than half a . million dollars out of pocket. At the breaking out of the Civil war the southern overland mail route was discontinued and a contract was made with Butterfield for a six-times-a-week mail by the central route via Salt Lake City, with a branch line to Denver. The eastern terminus was at first St. Joseph, but on account of the war it was changed to Omaha. The western terminus was Placerville, Cal., time twenty days for eight months, and twenty-three days for the remaining four months. The contract was for three years at an annual subsidy of $1,000,000. The last overland stage contract for carrying the mails was awarded to Wells, Fargo & Co., October 1, 1868, for $1,750,000 per annum, with deductions for carriage by rail- way. The railway was rapidly reducing the dis- tance of stage travel.
The only inland commerce during the Mexi- can era was a few bands of mules sold to New Mexican traders and driven overland to Santa Fe by the old Spanish trail and one band of cattle sold to the Oregon settlers in 1837 and driven by the coast route to Oregon City. The Californians had no desire to open up an inland trade with their neighbors and the traders and trappers who came overland were not welcome.
After the discovery of gold, freighting to the mines became an important business. Supplies had to be taken by pack trains and wagons. Freight charges were excessively high at first. In 1848, "it cost $5 to carry a hundred pounds of goods from Sutter's Fort to the lower mines, a distance of twenty miles, and $10 per hundred weight for freight to the upper mines, . a distance of forty miles. Two horses can draw one thousand five hundred pounds." In Decem- ber, 1849, the roads were almost impassable
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and teamsters were charging from $40 to $50 a hundred pounds for hauling freight from Sacra- mento to Mormon Island.
In 1855 an inland trade was opened up be- tween Los Angeles and Salt Lake City. The first shipment was made by Banning and Alex- ander. The wagon train consisted of fifteen ten-mule teams heavily freighted with merchan- dise. The venture was a success financially. The train left Los Angeles in May and returned in September, consuming four months in the journey. The trade increased and became quite an important factor in the business of the south- ern part of the state. In 1859 sixty wagons were loaded for Salt Lake in the month of January, and in March of the same year one hundred and fifty loaded with goods were sent to the Mormon capital. In 1865 and 1866 there was a considerable shipment of goods from Los Angeles to Idaho and Montana by wagon trains. These trains went by way of Salt Lake. This trade was carried on during the winter months when the roads over the Sierras and the Rocky mountains were blocked with snow.
Freighting by wagon train to Washoe formed a very important part of the inland commerce of California between 1859 and 1869. The im- mense freight wagons called "prairie schooners" carried almost as much as a freight car. The old-time teamster, like the old-time stage driver, was a unique character. Both have disappeared. Their occupation is gone. We shall never look on their like again.
The pony express rider came early in the his- tory of California. Away back in 1775, when the continental congress made Benjamin Frank- lin postmaster-general of the United Colonies, on the Pacific coast soldier couriers, fleet mounted, were carrying their monthly budgets of mail between Monterey in Alta California, and Loreto, near the southern extremity of the peninsula of Lower California, a distance of one thousand five hundred miles.
In the winter of 1859-60 a Wall street lobby was in Washington trying to get an appropria- tion of $5,000,000 for carrying the mails one year between New York and San Francisco. William H. Russell, of the firm of Russell, Ma-
jors & Waddell, then engaged in running a daily stage line between the Missouri river and Salt Lake City, hearing of the lobby's efforts, offered to bet $200,000 that he could put on a mail line between San Francisco and St. Joseph that could make the distance, one thousand nine hundred and fifty miles, in ten days. The wager was accepted. Russell and his business man- ager, A. B. Miller, an old plains man, bought the fleetest horses they could find in the west and employed one hundred and twenty-five riders selected with reference to their light weight and courage. It was essential that the horses should be loaded as lightly as possible. The horses were stationed from ten to twenty miles apart and each rider was required to ride seventy-five miles. For change of horses and mail bag two minutes were allowed, at each station. One man took care of the two horses kept there. Everything being arranged a start was made from St. Joseph, April 3, 1860. The bet was to be decided on the race eastward. At meridian on April 3, 1860, a signal gun on a steamer at Sacramento proclaimed the hour of starting. At that signal Mr. Miller's private saddle horse, Border Ruffian, with his rider bounded away toward the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas. The first twenty miles were covered in forty-nine minutes. All went well till the Platte river was reached. The river was swollen by recent rain. Rider and horse plunged boldly into it, but the horse mired in the quicksands and was drowned. The rider carrying the mail bag footed it ten miles to the next relay sta- tion. When the courier arrived at the sixty- mile station out from St. Joseph he was one hour behind time. The last one had just three hours and thirty minutes in which to make the sixty miles and win the race. A heavy rain was falling and the roads were slippery, but with six horses to make the distance he won with five minutes and a fraction to spare. And thus was finished the longest race for the larg- est stake ever run in America.
The pony express required to do its work nearly five hundred horses, about one hundred and ninety stations, two hundred station keepers and over a hundred riders. Each rider usually rode the horses on about seventy-five miles,
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but sometimes much greater distances were made. Robert H. Haslam, Pony Bob, made on one occasion a continuous ride of three hundred and eighty miles and William F. Cody, now fa- mous as Buffalo Bill, in one continuous trip rode three hundred and eighty-four miles, stopping only for meals, and to change horses.
The pony express was a semi-weekly service. Fifteen pounds was the limit of the weight of the waterproof mail bag and its contents. The postage or charge was $5 on a letter of half an ounce. The limit was two hundred letters, but sometimes there were not more than twenty in a bag. The line never paid. The shortest time ever made by the pony express was seven days and seventeen hours. This was in March, 1861, when it carried President Lincoln's message. At first telegraphic messages were received at St. Joseph up to five o'clock p. m. of the day of starting and sent to San Francisco on the express, arriving at Placerville, which was then the eastern terminus of the line. The pony ex- press was suspended October 27, 1861, on the completion of the telegraph.
The first stage line was established between Sacramento and Mormon Island in September, 1849, fare $16 to $32, according to times. Sacramento was the great distributing point for the mines and was also the center from which radiated numerous stage lines. In 1853 a dozen lines were owned there and the total capital in- vested in staging was estimated at $335,000. There were lines running to Coloma, Nevada, Placerville, Georgetown, Yankee Jim's, Jack- son, Stockton, Shasta and Auburn. In 1851 Stockton had seven daily stages. The first stage line between San Francisco and San José was established in April, 1850, fare $32. A number of lines were consolidated. In 1860 the Califor- nia stage company controlled eight lines north- ward, the longest extending seven hundred and ten miles to Portland with sixty stations, thirty- five drivers and five hundred horses, eleven drivers and one hundred and fifty horses per- taining to the rest. There were seven indepen- dent lines covering four hundred and sixty-four miles, chiefly east and south, the longest to Vir-
ginia City .* These lines disappeared with the advent of the railroad.
The pack train was a characteristic feature of early mining days. Many of the mountain camps were inaccessible to wagons and the only means of shipping in goods was by pack train. A pack train consisted of from ten to twenty mules each, laden with from two hundred to four hundred pounds. The load was fastened on the animal by means of a pack saddle which was held in its place by a cinch tightly laced around the animal's body. The sure-footed mules could climb steep grades and wind round narrow trails on the side of steep mountains without slipping or tumbling over the cliffs. Mexicans were the most expert packers.
The scheme to utilize camels and dromedaries as beasts of burden on the arid plains of the southwest was agitated in the early fifties. The chief promoter if not the originator of the project was Jefferson Davis, afterwards presi- dent of the Southern Confederacy. During the last days of the congress of 1851, Mr. Davis offered an amendment to the army appropria- tion bill appropriating $30,000 for the purchase of thirty camels and twenty dromedaries. The bill was defeated. When Davis was secretary of war in 1854, congress appropriated $30,000 for the purchase and importation of camels and in December of that year Major C. Wayne was sent to Egypt and Arabia to buy seventy-five. He secured the required number and shipped them on the naval store ship Supply. They were landed at Indianola, Tex., February 10, 1857. Three had died on the voyage. About half of the herd were taken to Albuquerque, where an expedition was fitted out under the command of Lieutenant Beale for Fort Tejon, Cal .; the other half was employed in packing on the plains of Texas and in the Gadsen Purchase, as Southern Arizona was then called.
It very soon became evident that the camel experiment would not be a success. The Amer- ican teamster could not be converted into an Arabian camel driver. From the very first meet- ing there was a mutual antipathy between the
* Sacramento Union, January 1, 1861.
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American mule whacker and the beast of the prophet. The teamsters when transformed into camel drivers deserted and the troopers refused to have anything to do with the misshapen beasts. So because there was no one to load and navigate these ships of the desert their voyages became less and less frequent, until finally they ceased altogether; and these desert ships were anchored at the different forts in the southwest. After the breaking out of the Civil war the camels at the forts in Texas and New Mexico were turned loose to shift for themselves. Those in Arizona and California were condemned and sold by the government to two Frenchmen who used them for packing, first in Nevada and later in Arizona, but tiring of the animals they turned them out on the desert. Some of these camels or possibly their descendants are still roaming over the arid plains of southern Arizona and Sonora.
The first telegraph was completed September II, 1853. It extended from the business quar- ter of San Francisco to the Golden Gate and was used for signalling vessels. The first long line connected Marysville, Sacramento, Stock- ton and San José. This was completed October 24, 1853. Another line about the same time was built from San Francisco to Placerville by way of Sacramento. A line was built southward from San José along the Butterfield overland mail route to Los Angeles in 1860. The Over- land Telegraph, begun in 1858, was completed November 7, 1861.
The first express for the States was sent un- der the auspices of the California Star (news- paper). The Star of March 1, 1848, contained the announcement that "We are about to send letters by express to the States at fifty cents each, papers twelve and a half cents; to start April 15; any mail arriving after that time will be returned to the writers. The Star refused to send copies of its rival, The Californian, in its express.
The first local express was started by Charles L. Cady in August, 1847. It left San Francisco every Monday and Fort Sacramento, its other terminus, every Thursday. Letters twenty-five cents. Its route was by way of Saucelito, Napa and Petaluma to Sacramento.
Weld & Co.'s express was established in Oc- tober, 1849. This express ran from San Fran- cisco to Marysville, having its principal offices in San Francisco, Benicia and Sacramento. It was the first express of any consequence estab- lished in California. Its name was changed to Hawley & Co.'s express. The first trip was made in the Mint, a sailing vessel, and took six days. Afterward it was transferred to the steamers Hartford and McKim. The company paid these boats $800 per month for the use of one state room; later for the same accommoda- tion it paid $1,500 per month. The Alta Cali- fornia of January 7, 1850, says: "There are so many new express companies daily starting that we can scarcely keep the run of them."
The following named were the principal com- panies at that time: Hawley & Co., Angel, Young & Co., Todd, Bryan, Stockton Express, Henly, McKnight & Co., Brown, Knowlton & Co. The business of these express companies consisted largely in carrying letters to the mines. The letters came through the postoffice in San Francisco, but the parties to whom they were addressed were in the mines. While the miner would gladly give an ounce to hear from liome he could not make the trip to the Bay at a loss of several hundred dollars in time and money. The express companies obviated this difficulty. The Alta of July 27, 1850, says : "We scarcely know what we should do if it were not for the various express lines established which enable us to hold communication with the mines. With the present defective mail communication we should scarcely ever be able to hear from the towns throughout California or from the remote portions of the Placers north or south. Hawley & Co., Todd & Bryan and Besford & Co. are three lines holding communication with different sections of the country. Adams & Co. occupy the whole of a large building on Mont- gomery street."
Adams & Co., established in 1850, soon be- came the leading express company of the coast. It absorbed a number of minor companies. It established relays of the fastest horses to carry the express to the mining towns. As early as 1852 the company's lines had penetrated the re- mote mining camps. Some of its riders per-
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formed feats in riding that exceeded the famous pony express riders. Isaac W. Elwell made the trip between Placerville and Sacramento in two hours and fifty minutes, distance sixty-four miles; Frank Ryan made seventy-five miles in four hours and twenty minutes. On his favorite horse, Colonel, he made twenty miles in fifty- five minutes. Adams & Co. carried on a bank- ing business and had branch banks in all the leading mining towns. They also became a po-
litical power. In the great financial crash of 1855 they failed and in their failure ruined thou- sands of their depositors. Wells, Fargo & Co. express was organized in 1851. It weathered the financial storm that carried down Adams & Co. It gained the confidence of the people of the Pacific coast and has never betrayed it. Its business has grown to immense proportions. It is one of the leading express companies of the world.
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