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 63
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
as country districts. The office was discontinued for two years. In 1872 a special act of the legis- lature created a city board of education consist- ing of five members and gave it power to appoint a superintendent. The following is a list of the persons who have filled the office, with the years of their service :
J. Lancaster Brent, ex-officio. 1853 to 1854
Stephen C. Foster 1854 to 1855
Dr. Wm. B. Osburn. 1855 to 1856
Dr. John S. Griffin. 1856 to 1857
J. Lancaster Brent. 1857 to 1858
E. J. C. Kewen. . 1858 to 1859
Rev. W. E. Boardman. 1859 to 1862
A. F. Heinchman 1862 to 1863
Gustavus L. Mix 1863 to 1864
Dr. R. F. Hayes. 1864 to 1865
Rev. Elias Birdsell. 1865 to 1866
Joseph Huber, Sr 1866 to 1867
H. D. Barrows 1867 to 1868
Andrew Glassell 1868 to 1869
Dr. T. H. Rose.
1869 to 1870
No Superintendent
1870 to 1872
A. G. Brown.
1872 to 1873
Dr. W. T. Lucky 1873 to 1876
C. H. Kimball.
1876 to 1880
Mrs. C. B. Jones.
1880 to 1881
J. M. Guinn 1881 to 1883
L. D. Smith 1883 to 1885
WV. M. Freisner. 1885 to 1893
Leroy D. Brown 1893 to 1894
P. W. Search. 1894 to 1895
J. A. Foshay
1895 to 1906
E. C. Moore.
1906 to 1910
John H. Francis. 1910 to ....
The office in earlier years was filled by law- yers, doctors, ministers and business men. It was not until 1869 that a professional teacher was chosen superintendent; since then profes- sional teachers have filled the office. The high school was established in 1873, during the first year of Dr. Lucky's term. It was the first, and for several years after its organization the only high school in Southern California. At the time it was established there were but six high schools in all California. Now there are twenty-five in Los Angeles county alone. The first teachers' institute of Los Angeles county was organized in the old Bath street school house, October 31, 1870. It was held there because the school building on the corner of Spring and Second streets was considered too far out of town; the
business center of the city being then on Los Angeles street between Arcadia and Commercial. There were no hotels south of First street. The officers of the institute were W. M. McFadden, county superintendent and president; J. M. Guinn and T. H. Rose, vice-presidents, and P. C. Tonner, secretary. The entire teaching force of the city schools consisted of eight teachers, and from the county there were thirty, a total of thirty-eight for city and county, and the county then included all the area now in Orange county.
During the '60s, on account of the sectional hatreds growing out of the Civil war, the public schools in Los Angeles were unpopular. They were regarded as a Yankee institution and were hated accordingly by the Confederate sympa- thizers. The public school teachers during the Civil war and for some years afterwards were required by law to take an oath to support the constitution of the United States before they could obtain a certificate. This jarred on the sensitive feelings of some of the pro-slavery pedagogues, and refusing to take the oath, they were compelled to quit the profession. The Los Angeles News of July 17, 1866, commenting on the public school system of California, says : "In New England the public schools educated the people up to the negro equality and the same object is sought to be accomplished in this state ; and unless parents and guardians take matters promptly in hand their children will be educated up to the New England standard of social ideas and infidelity"
The editor of the News charges the State Board of Education with "making regulations for the government of the public schools and introducing therein a series of books that make these institutions but little more than schools for disseminations of the doctrines of abolitionism." (Whittier's Poems were among the books of this series.)
"Under one of these regulations teachers are required to have certificates of competency from a state board of examiners, accessible only to the purely loyal. Thus the representatives of New England negro equality have been forced into the public schools throughout the state to corrupt
384
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
the minds of the youth with their damnable doc- trines of social equality."
With such teachings from the public press it is not strange that the public schools of the city were poorly patronized. In the school year of 1865-66 the total number of school census chil- dren between five and fifteen years of age was 1.009. Of these 331 were enrolled in the public schools during the year, and 309 in the private schools; 369 were not enrolled in any school. According to the News, the total average daily attendance in the six public schools was 61; in the three private schools 103-nearly fifty per cent greater than that of the public schools. Twenty-one negro children were enrolled in a separate school. The education of these twenty- one little negroes was regarded as a menace to the future ascendency of the white race. Out of such mole-hills does political bigotry construct impassable mountains! In 1870 County Super- intendent McFadden in his report said of the public schools of the city: "Los Angeles is far behind her sister cities of the same population and wealth in educational interest. Her school buildings are illy constructed, incommodious, in- conveniently located and conducted on a sort of guerrilla system" (no commanding officer or head to them ). "Out of seventeen hundred and eighty children between five and fifteen years of age, but 1,200 have been enrolled in either public or private schools, and the average daily attendance in the public schools is only 360." Probably no other city of the United States out- side of the former slave states can show in the past forty years so remarkable a change of cpinion in regard to the public schools as can Los Angeles. That the extracts from the Los Angeles Daily News previously given reflected the sentiment of a considerable proportion of the city's population in regard to the public schools is evidenced by the statistics of school attend- ance. The enrollment in the public schools in 1865 was only thirty-three per cent of the census children, while the enrollment in the private schools was thirty per cent. The average daily attendance of the private schools was nearly fifty per cent greater than that of the public schools. In 1905, forty years later, the enroll-
ment in the public schools exceeded eighty-five per cent of the number of census children, while the enrollment in private schools had fallen be- low seven per cent. Immigration, a more en- lightened public sentiment and the mollifying of sectional hatreds are largely responsible for the change. About 1880 the separate schools for negro children were abolished and colored chil- dren were allowed to attend school with the whites. The following table gives the number of census children, enrollment, average daily at- tendance and number of teachers in the schools at different periods from 1855, when the first report was made, to 1906:
Year
No. Census Children
Av. Daily At.
No. Teachers
1855
753
Enrollment 150
52
3
1865
1,000
331
61
6
1870
1,780
750
360
8
1880
3,579
2,098
1,343
32
1890
10,843
8,115
6,841
161
1895
20,962
16,719
11,798
377
1900
30,354
21,640
15,150
500
1905
39,664
34.326
24,595
728
1910
73.732
52,054
37,014
1,306
1914
87,210
57,225
2,380
From the beginning of the city's school system an annual census of the school children was taken. From 1850 to 1865 the census age was 5 to 18 years; from 1865 to 1870, 5 to 15, and from 1870 to 1911. 5 to 17. In 1911 the law was changed and the school funds apportioned on av- erage daily attendance. The rapid increase in school population since 1905 is due in part to the extension of the city's boundaries.
In 1904 the city council let a contract to build a polytechnic high school building. A site had been secured on the south side of West Wash- ington street between Grand avenue and Flower street. The contract price of the building was $170,000. In addition to this the heating and lighting cost about $20,000 more. The building was ready for occupancy in September, 1905. The machinery plants were gradually installed. The enrollment at the end of the first year num- bered 1,061, the number of teachers employed twenty-three.
In 1903 a change was made in the city charter in regard to the board of education. The board
385
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
since the adoption of the charter of 1889 con- sisted of nine members, one from each ward. This proved to be unsatisfactory. It usually re- sulted in the election of a partisan board, and politics to some extent figured in school affairs. The change made the board to consist of seven members elected from the city at large. The first election after the change in the charter re- sulted in the selection of a non-partisan board named by a committee of one hundred citizens. The members of this board were John D. Bick- nell, Charles Cassett Davis, J. M. Guinn, Joseph Scott, J. S. Slauson, W. J. Washburn and Emmet H. Wilson.
The board made a new departure in the method of calling an election for school bonds. For more than thirty years the city council called bond elections for the building of school houses, let the contracts and had the buildings erected. This divided responsibility was not satisfactory to school boards. In March, 1905, the school board called an election for the issuing of bonds to the amount of $780,000 under the provisions of the law for issuing school district bonds. There was scarcely any opposition to the bonds at the election, but to sell them it became neces- sary to obtain the opinion of Dillon & Hubbard, attorneys of New York, and experts on all ques- tions in regard to the validity of bonds. Several technical points had to be determined by the supreme court of the state. The validity of the bonds was established by the court, and here- after boards of education will call elections for school bond issues.
From a subsequent bond issue the Manual Arts high school was built at an expenditure of over half a million dollars. The group of build- ings was completed in 1912. The Lincoln high school was built in 1913. When all the buildings are erected it will cost $350,000. In June, 1914, a bond issue of $1,600,000 was voted for high schools and $3,000,000 for elementary. From the proceeds of the high school bond issue three new schools will be built. The Franklin in the High- land Park-Garvanza district, the Jefferson in the southeast and the new Los Angeles high school in the middle west. These three schools will in- volve the expenditure of over a million dollars. From the elementary bond issue forty new build- ings will be erected and a number of additions to
the old ones. Two intermediate school buildings will be erected costing over $100,000 each.
COUNTY SCHOOL REPORTS
The first Los Angeles county school report that I have been able to find, and probably the first ever made, is that of County Superintendent J. F. Burns for the school year ending October 31. 1855. It is as follows :
Total number of schools in the county. . 6
Total number of teachers. 9
Total number of children attending school 399
Whole number of days taught. 830
Average daily attendance. 134
Total number of census children between 4 and 18 years. . 1,522
Amount paid teachers by trustees $1,276
Amount paid teachers by patrons 766
Total teachers' wages. $2,042
Amount spent for building and pur-
chasing school houses .. . $ 8,230.75
Total amount expended on schools of the county $10,272.75
Report for the school year ending October 31, 1860 :
Number of schools in the county (3 gram- mar, 4 primary)
7
Number of teachers (6 male, 5 female) 11
Total number of pupils enrolled. 460
Average daily attendance.
140
Total number of census children between 4 and 18 years.
2,343
Paid for teachers' salaries. . $4,827
Value of school houses built.
7,000
Total amount expended on schools during year
$11,827
The following table gives the number of census children enrollment and the number of teachers employed at different periods between 1866 and 1906 in the schools of the county :
Year
No. Census Children
Enrollment Public Schools
Enrollment Priv. Schools
No. Teachers Pub. Schools
1866
2,445
581
424
14
1869
4,424
1,344
534
28
1876
9.319
5,469
829
86
1880
10,602
6,055
572
130
1885
15,130
11,368
1,031
211
1890
23,390
19,068
1,829
391
1895
33,729
25,450
... .
..
1905
67,875
55,116
4,223
1,431
1906
75,924
61,827
4,399
1,614
1910
88,173
80,208
2,340
1911
93,513
2,663
1914
.... .
129,724
....
4,053
....
....
600
1900
47,227
32,396
839
25
386
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
In 1889 the formation of Orange county from the southeastern part of Los Angeles took away from the latter county 4,095 census children, 31 districts and 72 teachers.
NAME AND LOCATION OF THE HIGH SCHOOLS OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
Alhambra, Lordsburg, Azusa, Compton, Co- vina, El Monte, Norwalk, Glendale, Hollywood,
Inglewood, Gardena, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Polytechnic, Los Nietos Valley, Mon- rovia, Pasadena, Pomona, Redondo, Fernando, San Pedro, Santa Monica, South Pasadena, Pasa- dena, Whittier, Wilmington, Manual Arts, Lin- coln, Franklin, Jefferson, Montebello, Venice, Owensmouth, Van Nuys, Puente.
CHAPTER LV. POSTAL SERVICE OF LOS ANGELES.
The postal service of California when it was a Spanish province was entirely under military rule. The carrying of official orders and proclamations necessitated the establishment of a mail system. Soldier couriers made semi- monthly trips between Monterey, the capital, and Loreto, near Cape St. Lucus. From there the mail was taken across the Gulf of Cali- fornia by sailing vessels to La Paz and for- warded to the City of Mexico. There was a regu- lar schedule of the day and the hour of the courier's arrival and departure at each mission and presidio. An hour's stop was allowed the courier at each station. The habilitados (paymas- ters) acted as postmasters at the presidios, and re- ceived eight per cent of the gross receipts for their compensation. At the pueblos the alcalde, or some officer detailed to act as administrador de cor- reos (postmaster) received and distributed the small packages of mail. The compensation for his services was small. It did not require much of a political pull to get a postoffice in those days. It would be interesting to know the amount of revenue derived from the Los Angeles postoffice a hundred years ago. As there were not more than half a dozen of the two hundred inhabitants of the pueblo that could read and write at that time, the revenue of "La casa รณ administracion de correos la estafeta" (postoffice) was not large, and it is probable that there were not many as- pirants for the position of postmaster of Los Angeles a century ago.
Under Mexican rule the increased number of vessels plying between Mexican and Californian ports did away to a certain extent with the carry-
ing of mail by land, still the old route overland to Loreto and across the gulf by vessel to San Blas was kept open. A shorter route by way of Sonora and the Colorado river was used when the Indians would allow it. I find in the old pueblo archives an order from Acting Governor Jimeno, dated August 24, 1839, authorizing the prefect of Los Angeles to appoint three collectors of duties, the revenues derived from such collec- tion to be applied to the establishing of a monthly postal service to Lower California and thence to Mexico.
News from the outside world traveled slowly in those days. An American pioneer at Los An- geles notes in his diary the receipt of the news of the death of President W. H. Harrison in 1841. It took the news three months and twen- ty days to reach California. A newspaper from the States a year old was fresh and entertaining when Dana was hide droghing at San Pedro in 1835.
After the American conquest of California the military authorities established a regular service between San Francisco and San Diego. Soldier carriers, starting from each end of the route, met at Dana's rancho near San Luis Obispo, and, ex- changing mail pouches there, each then re- turned to his starting point. It took a fortnight for them to go and return. The following ex- tract from an "Act to establish certain post routes" is the first legislation by Congress to give California a mail service :
SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the Postmaster-General be and is hereby authorized, to establish Postoffices, and appoint deputy post-
387
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
masters at San Diego, Monterey and San Fran- cisco, and such other places on the coast of the Pacific, in California, within the territory of the United States, and to make such temporary ar- rangements for the transportation of the mail in said territory as the public interest may re- quire ; that all letters conveyed to or from any of the above-mentioned places on the Pacific, from or to any place on the Atlantic coast shall be charged with forty cents postage ; that all let- ters conveyed from one to any other of the said places on the Pacific shall pay twelve and a half cents postage ; and the Postmaster-General is authorized to apply any moneys received on ac- count of postage aforesaid to the payments to be made on the contracts for the transportation of the mails in the Pacific ocean; and the Post- master-General is further authorized to employ not exceeding two agents in making arrange- ments for the establishment of postoffices, and for the transmission, receipt and conveyance of letters in Oregon and California, at an annual compensation not exceeding that of the principal clerks in the Postoffice Department. Approved, August 14, 1848.
After the soldiers were discharged in the lat- ter part of 1848, a semi-monthly, or perhaps it might be more in accordance with the facts to say a semi-occasional, mail service was estab- lished between San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. The mail was carried by sailing ves- sels (there were no steamers on the coast then). Wind and weather permitting, a letter might reach its destination in three or four days, but with the elements against it, it might be delayed a fortnight. Masters and supercargoes of ves- sels took charge of letters and delivered them to the owners or agents of some shipping house at the port, and in some way the letters reached their destination. This mail service was not es- tablished by the government.
There was no stage line for conveying pas- sengers or mails from the embarcadero of San Pedro to Los Angeles previous to 1851. Before that time a caballada (band of horses) was kept in pasture at the landing. When a vessel was sighted in the offing the mustangs were round- ed up, driven into a corral, lassoed, saddled and bridled, and were ready for the conveyance of passengers to the city as soon as they came ashore. As the horses were half-broken broncos and the passengers were mostly newcomers from
the States, unused to the tricks of bucking mus- tangs, the trip generally ended in the passenger arriving in the city on foot, the bronco having landed him at some point most convenient to him-the bronco-not the passenger.
In 1849 Wilson & Packard, whose store was on Main street where the United States Bank now stands, were the custodians of the letters for Los Angeles. A tub stood on the end of a counter. Into this the letters were dumped. Any one expecting a letter was at liberty to sort over the contents of the tub and take away his mail. The office, or rather the postoffice tub, was conducted on an automatic free delivery system. Col. John O. Wheeler, who had clerked for the firm in 1849, bought out the business in 1850 and continued the "Tale of a Tub," that is, continued to receive the letters and other literary contents of the mail bags and dump them into the tub. There was no regularly established postoffice, and, of course, no postmaster. An officious postal agent of San Francisco found fault with the tub postoffice and the free and easy delivery system. The colonel, who had been accommodating the public free of charge, told the agent to take his postal matter else- where.
The first postoffice in California established under American rule was that of San Francisco, established November 9, 1848. The postoffice at Los Angeles was established April 9, 1850; J. Pugh was the first postmaster. The second was W. T. B. Sanford, appointed November 6, 1851. The third was Dr. William B. Osburn, appointed October 12, 1853. James S. Waite was ap- pointed November 1, 1855; J. D. Woodworth, May 19, 1858; Thomas J. White, May 9, 1860; William G. Still, June 8, 1861; Francisco P. Ramirez, October 22, 1864; Russell Sackett, May 5, 1865; George J. Clarke, June 25, 1866; H. K. W. Bent, February 14, 1873; Col. Isaac R. Dunkelberger, February 14, 1877 ; John W. Green, February 14, 1885. Green was succeeded by E. A. Preuss, who was succeeded in turn by Green. Green died in office and H. V. Van Dusen com- pleted the term. Gen. John R. Mathews was ap- pointed December 20, 1895, who was succeeded by Lewis A. Groff, March 1, 1900. M. H. Flint
388
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
was appointed March 1, 1904; W. H. Harrison, March, 1908; Harrington Brown, July 14, 1914.
Just where the postoffice was first located I have not been able to ascertain. In 1852 it was kept in an adobe building on Los Angeles street, west side, between Commercial and Arcadia. In 1854 it was located in the Salazar row on North Main street, just south of where the St. Elmo hotel now stands. In January, 1855, it was moved to Los Angeles street, one door above Commercial street. From there, when James S. Waite, publisher of the Weekly Star, was post- master, it was moved to the old Temple block, which stood on the site recently donated to the government for a postoffice building. Its next move was into an adobe building that stood on the present site of the Bullard block, and from there it was taken to the old Lanfranco block on Main street. In 1858 it moved up Main street to a building just south of the Pico house; then, after a time, it drifted down town to North Spring street, a few doors below Temple street. In 1861 it was kept in a frame building on Main street opposite Commercial street. In 1866 it again moved up Main street to a building opposite the Bella Union hotel, now the St. Charles. In 1867 or 1868 it was moved to the northwest cor- ner of North Main and Market streets, and from there, about 1870, it was moved to the middle of Temple block on North Spring street. H. K. W. Bent moved the office to the Union block, now the Jones block, on the east side of North Spring street. From there, in 1879, when Colonel Dunkelberger was postmaster, it was moved to the Oxarat block on North Spring street near First; here it remained eight years. Its loca- tion on Spring street gave an impetus to that street that carried it ahead of Main. In Febru- ary, 1887, the postoffice was moved to the Hell- man building, southwest corner of North Main and Republic streets; from there it was moved down Broadway below Sixth street. In June, 1893, it was moved into the government building on the southwest corner of Main and Winston streets, where after forty years of wandering through a wilderness of streets, for the first time it set up business in a home of its own. That
building was completed at a cost, including the site, of $150,000.
In early times the duties of the postmasters were light and their compensation small. In the winter of 1852-53 no mail was received at the Los Angeles office for six weeks. In 1861, en account of the floods, there was no mail for three weeks, and some wag labeled the office, "To Let." The fixtures of the office in those days were inexpensive and easily moved. From Colonel Wheeler's washtub the Los Angeles post- office gravitated to a soap box. It seemed in early days to keep in the laundry line. In 1854- 55 and thereabouts the office was kept in a little 7x9 room on Los Angeles street. The letters were kept in a soap box partitioned off into pigeonholes. The postmaster at that time had a number of other occupations besides that of handling the mail, so when he was not attend- ing to his auction room, or looking after his nursery, or superintending the schools, or act- ing as news agent, or organizing his forces for a political campaign, he attended to the post- office, but at such times as his other duties called him away the office ran itself. If a citizen thought there ought to be a letter for him he did not hunt up the postmaster, but went to the office and looked over the mail for himself. Upon the arrival of a mail from the States in early times there were no such scenes enacted at the Los Angeles postoffice as took place at the San Francisco office, where men stood in line for hours and $50 slugs were exchanged for places in the line near the window. There were but few Americans in Los Angeles in the fall of '49 and spring of '50, and most of these were old- timers, long since over their homesickness.
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