A history of California and an extended history of its southern coast counties, also containing biographies of well-known citizens of the past and present, Volume I, Part 44

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company
Number of Pages: 1184

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"Of the new town of San Diego, now the city of San Diego, I can say that I was its founder. In 1850 the American and Mexican commissions appointed to establish the bound- ary line were at Old Town. Andrew B. Gray, the chief engineer and surveyor for the United States, who was with the commission, intro- duced himself to me one day at Old Town. In February, 1850, he explained to me the advan- tages of the locality known as 'Puenta de los Muertos' (Point of the Dead), from the circum- stances that in the year 1787 a Spanish squadron anchored within a stone's throw of the present site of the city of San Diego. During the stay of the fleet, surveying the bay of San Diego for the first time, several sailor and marines died and were interred on a sand spit, adjacent to where my wharf stood, and was named as above. The piles of my structure are still imbedded in

mark them as the tomb marks of those deceased early explorers of the Pacific ocean and of the inlet of San Diego during the days of Spain's greatness. I have seen Puenta de los Muertos on Pantoja's chart of his explorations of the waters of the Pacific.

"Messrs. José Antonio Aquirre, Miguel de Pedrorena, Andrew B. Gray, T. D. Johns and myself were the projectors of what is now known as the city of San Diego. All my co-pro- prietors have since died, and I remain alone of the party and am a witness of the marvelous events and changes that have since transpired in this vicinity during more than a generation.

"The first building in new San Diego was put up by myself as a private residence. The build- ing still stands, being known as the San Diego hotel. I also put up a number of other houses; the cottage built by Andrew Gray is still stand- ing and is called 'The Hermitage.' George F. Hooper also built a cottage, which is still stand- ing near my house, in new San Diego. Under the conditions of our deed we were to build a substantial wharf and warehouse. The other pro- prietors of the town deeded to me their interest in block 20, where the wharf was to be built. The wharf was completed in six months after getting the title, in March, 1850, at a cost of $60,000. The piles of the old wharf are still to be seen on the old wharf site in block 20. At that time I predicted that San Diego would be- come a great commercial seaport, from its fine geographical position and from the fact that it was the only good harbor south of San Francis- co. Had it not been for our Civil war, railroads would have reached here years before Stanford's road was built, for our wharf was ready for business."

The fate of this wharf of high anticipations and brilliant prospects was prosaic and com- monplace. In 1862, some six hundred Union troops en route to Arizona were quartered at the army barrack near the wharf. The great flood of that year cut off for a time all com- munication with the back country and detained the troops there most of the winter. The sup- ply of firewood ran out and the weather was cold-so the "gallant six hundred," led by the

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quarter-master, charged the wharf and ware- house, and when they were through charging all that was left of that wharf was a few teredo- eaten piles. The soldiers burned the wharf and warehouse for fuel. Davis filed a claim against the government for $60,000 damages on account of the destruction of his wharf and warchouse by the soldiers. But the government did not "honor the charge he made." After many de- lays his claim was finally pared down to $6,000 and allowed for that amount.

THE PIONEER NEWSPAPER AND ITS PROPRIETOR.

Considering the difficulties of transporting printing presses to California immediately after the discovery of gold, it is remarkable how many of those "levers that move the world" found their way into the new El Dorado. They were brought by every known route-around the Horn, across the Isthmus of Panama on mule back, and over the plains by teams. The pioneer press of San Diego and its pioneer newspaper have interesting histories. The pioneer newspaper died nearly fifty years ago, but the pioneer press is said to be still in use at Independence, Inyo county, hale and hearty.

The story of Ames and his press of which the following is the substance. appeared a few years since in the Overland Monthly and has since been published in several local newspapers. I give it for what it is worth :

"The press was bought in New York in 1848 by Judson Ames and taken to Baton Rouge, the home of Gen. Zachary Taylor, the nominee of the Whig party for president. Ames started a Whig campaign paper called 'The Dime Catcher. General Taylor was elected, and there was no further need for the campaign paper. For a time Ames continued the publication of the paper as a Whig organ, but The Dime Catcher could not capture 'bits' enough to pay expenses and its publication was suspended.

"With a press on his hands, Ames cast around for an opening but finding none he packed up his printing plant and joined the gold rush to California. He came via the Isthmus of Pana- mna. Landing at Chagres, he secured a boat and a crew of native to pole him and his press up the Chagres river. On the way up a sud- den lurch threw the press overboard. After

considerable labor and delay he fished it out of the river and got it aboard the boat. He landed at Cruces and finally succeeded in getting his press and material packed on mules and safely landed at Panama.

"Panama was crowded with gold seekers awaiting transportation to California. The prices for passage were prohibitive to persons of limited means. Ames was perforce compelled to await an opportunity to get transportation for himself and his printing press. While waiting he set it up and issued a paper called the Pana- ma Herald, printed half in Spanish and half in English. It was the pioneer paper of Panama. After the rush had in a measure subsided he continued his journey and landed without fur- ther mishap at San Francisco."

Here, according to the story in the Overland Monthly, he met Senator William M. Gwin, who induced him by flattering promises to locate at San Diego and advocate the building of a Pa- cific Railroad (by a southern route) of which San Diego would be the western terminus.

This story is evidently largely apochryphal. Ames in his salutatory "To our Patrons" pub- iished in the first issue of the San Diego Her- ald, May 29, 1851, gives this account of his ad- ventures :

"After surmounting difficulties and suffering anxieties that would have disheartened any but a 'live Yankee' we are enabled to present the first number of the Herald to the public. We issued our prospectus in December last and sup- posed at the time that we had secured the mate- rial for our paper ; but when we came to put our hand on it, it wasn't there.

"Determining to lose no time we took the first boat for New Orleans, where we selected our office and had returned as far as the Isth- mus when Dame Misfortune gave us another kick, snagged our boat and sunk everything in the Chagres river. After fishing a day or two we got enough to get out a paper and pushed on for Gorgono, letting the balance go to Davy Jones' locker. Then came the tug of war in getting our press and heavy boxes of type across the Isthmus. Three weeks of anxiety and toil prostrated us with Panama fever, by which we missed our passage in the regular mail steamer

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-the only boat that touched at San Diego- thereby obliging us to go on board a propeller bound for San Francisco. This boat sprung a leak off the Gulf of Tehauntepec-came near sinking-run on a sand bank-and finally got into Acapulco, where she was detained a week in repairing. We at last arrived in San Fran- cisco, just in time to lose more of our material by the late fire! Well, here we are at last, as good as new, and just as our paper is going to press the thought occurs to us that we ought to make this explanation to those who gave us their subscriptions last December, to account for our tardy appearance.

"In politics the Herald will be independent but not neutral; it will be the organ and engine of no party but the impartial advocate of such measures as shall seem best calculated to pro- mote the general welfare of the state and ad- vance local interests and prosperity of Lower California or more immediately of the district of San Diego."

The Herald was a four column paper 12x18 inches. The subscription price was $io per an- num, one half in advance. The first issue con- tained a column and a half list of letters re- maining in the postoffice. Some of these let- ters had remained there since the establishment of the postoffice in 1848. The advertisements in the Herald were nearly all of business houses in San Francisco. The rates for advertising were $4 for a square of eight lines.

The outlook was not encouraging. The town was small and non-progressive; a large portion of the inhabitants were native Californians whose early education had been neglected. There did not seem to be that long felt want that the newspaper alone can fill. Yet, with all its uncongenial surroundings the paper attained a widespread fame, not, however, through its founder, but through a substitute to whom for a short time Ames entrusted the editorial tripod. scissors and paste pot of the Herald.

"Lieut. George H. Derby, of the Umted States Topographical Corps, had been sent down by the government in August, 1852. to super- intend the turning of the channel of the San Diego river into False bay, to prevent it from carrying sand into the bay of San Diego. Der-

by was a wit as well as an engineer, and a famous caricaturist."

Lieutenant Derby, better known by his nom de plume, John Phoenix, on taking charge of the Herald made the following announcement in the editorial columns :

"Facilius decensus averni, which may be liter- ally translated-it is casy to go to San Francis- co-Big Ames has gone. Departed in the Goliath in hope of obtaining new subscribers for this interesting journal, perchance hoping to be paid by old ones. During his absence, which I hope will not exceed two weeks, I am to re- main in charge of the Herald-the literary part thereof to the extent of two and a half columns. Should any gentleman differing with me in opin- ion feel anxious to give utterance to his thoughts, I can only say, 'My dear sir, the Herald is a neutral paper and while I have charge of it its light shall shine for all.' Express yourself therefore fully but concisely in an ably written article ; hand it to me and I will with pleasure present it to the world through the columns of this widespread journal. Merely reserving for myself the privilege of using you up as I shall infallibly do and to a fearful extent if facts are facts, reason is reasonable, and I know myself intimately of which at present I have no man- ner of doubt.'" Phoenix's excuse for using the singular pronoun in his editorial was that not having a tape worm he could not be plural. therefore he used "I." Phoenix thus apolo- gizes for his first issue : "Very little news will be found in the Herald this week. The fact is there never is much news in it and it is well that it is so. The climate here is so delightful that residents in the enjoyment of the dolce far niente care very little about what is going on elsewhere and residents of other places care very little about what is going on in San Diego. so all parties are likely to be gratified with the little paper."

Ames, in a mild way, had been supporting the Democratic ticket, headed by John Bigler for governor. Derby hoisted the Whig ticket with William Waldo for governor, following this were the names of candidates for county offices. This he named the Phoenix ticket. Ames at San Francisco was confronted by the Democratic

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candidates with the evidence of his paper's re- lower Colorado river. His was the first and creancy and his hopes of subsidy vanished.

He returned to San Diego. Derby thus de- scribes the meeting: "The Thomas Neunt (steamer Thomas Hunt) had arrived and a rumor had reached our ears that 'Boston' was on board. Public anxiety had been excited to the highest pitch to witness the result of the meeting between us. It had been stated pub- licly that 'Boston' would whip us the moment he arrived, but though we thought a conflict probable, we had never been very sanguine as to its terminating in that manner. Coolly we gazed from the window of the office upon the New Town road; high above it waved a whip lash, and we said, Boston cometh, 'and his driv- ing is like that of Jehu, the son of Nimshi, for he driveth furiously.' Calmly we seated our- selves in the arm chair and continued our labors upon our Magnificent Pictorial. Anon a step, a heavy step, was heard upon the stairs, and Boston stood before us. * We rose * and with an unfaltering voice said, 'Well, Judge, how do you do?' He made no reply, but com- menced taking off his coat. We removed ours, also our cravat. The sixth and last round is described by the pressmen and com- positors as having been fearfully scientific. We held Boston down over the press by our nose (which we had inserted between his teeth for that purpose), and while our hair was employed in holding one of his hands we held the other in our left and with the 'sheep's foot' brandished above our head shouted to him, 'Say Waldo!' 'Never!' he gasped.

"At this moment we discovered that we had been laboring under a 'misunderstanding,' and through the amicable intervention of the press- man, who thrust a roller between our faces (which gave the whole affair a very dark com- plexion), the matter was finally settled on the most friendly terms, and without prejudice to the honor of either party." He closes his de- scription with the statement that "the public can believe precisely as much as they please; if they disbelieve the whole of it. we shall not be at all offended."

Lieutenant Derby while stationed at Fort Yuma in 1853 mapped the main channel of the

one of our most accurate surveys ever made of that changeable river. He published a humor- ous book under the title of Phoenixiana. It had an immense sale for a time, but has long been out of print. He died a few years later of soft- ening of the brain.

It is hardly necessary to state that the mill between "Boston" and Phoenix was purely im- aginary. Ames on taking charge of the paper announces his return thus :

"Turned up again! Here we are again ! Phoenix has played the devil during our ab- sence but he has done it in such a good hum- ored manner that we have not a word to say. He has done things which he ought not to have done and has left undone things which he ought to have done but as what evil he has done cannot be undone we may as well dry up and let it slide."

Ames was more of a rustler than a writer. He frequently turned over the Herald to some one to manage while he made a journey to San Francisco, Sacramento or some other place. In 1855 he transferred it to William H. Noyes with the remark that "he will give a better paper than I have done." He went east, returned a year later and resumed the management of the paper.

Ames had worn out San Diego or San Diego had worn out Ames. The people of San Ber- nardino were anxious to have a newspaper, a party from Los Angeles had made them a propo- sition to establish a paper in the town for a bonus of $250. The Herald had been made in 1853 the official newspaper of San Bernardino county. Ames offered to establish his paper in San Bernardino city on condition that the citi- zens send teams to San Diego to haul his plant to its new destination. The offer was accepted. Ames discontinued the publication of the San Diego Herald in 1860. The historic press jour- neved to the Morman city by the road of Temécula cañon. The San Bernardino Herald was founded. Its life was short ; it died in 1861. Ames died a few months later.

TRAVEL BY SEA AND LAND.

During the decade between 1850 and 1860

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the town made but little growth. There was considerable travel between it and the other ports of the coast. In 1851 and for six or seven years later, "the fast-sailing United States mail steamer 'Ohio,' Captain Haley, will run as a regular packet, making her trip once in every two weeks between San Francisco and San Diego, touching at the intermediate points of Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and San Pedro," so says an advertise- ment in the Los Angeles Star of May 31, 1851. In 1853 and 1854 the "Southerner," of the Southern Accommodation Line, was making regular semi-monthly trips between San Fran- cisco and San Diego, stopping at intermediate points. The steamer "Sea Bird," of Goodwin & Co.'s line, was making trips three times a month, leaving San Francisco the 4th, 14th and 24th of each month. The "Thomas Hunt" also was running between San Francisco and San Diego. Once a month the Panama steamer put into the port with the eastern mail. In 1851 a semi- monthly mail by land was established between Los Angeles and San Diego.

But the event that promised the greatest out- come for San Diego during the decade was the establishment of an overland mail between San Antonio de Bexar, Tex., and San Diego. The route was by the way of El Paso, Messillo, Tucson and Colorado City (now Yuma)-1,500 miles. The service was semi-monthly. The contract was let to James E. Burch, the postal department reserving "the right to curtail or discontinue the service should any route subse- quently put under contract cover the whole or any portion of the route."

The San Diego Herald, August 12, 1857, thus notes the departure of the first train: "The pioneer mail train from San Diego to San An- tonio, Tex., under the contract entered into by the government with 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 the wagons which are being pushed across will have been put on the line. The first train from this side left in charge of R. W. Laine, who was accompanied by some of the

most active and reliable young men in the coun- ty, the party taking relay mules with them for 11se on the desert. The intention is to push on at the rate of fifty or sixty miles a day to Tuc- son, where entering the Apache country proper, a large party will be organized to afford proper protection as far as El Paso del Norte or further if necessary. The first mail from the other side has not yet arrived, although somewhat over- due, and conjecture is rife as to the cause of the delay. Until the arrival of the next express from Fort Yuma we will probably receive no tidings from the country through which the mail has to pass, but for our own part we see no reason for alarm in the case. The train leaving here took a large number of letters for Fort Yuma, Tuscon, Calabasas, El Paso, etc., in addition to the regular eastern mail." The east- ern arrived a few days later and the San Diegans went wild with joy and built in imag- ination a city of vast proportions on the bay.

The service continued to improve and the fifth trip from the eastward terminus "was made in the extraordinary short time of twenty-six days and twelve hours," and the San Diego Herald on its arrival, October 6, rushed out an extra "announcing the very gratifying fact of the com- plete triumph of the southern route, notwith- standing the croaking of many of the oppo- nents of the Administration of this state." "The first mail," so said the extra, "from San Diego had arrived at San Antonio in good style and created naturally a great excitement, the Texans taking fully as much interest in the establish- ment of the line as the Californians."

But the triumph of the "southern route" was of short duration. September, 1858, the stages of the Butterfield line began making their semi- weekly trips. This line came down the coast to Gilroy, then through the Pacheco Pass, up the San Joaquin valley and by way of Fort Tejon to Los Angeles; then eastward by Teme- cula and Warner's ranch to Yuma, then across Arizona and New Mexico to El Paso, where it turned north to St. Louis and Memphis, its eastern termini. San Diego and San Antonio were side-tracked and the Southern route dis- continued.

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

OLD TOWN AND NEW TOWN IN STATU QUO.

After this temporary spurt of enterprise, San Diego lapsed into its old poco tiempo ways. Old Town remained in statu quo and New Town did not expand. There had been rumors of a railroad in 1854 and in 1857, but the mut- tering of the coming storm between the north and the south had frightened capital and the hope of a railroad had been given up. During the Civil war, there were some troops always at the barracks, sometimes one company, some- times two or three. The soldiers stationed there

did not add much to the revenue of the town. The pay of a private was $13 a month in green- backs, which, converted into coin at the rate of thirty to forty cents silver for a dollar currency. did not give the defenders of the country lavish amounts of spending money. A considerable amount of the supplies for the troops were landed at San Diego and sent to Fort Yuma by wagon trains. This gave employment to a num- ber of men and teams and added to the business of the town.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

SAN DIEGO COUNTY-Continued.

D URING the decade between 1850 and 1860 there was little or nothing done to develop San Diego's back country. From San Mateo to the Mexican border and from the ocean front to the mountains the choice land of the county was held in vast Mexi- can grants. Even the limited market that the town afforded for fruit and other agricul- tural products wa's poorly supplied. In 1855 a wagon road was constructed between San Diego and San Bernardino by way of the Temecula cañon. The Herald of May 12, 1855, chronicles the arrival of Mr. Katz's wagon train from San Bernardino, bringing market supplies which were readily disposed of-eggs sold at fifty cents a dozen and butter at fifty cents per pound. San Diego had great expectations of be- coming the shipping port of San Bernardino. The long haul, the steep grades and the winter floods that swept through the Temecula canon were obstacles that prevented the development of an inland commerce between the city by the bay and the stake of Zion in San Bernardino.

The famine years of 1863-64 that brought about the downfall and financial ruin to so many of the cattle barons of Southern California were not so disastrous in San Diego as in the other cow counties. The ranges were not so heavily overstocked and there was more back country not covered by Spanish grants where the cattle

could be driven and kept alive until the feed started on the deserted ranges near the coast. While this was fortunate for the cattle kings, it was unfortunate for the county. It retarded its agricultural development. The colonization era of the early '70s that brought about the sub- division of so many ranchos and resulted in the founding of such prosperous settlements as Riv- erside, Pasadena, Lompoc and others founded no colonies in San Diego. Santa Margarita and Las Flores ranchos, famous in California his- tory. still remain intact and that "ancient baron" Richard O'Neal, their present owner, rules over a domain vaster than a dukedom in his native Ireland. His holdings in the northwestern part of San Diego county amount to 133,000 acres. The development of the water supply now in progress and the increased value of land conse- quent upon the influx of home-seekers will ere long invade the stronghold of the last fendal baron of the old regime.

WATER SUPPLY.

San Diego in the past has been sneeringly nick-named by some of its enemies the city of "bay-and-climate." The inference intended to be drawn from this was that it had no back country-at least, none that was productive- and its only resources were bay and climate. The time was when this charge had some foun-

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dation, but this has all been changed by the water developments of the past twenty years. No other county on the coast has invested so munich capital and expended so much labor in conserving the waters of its rivers for irriga- tion as San Diego has done.

There are in this year of Our Lord 1906 either constructed or in the course of construc- tion thirteen reservoirs with a holding capacity of one hundred and forty-five billions gallons. The elevation of these reservoirs above the sea level ranges from 145 feet to 4,650 feet. When these are all completed and filled there will be sufficient water to irrigate all of the irrigable land on the western slope of the county.

THE IMPERIAL VALLEY AND SALTON SEA.

The early history of that part of San Diego county lying between the mountains and the Colorado river was a succession of tragedies. Hostile Indians and desert thirst dotted the way- sides of the old immigrant trails that crossed it with many a grave. Two great overland routes converged on the Colorado river at the mouth of the Gila. One came up from the northern states of Mexico and the other, an extension of the Santa Fe trail, crossed New Mexico and Arizona. Over the first came and went many of the early Spanish pioneers, and later by it the Sonorian migration found its way to the land of gold. Over the second came the immi- grants to California from Texas, Arkansas and other southern states.

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A history of California and an extended history of its southern coast counties, also containing biographies of well-known citizens of the past and present, Volume I, Part 44

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918 Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company Number of Pages: 1184

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company
Number of Pages: 1184