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 47

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

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In 1873 came a financial crash. "Black Fri- day in Wall street" was followed by one of the worst panics that ever struck the country. For- tunes crumbled, banks failed, capital hid, rail- road building stopped. Enterprises that had promised large returns were dropped immediate- ly. Work on the Texas Pacific ceased and was never resumed.

San Diego during its boom had grown to be a city of 5,000 inhabitants. When work ceased on the railroad the population began to dwindle away. Building in the city ceased. There was nothing to do to earn a living. People could not live on climate, however invigorating, so they left. Father Horton, during the flush times, had sold a number of lots to working men on the installment plan. They came to him and of- fered to give up the lots and let him retain the money paid if he would cancel their contracts. With a generosity unknown in real-estate deals he refunded all the money they had paid and re- leased them of their obligations. In 1875 the population had dwindled down to about 1,500, and these were living largely on faith, hope and climate.

The Kimball brothers, owners of the Rancho de la Nacion, had, during the flush times of the early 'zos, laid off a town on the bay about four miles distant from San Diego, and named it National City. It had shared in the ups and downs of the large city.

A NEW RAILROAD SCHEME.

In 1880 the Kimballs began agitating the project of inducing the Atchison, Topeka & San- ta Fe Railroad, that had built out into New Mexico, to continue its road to San Diego and National City. They met with but little en- couragement at home. For thirty years the peo- ple of San Diego had been talking Pacific rail- road and their town was no nearer being the

terminus of a transcontinental road in '80 than it was in '50. But the Kimballs persisted. One of the Kimball brothers went east at his own expense and presented his scheme to capitalists and railroad meu. He met with little success at first, but the offer of 17,000 acres of land on the bay for workshops and terminal grounds in- duced the directors of the road to investigate the proposition. Other parties owning land con- tiguous offered additional grants. The railroad company accepted the subsidy and work was begun on the road; and in August, 1882, the California Southern, as the road was then called, was completed to Colton, on the Southern Pa- cific; and in 1884 to San Bernardino. There it stopped. The great flood of 1884 destroyed the track in the Temecula cañon and once more San Diego was without railroad connection. In 1885 the road through the canon had been rebuilt and trains were running over it. During the same vear the work of extending the California Southern to Barstow, a station on the Atlantic & Pacific, was begun, and early in 1887 was completed. This road and the connecting roads -the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe and the At- lantic & Pacific-formed a transcontinental sys- tem of which San Diego and National City were the western termini.

With the rebuilding of the California South- ern through the canon in 1885, and the begin- ning of work on its extension, the cloud of despondeney that had darkened the hopes of the San Diegoans began to lift a little; as work progressed and a transcontinental line became more of a certainty, capitalists and speculators came to the town to lock around. The old- timers who had loaded up with lots in the boom of 1871-72 and had hell on through all the in- tervening years, simply because they could not let go without losing all, began quietly to un- load on the newcomers. The old resident had faith-faith unbounded-in the future of the city, but out of charity to the lotless he was will- ing to divide a good thing ; and when the trans- fer was made he chnekled over his smartness. But when the buyer turned over his purchase at an advance of twenty-five to fifty per cent the chuckle died away into a sigh and at the next

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transfer, when the price advanced a hundred per cent, the sigh increased to a groan.

As the reverberations of the boom grew loud- er the faithful old inhabitant turned speculator himself and loaded up perhaps with a single lot of the block he had formerly sold, at a price a hundred per cent higher than he had received for the entire tract. In the spring and summer of 1887, speculation ran riot in the streets of San Diego. Prices of real estate went up until it seemed as if they could go no higher ; then some adventurous investor would break the record and the holders along the line would mark up the price of their holdings. Business lots, that a few years before were a drug on the market at $25 a front foot, found buyers at $2,500 a foot. A small-sized store room rented all the way from $300 to $500 a inonth for business, and if cut up into stalls for real estate brokers, brought in a thousand a month. Small and poorly fur- nished sleeping rooms rented all the way from $25 to $50 a month, prices varying with the landlord's cupidity and the tenant's necessity. The prices of labor kept pace with speculation. Carpenters received $5 to $6 a day, bricklayers $6 to $8. Barbers asked twenty-five cents for a shave and printers earned $50 to $60 a week.

The fame of San Diego's boom spread abroad. The trains came in loaded with speculators, boomers, gamblers and bona fide home-seekers. In the wild gold rush of the early '5os it was a common saying among old Califorians "that renegade ministers made the most adroit gam- blers." So in the boom of '87 the confiding home-seeker often proved to be the most un- scrupulous operator. At one time during the height of the boom it was estimated that the city had a population of 50,000 people. It was a cosmopolitan conglomeration. Almost every civilized nation on earth was represented; and every social condition, high and low, good and had, was there, too.

The excitement was not confined to San Diego city. It spread over the county. New towns were founded. The founder in selecting a lo- cation was governed more by the revenue that might accrue from his speculation than by the resources that would build up his inchoate me- tropolis. It might be platted on an inaccessible

mesa, where view was the principal resource, or it might be a hyphenated city-by-the-sea, where the investor might while away his time listening to what the wild waves were saying and subsist on climate.

It is said that two town sites extended out over the bay like Mark Twain's tunnel that was bored through the hill and a hundred and fifty feet in the air. When the fever of speculation was at its height it mattered little where the town was located. A tastefully lithographed map with a health-giving sanatorium in one cor- ner, tourist hotel in the other, palms lining the streets, and orange trees in the distance (add to these picturesque attractions a glib-tongued agent, untrammeled by conscience and unacquainted with truth) and the town was successfully founded. Purchasers did not buy to hold, but with hope of making a quick turn at an advance, while the excitement was on. Very few had confidence in the permanency of high prices, but every one expected to unload before the crash came.

The tourist crop of the winter of 1887-88 was expected to be very large, but it did not mature. As the eventful year of 1887 drew to a close and new victims ceased to appear, he who had loaded up for the tourist began to look around quietly for a chance to unload on his fellows. Then he discovered to his dismay that all the others were at the same game. Then the crash came. The speculator who held the last contract could not pay; the one before him could not meet his ob- ligations unless the man to whom he had sold paid up; and so it went all along the line like a row of bricks set on end. The end one toppling over the one next to its starts the movement down the line and all go down. Before the ides of March had passed every speculator was vain- ly trying to save something from the wreck. Those who had invested recklessly in boom towns and dry lands lost all; those who had some good unircumbered property in a town or city with a future managed to save a little out of the crash, but "capitalist" no longer followed their names in the directory.

No better criterion probably can be given for measuring the great inflation of property values

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

during the boom than the county assessment rolls for 1887-88. The valuation of all property made by the county assessor at the beginning of the boom early in 1887 was $22,826,250. The assessed value fixed early in 1888 before the collapse had begun was $41,522,608, an increase of almost one hundred per cent in twelve months. In 1890 the assessment had contracted to $26,871,55I.

But with all its wild extravagance, its reck- lessness, its gambling, its waste and its ruined "millionaires of a day," the boom to San Diego was a blessing in disguise. It projected enter- prises of merit as well as those of demerit. It helped to make a reality of that "back country" that for years had been a myth, and it brought about the building of a substantial city of what had before been a crude and inchoate burg. Strange to say, too, the great enterprises project- ed during the boom were all carried on to com- pletion, notwithstanding the hard times that fol- lowed. Depression did not stop progression.

The San Diego Sun, two years after the boom, summing up what had been done since, says: "Since 1887, the Cuyamaca Railway has been built and motor lines extended at a cash outlay of $350,000; the Spreckel's Company has put $250,000 into a wharf and coal bunkers ; all our business streets have been paved; a $100,000 court-house built and paid for ; three fine school houses, and all our big hotels except two con- structed. Five miles of cable road have been built and put in operation ; a fine public library has been established; a new opera-house will soon be completed. The adjacent mining regions have yielded at least $1,000,000 in gold. The great irrigating works of the Sweetwater dam and San Diego flume, involving an expense of $2,500,000, have been constructed, and water supplied at the lowest western prices. Not less than fifteen elegant business blocks have been built, and several fine churches. Over a hundred new residences have been built on Florence Heights alone. To sum it all up, $10,000,000 have been invested in San Diego and its en- virons since 1887, and the back country has ob- tained and planted 600,000 fruit trees ; which, with those already out, promise to fill seven

years hence, 10,000 freight cars with merchanta- ble products."

The Federal census of 1890 gave the popula- tion of county as 34,987; and that of the city 16,159. It was charged that the census of the city was very incorrectly taken and that the real population was over 20,000.

During the years 1889 and 1890 the city and county were recovering from the depression caused by the collapse of the boom, but 1891 was a year of disasters. February 22 a great flood entirely destroyed the railroad tracks through the Temecula canon. The road through the cañon has never been rebuilt. During the same storm the Tia Juana river, that is usually a dry sand wash, became a tremendous torrent, spread- ing out until it was as wide as the Colorado in a spring rise. The town on the American side was entirely washed away, and of that on the Mexican only the houses on upper Mesa were left. The Otay watch works, started in 1887, and at one time employing over one hundred operatives, suspended and the employes were compelled to leave.

In October the California National Bank, with more than a million dollars in deposits, failed. The Savings Bank connected with it went down, 100, in the crash. Neither ever resumed busi- ness. Their affairs were placed in the hands of a receiver. A few small dividends were paid the depositors, but the bulk of the deposits were lost by bad management. wild speculation and the doubtful business methods of J. W. Collins and his partner. D. D. Dare. Collins was ar- rested, and shortly afterwards committed suicide. Dare, who was in Europe at the time of the fail- ure, never returned to San Diego.

February 7, 1892, the Pacific Mail steamers began stopping again at San Diego for passen- gers and freight. The wharf of the United States government station at La Playa was com- pleted April 25. 1892. The cable road was ex- tended to the Mission Cliff in July, 1892.

By an act of the legislature, approved March II. 1893. 6.418 square miles were taken from the northern part of San Diego to form the new county of Riverside. The new county appropri- ated $3.849.114 of the old county's assessed val- nation. The area of San Diego is now 8.551

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

square miles. She parted with the towns of Temecula, Elsinore, Murietta, San Jacinto and Winchester. The county division scheme was opposed by San Diego and San Bernardino, but was carried in spite of their protests.

In 1896 the San Diego Brewery, costing $150,- 000, was erected entirely by San Diego capital.

ln 1898. a decade after the collapse of the boom, the city had five miles of paved streets, forty-three miles of graded streets and forty- five miles of sewers. It had twenty-four churches and fourteen schools.

January 21. 1899, the steamship Belgian King, the first of the California and Oriental Steam- ship company's vessels, arrived in port.

August 22, 1899. the steamer Thyra, the larg- est vessel that ever entered the port, drawing twenty-seven feet of water, passed safely over the bar and entered the harbor.

May 1, 1899, the State Normal School on the North Mesa was dedicated. During the year 1905 an addition to the building was made at a cost of $45.000.

SCHOOLS.

The first public school opened in San Diego was taught by Manuel de Vargas, a retired ser- geant of infantry. He was the pioneer school- inaster of California, having taught a school at San José in 1794, the first school opened in the territory. He taught in San Diego from July, 1795, to December. 1798, at a yearly sal- ary of $250. Don Jose Antonio Carrillo is said to have taught a school at the presidio in 1812- 13. Antonio Menendez was teaching in the Old Town in 1828-29. Eighteen children were re- ported in attendance. In 1844 Governor Michel- torena issued a decree, establishing primary schools at San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Bar- bara and several other towns. This seems to have been the last school taught at San Diego under Mexican rule.

After the American form of government was established, a school was opened in Old Town about 1853. The early school records have dis- appeared, if. indeed, any were kept.

In 1867. fifteen years after a public-school system had been established in California by law. San Diego county was all included in one school district and had but one teacher and one school

house within its limits. It was then probably the largest school district in the United States. In 1866 the number of white children between five and fifteen years of age, according to the school census of that year, was 335. The census of 1867 gave an increase of only three, which would seem to indicate a short crop that year.

The number who attended public school in 1867 was thirty-two; those attending private schools, twenty-two-a total attendance of fifty- four, or about sixteen per cent of the children of school age. This was but little, if any, im- provement on the school attendance of Mexican days. In 1877 the census children had increased to 1,693 ; the number attending public school 919, and private schools 112. The number of dis- tricts had increased to thirty-four and the num- ber of teachers to thirty-five. In 1887 the total number of census children was 5.299; enrolled in the public schools, 3,952. The number of dis- tricts was eighty-two and the number of teach- ers, 115. In 1905 bonds to the amount of $135 .- 000 were voted for a new and spacious high School building in San Diego City. The bonds brought a premium of $12,000, making available the sum of $147,000 for the building. The en- rollment in the high school at the close of the school year of 1906 was 400. The new building will be planned to accommodate double that num- ber. During the year 1906 an entire city block costing $35,000 was purchased for the erection of a new grammer school. The total number of teachers employed in the schools of San Diego city at the beginning of the school year of 1906 was 101. The number of school districts in the county is 122.

THE SAN DIEGO FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY.

The public library was founded in 1882. The first president of the library board was Bryant Howard; secretary, E. W. Hendricks: treas- urer, G. H. Hitchcock : trustees, G. W. Marston and R. M. Powers. The Commercial Bank do- nated the free use of a room for six months. Donations of books were made by a number of persons and a city tax levied for the support of the library.

In the early part of 1899 Mrs. Lydia M. Horton, who was at that time a member of the

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free library board, wrote to the millionaire phil- anthropist, Andrew Carnegie, asking a donation to erect a library building. On the 28th of July, 1899, she received a letter from Mr. Carnegie, stating that "If the city were to pledge itself to maintain a free public library from the taxes, say to the extent of the amount you name of be- tween $5,000 to $6,000 a year and provide a site, I shall be glad to give you $50,000 to erect a suit- able library building." The proposition was accept- ed at once. A site was secured on E street, be- tween Eighth and Ninth streets, at a cost of $17,- 000; of which $8,000 was raised by subscription and the balance paid by the city. The site cov- ers half a block.

The building was completed and occupied carly in 1902. It cost about $60,000. The librarian reported in September, 1906, 25,446 volumes. The total receipts from all sources amount to $9,244, and the salaries paid to $3,948. There is in connection with the library a bind- ing department, where the bindings of books are repaired and books and newspaper files are bound. One room is set apart for a children's study and reference room. It is well patronized. Mrs. H. P. Davison is the librarian. She has a corps of eight assistants.

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

The San Diego Chamber of Commerce was organized January 20, 1870, and is the oldest institution of that kind in Southern California. The organizers were A. E. Horton, E. W.

Morse, David Felsenheld, Aaron Pauly, G. W. B. McDonaid, J. W. Gale, D. Choate and Joseph Nash. Its first president was Aaron Pauly; and first secretary, David Felsenheld. It has been for more than thirty-five years active in foster- ing and promoting every public enterprise look- ing to the welfare of San Diego city and county.

THE PARKS OF SAN DIEGO.

In 1868, the first official steps were taken to form a park. Two city lots of 160 acres each were set apart for that purpose. At a meeting of the town trustees held May 26, 1868, an ordi- nance was passed reserving in all nine city lots. of 160 acres each, for park purposes. To make the reservation permanent, legislative enactment was secured. In the legislature of 1870-71 an effort was made to divert 480 acres of the park lands for other purposes. An attempt was also made to repeal the reservation act. These bills were defeated and San Diego secured her mag- nificent park site. For a number of years little was done towards beautifying it, but in 1902 the citizens subscribed $12,000 to make improve- ments. In January, 1903, a survey was made and a contour map drawn. A landscape archi- tect was employed to design improvement. Tree planting has been continued each winter. In May, 1905, a board of park commissioners was organized. To this commission is entrusted not only the care of the 1,400 acre City Park. but also the D street plaza and the La Jolla park grounds.

CHAPTER XLI. LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

T HE county of Los Angeles, as created by the act of February 18, 1850, did not extend to the Colorado river. For some reason not known the legislature gave San Diego all the desert, making that county "L" shaped. The county of Los Angeles, as created by the act of February 18, 1850, did not contain all of what is now San Bernardino county. The original boundaries of Los Angeles county were defined as follows:

"COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES .- Beginning on the coast of the Pacific at the southern boundary of the farm called Trumfo, and running thence along the summit of the ridge of hills called Santa Susana to the northwestern boundary of the farm called San Francisco; thence along the northern and northeastern boundary of said farm of San Francisco to the farm called Piro; thence in a line running due northeast to the summit of the Coast Range: thence along the

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summit of said range to the western boundary of San Diego county ; thence in a due southerly direction along said boundary to the source of the creek San Mateo; thence down said creek San Mateo to the coast and three English miles into the sea; thence in a northwesterly direction parallel with the coast to a point three miles from land and opposite to the southern boundary of the farm called Trumfo; and thence to the shore at said boundary, which was the point of beginning, including the islands of Santa Cata- lina and San Clemente. The seat of justice shall be Los Angeles."

These boundaries were very indefinite, some portions of the area being included in both coun- ties instead of one, and some of the territory was in no county. No conflict of authority arose. A large portion of both counties was a "terra incognita"-a land where the foot of white man had never trod. The Indians, who inhabited these regions, were of the class that are "not taxed," and any conflict of authority with them was settled by bullets and not by boundary lines.

This act was repealed by an act of the second legislature, passed April 25, 1851, which defined the boundaries of Los Angeles county as fol- lows :

"SECTION 3, COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES .- Be- ginning on the coast of the Pacific, at a point parallel with the northern boundary of the ran- cho called Malaga; thence in a direction so as to include said rancho, to the northwest corner of the rancho, known as Trumfo, running on the northerly line of the same to the northeast cor- ner; thence to the summit of the ridge of hills called Santa Susana; thence in a direct line to the rancho Casteyne (Castaic) and Jejon (El Tejon), and along their northern line to the northeastern corners; and thence in a northeast line to the eastern boundary of the state, and along said boundary line to the junction of the northern boundary of San Diego county with the Colorado; thence following said line to the Pa- cific ocean and three miles therein: thence in a northwesterly direction parallel with the coast to a point three miles from land, and opposite to the southern boundary of the rancho called Malaga, and thence east to the place of begin- ning; including the island's of Santa Catalina

and San Clemente. The seat of justice shall be at Los Angeles."

These boundaries included all the territory that was afterwards included in the county of San Bernardino. In 1851 a colony of Mormons from Salt Lake located where now the city of San Bernardino stands, on a tract of land bought from the Lugos. They were reinforced by other immigrants from Salt Lake and by some non- Mormon families. The settlement grew quite rapidly. These settlers petitioned the legisla- ture of 1853 to create a new county out of the eastern portion of Los Angeles county. By an act entitled, "An Act for dividing the county of Los Angeles and making a new county there- from to be called San Bernardino county," ap- proved April 26, 1853, it was provided :

"SECTION 3. The county of Los Angeles is hereby divided as follows: Beginning at a point where a due south line drawn from the highest peak of the Sierra de Santiago intercepts the northern boundary of San Diego county ; thence running along the summit of said Sierra to the Santa Ana river, between the rancho of Sierra and the residence of Bernardino Yorba; thence across the Santa Ana river along the summit of the range of hills that lie between the Coyotes and Chino (leaving the ranchos of Ontiveras and Ybarra to the west of this line), to the southeast corner of the rancho of San Jose; thence along the eastern boundaries of said rancho and of San Antonio, and the western and northern boundaries of Cucamonga ranch to the ravine of Cucamonga ; thence up said ravine to its source in the Coast Range; thence due north to the northern boundary of Los Angeles county ; thence northeast to the state line; thence along the state line to the northern boundary line of San Diego county, thence westerly along the northern boundary of San Diego to the place of beginning.

"SECTION 4. The eastern portion of Los An- geles county, so cut off, shall be called San Ber- nardino county and the seat of justice thereof shall be at such a place as a majority of voters shall determine at the first county election, here- inafter provided to be held in said county and shall remain at the place designated until changed by the people, as provided by law."

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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 47

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