USA > California > 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 49
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The imports by sea greatly exceeded the ex- ports. Cattle and horses, the principal products of the county, transported themselves to market. The vineyards along the river, principally within the city limits, were immensely profitable in the carly '50s. There was but little fresh fruit in the country. Grapes, in San Francisco, retailed all the way from twenty-five to fifty cents a pound. The vineyards were cultivated by In- dian labor. About all that it cost the vineyardist for labor was the amount of aguardiente that it
293
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
took to give the Indian his regular Saturday night drunk. So the grape crop was about all profit.
FIRST STATE CENSUS.
The first state census of California was taken in 1852. According to this census the county had a total population of 7,831, divided as fol- lows :
Whites.
Males
2,496
Females
,597
Total
4,093
Domesticated Indians.
Males
2,278
Females
1,415
Total
3,693
The cattle numbered 113,475; horses, 12,173; wheat produced, 34,230 bushels ; barley, 12,120
bushels ; corn, 6,934 bushels. Number of acres under cultivation, 5,587 ; grape vines, 450,000, of which 400,000 were within the city. This was before any portion of the county had been segregated. Its limits extended from San Juan Capistrano on the south to the Tulares on the north, and from the sea to the Colorado river ; of its 34,000 square miles, less than nine square miles were cultivated, and yet it had been settled for three-quarters of a century.
During the '50s the county grew slowly. Land was held in large tracts and cattle-raising con- tinued to be the principal industry. At the El Monte several families from the southwestern states had formed a small settlement and were raising grain, principally corn. The Mormons, at San Bernardino, were raising corn, wheat, barley and vegetables, and selling them at a good price. One season they received as high as $5 a bushel for their wheat.
CHAPTER XLII.
GROWTH OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY AND CITY IN WEALTH AND POPULATION.
U NDER the rule of Spain and Mexico there was no assessment of real estate and personal property for the purpose of taxa- tion. Tariff on goods imported, fines for drunken- ness and other vices, licenses for dances, for saloons, for stores, for cock pits, bull rings and such afforded the revenues for municipal ex- penses. Men's pleasures and vices paid for the cost of governing. The pueblo's expenses were light. The only salaried officials in the old pueblo days were the secretary of the ayuntamiento, or town council, and the schoolmaster. The highest salary paid the secretary was $40 per month. The schoolmaster's pay was fixed at $15 per month. If he asked for more he lost his job. The largest municipal revenue collected in one year by the syndico of the pueblo was $1,000. The syndico and the alcalde received fees for their services. All this was changed when the Americans took possession of the offices; and they were not
backward in coming forward when there were offices to fill. In the first list of county officers the names of only two native Californians ap- pear-Don Agustin Olvera, county judge, and Don Antonio F. Coronel, county assessor. Coro- nel was elected assessor at the first county elec- tion, held April 1, 1850. As nine-tenths of the residents of the newly created county of Los Angeles understood the Spanish language only, it was highly necessary to have some one who spoke their language to explain to them the new system of taxation introduced by the con- querors.
If Don Antonio made an assessment for the year 1850 I have been unable to find any record of it. The first report of the amount of the county assessment that I have found is that for 1851, in which the wealth of the county is esti- mated at $2,882,949. The first county assess- ment roll in existence is one made by Don An-
294
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
tonio F. Coronel in 1852. It is written on un- ruled sheets of Spanish foolscap pasted together into leaves two feet long and stitched into a book of 34 pages, covered with blue calico. This one book constituted the entire assessment roll for that year. The following are the principal items of that assessment :
Number of acres assessed. 1,505,180
Value of real estate .. $ 748,606
Value of improvements. 301,947
Value of personal property 1,183,898
Total $2,234,45I
The county at that time contained over thirty million acres and only one in twenty was as- sessed. The average value was less than fifty cents per acre. The county then extended from San Juan Capistrano on the south to Tehachapi on the north, and from the Pacific ocean to the Colorado river. Don Antonio's district exceeded in extent the aggregate area of five New Eng- land states. By far the larger part of its in- habitants were "Indians not taxed." It is not probable that Don Antonio traveled over the vast territory of the thinly populated county. Los Angeles was the only city in the county and doubtless the inhabitants, like those in the days of old, when Herod was reducing the infant population of Judea, "went up to the city to be taxed." The assessment roll for 1853 footed up $3,030,131, which showed a rapid rise in values or that Don Antonio was becoming more expert in finding property. The assessor's report for the fiscal year ending November 29, 1856, is the first one in which the city valuation is segre- gated from the county :
Total number of acres in the county
assessed 1,003,930
Value of county real estate. $ 402,219
Value of county improvements. 230,336
Value of city real estate 187,582
Value of city improvements. 457,535
Value of personal property. 1,213,079
Total $2,490,75I
San Bernardino county had been cut off from Los Angeles at this time and had evidently taken
away half a million acres of assessable land from the parent .county. The value of county real estate had dropped to forty cents per acre.
The assessment for 1866 was as follows :
Total value of real estate and im-
provements $1,149,267 Total value of personal property 1,204,125
Total $2,353,392
Comparing the assessment of 1866 with that of 1856 it will be seen that not only was there no increase in the property values of the county in ten years, but actually a falling off of over $140,000. This is accounted for by the great loss of stock during the famine years of 1863-64.
The county assessment for 1864 was $1,622,- 370, about two millions less than the assessment of 1862. This represents the loss in cattle, horses and sheep during the great drought of two years when the rainfall was not sufficient to sprout the grass seeds. The greatest financial depression the county has ever known occurred during these years. The people after the loss of their stock had nothing that they could sell. Land had no value. A judgment for $4,070 on account of delinquent taxes of 1863 was entered up against the richest man in the county and all his real estate and personal property advertised for sale at public auction December 12, 1864. The magnificent Rancho de Los Alamitos, con- taining over 26,000 acres, was advertised for sale on account of unpaid taxes, amounting in all to $152. The Bolsas Chico, containing nearly 9,000 acres "on which there is due and unpaid the sum of $27.34. I have this day levied on and shall sell all the right, title and interest of the defendant for cash, to the highest bidder in gold and silver coin of the United States," so said the sheriff's advertisement. But, of all the vast possessions of the great cattle barons advertised for sale on account of unpaid taxes forty-two years ago, the least valued parcel then is the most valuable now. This consisted of four Ord survey lots, 120x165 feet each, located respect- ively on the northwest and southwest corners of Main and Fifth, the southwest corner of Spring and the southeast corner of Fort street, now Broadway, and Fourth street. These magnifi-
295
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
cent business corners, worth to-day two million dollars, were offered at sheriff's sale December 12, 1864, for the beggardly sum of $2.52 un- paid taxes and there were no takers. The tax on each lot was sixty-three cents and the as- sessed value about twenty-five cents a front foot or $30 a lot.
The county recovered slowly from the great disaster of the famine years. It was six years before the county assessments equaled the amount of that of the years preceding the great drought. The subdivision of the great ranchos which induced immigration was largely instru- mental in causing the return of prosperity to the financially depressed county. Sheep husbandry succeeded the cattle industry and in the closing years of the '6os was very profitable.
The second great drought which occurred in 1877 put a check upon this industry from which it never recovered. The loss to the shepherd kings of the county was over a million dollars. Some of the great land holders who had held their ranchos intact subdivided them after the last great drought. For thirty years the growth of the county in population and wealth has been uninterrupted by any great disaster.
During the great real estate boom of 1887-88 property values increased $62,000,000 in two years. The county assessment made in March, 1886, before inflation began, gave the wealth of the county at $40,091,820; that of March, 1888, made before reaction commenced, was $102,701,629. Never in the world's history did people grow rich so rapidly. In 1890, when financial depression had reached its deepest depth, adding the value of the property taken from the roll by the segregation of Orange county the assessment showed that the county was still worth $82,000,000, a contraction of $20,000,000 in values in two years.
From 1890 to the close of the century there was a slow but steady increase in wealth averag- ing about two millions a year. The assessment is not an infallible index of true values. Asses- sors are sometimes incompetent and state boards of equalization are not always impartial in equal- izing the burthens of taxation.
The most rapid permanent increase in values has been during the beginning years of the pres-
ent century. The county assessment, as will be seen by the accompanying table, has increased from $100,000,000 in 1900 to $305,000,000 in 1906. An increase of over three hundred per- cent. This is largely due to the rapid growth of the cities and towns in the county. Thou- sands of acres of farming land have been cut up into city lots and selling value advanced in some cases a thousand per cent.
During the years of the present century, judg- ing from the county assessment returns, the people have grown rich almost as rapidly as they did in the booming days of the later 'Sos. In the March, 1900, assessment the county's wealth was estimated at $100,136,070. Five years later, March, 1905, it footed up $232,610,753, an increase of 132 per cent in half a decade. The assessment for March, 1906, is $305,302,995, an increase of over 30 per cent in one year.
A study of the annexed table will show fairly well the periods of prosperity and adversity through which Los Angeles has passed in the fifty-five years since the county was created. In some instances, however, the sudden rise in the assessed valuation is not due to a rapid increase in the county's wealth, but to the incompetency of the individual or individuals making the as- sessment. For instance, the assessment of 1896 showed an increase of $15,000,000 over that of 1905, while the assessment of 1897 showed a loss of $7,000,000 as compared with 1896. No such fluctuation really occurred. The following table gives the county assessment at different periods from 1851 to 1906, both inclusive :
Total County Assess- ment, Including Rail- road Assessment.
Year.
$ 2,282.949
1852
2,234,45I
1853
3,030,13I
1856
2,490,750
1858
2,370,523
I860
3,650,330
1864
1,622,370
1867
2,556,083
1868
3.764,045
1869
5.797,17I
1870
6,918,074
1871
6.358,022
1872
9,147.073
1851
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
Year.
Total County Assess- ment, Including Rail- road Assessment.
stroke of economy to get along without an assess- ment.
The following gives the city assessments from 1860 to 1906, both inclusive :
Total Assessment for
Year.
Each Fiscal Year.
1860-61
$ 1,425,648
1880
18,503,773
*
J862-63
1,098,469
1882
20,916,835
1864-65
878,718
1883
26,138,117
I865-66
989,413
1884
30,922,290
I866-67
1885
35,344,483
1867-68
1,271,290
1886
40,091,820
1868-69
2,108,061
1889
93,647,086
J871-72
2,134,093
1891
82,616,577
1872-73
4,191,996
1892
82,839,924
1874-75
4,589,746
1893
77,244,050
1875-76
5,935,219
1894
79,495,92I
1876-77
5,291,148
1895
84,797,196
1877-78
5,871,88I
1896
99,520,61I
1878-79
5,947,580
1897
92,580,978
1879-80
6,871,913
1898
93,256,089
I880-81
7,259,598
1890
98,391,783
1881-82
7,574,926
1900
100,136,070
1882-83
9,294,074
1901
103,328,904
1883-84
12,232,353
1902
113,976,897
1884-85
14,781,865
1903
169,226,936
1885-86
16,273.535
1904
201,509,786
1886-87
18,448,535
1905
232,610,753
J887-88
27.803,924
1888-89
39,476,712
1889-90
46,997,10I
1890-91
49,320,670
1891-92
45.953,704
1892-93
45.310,807
1893-94
47,281.778
1894-95
47,396,165
1895-96
48,814.145
1 896-97
52.242.302
1897-98
52,140,293
1 898-99
60,930,266
1899-1900
64.915,326
1900-OI
67,576.047
1901-02
70,562,307
1902-03
86,416,735
1873
$9,845,593
1874
12,085,IIO
1875
14,890,765
1876
14,844,322
1878
15,700,000
1861-62
1,299,719
1863-64
1887
89,833,506
1869-70
1888
102.701,629
1870-71
1890
69,475,025
1873-74
3,816,679
1906
305,302,995
CITY ASSESSMENTS.
Up to 1860 the city assessments seem to have been included in the county. The assessed value of the city's real estate and improvements were segregated, but the values of the personal prop- erty were "Jumped" on the roll.
During the fiscal year of 1863-64, when calam- ities were affecting the city in the shape of a dry year and a fearful epidemic of small-pox, there seems to have been no city assessment made, as there was almost no value in real estate and it was impossible to collect delinquent taxes by selling land, for the reason that nobody wanted any. The city fathers, no doubt, considered it a
297
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
Total Assessment for
Year.
Each Fiscal Year.
I903-04
$109,983,823
1904-05
126,126,563
1905-06
1 56,661,566
1906-07
205,767,729
BANKS OF LOS ANGELES CITY.
The first bank in Los Angeles city and county was organized early in 1868 by Alvinza Hayward of San Francisco and John G. Downey of Los Angeles under the firm name of Hayward & Company, capital, $100,000. The banking rooms were in the old Downey block recently demol- ished to give place to the new postoffice. Later in the same year the banking house of Hellman, Temple & Co. was established. Hellman after- wards became associated with Downey in the former bank, which took the name of The Farm- ers & Merchants' Bank. The latter bank was reorganized as the Temple & Workman Bank. Its banking house was in the then newly erected three-story building at the junction of North Spring and Main streets. It was a very popular bank and carried large deposits. In the crisis of 1875, when nearly every bank in the state closed its doors for a time, the Temple & Workman Bank temporarily suspended. It made an at- tempt to resume business, but a short run upon it closed it forever. Its failure was a terrible dis- aster to the southern country. Its creditors lost all their deposits. So complete was its collapse that $300,000 of its assets were sold by the re- ceiver under an order of Judge Hoffman of the United States Court for $30. The bank had been woefully mismanaged.
The second bank in point of age is the First National, organized as the Commercial Bank in 1875. It recently absorbed the Los Angeles Na- tional and the Southwestern National. To give a history of all the banking institutions of Los Angeles would occupy more space than I have at my command. At the close of the year 1906 Los Angeles had an even half hundred banking institutions. Of these nine operate under national charter, fourteen under state charter, five are trust companies and thirteen savings banks. There are several commercial corporations doing a banking business. The paid-in capital stock of
all the banks of Los Angeles city at the close of the year 1906 was estimated at $11, 183, 133, the deposits exceeded $100,000,000. The remarkable growth of Los Angeles in recent years in popula- tion, business and commercial importance is well illustrated by a comparison of the yearly totals of exchanges.
The following are the clearing house totals for the past ten years :
1897 $ 63,663,969
1898
74,413,508
1899
90,261,93I
1900
122,692,555
190I
161,466,671
1902
245,516,094
1903
307,316,530
1904
345,343,956
1905
479,985,298
1906
578,635,517
POPULATION OF LOS ANGELES CITY.
Year.
No. Inhabitants.
1781 (founded)
official.
44
1790
I4I
1800
66
315
1810
415
1820
650
1830
estimated.
770
1840
1.250
1850
official.
1,610
1860
4,399
1870
5,614
1880
11,183
1890
50,395
1900
66
102,479
POPULATION OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.
1850
official.
3.530
1860
60
11,333
1870
15,309
1880
33,881
1890
101,454
1900
170,298
66
66
Vote of Los Angeles county at each presiden- tial election from 1856 to 1904, both inclusive, figured on the basis of highest vote cast for any elector :
298
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
1856-Republican 522
Greenback 208
Democratic 722
Prohibition
343
Native American I35
1888-Republican 13,803
1860-Republican 356
Democratic
IO,IIO
Breckenridge, Democratic 703
Prohibition 1,266
Douglas, Democratic
494
Native American 81
Bell and Everett 201
1892-Republican 10,226
1864-Republican 555
Democratic 8,119
Democratic
744
Prohibition 1,348
1868-Republican
748
Populist 3,086
Democratic
1,236
1896-Republican 16,891
1872-Republican
1,312
Democratic and Populist 16,043
Greeley, Democratic 1,228
Prohibition 787
O'Connor, Democratic 650
National Democratic I3I
1876-Republican 3,040
National Party 81
Democratic 3,616
Socialist 108
1880-Republican
2,915
1900 -- Republican 19,293
Democratic 2,855
Democratic 13,253
Greenback 306
Prohibition 996
Prohibition
IO
Socialist 1,448
1884-Republican
5,596
1904-Republican 27.538
Democratic
4,684
Democratic 18,694
CHAPTER XLIII.
MINING RUSHES AND REAL ESTATE BOOMS.
T O the Argonauts of '49 and the early '50S Los Angeles was known as a cow county. Few, if any, of these seekers after the golden fleece who entered the land of gold by the southern routes knew that the first gold dis- covered in California was found within the limits of the despised cow county, that the first gold rush took place there and that many of its mount- ain cañons were rich in the precious metal. The pilgrims to the shrine of Mammon saw the hills and plains covered with thousands of cattle. They found the inhabitants calmly indifferent to the wild rush to the mines. To the gold seekers such a country had no attractions. Its climate might be salubrious, but they were not seeking climate ; its soil might be rich and productive, but they had no use for a soil unmixed with gold dust. They hurried on over the Tehachapi range or up the Coast route to the northern mines.
The first discovery of gold in California was
made by Francisco Lopes in the San Feliciano cañon of the San Fernando mountains, March 9, 1841 : A full account of this discovery is giv- en in Chapter XXIII of this volume.
The famous Kern river gold rush of 1855 brought an influx of population. Some of that population was very undesirable. The gold rush made business lively for a time, but when the reaction came it left a number of wrecks finan- cially stranded. This mining excitement had one good effect : it called the attention of the Ange- lenos to the mineral resources of their own coun- ty and indirectly brought about their develop- ment.
The Kern river gold rush brought a number of experienced miners to the county. Some of these disappointed in the Kern river mines turned their attention to prospecting in the mountains of Los Angeles county. A party of prospectors in April, 1855, entering the mount-
299
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
ain's by way of the Cajon pass, penetrated to the headwaters of the San Gabriel river and found good prospects. Captain Hammager with a company of prospectors the same year went up the cañon and discovered diggings that panned out $5 to $6 a day.
The Santa Anita placers, about fifteen miles from the city, werc discovered in 1856. The dis- coverers attempted to conceal their find and these mines were known as the "Secret Dig- gings," but the secret was found out. These mines paid from $6 to $10 a day.
Work was actively resumed in the San Fer- nando diggings. Francisco Garcia, working a gang of Indians, in 1855 took out $65,000. It is said that one nugget worth $1,900 was found in these mines. In 1858 the Santa Anita Min- ing Company was organized, D. Marchessault, president ; V. Beaudry, treasurer; capital, $50- 000. A ditch four miles long was cut around the foot of the mountain and hydraulic works constructed. Upon the completion of these works, February 15, 1859, the company gave a dinner to invited guests from the city. The success of the enterprise was toasted and wine and wit flowed as freely as the water in the hydraulic pipes. The mines returned a hand- some compensation on the outlay.
During the year 1859 the canon of the San Gabriel was prospected for forty miles and some rich placer claims located. On some of the bars as high as $8 to the pan were obtained. The correspondent of the Los Angeles Star re- ports these strikes: "From a hill claim four men took out $80 in one day." "Two Mexi- cans, with a common wooden bowl or batea, panned out $90 in two days." "Two hydraulic companies are taking out $1,000 a week." In July, 1859, 300 men were at work in the cañon and all reported doing well. A stage line ran from the city to the mines. Three stores at Eldoradoville, the chief mining camp of the cañon, supplied the miners with the necessaries of life, and several saloons, furnished liquid re- freshment and excitement.
The editor of the Star, in the issue of De- cember 3. 1859, grows enthusiastic over the mining prospects of Los Angeles. He says : "Gold placers are now being worked from Fort
Tejon to San Bernardino. Rich deposits have been discovered in the northern part of the county. The San Gabriel mines have been worked very successfully this season. The San- ta Anita placers are giving forth their golden harvest. Miners are at work in the San Fer- nando hills rolling out the gold and in the hills beyond discoveries have been made which prove the whole district to be one grand placer." Next day it rained and it kept at it continuously for three days and nights. It was reported that . twelve inches of water fell in the mountains during the storm. In the narrow canon of the San Gabriel river the water rose to an unpre- cedented height and swept everything before it. The miners' wheels, sluices, long toms, wing dams, coffer dams, and all other dams, went floating off toward the sea.
The year 1860 was a prosperous one for the San Gabriel miners, notwithstanding the dis- astrous flood of December, 1859. The increased water supply afforded facilities for working dry claims. Some of the strikes of that season in the cañon have the sound of the flush days of '49: "Baker & Smith realized from their claim $800 in eight days;" "Driver & Co. washed out $350 of dust in two hours."
In the spring of 1862, Wells, Fargo & Co. were shipping to San Francisco from their Los Angeles office, $12,000 of gold dust a month by steamer and probably as much more was sent by other shippers or taken by private parties; all this was produced from the San Fernando, San Gabriel and Santa Anita placers. In the past forty years a large amount of gold has been taken out of the San Gabriel placers- how much it is impossible to say. As late as 1876 there were two hydraulic companies work- ing in the cañon. One company reported a yield of $1,365 for a run of twenty-six days, working five men-an average of $10.50 a day to the man. Placer mining is still carried on in a desultory way every winter in the San Fer- nando and San Gabriel mines. But a limited amount of capital has at any time been employed in these mines, and the methods of working them have been unsystematic and wasteful. With more abundant capital, with improved ap-
300
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
pliances and cheaper methods of working, these inines could be made to yield rich returns.
In the winter of 1862-63 placer mines were discovered on the Colorado river and a rush followed. Los Angeles profited by it while it lasted, but it was soon over.
In 1863 there was a mining boom on the island of Santa Catalina. Some rich specimens of gold and silver quartz rock were found and the boom began. The first location was made in April, 1863, by Martin M. Kimberly and Dan- iel E. Way. At a miners' meeting held on the island April 20, 1863, the San Pedro Mining District was formed and a code of mining laws formulated "for the government of locators of veins or lodes of quartz, or other rock contain- ing precious metals and ores (gold, silver, cop- per, galena or other minerals or mines) that may be discovered, taken up or located in Los Angeles county, San Pedro district, state of California." The boundaries of San Pedro dis- trict were somewhat indefinite; it included "all the islands of Los Angeles county and the Coast Range of mountains between the northern and southern boundaries of said county."
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