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 54
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In February, 1892, Messrs. Doheny and Con- non, prospecting for petroleum, dug two wells with pick and shovel on West State street, in the resident portion of the city. At the depth of 150 feet oil was found. From this small begin- ning a profitable industry has grown up. The oil belt extends diagonally across the northwest- ern part of the city. The total number of wells drilled within the city limits up to June, 1900, was 1,300, and the yield of these from the be- ginning of the oil development was estimated at 7,000,000 barrels, worth in round numbers about $6,000,000.
The oil industry reached its maximum in 1901. Over-production and the Standard Oil octopus caused a rapid decline in prices. From $1 a barrel in 1900 the price steadily declined until in 1904 it reached fifteen cents a barrel. Drill- ing new wells within the city practically ceased in 1903, and the unused derricks began to dis- appear.
When the oil industry was at high tide in 1899-1900, it was forced by a certain class of promoters to take on some of the wildcat char- acteristics of the great real estate boom of 1887. For a time it was no uncommon feat to incor- porate a half dozen oil companies in a day .. The capital stock of these companies ran up into the millions, sometimes the amount paid in by the promoters reached as high as $10. The man on the outside was the fellow who put up the money to get inside -- "to be let in on the ground floor" was a favorite catch phrase then. It was not necessary to own oil lands to incorporate a company. A promise of a lease of a few acres of a pasture field or a mountain cañon was suf- ficient. The profit to the promoters came from selling stocks, not oil. During the height of the oil boom stocks could be bought at all prices,
324
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
from a cent a share up. Stocks in a new com- pany would be advertised at five cents a share, in a short time advanced to ten cents, then raised to fifteen cents, and when buyers began to lag the last call was sounded. "At the last stroke of the clock at midnight next Saturday the stock of the Grizzly Bear Oil Development Company will be advanced to twenty-five cents a share. Oil sand has been struck in the company's wells and all unsold stock will be withdrawn from the market in a few days." This "call of the wild" (eat promoter) hurried the halting, and there was a rush for the stock. Strange to say the clock of these promoters never struck twelve on Saturday night !
One company of enterprising promoters, to satisfy a crying need of the times-cheap stock- organized a company with a capital of $5,000,000 and placed its stock on the market at a cent a share. The stock advanced to two cents a share, and might have gone higher had not the boom burst and the company been forced to suspend- the sale of stock, their only asset. The oil stock mania gradually subsided. Beautifully litho- graphed certificates of stock were the only re- turns that many an investor could show for "very hard cash" invested.
Another of the forgotten enterprises of the closing years of the nineteenth century was the Belgian hare industry. An enterprising maga- zine writer made the discovery that the meat of the Belgian hare as an article of food was superior to beef or mutton and could be produced at a minimum of cost. This "back yard industry," as it was called, could be launched on a very small capital. A coop with a Belgian hare buck and doe and you were ready for business. The rapidity with which the mania spread was equaled by the rapidity with which the hares multiplied. It was a rare thing at the height of the epidemic to find a back yard that was not decorated with a rabbitry. While the ostensible purpose of the industry was to produce a food product, the fad soon took the form of pro- ducing fancy stock at fabulous prices. Kings, lords, dukes, queens and princesses with their wonderful pedigrees pushed the plebeian Belgian out of business, or rather the pedigree maker converted the pleb into an aristocrat. A king
with the red foot and peculiar markings on the back, sure signs of an aristocratie lineage, was rated at $1,000, and the queens and princesses ranged in value all the way from $25 to $500 each. Exactly what these high-priced hares were good for, except to sell to some one who had been seized with an attack of the craze, no one seemed able to find out, or rather cared to find out. "When the supply exceeds the de- mand," queried the pessimist, "what then?" "Oh! that never can be; all the world wants hares and Southern California is the only place where they can be grown to perfection." The craze increased with every report of big profits from small beginnings. But there came a time when it was all supply and no demand. It was found that as an article of food the flesh of the most aristocratic of the red-footed gentry was not up to the standard of the despised California jack-rabbit.
Then came a scramble to get out of the busi- ness, but few of the operators did without loss. The lords, the dukes and the duchesses died, but not of old age, and the tenantless rabbitries were converted into kindling wood or chicken coops. History has kept alive for three cen- turies the story of the tulip mania of Holland, when a rare bulb sold for 13,000 florins and stolid Dutch merchants traded ships' cargoes for choice collections of tulip tubers that were of no utility and scant beauty. The Belgian hare boom of Southern California is forgotten, al- though in volume it was greater than the tulip craze of Holland. How much capital was in- vested in it it is impossible to say. Some of the wholesale rabbitries were incorporated with cap- itals ranging from $50,000 to $100,000. Experts made frequent trips to Europe for fancy stock. A magazine was published in the interest of the industry, and at its height from ten to twelve columns of liners in the Sunday dailies told those interested where they could find the highest rank of Belgian aristocrats. There were ex- perts in hare heraldry, who made good incomes by writing pedigrees for would-be aristocrats. Many of their pedigrees were works of art- the art of lying.
During the closing decade of the nineteenth century there was but little advance in the price
325
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
of real estate outside of the choice business streets ; prices in 1900 were lower than in 1887. The city had doubled in population and business had increased, but many of the property holders were staggering along under mortgages, the legacies of the great boom. These were the optimists who had implicit faith in the future of the city. The great financial depression that had spread over the United States in the middle years of the last decade of the century had been intensified in Southern California by a series of dry or drought years. It was not until the first year of the new century that light began to break through the financial gloom.
H. E. Huntington bought a controlling in- terest in the Los Angeles Electric Railway and began the building of a system of suburban or interurban electric railways to the different cities and towns contiguous to Los Angeles. The road to Long Beach was completed in 1902, to Mon- rovia in 1903, and to Whittier the same year. The seven-story Huntington building, corner of Sixth and Main, the entrepot of all Huntington interurban lines, was completed in 1903. These improvements, together with the extension of new street car lines in the city, stimulated the real estate market and brought about a rapid advance in values. Lots on South Main street held at $100 a front foot in 1900 sold five years later at $1,500, and frontage on South Hill street valued at $200 a front foot in 1901 sold in 1906 at $2.500. Real estate contiguous to the business district, but still residence property, had advanced in value in five years from one thou- sand to twelve hundred per cent.
The completion of the San Pedro, Los An- geles & Salt Lake Railroad in March, 1905, gave Los Angeles its fourth transcontinental line. The discovery of gold and silver mines in southern
Nevada has made Los Angeles a mining center both for supplies and stocks. An idea of its rapid growth in buildings, wealth and population may be obtained from the number and amount of the building permits, the city assessments and the school marshal's returns
Ycar
No. of Permits
Valuation
I90I
2,730
$ 4,099,198
1902
4,655
8,981,974
1903
6,398
13,175,446
1904
7,064
13,409,06I
1905
9,543
15,482,067
1906
9.408
18,273,318
City Assessments-Increase for each year.
Year
Value
Increase for the year
I90I
$ 70,562,307
$ 4,962,387
1902
86,410,735
15,854,428
1903
109,223.823
23,507,088
1904
126,126,563
16,202,740
1905
156,661,566
30,535,003
1906
205,767,729
49,106,163
INCREASE IN POPULATION.
The census of the school children of the city is taken every year, between the 15th of April and the 1st of May. The following statistics of the total population of the city for four years are taken from the report of Bert L. Farmer, school census marshal :
1903,
190.4.
1905.
1906.
Ist Ward
11,13I
13.743
16,429
18,699
2nd
17.280
18,294
20,708
23,154
3rd
66
13.264
20,574
22,85I
26,744
4th
24,094
28,468
33,909
37,933
5th
66
15.799
17.721
21,692
26,668
6th
66
22,829
29,401
39,118
48,446
7th
16.708
21,498
23,740
28,069
8th
6,723
9.854
IO,O3I
11,6II
9th
9.117
9.976
12,87I
18,095
Total
136.945 169.529
201,349
239,419
326
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
CHAPTER XLVII.
THE SCHOOLS OF LOS ANGELES CITY AND COUNTY.
D URING the forty years that Los Angeles was under the rule of Spain, if the records are correct, there were but two years that she enjoyed school facilities, In 1817- 18 Maximo Piña, an invalid soldier, taught the pueblo school. His salary was $140 a year.
The first school in Los Angeles during the Mexican régime of which there is a record was taught by Luciano Valdez, beginning in 1827. His school was kept open at varying intervals to the close of 1831. He seems not to have been a success in his chosen profession. In the pro- ceedings of the ayuntamiento for January 19, 1832, is this record: "The most Illustrious Ayuntamiento dwelt on the lack of improvement in the public school of the pueblo, and on ac- count of the necessity of civilizing and morally training the children, it was thought wise to place citizen Vicente Morago in charge of said school from this date, recognizing in him the neces- sary qualifications for discharge of said duties, allowing him $15 monthly, the same as was paid the retiring citizen, Luciano Valdez."
Schoolmaster Morago, February 12, 1833, was appointed secretary of the ayuntamiento at a sal- ary of $30 per month and resigned his position as teacher. The same date Francisco Pantoja was appointed preceptor of the public school. Pan- toja wielded the birch or plied the ferule for a year and then asked for his salary to be increased to $20 per month. The ayuntamiento refused to increase it, "and at the same time, seeing certain negligence and indolence in his manner of ad- vancing the children, it was determined to pro- cure some other person to take charge of the school." Pantoja demanded that he be relieved at once, and the ayuntamiento decided "that in view of the irregularities in the discharge of his duties, he be released and that citizen Cristo- val Aguilar be appointed to the position at $15 per month."
The ayuntamiento proceedings of January 8,
1835, tell the fate of Aguilar: "Schoolmaster Cristoval Aguilar asked an increase of salary. After discussion it was decided that as his fitness for the position was insufficient, his petition could not be granted." So Aguilar quit the profes- sion. Then Enriqui Sepulveda essayed to lead the youth of Angeles into the paths of knowl- edge; of his fate the records are silent. The salary question may have severed him from his pupils and his profession.
Vicente Morago, who had been successively secretary of the ayuntamiento and syndic (treas- urer), returned to his former profession, teach- ing, in 1835. He was satisfied with $15 a month, and that seemed to be the chief qualification of a teacher in those days. There is no record of a school in 1836. During 1837 the civil war be- tween Monterey and Los Angeles was raging, and there was no time to devote to education. All the big boys were needed for soldiers ; be- sides, the municipal funds were so demoralized that fines and taxes had to be paid in hides and horses.
Don Ygnacio Coronel took charge of the pub- lic school July 3, 1838, "he having the necessary qualifications." "He shall be paid $15 per month from the municipal funds, and every parent having a child shall be made to pay a certain amount according to his means. The $15 per month paid from the municipal fund is paid so that this body (the ayuntamiento) may have supervision over said school." Coronel taught at various times between 1838 and 1844, the length of the school sessions depending on the condition of the municipal funds and the liber- ality of parents. Don Ygnacio's educational meth- ods were a great improvement on those of the old soldier schoolmasters. There was less of "lickin' " and more of "larnin." His daughter, Soledad, assisted him, and when a class had com- pleted a book or performed some other merito- rious educational feat, as a reward of merit a
327
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
dance was improvised in the schoolroom and Señorita Soledad played upon the harp. She was the first teacher to introduce music into the schools of Los Angeles.
The most active and earnest friend of the pub- lic school among the Mexican governors was the much abused Micheltorena. He made a strenu- ous effort to establish a public school system in the territory. Through his efforts schools were established in all the principal towns, and a guar- antee of $500 from the territorial funds was promised to each school.
January 3, 1844, a primary school was opened in Los Angeles under the tutorship of Ensign Guadalupe Medina, an officer in Micheltorena's army, permission having been obtained from the governor for the lieutenant to lay down the sword to take up the pedagogical birch. Medina . was an educated man and taught an ex- cellent school. His school attained an en- rollment of 103 pupils. It was conducted on the Lancasterian plan, which was an educational fad recently imported from Europe, via Mexico, to California. This fad, once very popular, has been dead for half a century. The gist of the system was that the nearer the teacher was in education to the level of the pupil the more successful would he be in imparting instruc- tion. So the preceptor taught the more advanced pupils ; these taught the next lower grades, and so down the scale to the lowest class. Through this system it was possible for one teacher to instruct or manage two or three hundred pupils.
Don Manuel Requena, in an address to the outgoing ayuntamiento, speaking of Medina's school, said: "One hundred and three youths of this vicinity made rapid progress under the care of the honorable preceptor, and showed a sublime spectacle, announcing a happy future." The "happy future" of the school was clouded by the shadow of shortage of funds. The superior government notified the ayuntamiento that it had remitted the $500 promised and great was the gratitude of the regidores thereat; but when the remittance reached the pueblo it was found to be merchandise instead of money. The school board (regidores) filed an indignant protest, but it was merchandise or nothing, so, after much dickering, the preceptor agreed to take the goods
at a heavy discount, the ayuntamiento to make up the deficit.
After a very successful school term of nearly half a year the lieutenant was ordered to Monte- rey to aid in suppressing a revolution that Castro and Alvarado were supposed to be incubating. He returned to Los Angeles in November and again took up the pedagogical birch, but laid it down in a few months to take up the sword. Los Angeles was in the throes of one of its periodical revolutions. The schoolhouse was needed by Pico and Castro for military head- quarters. So the pupils were given a vacation- a vacation, by the way, that lasted five years. The next year (1846) the gringos conquered Califor- nia, and when school took up the country was under a new government.
All the schools I have named were boys' schools; but very few of the girls received any education. They were taught to embroider, to cook, to make and mend the clothes of the family and their own, and these accomplishments were deemed sufficient for a woman.
Governor Micheltorena undertook to establish schools for girls in the towns of the department. He requested of the ayuntamiento of Los Angeles the names of three ladies for teachers, one of whom was to be selected to take charge of the girls' school when established. The alcalde named Mrs. Luisa Arguello, Dolores Lopez and Maria Ygnacio Alvarado. The governor ap- pointed Mrs. Luisa Arguello teacher of the school which was to open July 1, 1844. Evidently the school did not open on time, for at the meeting of the ayuntamiento, January 7, 1845, the al- calde requested that Mrs. Luisa Arguello be asked whether she would fill the position of teacher to which she had been appointed by the governor. There is no record that she ever taught school or that there ever was a girls' school in Los Angeles before the American conquest.
The last school taught under the supervision of the ayuntamiento of Los Angeles was at San Gabriel, in 1846, and that faithful old pedagogue, Vicente Morago, was the teacher, his salary the same old figure, $15 per month. From an in- ventory made by Lieutenant Medina we ascer- tain the amount of school books and furniture it took to supply a school of one hundred pupils
328
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
sixty years ago. Primers, thirty-six; second readers, eleven ; Fray Ripalde's Catechisms, four- teen ; table (without carpet or joint) to write upon, one; benches, six; blackboard, one; large table for children, one. School supplies were few and inexpensive in early days. Here is an ac- count of the expenses, made from the public school from February to December, 1834: Prim- ers, $1; blackboard, $2; earthen jar for water, $2.50; ink, $1 ; string for ruling the blackboard, fifty cents; ink well, thirty-seven cents; total, $7.37. Church incidentals for same length of time were $96. The city owned no schoolhouse. The priests' house was used for a schoolroom when it was vacant, otherwise the teacher or the ayuntamiento rented a room. At one time a fine of $1 was imposed on parents who failed to send their children to school, but the fines were never collected.
There is no record of any school in Los An- geles during the years 1846 and 1847. The war of the Conquest was in progress part of the time, and the big boys and the schoolmaster as well were needed for soldiers. In 1848 and 1849 the gold rush to the northern mines carried away most of the male population. In the flush days of '49 the paltry pay of $15 per month was not sufficient to induce even faithful old Vicente Morago to wield the pedagogical birch.
At the first session of the ayuntamiento, in January, 1850, Syndic Figueroa and Regidor Garfias were appointed school committeemen to establish a public school. At the end of three months the syndic reported that he had been unable to find a house wherein to locate the school. Nor had he succeeded in securing a teacher. An individual, however, had just pre- sented himself, who, although he did not speak English, yet he could teach the children many useful things ; and, besides, the same person had managed to get the refusal of Mrs. Pollerena's house for school purposes. At the next meeting of the council the syndic reported that he had been unable to start the school-the individual who had offered to teach had left for the mines and the school committee could neither find a schoolmaster nor a schoolhouse.
In June of the same year (1850) a contract was made with Francisco Bustamente, an ex-
soldier, who had come to the territory with Gov- ernor Micheltorena, "to teach to the children first, second and third lessons and likewise to read script, to write and count and so much as I may be competent, to teach them orthography and good morals." Bustamente taught to the close of the year, receiving $60 per month and $20 a month rent for a house in which the school was kept.
In July, 1850, the ayuntamiento was merged into the common council. Part of the council's duties was to act as a school board. Two appli- cations were received during the first month from would-be teachers. Hugo Overns offered to give primary instruction in English, Spanish and French; George Wormald asked permission to establish "a Los Angeles lyceum, in which the following classes shall be taught : Reading, pen- manship, arithmetic, geography, Spanish gram- mar, double-entry bookkeeping, religion, history and the English and French languages." The applications were referred to Councilman Mor- ris L. Goodman. He reported in favor of grant- ing "Hugh Overns $50 per month to establish a school in which shall be taught the rudiments of English, French and Spanish. In consideration of the subsidy paid from the public funds, the council to have the privilege of sending to the school, free of charge, six orphan boys or others whose parents are poor." The proposition was approved.
In November, 1850, the Rev. Henry Weeks proposed to organize a school (he to have charge of the boys and his wife of the girls) for the compensation of $150 per month. Two months later the school committee reported that no bet- ter proposition had been received. Weeks and his wife opened school January 4, 1851. Weeks paid the rent of the schoolroom.
In June, 1853, the council passed a resolu- tion to divide $100 between the two preceptors of the boys' school and the preceptress of the girls' school on condition that each teach ten poor children free.
The city council, March 8, 1851, granted Bishop Alameny blocks 41 and 42, Ord's survey, for a college site, together with the flow of water from what was formerly known as the
329
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
College Spring. A conditional grant of the cil's) appreciation of their good work. The re- same land had been made in 1849 to Padres Branche and Sanchez for a college site. (These blocks lie west of Buena Vista street and north of College street.)
The early schools seem to have been run on the go-as-you-please principle. The school com- mittee reported "having visited the school twice without finding the children assembled. The committee, however, had arranged with the preceptor for a full attendance next Friday, of which the council took due notice." Which of the three schools was so lax in attendance the committee does not state.
The first school ordinance was adopted by the council July 9, 1851. Article I provided that a sum not exceeding $50 per month shall be ap- plied towards the support of any educational in- stitution in the city, provided that all the rudi- ments of the English and Spanish languages be taught therein.
Article 2 provided that should pupils receive instruction in any higher branches the parents must make an agreement with the "owner or owners of the school." August 13, 1852, an ordinance was passed by the council setting apart a levy of ten cents on the $too of the municipal taxes for the support of the schools. This was the first tax levy ever made in the city for the support of schools. Previous to this the school fund was derived from licenses, fines, etc. At the same meeting of the council Padre Anacleto Lestraode was granted two lots for a seminary. The location of the lots is not given. A. S. Breed opened a school for instruction in the English language in December, 1852. He was allowed $33 public funds on the usual terms. Breed was elected city marshal at the election the following May. He embezzled public funds and was turned out of office.
The school committee of the council, Downey and Del Valle, reported. January 17. 1853, hav- ing visited the "two schools in charge of pre- ceptors Lestraode and Coronel (Ygnacio), found them well attended ; twenty children in the former and ten in the latter, besides five taught gratis." The council expressed great satisfac- tion, and requested the committee at its next visit to express to the preceptors its (the coun-
port is not very definte in regard to the attend- ance. If the total number in the two schools was only thirty-five, it would seem as if the council was thankful for small favors. June JI, 1853, Mrs. A. Bland, wife of the Rev. Adam Bland, a Methodist minister, having established a school for girls, was allowed $33-33 1-3 from the pub- lic funds for teaching ten poor girls. The mayor was instructed by the council to find out whether the seats the city pays for in the various schools are filled, and if those occupying them are de- serving.
At the session of the council, July 25, 1853, John T. Jones submitted an ordinance for the establishment and government of the city's pub- lic schools. It provided for the appointment by the council, with the approval of the mayor, of three commissioners of public schools, "who shall serve as a board of education for one year, the chairman to be superintendent of schools, and commissioners to have all the powers vested in a board of education by the act of the state legis- lature, 'entitled, an act to establish a common school system, approved May 3, 1852.'" The board had power to examine, employ and dis- miss teachers and appoint a marshal to take a census of all children between the ages of five and eighteen ycars. The ordinance was ap- proved, and J. Lancaster Brent, Lewis Granger and Stephen C. Foster appointed a board of edu- cation, J. Lancaster Brent becoming ex-officio the city school superintendent. The council hav- ing established a public school system, by a reso- lution suspended the payment of subsidies to private schools; the resolution took effect Au- gust 14. 1853.
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