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 56

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

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

Just where the postoffice was first located I have not been able to ascertain. In 1852 it was kept in an adobe building on Los Angeles street, west side, between Commercial and Arcadia. In 1854 it was located in the Salazar row on North Main street, just south of where the St. Elmo hotel now stands. In January, 1855, it was moved to Los Angeles street, one door above Commercial street. From there, when James S. Waite, publisher of the Weekly Star, was post- master, it was moved to the old Temple block, which stood on the site recently donated to the government for a postoffice building. Its next move was into an adobe building that stood on the present site of the Bullard block, and from there it was taken to the old Lanfranco block on Main street. In 1858 it moved up Main street to a building just south of the Pico house; then, after a time, it drifted down town to North Spring street, a few doors below Temple street. In 1861 it was kept in a frame building on Main street opposite Commercial street. In 1866 it again moved up Main street to a building opposite the Bella Union hotel, now the St. Charles. In 1867 or 1868 it was moved to the northwest cor- ner of North Main and Market streets, and from there, about 1870, it was moved to the middle of Temple block on North Spring street. H. K. WV. Bent moved the office to the Union block, now the Jones block, on the east side of North Spring street. From there, in 1879, when Colo- nel Dunkelberger was postmaster, it was moved to the Oxarat block on North Spring street near First; here it remained eight years. Its loca- tion on Spring street gave an impetus to that street that carried it ahead of Main. In Febru- ary, 1887, the postoffice was moved to the Hell- man building, southwest corner of North Main and Republic streets ; from there it was moved down Broadway below Sixth street. In June, 1893. it was moved into the government building on the southwest corner of Main and Winston streets, where, after forty years of wandering through a wilderness of streets, for the first time it set up business in a home of its own. That building was completed at a cost, including the site. of $150,000.

In early times the duties of the postmasters were light and their compensation small. In

the winter of 1852-53 110 mail was received at the Los Angeles office for six weeks. In 1861, on account of the floods, there was no mail for three weeks, and some wag labeled the office, "To Let." The fixtures of the office in those days were inexpensive and easily moved. From Colo- nel Wheeler's washtub the Los Angeles post- office gravitated to a soap box. It seemed in early days to keep in the laundry line. In 1854- 55 and thereabouts the office was kept in a little 7×9 room on Los Angeles street. The letters were kept in a soap box partitioned off into pigeonholes. The postmaster at that time had a number of other occupations beside that of handling the mail, so when he was not attend- ing to his auction room, or looking after his nursery, or superintending the schools, or act- ing as news agent, or organizing his forces for a political campaign, he attended to the post- office, but at such times as his other duties called him away the office ran itself. If a citizen thought there ought to be a letter for him lie did not hunt up the postmaster, but went to the office and looked over the mail for himself. Upon the arrival of a mail from the States in early times there were no such scenes enacted at the Los Angeles postoffice as took place at the San Francisco office, where men stood in line for hours and $50 slugs were exchanged for places in the line near the window. There were but few Americans in Los Angeles in the fall of '49 and spring of '50, and most of these were old- timers, long since over their homesickness.

The stage coach era of mail carrying con- tinued later in California than in any state east of the Mississippi; and it may be said that it reached its greatest perfection in this state. The Butterfield stage route was the longest continu- ous line ever organized and the best managed. Its eastern termini were St. Louis and Memphis ; its western terminus San Francisco. Its length was 2,881 miles. It began operation in Sep- tember, 1858, and the first stage from the east carrying mail reached Los Angeles October 7, 1858. The schedule time at first between St. Louis and San Francisco was twenty-four days : afterwards it was reduced to twenty-one days. The first service was two mail coaches each way a week, for which the government paid the

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

stage company a subsidy of $600,000 a year. Later on the service was increased to six stages a week each way and the subsidy to $1,000,000 a year. This was in 1861, when the first line was transferred to the central route. In 1859, when the government was paying a subsidy of $600,000 for a semi-weekly service, the receipts for the postal revenue of this route were only $27,000, leaving Uncle Sam over half a million out of pocket.

The Butterfield route from San Francisco southward was by the way of San Jose, Gilroy, Pacheco's Pass, Visalia and Fort Tejon to Los Angeles, 462 miles. Eastward from Los Angeles it ran by way of El Monte, Temecula and Warner's Rancho to Fort Yuma. From there by Tucson to El Paso it followed very nearly what is now the route of the Southern Pacific Railroad. From El Paso it ran northward to St. Louis, branching at Fort Smith for Memphis. Los Angeles was proud of its overland stage. It got the eastern news ahead of San Francisco, and its press put on metropolitan airs. When the trip was first made in twenty days the Weekly Star rushed out an extra with flaunting head- lines-"Ahead of Time." "A Hundred Guns for the Overland Mail," "Twenty Days from St. Louis." After this fitful flash of enterprise the sleepy old ciudad lapsed into poco tiempo ways. The next issue of the Star sorrowfully says : "The overland mail arrived at midnight. There was no one in the postoffice to receive it and it was carried on to San Francisco:" to be returned six days later with all the freshness gone and all the eastern news in the San Francisco papers. There were no overland telegraph lines then. Los Angeles never had a mail service so prompt and reliable as the Butterfield was. The Star in lauding it says: "The arrival of the overland mail is as regular as the index on the clock points to the hour, as true to time as the dial is to the sun."

After the Civil war began in 1861 the southern route was abandoned. The Confederates got away with the stock on the eastern end and the Apaches destroyed the stations on the western end. After the Butterfield stages were trans- ferred to the Central Overland route via Salt Lake City and Omaha, the Los Angeles mails

were carried from San Francisco by local stage lines via the Coast route, but the service was often very unsatisfactory. The completion of the Southern Pacific Railroad from San Fran- cisco to Los Angeles in 1877 gave us quick and reliable service.

It is impossible to obtain any reliable data of the revenues of the Los Angeles postoffice in the early years of its existence. In 1869 the post- master and one boy clerk did the business of the office in a small room in the Temple block, North Spring street. The salary of the postmaster was $1,400 in greenbacks, worth at that time about seventy cents on the dollar, making his pay less than $1,000 a year in gold. The relative rank of Los Angeles in 1869 compared with some other cities of California, which it has since passed in population, is shown by the rate of the salary of the postmasters of these cities at that time. Los Angeles, salary $1,400; Marysville, $3,100; Stockton, $3,200; Sacramento, $4,000. In 1887 the gross receipts of the Los Angeles office were in round numbers $74,000; those of the Sacra- mento office $47,000 and the salaries of the post- masters the same.

From a pamphlet giving a review of the Los Angeles postoffice in 1887, published by E. A. Preuss, then postmaster, I extract the following data: Number of clerks 27, carriers 21. There were no branch offices or stations .. The post- master had petitioned the department to estab- lish a branch office in East Los Angeles and had hopes that his petition might be granted. The allowance for the salaries of twenty-seven clerks January 1, 1888, was $17,315; "making an aver- age salary for each clerk of $645 or less than $54 per month." The total gross receipts of the office for 1887 were $74,540.98. The total cash received for money orders and postal notes, $466,053.98; total cash handled $1,838,048.35 ; being an increase of $702,280.97 over the year 1886. Stamp sales exceeded $120,000 for the year 1887. This was the year of the "boom" when the office handled the mail of over 200,000 tran- sients. The office was then located on North Main street, near Republic. Two long lines of men and women every day extended from the delivery windows up and down Main street wait- ing their turn to get their mail.

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

From a report of Postmaster John R. Mathews made when he retired from office, March 1, 1900, I take the following statistics: Total receipts of the office for 1899, $228,417.61 ; total salaries paid $132,513.69; number of clerks, 41 ; carriers, 62; clerks at stations, 12; railway postal clerks, 46; total, 161. An appropriation of $250,000 for enlarging the Federal building was obtained by Hon. Stephen M. White before the close of his term as United States senator. A long delay ensued. The question of securing more ground was discussed. In 1901 work was begun prepar- atory to the erection of a larger building. The office was removed to the northwest corner of Spring and Eighth streets. The demolition of the old building was begun. An appropriation of $150,000 had been secured for the enlargement of the ground to Fifth street, but in the tedious waiting for congress to act, real estate had ad- vanced and it was discovered that the funds were not nearly sufficient to purchase the needed grounds. The demolition of the old building had progressed so far as to render it unfit for use and the unsightly ruins long remained to arouse the curiosity of the tourist.

In 1905 a number of the public spirited citizens of North Spring, North Main and contiguous streets raised, by subscription, sufficient funds to purchase the old Downey block, fronting on North Main and Temple streets, and extending through to New High street. This was sold to the government for $1. The old historic building was demolished. An appropriation of $800,000 had been secured. Plans were drawn and in May, 1906, bids were opened for the erection of a five-story building. The lowest bid fell a little below one million dollars.

The site at the corner of Main and Winston streets was sold in October, 1906, for $314,000. The demolition of what remained of the first postoffice building the government owned in Los Angeles has been completed, and now, fifty-six years after it was established, the Los Angeles postoffice is still a homeless waif and liable to again become a tramp. Nearly two years have passed since the new site, corner of North Main and Temple streets, was donated to the govern- ment, but yet not a brick has been laid in the building.

CHAPTER XLIX.

WATER SYSTEM OF LOS ANGELES.

F OR a hundred and twenty-five years, the pueblo and its successor el ciudad (the city) of Los Angeles has received its water supply from the Los Angeles river, and its chief tributary the Arroyo Seco. The source of the river is, on the Encino rancho, only twelve miles above the city. For so short a river it is truly remarkable the amount of water it supplies. When the city's population numbered 10,000 there were fears that the limit of the water supply had been reached and that new sources of supply must be found or the city must cease to expand. Now that the population approximates a quarter of a million inhabitants there is still water enough for all. There is a theory extant that the I.cs Angeles river is the outlet of a subterranean lake or basin located in the San Fernando mountains.

The immense supply that so short a river affords lends credence to this theory. In the present year (1906) the first movement toward enlarg- ing the water supply from distant sources was inaugurated. This project is the bringing of the waters of Owens river to Los Angeles, a dis- tance of 200 miles.

Before entering upon the history of this proj- ect a brief history of the water system of Los Angeles since its founding down to the present time will be of interest now, and more so in years to come.

When the pueblo of Los Angeles was founded, September 4, 1781, there were no settlements above it on the river. Governor Felipe de Neve's famous reglamento of 1779, approved by King Carlos III of Spain in 1781, gave to the pueblos

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of California the right to the waters of the rivers on which they were located.

The first community work done by the pobla- dores or founders of Los Angeles was the con- struction of a water distributing system. Their water system was a very primitive affair. It consisted of a toma or dam made of brush and poles placed in the river just above where the Buena Vista street bridge now crosses it, and a zanja or irrigating ditch to convey the water from the river to their planting fields and to sup- ply them with water for domestic purposes.

This ditch was known then and for a century after as the "Zanja Madre," or mother ditch. It was constructed along the mesa at the foot hills on the western side of the river above the cultivated lands. It passed near the northeastern corner of the old plaza, and from this point the colonists took from it their household water supply.

As the population of the pueblo increased and more land was brought under cultivation the water system was enlarged by the construction of new zanjas, but there was no attempt to con- vey the water into the houses by pipes. In early times the dam and the main zanja were kept in repair by community labor, or rather by the labor of the Indians owned or employed by the col- onists; each land owner being required to fur- nish his quota of Indian laborers. The work of cleaning the main zanjas and keeping the tomas in repair was usually done under the superin- tendence of one of the regidores (councilmen), each regidor taking his weekly turn as overseer of the community work. Sometimes, when the work was urgent and the laborers few, a raid was made on the unemployed Indians around town, who were forced for a time to carry the white man's burden without recompense. It kept them out of mischief.

For several years after the American conquest the old water distributing system was continued, but it was not satisfactory to the new rulers. Water for domestic use was taken from the zan- jas in buckets and carried to the consumers by Indians. Then some genius devised a system of distributing from barrels rolled through the street by horse power. Then water carts came into use, and for ten years the waterman made his daily rounds as the ice-man does now.

The first proposition to distribute water for domestic purposes by means of pipes was made by William G. Dryden to the council June 21, 1853. He asked for a twenty-years' franchise and a bonus of two leagues of land. His offer was rejected.

In 1854 the water system, both for domestic use and irrigating, was made a special depart- ment of the city and placed under the charge of a water overseer.

February 24, 1857, William G. Dryden was granted a franchise by the city council to convey "all and any water that may rise or can be col- lected upon his lands in the northern part of the city of Los Angeles,* over, under and through the streets, lanes, alleys, and roads of Los Angeles City." He was also granted the right "to place on the main zanja a water wheel to raise water by machinery to supply the city with water."

Under this system, a brick reservoir was built in the center of the plaza. It was supplied by pumps operated by a wheel in the zanja, near the present junction of San Fernando and Alameda streets. Later on the wheel and pump were moved to the northeastern corner of Alameda and Marchessault streets, where the water com- pany's office building now stands, and as before, was propelled by the waters of the zanja. Iron pipes were laid from this reservoir on the plaza and water was distributed to a number of houses along the principal streets.

The city had extended its water system as its means would allow; its revenue was small and its needs great. So but very little had been ac- complished in the fifteen years immediately fol- lowing the American conquest toward building up a system for distributing water for domestic use.

December 23, 1861, the city council ordered the issuing of $15,000 of water scrip for the completion of the "pipes, flumes and reservoir of the new waterworks and the building of a brick house near the dam for the zanjero." Next day it rained and it continued to do so for a month

*The Dryden Springs, so called, were located on what in former times was a marshy tract of land, lying just southeast of the San Fernando depot grounds, where, later on, the Beaudry waterworks were located. In earlier times they were known as the Abila Springs.

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almost continuously. The dam in the river was swept away, lcaving the wheel which raised the water into the flumes and zanjas high and dry. With "water, water everywhere," the inhabitants had not a drop to drink except what they obtained from the water carts.

The council petitioned the legislature to pass an act authorizing the city to borrow $25,000 to complete the waterworks. The work then in course of construction consisted of a current wheel placed in a zanja at the city dam, which by means of buckets attached to the paddles, raised the water into a flume which conveyed it to a reservoir near the Catholic cemetery, from whence it was conducted in wooden pipes to con- sumers. In August, 1862, the mayor and com- mon council let a contract to Jean L. Sansevain to build a dam, flume and other works for the sum of $18,000. This dam was quite an elaborate affair. Two rows of piles fifteen and eighteen feet long and six feet apart were driven across the river. These were planked with two-inch plank seven feet below the river bed and the interstices between the rows excavated and filled with rock. The dam was designed to raise the water seven feet above the river bed.

Municipal ownership of its water works proved too great a burden for the city to bear, so it cast about for some one on whom to unload it. Feb- ruary 8, 1865, a lease of the public water works of Los Angeles City, with all its flumes, pipes, canals, reservoirs and appurtenances, with the right to build reservoirs on vacant city lands, distribute and sell water and collect water rates from consumers, was made to David W. Alex- ander for a term of four years, with the privi- lege of continuing the lease six years after the expiration of four years. Alexander was to pay the city a rental of $1,000 a year, and at the ex- piration of his lease to deliver up the works and additions to the city free of all incumbrances or debts. Alexander soon tired of carrying the city's burden. August 7, 1865, he assigned his lease to Jean L. Sansevain. October 16, 1865, the city made a lease direct with Sansevain. Sansevain extended the wooden pipes down as far as Third street. The pipes were bored out of pine tree trunks in the mountains back of San Bernardino and were similar to the wooden pump stocks once

in common use in the eastern states. Sansevain's system was not a success. The pipes leaked and burst with pressure and the streets were fre- quently impassable by flooding from broken pipes.

November 18, 1867, Sansevain entered into a contract with the city to lay 5,000 feet of two and three-inch iron pipe at a cost of about $6,000 in scrip, he to pay ten per cent per annum on the cost of the pipe for its use; the city to accept its own scrip in payment.

The great flood of 1867-68 swept away the dam, and again the city was without water.

Sansevain, discouraged by his repeated fail- ures and losses, in February, 1868, transferred his lease to J. S. Griffin, Prudent Beaudry and Solomon Lazard. They completed his contract with the city to lay iron pipe, and received their pay in city water scrip. P. McFadden, who had obtained the old Dryden water system, was a competitor for the Sansevain lease, but failed to secure it.

Griffin and his associates made a proposition to the council to lease from the city the water works for a period of fifty years on certain con- ditions. These conditions and stipulations were incorporated into an ordinance, but instead of leasing, it was now proposed to sell the works outright on the same conditions offered in the proposed lease. These were as follows: Griffin and his associates to pay to the city in gold coin $10,000 in five yearly payments of $2,000 each ; to surrender to the city $6,000 worth of war- rants on the city water fund held by them; to cancel $6,000 of claims against the city for re- pairs ; also to cancel a claim of $2,000 for loss of four months' rental lost to them ; to build a reser- voir at a cost of $15,000; to lay twelve miles of iron pipe in the streets ; to place a hydrant at one corner of street crossings; to supply the public buildings of the city with water free of cost ; and to construct an ornamental fountain on the Plaza costing not less than $1,000. The whole ex- penditure was estimated to aggregate $208,000. Upon Griffin, Beaudry and Lazard, or their as- signs, giving a bond of $50,000 for the per- formance of these stipulations. the mayor was to execute a quit-claim deed to them of the city

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water works, pipes, flumes, etc., and a franchise to take ten inches of water from the river.

The Griffin proposition was referred by the council to a committee of three for examination. The committee brought in a majority and minority report. The minority report pronounced strongly against the scheme. The majority advised its ac- ceptance, and in its lengthy report dealt a back- handed blow at municipal ownership. "Thirdly, we do not believe it advisable or prudent for the city to own property of this nature, as it is well known by past experience that cities and towns can never manage enterprises of that nature as economically as individuals can ; and besides it is a continual source of annoyance and is made a political hobby."

When the ordinance came before the council for adoption (June 1, 1868), the vote was a tie. After some hesitation Murray Morrison, the president, cast his vote in the affirmative, signed the ordinance immediately and then resigned from the council to take the position of judge of the Seventeenth judicial district, to which he had recently been appointed by the governor. Mayor Aguilar vetoed the ordinance and saved the city its water privileges. Aguilar has never received the credit that he deserved for his ac- tion.

Griffin and his associates then made a proposi- tion to lease the works and franchise for a period of thirty years, paying $1,500 a year and per- forming the other conditions stipulated in the former offer. John Jones offered $50,000 in yearly installments of $1,000, or the whole in twenty-five years for a lease. Juan Bernard and P. McFadden, owners of the Dryden system, of- fered $30,000 for a twenty years' lease, to begin at the expiration of the Sansevain lease.

The water question became the all-absorbing topic of discussion. Petitions and protests were showered upon the council. A special election was held on the 15th of June to choose two coun- cilmen to fill vacancies in the city council. The opponents of the Griffin scheme carried the day.

At the meeting of the council July 20, Juan Bernard and others presented a petition, pro- posing to lease the city water works for twenty years, paying therefor the sum of $2,000 a year,

and offering to perform the same specifications as were contained in the Griffin proposition. J. G. Howard, Esq., in behalf of himself and a number of citizens and taxpayers, asked to be heard on the Bernard proposition. He was curtly informed by the president of the council, John King, that he (King) did not wish to hear a speech. Then C. E. Thom, Esq., on his own behalf as a citizen, asked permission to be heard. The chair ruled that they did not wish to hear discussion from outsiders, whereupon Captain Thom desired a solemn protest to be entered against the ruling of the chair. The question then arose upon a postponement of final action upon the Griffin proposition. The vote was a tie; the president cast the deciding vote in the negative. .

The question of the acceptance of the proposi- tion of J. S. Griffin and his associates was put to vote and carried-ayes, four; noes, two. The ordinance was signed by the president of the council and referred to the mayor, who approved it on the 22nd of July, 1868. And thus the specter of "municipal ownership of a public util- ity," that for two decades had haunted the coun- cil chamber and affrighted the taxpayer, was exorcised-adjured from evil for a generation to come. The thirty years passed, and again the specter arose from the mists of the past to worry the people.

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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 56

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