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 62

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

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 62

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The preliminary meeting for the organization of a Pioneer Society was held in the business office of the Daily Herald, then located on Third street in the Bradbury block, August 2, 1897. There were present J. M. Griffith, A. L. Bath, H. S. Orme, M. Teed, J. M. Elliott, J. W. Gil- lette, J. M. Guinn, H. W. O'Melveny and W. A. Spalding. The question of forming a Pioneer or Old Settlers' Society was discussed and a com- mittee to formulate a plan of organization was appointed. The members of the committee were :

H. D. Barrows, J. W. Gillette, J. M. Guinn, Dr. H. S. Orme, Dr. J. S. Griffin, Harris Newmark, Henry W. O'Melveny and B. S. Eaton. The president of the meeting, J. M. Griffith, was made a member of the committee. At the meet- ing of the committee, August 5th, B. S. Eaton was made chairman and J. M. Guinn secretary. A sub-committee, consisting of B. S. Eaton, J. M. Guinn and H. D. Barrows, was appointed to draft a constitution and by-laws and submit them to the general committee at a meeting to be held on August 10th. At that meeting the name of the organization was chosen and the time of res- idence in the county necessary to render a per- son eligible to membership was fixed at twenty- five years. It was argued that by adopting a movable date for eligibility to membership the society would continue to grow, whereas if a fixed date was adopted the society would begin to decline as soon as all eligible had been en- rolled. The growth of the society has proved the wisdom of this argument. A call was issued for persons eligible to membership under the twenty-five-year-residence clause to meet at the Chamber of Commerce, September 4, 1897, at 8 p. m., for the purpose of adopting a constitu- tion and by-laws, electing officers and otherwise completing the organization. At the meeting of September 4, twenty-four persons were pres- ent and signed the roll. The constitution and by- laws prepared by the committee, after a few changes, were adopted. The following-named persons were chosen a board of directors: Louis Roeder, W. H. Workman, H. D. Barrows, J. M. Griffith, B. S. Eaton, J. M. Guinn and H. W. O'Melveny. The directors then proceeded to elect the officers of the society from their num- ber. B. S. Eaton was chosen president; J. M. Griffith, first vice-president; W. H. Workman, second vice-president ; Louis Roeder, treasurer, and J. M. Guinn, secretary. The society grew rapidly and at the end of the first year its mem- bership reached two hundred; it now numbers four hundred.

The Society of Pioneers in connection with the Historical Society of Southern California has, beginning with 1897 and continuing up to 1906, published an annual containing historical papers read before the society, and short bio-

372

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

graphical sketches of deceased pioneers. The society has preserved a considerable amount of valuable historical matter through its publica- tions.

THE SOUTHWEST SOCIETY ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTI- TUTE OF AMERICA.

The Southwest Society of the Archaeological Institute of America was founded November 30, 1903. At thirteen months old it was numerical- ly third among the fifteen affiliated societies of the Institute, which at that time was twenty-five years old and embraced the most important uni- versities and centers of learning in the country. At three years old it had eighty per cent larger membership than any other society in the coun- try. The present membership is four hundred.

It has made the largest collection of folk- songs in the country, about half of which are Spanish and half in thirty different Indian lan- guages of the Southwest. It is recording these by phonograph and is having them transcribed ready for translation, annotation, and publica- tion. The society has purchased collections cov- ering the most important art known to Cali- fornia before 1840, which includes at least two masterpieces : two large collections of California archæology, and other collections in large vari- ety. It has been given the personal relics of Gen. John C. Fremont and many others relating to the first American occupancy of California, and it has been promised all relics of the Mission epoch in the possession of the Roman Catholic Church in California. It has already made a large photographic archive of the Southwest and a large number of miscellaneous collections of value. It has conducted a large number of lectures in California. besides those given by the secretary as course-lecturer of the Archaeological

Institute in all chief university centers of the East in 1904-05; and has conducted three scien- tific explorations, one in California and two in Arizona, each with large results to science. It has secured, by personal appeal to the President, a reversal of the ten-year policy of the Interior Department, which forbade scientists to explore the Indian and forest reservations of the South- west. Plans have been laid for a great free pub- lic museum in this city and a large sum of money has been paid toward the purchase price of a $50,000 site therefor. The society has established an exhibit meantime in a fire-proof building, where its collection are visible to the public free every afternoon.

The first officers of the society were as fol- lows: President, J. S. Slauson ; vice-presidents : Gen. Harrison Gray Otis, editor Los Angeles Times; Frederick H. Rindge. president Conserv- ative Life Insurance Company : George F. Bo- vard, president University of Southern Califor- nia : Dr. Norman Bridge; secretary, Charles F. Lummis: treasurer, W. C. Patterson, president Los Angeles National Bank ; recorder and cura- tor, Dr. F. M. Palmer ; executive committee- Prof. J. A. Foshay, superintendent city schools Los Angeles ; F. Lungren, Charles F. Lummis, Dr. F. M. Palmer, Miss Mary E. Foy, Theo. B. Comstock ; advisory council-H. W. O'Melveny, Los Angeles ; Louis A. Dreyfus, Santa Barbara ; Dr. J. H. McBride. Pasadena ; Charles Cassatt Davis, Los Angeles; George W. Marston, San Diego: Charles A. Moody, Los Angeles : John G. North, Riverside; Walter R. Bacon, Los An- geles ; E. W. Jones, San Gabriel; Rt. Rev. T. F. Conaty, Los Angeles: Rt. Rev. J. H. Johnson. Los Angeles, and Dr. J. T. Martindale, Los An- geles.

373

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

CHAPTER LIV.

CLIMATIC AND SEISMIC TRAGEDIES.

EARTHQUAKES, FLOODS AND DROUGHITS.

there is one characteristic of his state of which the true Californian is prouder than another, it is its climate. With his table of temperature and records of cloudless days and gentle sunshine, he is prepared to prove that Cali- fornia has the most glorious elimate in the world. Should the rains descend and the floods prevail, or should the heavens become as brass and neith- er the former nor the latter rains fall. these cli- matic extremes he excuses on the plea of excep- tional years; or should the earthquake's shock pale his cheeks and send him flying in affright from his casa, when the temblor has rolled by and his fright is over, he laughs to scorn the idea that an earthquake in California is anything to be afraid of, and draws invidious comparisons be- tween the harmless shake-ups of this favored land and the cyclones, the blizzards and the thun- derstorms of the east. The record of earthquakes. floods and droughts in this chapter may seen to the reader, as he peruses it, a formal arraignment of our "glorious climate," but he must recollect that the events recorded are spread over a pe- riod of 140 years, and he must recall to mind, too, that the aggregate loss of human life in all these years from all these climatic tragedies is less than that inflicted by a single season's cy- clones and floods in the southern and northwest- ern states.

EARTHQUAKES.

That there are periods of seismic disturbances. when earthquakes seem to be epidemic. in a coun- try, is evident. At the time of its first settle- ment California was passing through one of these periods. Among the earliest recorded climatic phenomena, noted by Portolá's expedition, is the frequent mention of earthquake shocks. Father Crespi, in his diary of this expedition, says of their camping place. July 23. 1769. "We called this place El Dulcisimo Nombre de Jesus de

Temblores," because four times during the day - we had been roughly shaken up by earthquakes. The first and heaviest trembling took place at about one o'clock and the last near four o'clock in the afternoon. One of the gentiles who hap- pened to be in camp was no less scared than we, and began to shout aloud, invoking mercy and turning towards. all points of the compass." Again, when the expedition encamped on the Porciuncula river, August 2, he says, "During the evening and night we experienced three con- secutive earthquake shocks." When encamped on the Santa Clara river a few days later, he notes the occurrence of two more shocks.

Hugo Reid. in his letters descriptive of the founding of San Gabriel Mission, says: "The now San Gabriel river was named Rio de Los Temblores, and the building was referred to as the Mission de Los Temblores. These names were given from the frequency of convulsions at that time and for many years after. These con- vulsions were not only monthly and weekly, but often daily."

The stone church of San Gabriel was, during the course of its construction, several times in- jured by earthquake shocks. In 1804 the arched roof had to be taken off and one of wood and tiles substituted. The walls were cracked by an earthquake and had to be repaired several times : the original tower was taken down and the pres- ent belfry substituted. There were frequent con- vulsions in the northern districts: at San Fran- cisco in 1808, there were eighteen shocks be- tween June 21 and July 17, some of them quite severe. The seismic disturbance that had con- tinued from 1769, culminated in a series of se- vere shocks in 1812, which year was long known in California as "el año de los temblores." the year of the earthquakes. On Sunday, December 8 of that year. the neophytes of San Juan Capis-

*The sweetest name of Jesus of the Earthquakes.

374

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

trano were gathered at morning mass in their magnificent church, the finest in California. At the second wave of the temblor the lofty tower fell with a crash on the vaulted roof of masonry, and in a moment the whole mass of stone and mortar came down on the congregation. The officiating minister escaped by the door of the sacristy and six neophytes were saved, but the · rest, forty in number, according to official re- ports, were crushed to death, though the mission records show "that thirty-nine were buried in the next two days and four more bodies later,"* making the total killed forty-three. At Santa Inez Mission the church was thrown down, but there was no loss of life. At Purisima Mission the earth shook for four minutes. The church and nearly all the adobe buildings were shaken down.

At Santa Barbara the buildings were damaged, new springs of asphaltum opened; the so-called volcano developed new openings and the people fled from the town in terror. At San Gabriel it overthrew the main altar, breaking the St. Joseph, St. Dominic, St. Francis and the Christ. It shook down the steeple, cracked the sacristy walls and injured the friars' house and other buildings .¡ The temblórs continued with great frequency from December, 1812, to the following March. It was estimated that not less than three hundred well-defined shocks were expe- rienced throughout Southern California in the three months following December 8. After that there was a subsidence, and mother earth, or at least that part of her where California is located, ceased to tremble.

In 1855, 1856 and 1857 there was a recur- rence of seismic convulsions. July 11, 1855, at 8:15 p. m., was felt the most violent shock of earthquake since 1812. Nearly every house in Los Angeles was more or less injured; walls were badly cracked, the openings in some cases being a foot wide. Goods were cast down from shelves of stores and badly damaged. The water in the city zanjas slopped over the banks and the ground was seen to rise and fall in waves, On April 14 and May 2, 1856, severe shocks were experienced, occasioning considerable

alarm. Slight shocks were of frequent occur- rence.

January 9, 1857, at 8:30 a. m., occurred one of the most memorable earthquakes ever experienced in the southern country. At Los Angeles the vibrations lasted about two minutes, the motion being from north to south. It began with gentle vibrations, but soon increased to such violence that the people rushed into the street demoral- ized by terror. Women shrieked, children cried and men ejaculated hastily framed prayers of most ludicrous construction. Horses and cattle fled wildly over the plains, screaming and bel- lowing in affright .* It was most severe in the neighborhood of Fort Tejon. Here a chasm, from ten to twenty feet wide and extending from thirty to forty miles in a straight line northwest to southeast, opened in the ground and closed again with a crash, leaving a ridge of pulverized earth several feet high. Large trees were broken off and cattle grazing upon the hillsides rolled down the declivity in helpless fright. The bar- racks and officers' quarters, built of adobe, were damaged to such an extent that the officers and soldiers were obliged to live in tents for several months until the buildings were repaired. The great earthquake of 1868, which shook up the region around the bay of San Francisco, was very light at Los Angeles.

The Owens' valley earthquake that occurred March 26, 1872, was, next to the great "tem- blór" of 1812, the most destructive of life of any that had visited California up to that time. The houses in the town of Lone Pine, Inyo county, where the greatest loss of life occurred, were built of loose stone and adobe, and it was more owing to the faulty construction of the buildings that so many were killed, than to the severity of the shock, although it was quite heavy. It happened at 25 minutes past 2 o'clock in the morning, when all were in bed. Twenty-six per- sons were killed in Lone Pine and two in other places in the valley. Los Angeles was pretty thoroughly shaken up at the time, but no dam- age was done and no one was hurt. The last seismic disturbance in Southern California that caused damage was the San Jacinto earthquake,

*Bancroft's History of California. Vol. II.

Bancroft's History of California. Vol. II.

*J. Albert Wilson's History of Los Angeles County.

375

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

which occurred at 4:30 a. m., December 25, 1899. It damaged a number of buildings in the busi- ness part of San Jacinto, a town near the base of the San Jacinto Mountains in Riverside county. It shook down part of the walls of a brick house in Hemet, three miles northiwesterly from San Jacinto. A brick chimney in the hotel was turned entirely around. At the Saboda In- dian reservation, a few miles from San Jacinto, six squaws were killed by the falling of an old adobe wall. They were sleeping in an old house. When the shock come the walls fell inward, crushing them to death. No other lives were lost. Shocks continued at intervals for several weeks. In the mountains southeasterly from San Jacinto great crevices were discovered where the earth had opened, and in some places had gulped down tall trees. Mount Tauquitz gave forth suspicious rumblings as if about to break out into a volcanic eruption, but subsided.

For an account of the San Francisco earth- quake of April 18, 1906, see Chapter XXXVI of this volume.

FLOODS.

The reports of the climatic conditions prevail- ing in the early days of California are very mea- gre. Although the state of the weather was undoubtedly a topic of deep interest to the pas- toral people of California, yet neither the dons nor the padres compiled meteorological tables or kept records of atmospheric phenomena. With their cattle on a thousand hills and their flocks and herds spread over the plains, to them an abundant rainfall meant prosperity, a dry season starvation to their flocks and consequent poverty. Occasionally we find in the archives that a pro- cession was ordered or a novéna promised to some certain saint if he would order a rain storm, but there is no mention of prayers being offered to cut short the pluvial downpour. Consequently the old weather reports, such as they are, show more droughts than floods, not that there were more, but because people are more inclined to bewail the evils that befall them than rejoice over the good.

The only record of a flood that I have been able to find during the last century is in Father Serra's report of the overflow of the San Miguel

(San Gabriel) and the destruction of the first crop sown at the old mission of San Gabriel in the winter of 1771-72.

In 1810-II there was a great flood and all of the rivers of Southern California overflowed their banks. In 1815 occurred a flood that ma- terially changed the course of the Los Angeles river within the pueblo limits. The river aban- coned its former channel and flowed west of the suertes or planting field of the settlers; its new channel followed very nearly the present line of Alameda street. The old fields which were situ- ated where Chinatown and the lumber yards now are were washed away or covered with sand, and new fields were located in what is now the neighborhood of San Pedro street.

In 1825 it again left its bed and drifted to the castward, forming its present channel. The memorable flood of that year effected a great change in the physical contour of the country west of Los Angeles city. Col. J. J. Warner, in his "Historical Sketch of Los Angeles County," says : "In 1825 the rivers of this county were so swollen that their beds, their banks and ad- joining lands were greatly changed. At the date of the settlement of Los Angeles a large portion of the country from the central part of the pueblo to the tide water of the sea through and over which the Los Angeles river now finds its way to the ocean was largely covered with a forest interspersed with tracks of marsh. From that time until 1825 it was seldom, if in any year, that the river discharged even during the rainy season its waters into the sea. Instead of having a riverway to the sea, the waters spread over the country, filling the depressions in the surface and forming lakes, ponds and marshes. The river water, if any, that reached the ocean drained off from the land at so many places, and in such small volumes, that no channel existed until the flood of 1825, which, by cutting a riverway to tide water, drained the marsh land and caused the forests to disappear." Colonel Warner also says in his Historical Sketch: "The flood of 1832 so changed the drainage in the neighbor- hood of Compton and the northeastern portion of San Pedro ranch that a number of lakes and ponds covering a large area of the latter ranch lying north and northwesterly from Wilmington

376

HISTORICAL. AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

which to that date had been permanent became dry in a few years thereafter." The drainage of these ponds and lakes completed the destruction of the forests that Colonel Warner says covered a large portion of the country south and west of the city. These forests were in all probability thickets or copses of willow, larch and cotton- wood similar to those found on the low ground near the mouth of the Santa Ana and in the swampy lands of the San Gabriel river forty years ago. In 1842 occurred another flood simi- lar to that of 1832.

In January, 1850, the Argonauts of '49 had their first experience of a California flood. The valley of the Sacramento was like an inland sea and the city of Sacramento became a second Venice. 'But, instead of gondolas, the citizens navigated the submerged streets in wagon boxes, bakers' troughs and crockery crates, and in rafts buoyed up by whiskey kegs. Whiskey in hogs- heads, whiskey in barrels and whiskey in kegs floated on the angry waters, and the gay gon- dolier as he paddled through the streets drew inspiration for his song from the bung hole of his gondola.

In the winter of 1852-53 followed another food that brought disaster to many a mining camp and financial ruin to many an honest miner. A warm rain melted the deep snows on the Sierras and every mountain creek became a river and every river became a lake in size. The wing clams and the coffer dams that the miners had spent piles of money and months of time con- structing, were swept away, and floated off to- ward China, followed by the vigorous but inef- fective anathemas of the disappointed and ruined gold hunters. In Southern California the flood was equally severe, but there was less damage to property than in the mining districts. There was an unprecedented rain fall in the mountains. At old Fort Miller, near the head of the San Joaquin river, an aggregate of forty-six inches of water fell during the months of January and February.

The winter of 1859-60 was another season of heavy storms in the mountains. On December 4, 1859, a terrific southeaster set in and in forty- eight hours twelve inches of water fell. The waters of the San Gabriel river rose to an tin-

precedented height in the cañon and swept away the miners' sluices, long toms, wheels and other mining machinery. The rivers of the county overflowed the lowlands and large tracts of the bottom lands were covered with sand and sedi- ment. The preceding season had been a dry year; the starving cattle and sheep unsheltered from the pitiless tain, chilled through, died by the thousands during the storm.

The great flood of 1861-62 was the Noachian deluge of California floods. The season's rain fall footed up nearly fifty inches. The valley of the Sacramento was a vast inland sea and the city of Sacramento was submerged and almost ruined. Relief boats, on their errands of mercy. leaving the channels of the rivers, sailed over inundated ranches, past floating houses and wrecks of barns, through vast Hotsams made up of farm products, farming implements and the carcasses of horses, sheep and cattle, all drifting out to sea. In our county, on account of the smaller area of the vaileys, there was but little loss of property. The rivers spread over the lowlands. but stock found safety from the flood on the hills. The Santa Ana river for a time rivaled the "Father of Waters" in magnitude. In the town of Anaheim, four miles from the river, the water ran four feet deep and spread in an unbroken sheet to the Coyote hills, three miles beyond. The Arroyo Seco, swollen to a mighty river, brought down from the mountains and cañons great rafts of driftwood, which were scattered over the plains below the city and fur- nished fuel for the poor people of the city for several years. It began raining on December 24, 1861, and continued for thirty days with but two slight interruptions. The Star published the following local : "A phenomenon-On Tuesday last the sun made its appearance. The phenome- non lasted several minutes and was witnessed by a great number of persons."

The flood of 1867-68 left a lasting impress on the physical contour of the county by the crea- tion of a new river, or rather an additional chan- nel for the San Gabriel river. Several thousand acres of valuable land were washed away by the San Gabriel cutting a new channel to the sea, but the damage was more than offset by

377

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

the increased facilities for irrigation afforded by having two rivers instead of one.

The flood of 1884 caused considerable damage to the lower portions of the city. It swept away about fifty houses and washed away portions of several orchards and vineyards. One life was lost, that of a milkman who attempted to cross the Arroyo Seco. The flood of 1886 was similar to that of 1884; the same portion of the city was flooded, that between Alameda street and the river, several houses were washed away and two lives lost. Both of these floods occurred in Feb- ruary. During the flood of 1880-90, the Los Angeles river cut a new channel for itself across the Laguna rancho, emptying its waters into the San Gabriel several miles above its former out- let. The flood of February 22, 1891, was occa- sioned by a mountain storm that expended its fury among the higher ranges at the head of the San Gabriel. That river was the only one that was greatly enlarged. A family of three per- sons was drowned near Azusa by the overflow of . there, singly or in small groups, poor brutes too the San Gabriel.

DROUGHTS.

After the deluge, what? Usually a drought, but no weather prophet has been able so far to predict in what order floods and droughts may come. The first record of a dry year that I find was that of 1795. The crops were reduced more than one-half and people of the pueblo had to get along on short rations. In 1800 and again in 1803 there was a short rainfall. Beginning in 1807 and continuing through 1808 and 1809 there was a severe drought. The ranges were overstocked and a slaughter of horses was or- dered. At San Jose in 1807, 7.500 horses were killed. In 1808. 7,200 had been slaughtered at Santa Barbara to relieve the overstocked ranchos and carry through the cattle. There was no sale for horses, so they had, to perish that the cattle which were valuable for their hides and tallow might live. In the neighborhood of Santa Bar- bara a great number of horses were killed by being forced over a precipice into the ocean. In 1822-23 there was a severe drought; Governor Argüello ordered a novena of prayers to San Antonio de Padua for rain, but the saint seems not to have been clerk of the weather that year.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

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 62

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