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 75

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 75

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The first store was opened in the town in March, 1876, and a small building used for a hotel was erected about the same time. The railroad company built the Transcontinental hotel in the fall of 1876. The pioneer newspa- per of Colton was the Advocate, published in 1877 by Godfrey and Franklin. Scipio Craig purchased it in 1878 and changed the name to the Semi-Tropic. In 1889 R. M. McKee pur- chased it and changed its name to the Colton Chronicle.

The town grew very slowly. The people of San Bernardino were indignant at being side- tracked by the railroad and spoke slightingly of the new town, and the citizens of Riverside felt that the claims of their growing colony should have been more favorably considered by the rail- road officials. In 1882 the Southern California

Railroad from San Diego to Colton via the Te- mécula Cañon route reached Colton. The citi- zens donated the right of way and gave land for railroad shops. The Southern Pacific attempted to bar the Southern California road from enter- ing the town, but after a protracted struggle had to give up the contest and let its rival in.

In July, 1887, the town was incorporated as a city of the sixth class. In 1887 a motor road was built to San Bernardino; this afterwards came into the possession of the Southern Pacific Company.

When the question of building a new court- house for the county came up, Colton made a vigorous effort to become the county seat. It offered to donate a block of land and build a court-house to cost not less than $200,000, but the formation of Riverside county had cut off a large slice from San Bernardino and Colton was too much on one side of the county. It lost the fight through location.

The California Portland Cement Works, half a mile south of Colton, were completed in 1894. The company employs from 80 to 100 men and turns out a fine article of Portland cement.

The Globe Flour Mills were built in 1902. These mills are well equipped with modern ma- chinery and are capable of turning out 200 bar- rels of flour per day.

Colton has an excellent high school, organized in 1896. It is well provided with grammar and primary schools. An ordinance establishing a free public library was passed May 7, 1906.

REDLANDS.

The usual form of colonization in Southern California was the town first and country later. Redlands reversed that order, the settlement de- veloped first and the town came as an after- thought. The settlement of Redlands was begun in 1881. The colony tract was a bare mesa only fit for sheep pasture. The land was regarded as almost worthless. Two enterprising promoters, Frank E. Brown and E. G. Judson, who had set- tled in 1880 on the Lugonia, were convinced that could water be brought upon the land it would become very valuable for the growing of citrus fruits.

F. E. Brown, who was an engineer and sur-

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veyor, after making a series of surveys and board of supervisors on petition called an elec- running levels convinced himself that water tion to vote upon the question of incorporation. could be brought from the head of the Santa Ana river to irrigate the land. Messrs. Judson and Brown set about securing all the land they had means to purchase. They planned a settle- ment and called it Redlands. The Redlands Water Company was organized and incorporated with a capital of $1.500,000, October 27, 1881. The land was divided into tracts of two and one-half, five and ten acres, and was sold with a water right of one inch to eight acres. Later the water right was changed to one inch for four acres. The land sold rapidly and buildings were erected and the cultivation of the soil began. By 1887 the settlement had so increased in popu- lation that Messrs. Judson and Brown deter- mined to locate a new town site on the north side of their possessions adjoining the settle- ment of Lugonia. The plat of the town of Red- lands was filed March 10, 1887. This was at the beginning of the great real-estate boom. The first lots were sold at $200 each. The price advanced rapidly and the town kept pace with the rise in value of the lots. Six months after the town was laid out lots on the business streets were selling at $100 a front foot, and a dozen two and three story brick buildings had been erected.

The Citrograph, the pioneer newspaper of Redlands, was already firmly established and under the editorship of Scipio Craig, who was proclaiming to the "cyclone-stricken, frost-bit- ten denizens of the east," where they could spend the remainder of their days in "peace, prosperity and quietude." The town grew with the rapidity of a mining camp in the days of '49 but with a very different class of buildings, no shacks were allowed; the business houses were substantial brick structures and the residences neat cottages or two-story dwellings.

The question of incorporating as a city was agitated. It was proposed to unite Lugonia, the first settlement, Redlands and Brookside into a city of the sixth class. Unlike Romeo, the dwellers in the rival towns believed there was something in a name. Each was unwilling to lose its identity and become a nonentity in the new municipality. After a year of agitation, and it might be said of aggravation too, the

The election was held November 26, 1888, the vote stood 218 for and 68 against incorpora- tion, and the rivals united under the name of the city of Redlands. The first communi- cation with the outer world from what is now Redlands city was in 1882 by stage. Trips were made from Cook's store in Lugonia to San Bernardino two or three times a week. Later a daily stage ran between the points. In 1886, the Southern Pacific put in a siding at Brook- side, and a road was graded to the station, but there was no means of reaching the settlement by public conveyance. To accommodate the rapid increase in travel in 1887 a four-horse Concord coach was put on the road to meet ev- ery train at Brookside station. The motor line connecting San Bernardino and Redlands was completed and began regular service June 4. 1888. The valley road began service February 13 of the same year. The belt line, now the well-known kite-shaped track, began running regular trains January 17, 1892. With regular train service Redlands increased rapidly in pop- ulation. Unlike most of the towns of Southern California it experienced no retrogression in the early 'gos. The United States census of 1890 gave it a population of 1,904. It had then three banking institutions.

THE SMILEY BROTHERS.

In the winter of 1888-89 came to Redlands the twin brothers, Alfred H. and Albert K. Smiley. These two persons did more to spread the fame of Redlands and attract a high class of settlers than all other influences. They had made their fortunes in the hotel business at Lake Mohonk and Lake Minnewaska, in New York state. They were very popular and their com- ing to Redlands attracted to that place many of their old patrons. They purchased some two hundred acres of a ridge looking down into the San Timoteo cañon. Out of this they created one of the most beautiful parks in California- the celebrated Smiley Heights or Cañon Crest Park. In addition to the beautiful heights which the Smiley brothers threw open to the public, A. K. Smiley purchased lands near the business

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center and donated these to the city for a park. The Smiley library building was presented to Redlands April 29, 1898, by the Smiley brothers. The library contains about 12,000 volumes and receives from taxation over $6,000 annually. Al- fred H. Smiley died at Redlands January 25, 1903.

The success of every settlement in Southern California depends on its water supply for ir- rigation. The system of irrigation in vogue un- der the Mexican régime was extremely waste- ful. It required a large stream to water a small area. When the settlement of the East San Bernardino valley began and the colonists di- verted the water from the small streams then the old-timers prophesied failure. The con- serving of the waters of the creeks in reservoirs during the winter rains increased the irrigable area and made it possible to produce fruits and grain from land that had been considered by old residents as fit only for sheep pastures. The waters of Mill creek, the most considerable stream in the Eastern valley, were used by the first settlers in a small way for irrigation. The method in use then was to build a temporary toma or dam across the stream and divert the water into an open ditch. What was not lost by seepage into the sands, diverted into gopher holes or taken up by evaporation reached the land to be irrigated. If the ditch was of any considerable length not more than twenty-five per cent of the water taken out of the creek or river reached its destination.

The Redlands Water Company was organized October 27, 1881, with a capital stock of $1,500,- 000, divided into 1,500 shares. This was the first regularly incorporated company in the East San Bernardino valley. There had been a num- ber of associations and companies formed in ir- rigation districts previous to this-some of these incorporated later. The principal supply for Redlands comes from the Domestic Water Com- pany organized in January, 1887. The principal source of supply for this system comes from the Bear Valley reservoir, the Santa Ana river and Mill creek. One of the most potent influences in bringing settlers to Redlands through the dissem- ination of information about the city and valley is the Redlands Board of Trade. The first board

was organized in February, 1888. It did excel- lent service, but the supporting of the institution was a heavy tax on the small population and about 1890 the board ceased its exertions. De- cember II, 1893, a Chamber of Commerce was organized. The Chamber of Commerce after two or three years of active service went out of business. Early in 1899 the Redlands Board of Trade was organized. Since it came into exist- ence it has been a most efficient agent in building up the city. It maintains a permanent exhibit, sends out descriptive literature and answers thou- sands of letters of inquiry.

Redlands quite early in its history became fa- mous for the fine quality of its citrus fruits. It still maintains its reputation for superiority in the production of oranges.

In less than two decades Redlands has grown from an inchoate straggling settlement of a few houses to a substantial and progressive city of ten thousand inhabitants.

ONTARIO AND UPLAND.

Nearly forty years ago the author of this his- tory first passed over what is now the site of On- tario-the "model colony." The most common means of conveyance then was the deck of a mustang. There was no monopoly of lines of travel then, no cut rates of fare-no reduction for round trips. The only line of travel between Los Angeles and San Bernardino was the old Camino Real (road or highway) that Captain Anza surveyed in 1774. The principal means of travel between local points was the mustang ; and a man was poor indeed who did not own a horse and saddle. At the time of my first visit there was not a human habitation between the Spadra settlement and Cucamonga. The future site of the "Model Colony" was sprinkled here and there with clumps of sage brush and grease wood. At intervals were stretches of short grass that afforded scant pasturage for bands of sheep. The solitary and stolid sheep herder, day after day, followed his band as they nibbled the scant herbage; and always in the trail of the sheep crept the stealthy coyote on the watch to snatch a stray lamb from the flock. The shepherd and his Nemesis, the coyote, were the only inhabi-

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tants forty years ago of that expanse where now the "golden orange glows."

Ontario was founded by George B. Chaffey, Jr., and W. M. B. Chaffey, who came from On- tario, Canada, and located at Riverside. Here they engaged in buying and selling land. Their first purchase was what was known as the "San Antonio lands," being a part of the Cucamonga grant and comprising 6,216 acres of land, "to- gether with the water right and privileges of San Antonio creek and the waste water of Cu- camonga creek." These lands extended from San Antonio cañon on the north to the Ranch del Chino on the south ; and from Cucamonga on the east to the Rancho San Jose on the west. The purchase price was $60,000. The land was bought in April, 1882. The Chaffey Brothers immediately set about improving their tract. The . land was surveyed by J. C. Dunlap. That ad- joining the Southern Pacific Railroad was di- vided into town lots, adjoining these were sub- urban lots of two and a half and five acres. The remainder was cut into ten and twenty acre tracts. The water was conveyed in cement pipes from San Antonio creek to the town site and to the various subdivisions.

Twenty acres were donated for an agricult- ural college. March 17, 1883, was a gala day for Ontario. The corner-stone of the college was laid on that day. Excursion trains were run from Los Angeles and from Colton and San Bernardino. Conveyances of all kinds, ancient and modern, from the country round about gath- ered at the railroad siding (that the Chaffeys themselves had built) to convey the passengers by train to a beautiful mesa near the mouth of San Antonio cañon, seven miles away, where under live-oak trees a bountiful repast had been spread. After dinner the visitors were con- veyed to the college site where with appropriate services the corner-stone was laid. Improve- ments were pushed rapidly. Additional lands were purchased by the Chaffeys.

The fame of the "Model Colony," as it was called, spread abroad and settlers flocked to it. The Ontario postoffice was established in March, 1883. and a public school in March, 1884.

The business houses kept pace with the growth of the colony. The pioneer newspaper, the On-

tario Record was started, December 13, 1885, by E. P. Clark. The college was opened the same year, Professor Wheeler and Miss Blount teachers. A college building built of brick had been erected at a cost of $20,000. In 1886 ad- ditional lands were purchased on the south side and the colony area extended. The completion of the Santa Fe Railroad in 1887, which passed through the central part of the colony lands, cre- ated another town known until recently as North Ontario, now Upland.

The Bedford Brothers bought 200 acres. This was subdivided into lots and put on sale in May, 1887. The lots went off like the metaphorical hot cakes. A town grew up around the station and rivalry grew between the north and the south.

One of the unique features of the Ontario Colony is Euclid avenue, named for the famous Euclid avenue of Cleveland, Ohio. It is two hundred feet wide and extends from the South- ern Pacific Railroad to San Antonio cañon-sev- en miles up grade. On each side of the avenue were planted shade trees and in the middle two rows dividing the avenue into two broad drive- ways and a right of way for street cars in the middle. A street car line was built up the av- ente. When the road was put in operation a span of mules pulled the car up the grade. At the summit the mules stepped on a platform and rode back to the town. The car rolled down the long grade without any propelling power ex- cept gravity. At one of the great citrus fairs a model of the gravity car done in oranges was Ontario's exhibit. In November, 1891, Ontario was incorporated as a city of the sixth class. In 1900 the incorporation was extended over an area of twelve square miles. Ontario is emi- nently a fruit colony. Its citrus fruits have a high reputation in the eastern markets. Its oranges and lemons are marketed through as- sociations. Ontario is well provided with schools. The Chaffey College, as it was usually called, failed through want of an endowment. The building is now used for a high school. It is well supplied with churches. All the leading religious denominations have church buildings.

Ontario's library was established in 1886, and made free to the public in March, 1902. Its an-

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nual income from taxation is $1,500. It has on its shelves 3,000 volumes. The town pur- chased a lot 92x125 feet. Andrew Carnegie donated $10,000 for the erection of a building. The building is now in the course of erection.

Upland was formerly known as North Ontario. A village had grown up around the Santa Fe station and Magnolia Villa hotel was built in 1888. In 1902 the county supervisors in response to a petition from the citizens changed the name to Upland. Later the names of the station and postoffice were changed to Upland. The town has a park, six packing houses, a newspaper and several stores. Upland has a public library es- tablished in 1900. The total number of its vol- umes is 600.

CHINO.

What is known as the Chino rancho is com- posed of two Mexican grants, the Santa Ana del Chino and the Addition to Santa Ana del Chino. The first, containing 22,234 acres, was granted to Don Antonio Maria Lugo, March 26, 1841 ; the addition was granted to Col. Isaac Williams, a son-in-law of Don Antonio's, April 1, 1843. Williams purchased the Rancho del Chino from his father-in-law Lngo and added it to his own grant, thus giving him a magnificent holding of 35,600 acres.

The word "Chino" in Spanish is defined Chin- ese, "a half-breed Indian ;" it also seems to have had a provincial meaning-"curly headed." Tra- dition says that the rancho received its suffix "del Chino" (of the Chino) from the fact that Lugo's mayor-domo (overseer) was a curly headed half-breed Indian.

Colonel Williams built a house on his rancho which Robinson in his "Life in California" pro- nounces "the most spacious building of its kind in the country."

The Chino rancho was the scene of many stirring events in the history of California. These are narrated in other parts of this history. Col- onel Williams died in 1856, and his landed es- tate descended to his two daughters-Maria Merced, who married John Rains, and Fran- cesca, who married Robert Carlisle. Both hus- bands met violent deaths. John Rains was way- laid and assassinated on the public road near the

Cucamonga in 1863, and Robert Carlisle was killed in an altercation with the King Brothers in the Bella Union hotel, Los Angeles, July 5, 1865. After the death of Carlisle the rancho passed through several hands and in 1881 was purchased by Richard Gird. By subsequent pur- chases of adjoining lands he increased his hold- ings to 47,000 acres. Mr. Gird used the rancho several years for stock-raising. The year of the great real-estate boom (1887) he had 23,000 acres of the rancho surveyed into ten-acre tracts and laid out a town site a mile square.

He built a narrow gauge railroad to Ontario and improved his town by building a large brick block. The pioneer newspaper, The Chino Champion, began publication November 11, 1887. Artesian wells were struck. These gave a plen- tiful supply of water for irrigation and domestic use and the town and settlement made rapid ad- vance. The soil was found to be well adapted to the cultivation of the sugar beet. In 1891 the Oxnard Brothers began the erection of the Chino Beet Sugar Factory. The factory was completed in August of the same year. The raising of sugar beets gave the farmers a new industry, which proved quite remunerative.

In 1896 the Southern Pacific Railroad pur- chased the narrow gauge road to Pomona and later made this its main line through Chino to Ontario. November 25, 1894, all the unsold land of the rancho and its additions, amounting to 41,000 acres, was sold to Charles H. Phillips of San Luis Obispo for $1,600,000. In 1896 these lands were again sold to an English syndi- cate. The land is on the market in small tracts.

Chino has a population of about 1,800, and is steadily growing.

RIALTO.

The town of Rialto was born in the year of the boom, 1887. The Semi-Tropic Land & Water Company purchased of Henry Pierce and others 28,000 acres and' secured water rights in Lytle creek to the amount of 800 inches. A cemented ditch six miles long was constructed to convey the water to the land. The land was subdivided into tracts ranging from five to twenty acres and sold to settlers at a reasonable price.

The Semi-Tropic Land & Water Company

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failed and in a foreclosure suit lost all its posses- sions, which passed into the hands of the San Francisco Savings Union. After several changes of ownership the lands and water rights became vested in the Fontana Development Com- pany. An organization known as the Kansas Colony purchased 16,000 acres of the Semi- Tropic Company and founded the town of Rialto. The Kansas Colony was unable to meet its ob- ligations and lost its lands. Some of those who had bought lands paid out for them and secured titles. A considerable portion of the Semi-Trop- ic's purchase has been set to citrus fruits and the town and settlement are prosperous. There are several business blocks in the town and a number of fine residences.

HIGHLAND.

The town of Highland is the business center of a belt of mesa land lying along the southern base of the San Bernardino mountains. This dis- trict is divided into Highland. East Highlands and West Highlands.

Although there were a few settlers in this district fifty years ago no permanent improve- ments were made until the early '70s. The one thing needful to build up a district in Southern California-water for irrigation-could not be brought upon the land without an outlay of capi- tal beyond the means of the early settlers. Ex- periments made in a small way demonstrated that the land in the Highland district was well suited to the production of citrus fruits. During the '8os the water resources were developed. Orange and lemon trees were extensively planted, and the Highland district increased rapidly in population.

In 1891 the citizens by subscription raised $10,000 to secure a right of way for the Santa Fe Railway. The road was built from San Ber- nardino through Highland, East Highlands and West Highlands to Redlands and forms a part of the famous "kite-shaped track." The San Ber- nardino Valley Traction Company in 1903 built an electric line from Redlands through Highland to San Bernardino.

Highland is one of the youngest towns of San Bernardino county. It has made a vigorous growth. It has all the conveniences of a town

twice its age, a bank, hotels, stores, churches, telegraph and telephone service, library, schools and a newspaper, the Highland Messenger.

East Highlands has a school, store, postoffice and several packing houses. The Brookings Lumber & Box Company is the most extensive manufacturing establishment in the Highland district. Its sawmill at Fredalba and a large amount of lumber were destroyed recently in a mountain fire. The mill will be rebuilt. The company's output of lumber has reached as high as ten millions feet in a single year, over fifty per cent of which is made into boxes. The com- pany. owns five thousand acres of timber land on the San Bernardino mountains. West High- lands has a postoffice named Del Rosa (of the Rose) a school house and a store.

CUCAMONGA.

The Cucamonga rancho has been famous in California history for more than half a century. It was the first outpost of civilization in Cali- fornia that the immigrants by the Salt Lake route found prior to the Mormon settlement of San Bernardino. Its wines have spread its fame over the continent.

The Cucamonga Homestead Association sub- divided a portion of the rancho and put it on sale in ten and twenty acre tracts. The scheme was a failure; there was not sufficient water for irrigation. The Cucamonga Fruit & Land Com- pany was organized in 1887. A town site was laid out at the old winery and a settlement formed there. Originally grapes were the only product of Cucamonga, but of late years a num- ber of orange groves have been planted.

ETIWANDA.

Etiwanda is one of the Chaffey Brothers col- onies. In January, 1887, the Chaffeys purchased 7,600 acres of the Cucamonga plains and 1,000 acres of the Garcia property, together with what water rights it possessed.

They organized the Etiwanda Water Com- pany with a capital stock of $500,000. Later the Chaffeys organized The California Land Im- provement Company, to which they deeded their land. The lands were sold in small tracts. The cultivation of the raisin grape was at first al-

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most the exclusive industry of the colony, later on lemon and orange groves were planted.

IOAMOSA.

The word Ioamosa is a mongrel, part Spanish and part imported Indian. The "Io" is taken from the first syllables of Iowa, and "mosa" from the Spanish word Hermosa. The "a" is . presumably thrown in for euphony in such a lingual mixture.

Hermosa settlement was begun in 1881 by a Pasadena syndicate which formed the Hermosa Land & Water Company. Water rights were se- cured in Deer creek and Alder creek and the water brought on the land and four shares of water stock assigned to each acre.

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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 75

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