USA > California > San Luis Obispo County > A memorial and biographical history of the counties of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura, California Containing a history of this important section of the Pacific coast from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospective future; with full-page steel portraits of its most eminent men, and biographical mention of many of its pioneers and also of prominent citizens of to-day > Part 31
USA > California > Santa Barbara County > A memorial and biographical history of the counties of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura, California Containing a history of this important section of the Pacific coast from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospective future; with full-page steel portraits of its most eminent men, and biographical mention of many of its pioneers and also of prominent citizens of to-day > Part 31
USA > California > Ventura County > A memorial and biographical history of the counties of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura, California Containing a history of this important section of the Pacific coast from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospective future; with full-page steel portraits of its most eminent men, and biographical mention of many of its pioneers and also of prominent citizens of to-day > Part 31
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In addition to above there were in Octo- ber, 1889, in warehouse, of barley, 2,089,090 pounds; wheat, 453,010; honey, 54,853; small beans, 136,839; making a grand total of 9,114,187 pounds of farin products, which at a low estimate must have distributed not far from $200,000 among the farmers of this prosperous community during the past year.
Saticoy contains over fifty houses, a beau- tiful new church building, a $15,000 school- house, three hotels, one of which cost $10,- 000, two dry-goods stores, three grocery stores, one drug store, a town hall, a ware- house 50 x 300 feet, etc. Good water is ob- tainable here in wells ten to seventy feet deep.
Eastward, and across the river from the lower portion of the Santa Paula y Saticoy, is the Rancho Santa Clara del Norte, which comprises 13,988,91 acres, granted to Juan Sanchez, May 6, 1837, and to him contirmed. This rancho lies six miles east of the county seat, and borders three miles of the Santa Clara River It is watered by the Santa Clara ditch, and by good artesian wells. Three-fourths of this land is tillable, the grazing land supports 8,000 head of sheep.
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One vineyard on this rancho, about twenty years old, produces 10,000 gallons of excel- lent wine annually, selling at 50 cents per gallon. In one orchard of 500 trees, there are representatives of every variety of fruit grown in this county. Large quantities of flax are grown here.
NEW JERUSALEM,
situated near the northern boundary of La Colonia Rancho, is some two miles from Montalvo, and half way between Ventura and Hueneme. Its chief attraction is the mag- nificent surrounding country. The location of the town is favorable, and it will doubtless become a good town with transportation facil- ities and the dividing-up of the Colonia and Santa Clara del Norte ranchos, with the at- tendant settling of more people. In the vicinity of this town are some very fine farms, which yield prolifically. This town has two large, well-filled general merchandise stores, a church and various other business institutions,
MONTALVO.
Montalvo is a station five miles east of Ventura, on the Southern Pacific Railroad, It is the nearest railroad station for New Jerusalem and for Hneneine, being about two miles from the former and seven from the latter. At this place is one of the Southern Mill and Warehonse Company's large ware- houses. Montalvo, although not having the appearance of much of a place, is, neverthe- less, quite an important little one, being sit- nated, as it is, on the railroad, at a point where all the travel from the Simi, Las Posas and the southern portion of the county crosses to Ventura. The town was laid out about two years ago. Water was piped to all parts of the tract, being first pumped from a well to a large reservoir on a hill back of the town. Two store buildings have
been erected, something like a dozen houses, and one of the finest school-houses in the county, costing $6,000.
The development of Montalvo has been somewhat retarded by the ownership by one man, a Santa Barbara capitalist, of 2,300 acres of land, lying npon the road to Mont- alvo and the ocean. This tract, if sub- divided, would make beautiful home lots, and so induce immigration. This is a great re- gion for beans and fruit.
Mr. Barnett has a place of only thirty acres, from which he reaps a large harvest of fruits, mostly apricots. When the trees were nine years old the twenty-five acres of apri- cots produced fifty tons of fruit. The owner of this valuable property has recently erected a fruit dryer with one of Thomas Pilking- ton's furnaces.
The celebrated Alhambra Grove of sixty- six acres is owned by Judge S. R. Thorpe from Louisana. This is one of the first apri- cot orchards in the county and produces as rich fruit as any seen. In 1889 the crop amounted to two tons of green fruit to the acre; in 1888 it was four tons. This place is equipped with all necessary appliances for carrying on an extensive business. It is an interesting sight to see the fruit as it is pre- pared and cured in the improved evaporator.
A field of 250 acres of beans is worked by W. S. Sewell, a native of Iowa. He says his beans average 1,400 pounds to the acre and his corn seventy-five busliels.
In this same neighborhood Charles G. Fin- ney, Esq., a retired lawyer from New York, has an interesting place of 150 acres covered with fruit of all kinds. He has 500 bearing pear trees. The fruit he sells dry in cans and green; he has also thirty acres in walnuts in profitable bearing, also 1,000 White Symrna figs, which, not proving what he ex- pected, he feeds to hogs, and finds them ex-
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ceedingly profitable for this purpose. He says that the same amount of ground in corn will not make one-fifth the pork these figs will. Why not raise figs to feed hogs on? He has 5,000 apricots, 120 prunes and other fruits, which do well. When Mr. Finney came here, fifteen years ago, there was but little, if any, orchards between his place and Santa Panla. Briggs of Marysville had been here before him and tried to raise fruit and failed, and when Mr. Finney started in, everybody said he would fail, but he kept steadily on and succeeded, as his place most emphatically proves.
THE MORE MURDER.
The murder of Thomas Wallace More was a cuuse celebré, not only in Ventura County, but also throughout the State, and it was undoubtedly the most notable criminal case in the annals of the county. The victim was one of four brothers, who had made extensive purchases of the old landed estates of the Spanish-American families, acquiring in this manner the Santa Rosa Island, the Patera, a portion of the Hill estate, the Santa Paula y Saticoy, the Lompoc and Purisima Vieja, and the Sespe. They at one time owned a tract thirty-two miles long on the Santa Clara River. The murder in question was the re- sult of land difficulties over the Sespe pos- sessions.
In November, 1829, Don Carlos Carrillo received from the Mexican government a grant of the Sespe tract, the extent of which is not known, some arguments indicating that it comprised only 8,880 acres. or two leagues, while other accounts are to the effect that there were six leagues granted, this last being the territory upon which Carrillo was installed by the local government. In 1884 T. Wal- lace More purchased Carrillo's grant, sup-
posing that he was buying six leagues, as he paid full value for that quantity, and he prosecuted the title to the land, using the name of Carrillo as one of the parties in in- terest. The Land Commissioners, too, on April 18, 1853, had confirmed the grant title to " six leagues and no more."
The United States, as the adverse party, appealed the case to the United States District Court for the Southern District of California. When the plat (diseño) was brought into court, it for the first time was remarked that the numbers of the grant had been manipu- lated, and it was therefore asserted that, by the erasure of the figures, six had been sub- stitued for two, thus fraudulently increasing the grant. The impression of the old settlers in the section was that the original grant had been made for six leagues. The smaller quantity, however, was that confirmed to More by the court, a patent being issued March 14, 1872. In 1875 More endeavored to purchase the other four leagnes, under sec- tions 7 and 8, codes of 1866. The settlers on the land alleged that the claim had been settled in full; that they had for years been settled upon the land, and had pre-emption claims antedating this law; and they appealed to the law of March 3, 1861, section 13, which declares that all lands, the claims to which have been finally rejected by the Com- missioners in manner herein provided, or which shall finally be declared invalid by the District or Supreme Court, and of all lands, the claims to which have not been presented by said Commissioners within two years after the date of this act, shall be deemed, held and considered as part of the domain of the Uni- ted States. Mr. More's attorney had made application for permission to purchase, to the Register of the Land Office; and, on that officer refusing the permission, the petition was lodged with the Commissioners at Wash-
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ton, where it was pending at the time of the murder.
During several years preceding the murder, More often had difficulties with the settlers who, to the number of sixty, had established themselves upon the land he claimed. Among them was one Joseph Bartlett, and him More had dispossessed by the sheriff, while the mat- ter was in dispute, his squatter's cabin being torn down and then burned. The place was afterward reoccupied, and the tenant then was poisoned, accidentally or otherwise. Of this affair an account was published in the San Francisco Bulletin, couched in such terms that More sued the Bulletin Company for $100,000 damage for libel. The case was tried in Santa Barbara, where the popular animus was very strong against More at that time, so that, although the jury found a verdict for him, they gave him only nominal damages, fixed at $150, thus practically sustaining the Bulletin, although the evidence showed charge of poisoning to be unfounded, and the casualty owing to the universal free use in the district of poison for coyotes, squirrels and other vermin.
During the years which followed, More was endeavoring to perfect his title to the land, whilst the settlers, remaining in pos- session, had formed themselves into a league for mutnal defense and assistance. It is com- monly asserted, although it has been disputed, that the death of More had been decreed by this league, as a protectionary measure. The fact remains that he was commanded to aban- don his proceedings to secure the land, in letters of incendiary and menacing character.
During the unusually dry winter of 1876- '77, More, while in company with his son-in law, C. A. Storke, engaged in inspecting the cutting of a ditch to convey water upon his land, was attacked by F. A. Sprague, armed first with a shot-gun and then with a pistol,
with which he twice attempted to shoot More, being prevented by Storke and More, who turned the shots into the air. For this as- sault Sprague was arrested, but was discharged by the magistrate. The attack was not made upon Sprague's land, the ditch in question tapped the Sespe River below Spragne's land, and the tract he held by More fourteen years before Sprague settled upon and claimed it.
Such was the condition of affairs on the night of March 23-24, 1877, when More slept at one of his rancho houses, where there were, besides himself, a hired hand named Ferguson, a Mexican named Olivas, and Jim Tot, a Chinese cook. At about 12:30 the barn, distant from the house 200 feet, was fired, and More, Ferguson and Olivas, being aronsed by the Chinese cook, rushed forth, to endeavor to save the contents of the barn, consisting of twelve work horses, their harness, abont 2,000 sacks of wheat, some barley, and several tons of hay. These men were joined by one Rami- rez, an employé who had slept outside that night, and all were engaged in trying to save the property, when More, carrying out a load of harness, was fired upon by two masked inen, guarding the gate of the corral, or barn- yard, who shot him in the thigh near the groin; at this, the employés of More scattered toward shelter, and More also ran toward cover, but fell, and was overtaken by three masked men, who then riddled his body and head with bullets, of which three entered his head, and several his body. A number of these shots, after he had fallen, and after he had entreated his assailant not to kill him, were fired at such short range that his features were almost obliterated by powder and smoke. After this dastardly deed, the murderers turned at the cry of their leader, " Come on, boys!" and deliberately left the scene.
This murder excited the greatest horror throughout the State. While the sympathies
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of the people were with the settlers, the cow- ardly and brutal nature of the murder inspired great abhorrence.
The coroner's jury found that " deceased came to his death on the morning of March 24, 1877, by gunshot wounds inflicted by divers persons upon the head and body of said deceased, by parties unknown to the jury; and that the jury further find and de- clare the said crime to be a case of wilful murder."
Shortly after the murder, a meeting of the settlers upon the Sespe was held at the house of F. A. Sprague, being convened on the evening of March 28, to give expression to public sentiment in regard to the lately com- mitted crime of murder and arson. At this meeting, N. H. Hickerson being chairman and F. A. Sprague secretary, resolutions were passed condemning the action in ques- tion, and tendering sympathy and offers of assistance and co-operation in detecting and bringing to justice the offenders.
Early in 1878, one Austin Brown, one of the Sespe settlers, had some dispute with J. T. Curlee, in consequence of which Brown sought an interview with the administrator of More's estate, and made a statement that F. A. Sprague and J. S. Churchill had con- spired to kill More, giving details as to par- ties involved, time set, etc., this statement be- ing given in confidence, as not to be divulged to the public until Brown could remove from the settlement to a safe place, as he feared for his life, having been threatened by More's murderers, in event of his disclosing the se- cret. In consequence of this movement, Brown sold his place, and removed to the county-seat, where he was considered safe. These and other newly-developed circum- stances led to the arrest of F. A. Sprague, J. S. Churchill, J. T. Curlee, Jesse M. Jones, Ivory D. Lord, Charles McCart, H. Cook and
J. A. Swanson, on a warrant dated March 28, 1878. These parties were brought before R. C. Carlton, examining magistrate, April 1.
About this time, it was learned that new evidence had been obtained. N. H. Hickerson, being ill and in expectation of death, and be- ing informed of Brown's statement and the arrest of the assassins, camne forward to make a statement of a secret weighing upon his soul, to the effect that he had been the re- cipient of Sprague's confession of his plan- ning and execution of the murder of T. Wallace More.
As yet the stories of Hickerson and Brown had not been made public. The detectives and prosecutors who had the matter in hand brought about an interview with Jesse M. Jones, one of the parties implicated. This was a young man, only twenty-three years old, and it was considered that he was a tool rather than an active agent in the affair, and that, under assurance of protection and ulti- mate pardon, he might be induced to turn State's evidence. Although Jones had no knowledge of the revelations of Hickerson and Brown, with whom he therefore could not have been in collusion, he told a story of the murder, substantially the same as that related by Hickerson, save that Jones de- clared that W. Hunt was present at the mur- der, but not Jule Swanson.
On the preliminary examination, H. Cook and J. A. Swanson were discharged, and dur- ing the hearing, Charles McCart and W. H. Hunt were arrested as accomplices in the murder. In the following June, the grand jury was organized, and it returned a true bill against F. A. Sprague, John Curlee, Jesse M. Jones, J. S. Churchill, Charles Mc- Cart, W. H. Hunt, and I. D. Lord. The lawyers for the prosecution were: J. G. How- ard and Frank Ganahl, of Los Angeles, L. C. Granger (acting district attorney), W. T.
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Williams, B. F. Williams, and N. Blackstock of Ventura. The counsel for the defense were: J. D. Fay, Creed Haymond, and W. Allen, from abroad; and J. D. Hines, J. M. Brooks and N. C. Bledsoe, local lawyers. Eugene Fawcett presided over the court. The prisoners demanded separate trials, thus entailing heavy unnecessary expense upon the county. Hickerson died prior to the trial, but his affidavit was introduced as evi- dence. The testimony was complete, not a link being wanting, and it appeared that even the discrepancies of testimony as to the different parties engaged, arose from the fact that the disguises were donned before they came together, so that only two or three knew all the persons present. In the case of Sprague, the jury rendered a verdict of mur- der in the first degree. Curlee was next tried, and found guilty, with punishment fixed at imprisonment for life. The jury in Lord's case disagreed. These three trials had exhausted the material for a jury. On Angust 5, 1878, the death sentence upon Sprague was pronounced by Judge Fawcett. The court now adjourned for the termn, as the three trials had extended the July session into near the middle of August. Jesse M. Jones, the State's witness, had been dis- charged from the indictment for more than a month, being maintained by the county as an indigent witness in a criminal case. He was under pressure of poverty, and denied access to his wife, by her father, on account of his betrayal of his confederates. At this juncture, full of discomfort for the present, and of dread of a forbidding future, he was approached by emissaries of counsel for the defense, conducted to the presence of those attorneys, and there seduced and suborned into retracting his former statements, and made affidavit that his former testimony was given under compulsion and fears for his
own safety. Upon this recantation the other accused were dismissed, it being impossible to convict them without Jones' testimony, and even great efforts were made to have the sentence against Sprague quashed. This not being done, the death sentence was com- muted to imprisonment for life. Jones, having scoffed at and defied the power of the law, was absolutely beyond its vengeance, owing to the provisions of the penal code making absolute and unconditional the dis- charge of an accomplice, that he may become a witness for the people; and the improved and comfortable financial conditions with which he was thereafter surrounded, proved what inducements had secured his perjury. Sprague spent ten years in the penitentiary, was then pardoned out by Governor Stone- man, and now lives in Ventura County. Cnrlee, having been granted by the Supreme Court a new trial, was dismissed like the others, after Jones' defection, and now lives in San Diego County, as does Hunt. Church- ill, after acquittal, went to Oregon, where he probably died, being consumptive. Jones lives in San Bernardino County, and scattered are the rest whose dastardly deed has left a black blot upon the fair fame of Ventura County. While the settlers believed that they were on Government land, and resolved to defend their rights thereto, inspired by the God-given love of home, there is no doubt that More also believed that he was right, being firm in the conviction that he had bought six leagues in his Sespe pur. chase. As to the rights of possession, the present writer does not assume to judge, but only to condemn, as ever, the cowardice and unfairness of the means employed against one man by many. The commission gave the disputed land to More's heirs, the Secre- tary of the Interior, Carl Schurz, reversed this decision; and although two succeeding
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commissions have pronounced in favor of the heirs the land is held by the settlers.
RANCHO SESPE.
The Sespe Rancho adjoins the Santa Paula y Saticoy on the northeast, extending eight miles up the Santa Clara, and embrac- ing most of the arable land in the valley on both sides of the river within those limits- an extent of two leagues, or some 8,880.81 acres. This land encloses but does not in- clude a tract of Government land. The title to the rancho is by United States patent.
The story of this rancho is remarkable, involving, in the struggles made for its pos- session, episodes of trespass, misdemeanor, fraud, arson, attempted homicide and murder.
The rancho was used many years mainly for pasturage for stock, although it possessed snch remarkable advantages of soil, water and climate as to render it an uncommonly desirable territory for the production of vege- tables, cereals, grapes, citrus and most varie- ties of deciduous fruits. The upper portion of this rancho contains the noted oil wells. The elevation of this tract is some 2,000 feet above sea level.
Among the earliest settlers here were liv- ing, in 1861, the More brothers, W. H. Nor- way and Captain William Morris. Their nearest American neighbors, for at least a part of the year, were at San Buenaventura. The first crop of grain was sowed in the winter of 1860-61, the More brothers putting in about 200 acres of wheat. It was har- vested by W. S. Chaffee and W. H. Norway, Alexander Cameron being the contractor. The grain was cut with a reaper and threshed out by horses.
In 1876 this rancho, then owned by T. Wallace More, was assessed at 89 per acre, whereupon he entered snit to have a portion of the taxes refunded. It was maintained
that the land could be sold for twice that sum within twenty-four hours.
In March, 1877, took place the murder of T. Wallace More, the owner of the rancho, a full account of this crime being given else- where.
This rancho is becoming settled rapidly, many people being attracted thither by the rare advantages of soil and climate. While there are no large towns on this territory, not a few villages and centers of population are found here.
La Cienega (Spanish for a marsh) is the name of a postoffice which was established in 1875, np the valley some fourteen miles from Santa Paula, and twenty-one miles from New- hall. Near La Cienega is the " Buckhorn Ranch," Mr. B. F. Warring's famous place, whose owner settled here in 1869, upon 160 acres, to which, after ten years' litigation, he obtained a United States patent. Lying on the old stage road, and midway between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, this in time came to be a regular eating-place and relay stage station, widely and favorably known to the pilgrim guild. It took its name from the great antlers ling over the gate, trophies from many a proud buck brought down by the gun of the ranchero. This is a sheltered spot, free from frosts, well-watered and blessed with a rich soil. In the neighbor- hood are many farms where grow plentifully grain, vegetables and fruits.
FILLMORE.
This is a small town, started by the Sespe Land and Water Company, just after the ad- vent of the railway. It lies in a charming situation, and in the midst of a fruitful country, full of profitable farms. About 200 people take their mail from this office. The settlement nucleus has a Presbyterian church, a school-house, two hotels, several stores, a
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lumber-yard, a blacksmith-shop, etc. Near this was started at about the same time another little town called Sespe, but a church is about the only claim to importance to be seen here.
BARDSDALE.
In January, 1887, R. G. Surdam, one of the founders of Nordhoff, bought of Thos. R. Bard, of Hneneme, 1,500 acres of the old Sespe grant, and soon thereafter founded the now thriving little town of Bardsdale. It is in a beautiful valley, appropriately termed a " dale," the ground lying between mountains, and sloping gently from the range to the river. Bardsdale is a little south of Fillmore, on the Southern Pacific Railway, fifty-six iniles from Los Angeles. It is the only town in the Santa Clara Valley south of the Santa Clara river. The land here is of a superior quality of soil, and its sheltered position in- sures a delightful climate. There is an abundant supply of water for domestic and irrigation purposes, brought from the Santa Clara River, through strong wooden flumes, constructed at a cost of some $8,000. Thus irrigation can be applied to hundreds of acres, planted to barley, potatoes, etc., there being at least ten miles of these finmes. As an ex- ponent of the productiveness of the soil, it may be said that potatoes yield easily 75 to 150 sacks per acre, which rarely sell for less than 75 cents to $1.25 per sack. On one farm of about 100 acres, the owners, begin- ning with a crop of sixty bushels of corn per acre, have every year increased the yield until it has reached an average yield of ninety bushels per acre; in other words, there have harvested from this field during the last twelve years not far from 90,000 bushels of corn, grown without irrigation or fertilizer.
AN EARTHLY PARADISE.
Three or four years ago Mr. David C. Cook, the Chicago publisher of Sunday-school
literature, came into Ventura Connty and purchased that portion of the Temescal or Old Camulos Rancho which extends up the Piru Cañon. Since then he has added consider- able to it, bringing it up to nearly 14,000 acres and calling it the Piru. This ranch is lo- cated on the Piru Creek, including the mouth of the stream and a small portion of the Santa Clara Valley. As most of the ranch was mountainous it was formerly thought to be only suitable for grazing purposes, but Mr. Cook has already demonstrated that it is valu- able for something else. He has planted out and has growing 400 acres of oranges, 300 acres of apricots, 180 acres of figs, 200 acres English walnuts, 130 acres of olives, 80 acres of grapes, 30 acres of chestnuts, 20 acres of almonds, 10 acres of pomegranates and 10 acres of Japanese persimmons. He has in his nursery 150,000 citrus trees ready for planting this fall, and 3,500 fig trees.
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