An illustrated history of Los Angeles County, California. Containing a history of Los Angeles County from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospective future and biographical mention of many of its pioneers and also of prominent citizens of to-day, Part 23

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Chicago, Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1092

USA > California > Los Angeles County > An illustrated history of Los Angeles County, California. Containing a history of Los Angeles County from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospective future and biographical mention of many of its pioneers and also of prominent citizens of to-day > Part 23

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The Horticulturist was sent free to all mem- bers of the society, but to others the subscription price was $2 per annum. It was devoted to the interest of horticulture and agriculture in South- ern California, and the size of the magazine was 6 x 9 inches. After January, 1880, it was issued hy Messrs. Carter & Rice, of Los Angeles, under the name of Semi-tropic California and South- ern California Horticulturist. It was enlarged to 9 x 12 inches and devoted to the same subjects as formerly, numbering several able writers among its contributors. It was succeeded by the Rural Californian.

THE LOS ANGELES DAILY COMMERCIAL

was established by W. II. Gould in 1879, the first number being issued March 6, that year. It was Republican in politics, and mainly de- voted to the development and interests of the Pacific Coast. D. M. Berry was its editor. Its publication ceased several years ago.

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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

THE DAILY AND WEEKLY JOURNAL

was started by J. C. Littlefield and R. H. Hewitt, in 1879. The first number was dated June 23, 1879. In a few weeks it was changed from an evening to a morning paper. At the close of the campaign in September, that season, Mr. Littlefield withdrew from the firm, and the Journal was conducted, till its publication ceased, by R. H. Hewitt as editor and proprie- tor. It was Republican in its politics.

THE WEEKLY RESCUE

was an eight-page sheet, devoted to temperance, current literature and general news, being the official organ of the Grand Lodge of the Good Templars of the State, and published under the direction of its executive committee. It was printed at different times in Sacramento, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and is now con- ducted at Sacramento. While it was issued here, Messrs. Yarnell & Caystile, then pub- lishers of the Mirror, printed it by contract for three years, commencing November 1, 1877.

The remainder of this chapter is devoted to the periodicals now flourishing in this county.

TIIE LOS ANGELES EVENING EXPRESS

enjoys the distinction of seniority, and with one exception it is the oldest daily newspaper published in Southern California. Its pub- lishers are organized into a corporation called the Evening Express Company, of which H. Z. Osborne is President; E. R. Cleveland, Secre- tary and Treasurer, and J. Mills Davies, Busi- ness Manager. They publish also the Weekly Express, which has an extensive circulation among the farmers, ranchers and fruit-growers.

The Evening Express was founded and first published by an association of practical printers comprising Jesse Yarnell, George Yarnell, George A. Tiffany, J. W. Painter and Miguel Verelo. The first number appeared March 27, 1871, and consisted of four pages, six columns to the page. In March, 1875, Colonel J. J. Ayres and Joseph D. Lynch purchased the Evening Express from Mr. Tiffany and his

associates, which was by them enlarged to an eight-columnn paper, with new type and a new press, and in 1875 it was still further enlarged to a nine-column paper.

On the 3d of October, 1876, Mr. Lynch re- tired from the Evening Express, and took edi- torial charge of the Daily Herald. Colonel Ayres continued in editorial charge and practi- cal management of the Evening Express until 1882, when, upon the election of General Stone- man as Governor of California, he was appointed State Printer, and removed to Sacramento. Mr. Lynch had never parted with his interest in the paper, and again resumed responsible charge of it, and published it in connection with the Daily Herald, in the same building and on the same press, but with a separate editorial and local staff. Among the editors of the Evening Ex- press during this period were such able writers as George J. Denis and Colonel George Butler Griffin.

In 1884 the Evening Express was sold to H. Z. Osborne and E. R. Cleveland. On Au- gust 18 of that year it was first printed under their management, with the former as editor and manager, and the latter as city editor, and it has so continued to the present. In Angust, 1886, these gentlemen organized the Evening Express Company as a corporate body in order to facilitate business, and transferred the news- paper property to that company. J. Mills Davies became a stockholder and was made business manager.

The paper has for some time enjoyed a steadily increasing prosperity, well known throughont Southern California, and is one of the most influential in the State, with a splen- did plant of modern printing presses, type and material, and a book and job printing estab- lishment equal to any in the State outside of San Francisco. The company has also acquired in perpetuity the exclusive franchise of the Associated Press, the greatest news-gathering association of the world, for all its dispatches. The paper is now a handsome eight-page issue, printed upon a modern Hoe & Co. press, with

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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

automatic folders. Three editions are printed daily-2, 3 and 4 o'clock. The publication office and counting and editorial rooms are spacious and well arranged, in a building on the east side of Main street, near Third.

HENRY Z. OSBORNE, Editor and Manager of the Evening Express, and majority stock- holder, and President of the company, was born at New Lebanon, Columbia County, New York, October 4, 1848. His ancestors were among the earliest settlers in New England. His mother, born Juliaette Bristol, was a lineal de- scendant of General Israel Putnam. His father is Rev. Zenas Osborne, a minister of the Meth- odist denomination. The necessities of a large family cut short young Osborne's school days, and at the age of thirteen commenced his ap- prenticeship as a printer in the office of the Buffalo (N. Y.) Christian Advocate. At the age of sixteen, under the last call for troops made by President Lincoln, he enlisted as a private soldier in Company E, One Hundred and Ninety-Second New York Volunteers. The war of the Rebellion being at that time near its close, he served but a few months, in the Shen- andoah Valley and in West Virginia. With his regiment he was honorably discharged, and re- turned to Utica, New York, where he resumed his trade, in October, 1865.

As with many other young men, army life had widened his range of vision, and he de- termined to seek larger fields than those fur- nished in the beaten paths of his native State, and he accordingly started West, working as a compositor during 1866 on different newspapers successively in Titusville (Pennsylvania), Cin- cinnati, Memphis, Jackson (Mississippi,) and New Orleans. He was a resident of the latter city thenceforward to 1878, excepting 1870-71, the greater portion of which latter time was spent in New York City, where he was em- ployed, when twenty-two years of age, as one of the assistant foremen in the composing-room of the New York Times. From 1872 to 1878 he was employed on the New Orleans press suc- cessively as proof-reader, reporter and editorial

writer, and was at the same time correspondent for several Northern newspapers, notably the Chicago Tribune, which he represented for several years. For a time lie was connected with the Associated Press.

Throughout his career as a practical printer, Mr. Osborne was an active member of the Ty- pographical Union. He was a member of the Austin (Texas) Typographical Union, No. 138, and its first delegate to the International Typo- graphical Union at its session in Cincinnati in 1870. He served the New Orleans Typograph- ical Union, No. 17, in various capacities, being president of that body one year, and represent- ing it in 1876 as the delegate to the Interna- tional Typographical Union at Philadelphia, at which time, at the age of twenty-seven, he was elected first vice-president of that great organ- ization of printers.

Over ten years of constant night-work on the papers of the Crescent City, in an enervating climate, resulted in the impairment of his health; and after nearly a year of illness, Mr. Osborne left that 'city for California, in 1878, arriving April 3 at the then young mining camp of Bodie, Mono County, where he served over a year as the first editor of the Daily Standard, with marked success. In November, 1879, he engaged in partnership with E. R. Cleveland and E. H. Fontecilla, in the publica- tion of the Daily Free Press, which during the subsequent five years was exceptionally successful. In 1880 he purchased the interest of Mr. Fontecilla, and in 1883 that of Mr. Cleveland. In 1878 he was appointed Re- ceiver of Public Moneys at Bodie by President Hayes, and was re-appointed four years later by President Arthur, and resigned a little more than a year afterward, npon removing to Los Angeles in 1884.

In May, 1884, Mr. Osborne purchased the Los Angeles Republican, a daily afternoon paper, at that time printed in the newly finished Nadeau Block. Becoming satisfied that the Republican could not by itself be made a snc- cess, in August of the same year, in company

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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

with his former partner, Mr. Cleveland -- who took a third interest in the venture-he pur- chased the Evening Express, and consolidated the two papers. The subsequent history of the enterprise has already been detailed.

During Mr. Osborne's residence in California he has been active in social and political affairs. In Masonry he is Past Master of Southern Cal- ifornia Lodge, No. 278, of Los Angeles, and officer of the Masonic Grand Lodge of California; a member of the Cœur de Lion Commandery, No. 9, Knights Templar, and of Al Malaikah Temple of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of Stanton Post, No. 55, G. A. R., and a past officer of the Department of California. He holds the commission of Captain and Aide-de- camp on the staff of Brigadier-General E. P. Johnson, of the National Guard of California.

In political opinions a Republican, he has been a member of nearly every Republican State Convention during the past ten years, and a member of the Republican State Central Com- mittee. In 1888 he was elected a delegate from the Sixth Congressional District to the National Republican Convention at Chicago, and served in that body as the representative of the State of California on the committee on platform. While taking an earnest interest in politics, Mr. Osborne had never been a candidate for office until his application to President Harrison in. 1889 for that of Public Printer of the United States. In this ambition, which was in the line of his life training, he was warmly indorsed to the President by the delegations in the Senate and House of Representatives of all the Pacific Coast States, by leading statesmen in the Re- publican party from all parts of the country, and with surprising unanimity by the newspapers of the Pacific Coast without reference to party. The office was much sought for by gentlemen of great influence, and Mr. Osborne spent sev- eral weeks in Washington during the contest. He was received with marked consideration by the President and his cabinet officers; but the final result was the selection of another gentle- man-Frank W. Palmer. 10

Mr. Osborne has a family of wife and five children, -- four sons and one daughter, -- and a pleasant home in Los Angeles.

EDWARD R. CLEVELAND, Secretary and Treas- urer of the Evening Express Company, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1853. His father, Daniel Cleveland, was a merchant, and was one of the early settlers of that city. Ilis grandfather was General Erastus Cleveland, of Madison, New York, a descendant of Moses Cleveland, of Wo- burn, Connecticut, who was born in 1635. The subject of this sketch spent the earlier years of his life upon a farm; at the age of thirteen years he moved to the city, where he attended school about two years, and then engaged as an apprentice in the mercantile department of the Cleveland Daily Plain- Dealer. At the end of three years he was declared a journeyman, and admitted to the Typographical Union, of which organization he became secretary three months after his initiation. During the next two years the young man " worked at the case," but poor health forced him to seek out-door employment.

In the spring of 1875 he caught the " Western fever," and in May started for California, by way of New York and the Isthmus. Upon his arrival in San Francisco he immediately found employment in the daily newspaper offices of that city. A desire to travel took him out of the metropolis of the Pacific Coast, and in a short time he was settled in Virginia City, where newspaper work was resumed. In those days the mining industry was in a flourishing condition, wages were high and speculation in stocks something that every one indulged in. In 1876 rich mineral deposits were found in Bodie, California, and Aurora, Nevada, two camps about twelve iniles apart, and in 1877 Mr. Cleveland assisted in the work of issning the first number of the Esmeralda Herald and the Bodie Standard. The latter paper was soon changed to a daily, and the camp grew into a most prosperous place of 7,000 or 8,000 people. In 1879 Mr. Cleveland severed his connection with the Standard, and, in company with others, started the Daily Free Press. This publica-

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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

tion proved a great success and soon absorbed less enterprising journals of the camp, and became the only daily paper in Mono County.

In 1882 Mr. Cleveland was appointed by President Arthur Register of the United States Land Office at Bodie, which position he filled until his resignation in the fall of 1883. At the same time he disposed of newspaper in- terests in Bodie, and spent the following winter and spring in travel. Upon his return to the Pacific Coast in 1884 he became interested in the printing and publishing business at Los Angeles, and has resided here ever since.

THE LOS ANGELES HERALD,

the oldest morning daily in Southern California, was founded by C. A. Storke, its first appear- ance being October 3, 1873. A little more than two years afterward Mr. Storke sold it to James M. Bassett, who after a few months sold it to John M. Baldwin, and the latter in a few months more sold it to Joseph D. Lynch, formerly editor of the San Diego World. IIe had been bred to the newspaper business from his boy- bood, and has been attached to the staff of leading newspapers in Pittsburg, his native place, and in New York City. IIe edited and owned the Herald alone until the fall of 1886, when he sold a half interest to Colonel James J. Ayers, who since the days of '49 had been engaged in newspaper work in this State, had been the founder of the San Francisco Call and con- nected with several notable journalistic enter_ prises.

Thns, with but few changes, has this journal pursned the even tenor of its way, perhaps more than any other paper in this part of the State. At all times it has been a clean, conservative, Democratic newspaper, Democratic in the true Jeffersonian and Jacksonian sense. As a con- servative advocate the managers take great pride in building up what is good in the community, and setting forth the merits of this, the best place in the world for a happy home, keeping pace with the wonderful growth of the city and country. The Herald, now an eight-page jour-

nal, contains all the important news, given promptly and in readable style.

JOSEPH DAVID LYNCH was born in Pittsburg, March 8, 1844. His father, Major David Lynch, was a native of Schenectady, N. Y., but was of Irish extraction; and his elder brother was a Lientenant in the English navy. Major Lynch was postmaster of Pittsburg for twelve years, under the administrations of Jackson and Van Buren, and was a very close friend of President Buchanan. He long occupied a sim- ilar influential position in Pennsylvania politics to that of Dean Richmond in the political affairs of New York State.

The subject of this sketch was educated at St. Francis' College, Loretto, Pennsylvania. He was a clerk in the Pittsburg postoffice several years. Afterward he studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1870. IIe edited the Pittsburg Legal Journal a year, and was then a reporter on the Dispatch awhile. After that he opened a law office in New York City. From thence he came to California, arriving in San Francisco July 1, 1872.

Hle was sent by the Democratic State Com- mittee to San Diego to edit the World of that city, which position he filled till 1874, when be returned East. Some months later he came to Los Angeles, where, March 15, 1875, in con- nection with Colonel J. J. Ayres and others, he . helped organize a joint stock company, which purchased the Evening Express newspaper, of which he and Coloner Ayers became the editors. In October, 1876, Mr. Lynch withdrew from the Express and leased and took charge of the Herald, which was published and edited by him with ability and success from 1876 to 1886. In 1884 he bought the Herald, one-half inter- est in which he sold to Colonel Ayers in 1886. In the fall of this year, having received the Democratic nomination for member of Congress from this district, he temporarily resigned his editorial duties pending the campaign.

At the end of Colonel Ayers's term as State Printer, the latter came down from Sacramento and actively engaged with Mr. Lynch in the

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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

editorial and business management of the Herald, which has become an influential jour- nal and a valuable property.

Mr. Lynch's life occupation has been mainly that of journalism, for which by natural prefer- ence and aptitude and by training, he is in many respects admirably equipped. Ile has brains, vigor, strong convictions which he does not hesitate to express without any unnecessary " beating about the bush;" a ready flow of strong idiomatic English, an accurate and often artistic sense of the meaning of words, and a dialectician's skill in their nse, considering them the tools of his trade, to be only used, like the tools of the mechanician, with discrimination and a nice sense of their significance. He is averse to personal journalism, and seldom de- scends to notice small or spiteful flings at him- self, or to inflict them on others. If compelled to defend himself, his paper, or his principles, he prefers to do it in an open, manly way.

He early saw the wondrous possibilities of our imperial connty; and it may truly be said that he has done yeoman's service in making them known to the world.

The writer has heard the opinion expressed in the East, by those who have read the Herald and other local journals and publications, that Los Angeles was the best written up section of the United States. Los Angeles County is one of the richest counties in natural resources in the country, if not on this continent. Mr. Lynch has had the perception to see this and to proclaim it, in season and out of season, to an incredulous world. Some day the world will be convinced!

A brother, Robert S., and a sister, Isabella M., now deceased, were for some years residents of Los Angeles. Mr. Lynch was married, May 11, 1888, to Miss Grace G. Stewart, of St. Lonis.

JAMES JOSEPH AYERS is a native of Glasgow, Scotland, where he was born August 27, 1830. He came with his parents to the United States when about one year old. He lived in New York City till 1848, when he learned the print-

er's trade. He then went to St. Louis, where he took charge of the editorial department of the Sunday edition of the St. Louis Republican. In February, 1849, he started for California from New Orleans, via Balize to Honduras, traveling on foot across the continent to Realejo, thence by sail vessel seventy-five days to San Francisco, arriving there; after being on very short rations during the latter part of their voyage, October 5, 1849. He went to the mines and worked at mining till September, 1850, and then returned to San Francisco. In 1851, with an association of printers, he pub- lished the Public Balance, a daily journal; but they were burned out in the great June fire of that year. H. Hamilton (later the publisher of the Star newspaper of this city, and still a resi- dent of this county), Harry de Conrcey and J. J. Ayers, bought an office and started at Moke- lumne Hill, the Calaveras Chronicle, October 18, 1851. That paper is still published, and, with the exception of the Alta California, is the oldest newspaper in the State. Again, in 1854, Colonel Ayers returned to San Francisco, where he was engaged on the Herald till the breaking ont of the Vigilance Committee in 1856. In December of that year, in company with Llewellyn Zublin, George E. Barnes, Charles F. Jobson and D. W. Higgins, he started the Morning Call, which now, after more than thirty years, is one of the great newspapers of San Francisco and of the Pacific Coast. He continued his connection with the Call for about ten years, or till 1866, when he sold out and went to Honolulu. Taking an office with him, he started the Daily Hawaian Herald, which was the first daily paper published on those islands. Returning to San Francisco the next year, he published the Evening Dispatch, which he afterward sold to General Volney E. Howard, who is now and has been for many years a resident of this county. Colonel Ayers then (1868) went to Virginia City, where he edited the Territorial Enterprise till January, 1869, when he took a large office to White Pine, where he started the Inland Empire. On the

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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

collapse of those mines, he went to San Luis Obispo and published the Tribune till 1872. IIe then came to Los Angeles and took editorial charge of the Evening Express till 1875, when, with J. D. Lynch, he formed a joint stock com- pany and bought that paper, which he helped to make a very influential local exponent of public opinion. In 1878 Colonel Ayers was elected a delegate at large to the Constitutional Conven- tion, of which body he became a very infinen- tial member. In the fall of 1879 he ran as can- didate for Congress for the Fourth District, but was defeated. In 1883 he sold his interest in the Express, and was appointed by Governor Stoneman State Printer, which office he held for four years. During Colonel Ayers' incuin- bency it became necessary to largely increase the capacity of the office, so that under the law the State could print, electrotype and bind the text-books of the public schools. This was a new and formidable departure in a public insti- cution, and any serions mistake would have given the undertaking a set-back from which it would hardly have recovered. California was the first State to print its own school-books. To prepare for the work Colonel Ayers was compelled to reorganize the entire State print- ing office, and to go East, inspect all the latest and most improved presses and machinery, and select the best and most approved.

The result was that he made the State print- ing office one of the most complete establish- ments in the United States if not absolutely the most complete. If the publishing of our own text-books at oost has been a success, it is due inore to the intelligent, practical and faithful efforts of Colonel James J. Ayers than to any other man.

In 1887 Colonel Ayers returned to Los An- geles, and joined Mr. J. D. Lynch in the pub- lication of the Herald, and he has since then been one of the editors and proprietors of that journal.

As will appear from the foregoing, Colonel Ayers has had a wide and very varied experi- enee. It may be truly said of him that " he

had done the State (and the communities in which he has lived) some service." He is a man of brains, and he is ever loyal to his con- victions, which is and always will be the secret of influence and power of every true journalist. He recognizes that inen are reasonable beings, and he believes that they are amenable to rea- son; or, as be once expressed it, when assisting in formulating a charter for the city of Los An- geles: " In going before the people with this measure, we must be able to give them the rea- sons for our actions."

In addition to his thorough acquaintance with English literature, and the effective use of the English language, acquired by a life-time of editorial work, Colonel Ayers is also a good Spanish and French scholar.

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES AND LOS ANGELES WEEKLY

MIRROR.

On February 1, 1873, the first number of the Weekly Mirror appeared, a diminutive sheet 10 x 13 inches, of four pages and three columns to the page. I. was published every Saturday by Yarnell & Caystile, and distributed free. The office was at No. 14 Commercial street, in an old building where the proprietors started with $500 worth of second-hand job printing materials which they had purchased on credit, the primary purpose being to do job printing. The little paper prospered and grew brighter every issue. On March 1, 1873, William M. Brown was taken into the firm, the title becom- ing Yarnell, Caystile & Brown, and on the 19th of that month the Mirror was enlarged a column to the page, making a sheet 112 x 163 inches. This important event was announced in a double- leaded editorial in which the publishers stated that, having abandoned the idea of publishing the smallest paper in California, they should set no bounds to the Mirror's growth. In Novem- ber, 1873, the Mirror office was moved into a new building erected for its use on Temple street, an addition to the Downey Block. There the office remained until it was removed into the new Times building in May, 1887. The

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Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Chicago, Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1092

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Chicago, Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1092