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 55

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 55

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Dalton, Palomares & Vejar

4,430.64

Dec. 4, 1875

San José de Buenoa Ayrea B. D. Wilson

4,438 09

July 5, 1866

San Pascoal

B. D. Wilson

708.57 Feb. 12, 1881

San Pascual

Manuel Garfias

13,693.93

Apr. 3, 1863

San Pascual

Juan Gallardo

700.00

13,119.13 Dec. 18, 1858

CONFIRMEE.

ACRES. DATE OF PAT.

San Rafael San Vicente y Santa Monica

R. Sepúlveda 30,259.65 July 23, 1881

Santa Anita

Henry Dalton

13,319.06 Ang. 9, 1866

San Gertrudes, part

T. 8. Colima

3,696.23 July 17, 1877

San Gertrudes, part

McFarland & Dow-

17,602.01

Aug. 19, 1870

Sausal Redondo Simi

J. de la G. y Nor- jega

113,009.21

June 29, 1865

Tajauta

E. Abila

3,559.86

Jan. 8, 1873

Temesasl

R. de la Cuesta

13,339.07 Sept. 13, 1871

Topanga Malibu Sequit M. Keller

13,315.70 Aug. 29, 1872

Tejungs

D. W. Alexander,

et al. 16,600.71 Oct. 19, 1874

THE GREAT BOOM OF 1886-'87.

The great real estate boom* of Los Angeles in 1886-'87 is certainly the most wonderful thing of its kind in the history of the Pacific Slope. Of course, nothing has excelled the great gold boom of '49 and '50, but in real-estate booms Los Angeles heads the list. There had been a small one comparatively eleven years before. The years 1872-'74 witnessed a general improve- ment in material matters. Immigration was steady, crops and markets were good, and real estate advanced in price. Its advancement marked it as a good investment for local capital, and in the winter of 1874-'75 a genuine boom began. Immigration in 1875 was large. Many bought land at the high prices then ruling, while others caught the fever, and bought largely, paying part cash and taking agreements to convey, or giving mortgages for balance of purchase price. In the fall of 1875 the Tem- ple & Workman Bank broke. This pricked the bubble, and real-estate valnes burst. Men who had bought on credit suddenly found the money market stringent, and the four years that fol- lowed witnessed the efforts of many luckless land-holders to extricate themselves, ending in a number of instances in complete failure.

The year 1876 witnessed a gradual diminution in the number and value of real-estate sales. In 1877 and 1878 it became something unusual to find a piece of property unmortgaged. Then came a period in which even the leaders conld see no value in real estate; new loans could not be effected; high rates of interest prevailed, and the era of foreclosures began. In 1879 there

*The word " boom " in this sense is probably taken from its use in the lumbering regions, and means a rushing forward, or an unusual display of energy in any direction.

San Pedro

M. Dominguez,

et al.

NAME OF GRANT.

JulioBerdugo, et al. 36,403.32 Jan. 28, 1882

Dey

A. I. Abila

22,458.94

Mar. 22, 1875

A. Machado, et al. 13,919,90

Dec. 8, 1873

A. J. Rocha, et al. 4,439.07

April 15, 1873

( Aug. 4, 1875

Potrero de la Mission Vieja de San Gabriel Potrero de Felipe Lugo Potrero Grande

Valanzuela, et al.

90.00

La Puente

Worbam& Roland 48,790.55

April 19, 1867

San Francisco

78.23 Aug. 26, 1871

San Francisquito Jan Joaquin Jan Jose

Dalton, Palomares

April 10, 1867

La Liebre

388.34 Aug. 2, 1872

Mar. 9, 1875

Joaquin Sepúlveda 207.79 Mar. 17, 1881

348

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

was no such thing as a market value for unim- proved property, and even productive real estate could not be sold for an amount on which it was actually yielding a liberal interest.

During all this period of depression people had been economizing and working, pushing improvements and developing new industries, and the out-put of products in the year 1880 arrested the downward tendency. The receipts for the crops of grain, wool, wine, honey and fruit and dairy products distributed among the producing classes an amount of capital, which was circulated with good effect, paying off mort. gages, and securing new loans, and making money easy.

H. Ellington Brook tells well the story of the boom of '87:

" Rail communication with the North was opened in 1877, but the boom did not really begin until 1881, when the Southern Pacific, which had gone on building cast, met the Santa Fé at Deming. Then land began to rise, but not rapidly. People did not yet realize the value of land. They had no conception of what was coming. In 1882, when the Southern Pacific was opened to New Orleans, the popu- lation increased to about 15,000, and property began to stiffen in price. Valnes in Los An- geles and vicinity rose about twenty-five per cent. that year, the previous valnation having been very low. People continned to come, and in 1883 values doubled, while the population had increased to 25,000. The progress con- tinued through 1884 and into 1885. The Santa Fé road was on the way to Los Angeles, making another direct through road to the East. The Santa Fé reached Los Angeles in November, 1885, and after that it is difficult to follow the course of the boom, so rapid and immense was the advance.

" People poured in by thousands, and prices of land climbed rapidly. Everybody that could find an office went into the real-estate business, either as agents, as speculators or as operators. Tracts of land by the scores were cut up into lots. Auctions, accompanied by brass bands

and free Innches, drew their crowds. At private sales lines were formed, before day break, in front of the seller's office, for fear there would not be enongh lots to go around. As soon as a man sold out at a profit, in nine cases ont of ten he reinvested. There was no lack of faith in the country. Some of the new towns laid out dur- ing this period outside of Los Angeles contained in themselves and their surroundings elements of solid worth, which insured their permanent progress. Others were merely founded on the credulity of the public and the general scramble for real estate, whatever and wherever it was.

"The advances in values of real estate were astonishing. The best business property in Los Angeles, a corner on Main street, could have been bought in 1860 for $300 a front foot, in 1870 for $500, in 1880 for $1,000. Now it is valued at $2,500. For a lot on Main and Sixth, that was sold in 1883 for $20 a foot, $800 a foot was offered last year. Acreage property rose in like proportion, and meantime popula- tion continued to pour in.

"As Los Angeles city property began to reach prices which were then considered as being near the top notch, the boom in outside property was started. Great tracts of land were bought by speculators, and subdivided and sold in lots to suit purchasers. Some of the speculators were men of large capital, and some had next to none. They took their chances of coming out ahead, and nearly all of them did. New life was put in many small places previously settled, and many new enterprises were launched on land that had never been touched. Some of the land, which only a few years before could scarcely have been given away, but which has been shown, with proper cultivation, to be among the best, was bought at extremely low figures, but eligible land soon began to rise, in response to the large demand. Lands four miles outside the city limits of Los Angeles, that were sold for $1 an acre in 1868, rose to $1,000 an acre, in some cases.

"Some of these lands were divided and sold without improvement, that work to be done

349

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

later; some were sold while improvements were going on; others were improved, and then sold. Water was the first great necessity-the first question broached by purchasers. Such streams as exist were inade use of at once, ditches were dug, and the water turned in with branch ditches to tl.e varions tracts. Dams were built in mountain gulches, and great bodies of water stored. In some places artesian belts were dis- covered and put under contribution. Some lands were bought by colonies from the Atlan- tic States, and were improved by them. When a tract was laid out as a town site, the first thing usually done was to build a hotel. Ce- ment sidewalks, brick blocks, a public hall and a street railroad soon followed. A miniature city appeared, like a scene conjured up by Aladdin's lamp, where a few months ago the jack-rabbit sported and the coyote howled. Such a scene of transformation had never before been witnessed in the world. Old settlers, who had declared that land was dear at $5 an acre, looked aghast to see people tumbling over each other to secure lots at $500 each. New arrivals were charmed with the climate and surround- ings and determined to get a share of it before the shares gave ont. Most of the purchases were made on the basis of one-third cash down, the balance in installments on six and twelve months' time.

".Such was the state of affairs in the spring of 1887. Up to that time the course of the boom, then some three years old, while tre- inendously active, had been accompanied by reasonable restrictions as to future possibilities. The buyer had generally acquired some little idea of what he was purchasing, and had exer- cised some judgment in making his selections. In the summer of that year a crowd of outside speculators settled down upon Los Angeles like flies upon a bowl of sugar. Many of these came from Kansas City, where they had been through a school of real-estate speculation. These men worked the excitement up to fever heat. They rode a willing horse to death, and crowded what would have been a good, solid advance of prices

for three years into as many months. Lands at a distance of thirty miles or more from Los All- geles --- land which was worthless for cultivation and possessed no surroundings to make it valua- ble for any other purpose-was secured by the payment of a small installment, and under the excitement of glowing advertisements, brass bands and the promise of immense improve- ments, lots were sold off like hot cakes by scores and hundreds, to persons who, in many cases, had not even seen them, had but a vague idea of their location, and no idea at all of doing more with them than to sell them at a high profit before their second payments became due. This was during the summer, when things are unusually quiet in Los Angeles. The buyer's were mostly our own people.

"The great cry of the speculators was that every one should bny all he or she possibly could, to sell to the enormous crowd of land- hungry Easterners who would pour in that win- ter-the winter of 1887-'88. As a consequence every clerk, and waiter, and car-driver, and ser- vant girl scrimped and saved to make a first payment of one-third on a 50 by 150 lot in Southwest ' Boomville,' or ' East San Giacomo,' or 'Rosenblatt,' or 'Paradiso,' or one of the other hundred or more paper cities which sprang up like mushrooms during the sninmer of 1887. Most of these town sites were not very attractive to look at, it is true, but that made small difference, for very few buyers took the trouble to visit them, and they looked re- inarkably pretty on the lithographic views, with those grand old mountains in the rear and a still grander three-story hotel in the fore- ground. From October, 1886, to May, 1887, the monthly real-estate sales had been steadily rising from $2,215,600 to $8,163,327. In June of the latter year they amounted to eleven and a half million dollars; in July to twelve mill- ions; in August to eleven and a half millions -- a total of $35,067,830 in three months, and these what had always been the dullest months of the year, with very few visitors within our gates! This was the culmination of the boom.

350

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

It had been driven to death. Every one was loaded up with property and was a seller-at 333 per cent. profit, or just double what he had paid. When there are nineteen sellers to one buyer the result cannot long remain in doubt, whether the commodity be wheat, or mining stocks, or real estate.

" Natural causes produce their natural effects in this instance, as in all others since the Cre- ator established gravitation as the prime law of. the material universe. Sales began to fall off. The brass bands ceased to exercise the same charm as of old; the free lunch was looked at askance, and the design of the (proposed) $100,000 hotel was subjected to more careful serntiny. Some captious purchasers even went so far as to demand information about the geog- raphy of the 'town' and its water supply, while it is on record that one or two recent arrivals excited the scornful commiseration of the real-estate agents by inquiring what was going to support the town. In September, 1887, sales had dropped nearly a couple of millions, to $9,872,948; in October to $8,120,- 486, and in November, just when the real win- ter boom ought to have been commencing, they were down to $5,819,646. Moreover, the East- ern visitors did not begin to arrive in any such enormous numbers as sanguine prophets had predicted. It is probably well for them that they did not, for if one-third the number had come that some wild-eyed journalists have pro- fessed to expect, a vast army would have been forced to camp al fresco. It was also noted, with marked surprise and considerable indigna- tion, that those who did come from the "ice- bound East " were disposed to be hypercritical in their investigation of the resources of ' Rosen- blatt,' ' Paradiso,' and other coming trade centers, and were not by any means eager to exchange the proceeds of the sale of their East- ern farins for a twenty-five foot . business lot' in the paper towns. Finally a great many be- came disgusted with the muddy streets [since paved ], the reckless real-estate agents and greedy lodging-house keepers with which the

city was at that time especially afflicted, and left for other places."

The great real-estate boom of 1887 collapsed like a balloon, but the country and its great resources and enterprising people remained. A majority of the purchasers made their second and third payments, or satisfactorily adjusted their accounts, except, perhaps, in a few cases where investments had been made in " wildcat " towns. Naturally the money market became tight, and while many individuals failed, not a bank burst. There were an unusual number of suicides and insanity cases following the col- lapse, but even the proportion of these was not as large as might have been expected.

The real-estate boom over and speculation past, people began to resume legitimate busi - ness. The city in 1887-'88 witnessed a remark- able building boom, abont $20,000,000 being invested in business blocks and residences dur- ing that period. . A number of steam-duinmy roads were built into the country. Standard gauge railroads were built to Monrovia, Santa Monica, Ballona and Redondo. Direct rail- road communication was opened with San Diego. The great cable-road systemn began operation in 1889. In the country the fields, which had been covered with town-site stakes, were re-sowed, while greater areas than ever were planted with vines and trees. Farms, vineyards and orchards continued to yield boun- tiful harvests, which brought profitable prices. The oil wells increased in number. Los An- geles County holds her own, and though losing a large slice in Orange County, is still an im- perial county.

AGRICULTURAL.

Under this head we consider the soil and its products.

Of soils there are many varieties in the county, some of which are not duplicated in any other portion of the United States. In the low lands the soil is, as a rule, a rich alluvinın, supposed to be deposits of streams during ages long past. The lightness or heaviness of this

351

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

alluvial soil depends on the preponderance of sand or clay. In some places the " moist land" contains a good deal of alkali. Such land is generally considered unfit for cultivation. Practical tests, however, have demonstrated the fact that much of what is called alkali land is really susceptible of cultivation, and will, if properly handled, produce prolific crops of vege- tables, cereals and deciduous fruits. It can be reclaimed by drainage. Apples and pears that took the first premium at the New Orleans Exposition were raised on strong alkali soil near Long Beach, and the yield per acre of such fruits was very large. Many valleys farther above the sea level contain similar kinds of alluvium, and also, in some localities, a darker soil known as adobe, which is composed largely of decomposed vegetable matter. This is the heaviest soil of all, and in wet weather the mud it makes is so tenacions as to produce a power- fnl strain on the boots and morals of pedestrians who are naturally averse to indulging in pro- fanity. In the summer time it becomes baked to an almost rocky hardness, and cracks open, so that the larger fissures are suggestive of recent earthquakes. Many a dwelling, and a very few mission buildings, made of this adobe soil still remain as relics of an earlier and cruder civili- zation. The soil was mixed with straw, molded into bricks and dried in the sun. Buildings thus constructed will stand for a century, if allowed to; but they are rapidly melting away before the march of improvement, and their places will all soon be occupied by spacious residences or elegant business blocks. It should not be supposed, however, that the adobe soil is fit only for building purposes. Though not adapted to general fruit raising, the adobe land is excellent for grain and cereals of various kinds. Some of the finest crops of wheat, bar- ley and oats in the world are raised on just such land.

On the mesa or upland is still another kind of soil. It consists largely of detritus or sedi- mnent washed down from the mountains, mixed with vegetable accumulations. It is good soil

for fruit growing, but not well adapted to cereals.

It may readily be supposed that with such varieties of soil and climate, Los Angeles County's products are of many varieties. Al- most everything in the way of food products which man conld wish for is raised here more or less abundantly, according to the attention given to their cultivation.

A few facts and figures showing the produc- tiveness of Los Angeles County will not be amiss in this connection :

In moist land a man can raise seventy-five and even 100 bushels of corn to the acre. The table land has water twelve to thirty feet below the surface, and it is just the thing for citrus fruits. There are to-day in the county more than 800,000 orange trees in bearing order; 2,000,000 grape-vines, and 20,000 Englishı wal- mut trces. To plant orange and lemon trees, and cultivate them for five years, costs about $200 an acre. Land costs say $150. After the fifth year land can produce $350 a year per acre. Of alfalfa no less than six to eight crops a year can be raised, averaging one and a half to two tons per acre at each cutting. The fariner can also raise two crops of potatoes a year, worth $200 an acre. Also peas and cabbages in the winter, and cucumbers on the same land in the summer.

These are only a very few of the many facts that could be given on this subject.

Glancing at the past, the following items are interesting:

All the oranges in 1850 were from the Mis- sion orchard of San Gabriel, and the gardens of Louis Vignes and William Wolfskill. June 7, 1851, Mr. Vignes offered for sale his " desirable property, El Alizo"-so called from the superb sycamore tree, many centuries old, that shaded his cellars. He says: "There are two orange gardens that yield from five to six thousand oranges in the season." It is credibly stated that he was the first to plant the orange in this city, bringing young trees from San Gabriel, in the year 1834. He had 400 peach trees, to-

353

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

gether with apricots, pear, apple, fig and walnut, and adds: " The vineyard, with 40,000 vines, 32,000 now bearing grapes, will yield 1,000 barrels of wine per annum, the quality of which is well known to be superior." Don Louis, a native of France, came to Los Angeles by way of the Sandwich Islands, in 1831. One orange cultivator added after another, January 1, 1876, there were in this county 36,700 bearing orange trees, and 6,900 bearing lime and lemon trees. The shipment of this fruit rapidly grew into a regular business. In 1851 there were 104 vine- yards, exclusive of that of San Gabriel-all but twenty within the limits of the city. The San Gabriel vineyard, neglected since 1834, was now in decay. In Spanish and Mexican times, it had been called " mother vineyard," from the fact that it supplied all the original cuttings; it is said to have once had 50,000 vines. In 1875, the grape vines of this county were 4,500,000.

In 1851 grapes, in crates or boxes, brought 20 cents per pound at San Francisco, 80 cents at Stockton. Through 1852 the price was the saine. This shipment continned several years, in general with profit. Very little wine was then shipped; in 1851, not over a thousand gal- lons. Soon the northern counties began to forestall the market with grapes nearly as good as our own. Gradually the manufacture of wine was established. Wolfskill, indeed, had, at an early date, shipped a little wine, but his aim was to turn his grapes into brandy. Louis Wilhart, in 1849 and 1850, made white wine, considered, in flavor and quality, next to that of Vignes, who could produce from his cellars a brand per- haps nnexcelled through the world. He had some in 1857 then over twenty years old-per- haps the same the army relished so well in 1847. Among the first manufacturers for the general market was Vincent Hoover, with his father, Dr. Juan Leonce Iloover, first at the Clayton Vineyard, which, owing to its situation on the bench, produced a superior grape; then from the vineyard known as that of Don José Serrano. Some of the vines in this last named are stated to be over 100 years old! This was fromn 1850

to about 1855. The cultivation of the grape, too, about this time, took a new impulse. At San Gabriel, William M. Stockton, in 1855, had an extensive nursery of grape vines and choice fruit trees. In 1855 Joseph Hoover entered successfully into wine-making at the Foster vineyard.

April 14, 1855, Jean Louis Sansevaine par- chased the vineyard property, cellars, etc., of his uncle, Louis Vignes, for $42,000 (by the by the first large land sale within the city). Mr. Sanse- vaine had resided here since 1853. In 1855 he shipped his first wine to San Francisco. In 1856 he made the first shipment from this county to New York, thereby becoming the pioneer of this business. Matthew Keller says: " Accord- ing to the books of the great forwarding house of P. Banning at San Pedro, the amount shipped to San Francisco in 1857 was 21,000 boxes of grapes, averaging forty-five pounds each, and 250,000 gallons of wine." In 1856 Los An- geles yielded only 7,200 cases of wine; in 1860 it had increased to 66,000 cases. In 1861 ship- ments of wine were made to New York and Boston by Benjamin D. Wilson and J. L. San- sevaine; they are the fathers of the wine interest. Sunny Slope, unexcelled for its vintage-and the orange, almond and walnut-was commenced by J. L. Rose in January, 1861.

December, 1859, the wine producers were: Matthew Keller, Sansevaine Bros., Frohling & Co., B. D. Wilson, Stevens & Bell, Dr. Parrott, Dr. Thomas J. White, Laborie, Messer, Barn- hardt, Delong, Santa Ana Precinct, Henry Dalton, P. Serres, Joseph Huber, Sr., Ricardo Vejar, Barrows, Ballerino, Dr. Hoover, Lonis Wilhart, Trabuc, Clement, José Serrano. The total manufacture of wine in 1859 was about 250,000 gallons.

The largest vineyard in the State, next to Senator Stanford's in Tehama County (which is the largest in the world), is the Nadeau Vineyard, which covers an area of over 2,000 acres; it is three or four years old, and lies between this city and Anaheim. The first year's yield of this immense vineyard was sent to the still, and

353

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

turned out 45,000 gallons of brandy, which Mr. Nadeau warehoused, and then payed the Govern- inent $40,500. The three next largest vine- yards are at and near San Gabriel, and are owned respectively by "Lucky " Baldwin, who has upward of 1,000 acres in Mission and other vines; Stern & Rose (Sunny Slope Vineyard), over 1,000 acres of many varieties; J. de Barth Shorb (San Gabriel Wine Company), about 1,500 acres of Missions, Zinfandels, Mataros, Burgers, and other varieties. These parties have as costly and extensive wineries as inany of the leading producers in France, and inake and age most all kinds of dry and sweet wines and brandies. These three wine-makers have European experts in all the different branches, including "cellar keepers," and their wineries are like parlors, while the process of picking, crushing, fermenting, blending and aging are as perfect as it seems possible to make them. They all have houses in New York, and so do Kohler and Froeling, and nothing is sent there by them but wines and brandies that are abso- lutely pure and can be depended upon.

According to the Rural Californian, the various fruits grown in Los Angeles County may be found in the markets during the following portions of the year:

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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