USA > California > San Joaquin County > An illustrated history of San Joaquin County, California. Containing a history of San Joaquin County from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its future prospects; > Part 27
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The following paragraphs are further extracts from the Superintendents' reports:
" There are seventy Chinese under our care, sixty-seven males and three females. In the Napa Asylum about as many more may be found. In proportion to the number of Chinese in the State, I consider mental disease particularly rife amongst them. In China, insanity partakes somewhat of the nature of a penal offense. Hence travelers in that country, seeing little of it, proclaim its non-existence, and base thereon deductions unfavorable to civilization. But in Japan, where enlightened and progressive views are making rapid headway, institutions for the care of the insane are beginning to dot the land.
" The injustice of imposing upon the people the burden of supporting these 140 insane Chi- namen year after year, calls for attention. At $130 per anummm apiece, they are costing the
State $19,000 yearly. The expatriation of men- tally defective immigrants is, in other places, a well established custom. From the ports of New York and Boston, so promptly and so frequently have insane aliens been reshipped to their own countries, that the measure no longer even at- tracts comment. Less than one-half the amount annually expended for their care and inainte- nance here would charter a vessel and crew and return the whole number to Hong Kong, whence they came.
" In determining whether a patient shall be sent to the asylum, the following questions are to be considered :
" 1 .- Is he insane?
" 2 .- If so, is his insanity of such a type as to render him dangerous to person or property ?
"To these a third consideration might be added: ' Is there a reasonable prospect that his insanity, even if not of such a nature as to require his seclusion, could be benefited by special treatment at an asylum?' An asylum should be, first and foremost, a hospital for the cure of curable cases; but the State law fails to recog- nize this, its highest and latest acquired func- tion, as a specific reason for the commitment of a patient thereto. Nor, in our present over- crowded condition, can we lay claim to the full exercise of this higher function.
" Unless both of the first two questions above can be answered in the affirmative, the commit- ment of the patient is a direct infringement of the law. Nothing could be more succinct and unequivocal than the wording of the statute on this subject. ' No case,' it provides, ' of idiocy, imbecility, simple feebleness of intellect, or old case of harinless dementia, or of any class of in- curable and harmless insanity, or of delirium tremens, shall be sent to the asylum.'
" Many patients of the imbecile class are de. posited liere who would not be received in any other asylum in the world; many who are de- crepit, aged, harmless, and broken down; who sometimes, too feeble to walk, are carried in and never leave their beds afterwards. This class should properly be taken care of in county
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
almshouses. A nicer discrimination is needed in the commitment of persons to the asylum. The popular error still prevails in some quarters that simply to establish the fact of insanity is all that is necessary."
Of the patients admitted into the State asy- Inın at Stockton during the year ending June 30, 1885, forty per cent. recovered. Of the 233 discharged during the year ending June 30, 1888, 214 were sent away as " recovered," a percentage of over forty-six on the admissions during the same period. Concerning the legal bearing of the word " recovered," Superintend- ent Mays makes the following remarks, which are of great importance:
" In returning a patient to the world again, shall lis certificate of discharge read ' recovered,' or merely 'improved?' The question is one fraught with serious possibilities to the newly liberated person. The endorsement ' recovered' restores hini to citizenship, anything short of that does not. From being civilly dead, it inakes him again a living integer in the com- monwealth, restoring to him what he loses when committed as insane, his forfeited duties and privileges, public and private, his social and domestic rights, his civil and political rights. Unless discharged ' recovered,' his status is left in doubt, his power to make a contract is dis- putable, his future acts are of questionable va- lidity. He is still presumably insane."
On the subject of transportation of persons adjudged insane from distant parts of the State, the Superintendent further remarks:
" It may not be generally known that the State, and not the county, pays the cost of trans- portation and mileage of patients. This is a curious and unique arrangement. In effect, the State offers a premium to county officials to hunt up patients and bring them here. If the expense of transportation were placed where it belongs, on the county, there would be less in- ducement for the authorities of county hospitals and almshouses to unload their helpless and bedridden cases npon us."
The per capita cost of maintenance was 38
cents in 1887, and 36.9 cents in 1888. This low rate is not the result of any special effort to reduce the cost of supporting the patients, but is due to the great increase in the number cared for, while at the same time the working force of the establishment has remained the same, or nearly so.
It is interesting to scan the table of canses of the insanity as assigned in the commitments. Of the 463 committed, masturbation leads the list of canses with the number thirty-nine; in- temperance, the same number this year but pro- portionally fewer the preceding year; hereditary, thirty-six; injury to head, eighteen; epilepsy and sunstroke, fourteen each, and so on down; business and money troubles, only eight -- con- trary to the common impression as to the pro- portional frequency of this cause. "Salvation army " is assigned as the cause in one instance, and "Spiritualism " in four. Doubtless in a number of instances the cause and the effect are reversed in the estimate of the physician or jury assigning the canse. " Reading trashy novels" was the canse in one case. Minds vary so much in strength, susceptibility, etc., that what would set one man crazy would not affect another in the least; but every one instinctively knows that any and all indulgences in intemperance of any kind, or exposures, injuries to the head, diseases or drugs affecting the brain, etc., are risks, for no one knows where the weakest spot of his nervous system is. The Superintendent says:
" Insanity is to a large extent a preventable malady. It comes from an ignoring of the laws of health and sobriety. Withont entering upon an enumeration of the many causes of in- sanity, I shall make a brief reference to one of the most prominent factors in the question- inteinperance. All my observation goes to strengthen the belief that there is no greater mind-destroyer than this. It is in the second generation that the evil works its most harm. One-half the insane-perhaps more-owe their derangement to hereditary influence, inheritingan ancestral taint or predisposition. But this he-
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
reditary taint-how had it its origin? Where the family history can be searched into, the starting point will often be found in a drunken progenitor. The damaging effects of the excess- ive use of alcohol upon the brain are more often manifested in the offspring than in the drinker himself. He may manage to keep out of the asylum, and even maintain a respectable place in society, but his children will often find it hard to do so. They inherit qualities that un fit them for the struggle for existence, and go down under the strain. The familes of inten- perate parents furnish the recruiting ground for insane asylums. These unfortunate children, if not idiots or epileptics, are liable to grow up with querulous, explosive tempers, with feeble powers of self-guidance, weak in temptation, un- stable, self-indulgent, vicious, hysterical. They form the bulk of what are known as the defect- ive classes."
The proportion of deathis in the asylum is un- precedentedly low.
What is now the principal asylum building was erected in 1883-'85, the south wing in the former year, the total cost of the whole structure being $224,000. It is of brick, with sandstone facings; and while it is unpretentious in design and free froni superfluous ornamentation, there is nothing prison-like in its appearance; on the other hand, it is really beautiful and attractive. As it has a capacity, without crowding, of 530 inmates, this places the per capita cost at $425 -- a figure so remarkably low that very few asy- lums in the country can approach it. The sev- eral divisions are so arranged that, while the unity of design is preserved, an abundance of light and air is secured to every portion.
The latest improvement is the conversion of the (old) ladies' dining-rooms into wards.
Most of the time the operations of the ill- stitution have been more or less circumscribed by the meagreness of Legislative appropriations, as the wants of the growing establishment in- creased more rapidly than the people were aware
of; and it has been said that, for a time at least, " politics " interfered with the best administra- tion of the asylum. Superintending physicians were appointed for political reasons.
In 1856 Dr. Samuel Langdon· became medi- cal superintendent. The next year he fought a duel with Dr. William Ryer, being wounded, but the contest proved fatal to neither party. Dr. Aylett took charge Angust 13, 1857; Dr. W. P. Tilden, August 20, 1861; Dr. G. A. Shurtleff, in August 1865, and resigned Sep- tember 1, 1883. Dr. W. T. Brown was elected superintendent October 10 following; and Dr. Hiram N. Rucker November 1, 1888. The as- sistant physicians are Drs. Wm. A. Washington and Junius D. Young.
The board of directors of the asylum, accord- ing to the last report (October, 1888), consists of the following gentlemen: Robert Watt, of Oakland, president, appointed by Governor Ir- win 1876, re appointed by Governor Perkins 1880, re- appointed by Governor Stoneman 1884, and re-appointed by Governor Waterman 1888; J. K. Doak, of Stockton, vice-president, ap- pointed by Governor Booth 1874, by Governor Perkins 1880, and by Governor Stoneman 1884; C. H. Randall, of Sonora, appointed by Gov- ernor Stoneman 1884; J. D. McDougald, of Stockton, appointed by Governor Stoneman 1885; and Obed Harvey, M. D., of Galt, ap- pointed by Governor Waterman 1888. N. M. Orr, of Stockton, is secretary and treasurer.
THE PACIFIC INSANE ASYLUM,
established by Drs. Clark & Langdon about 1871, at Woodbridge, was moved to Stockton in 1877. For particulars, see sketch of Dr. Asa Clark.
THE UNITED STATES LAND OFFICE
for this district was established at Stockton July 26, 1858, and is now in the Masonic Temple. The first entry upon the records bears the date August 2, 1858.
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
-¿ VILLAGES.
CHAPTER XIV.
LODI.
N 1869 Messrs. Allen T. Ayers, J. U. Megley and R. L. Wardrobe petitioned the railroad company to establish a station at the place known as Lodi, offering them an undivided half of a half mile square of land on which to lay ont the site for a town. This liberal offer was accepted, and the company proceeded to lay out the plat, naming the point Mokelumne station; but when some years afterward this name was found to be too similar to others in the State, the present name of Lodi was selected.
The village, which has now a population of about 1,200, is pleasantly located on compara- tively high ground, about three-fourthis of a inile south of the Mokeluinne river, eight miles nortlı of the Calaveras, and fourteen miles north of Stockton. The railroad runs north and south through its center, and its depot grounds com- prise three squares. Although the town plat remains the same, the houses occupy an area of one mile by three-fourthis. The land in the vicinity is sandy and excellent for almost all kinds of crops. Watermelons have been a great specialty here for many years. The surface of the ground does not become miry in wet weather. Below the surface is a hard-pan, and beneath this again, only about fifteen feet from the sur- face, good water is found in abundance.
In August, 1869, I. N. Stretch commenced building a dwelling-house and store,-the latter on the corner of Pine and Sacramento streets.
This store was, when completed, occupied by J. M. Burt and C. O. Ivory; they were the first buildings erected in the place. The second building was a hotel, called the Hooker House, a kind of ark that the flood of fortune liad floated about the world until it finally drifted, in its wanderings, to Mokelumne station. It was first built at Sancho Plano, in Amador County, for a hotel; in the fall of 1861 Charles Hopkins moved it to Campo Seco, in Calaveras County, and named it after General Hooker, who afterward became the hero of Lookont Mountain. In the spring of 1869, Dan Crist (commonly known as "Uncle Dan") bought the house from Hopkins, with a view of taking it to Dover, on the San Joaquin, and lie moved it to Woodbridge, with this view, intending to ship it from there by water, but found the river too low. While it was lying there the town of Mokelumne was laid out, and the destination of the wandering hotel was changed to the new site, where it was erected under the old name of Hooker House. In January, 1870, Uncle Dan had an addition built to it by J. E. Spencer.
In December, 1869, the railroad company commenced erecting the derot buildings. In the same month J. A. Allison and W. Jacobs established a stage line between this place and Mokelumue Hill, which made connections with the lines to Tuolumne and the upper part of Calaveras and Amador counties. Uncle Dan was appointed postmaster, keeping the post-
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
office at the Hooker House. Thus in 1869 was concentrated the nucleus-a hotel, store, depot, postoffice and stage line-around which the future could rally and build a town. In the spring of 1870 J. A. Allison built a livery stable, a butcher shop was erected by Thompson & Folger, and B. D. Beckwithi finished a drug store.
It was in 1870 that by subscription a general fund was raised for the purpose of building a church. The building was to be called the Union Church, and be free to all denominations except the Mormons. After the building was enclosed and three services were held therein on the succeeding Sunday, before midnight it was accidentally burned down. The same com- mittee raised more funds and erected on the same foundation another and a larger building, which was dedicated and turned over to the Methodists, the only organized religious body in the place.
During the month of September, 1870, J. E. Spencer and John Flannagan commenced the erection of the Spencer House; it was com- pleted during the following winter, and opened in February as a hotel by Edward Olwell and Mrs. J. Barry, who occupied it for one year, and then J. E. Spencer became proprietor of the business.
Through Lodi east and west runs the San Joaquin & Sierra Nevada Railroad, a narrow- gauge track, an account of which is given in Chapter IX.
The Lodi Mill and Warehouse Company, composed mostly of farmers, in 1876 erected a flouring-mill at Lodi, of brick, with four sets of bulirs for wheat and middlings, and one set for barley. The cost was $30,000. A. W. Gove was the first secretary of the company, and Mr. Bingham the first manager. The mills were set in operation in the autumn of that year, with a 119-horse-power engine, which is still in use therc. The establishment after- ward fell into the hands of George S. Locke, the mortgagee, and he ran it occasionally until the spring of 1882, when Sperry & Co., of
Stockton, rented it and ran the mills at inter- vals for about eighteen months. In October, 1883, they abandoned them, and nothing more was done until July, 1884, when they were purchased by Corson, Lasell & Wright, who continued in partnership about two years, and then Corson (C. H.) purchased the interest of his partners. About a year and a half after- ward he admitted into partnership F. R. Clark, but since October, 1888, Mr. Corson has been sole proprietor.
In the fall of 1884 the roller system was in- troduced and combined with the stone work, but in July, 1887, the latter was removed. The capacity of the mill is 200 barrels a day, and is run for local trade nearly half the time.
The warehouse in connection therewith lias a storage capacity of 4,000 tons.
The Lodi Land and Lumber Company in 1877 built on the Mokelumne river, about a mile from Lodi, one of the finest saw-mills on the coast, at a cost of $40,000, the mill having a capacity of 40,000 feet per day.
The Lodi Planing Mills were started in opera- tion about the middle of April, 1889, by Huestis & Larson, who afterward sold to Buckland, of San Francisco. Mr. Huestis now runs the mill, manufacturing furniture and building material, both redwood and pine. When working to its full capacity the mill gives employment to seven or eight hands.
The Lodi' Bank was incorporated June 7, 1888, and does a general banking business. B. F. Langford, president; Francis Cogswell, vice- president; Guy W. Currier, cashier.
The principal hotel in the place is the Sar- gent Honse, where a huge fire-place, Southern style, is kept well supplied with burning wood, so that one can warm himself there thoroughly and quickly, with no confined or foul air to breathe. In this respect this is the best hotel the writer has found in all his travels in the Golden State.
The Lodi Hall Association erected in 1876 a magnificcent two-story brick building, 30 x 90 feet, at a cost of $16,000.
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
The Valley Review was first issued July 20, 1878, being established by Mrs. Gertie de Force Cluff, sister of Mrs. Laura de Force Gordon. Its size was a seven-column folio, 24x36 inches, weekly. In 1884 Mrs. Cluff sold to Walcott & Clieney, and they in turn, about a year later, to Bloomer & Moore. Subsequently the institu- tion was sold by the sheriff.
In 1885 Mrs Cluff started the Lodi Cyclone, same size, but eight pages with five columns to the page. A year afterward she sold to Howell & Matteson, who changed the paper to the Lodi News. July 7, 1887, the office was accidentally destroyed by fire, with but little insurance.
August 16, 1888, the present Valley Re- view, a weekly folio, was started by Frank B. Cluff, a very young man who has been a resi- dent here since October, 1875. He was born in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and was but eight years old when he came with his parents to Lodi. His father, George F. Cluff, a native of Massachusetts, and his mother, of Pennsyl- vania, are residents of Lodi. Young Cluff was only eighteen years of age when he assuined the business management of the Cyclone, and he is now proprietor of the Valley Review. This, as well as all the papers started here by his relatives have been, is a prosperous journal.
The Lodi Sentinel was first established July 9, 1881, by W. R. Ellis and J. W. McQuaid, from Napa County. The former is now pro- prietor of the Woodland Daily Mail; the latter sold to his partner in 1885 and is now con- nected with the Marysville Democrat. In 1887 F. E. Ellis bought the paper, and in July, 1888, sold a half interest to his brother, H. F., tlius forming the present partnership. The paper, a weekly folio of seven columns to the page, is now printed in the Bank block, np stairs. Re- publican in politics. F. E. Ellis is editor, and H. F. Ellis is the printer.
F. E. Ellis was born and brought up in Napa County, this State, receiving his education at the high school in Napa City; tanght school three or four years in San Joaquin and Cala- veras counties, and then came to Lodi. Here
he is also secretary of the Odd Fellows lodge, and he has passed all the chairs in the order of the Knights of Pythias.
The Lodi Library and Reading Room Associ- ation was organized in 1886. The Sargent Brothers, of Lodi, and James A. Lonttit, Esq., of Stockton, were liberal donors to the fund. The library, now comprising 600 to 700 vol- umes, is kept in the Sentinel office, where it is conveniently kept open all day every work- day by the proprietors of that paper, Mr. F. E. Ellis being secretary and librarian for the association. W. C. Green is president. For membership there is a small fee, but there are no assessments. The selection of books is superior, as it has been made with a definite purpose, and is not a mere storage room for old, worthless books.
By way of episode we may here relate that April 1, 1889, some members of the association loudly advertised, " with gun, drum, trumpet, blunderbuss and thunder" (Pope) on the streets of Lodi and Woodbridge, attracting- immense crowds, that a monster minstrel troupe of local talent would give a grand per- formance in the evening at a certain hall. The sale of tickets amounted to about $100. The hour for exhibiting arrived, but not the per- formers, when the citizens called to mind that it was " All Fools' Day," pardoned the roguish chaps for their philanthropic enterprise and went home calling it " square."
A two-story frame school building, 30 x 40 feet, was erected in 1872, at an expense of $2,169, raised by special tax. The present school-house, a neat two-story frame of eight rooms in the southeastern part of town, was erected in 1881 or 1882, at a cost of $15,000. Here the average attendance is about 200, while the number of children of school age in the village is 306. School is maintained nine monthis each year. J. N. Summers is the prin- pal, and there are four assistant teachers.
The Methodist Episcopal Church, the oldest and numerically the strongest religious society in Lodi, has now a membership of seventy-two.
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
The class-leaders are Mrs. C. W. McMaster and Mrs. Wm. Moore. C. W. McMaster is super- intendent of the Sunday-school, whichi averages about eighty pupils in attendance, including teacliers, and 300 volumes in library. The church building has already been referred to. It is located in the southwest part of the city, and the whole property is now valned at $4,000 Besides, there is a fine parsonage on the lot adjoining that of the church, valued at $1,000. The pastors have been: Revs. John Bryant, 1870-'71, when the church was built; Belknap, 1873; E. F. Walker, about 1875; Hazen; White, when the parsonage was bnilt; C. S. Haswell, 1879-'81; Thomas B. Palmer, 1882- '84; W. R. Gober, 1884; Edward E. Dodge, 1885; and since September, 1886, Seneca Jones. The last mentioned is a genius and independent thinker, as well as a " scholar and a gentleman." Without having served an apprenticeship.at or- gan building, he can construct one as well as any professional artisan, as is demonstrated in the Lodi church.
The Congregational church building, in the northwestern part of the village, was erected in 1879-'80, at a cost of $3,200, including the furnishings. The ministers have been Revs. W. C. Stewart, C. L. Corwin, N. W. Lane, George B. Allen and J. W. Brier, Jr., the present pas- tor. The deacons are W. A. Perkins and C. T. Elliott; church clerk, T. B. Geoffroy.
Mr. Brier is a native of Michigan, and was about six years of age when bronght to this State by his parents. His father, Rev. J. W. Brier, Sr., is still living, in good health and discharging the duties of a pastor- ate, at the age of seventy-six years, after having a remarkable career in this State since the early days. A native of Ohio, lie came to California, a Methodist minister and co-laborer of Revs. Isaac Owen ("Father" Owen), M. C. Briggs (who came in 1851) and S. D. Simonds. He was the leader of the party that discovered Death Valley in 1849. Entering Antelope Valley near Newhall, he proceeded to Los Angeles and then by land up to San Jose. Was sta- 13
tioned at Santa Cruz, Napa, Sonoma, Marys- ville and San Francisco. In 1859 he became a Congregationalist. In 1888 he delivered thirty speeches in the State canvass, traveling abont 1,300 miles, and won golden opinions from all classes. He is now pastor of the Congregational church at Palermo, Butte County, this State.
Lodi Lodge, No. 256, F. & A. M., was or- ganized in 1879, with twelve charter members, and Ralph Ellis as the first master. There are now about thirty-three members. Lodge mneets every Thursday before the full moon. Dr. E. F. Grant is secretary.
Lodi Lodge, No. 259, I. O. O. F., was insti- tuted May 22, 1877, the charter members being John Rutan, P. G .; C. V. Williamson, P. G .; Morgan Crawford, P. G .; Howard M. Craig, Henry Witte, Samuel Ferdnn, Ren- ben Pixley, John Hutchins, Ezekiel Law- rence, A. T. Ayres, W. D. Smith, Thomas Russell, Thomas Fairchilds, G. B. Ralph and C. T. Riggs. The first officers of the organiza- tion were John Rutan, N. G .; Henry Witte, V. G .; Thomas Russell, R. S .; A. T. Ayres, P. S .; E. Lawrence, Treasurer. The present mem- bership is sixty. William Ennis is D. D. G. M. of District No. 79, which includes Lodi, Wood- bridge, Clements, Lockeford and Elliott.
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