USA > California > San Diego County > San Diego > City of San Diego and San Diego County : the birthplace of California, Volume I > Part 17
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52
Another prominent resident of San Diego at the time was Major Levi Chase, a native of Maine and a veteran of the Civil war, who came here in 1868, engaged at once in the practice of law and ultimately was connected with much of the important litigation aris- ing in San Diego County for many years thereafter. At the time of his death, May 31. 1906, he was referred to as the oldest member of the San Diego Bar Association. One of the important pieces of litigation which he undertook was to settle the title and boundaries
116 CITY OF SAN DIEGO AND SAN DIEGO COUNTY
of El Cajon Rancho. The Chase residence in San Diego was one of the "show places" of the city in the '70s.
The list of the men who were in San Diego fifty years ago and who attained prominence in the life of the little city of those days is a long one. It has been impossible to do more in the space allotted than to present a somewhat representative list. Other names, which do not appear here, might well have been included but for that reason.
-
CHAPTER X
HORTON COMES TO SAN DIEGO
Considering the means at his command and weighing the obstacles against which he had to struggle, Alonzo Erastus Horton almost literally accomplished wonders in San Diego. For he came here to the port when the new town of Davis and Gray had faded away almost to nothing, saw almost at a glance that their site, the site which the city now occupies-if spread from that "new town" of the '50s-was the real site and thereon built a city. He started with nothing but the site and its advantages and a small capital and out of it all made what he had dreamed could and would be made.
A. E. Horton was a really remarkable man. Powerful in build, with shrewd yet kindly eyes, firm chin-a man who at first glance might have been thought to be little more than a clever, bold trader- he possessed withal a tremendously broad vision and the creative faculty to make such a vision count. He was not, strictly speaking, a philanthropist ; yet he was generous to a degree, giving of his land to all civic enterprises of merit and often lifting the burden from some unfortunate purchaser. He wanted, of course, to make a city at San Diego and to profit thereby and realized that to foster worthy enter- prise, to encourage home-building and the construction of churches and hotels was good policy : but his donations were made in a broad- minded, generous way. As it turned out, he did not die a wealthy man ; yet his late years were filled, according to the one best qualified to speak on that subject-his wife-with a complete satisfaction that around his home there had grown up a great city.
"He had a great, broad vision," said Mrs. Horton in a recent talk with the writer of this history. "He foresaw all that came to pass in San Diego in his life time. He was never surprised at any of the great improvements which were made here in his later years. One might think that he would have been sorry when the old Horton House, the fine hotel he had built, was torn down to make room for a modern structure. But he was not sorry: to the contrary, he was glad to see the fine new building go up."
So he was with all other improvements which the men who came after him, working on the beginnings he had made, improved upon his plan and broadened the city out.
Smythe has directed attention to the fact that the previous and unsuccessful attempt of Gray and Davis to establish a town at what is now San Diego did not work in Horton's favor : there were many who looked on Horton's attempt as due to fail because of the earlier failure. Yet Horton realized that the time in which he came was ยท better for such an attempt than was that of the Gray-Davis effort, and he had the force of character to see it through. As Smythe
117
118 CITY OF SAN DIEGO AND SAN DIEGO COUNTY
adds, "it is easy enough to criticize the man who did it; it is not so easy to duplicate the achievement, nor was it ever done before by the will of a single individual, without capital, without the support of some religious, social or comniercial organization. Horton well deserves the tribute. Also he well deserves the kindly name "Father" which San Diegans bestowed on the founder of the city in his later years.
Horton first came to San Diego in April, 1867. He was a Con- necticut Yankee and at the time was in his 54th year. As a boy he was brought up in humble circumstances in Northern New York, where, to help support the family, he worked at various tasks-as a tiniber-cutter, a grocery clerk, a lake sailor and in other lines of endeavor. Incidentally, he gained a reputation as a wrestler of great strength. Despite this physical prowess, he developed a cough, which led his doctor to believe that young Horton had consumption and to advise the young man to go west. So Horton went to Wisconsin, where he traded in land and cattle, using his natural shrewdness in what was then a new land for most Americans. When the Mexican war ended, he bought some soldiers' land warrants at a good price for the buyer and laid out the town of Hortonville, Wisconsin. In a few years he had cleaned up a good amount of money and decided to go on to the Pacific coast with the many then bound on the hunt for gold. That was in 1851. In the mining region he worked with some degree of success in purchases of gold dust. In 1856 he pulled up his stakes and went back East by way of Panama, where the passengers got into a fight with natives with the result that many were robbed. Horton himself lost $10,000, but saved $5,000 which he carried in a belt. He fought for several years at Washington, making frequent trips to the capital, to have steps for redress taken.
Horton in the early '60s returned to the Pacific coast and in 1867 was in San Francisco where he had a small furniture business. Hor- ton at the time had a bad cough, and perhaps he remembered the warning which the doctor had sounded many years before. At any rate, when he heard of the climatic and other advantages of San Diego, he quickly made up his mind to move there. These advantages were spread forth by a speaker at a meeting to which Horton hap- pened to be invited. The speaker told of the harbors on the Pacific Coast, starting at Seattle and working south with his description. At last he came to San Diego, which, according to Horton, he described as one of the most healthful places on earth and possessing a great harbor. Horton looked the place up on a map and then decided to sell out his business and move. The sale took him only three days, and then Horton took passage on the steamer Pacific. The Wells- Fargo agent on the boat was as enthusiastic about San Diego as had been the speaker whose glowing praise of San Diego had sent Horton away from San Francisco, and by the time the steamer reached the narrow old wharf at "New Town," Horton's expectations had been keyed up to high pitch. In those days passengers from the steamer went by wagon from the wharf to Old Town. Horton later related that when he arrived at Old Town he expressed himself forcibly as being very doubtful about the Old Town site.
CITY OF SAN DIEGO AND SAN DIEGO COUNTY 119
"It doesn't lie right," he said. "The city ought to be down there by the wharf."
That remark led to the famous auction at which Horton bought a thousand acres at an average price of twenty-six cents an acre. E. W. Morse, the kindly, thoughtful, loyal San Diegan who later became well known in the city, was Wells-Fargo agent at Old Town, and he had stood by as Horton had spoken for a new San Diego. It was Morse who suggested the auction, and the two soon began a friendship which lasted until death took Morse away. Horton paid $10 to have a special election of trustees called so there would be no doubt as to the legality of the auction plan and then went shooting quail, which abounded here in those days and in so doing lost his cough. He also went out with Morse and looked over the new town- site. When Sunday came he went to Fr. Antonio D. Ubach's little Catholic church and attracted considerable attention to himself by putting $5 into the collection plate. At the special election Morse, Joseph S. Mannassee and Thomas H. Bush, men for whom Horton had declared a preference, were unanimously elected. Then the auction of the pueblo lands was held, with Morse as auctioneer. Horton got the land he wanted practically without opposition, and then, having had the deeds recorded, went back to San Francisco to tell his friends about San Diego.
Lieutenant Derby (John Phoenix) in his jovial description of the city as "Sandyago" had not done much to advertise it in the best wav, and it may be that there were many scoffers when Horton returned to the north and began to talk about the town which he had bought. Yet Horton said later that "large crowds" gathered around him when he told of what he had seen and surveved and bought and that all were interested. Among those who heard what Horton had to say was Gen. William S. Rosecrans, who was considering a plan to build a railroad through to California and he evinced real interest in what Horton related. The upshot of this was that the general took passage with Horton when the latter started back to San Diego. Horton and Rosecrans got a team and rode out to Jacumba Pass, looked over into Imperial Valley and took observations along the road. Horton had been quoted as saying that Rosecrans declared this southern route the best he had seen for a railroad to enter Cali- fornia. The two went back to San Francisco together and soon after that, according to Horton, he received an offer, through Rose- crans, of $250,000 for Horton's land in San Diego. Horton made up his mind that if it was worth that much, he would hang to it and make what profits there were to be made, and the deal was called off.
Horton soon returned to San Diego and started the building of the city of which he had dreamed. He bought from William II. Davis a small building down on the waterfront and got Capt. S. S. Dunnells to start a hotel in it. He began building a wharf which cost about $45,000, at the foot of Fifth Street and then began selling lots or even offering some of them free if those who took them would build. Soon a score of buildings were started on Fifth Street down near the bayshore. Others soon followed.
San Diego was strongly Democratic in political sentiment, for various reasons, one of which was, that not a few former Southerners,
.. ...
HORTON
HOUSE
-
THE OLD HORTON HOUSE
Which stood on the same site as that now occupied by the U. S. Grant Hotel, one of the best known hotels of the West. In the foreground is the City Plaza. This photograph, taken by Herbert R. Fitch, was made about 1895.
121
CITY OF SAN DIEGO AND SAN DIEGO COUNTY
or sympathizers with the South in the war, had settled here. Horton, however, was an ardent Republican and seemed to be determined to do somthing for the party of his choice while building up a new city. To use his own words, he was "a Black Republican" and he was rather given to expressing his political views. In an interview given in 1905 Horton said that on one occasion soon after his arrival in San Diego he was warned that it would be dangerous for him to talk freely on Republican lines, the man who gave the warning say- ing that San Diego was "the worst Copperhead hole in California." "I will make it a Republican hole before I have been here very long." was Horton's confident rejoinder.
Horton kept his word. He gave it out that he would employ none but Republicans and as he had the work for men to do and the money with which to pay them, his influence was, to say the least, strong. The Republicans elected a number of their candidates in the fall of 1871, and since then, with few exceptions, the county and city have been strongly Republican.
Horton's venture was successful almost from the start. New- comers began to arrive, and the demand for property here sent the price of Horton's lots up. Horton himself said later that some times after the arrival of a steamer from the north he would take in from $5.000 to $20,000 a day. He took money in so fast that he became tired of handling it, much as the later real estate dealers of the boom days of 1887 and 1888 became tired of taking in money for San Diego lots.
In January, 1870, Horton began building the Horton House, which cost about $150,000. His widow said recently that when this plan was announced, some indignation was expressed, some of the residents of the new San Diego accusing him of "starting a town 'way out upon D street." In nine months the hotel was finished, and for many a year it was known throughout the Southwest as the finest hotel in that section. It contained 100 rooms, was three stories high, had all of the conveniences of the period and soon became famous. George W. Marston, who later became well known as a merchant, was the first clerk. . Not long after that Marston started his store at Fifth and F streets, and that was the farthest store "uptown" for some time. The hotel building was constructed partly of brick and partly of wood, of which two steamer loads were brought to San Diego for the purpose.
Striking evidence of the rather isolated situation of the Horton House is afforded in an old photograph, taken in 1872, of Broadway looking west from Fifth Street. On the northwest corner where. now towers the Holzwasser building was a grocery store. Apparently only one other building was between that and the Horton House. On the southwest corner of Third and Broadway, where the fine Union building now stands, was shown the old Horton bank building in process of construction. The only animate objects shown in this photograph from what is now the city's "busiest corner" were a horse and three men, one of whom sat, comfortably tilted back, in a chair at the entrance of the building east of the corner grocery. It was a peaceful scene this which the photographer caught, and if a man had stood by him and had discharged a cannon with only reasonably
122 CITY OF SAN DIEGO AND SAN DIEGO COUNTY
careful aim, he could have shot right down Broadway without dis- turbing anything but the serenity of the occasion.
Not long after starting the hotel, Horton began construction of the Horton bank building at the southwest corner of Third and D streets. It was intended originally to contain the offices of Colonel Scott's Texas & Pacific Railroad, which did not materialize. When this structure was completed, there probably was no finer building south of San Francisco in the whole state. When it was razed in 1906 to make room for the present Union building, this account of the old structure was printed in the Union :
"At that time 'Father' Horton was in the prime of his life, and probably the richest and most powerful man in Southern California. The Union building was his particular pet project. Into it he put thought and effort. It was to stand in the future as a monument to the far sightedness of its builder. And during his life it was such.
"'Father' Horton spared no expense in its construction. He did not figure whether by decreasing its cost in some particular he could add to the percentage its revenues would return. He merely sought what was the best material to put into it and the best men to do the work. The rest was simple. He gathered the material, and the men to do the work were found and told to go ahead.
"They were hired by the day and were constantly under the eye of Mr. Horton. They had no object in working hastily or in substi- tuting cheap material, and they did not do so.
"As an instance of the thoroughness of construction one might mention the bank vault in the corner room of the building. A base was laid for it nine or ten feet thick. Not content with mixing merely broken rock and mortar together, Mr. Horton had collected all the empty bottles in town. These were broken up and thoroughly mixed with the cement, not only to add strength but to make the way more dangerous for any possible burglar who might seek to burrow under the vault upward into it."
For several years the old bank building was used by the San Diego Union and by officers of the Spreckles companies.
The new town began to grow in a remarkably fast manner. Horton kept the pace fast. He gave away lots to each of the church organizations, and some of them soon became very valuable. An instance of this was seen in the old Methodist Church block at Fourth Street and Broadway; by 1888 this had reached a value of $60,000. It was then asserted that the real estate which Horton had given away would reach the value of a million dollars and that in addition he had put more than $700,000 of his own money into the improve- ment of the city. His receipts at first were small, but by 1869, two years after he started the city, they had reached $85,000 a year. One writer says that in all Horton gave away more than a score of blocks and many lots. On one of these blocks the courthouse was built. When financial conditions were bad, Horton kept up his good work, employing men, encouraging building, providing homes, assuming financial burdens and asserting his faith in San Diego. When a church could not raise money for its building, to be put on a lot
123
CITY OF SAN DIEGO AND SAN DIEGO COUNTY
already given by Horton, the father of the town often helped to swell the building fund and to make it large enough for the purpose outlined.
Ip 1869 the new town claimed some 3.000 inhabitants, and "addi- tions" were being laid out and marketed. Hundreds of newcomers were pouring in, and the little hotel run by Captain Dunnells was by no means able to take care of the new arrivals, so new hotels were planned. The Bay View Hotel at Fifth and F streets was the first erected in Horton's addition : it was started in 1868: Horton's big hotel, "the finest in Southern California," was opened in 1870. The steamers from San Francisco were bringing in many who wanted homes in San Diego. There was complaint of "high rents" and the scarcity of homes. At the close of 1869, so the newspapers reported. there were nearly 450 buildings in the city.
The spirit of the new and growing town was strikingly shown in its Fourth of July celebration of 1869. It lasted three days and nights and was long a pleasant topic of conversation among old San Diegans. On Saturday, the first day of the program, there was a large meeting in Horton's warehouse. Daniel Cleveland, who had arrived only in the previous May, gave the ovation of the day-a notable address, according to newspaper comment. G. W. B. Mc- Donald, father-in-law of Philip Morse, still residing here, was presi- dent of the day. Rev. Sidney Wilbur, who organized an Episcopalian parish in San Diego-the first regular church in the new town-gave the prayer. Capt. Matthew Sherman, who later laid out Sherman's addition and who became mayor in 1891. read the declaration of Inde- pendence. There was celebration all around San Diego. Old Town and Monument City sharing in the festivities.
San Diego's activity in building and other progress was marked in 1870. Horton was instrumental in getting the Western Union Telegraph Company to extend its line here and headed a movement for an $8,000 subsidy. The line was opened up Aug. 19, 1870, and has been open ever since except for short periods such as that follow- ing the great flood of 1916 which ripped out poles and wires all along the coast of Southern California. Daily mail service between Los Angeles and San Diego also was established, and the city began to be a real city as far as communication with the outside world is con- cerned. Horton's Hall at Sixth and F streets, and the Bank of San Diego, the first of the city, were started and completed. Horton was first president of the bank. The national census of that year gave the city 2,300 inhabitants and 915 houses.
Some idea of the magnitude of Horton's operations may be gained from the following table, made in 1873, of his enterprises :
The Horton House, erected at a cost of $125.000. with about $25.000 added for furnishings ; the residence then occupied by Thomas L. Nesmith, $9.000: Horton's Hall. $10.000: wharf, later bought by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. $40.000: hank building at Third and D streets, $50.000; building at Sixth and G streets, $8,000: resi- dence Sixth and A streets, $4.500: building Ninth and H streets. $1,500, and several other smaller buildings.
San Diego's first "boom." thus so enthusiastically and auspiciously launched, died down in 1873 following the receipt of the news that
124 CITY OF SAN DIEGO AND SAN DIEGO COUNTY
Col. Thomas A. Scott could not build the proposed Texas & Pacific into San Diego-a matter told in some detail in another part of this book-and for several years after that San Diego was a quiet place. It was natural that it should be, for the hard times which began in the nation in 1873 soon spread to the Pacific coast and put the brakes effectually on progress there. Still the town grew even in those dull times. Some there were who had come to San Diego, had been unable to "make a go of it" and who turned to Horton for aid. If he held a contract from such a man, this contract was taken up and the original purchaser paid back "dollar for dollar." Such v was Horton's faith in the town, and such was his way of doing business.
This place seems an appropriate one for a few more words con- cerning the personal side of Horton. Reference already has been made to the fact that he was physically a powerful man. Mrs. Horton recently recalled in a conversation with the writer a little incident to which the pioneer often referred with a chuckle in his later years.
"On one occasion," said Mrs. Horton, "Mr. Horton went to San Francisco to get the gold coin to start his bank at the southwest corner of Third and D streets. He brought the gold back in a bag and when he left the steamer he carried it without apparent effort, for although it was very heavy he was a very strong man, and such burdens meant nothing to him. When the porter came up, Mr. Horton said, 'How much will you carry this bag up for?' I suppose the man said he would do it for two bits or four bits, whatever his price was. At any rate, Mr. Horton gave him the bag to carry, and he simply staggered under the load. Mr. Horton was very much amused at this and often told about it with a merry laugh at the recollection of the incident."
Horton was about 5 feet, 10 inches in height and weighed about 180 pounds. Even in his later years-he lived to be more than ninety- five-he nearly always was healthy and vigorous and always optim- istic. He did not smoke or drink, and Mrs. Horton says that for many years he did not like the odor of tobacco smoke. But in his late years he became a member of the San Diego lodge of Elks and often after attending their meetings came home uncomplaining with the odor of his fellow-lodgemen's cigar smoke lingering in his garm- ents. He nearly always wore a black frock coat and black silk hat when on the street. He was very fond of music, sang a little and liked to attend the theatres.
Mr. Horton's first wife was a Miss Sarah Babe. She died in the late '80s. Mr. Horton in November, 1890, married the present Mrs. Horton, then the widow of William Knapp, a retired navy officer.
The father of San Diego passed away in January, 1909, after an illness of about six weeks. He suffered in his last twenty years on occasions from a recurrence of poison oak poisoning, and this in his last few days caused him much pain.
Mrs. Horton recently said to the writer :
"Mr. Horton often told me about going up, soon after he came to San Diego, to about where the courthouse now is and standing
CITY OF SAN DIEGO AND SAN DIEGO COUNTY 125
there thinking what a beautiful location this was for a great city. He also often told me of going to the rise in ground at about Date or Elm streets, and in later years he said: 'I am not surprised at what has happened here in San Diego. I have seen it all-the tall buildings and great ships at anchor, taller buildings and greater ships than I had ever seen. I dreamed it all.' Mr. Horton actually did have dreams like this; they were not mere pictures of the fancy but actual dreams.
"Mr. Horton's first house in San Diego was one which William Heath Davis had brought from the east. One of these houses was used as Dunnells' Hotel. His second was down near where the gas works now are-'way down there. Mr. Horton then built at Tenth and G streets: that was an English cottage. He had a whole block for his residence. Thos. L. Nesmith had this house later, and after that it was moved to Second and Beech streets. The second residence he built for himself in San Diego was erected in 1873 and was at Sixth and A streets. It cost $5,000. He later built a house of twelve rooms at First and Fir streets and still later another at State and Olive streets in Middletown and it had eleven rooms."
CHAPTER XI
BEFORE THE BOOM
In 1870 the Federal census gave the County of San Diego a popu- lation of 4,951. The population of the new city at that particular time has been variously estimated, the figures ranging from "nearly 3,000" down to about 2,300. Perhaps the total was nearly 2,500. It kept increasing with the hope that the Texas & Pacific Railroad would
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.