USA > California > San Diego County > San Diego > City of San Diego and San Diego County : the birthplace of California, Volume I > Part 30
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In 1901 Frank P. Frary, Republican, was elected over Patterson Sprigg, well known attorney and prominent Democrat, and Frank Simpson, nominee of the Socialists.
In 1903 the Republicans put up Frary again. He was opposed by James E. Wadham, Democrat, who for many years has been prom- inent not only for his political activities, but for his work as attor- ney. Frank Simpson again ran for the Socialists. Frary won by a respectable margin. The Socialists' candidate got only about 200 votes in a total of about 3,000.
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In 1905 the campaign was notable for the participation in it of Capt. John L. Sehon, a retired army officer, who had come to San Diego to reside with his family and who had attained some prominence as a member of the council. Always a hard fighter, Captain Sehon gathered to his support a considerable independent strength and the support of what was becoming to be known as the Progressive Repub- lican or Progressive forces, of whom Hiram Johnson was state leader. Danville F. Jones was endorsed and supported by the "regular" Re- publicans, while Sehon received Democratic endorsement. Sehon won at the election by nearly 700 votes, but there had been considerable argument over his eligibility to office because he was an army officer on the retired list. Court proceedings were started to contest his right to office, but some of Sehon's friends kept him secluded so that he was not served in this, and he stole a march on his opponents by coming to the city at night just as Mayor Frary's term was about to end and taking possession of the mayor's office. Efforts to oust him failed in the courts, the case going to the State Supreme Court.
The 1907 election for mayor was won by John Forward, Sr., who defeated Grant Conard by about 300 votes in a total of 3.100. Mr. Forward's administration was generally regarded as a good one. He gave to his work the same degree of good business sense which has marked his private business as head of the Union Title Company of San Diego.
The 1909 race was the first in which San Diego tried the primary election system, and it brought out a vote more than twice as large as that recorded two years before. Conard was again a candidate and received to a large degree the support of the Progressive wing of the Republican party. He was opposed by Forward, and also at the primary by William J. Kirkwood, to whom went a large Socialist vote. Kirk- wood's total at the primary ran to about 1,200 in a total vote of about 7,800 : he was third in the race and was eliminated. At the final elec- tion in May Conard won over Forward by about 350 votes in a total of about 6.750. It was generally supposed that a large part of the vote which was cast at the primary for Kirkwood was swung to Conard at the final election. Kirkwood was made city building in- spector by the incoming administration.
The 1911 primary found Conard a candidate for re-election, his principal opponent being James E. Wadham, well known attorney. Wadham had a large lead at the primary, but at the final election beat Conard by only about 500 votes.
The 1913 race brought out by far the largest vote ever cast up to that time in a San Diego mayoralty contest, the total at the primary running to roughly 14,600, while at the final election the total vote cast for mayor was more than 15,000. George W. Marston, pioneer merchant and prominent citizen for many years, was induced by his friends to be a candidate. Against him at the primary were arrayed Charles F. O'Neall, who had become active in San Diego's real estate field, and Jacob Beckel, to whom went a large vote which was classed as a labor vote. O'Neall led at the primary over Marston by about 2,000 votes, Beckel polling about 3,000. The final contest, however, was very close, considering the size of the total vote. O'Neall won by about 700.
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The 1915 primary again brought out a large vote, the total being about 15,500. The three principal candidates were John S. Akerman, former president of the Chamber of Commerce and head of the Pa- cific Wood and Coal Company ; Edwin M. Capps, who had been har- bor engineer, and Charles F. O'Neall. Akerman led at the primary, Capps coming next and O'Neall third. At the final election, when the total vote mounted to 19,000, Capps defeated Akerman by 2,300.
The 1917 primary saw George W. Marston again entered for the mayoralty. Opposed to him were Louis J. Wilde, banker and cap- italist, and Charles H. Bartholomew, former postmaster of San Diego. Wilde led at both primary and final elections.
A longer list of candidates was before the voters of the city at the 1919 primary, these being in the race: Louis J. Wilde, candidate for re-election ; A. P. Johnson, head of the Southern Title Guaranty Company and prominent in the Chamber of Commerce; Herbert R. Fay, former councilman and active in the National Guard affairs ; Grant Conard, former mayor ; John A. Gillons, well known merchant, and I. I. Irwin, head of the Citizens' Savings Bank. Wilde and John- son qualified for the final ballot, at which Wilde won re-election by 2,000 votes.
Mayor Wilde in his second term was instrumental in forming the Community Oil Company, a co-operative organization whose pur- pose was to prospect for oil in and near San Diego, the hope of its many financial supporters being that indications of oil in San Diego county would be borne out by actual drilling. None was found. Those who went into the project were warned in advance that it was a simple "gamble," or, as Mayor Wilde picturesquely advertised it, a pure "jazz-cat." Several companies were organized and well financed here at about the same time for a similar purpose and did a good deal of work drilling for oil in the county, but when this was written, had failed to find oil in paying quantities. Some time before the end of this term Mayor Wilde announced that he would not be a candidate for re-election, declaring that the mayoralty was a thankless job.
Former Mayor Wadham entered the mayoralty race in the spring of 1921, his principal opponent being John L. Bacon, former council- man, and Frank H. Heskett, attorney. Wadham had a lead of nearly 300 at the primary over Bacon, Heskett being third, but at the final election Bacon won by 82 votes. Wadham was supported actively in the final contest by Heskett. In view of the closeness of the final race, Wadham was induced to take the matter before the superior court for an official recount, but this changed only a few votes, and Bacon took the mayor's chair.
The city since 1915 has been under a modified form of the city manager plan. It has a common council of five members, over whom the mayor sits as presiding officer, but without vote. The manager of operation, as he is formally named, has supervision of these bu- reaus : sewer, water, harbor, public buildings, streets, trees, building, electricity, gas, city farm and purchasing.
The mayor, with the approval of the council, appoints the city auditor, chief of police, and members of the following boards : library, three members ; park, three members ; health, five members ; cemetery, three members; playground, five members; civil service, three mem-
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bers. The council appoints the city clerk, city attorney, manager of operation, and chief of the fire department.
The city treasurer and the board of education of five members, are elected by the people. All bond issues must be approved by vote of the people, and all ordinances are subject to referendum. The people may also initiate legislation, and may recall any elected official and also the manager of operation.
In the political life of San Diego, as might be expected, there have been a number of amusing incidents. From one of them comes the explanation of the manner in which Thomas J. Hayes, well known citizen, became known as "Judge" Hayes. He literally found the title. Judge Hayes came here at the start of the "boom," and at its end, he, with many a citizen who remained, was somewhat eager to assure for himself a place which would help him make a living. He happened to read in the state constitution that any city with more than 10,000 population was entitled to a city justice. Here was San Diego with the requisite population, but no city justice ; the matter had been overlooked in the mad "boom" scramble to buy and sell real estate. Judge Hayes was thinking it over seriously one day, at Fifth and E streets, when he met W. A. Sloane, now high on the state bench of California, then a plain attorney of San Diego. Sloane wanted to be elected township justice. He wanted and asked Hayes' help.
"All right," said Hayes. "I'll do what I can for you if you'll help me to get the nomination for city justice."
"What's that?" asked Sloane.
Hayes explained. Sloane was surprised, but promised his aid, also secrecy.
The convention came. W. W. Bowers, then a power in local politics, was the "big gun," as Hayes put it, of the affair. He was chairman. Sloane was duly nominated-and later elected-for town- ship justice. It had been arranged that Bowers at the proper time should call for nominations for city justice. He made the call. Every- body except the few who were in the secret, looked surprised. Before the surprise wore off, someone had named Hayes for the place, and the nominations were closed. Hayes was elected and held the place for several terms. He had trouble in acting at first because Mayor Douglass Gunn and City Attorney Harry L. Titus expressed the opinion that the election might not have been regular, and they re- fused to furnish an office for the new justice. At last, however, Titus said he would write to John D. Works, his former law partner. who later became United States Senator from California, for an opinion. Works upheld Hayes, and Hayes took the job without further opposi- tion. His first office was established on Third Street near E, over the old fire engine house. The new judge began by slapping substantial fines on disorderly characters and soon won the hearty support of the mayor and city attorney. Thereafter he was always "Judge" Hayes. Hale and hearty at the age of seventy-one, he still takes an active interest in politics and in other affairs. He is the father of California's state-wide "newspaper day." on which loyal citizens of the state are urged to send to eastern relatives and friends newspapers telling about the advantages of the Golden State.
CHAPTER XIX
WATER DEVELOPMENT
As Smythe has aptly said in his history of San Diego, the resi- dents of the city, from almost the earliest days, have had to meet a considerable problem in acquiring and maintaining an adequate water supply. This is a condition common to most parts of Southern Cali- fornia and is not easily understood by the newcomer, usually from some eastern section where there is a heavy and widely spread annual rainfall. In Southern California the bulk of the rainfall is in the moun- tainous parts of the country. The rainfall in the mountains of San Diego County, for instance, is two or three times what it is in the city and along the coast line of the county. To a small community on the coast this makes little difference, for pumping from wells in or near sandy river beds will usually provide a sufficient domestic and even a comparatively small irrigation supply of water year after year. When the city becomes of appreciable size, its people must go to the mountain water sources, saving from the vast water sheds of those areas enough water in the winter season to last through the summer. In addition, as there are comparatively dry periods, sometimes several years long, a reserve supply must be stored up in reservoirs. Such conditions as these San Diego has met with success so far.
The city now has a superb water system, not yet fully developed by any means, and several systems which are privately owned have been developed, some almost fully and others but little. Far-seeing men, however, have expressed the opinion that before long San Diego will have developed all water available in the county and will be forced to follow the example of Los Angeles in going far afield to supplement the supply near at hand. Also the opinion has been expressed that San Diego will be just as large a city as it has water to supply. Thus it may be seen that the question of water supply is one of prime importance to San Diego, city and county.
In early days the wells and the old-fashioned windmills so com- mon in rural sections sufficed for the needs of the city. Shallow wells were made in the bed of the San Diego River. Other wells were dug or drilled in the city. A supply was thus obtained from a spot near the present court house, the water being peddled about the city in wagons. One well was sunk near the old Horton house. "Father" Horton had a well and a windmill for his garden near what is now Third and B streets. Others were completed farther downtown. They did not produce water enough, however, for very many residents, and as the town began to grow, the need of a large supply became evident if not acute. To meet this demand the city's first water com-
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CITY OF SAN DIEGO AND SAN DIEGO COUNTY 235
pany, the San Diego Water Company, was formed in 1872 and in- corporated early the next year. To get a supply it sank artesian wells in Pound Canyon, near the southern end of the park and ran pipe to the downtown section-all there was of San Diego at the time. "Seemingly inexhaustible," said a newspaper writer of the day. Yet by 1875 the supply was shown to be too small, and the company went to the San Diego riverbed to pump, selecting a spot near University Heights. Later a pumping plant and reservoir were built at Old Town.
THE FLUME COMPANY.
It was not until 1885 that steps were taken to bring a supply of water from the mountains, and those who thought out this plan and supported it were ultimately associated in what became the San Diego Flume Company. Prominent among them was Theodore S.
CUYAMACA LAKE, PART OF CUYAMACA WATER SYSTEM
Van Dyke, the rancher-writer. Associated with him in the enter- prise were William S. Robinson, George D. Copeland. Bryant Howard, L. F. Doolittle, A. W. Hawley, J. W. Sefton, R. A. Thomas, S. S. Sowers and William H. Sowers. The work which they accomplished showed the possibilities of such a plan not only for domestic supply but for irrigation purposes. The formal organization of the com- pany was in May, 1886. The records of the company show that the original cost was $1.280,000, of which $800.000 were bonds, financed by English bondholders: the balance was raised by sale of stock and by assessment. Water rights were sold at from $200 to $800 an inch. with an annual charge of $60 an inch, or at the rate of about one and a quarter cents for a thousand gallons. All might have gone well, but a dry period came, lasting, roughly speaking. from 1895 to 1905- a period in which little rain fell even in the mountains of the county. As the Flume Company's reservoir. Cuyamaca Lake, has only a small watershed, little water was stored, the reservoir dried up. and the company had recourse to pumping. E. S. Babcock, who had come
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to San Diego in 1884, and who later was associated with John D. Spreckels in several San Diego enterprises, was interested for a time in the Flume Company, but left it to carry on the affairs of the Otay Water Company, which was incorporated March 15, 1886. In 1895 he sold a half interest in that company to the Spreckels interests and the Otay Company's name was changed to the Southern California Mountain Water Company. That company built the Morena and Otay dams, the nucleus of the present city system.
Space does not permit a detailed account of the manner on which the city began to take a domestic supply from the Southern California Mountain Water Company or of the way in which this question became one largely of politics. Suffice it to say that the question came up for decision in 1905 and that the city then decided to obtain its supply from the Spreckels system. On August 13, 1906, the city entered into a contract with the Southern California Mountain Water Company for a water supply sufficient to meet the needs of San Diego up to 7,776,000 gallons a day. A very low rate was set on the water, enabling the city to supply it to consumers at the rate of eight cents for each 100 cubic feet.
Meanwhile the city had been growing steadily, and before long, the demand for domestic supply of water exceeded the maximum allowed under the contract. This called for further development of the system, and the upshot of the matter was that the company agreed to sell to the community for $4,000,000. The voters of San Diego endorsed this plan on August 15, 1912, by a vote of about five to one, and the city thus obtained a municipally owned system extending "from mountain to meter."
Meanwhile the English bondholders who had financed the Flume Company took over the system, and it was operated for several years under the management of M. C. Healion, but at a loss.
On June 1, 1910, James A. Murray and Ed Fletcher bought the entire Flume Company property for $150,000 and immediately began
reconstruction of the system. They increased the height of the Cuyamaca dam by about two feet, enlarged the spillway, raised the concrete diverting dam on the San Diego River, twenty-two miles above Lakeside, repaired the flume line, built several large siphons by which about six miles of wooden flume were eliminated and re- lined the flume with a composition which added much to its usefulness and age. The name of the system was changed to the Cuyamaca Water Company.
The Cuyamaca company later took over the entire distributing system in Normal Heights and Kensington Park, and is now furnish- ing about 11,000 people with water in La Mesa, Spring Valley, Lemon Grove, East San Diego, Normal Heights and Kensington Park. The Cuyamaca company built Murray dam, a concrete structure 117 feet in height, and 900 feet in length, just below the old La Mesa dam, thereby materially increasing the storage of water.
In 1914 William G. Henshaw bought a small interest in the Cuya- maca system and retains it still. Murray died on May 11, 1921, at Monterey. He owned large tracts of land in the county and had amassed a large fortune.
CITY OF SAN DIEGO AND SAN DIEGO COUNTY 237
THE CITY SYSTEM
The Lower Otay dam of the city system was carried out in the terrific flood which visited San Diego in January, 1916. The storm covered a three-day period, January 26, 27 and 28, the dam going out on January 27, the waters rushing down the Otay Valley in a flood of disastrous proportions and sweeping the heavy steel core of the dam and other parts of the structure a long distance from the dam site.
Although the people of San Diego realized that the Lower Otay reservoir was an important part of the water system, the work of re- placing the dam was not done for some time. A bond election to
VIEW OF LOWER OTAY DAM
One of the principal units of the water system of the City of San Diego.
provide funds for that purpose was called for November 17, 1916. but the bonds failed to carry, although a majority of the votes on that question were in favor of the proposition ; the measure was lost almost by a technicality, the item not receiving two-thirds of the votes cast on another item appearing on the same ballot. Another bond election was called as soon as it was legally possible, and, held on February 21, 1917. it resulted favorably for the rebuilding plan. The city entered into a contract with James Kennedy for the rebuild- ing on October 3, 1917, but the city's hydraulic engineer. H. N. Savage, canceled the contract August 30. 1918, and the city completed the work by day labor under the supervision of Engineer Savage. The new structure was formally declared complete on September 20, 1919. The estimated cost of the new dam was $620,000: the actual cost was given by Engineer Savage as $733,157.
238 CITY OF SAN DIEGO AND SAN DIEGO COUNTY
Late in 1919 work of building a dam at Barrett, a few miles from Morena dam, was launched officially, a bond issue of $1,000,000 being approved by the voters on November 25 of that year. Some preliminary work was done in the fall of that year under Engineer Savage's direction. This work was continued throughout 1920 and up to the time this was written, in the summer of 1921, when the dam was reported as about two-thirds done. An additional bond issue of $500,000 was approved by the voters of San Diego on April 5, 1921, to complete the work at Barrett. Increased costs of labor and materials, a condition brought about by the war, entered into this problem, of course.
In 1919 the city also began exploration work at El Capitan site on the San Diego River to determine the feasibility of placing a dam there. Drilling machinery for this task was removed to El Capitan site from Barrett dam. Actual sinking of exploration holes began September 26, 1919.
As this was written the chapter of the city's water development on the San Diego River system was not by any means complete.
The first step taken by the City of San Diego to acquire a hold on the San Diego River, toward actual development, or at least that part of the river above the sands of Mission Valley, was on June 9, 1915, when the city bought from W. B. Hamilton his filings on the San Diego River at the El Capitan dam site, several miles below the fork caused by the confluence of the river and Boulder Creek. The city then made application to the Department of the Interior for an ease- ment to flood the Indian reservation lands near the dam site. That step was taken July 26, 1915. Hamilton had applied for an easement in February, 1912; a number of objections were filed against his plan, but on April 29, 1915, the Department of the Interior had upheld the general land office in affirming Hamilton's rights. After the city had taken its action the late James A. Murray, Ed Fletcher and William G. Henshaw filed a protest in behalf of the San Diego Flume Company against the city's application. Hearings on that protest were started December 20, 1915, and at this hearing there were repre- sented the Indian office, the general land office, the forest service and the Department of Agriculture. Also represented were ranchers of La Mesa, Lemon Grove and Spring Valley, as the San Diego River Water Association ; Murray, Fletcher and Henshaw of course had representa- tives there.
On March 30, 1916, the register and receiver of the department recommended that the city's rights be confirmed. Murray, Fletcher and Henshaw thereupon appealed to the Secretary of the Interior. Before the secretary had rendered an opinion, the city asked Congress to pass a bill granting to the city the rights it sought in order to build a dam at El Capitan. While the matter was before Congress the secretary upheld the recommendation made by the register and receiver. He made no mention in his statement about protection of riparian rights held by those below the dam site-which has led some city authorities to assert that he evidently did not consider those rights of great importance as compared with the city's attempt to obtain a larger domestic water supply.
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The bill requested by the city was prepared and introduced by Congressman William Kettner. It was referred to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, a committee of the House and to the Secretary of the Interior, and Cato Sells, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, made a trip here at the time to look over the situation. Also, several members of Congress came here for the same purpose. On their return all recommended passage of the bill, but when it came before the House a representative from Michigan said he thought the riparian rights of private owners had not been sufficiently protected, and an amendment was added by which the city was compelled to protect those rights. Both house and senate thereupon voted for the measure.
The bill required the city to vote bonds and start actual construc- tion within two years from the time that the Secretary of the Interior should formally approve steps taken by the city to condemn the Indian reservation lands. Condemnation proceedings were approved in the Superior Court of San Diego County, the city being obligated to pay $75,000; but, up to the time this was written, the formal approval had not been announced by the Secretary of the Interior.
Meanwhile the city authorities have given some consideration to a plan to build a comparatively small dam in the Mission Gorge, a short distance above the dam built by the Franciscan Fathers early in the nineteenth century.
The various reservoirs of the city system and their capacity are : University Heights, 20,000,000 gallons.
Chollas Heights, 90,000,000 gallons.
Upper Otay, 1,000.000,000 gallons.
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