USA > California > San Diego County > San Diego > City of San Diego and San Diego County : the birthplace of California, Volume I > Part 45
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For many years the county, under its supervisors, had built new roads, carving off hillsides and filling in low places to make them, always extending and improving. And that was well until the days of the automobile. When that modern vehicle began to come into gen- eral use, San Diego County resolved on more extensive road building, and in 1909 voted $1,250,000 in bonds to do the work. The task was
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put in the hands of a commission of three, known at the time as "the triple-S commission," from its members, John D. Spreckels, A. G. Spalding, the sporting goods magnate, who lived on Point Loma in his later years, and E. W. Scripps, the newspaper publisher resid- ing at Miramar, near San Diego. They, with the supervisors, put through what for those days was an elaborate road-building program, including a line around the Coronado strand, a fine road to and on Point Loma, and important trunk lines into the back country sections. They also constructed a number of bridges and culverts. The roads
. ON ONE OF THE MOUNTAIN ROADS OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY
were of dirt-mostly disintegrated granite-and experience soon showed that they would not stand up under the wear and tear of heavy truck and automobile traffic without frequent repairs. The bridges and culverts were of course, more substantial. But even though this highway work was not ideal, it was good for the time, opened up many sections to easier access and pointed the way to further development ; and the commissioners and those who succeeded them in that capacity did a good job, with the funds available-too small of course for extensive concrete highways.
Later work of highway building by San Diego has covered many miles of road with concrete and opened up to the ranchers, commercial transportation agencies and tourists a large field for business and pleasure.
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Long before the completion of the San Diego & Arizona Railway -in fact when it was hardly more than started-wide-awake citizens of San Diego realized that it was of great importance to the county to put through an easily traveled road between San Diego and Imperial Valley, which by 1910 had shown its possibilities to an amazing ex- tent. So in 1911 and 1912, when Austin B. Fletcher, later chief engineer of the state highway commission, was engineer of San Diego County's Highway Commission, about seventy-five miles of good dirt road to Imperial County line was built.
Los Angeles meanwhile had waked up to the importance of a similar road to connect Los Angeles with the valley and had done considerable road-building to further its plans for easy communication with Imperial via San Bernardino and Mecca. San Diego, of course, had one strong point in its favor : a road to San Diego was the shortest from Imperial Valley and all southwestern points to the Pacific; in addition, one wishing to go to Los Angeles could travel by way of San Diego and the coast much more safely and comfortably than by the "desert" road up Imperial Valley and would have only a little farther to go by the San Diego route.
When San Diego built its road to the Imperial County line, how- ever, a new difficulty was presented. The Imperial County people did not have enough money to build from the center of the valley to the San Diego County line. San Diego, however, was determined to have a San Diego-Imperial road which could be turned over to the state as a state highway and public-spirited citizens of San Diego there- upon raised a fund of $60,000 by public subscription to build a road from the end of the San Diego County road down the Mountain Springs grade to the desert in Imperial County. In this work two of the leaders were Ed Fletcher and Fred Jackson, both of whom were active not only in raising the fund but in supervising the actual con- struction of the road. The engineer in charge was F. A. Rhodes, now manager of operation of the City of San Diego, and the work which he did then earned for him an enviable reputation.
The road, blasted down a steep canyon and carved from its sides was completed in a short time and was then turned over to Imperial County-a free gift and a token of the friendly feeling which San Diego always has held for the Valley.
That, however, did not end the road-building fight between Los Angeles and San Diego. The people of Arizona, of course, wanted a good road from their state to the Pacific. Los Angeles and her supporters led a movement to bridge the Colorado River at Blythe far to the north-which would have swung traffic from Arizona toward Los Angeles. San Diego and her supporters favored a bridge over the Colorado at Yuma, forming a natural connection with the San Diego route. Plans were drawn for the bridge and an estimate of $75,000 for the cost was given. The plan was for Arizona to pay a third, California a third and the Federal Government a third. The Arizona legislature voted the necessary money for Arizona and the Federal Government contributed its share. The California Legislature also voted $25,000 for the bridge, but Gov. Hiram Johnson of Cali- fornia vetoed the bill, acting on the report of the state engineer that the bridge probably would cost $150,000. As a matter of fact, it was built
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for $73,800. When San Diego learned of the governor's action, her citizens raised by subscription the $25,000 which had been pledged in behalf of the state, and work on the bridge went ahead. . Here is an example of civic spirit and co-operation which has brought praise to San Diego from all over the Southwest.
The next objective of San Diego and Imperial Valley was the building of a highway through the sandhills, from El Centro to Holt- ville and Yuma in order that Imperial Valley and San Diego might get their trans-continental travel from Arizona and the East. Los Angeles bitterly fought the construction of San Diego's logical and direct route to Yuma. The distance, San Diego to Yuma direct is 186 miles, while the distance to Los Angeles via the shortest route from Yuma is 304 miles.
The question was: Would the state highway commission adopt the San Diego-Holtville route, or decide on some other route as advo- cated by Los Angeles? To demonstrate the feasibility of a direct route, Holtville to Yuma, San Diego citizens by private subscription purchased thirty-six carloads of two-inch plank, and donated the lumber to the Imperial Valley people, and a temporary plank road was laid across the sandhills, and the feasibility of the route demonstrated. Later the state highway commission adopted the route officially against the protest of Los Angeles, and a special appropriation of $350,000 by the legislature is now being spent between Holtville and Yuma. The route is now passable, and it is expected that a permanent high- way will be constructed by the state to the Yuma line within the next three years. Arizona is waking up, and connecting with San Diego at Yuma by a direct road, Tucson and Ajo, which shortens the distance across the continent by more than 100 miles. Phoenix is also pushing the building of a direct road to Yuma, and ten or fifteen machines a day are now coming across the continent via Yuma to Imperial Valley and San Diego. It is only a question of time, San Diegans believe, when all the through travel from the South and Southeast will come via Yuma, as the San Diego route shortens the distance across the continent, and is the only route open every day of the year for travel.
One of the most important road-building tasks accomplished by the City of San Diego in recent years was the construction of what is known as the Torrey Pines grade toward the northern limits of the city and leading up-as one comes from the north-from the sea- shore to the top of the cliffs on which are the famous Torrey Pines. This climb is one of the most beautiful anywhere on the Pacific coast line. The road itself is excellent.
In highway work for San Diego County, none has done more than Ed Fletcher, who for more than ten years has been identified with practically every road movement of importance in the county and with many whose field extends much farther. To this work he has given all of the enthusiasm for which he is well known, and time and money to a considerable degree. He is president of the Dixie Highway Association, whose purpose has been to build a transcon- tinental highway from Savannah, Georgia, to San Diego, California : vice president of the Old Spanish Trails Association, and vice presi- dent of the Bankhead Highway Association. All three have San Diego as an objective point.
CHAPTER XLI
SAN DIEGO'S INDUSTRIES
It is manifestly impossible in a volume of this kind to give any- thing approaching a detailed history of the county's industries, but mention of some of them is fitting. At the top comes the raising of citrus fruits. Some idea of the importance of this industry in San Diego County may be gained from figures of estimate furnished in 1921 by Guy R. Gorton, county horticultural commissioner. His estimate is that there are in the county 6,671 acres of lemon trees in bearing and 394 acres more of lemon trees that have not come into bearing, while for oranges his estimate is 4,094 acres of bearing trees and 270 acres more of trees not yet bearing. Because of the fact that in recent years thousands of boxes of both these fruits have been taken away from the groves in trucks and that therefore no close check can be had as in the days when practically all fruits were shipped in railroad cars, an accurate count of the production cannot be made. His estimate, however, is that the 1921 production of lemons from San Diego County is 1,334,200 boxes and that the production of oranges, on a basis of 85 per cent of the normal yield, is 521,985 boxes. The lemon yield was figured as normal for the year.
The acreage devoted to lemons in the county has been more than doubled in the last five years, according to official figures, while the number of acres devoted to oranges has grown from about 4,100 to 1,491. Thousands of acres in the county are set aside each year for the growing of wheat, beans, beets, olives, grapes and other products.
The Federal Census reports, compiled for 1920, announced that the county in 1919 had 24,799 acres under irrigation, that the number of acres which the various enterprises could irrigate in 1920 was 31,931 and that the acreage included in irrigation projects was 68,170. The census gave other data of no little interest. The number of farms in the county, for instance, was shown to have increased from 2,298 to 3,200 in the ten-year period of 1910 to 1920, the total value of all farm property from $31,124,814 to $64,081,885 and the value of buildings on the farms from $3,337,382 to $6,923,517. Figures do not often make more interesting reading than is afforded here.
The movement that resulted in the establishment of a farm bureau organization in San Diego County was begun in 1913 by the Chamber of Commerce. In the fall of that year Secretary William Tomkins, of the chamber, opened correspondence with the U. S. Department of Agriculture and the extension division of the University of California at Berkeley in an effort to get a man placed in the field here.
Early in 1914 Mr. Tomkins, accompanied by H. A. Weinland, then county horticultural commissioner, spent several weeks in the
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field, and sufficient pledges of support were obtained to warrant the university in agreeing to send a farm advisor. A mass meeting of farmers was accordingly held in the Spreckels Theatre in March, 1914, and the farm bureau organization was completed, State Leader B. H. Crocheron, and Dean Hunt and Professor Van Norman of the university, assisting.
Judge W. R. Andrews was elected president of the bureau and H. A. Weinland secretary-treasurer. Professor Crocheron announced at that time the appointment of James A. Armstrong as farm advisor. Twenty-six farm bureau centers were immediately organized through- out the county with an initial membership of 548.
Judge Andrews served as president of the bureau for one year, being succeeded by J. A. Campbell of Julian. Mr. Campbell died in 1916, and H. Culbertson of El Cajon was selected to fill the vacancy. After two years' service he was succeeded by G. T. Drinkwater of Lakeside, who served from 1918 to 1920. Felix Landis of El Cajon became president in 1920 and in 1921 was serving his second year.
Farm Advisor James A. Armstrong served one year and re- signed, being succeeded by H. A. Weinland, who resigned May 1. 1920. James G. France was appointed at that time and is the in- cumbent.
There are now sixteen centers in the county, with 850 members, it being found advisable to consolidate some of the centers. A home department was added in 1918, the present home demonstration agent. Miss Fleda E. Smith, coming here January 1. 1919.
The San Diego County farm bureau was one of the earliest organized in the state, the movement in the United States being about two years old at that time. Since then some 2,000 counties in forty- three states have organized farm bureaus with some 1.500.000 mem- bers. State and national federations have also been formed and by reason of being "the most influential farmers' organization in the history of the country." wield a tremendous influence on legislative matters affecting their interests.
The projects adopted by the San Diego County tarm bureau give an indication of the work carried on by it. Among them are such rural community betterments as better schools, roads, sanitation, mail service, telephone and electric service extension : agricultural better- ments, such as pest control, soil improvement, better tillage methods, rotation of crops, better live stock by means of better sires; better crops and better methods of pruning. The home department projects include home millinery and dressmaking, home furnishings, labor- saving methods, care of farm flocks, food preservation, etc.
Three annual county fairs, 1919. 1920 and 1921. have been held by the farm bureau organization, in San Diego, and each was a remarkable success.
The fishing industry has grown to be of vast importance to San Diego. More than passing notice was taken of this work in 1908. when a small fleet of boats brought in about 3.000,000 pounds. In the following year the amount brought to port was 4,000,000 pounds. the work being done by only twenty boats. In 1919 the catch by boats of American registry had mounted to 22.500,000 pounds and in 1920 to 26,000,000 pounds. Several fine and large canneries had been
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built meanwhile to take care of the packing, in which a large force was employed. The catch brought to port in the first eleven months of 1921 amounted to 13,358,000 pounds.
In September, 1921, there were 188 fishing boats registered at the San Diego office; about 180 more from outside ports operated from San Diego. Japanese fishermen to the number of 191 led the list of men employed on these boats. Italians came next with 141. The total of American fishermen was 107. The total of all fishermen reg- istered at the port was 588.
The bee-keeping industry of San Diego County, now an important factor in the county's welfare, was started by John S. Harbison, who in 1857 brought from Pennsylvania, by way of New York and the Isthmus of Panama to San Francisco, sixty-seven colonies of bees. Those bees were taken to Sacramento County, sixty-two hives being landed in good condition. It is said that they were the first bees successfully shipped into the state. In the spring of 1864 Harbison moved several small apiaries from Sacramento County to San Diego County and in time built up those apiaries to 4,000 colonies, the principal apiary site comprising nearly 1,000 stands and being on the old Harbison homestead in Harbison Canyon, near Alpine. It is recorded that in 1875 he shipped to eastern markets thirty-three car- loads of honey, ten of which he produced from his own apiaries and that in one season at about that time he cleared $40,000 from the bees he had brought or bred here. Since Harbison's time hundreds, probably thousands, in San Diego County have entered the field of apiculture, and at this time it is estimated by an expert that there are several hundred practical and successful bee-keepers in San Diego County. An estimate made from semi-official sources is that in 1920 there were placed on the market 993 tons of honey from the county. For some time San Diego County, thanks to the start given to the industry by Harbison, ranked first of the communities of the state in production of honey. It now ranks third. The drop which the county has taken in the list is due to two causes: The county's size has been decreased by legislative enactment ; vast areas of waste lands have been reclaimed in neighboring counties, resulting in extensive development of artificial flora, which yields an abundance of nectar for bees.
One of the really important industries of San Diego County within recent years is that of poultry-raising. Experts have pointed to this section of California as ideal, because of climatic and other reasons, for the production of poultry and eggs, and within the last five years especially notable advances have been made on those lines. Some illustrative figures are provided by the history of the San Diego Poultry Association, which began in March, 1916, with an original membership of seven and by 1921 included 625 members, owning more than 300,000 laying hens; it has been estimated that this figure represents perhaps only about half of the industry's importance in the county. - The association was incorporated as a stock concern in June, 1919, with an authorized capital stock of $100,000 divided into 4,000 shares of $25 each, sold to members in proportion to their flocks. In January, 1920, the association bought a whole city block at 22nd Street and Imperial Avenue and built a warehouse and mill
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to facilitate the handling of feed and products : this cost $50,000. The association in 1920 handled 110 carloads of 12,000 dozen eggs to the car.
The Poultry Producers of San Diego, Inc., a concern closely allied with the Poultry Association, was incorporated in June, 1919. A weekly egg pool is a feature of the producers' plan of operation by which in the first half of 1921 there were handled 45,363 cases of thirty dozens of eggs to the case. Storage of eggs in periods of large production and low costs is another feature of the plan.
The advance of the city's industries can be measured in this chapter only by totals and in mere outline. In the city proper it is estimated that in the last twenty years the number of manufacturing establishments has grown from fewer than sixty to more than 450, employing now about 8,000 persons as against 300 in 1899 or 1900, that the yearly payroll in the same period grew from less than $200.000 to about $9,000,000. The payroll in 1916 was set at about $3,000.000 a year. The products of these establishments have grown in the last twenty years from about $700,000 a year to a figure about fifty times that amount, at least on the basis of post-war prices.
In 1919 San Diego canneries packed a total of 581.300 cases of various products, as follows: Olives, 60,000 ; olive oil. 10.000: tuna, 250,000 : sardines, 150,000 : turtle, 15,000: fruit and vegetables. 70,000. tomatoes, 26,000. At that time a pamphlet prepared for the county supervisors and published by their authority, announced that the city had more than 200 manufacturing enterprises, including those pro- ducing sardines, tuna and other canned fish, fruit and vegetables, building materials, lumber, onyx and marble products, plumbing fit- tings, cement pipe, sash and doors, common and pressed brick and tile, magnesite products, fire brick, gasoline engines, hoists, irrigation machinery, automobile tires, furniture, mattresses, packing house prod- ucts, olives and olive oil, trunks and bags, paper and wood boxes, coffee, spices, extracts, baking powder, washing powder, brooms, show cases, jams and jellies, flour, ice, salt, butter, cigars, candy, macaroni. soda water and other soft drinks, gas and power.
At that time the San Diego Consolidated Gas & Electric Company had 695 miles of electrical transmission system and 527 miles of gas mains in the city and surrounding districts. Its equipment enabled the company to furnish 17,000 electrical horsepower and 7.550.000 feet of gas a day.
Among the leading industrial establishments of the city is the Spreckels Savage Tire Company, which has a large plant on Main Street. Another large industrial plant of the bay region is that of the San Diego Oil Products Corporation, which took over the Chula Vista plant of the Hercules Powder Company after the war and has done much in the manufacture of various products from cottonseed. brought from Imperial Valley and other points.
CHAPTER XLII
NATIONAL CITY AND THE KIMBALLS
Of all the communities near San Diego none has a more interest- ing past than has National City, which at one time, due to the coming of the Santa Fe Railroad, bade fair to run San Diego a close race for supremacy, and which, because of its position on the bayshore and its climatic and other advantages, is practically certain to contribute an important chapter to later history of the county.
Quiet for many years following the disappointing action of the Santa Fe in removing its shops to San Bernardino and often made the butt of a thoughtless stage joke, National City in recent years has maintained a steady growth, and its citizenry contains a number of active, ambitious men and women whose efforts are sure to count for future prosperity and importance.
The history of National City is closely bound up with that of the Kimball family of which Frank A. Kimball was the leader. He and his two brothers, Levi W. and Warren C., sons of Col. A. C. Kimball. a builder and contractor of Contocook Village, New Hampshire, left their New England home in 1861 for San Francisco where for seven years they followed their father's business footsteps in that city and Oakland. By hard work they piled up a considerable amount of money, but in 1868 Frank A. Kimball's health had become seriously impaired, and his physician urgently advised him to remove at once to a more kindly climate. He journeyed south and at last came to San Diego, in which A. E. Horton was about to start his city. Kimball went along the bayshore to what is now National City and became convinced that the excellent location of the Rancho de la Nacion, with its forty-two square miles of land and six miles of waterfront, was almost ideal for the establishment of a city.
The Rancho de la Nacion was a Mexican grant with a United States patent, extending from the south line of the Pueblo of San Diego to San Miguel Mountain, its southern boundary yet undeter- mined, its western limit being the bayshore. This immense tract was granted on December 11, 1845, to Don Juan Forster, whose real name was John Forster and who had come to California in 1833 from his home in England and had settled at Los Angeles at that time. In 1844 he went to San Juan Capistrano and bought the ex-Mission lands at that place. For many years Forster was a very wealthy man and lived and entertained in magnificent style, but in his later years his affairs became badly involved, and he left little when he died, Feb- ruary 20, 1882. The Rancho de la Nacion was transferred on Novem- ber 11, 1854, to F. L. A. Pioche, who in 1868, when Kimball arrived at San Diego, was living at San Francisco. Kimball on his return
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to that city after his visit to San Diego, soon saw Pioche and con- cluded a deal by which three of the five Kimball brothers. Frank A., Warren C. and Levi W., bought the grant for $30,000. The Kimballs soon came to their purchase and arranged with George S. Morrill to survey the great tract, the cost of that work being $10,000. The engineers' headquarters was established on the edge of the Sweet- water Valley, in which, it is said, were the only trees then on the great ranch. In the survey were included the lines of National Avenue. 100 feet wide, and since its establishment one of the important thor- oughfares of the county. The city site was marked out at the north- ivest corner of the ranch and soon was platted with blocks measuring 250 by 250 feet and streets eighty feet wide, except National and Eighth avenues, each of which was made 100 feet wide. Mr. and Mrs. Frank A. Kimball then set themselves to the task of building a house, the first home erected between San Diego and the Mexican line. The materials for this house, built on a ten-acre tract west of National Avenue between Ninth and Eleventh streets, were brought to San Diego harbor from San Francisco on a vessel chartered by Kimball. The residence and its surrounding orchard and grounds soon became one of the most noted "show places" of all Southern California and was visited by many well known people who came to San Diego. In the same year Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Walker, who had followed the Kimballs to National City, built the second house in the district. This was built on the east side of National Avenue, near Eighth Street E. Pinney built the third house in the city. Then the Kimballs put up a real estate office opposite the Kimball residence, on National Avenue. By that time there had started a considerable influx of settlers from all over the United States toward San Diego, and many of these were attracted to National City. In 1869 Frank A. Kimball was followed to the ranch by his brothers, George L., Levi W., War- ren C. and Charles H., and by his sister, Mary E., the wife of Fred Copeland. The Kimballs. realizing that to get settlers they must provide a method by which those settlers could build homes, opened a lumber yard and filled it with 3,000.000 feet of lumber, brought from San Francisco in nine vessels. They also fenced in the whole ranch and stocked it with sheep which were brought from the north. Levi W. Kimball did not remain long at National City, but went back to San Francisco to live. The others of the Kimball family. however. remained : arrangements were made whereby Frank A. and Warren C. took over nearly all of the great grant, and the two managed its affairs and took part jointly in many efforts to build up the community. which, if it had forged ahead in such a way as was expected. would have made the Kimballs many times millionaires. The Kimballs left nothing undone which they could do to make the community grow and contributed with such generosity to all projects for its growth and betterment that the impoverished themselves in the end.
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