USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > Historical and biographical record of Los Angeles and vicinity : containing a history of the city from its earliest settlement as a Spanish pueblo to the closing year of the nineteenth century ; also containing biographies of well known citizens of the past and present > Part 20
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Bernardino. Rich deposits have been discovered in the northern part of the county. The San Gabriel mines have been worked very successfully this season. The Santa Anita placers are giving forth their golden harvest. Miners are at work in the San Fernando hills rolling out the gold and in the hills beyond discoveries have been inade which prove the whole district to be one grand placer." Next day it rained and it kept at it continuously for three days and nights. It was reported that twelve inches of water fell in the mountains during the storm. In the narrow cañon of the Sau Gabriel River the waters rose to an unprecedented height and swept everything before them. The miners' wheels, sluices, long toms, wing dams, coffer dams, and all other dams, went floating off toward the sea.
The year 1860 was a prosperous one for the San Gabriel miners, notwithstanding the dis- astrous flood of December, 1859. The increased water supply afforded facilities for working dry claims. Some of the strikes of that season in the cañon have the sound of the flush days of '49: "Baker & Smith realized from their claim $800 in eight days;" "Driver & Co. washed out $350 of dust in two hours."
In the spring of 1862, Wells, Fargo & Co. were shipping to San Francisco from their Los Angeles office, $12,000 of gold dust a month by steamer and probably as much more was sent by other shippers or taken by private parties; all this was produced from the San Fernando, San Gabriel and Santa Anita placers. In the past forty years a large amount of gold has been taken out of the San Gabriel placers-how much it is impossible to say. As late as 1876 there were two hydraulic companies working in the cañon. One company reported a yield of $1,365 for a run of twenty-six days, working five men-an average of $10.50 a day to the man. Placer mining is still carried on in a desultory way every winter in the San Fer- nando and San Gabriel mines. But a limited amount of capital has at any time been employed in these mines, and the methods of working them have been unsystematic and wasteful. With more abundant capital, with improved appliances and cheaper methods of working, these mines could be made to yield rich returns.
In the winter of 1862-63 placer mines were dis- covered on the Colorado River and a rush fol- lowed. Los Angeles profited by it while it lasted, but it was soon over.
In 1863 there was a mining boom on the island of Santa Catalina. Some rich specimens of gold and silver quartz rock were found and the boom began. The first location was made in April, 1863, by Martin M. Kimberly and Daniel E. Way. At a
miners' meeting held on the island April 20, 1863, the San Pedro Mining District was formed and a code of mining laws formulated "for the govern- ment of locators of veins or lodes of quartz, or other rock containing precious metals and ores- gold, silver, copper, galena or other minerals or mines that may be discovered, taken up or lo- cated in Los Angeles County, San Pedro District, State of California." The boundaries of San Pedro District were somewhat indefinite; it in- cluded "all the islands of Los Angeles County and the coast range of mountains between the northi- ern and southern boundaries of said County."
The first discoveries were made near the isth- mus on the northwestern part of the island. The principal claims were located in Fourth of July Valley, Cherry Valley and Mineral Hill.
A site for a city was located on Wilson Harbor. Lots were staked off and Queen City promised to become the metropolis of the mining district of Catalina.
Numerous discoveries were made. Within nine months from the first location notices of claims to over a hundred thousand feet of leads, lodes or veins, with their dips, spurs and angles, were re- corded in the recorder's office of Los Angeles County and probably three times that number of claims were located that were either recorded in the district records on the island or were not re- corded at all. Assays were made of gold and silver bearing rock, that ranged from $150 to $800 a to11. Stock companies were formed with capital bordering on millions-indeed, a company that had not "millions in it" was not worth or- ganizing in those days. It is needless to say that the capital stock was not paid up in full nor in part either. The miners believed implicitly in the wealth of their mines, but they had no money to develop their claims nor could they induce capitalists to aid them. The times were out of joint for great enterprises. Washoe stocks had flooded the local mining market and the doubtful practices of mining sharps had brought discredit on feet and stocks. Capital from abroad could not be induced to seek investment in mines on an island in the far Pacific. The nation was engaged in a death struggle with the slaveholders' re- bellion and there was more money in fat govern- ment contracts than in prospect holes.
The boom collapsed unexpectedly-bursted by "military despotism." There were rumors that this mining rush was a blind to conceal a plot to seize the island and make it a rendezvous for Confederate privateers, from which they could fit out and prey upon the commerce of the coast. Many of the miners were Southern sympathizers, but whether such a plot was seriously contem-
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plated is doubtful. If suchi was incubating, the government crushed it before it was hatched. A military force was placed on the island and the following order issued:
§ HEADQUARTERS, SANTA CATALINA ISLAND, February 5th, 1864. Special Order No. 7.
No person or persons other than owners of stock or incorporated companies' employes, will be allowed to remain on the island on or after this date; nor will any person be allowed to land until further instructions are received from Wash- ington. I hereby notify miners prospecting or other persons to leave immediately. By order. B. R. WEST,
Captain 4th California Infantry Commanding Post.
After such an invitation to leave the miners stood not on the order of their going-they went- those whose sympathies were with the Confed- eracy breathing curses against the tyrant Lincoln and his blue-coated minions. After the with- drawal of the troops, September 15, 1864, a few of the miniers returned, but work was not resumed, the excitement was over-the boom was bursted.
The "leads, lodes and veins" with their dips, spurs and angles, were abandoned and only a few drifts and tunnels remain-relics of an almost forgotten boom.
In 1873 Major Max Strobel, of Anaheim, went to England commissioned by James Lick and other owners to sell the island. Liberally sup- plied with collections of rich mineral specimens and endowed by nature with a vivid imagination, he negotiated a sale to a syndicate of London capitalists for one million dollars. Before a for- mal transfer of the island was made Strobel died and the sale was never consummated.
In 1861 there was a copper mining boom in the Soledad Cañon (60 miles north of Los Angeles). Some rich specimens of copper ore were found and several hundred thousand dollars in gold were sunk in developing the mines, but the de-
velopment proved that there were no well-defined leads and the few pockets where ore existed were not rich enough in copper to fill the void in the pockets of the prospectors.
In 1862 gold quartz was discovered in a range of hills about five miles northward of the copper district. The discoverers were too poor to de- velop their mines and the failure of the copper mines had disgusted capitalists with the Soledad country. For some time Mexicans worked the claims and crushed rock yielding from $30 to $50 a ton with arastras.
In 1867-68 came another rush to the Soledad district; this time it was gold quartz that at- tracted. Numerous claims were located and min- ing notices were as "thick as leaves in Vallam- brosa." One ten stamp mill and several smaller ones were erected. A town site was located and Soledad City became the mining metropolis of the district. Some rich ore was taken out, but the lodes pinched out and Soledad City became in truth a city of solitude. There are still some claims worked in the district. But the mines have never crowned any bonanza kings.
The yield of the Los Angeles mines can be as- certained only approximately. Major Ben C. Truman, in his "Semi-Tropical California," a book written in 1874, says: "During the past eighteen years Messrs. Ducommun and Jones, merchants of Los Angeles, have purchased in one way and another over two million dollars wortlı of gold dust taken from the placer claims of the San Gabriel River, while it is fair to presume that among other merchants and to parties in San Francisco has been distributed at least a like amount." Add to this estimate the amount taken out of the San Fernando placers since their dis- covery in 1841, and from the Santa Anita, the San Antonio and other placers in the county where gold has been mined, and the yield of the Los Angeles placers would reach, if it did not exceed, five million dollars.
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
CHAPTER XXIV.
EDUCATIONAL-SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL TEACHERS.
HE first community want the American pio- neer supplies is the schoolhouse. Wherever the immigrants from the New England and the middle states planted a settlement, there, at the same time, they planted a schoolhouse. The first community want that the Spanish pobla- dores (colonists) supplied was a church. The schoolhouse was not wanted, or, if wanted, it was a long-felt want that was rarely or never satisfied.
At the time of the acquisition of California by the Americans (1846)-seventy-seven years from the date of its first settlement-there was not a public schoolhouse owned by any pueblo or city in all California. The few schools that did exist were kept in rented buildings, or the schoolmas- ter furnished the schoolroom as part of the con- tract.
The first public school in California was opened in San José, in December, 1794, seventeen years after the founding of that pueblo. The pioneer teacher of California was Manuel de Vargas, a re- tired sergeant of infantry. The school was opened in the public granary. Vargas, in 1795, was offered $250 a year to open a school in San Diego. As this was higher wages than he was receiving, he accepted the offer and thus became the pioneer teacher of Southern California. José Manuel Toca, a gamute or ship boy, arrived at Santa Barbara on a Spanish transport in 1795, and the same year was employed as schoolmaster at a yearly salary of $125. Thus the army and the navy pioneered education in California.
Governor Borica, the founder of public schools in California, resigned in 1800, and was succeeded by Arrillaga. Governor Arrillaga, if not opposed to, was at least indifferent to the education of the common people. He took life easy and the schools took long vacations; indeed, it was nearly all vacation during his term. Governor Sola, the successor of Arrillaga, made an effort to es- tablish public schools, but the indifference of the people discouraged him. There is no record of the existence of a school in Los Angeles during Governor Borica's rule. Los Angeles being neither a maritime or presidial town there were
probably no soldiers or sailors in it out of a job who could be utilized for school teaching.
With the revival of learning under Sola, the first school in Los Angeles was opened in 1817, just thirty-six years after the founding of the pueblo. Maximo Piña, an invalid soldier, was the pioneer schoolmaster of Los Angeles. He taught during the years 1817 and 1818. His salary was $140 a year. Then the school took a vacation for ten years.
During the Spanish era the schoolmasters were mostly invalid soldiers, who possessed that dan- gerous thing, "a little learning." About all they could teach was reading, writing and the doctrina Christiana. These old soldier school- masters were brutal tyrants, and their school government a military despotism. Gen. M. G. Vallejo, in his reminiscences, thus describes one form of punishment in common use in the old- time schools: "But on the black cloth lay an- other and far more terrible implement of torture, a hempen scourge with iron points, a nice inven- tion, truly, for helping little children to keep from laughing aloud, running in the streets, playing truant, spilling ink, or failing to know the lessons in the dreaded doctrina Christiana- the only lesson taught, perhaps, because is was the only one the master could teach; to fail in the doctrina was an offense unpardonable. This very appropriate inquisitorial instrument of tor- ture was in daily use. One by one each little guilty wretch was stripped of his poor shirt-often his only garment-stretched face downward upon a bench, with a handkerchief thrust into his month as a gag, and lashed with a dozen or more blows until the blood ran down his little lacerated back."* When such brutality was practiced in them it is not strange that the schools were un- popular.
In the first forty-six years of its existence, if the records are correct, the pueblo of Los Angeles had school facilities just two years. There was no educational cramming in those days. Mexico
*Bancroft's California Pastoral,
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL, RECORD.
did better for public education in California than Spain. The school terms were increased and the vacations shortened.
The first school in Los Angeles during the Mexican régime was taught by Luciano Valdez, beginning in 1827. His school was kept open at varying intervals to the close of 1831. He seems not to have been a success in his chosen profes- sion. In the proceedings of the ayuntamiento for January 19, 1832, is this record: "The Most Illustrious Ayuntamiento dwelt on the lack of improvement in the public school of the pueblo, and on account of the necessity of civilizing and morally training the children, it was thought wise to place citizen Vicente Morago in charge of said school from this date, recognizing in him the necessary qualifications for discharge of said duties, allowing him $15 monthly, the same as was paid the retiring citizen, Luciano Valdez."
Schoolmaster Morago, February 12, 1833, was appointed secretary of the ayuntamiento at a sal- ary of $30 per month, and resigned his position as teacher. The same date Francisco Pantoja was appointed preceptor of the public school. Pantoja wielded the birch or plied the ferule to January, 1834, when he demanded that his salary be increased to $20 per month. The ayunta- miento refused to increase it, "and at the same time seeing certain negligence and indolence in his manner of advancing the children, it was de- termined to procure some other person to take charge of the school." Pantoja demanded that he be relieved at once, and the ayuntamiento decided "that in view of the irregularities in the discharge of his duties, he be released and that citizen Cristoval Aguilar be appointed to the po- sition at $15 per month."
The ayuntamiento proceedings of January 8, 1835, tell the fate of Aguilar. "Schoolmaster Crist- oval Aguilar asked an increase of salary. After dis- cussion it was decided that as his fitness for the position was insufficient, his petition could not be granted." So Aguilar quit the profession.
Vicente Morago, who had been successively sec- retary of the ayuntamiento and syndic (treasurer), returned to his former profession, teaching, in 1835. He was satisfied with $15 a month, and that seemed to be the chief qualification of a teacher in those days. There is no record of a school in 1836. During 1837 the civil war between Mon- terey and Los Angeles was raging and there was no time to devote to education. All the big boys were needed for soldiers; besides, the municipal funds were so demoralized that fines and taxes had to be paid in hides and horses.
Don Ygnacio Coronel took charge of the public school July 3, 1838, "he having the necessary qualifications." "He shall be paid $15 per
month from the municipal funds, and every parent having a child in the school shall be made to pay a certain amount according to his means. The $15 per month paid from the municipal fund is paid so that this body (the ayuntamiento) may have supervision over said school." Coronel taught at various times between 1838 and 1844, the length of the school sessions depending on the condition of the municipal funds and the liberality of parents. Don Ygnacio's educational methods were a great improvement on those of the old soldier schoolmasters. There was less of "lickin' "' and more of "larnin'." His daughter Soledad assisted him, and when a class had completed a book or performed some other meritorious educa- tional feat, as a reward of merit a dance was im- provised in the school room, and Señorita Soledad played upon the harp. She was the first teacher to introduce music into the schools of Los An- geles.
The most active and earnest friend of the pub- lic schools among the Mexican governors was the much-abused Micheltorena. He made a strenuous effort to establishi a public school system in the territory. Through his efforts schools were estab- lished in all the principal towns, and a guarantee of $500 from the territorial funds was promised to each school.
January 3, 1844, a primary school was opened in Los Angeles under the tutorship of Ensign Guadalupe Medina, an officer in Micheltorena's army, permission having been obtained from the governor for the lieutenant to lay down the sword to take np the pedagogical birch. Medina was an educated man and taught an excellent school. His school attained an enrollment of 103 pupils. It was conducted on the Lancasterian plan, which was an educational fad recently imported from Europe, via Mexico, to California. This fad, once very popular, has been dead for half a cen- try. The gist of the system was that the nearer the teacher was in education to the level of the pupil the more successful would he be in impart- ing instruction. So the preceptor tanght the more advanced pupils; these taught the next lower grades, and so down the scale to the lowest class. Through this system it was possible for one teacher to instruct or manage two or three hundred pupils.
Don Manuel Requena, in an address to the out- going ayuntamiento, speaking of Medina's school, said: "One hundred and three youth of this vi- cinity made rapid progress under the care of the honorable preceptor, and showed a sublime spec- tacle announcing a happy future." The "happy future" of the school was clouded by the shadow of shortage of funds. The superior government notified the ayuntamiento that it had remitted the
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$500 promised, and great was the gratitude of the regidores thereat; but when the remittance reached the pueblo it was found to be merchan- dise instead of money. The school board (regidores) filed an indignant protest, but it was merchandise or nothing; so, after much dicker- ing, the preceptor agreed to take the goods at a heavy discount, the ayuntamiento to make up the deficit.
After a very successful school term of nearly half a year the lieutenant was ordered to Mon- terey to aid in suppressing a revolution that Cas- tro and Alvarado were supposed to be incubating. He returned to Los Angeles in November, and again took up the pedagogical birch, but laid it down in a few months to take up the sword. Los Angeles was in the throes of one of its periodical revolutions. The schoolhouse was needed by Pico and Castro for military headquarters. So the pupils were given a vacation-a vacation, by the way, that lasted five years. The next year (1846) the gringos conquered California, and when school took up the country was under a new government.
All the schools I have named were boys'schools; but very few of the girls received any education. They were taught to embroider, to cook, to make and mend the clothes of the family and their own; and these accomplishments were deemed sufficient for a woman.
Governor Micheltorena undertook to establish schools for girls in the towns of the department. He requested of the ayuntamiento of Los Angeles the names of three ladies for teachers, one of whom was to be selected to take charge of the girls' school when established. The alcalde named Mrs. Luisa Arguello, Dolores Lopez and Maria Ygnacio Alvarado. The governor appointed Mrs. Luisa Arguello teacher of the school, which was to open July 1, 1844. Evidently the school did not open on time, for at the meeting of the ayuntamiento, January 7, 1845, the alcalde re- quested that Mrs. Luisa Arguello be asked whether she would fill the position of teacher to which she had been appointed by the governor. There is no record that she ever taught the school, or that there ever was a girls' school in Los An- geles before the American conquest.
The last school taught under the supervision of the ayuntamiento of Los Angeles was at San Gabriel, in 1846, and that faithful old pedagogue, Vicente Morago, was the teacher, his salary thie same old figure, $15 per month. From an in- ventory made by Lieutenant Medina we ascertain the amount of school books and furniture it took to supply a school of one hundred pupils fifty- six years ago. Primers 36, second readers 11, Fray Ripalde's Catechisms 14, table (without
carpet or joint) to write upon I, benchies 6, blackboard 1, large table for children 1. School supplies were few and inexpensive in early days. Here is an account of the expenses made for the public school from February to December, 1834: Primers $1, blackboard $2, earthen jar for water $2.50, ink $1, string for ruling blackboard 50 cents, ink well 37 cents, total $7.37. Church incidentals for same length of time $96. The city owned no schoolhouse. The priests' house was used for a school room when it was vacant, otherwise the teacher or the ayuntamiento rented a room. At one time a fine of $1 was imposed on parents who failed to send their children to school, but the fines were never collected.
There is no record of any school in Los An- geles during the years 1846 and 1847. The war of the Conquest was in progress part of the time and the big boys and the schoolmaster as well were needed for soldiers. In 1848 aud 1849 the gold rush to the northern mines carried away most of the male population. In the flush days of '49 the paltry pay of $15 per month was not sufficient to induce even faithful old Vicente Morago to wield the pedagogical birch.
At the first session of the ayuntamiento in Jan- tiary, 1850, Syndic Figueroa and Regidor Garfias were appointed school committeemen to establish a public school. At the end of three months the syndic reported that he had been unable to find a house where to locate the school. Nor had he succeeded in securing a teacher. An individ- ual, however, had just presented himself, who, although he did not speak English, yet could he teach the children many useful things; and be- sides the same person had managed to get the refusal of Mrs. Pollerena's house for school pur- poses. At the next meeting of the council the syn- dic reported that he had been unable to start the school-the individual who had offered to teach had left for the mines and the school committee could neither find a schoolmaster nor a school- house.
In June of the same year (1850) a contract was made with Francisco Bustamente, an ex-soldier, who had come to the territory with Governor Micheltorena "to teachı to the children first, sec- ond and third lessons and likewise to read script, to write and count and so much as I may be com- petent, to teach them orthography and good morals." Bustamente taught to the close of the year, receiving $60 per month and $20 a month rent for a house in which the school was kept.
In July, 1850, the ayuntamiento was merged into the common council. Part of the council's duties was to act as a school board. Two appli- cations were received during the first month from would-be teachers. Hugh Overns offered to
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give primary instruction in English, Spanish and French; and George Wormald asked permission to establish "a Los Angeles Lyceum, in which the following classes shall be taught; reading, penmanship, arithmetic, geography, Spanish grammar, double entry bookkeeping, religion, history and the English and French languages." The applications were referred to Councilman Morris L. Goodman. He reported in favor of granting "Hugh Overus $50 per month to estab- lish a school in which shall be taught the rudi- ments of English, French and Spanish. In con- sideration of the subsidy paid from the public funds, the council to have the privilege of sending to the school, free of charge, six orphan boys or others whose parents are poor." The proposition was approved.
In November, 1850, the Rev. Henry Weeks proposed to organize a school-he to have charge of the boys and his wife of the girls-for the compensation of $150 per month. Two months later the school committee reported that no better proposition had been received. Weeks and his wife opened school Jannary 4, 1851. Weeks paid the rent of the school room.
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