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 28
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The Rev. J. S. Thompson, formerly pastor of the Unity Church, organized the Independent Church of Christ, April, 1899, a portion of the membership of the Church of the Unity joining the Independent Church. Services are held in the Simpson Auditoriuni.
SYNAGOGUES.
Congregation of B'nai B'rith. The first Jew- ish services in Los Angeles were held in 1854. No place of worship was erected for several years later. In1 1862 Rabbi A. W. Edleman organ- ized the congregation of B'nai B'rith and con- ducted the services until 1886.
The first synagogue was built in 1873 on what is now the site of the Gardner. Zeller Block, just
north of the city hall grounds on the east side of Broadway. The lot and building were sold in 1894 and a new synagogue erected on the corner of Ninth and Hope streets.
Congregation Kah-El Israel meets at 10712 N. Main street. Rabbi A. W. Edleman officiates.
Congregation Beth El meets at Ebell Hall. M. G. Solomon, rabbi.
OTHER DENOMINATIONS.
The reorganized Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormon) was first organized in the autumn of 1882. Services are now held at 516 Temple street.
The New Church (Swedenborgian) was orgall- ized in 1894, and held services for some time in Temperance Temple. It has since erected a church building at 515 East Ninth street at a cost of $3,000.
Seventh Day Adventist, organized in 1880, and built a church on Sixth street. They have now a church at 121 Carr street which cost $6,000.
Friends Church was organized in 1897. The congregation will soon erect a church building on the corner of Third and Fremont avenue at a cost of $4,000.
Church of the Nazarene was organized in 1895 by Dr. J. P. Widney. The denomination has a church building on Los Angeles street, between Fiftli and Sixtlı. It has twelve mission branches, some of which have buildings.
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
CHAPTER XXXI.
LOS ANGELES WATER SYSTEMS-LITIGATION AND ARBITRATION.
HE principal source of the water supply of the city of Los Angeles is the Los Angeles River, which rises on the Encino Rancho, about twelve miles northwest of the city.
When the pueblo of Los Angeles was founded, September 4, 1781, there were 110 settlements above it on the river. Governor Felipe de Neve's famous reglamento of 1779, approved by King Carlos III. of Spain in 1781, gave to the pueblos of California the right to the waters of the rivers on which they were located.
The first community work done by the pobla- dores or founders of Los Angeles was the con- struction of a water distributing system. Their water system was a very primitive affair. It consisted of a toma or dam made of brush and poles placed in the river just above where the Buena Vista street bridge now crosses it, and zanja or irrigating ditch to convey the water from the river to their planting fields and to supply them with water for domestic purposes.
This ditch was known then and for a century after as the "Zanja Madre," or mother ditch. It was constructed along the mesa at the foot hills on the western side of the river above the culti- vated lands. It passed near the northeastern corner of the old plaza, and from this point the colonists took from it their household water supply.
As the population of the pueblo increased and more land was brought under cultivation the water system was enlarged by the construction of new zanjas, but there was no attempt to convey the water into the houses by pipes.
In early times the dam and the main zanja were kept in repair by community labor, or rather by the labor of the Indians owned or em- ployed by the colonists; each land owner being required to furnish his quota of Indian laborers. The work of cleaning the main zanjas and keep- ing the tomas in repair was usually done under the superintendence of one of the regidores (councilmen), each regidor taking his weekly turn as overseer of community work. Some- times, when the work was urgent and the labor-
ers few, a raid was made on the unemployed In- dians around town, who were forced for a time to carry the white man's burdens without recon- pense. It kept them out of mischief.
For several years after the American conquest the old water distributing system was continued, but it was not satisfactory to the new rulers. Water for domestic use was taken from the zanjas in buckets and carried to the consumers by Indians. Then some genius devised a system of distributing from barrels rolled through the streets by horse power. Then water carts came iuto use.
The first proposition to distribute water for domestic purposes by means of pipes was made by William G. Dryden to the council June 21, 1853. He asked for a twenty-years' franchise and a bonus of two leagues of land. His offer was rejected.
In 1854 the water system, both for domestic use and irrigating, was made a special depart- ment of the city and placed under the charge of a water overseer.
February 24, 1857, William G. Dryden was granted a franchise by the city council to convey "all and any water that may rise or can be col- lected upon his lands in the northern part of the city of Los Angeles*, over, under and through the streets, lanes, alleys and roads of Los An- geles City." He was also granted the right "to place on the main zanja a water wheel to raise water by machinery to supply the city with water."
Under this system, a brick reservoir was built in the center of the plaza. It was supplied by pumps operated by a wheel in the zanja, near the present junction of San Fernando and Alameda streets. Later on the wheel and pump were moved to the northeastern corner of Ala- meda and Marchessault streets, where the water company's office building now stands, and, as
* The Dryden Springs so called, were located ou what in former times was a marshy tract of land, lying just southeast of the San Fernando depot grounds, where, later on, the Beaudry water works were located. In earlier times they were known as the Abila Springs,
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
before, was propelled by the waters of the zanja. Iron pipes were laid from this reservoir on the plaza and water was distributed to a number of houses along the principal streets.
The city had extended its water system as its means would allow; its revenue was small and its needs great. So but very little had been accom- plished in the fifteen years immediately follow- ing the American conquest towards building up a system for distributing water for domestic use.
December 23, 1861, the city council ordered the issuing of $15,000 of water scrip for the con- pletion of the "pipes, finmes and reservoir of the new water works and the building of a brick house near the dam for the zanjero." Next day it rained and it continued to do so for a monthi almost continuously. The dam in the river was swept away, leaving the wheel which raised the water into the flumes and zanjas high and dry. With "water, water everywhere" the inhabitants had not a drop to drink except what they ob- tained from the water carts.
The council petitioned the legislature to pass an act authorizing the city to borrow $25,000 to complete the water works. The works then in course of construction consisted of a current wheel placed in a zanja at the city dam, which by means of buckets attached to the paddles, raised the water into a flume which conveyed it to a reservoir near the Catholic cemetery, from whence it was conducted in wooden pipes to co11- sumers. In August, 1862, the mayor and com - mon council let a contract to Jean L. Sansevain to build a dam, flume, and other works for the sum of $18,000. This dam was quite an elabor- ate affair. Two rows of piles fifteen and eighteen feet long and six feet apart were driven across the river. These were planked with two-inch plank seven feet below the river bed and the interstices between the rows excavated and filled with rock. The dam was designed to raise the water seven feet above the river bed.
city's burdens. August 7, 1865, he assigned his lease to Jean L. Sansevain. October 16, 1865, the city made a lease direct with Sansevain. Sansevain extended the wooden pipes down as far as Third street. The pipes were bored out of pine tree trunks in the mountains back of San Bernardino and were similar to the wooden pump stocks once in common use in the eastern states. Sansevain's system was not a success. The pipes leaked and burst with pressure and the streets were frequently rendered impassable by flooding from the broken pipes.
November 18, 1867, Sansevain entered into a contract with the city to lay 5,000 feet of two and three inch iron pipe at a cost of abont $6.000 in scrip, he to pay 10 per cent. per annum on the cost of the pipe for its use; the city to accept its own scrip in payment.
The great flood of 1867-68 swept away the dam, and again the city was withont water.
Sansevain, discouraged by his repeated failures and losses, in February, 1868, transferred his lease to J. S. Griffin, Prudent Beaudry and Sol- omon Lazard. They completed his contract with the city to lay iron pipe, and received their pay in city water scrip. P. McFadden, who had ob- tained the old Dryden water system, was a com- petitor with Griffin for the Sansevain lease, but failed to secure it.
Griffin and his associates made a proposition to the council to lease from the city the water works for a period of fifty years on certain conditions. These conditions and stipulations were incorpo- rated into an ordinance, but instead of leasing, it was now proposed to sell the works outright on the same conditions offered in the proposed lease. These were: Griffin and his associates to pay to the city in gold coin $10,000 in 5 yearly payments of $2,000 each; to surrender to the city $6,000 worth of warrants on the city water fund held by them; to cancel $6,000 of claims against the city for repairs; also to cancel a claim of $2,000 for loss of four months' rental lost to them; to build a reservoir at a cost of $15,000; to lay twelve miles of iron pipe in the streets; to place a hydrant at one corner of street crossings; to supply the public buildings of the city with water free of cost; and to construct an ornamental fountain on the plaza costing not less than $1,000. The whole expenditure was estimated to aggregate $208,000. Upon Griffin, Beaudry and Lazard, or their assigns, giving a bond of $50,000 for the performance of these stipulations, the mayor was to execute a quit-claim deed to them of the city water works, pipes, flumes, etc., and a franchise to take ten inches of water from the river.
Mnnicipal ownership of its water works proved too great a burden for the city to bear, so it cast about for some one on whom to unload it. . February 8, 1865, a lease of the public water works of Los Angeles City, with all its flumes, pipes, canals, reservoirs and appurtenances, with the right to build reservoirs on vacant city lands, distribute and sell water and collect water rates from consumers, was made to David W. Alexan- der for a term of four years, with the privilege of continuing the lease six years after the expira- tion of four years. Alexander was to pay the city a rental of $1.000 a year, and at the expira- tion of his lease to deliver up the works and additions to the city free of all incumbrances or debts. Alexander soon tired of carrying the cil to a committee of three for examination. The The Griffin proposition was referred by the coull-
I 57
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
committee brought in a majority and minority report. The minority report pronounced strongly against the scheme. The majority advised its acceptance, and in its lengthy report dealt a back- handed blow at municipal ownership. "Thirdly, we do not believe it advisable or prudent for the city to own property of this nature, as it is well known by past experience that cities and towns can never manage enterprises of that nature as economically as individuals can; and besides it is a continual source of annoyance and is made a political hobby."
When the ordinance came before the council for adoption (June 1, 1868,) the vote was a tie. After some hesitation Murray Morrison, the pres- ident, cast his vote in the affirmative, signed the ordinance immediately, and then resigned from the council to take the position of judge of the 17th judicial district, to which he had recently been appointed by the governor. Mayor Aguilar vetoed the ordinance and saved to the city its water privileges.
Griffin and his associates then made a proposi- tion to lease the works and franchise for a period of thirty years, paying $1,500 a year and perform- ing the other conditions stipulated in the former offer. John Jones offered $50,000 in yearly in- stallments of $1,000, or the whole in 25 years for a lease. Juan Bernard and P. McFadden, owners of the Dryden system, offered $30,000 for a twenty years' lease, to begin at the expiration of the Sansevain lease.
The water question became the all-absorbing topic of discussion. Petitions and protests were showered upon the council. A special election was held on the 15thi of June to choose two coun- cilmen to fill vacancies in the city council. The opponents of the Griffin scheme carried the day.
At the meeting of the council, July 20, Juan Bernard and others presented a petition, propos- ing to lease the city water works for twenty years, paying therefor the sum of $2,000 a year, and offering to perform the same specifications as were contained in the Griffin proposition. J. G. How- ard, Esq., in behalf of himself and a number of citizens and taxpayers, asked to be heard on the Bernard proposition. He was curtly informed by the president of the council, John King, that he (King) did not wish to hear a speech. Then C. E. Thom, Esq., on his own behalf as a citizen, asked permission to be heard. The chair ruled that they did not wish to hear discussion from outsiders, whereupon Captain Thom desired a solemn protest to be entered against the ruling of the chair. The question then arose upon a post- ponement of final action upon the Griffin propo- sition. The vote was a tie; the president cast the deciding vote in the negative.
The question of the acceptance of the proposi- tion of J. S. Griffin and his associates was put to vote and carried-ayes, four; noes, two. The ordinance was signed by the president of the coun- cil and referred to the mayor, who approved it on the 22d of July, 1868. And thus the specter of "municipal ownership of a public utility," that for two decades had haunted the council chamber and affrighted the taxpayer, was exorcised-ad- jured from evil for a generation to come. The thirty years are gone, and again the specter arises from the mists of the past to worry us.
The city gained nothing financially by leasing for thirty years. It was receiving from the assigns of Sansevain $1,500 a year rental on a lease that had but little over six years to run. The long- time lease did not increase this amount. With the increase of population the water franchise was growing more valuable every year. It is
difficult at this late day to discover the motive that actuated a majority of the council to force through a proposition that was certainly not the best one offered. The most charitable conclusion is that the water question had become to the councilmen a "bête noir," a bugbear, and they were anxious to dispose of it to the parties who would take it off their hands for the longest time. One of the most active and consistent opponents of the Griffin proposition was councilman A. A. Boyle, after whom Boyle Heights is named. In the light of our present experience with the Water Company his protests seem almost prophetic.
Shortly after obtaining the thirty years' lease, Messrs. Griffin, Beaudry and Lazard transferred it to an incorporation named The Los Angeles City Water Company; the first trustees of which were J. S. Griffin, P. Beaudry, S. Lazard, J. G. Downey, A. J. King, Eugene Meyer and Charles Lafoon.
Juan Bernard and P. McFadden, the owners of the Dryden franchise, made an attempt to continue the distribution of water. Asthey could no longer use their reservoir on the plaza they petitioned the city council for a reservoir site on Fort Hill. The City Water Company petitioned for a reservoir site in the same place. In a pro- test to the city council, September 14, 1868, against granting Juan Bernard and others a site for a reservoir on Fort Hill, P. Beaudry, pres- ident of the Los Angeles City Water Company, uses this language: "That the water works of which the undersigned are lessees is the property of the city and will at the expiration of the term of the present contract revert to the city with the im- provements made thereon by the undersigned; that any aid extended by the city to private companies tends to reduce the value of property belonging to the city and is a direct blow at lier interests."
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
In the same protest the president of the Los Angeles City Water Company declares that Juan Bernard's company "has no legal or equitable rights to or upon said plaza, but are now trespassers thereon." The City Water Company finally secured the Bernard and McFadden Water Works, including the brick reservoir on the plaza. With its rival out of business, the company was not nearly so anxious to build an ornamental fountain for the city. Two years passed and no fountain played on the plaza. The third year was passing when, on December 2, 1870, the late Judge Brunson, then attorney for the water company, appeared before the council with certain propositions look- ing to a settlement, as lie styled it, of "the much vexed question of the reservoir and plaza improve- ments, " to wit: "The water company will remove the reservoir from the plaza and convey all its rights in and to the plaza to the city of Los Angeles; will lay it off in walks and ornamental grounds; will erect on it an ornamental fountain at a cost not to exceed $1,000, and will surrender to the city all water scrip (about $3,000) now held by the company; provided said city will reduce the rent paid by the company to the city to $300 per annum." As the contract required the company to build a fountain, some of the coun- cilmen demurred to giving up $1,200 for very little return. Then Brunson threatened to bring suit against the city to defend the company's rights. The council alarmed, hastened to com- promise on the basis of $400 a year, thus surren- dering $1, 100 a year.
In 1872 P. Beaudry established a water system for supplying the hills with water. Near the crossing of College and Alameda streets, where the Dryden springs were located, he excavated a large basin and with a sixty horse power engine running a pump with the capacity of 40,000 gallons per hour, forced the water to an elevation of 240 feet into two reservoirs located on the hills northeast of the present site of the Sisters' hos- pital. From these it was distributed over the hill section of the city in iron pipes.
The Citizens' Water Company was organized in 1886. It bought out the Beaudry and Rogers systems. The latter was a system which obtained water from the seepings of reservoir No. 4. The lease of the water from the Beaudry springs expiring. February 1, 1887, the works were taken down and the Citizens' Company obtained its water after that date from the river about four miles above the city. This system was purchased by the Los Angeles City Water Company in 1892.
The Canal and Reservoir Company was organ- ized in 1868 with a capital stock of $200,000. Its first officers were George Hansen, president; J.
W. Greensmith, treasurer; and J. J. Warner, sec- retary. P. Beaudry was one of the largest stock- holders. This company contracted with the city to build within three years a dam twenty feet high across the cañon just below where Echo Park is now located and to construct a ditch down the cañon of the Arroyo de Los Reyes to Pearl street, the object of which was to furnish water to the hill portions of the city and supply power for manufacturing. In 1873 a woolen mill was built on this ditch and was operated for twelve or fifteen years and was then converted into an ice factory. The company received in compensation for the construction of this system a large body of city land, since known as the canal and reservoir lands.
A CENTURY OF LITIGATION.
Almost from the beginning of the century the city at various times has been compelled to en- gage in litigation to preserve her water rights.
The first legal contest over water rights on the Los Angeles River was begum in 1810. The padres of San Fernando had caused a dam to be constructed at Cahuenga, by which the waters of the river were diverted from its channel. The authorities of the pueblo protested, and appointed a committee to investigate. The committee re- ported that the dam cut off the source of the pueblo's water supply, thereby causing great damage and suffering to the people of the town. The padres denied the allegation, and set up a claim to the water on the plea that the dam had been used by a previous occupant of the land for fourteen years. There were no lawyers in Cali- fornia then, and the contestants fought their legal battle to a finish among themselves. The padres were finally compelled to concede the justice of the pueblo's claim to the waters of the river. They asked and were granted permission to use enough water to irrigate a small tract of land to supply the mission with corn. This was granted, with a definite understanding that, should the settlers' water supply at any time run short, the mission should cease to use the river water. The agreement between the contestants was signed March 26, 1810, and was approved by Governor Arrellaga.
Time passes. Spain no longer controls the destinies of California, but the missions, in the language of a protest in the old archives, "still maintain their proud old notions of being the owners of all the natural products of forest and field."
The pueblo had won its suit for possession of the waters of the river underthe rule of monarch- ical Spain, but it must again contend for its right under republican Mexico.
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
In the proceedings of the most illustrious ayuntamiento of Los Angeles, October 8, 1833, is this entry: "The ayuntamiento of this town finding it absolutely necessary to obtain by all means possible the prosperity of our fellow citi- zens residing in this community, so as to facili- tate the greatest advantages to their interest: we have been compelled to name an individual with sufficient power from this body to defend with all the power of the law the question arising between this corporation and the reverend fatlier, the teacher of the San Fernando Mission, with refer- ence to his claim on the lands called Cahuenga, where said father has built a house and made other improvements (constructed a dam in the river). Notwithstanding, the lands are known as public lands. To that effect we name citizen José Antonio Carrillo, on whom sufficient power is conferred to prosecute, defend and allege ac- cording to law before the proper tribunals the ques- tions between the corporation of this town and the reverend father of the mission of San Fernando. Said Carrillo may refer to this ayuntamiento at any time for all information and documents. Unanimously ordered by this corporation."
Carrillo, who was at that time alcalde of Los Angeles, and also a member of the territorial legislature, although not a practicing lawyer, was well versed in the law and one of the ablest mien of California.
He won his case. The reverend father aban- doned his claim to the Cahuenga, conceded the claims of the ayuntamiento and allowed the waters of the river, unpent, to flow to the pueblo. Two years later the mission of San Fernando was secularized. Then contention between the pueblo and the mission fathers over the waters of the river that had existed for more than a generation was ended forever. In every contest the pobla- dores of the pueblo had won.
The mission property passed into the hands of an agent or commissioner of the government, and he, too, like his predecessors of San Fer- nando, had to learn that the river waters belonged to the pueblo, or city, as it had now become. In1 the session of the ayuntamiento of April 7, 1836, the president said "that the party in charge of San Fernando Mission was damming the water of the river at Cahuenga," as he had been in- formed by a commission he had appointed to in- vestigate. "The damming of the city's river water was reducing the supply in the public res- ervoir and causing injury to this vicinity." He said that he acquainted the ayuntamiento of these facts, "so that it might take measures to protect the interests of the community." The city at- torney and Regidor Lugo were appointed a com- mittee to defend the city's rights.
At the next session "the city attorney, as one of the committee appointed to investigate the damming of one of the branches of the river by the man in charge of the ex-mission of San Fer- nando, gave as his opinion that there was suffi- cient water in the 'city's river' to supply the main zanja and the private zanjas;" but, he said, furthermore, "that the man in charge of San Fernando had promised him in case said dam should break and damage the city reservoir that he (the man) would repair the same at his own expense, and if the supply of water should at any time fall short in the river he would break said dam that he had constructed and allow all the water to flow into the river." Thus we see in the early days of the pueblo the authorities guarded with jealous care the pueblo's water rights. There was no dallying with adverse claimants; no allowing of cases to go by default; no jeopardizing the city's rights by criminal de- lay. The old regidores might be "poco tiempo" iu some things, but when the city's water rights were in danger they were prompt to act.
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