Historical and biographical record of southern California; containing a history of southern California from its earliest settlement to the opening year of the twentieth century, Part 31

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Chicago, Chapman pub. co.
Number of Pages: 1366

USA > California > Historical and biographical record of southern California; containing a history of southern California from its earliest settlement to the opening year of the twentieth century > Part 31

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In 1868 the current of immigration, which for years had steadily flowed into Central and Northern California, turned southward. The subdivision of the great ranchos of the south had begun and cheap farm lands were thrown on the market. Successive years of abundant rainfall had obliterated the traces of the "famine years." Prices of all products were good and men of small means in Central California, who had made money by grain-raising on rented lands, began to look around for homes of their

own. The completion of the first transconti- nental railroad (the Union and Central Pacific) in May, 1869, brought many home-seekers to the coast and some of these drifted southward.

The coast stage line had been established in 1868 on a better basis, and, with increased serv- ice, running on regular time, attracted land travel. Heretofore travel up and down the coast had been almost entirely by steamer; and as the large passenger steamers did not stop at San Buenaventura, it had remained comparatively unknown. The stage passengers coming down from the mountains on their journey northward or, rising as it were out of the sea, on their southward trip, beheld stretched out before them the valley of the Santa Clara in all its loveliness and were delighted with the view and enthusiastic over the country's future pros- pects.

The following table of distances and stations gives the line of the old stage route between Los Angeles, San Buenaventura and Santa Bar- bara in 1868:

From Los Angeles to Cahuenga Pass

934 miles.

House .

To New Station .. 534

To Mountain House (Larry's). 1534

To Simi Ranch 83/4

To Las Posas .. 12

To Santa Clara River. 10

To San Buenaventura. 83/4

To Rincon 12

To Santa Barbara. 15

Total. 981/2

The stage, which carried the daily mail, left Los Angeles at 6 a. m. and arrived at 8 p. m. The through time from San Francisco to Los Angeles by stage was 66 hours. The following extract taken from Josephine Clifford's "Trop- ical California," a series of articles descriptive of the coast counties from San Luis Obispo south- ward, published in the Overland Monthly sev- eral years before Nordhoff's famous letters ap- peared, gives a pleasing description of the stage ride and of San Buenaventura as she saw it in 1870:

"The regrets I expressed on leaving Santa Barbara came from my heart; it is a lovely spot, and even when I went from it I could not but lean out of the window to catch departing glimpses of it as it faded more and more from sight. The stage road winds along by the sea; the sun was shining, golden, as it seems ever to shine on these serene, blue ripples of water, and there was something so quieting in the soft plashing of the waves against the shore that I laid my head back and, with open eyes, dreamed -- dreamed till I fell asleep, and was waked up again by the sound of water rushing imme-

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

diately under the coach. I looked out in bewil- derment; it was true, the horses were drawing the coach through the foaming, flashing waves. The other passengers expressed no concern; so I, too, remained quiet, and soon found that this was the pleasantest way of traveling along the coast.

"Twenty-five miles below Santa Barbara lies San Buenaventura, another old mission, around which quite a flourishing place has sprung up. The flimsy, garish frame houses have crowded themselves in where the olive, the palm, and the fig-tree once grew in unbroken lines; but now only patches of ground, covered with giant pear trees and huge old olives, are visible back of the fast-growing town. Passing through in the broad, positive light of noonday, I could look on these things philosophically and with equa- nimity ; but on my way back from Los Angeles some time later, in the chill hours of the wan- ing night, the sight of the place made me feel sad, almost bitter. Night had not yet lifted her mantle from the earth as the stage rolled heavily toward San Buenaventura, and the roar of the ocean fell on my ear with hollow sound. Soon I distinguished the bell towers of the Mission Church, and the tinkling of the bells, just touched, had a feeble, complaining tone; now we turn into the one long street of San Buena- ventura, and in the darkening halls, the clerk of the hotel shows me into a cheerless room, up- stairs. I walk to the window-to the rising light-and there, in the yard below are those peerless, graceful palm trees I saw waving and bending in the dim distance. How pitiful to see these neglected daughters of the torrid zone lifting their royal shafts among the stove pipes and empty dry goods boxes of a country store back yard. I stretched out my hands lovingly, and they nodded their proud heads, and flung their arms to the morning breeze, pointing to where those clusters of dark olives stood. But it grows lighter, the stage is at the door, and bears us rapidly away. In the far east breaks the cold gray morning-'those Americans' are coming!"

And "those Americans" continued to come; the "garish frame houses" crowded out the adobe structures. The age of wood supplanted the age of unbaked clay, and in turn was crowded back from the business streets by brick and stone. The "clusters of dark olives" have been thinned by the woodman's ax and but two of the palms nod their proud heads in the morn- ing breeze. And still "those Americans are coming," not by stage, but hy steam.

Mrs. Clifford's description of a night ride over the mountains between San Buenaventura and Los Angeles illustrates some of the perils and

inconveniences of travel a third of a century ago: "We had been ascending the mountain for some time, when, during a breathing spell given the horses, the sharp, decided rattle that seems pe- culiar to just these stages, sounded back to us from somewhere above, as though it were the echo of our own wheels. The driver listened a moment, and then broke out with an abrupt cath, for which he didn't even apologize. 'D- that fellow! But I'll make him take the out- I side,' he muttered. 'What's the matter?' asked apprehensively; 'anything wrong?' 'Oh no!' with a look over to my side of the road where the light of the lanterns fell on the trees that grew up out of the mountain side below us, and were trying to touch the wheels of our coach with their top branches-'nothing at all. Only he's got to take that side of the road and take his chances of going over. He'd no busi- ness coming on me here.'

"The rattling had come nearer all this time and now a light flashed up a little in front of us and directly a fiery, steaming monster seemed rushing down to destroy us. The air had grown chilly and the horses in the approaching stage seemed to have cantered down the mountain at quite a lively gait ; for the white steam was issu- ing from their nostrils and rising in clouds from their bodies. The six gallant horses, reined up short and stamping nervously to be let loose for the onward run, were a noble sight; and the heavy coach with its two glowing eyes was grandly swaying in its springs. Our own horses were blowing little impatient puffs from dis- tended nostrils, and our coach drawn safely up on the rocky hillside. Both drivers stopped to exchange the compliments of the day-or, rather, the night-our driver speaking in crusty tones, and, pointing down to where the road fell off steep and precipitous below him, warned the other driver 'not to run ahead of his time again.'

"There was nothing remarkable about the supper we took that night except the bats that kept coming in at the front door in a perfectly free-and-easy manner, swarming about our heads till they thought they knew us, and then settling in their favorite nooks and corners. No -· ticing my untiring endeavors to prevent them from inspecting my head and face too closely. the station keeper observed that people were 'most always afraid of them things when they first come,' but that they 'needn't fright of then; they wouldn't hurt nobody.' The rest of the night was passed inside the stage, though of sleep there was no thought, such jolting and jumping over rocks and boulders; I ache all over to think of it even now! Just before day- break we entered the City of the Angels."

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

San Buenaventura became ambitious to be classed as a seaport. In January, 1871, a fran- chise was secured to build a wharf; work was begun upon it in March; and in February, 1872. it was so near completion that steamers were able to discharge their cargoes directly on it. The next advance was the establishing of a newspaper. April 22, 1871, appeared the first number of the Ventura Signal. The editor and proprietor, J. H. Bradley, was a wide-awake, progressive newspaper man. He directed his efforts towards building up the prospective county. He was an earnest and intelligent ad- vocate of county division and labored to organ- ize and unify public sentiment in favor of that measure.

ORGANIZATION OF THIE NEW COUNTY.

After the failure of the attempt to divide Santa Barbara county in 1859, the scheme fell into a state of "innocuous desuetude." It was not given up; only held in abeyance. The people were biding their time. There were abundant reasons why the people of the eastern portion of Santa Barbara should have a county of their own when they could afford the expense. It was a long distance to the county seat, and the journey had to be made over roads that were next to impassable in the winter time. The western and more populous part of the county monopolized the offices; and the most harrow- ing grievance that the average American office- seeker can suffer is to have his claims to polit- ical preferment ignored by his party. Then, too, Santa Barbara city, which really dominated the politics of the county, had a large purchasable element among its voters, which, under the leadership and controlled by crafty politicians, decided the political destiny of aspirants for office on a coin basis. The advocates of a new county pointed to the many and grievous wrongs against the right of suffrage commit- ted by the political bosses of Santa Barbara and urged a separation from their contaminating influence. Examples were many.

It is said that at one time when political feel- ing ran high a whole tribe of Indians were voted. At another closely contested election the passenger list of a Panama steamer was copicd and a precinct of 20 voters rolled up 160 votes. The "hole in the wall" election fraud of 1852 was one of the many scandals that shook confidence in the verdict of the ballot box. At that election the voter passed his ballot through a hole in the wall. The election officers, who were all of one political faith, disposed of the ballots as seemed good to them. The electors of the other side had the privilege of voting carly and often. If their votes were not counted

at least they had the satisfaction of casting a goodly number. The registry law of 1866 checked some of the more flagrant abuses, but bribery, coercion and the open buying of votes went on for several years afterwards.

Immigration had brought into the eastern end of Santa Barbara county a population almost entirely American, and the desire to cut loose from the western end with its peculiar election methods increased as population increased. In 1869, ten years after the failure of the first, a sec- ond effort to form a new county was made. Hon. A. G. Escandon was elected to the assembly largely on a county division issue, but Santa Barbara bitterly opposed the scheme when it came before the legislature and the bill for the creation of a new county failed to pass.

In the legislature of 1871-72, the measure again came to the front. Hon. W. D. Hobson, who represented the county divisionists in the legislature, was successful in carrying the meas- ure. The bill creating the county of Ventura was approved March 22, 1872. The boundaries of the county are as follows: "Commencing on the coast of the Pacific ocean at the mouth of Rincon creek; thence following up the center of said creek to its source; thence due north to the boundary line of Santa Barbara county; thence in an casterly direction along the bound- ary line of Santa Barbara county to the north- east corner of the same; thence southerly along the line between the said Santa Barbara county and Los Angeles county to the Pacific ocean and three miles therein; thence in a northwest- erly direction to a point due south and three iniles distant from the mouth of Rincon creek ; thence north to the point of beginning; and in- cluding the islands of Anacapa and San Nic- olas."

The bill provided for the appointment of five commissioners to effect a county organization. Early in January the governor appointed Thomas R. Bard, S. Bristol, W. D. F. Richards, A. G. Escandon and C. W. Thacker.

A special election was called for February 25, 1873, to elect county and township officers. The total vote cast was 608 and the following were declared elected :

J. Marion Brooks, District Attorney.

F. Molleda, County Clerk. Frank Peterson, Sheriff.

John Z. Barnett, County Assessor.

F. A. Edwards. County Treasurer.

C. J. De Merritte, County Surveyor.

F. S. S. Buckman. County Superintendent of Schools. Dr. C. L. Bard, Coroner.

The supervisors were James Daly of the first district, a hold-over from Santa Barbara; J. A. Conaway of the second, and C. W. Thacker of

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

the third district. All the officers except the cor- oner were Democrats. The coroner had no op- position or he, too, would have been over- whelmed by the Democratic tidal wave. Pablo de la Guerra was the district judge of the sec- ond district-San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura. Milton Wasson was county judge. Frank Molleda, county clerk, died a few weeks after his election and S. M. W. Easley was ap- pointed to fill the vacancy. The officers having all qualified and filed their bonds, the county of Ventura opened for business March 14, 1873.

The offices of the county officials except that of the treasurer were located in a rented build- ing on the corner of Main and Palm streets in what was known as Spear's Hall. San Buena- ventura owned a jail and this was used jointly by the town and county until the county jail was built. A plat for a court house square in the old mission orchard was deeded to the county by Bishop Amat; and in 1873 bonds were issued to the amount of $6,000 by the county; the town donating $4,000 for the pur- pose of building a court house and jail. The

project of building a court house in San Buena- ventura aroused the opposition of other towns ambitious to be the county seat (particularly Saticoy and Hucneme), and a court house war was on with all its bitterness. The court house nevertheless was built among the century-old olives in the mission garden; and, although the mutterings of the discontented towns were heard for years afterwards, it availed them noth- ing. It is not probable that any one of the as- pirants of early days will ever become the seat of county government. The main building of the court house was completed in 1874; a wing was added in 1878, and in 1884 four rooms were added to the west end.

During the years of 1872 and 1873 business was active in San Buenaventura and throughout the county. New buildings were going up, prop- erty changing hands, and the old town after its sleep of a century awoke from its lotus dream of ease to find itself metamorphosed from a sleepy, half-Indian, half-Mexican hamlet to a bustling, wide-awake, progressive American town.

CHAPTER XXXI. VENTURA COUNTY-Continued.

ANNALS OF VENTURA TOWN AND COUNTY.

E ARLY in 1872 San Buenaventura dis- trict issued school bonds to the amount of $10,000 to build a new school house. The bonds were sold and the corner-stone of the building laid September 16, 1872. The number of school census children in the county in 1872 was 809, of which 323 were in the town of Ven- tura.

The first murder in the new county was com- mitted March 3, 1873. In a dispute over land boundaries George Hargen shot and killed George Martin, on the Colonia rancho. Har- gen, after the murder, attempted to escape by flight. IIe was followed by some of his neigh- bors, overtaken, arrested and taken back to the scene of the murder. He was confined in a small house and closely guarded. An inquest was held on the body of Martin and the verdict was that he had been murdered by Ilargen without provocation. Martin was a peaceable man and a good citizen, HIargen a quarrelsome and dan- gerous fellow. After the inquest, Ilargen was taken to a lone tree on the ranch and hanged. He showed no penitence for his deed, but ex- pressed himself glad that he had killed Martin. No effort was ever made to arrest the vigilantes.

It was generally conceded that Hargen had re- ceived his just deserts.

The year of 1874 was one of abundant rain- fall; crops were good, prices of grain and stock high, immigrants were coming and the city and county were riding on the wave of prosperity. The first boom was on. The town had grown rapidly. Its population was about 1,000.

The Ventura Library Association was incor- porated November 23, 1874. The incorporators were Milton Wasson, James Daly, C. G. Finney, L. F. Eastin, G. S. Gilbert, Jr .; C. H. Baily, J. J. Sheridan, T. B. Steplton and L. C. Granges. All members paid $5 a year to the support of the library; those not members were allowed the privilege of drawing books on the payment of twenty-five cents per month. A room was se- cured, and with the proceeds of a fair and festi- val was fitted up with shelves and furniture. Six hundred volumes were bought and the library opened. It was kept open until 1878, when, becoming involved in debt, it was closed. The library trustees, Messrs. James Daly, M. H. Gay, C. H. Baily, L. F. Eastin and J. J. Sheridan, made a proposition to the board of town trus- tees to transfer the assets of the association to the town, provided the town trustces would pay the library indebtedness and agree to levy a tax

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

for the support of the library in accordance with the state law providing for a library fund in in- corporated cities and towns. The town board accepted the proposition and took charge of the library August 21, 1878. J. F. Newby was ap- pointed librarian and held the office until Febru- ary, 1888. The town owns its own library build- ing, which is a part of the city hall. New books are added as means will allow. The library is in charge of Miss Florence Vandever, who is a very efficient and competent librarian.

In 1875 the town and the county had grown populous enough to support another newspa- per. J. H. Bradley had done good work with the Signal, the pioneer newspaper founded in 1871. He made it a model country newspaper. His health failed and in 1873 he disposed of his in- terest in it to E. Shepherd and J. J. Sheridan. They kept up the early reputation of the paper. The first number of the Daily Ventura Free Press was issued November 14, 1875. It was published by O. P. Hoddy. The subscription price of the daily was $8; weekly, $3. In his salutatory, the editor says: "In conducting the Free Press we shall endeavor to the best of our ability to be a champion and friend of the peo- ple." The daily was a four-page, eight-column blanket sheet. The editor was often driven to desperation to fill his local columns with news items. The town was small, the people were intent on their own business and it was the same wearying round of sameness day after day. At the end of an uneventful week the editor utters this wail: "If ever in the publication of a local paper we were driven to desperation in search of items we are this week. Not even a dog fight has occurred to relieve the monotony. We have felt almost justified in placing a man on the watch for wild geese or sending a reporter to the clam beds."

February 19, 1876, H. G. McLean became proprietor of the daily and weekly Free Press. With the advent of a rival paper a newspaper war broke out. There was no scarcity of items after that. There was perhaps no more news, but there was more noise. People never quarrel silently. Expletives, hot with wrath or icy with irony, were hurled back and forth from sanctum to sanctumn. During the famous More murder trial the rival papers assailed each other vi- ciously, the Signal scathingly condemning the murder and the Free Press excusing it.

The Monumentals, a fire company, was or- ganized in 1875; B. F. Williams, president; L. F. Eastin, secretary, and R. G. Surdam, forc- man.

The Gas Company was organized the same year; J. M. Miller, president ; L. F. Eastin, sec- retary.

February 25, 1876, the steamer "Kalorama," 491 tons' burden, belonging to the Coast Steam- ship Company, was lost. While lying at Wolf- son's wharf, on account of the rough sea, she chafed against the wharf and was ordered to move out to the floating buoy. On the way thither her screw fouled with the mooring rope and left the vessel at the mercy of the wind, which drove her ashore. As she lay on the beach hier heavy machinery broke loose in her hull. The loose machinery and the beating of the waves broke her to pieces. The loss was esti- mated at $77,500.

In 1877 occurred the murder of T. Wallace More. The excitement, prejudices and politi- cal issues even, that arose out of the varying circumstances connected with the trial of the conspirators made this one of the most cele- brated cases in the criminal annals of Cali- fornia. Thomas Wallace More, by purchase from the old Californian families, had acquired large land holdings in the Santa Clara valley. He and his three brothers at one time owned a tract thirty-two miles long, bordering on the Santa Clara river. Among his purchases was the Sespe rancho, originally granted to Don Carlos Carrillo in 1829. More bought this grant in 1874, paying in full for six leagues the amount of land the grant was supposed to con- tain. The United States Land Commission had confirmed the grant in 1853 for this amount. The United States, as adverse claimant, ap- pealed the case to the United States district court. When the plat was brought into court it was found that the number of leagues had been changed from two to six at some time dur- ing the existence of the grant. More, to prevent the whole grant from being rejected, consented to take two leagues; the remaining four leagues being government land, was open to settlement and about forty squatters located on it. Fre- quent disputes arose between More and the squatters. The ill feeling between them was intensified by More attempting to buy the four leagues from the government under an act passed subsequent to the rejection.

On the night of the 23d of March, 1877, More was sleeping at the ranch house on his grant. About midnight the barn was discovered on fire and he and his hired man rushed out to save the contents of the building. More was shot down as he came into the light by some masked men, and while lying on the ground begging for his life was riddled with bullets. Suspicion fell upon the squatters. To avert it they held a meeting and some of the murderers were loudest in their condemnation of it. and passed resolutions de- nouncing it and offering their assistance in fer- reting out the murderers.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

Austin Brom, one of the Sespe settlers, hav- ing quarreled with Curlee, one of the conspira- tors, revealed to the administrator of the More estate the names of those who had conspired to kill More. As a result of these revelations and some other evidence obtained by the authorities, F. A. Sprague, J. S. Churchhill, J. F. Curlee, Jesse M. Jones, Ivory D. Lord, Charles McCart, 11. Cook and J. A. Swanson were arrested. N. H. lickerson, chairman of the meeting at which the resolutions were passed, being on his death bed, also made some revelations. After the ar- rest Jesse M. Jones turned state's evidence. On trial Sprague and Curlee were found guilty. Sprague was sentenced to be hanged and Cur- lee to imprisonment for life. On the trial of Lord the jury disagreed. When the trial of the next conspirator was begun, Jones, a weak and unscrupulous fellow, having evidently been in- duced to do so by purchase or persuasion, re- tracted his former evidence and admitted that he had perjured himself. As it was impossible to convict without his testimony, the others were discharged. Sprague's sentence was commuted to imprisonment for life. Stoneman, when gov- ernor, pardoned him. Curlee obtained a new trial, and the jury disagreeing, his case was finally dismissed. Jones' financial circumstances were greatly improved by his connection with the plot.

The year 1877 was one of disasters to Ventura both by sea and land. Two vessels were wrecked in the bav that year. The brig Crimca, 223 tons' burden, loaded with lumber, while made fast to the wharf, parted her cable and was driven ashore by the heavy northwesterly gale prevail- ing at the time. The loss was estimated at $0,200.

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Historical and biographical record of southern California; containing a history of southern California from its earliest settlement to the opening year of the twentieth century, Part 31

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918 Publication date: 1902 Publisher: Chicago, Chapman pub. co. Number of Pages: 1366

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Chicago, Chapman pub. co.
Number of Pages: 1366