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 32

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 32

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December 1, 1877, the brig Lucy Ann, 200 tons' burden, parted her mooring during a vio- lent northwester and was broken to pieces. One life was lost. The vessel was valued at $6,500.

The year 1877 was one of the dreaded dry years. After the almost total destruction of cattle-raising in the "famine years" of 1863 and 1864 the sheep industry came to the front in Southern California. The high price of wool in the years immediately following the close of the Civil war, the rapidity with which sheep mul- tiplied and the small cost of their maintenance made the business of wool-growing very profit- able. As the agricultural lands of the valleys were utilized for grain-growing the ranges were curtailed and the sheep were crowded back on the mesas and foothills. When drought came the feed on these was soon exhausted and sheep were dying by thousands. On the island of Santa Cruz alone 25,000 starved to death. On the main land whole droves perished. Some

of the owners drove their sheep to Arizona and Southern Utah and thus saved a remnant of their flocks. Others depending on a late rainfall delayed their departure until too late, and at- tempting to cross the deserts with their starving bands lost them all. The dry year put a tempo- rary check to the prosperity the county had been enjoying for several years.

In 1879 the assessed value of the property of the county was $3,399,000. The land under cultivation was estimated by the county assessor at 75,000 acres. Of this amount about one-half was sown in barley; corn came next and wheat third, the three cereals monopolizing about 60,000 acres of the cultivated lands; while the bean, now one of the great agricultural staples, only occupied 1,800 acres, and the sugar beet was then unknown among the products of the county.

The great flood of 1884 swept down through the Soledad cañon and carried the Southern Pa- cific Railroad track out of the cañon down the Santa Clara river to the sea. Out beyond the mouth of the river for several days during the flood a great raft made up of bridge timbers, tics and telegraph poles, the wreckage of the rail- road, was tossed back and forth by the river current and the breakers. When the flood sub- sided this flotsam was cast on the beach or car- ried out to sea. The Santa Clara river spread out over the valley and for a time rivaled the Father of Waters during a spring rise. The flood did but very little damage in Ventura county.

In 1886 the construction of the coast line of the Southern Pacific Railroad was begun at Saugus, a station on the main road from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Work was pushed rapidly down the Santa Clara valley, and early in 1887 the road was completed to San Buena- ventura. The reaction from the debilitating ef- fects of bank failures on the coast, dry years and the low prices of grain did not begin till about 1882; from that on there was a steady advance in the price of real estate. With the advent of the railroad in 1887 it went up with a bound. The real estate agent became very much in evidence. What the town or the county lacked in actual conditions his vivid imagination supplied. On every side was evidence of growth and progress. The magnificent Hotel Rose was built at a cost of $120,000. To prevent business from drifting up town too rapidly a syndicate of down-town property holders built the Ana- capa Hotel. Streets were graded, sidewalks laid, a theater built and the town assumed met- ropolitan airs.

The railroad reached Santa Barbara in Au- gust, 1887, and there stopped. The halt would

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not be long. The gap between the northern and southern ends would soon be closed, so the real estate boomers said. Besides, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe had surveyed a route from Santa Monica to San Buenaventura, then up the river of the same name, crossing the divide to the Santa Ynez, down its valley and by way of the Salinas valley and San José to San Fran- cisco. Rivalry between the two roads would force them to hurry up the work. San Buena- ventura on two main lines would become a great railroad center. But the Santa Fe did not ma- terialize; the Southern Pacific remained station- ary and the gap was wide open. Hope deferred made the heart of the real estate agent sick. The boom subsided and San Buenaventura awoke from a dream to the reality that she was not a great railroad center.

In 1890 the Federal census gave the town a population of 3,869, a very healthy growth for the decade. The population of the county was 10,071. The total number of school census chil- dren between five and seventeen was 2,703, of whom 1,962 attended school.

September 1, 1890, the town was lighted by electricity.

The Ventura County Pioneer Society was organized September 19, 1891. Dr. C. L. Bard was made president and L. F. Eastin secretary. The vice-presidents were John Barry, J. Ho- bart, K. P. Grant, Thomas A. Rice and J. A. Conaway. James Daly was chosen treasurer and A. J. Snodgrass marshal. All male residents of the county, June 2, 1873, were made eligible to membership. Sixty-two members signed the rolls the first evening.

F. S. S. Buckman, the first superintendent of schools of Ventura county, was assassinated in San Francisco by a man named Daly. He shot Buckman in the back, mistaking him for his (Buckman's) brother, with whom he had a quar- . rel. Daly was tried, found guilty and sentenced to the state's prison for life.

December 29, 1891, José de la Rosa, the first printer to set type in California, died in the town of Ventura. He brought a printing press and font of type to Monterey in 1834, and printed the first book ever issued in California. He was born in the pueblo of Los Angeles, Old Mexico, and lacked but eight days of being 103 years old. At the time of his death he was the oldest printer in the world. On the press he brought was printed the first newspaper pub- lished in California, The Californian, published by Semple & Colton, August 15, 1846.

The railroad to Nordhoff was completed in 1892.

July 9, 1895, an election was held to vote upon the proposition of bonds to the amount of

$106,500 to purchase the property of the Santa Ana Water Company. The bond issue was car- ried by a vote of about seven to one in favor. On the question of issuing bonds in the sum of $23,500 to purchase the arc light system of the Ventura Land and Power Company, submitted the sanie day, the vote stood six to one in favor. The proposition to purchase the water system was afterwards rejected by the town trustees on account of defective title so it was claimed.

The number of census children in the county in 1895 was 3,592. Two high schools had been established, Ventura and Santa Paula. The as- sessed valuation of the county in 1895 was $8,236,147. It was estimated that the county in 1895 produced 2,600 carloads of beans valued at $1,100,000.

The year 1898 marked the beginning of a new industry and the introduction of a new agricultural product into the county. The Pa- cific Beet Sugar Company erected a sugar fac- tory and refinery at Oxnard and inaugurated the cultivation of the sugar beet. Oxnard was founded in January, 1898. The population of Ventura county, according to the Federal cen- sus of 1900, was 14.367, an increase of 4,298 in ten years, or about thirty per cent; that of San Buenaventura 2,470; of Santa Paula, 1,047; of Oxnard, 1,000.

OTHER TOWNS.

IIUENEME.

Hueneme or Wynema, as the name was for- merly spelled, is an Indian word, meaning a rest- ing place, or place of security, and was so named by the Indians because in this bay or harbor they found a resting place from adverse winds. The town was founded in June, 1870, by W. E. Barnard, G. S. Gilbert and H. P. Flint. It was the first town really founded in the district, which later formed Ventura county. San Buena- ventura, the oldest town of the district, grew up around the mission without founding. Iluen- eme is twelve miles south of the county seat and is situated on a coast projection of the Colonia rancho. The Hueneme Lighter Company es- tablished a shipping port here in June, 1870, and received shipments of lumber. During the first year 60,000 sacks of grain were loaded on vessels by means of lighters. Thomas R. Bard and R. G. Surdam obtained a franchise to con- struct a wharf at this point. Work was pushed rapidly on the structure, and in August, 1871, the wharf, 900 feet long and extending out to where the water was 18 feet deep, was com- pleted. (In 1897 the wharf was extended to

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1,600 feet, with an average depth of water at its end of 30 feet.)

Upon the completion of its wharf, Hueneme became one of the most important shipping points on the southern coast. It was the outlet by sea of the rich corn, barley and bean district south of the Santa Clara river; and of the wheat and fruit-growing valleys of the Las Posas, Simi and Conejo. Hueneme is a town of warehouses. It now has seven of these, with a capacity of 500,000 sacks. It has a bank with a capital of $50,000, three churches and supports a weekly newspaper.

NORDHOFF.

Nordhoff, named for the celebrated writer, Charles Nordhoff, is located in the center of the Ojai valley, fifteen miles north of San Buena- ventura. It has an elevation of 900 feet above the sea level. The town was founded in 1874. R. G. Surdam purchased sixty acres, which he subdivided into town lots. The town contains several churches, a good school and a public library. It supports a weekly newspaper, the Ojai, established in 1890. The Ojai valley is a famous citrus fruit belt. Nordhoff is connected with San Buenaventura by railroad.

SANTA PAULA.

Santa Paula, sixteen miles easterly from San Buenaventura, on the coast line of the Southern Pacific Railroad, was founded in 1873 by Blanchard and Bradley. It is located at the junc- tion of the Santa Paula creek with the Santa Clara river and takes its name from the creek. The first hotel opened in the town was Dod- son's. Wiley Brothers opened the first mercan- tile establishment. One business place that an- tedated the founding of the town was Major Gordon's saloon, "The Cross Roads." One Sep- tember day in 1873, Tiburcio Vasquez and his gang of robbers and cutthroats visited the ma- jor's liquid dispensary and spent money for drinks most lavishly. Their high toned liber- ality and disregard for money made a deep im- pression on the major; and after their departure he was loud in their praise. "The most polished gentlemen, sir, I ever met in California." The major very nearly had a fit when an officer of the law who was on their trail told the major who his "polished gentlemen" were.

In 1875 Santa Paula contained two hotels, two stores, two saloons, a postoffice and a flour- ing mill half a mile above the business center. The discovery of petroleum that year in Santa Paula cañon greatly accelerated its growth. It experienced another boom in 1887, when the railroad was built through the town. Since 1875 Santa Paula has been the headquarters of the

oil industry of Ventura county. The larger oil companies have offices here and a pipe line from the wells conveys the oil to Ventura. Besides the support the town receives from the oil in- dustry it is the center of a rich fruit growing district. Both citrus and deciduous fruits are produced here. Santa Paula is a city of churches. It supports more different denom- inations than any other town of its size in the state. The Universalists, Presbyterians, Catho- lics, Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians, Holi- ness and Christians have church buildings, and there are several other religious organizations who have not yet erected buildings. The town has an excellent high school. Two weekly news- papers-the Chronicle, founded in 1886, and the Sentinel-keep the people posted on the news of the day.

OXNARD.

Oxnard, named for Henry T. Oxnard, Presi- dent of the American Beet Sugar Company, is the youngest town in the county, but in rapidity of growth it has distanced all competitors. Jan- uary, 1898, it consisted of one lone house- a structure of rough upright boards. In March, two months later, there were seven buildings. In June, 1901, it boasted of an elegant house, a bank, a $22,000 school house, a $16,000 Masonic Hall, a number of mercantile estab- lishments, among them one carrying a $100,000 stock, a daily newspaper (the only one in the county), a number of fine residences, a sugar factory (the largest with one exception in the world), three church buildings, one of the pretti- est designed plazas in Southern California and a population of 2,000. Its school census, taken May, 1901, gave its school population 523, the largest of any town in the county except that of San Buenaventura which numbered 720.

The following, compiled from the O.rnard Courier, gives a brief description of the sugar factory: "The construction of the Oxnard Beet Sugar Factory was begun early in 1898. The main building is an immense structure. It is 121 fect in width by 401 in length and 90 feet high. The sugar house, where the finished product is stored, extends from the west end of the building 220 feet, and is 65 feet in width. The boiler house is 100x300 feet. Crude oil is used for fuel and three iron tanks placed 700 fect away from the main building have a stor- age capacity of 33,000 barrels each. The twin steel smoke stacks are twelve feet each in diameter at the base, and rise to a height of 155 feet. They constitute a landmark that can be scen miles away. There are two vertical lime kilns, one 95 feet high and the other 85 feet, supplying 180 tons of lime a day, which is used

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in clarifying and purifying the beet juice in the process of sugar making. The building, ma- chinery, etc., cost $2,000,000. Oxnard and the factory are connected by rail with the main line of the Southern Pacific by a branch road to Montalvo, distant five miles. The Oxnard Daily Courier, founded May 8, 1901, published by Charles A. Whitmore and edited by J. A. Whit- more, is the only daily paper now published in Ventura county. The Weekly Courier was established in 1898.

EL RIO.

El Rio was formerly known as New Jerusalem. It was founded by Simon Cohn in 1875. As about all the business of the town was in the hands of Hebrews, it took the name of the holy city of the Jews, with a prefix. It has consider- able business. There is no synagogue in it, but it has a large Catholic church and parsonage. The Methodists had a church building there, but it has recently been removed to Oxnard. El Rio is on the stage road between Montalvo and Oxnard, and about half way between San Buenaventura and Hueneme.

MONTALVO, five miles by railroad easterly from San Buenaventura, is a small town with one of the Southern Pacific Milling Company's great warehouses in it. It is in the center of the apricot region. The Oxnard branch unites with the main line of the Southern Pacific Railroad here. It was laid out in 1887, when the railroad was built.

SATICOY, on the railroad nine miles east from the county seat, was formerly known as the Springs. It is the principal town of the Santa Paula y Saticoy rancho. Saticoy and West Saticoy, two different settlements, are practically one for business. West Saticoy contains three churches and a school building that cost $10,500.

FILLMORE began its existence at the advent of the railroad in 1887. From it is shipped the famous brown building stone. It is surrounded by oil derricks.

BARDSDALE is on the old Sespe grant, and was named for Thomas R. Bard, who sold 1,500 acres to R. G. Surdam. The latter laid out the town in 1887.

CAMULOS RANCHO, made famous by Helen Hunt Jackson in her story of Ramona, is in the cxtreme eastern end of the county near the railroad. Visitors have been debarred admit- tance to the ranch house, as it was in danger of being carried away piecemeal for relics.

Other post towns are Simi, thirty-four miles from the county seat; Springville, fifteen miles away; Piru City, thirty miles; Newberry Park, a mountain town, and Timberville, also in the mountains.

THE OIL INDUSTRY.

Next to Ventura's magnificent agricultural resources comes its wealth in petroleum. It is the pioneer county in oil production. The first attempt to utilize the oil from the seepages which abound in various parts of the county was made by George S. Gilbert in 1861. He put up a small refinery on the Ojai rancho and a sim- ilar one in the Santa Paula cañon, and made a fair quality of illuminating and lubricating oil. The experiment did not pay; the cost of pro- duction exceeded the profits.

In 1864, a company, composed of Leland Stan- ford, A. P. Stanford, W. T. Coleman and Levi Parsons, commenced operations in Wheeler cañon, Cache cañon, and at several other points. They hoped to find light oil similar to that of Pennsylvania. With the imperfect ma- chinery for boring then in use, they could not sink deep wells. Their development work was done by running tunnels into the ridges wliere the seepages showed the presence of oil. One tunnel in Wheeler cañon yielded fifteen barrels of oil a day, but as it was a heavy black oil they had no use for it. So the tunnel was abandoned and work ceased.

In the same year, 1864, the California Petro- Icum Company, with a capital of $10,000,000, was organized in Pennsylvania by Col. Thomas A. Scott, the great railroad magnate of that day. The company purchased the Ojai, Colonia, Calleguas, Simi, Las Posas and Guadalasca ranchos. Machinery, tools, piping and every- thing needed in well boring were purchased in the cast and shipped to California by water. Thomas R. Bard, now United States Senator of California, was sent to superintend the business of the company. Some of the machinery was lost while landing it at Hueneme. In June, 1865, the first well was begun in Ventura cañon, seven miles from San Buenaventura, near a large pit of tar. It was not a success. Another was bored, but was also a failure. After consid- erable experimenting a gushier was struck, but it soon ceased to gush. Several tunnels were run into the hills. Some of these gave a fair yield of black oil, but that was not what the Pennsylvanians were looking for. After four ycars of experimenting without success, the company retired from the oil business, having sunk over $200,000 in prospecting.

About the time the Pennsylvania Company abandoned the field, Messrs. Adams and Thayer began prospecting. They had purchased land in what is now Adams canon with the intention of going into stock raising. From the oil indi- cations they imagined that oil stock might be the more profitable stock to raise. They devel-

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oped several small wells. In 1876 they sunk a well and obtained a fine quality of light oil, just what prospectors for a decade or more had been seeking. Later in the year the Pacific Coast Oil Company made an important strike in oil of the same quality. The oil business began now to assume importance. In 1883, Lyman Stewart, an experienced Pennsylvania oil man, came to California and shortly afterwards W. L. Hardi- son came from the same state. They formed the Hardison-Stewart Company. This company and the Torrey canon and the Sespe companies were later merged into the Union Oil Company of California. One of the wells sunk by the Hardison-Stewart Company is 2,800 feet deep. Another in the same cañon, bored in 1888, has produced 122,000 barrels in a single year, worth at that time $4 per barrel. Well No. 16 of the Union Oil Company was a genuine gusher. It was estimated that 10,000 barrels of oil ran to waste before it could be capped. Oil develop- ment has steadily progressed in Ventura for a quarter of a century with no sign of decline. The principal oil districts are Santa Paula cañon, Adams cañon, Torrey cañon, Sespe, Little Sespe, and Piru.

The strikes of the later 'zos developed the first oil boom of Southern California. Wher- ever a seepage showed, a claim was located, then a company was formed and_ stock sold. As the boom progressed, sharpers sunk holes and poured oil into them to entrap the confiding into purchasing claims or stocks. The second cil boom of Southern California, that of 1900, is too recent and too well remembered by those who were duped into purchasing wild-cat stock to necd recording here. History repeats itself sometimes, and so do oil booms.

THEODOSIA B. SHEPHERD SEED AND PLANT CO.

On the block east of the Rose Hotel are the floral gardens established in 1886 by Mrs. Theo- dosia B. Shepherd. From small beginnings the enterprise has grown to a large busi- ness. From the gardens and seed farms near by are annually shipped to castern deal- ers thousands of bulbs, besides seeds and plants in great quantities. By hybridization and fertilization Mrs. Shepherd has produced a num- ber of new and beautiful flowers, among which may be named a new eschoscholtzia-the Gold- en West. Mrs. Shepherd's greatest work has been with begonias, of which she has 300 varie- ties, many of these produced by crossings.

THE ISLANDS OF VENTURA COUNTY.

Ventura county includes within its area two islands: Anacapa, eighteen miles from the

coast, and San Nicolas, distant eighty miles. Anacapa is seven miles long and one wide. It is uninhabited. There is no water upon it. On the higher portions there is some vegetation, upon which a band of sheep subsists, obtaining water out of their feed. Father Gaballeria, in lis History of Santa Barbara, writing of the Channel Islands, says: "One of them, formerly called the uninhabited island, was named Ana- capa, meaning deceptive vision. This name the Indians had always applied to it. The Indians were wont to ply between the coast and the island with their canoes, and Anacapa island presents a complete deception to the navigator. At times the island seems quite near, when in reality it is a long distance away; and again it appears from afar a panorama brilliant with rich vegetation, while in fact it does not possess sufficient water to supply life's needs. The natives styled it for this reason Anacapa-false appearance, deceptive, illusory."

In the Santa Barbara Gasette of November, 1856, I find this account of the massacre of the Indians on San Nicolas Island by the Aleuts of Russian America: "In 1811 a ship owned by Broodman & Pope, of Boston, commanded by Capt. Whettemore, trading on this coast, took from the port of Sitka, Russian America, about thirty Kodiak Indians to the islands of the Santa Barbara Channel for the purpose of killing sea otter, which were very numerous on these islands. Capt. Whettemore, after landing the Kodiaks on the island and placing in their hands firearms and the necessary implements of the chase, sailed away to the coast of Lower California and South America. In the absence of the ship a dispute arose between the natives and the newcomers on account of the seizure of the females by the Kodiaks. The Kodiaks, possessing more activity, endurance and knowl- edge of war and having superior weapons, slaughtered the native males, old and young, without mercy.

"On the island of San Nicolas not a male, old or young, was spared. At the end of a year Capt. Whettemore returned, took the Kodiaks on board and carried them back to Sitka. From that period little is known of this island till 1836, when Capt. Isaac Williams, collector of the port of San Pedro, visited the island in a small vessel and took on board all the Indians remaining, except one woman who was left in the manner stated by Capt. Russell in the California Maga- zine. The Indians of the islands were of the type of the coast Indians, and were no doubt a part of them."

Retribution overtook Whittemore. His ship was captured the following year (1812) near the Sandwich Islands by the British ship of war

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"Phœbe," and he was taken to England a pris- oner of war.

The following is Capt. Russell's "Narrative of a Woman Who Was Eighteen Years Alone Upon the Island of San Nicolas, Coast of Cali- fornia," referred to in the above extract from the Santa Barbara Gasette. It was published in Hutching's California Magazine, November, 1856, and probably is the earliest and one of the most reliable accounts of the lone woman of San Nicolas Island. I omit the introduction which does not directly apply to the subject, and leave out the sentimental padding that the author stuffed into the story.

"One evening while seated beside our quiet camp fire, placidly smoking our pipes, Mr. Nid- ever related to me the following remarkable history: Twenty years ago the whole of the Indian tribes inhabiting this group of islands were engaged in a fierce and exterminating war with each other, and to such an extent was this deadly hostility waged that already the popula- tion had very much diminished and would in all probability before many years become entirely extinct. To prevent this, and at the same time to ameliorate the condition of the Indians, the fathers of the mission of Santa Barbara con- ceived the idea of removing them to the main land. For this purpose they visited the islands in company with a few partially civilized Indians and explained to them the advantages of re- moving to the mission. They finally consented to go on promise of protection from their ene- mies being given by the fathers.

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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 32

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