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 35

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 35

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The Pacific Weekly Blade was founded in 1886 by W. F. X. Parker and J. Waterhouse. Later Waterhouse purchased Parker's interest in the paper and founded the Daily Blade in 1887. In 1889 the paper passed into the hands of a syndicate, composed of Victor Montgom- ery, W. H. Spurgeon, J. M. Lacy and C. W. Humphreys. The syndicate conducted the pa- per until May, 1895, when the present manage- ment, McPhee & Co., purchased the property. The daily is an evening paper.

The Santa Ana Weekly Bulletin was founded Tune 16, 1899, by D. M. Baker and J. W. Rouse. It is now published by D. M. Baker and F. . \.

Chamberlin. It is Democratic in politics. The semi-weekly Standard is published by Belmont Perry.

KEARNEY'S WATERLOO.

The town of Santa Ana attained considerable prominence during the anti-Chinese campaign of the so-called workingmen's party as the place where the sand lot agitator, Dennis Kearney, met his Waterloo. Kearney was making a tour of the southern counties, delivering vitupera- tive harangues against the government and abusing every man of prominence who did not truckle to his domination. He had a large fol- lowing in Southern California, the leaders of which were for the most part disgruntled politi- cians out of a job, but who hoped to ride into power on the sand lot agitation. Kearney, feel- ing secure in the number of his followers, turned his abusive tongue loose on certain persons in the different communities he visited who had incurred the enmity of his adherents there, with- out regard to whether the information given him was true or false. Reaching Santa Ana on his journey southward, he delivered one of his char- acteristic harangues. In it he made a number of false charges against the McFadden Brothers, who a year or so before had built a steamer and ran it from Newport to San Francisco in opposi- tion to the Old Line Steamship Company, but had finally been compelled to sell it to their op- ponents at a considerable loss.

As Kearney was about to take the stage for San Diego at the old Layman Hotel, that then stood on the present site of the Brunswick, he was confronted by Mr. Rule, an employe of the McFaddens, with a demand for the name of the person who had given him the lying informa- tion about the steamship transaction. Kearney turned livid with fear and blubbered out some- thing about not giving away his friends. Rule made another and more imperative demand for the name. Kearney began to back off from his opponent, fumbling at his pistol pocket in an effort to draw his gun. Rule struck him a blow that sent him reeling across the sidewalk against the hotel. Recovering himself he ran through . the barroom into the dining room and across a vacant lot into a drug store, pursued by Rule. In the drug store Rule floored him, and, holding him down, punctuated each demand for the name of the informer by a punch in Kearney's countenance. One of the slandered men res- cued Kearney from his uncomfortable position. Rule's attack on the sand lot agitator was made without the knowledge of his employers, who would have prevented it had they known any such action was contemplated. Kearney de- parted for San Diego; a sadder and a wiser

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man. He had learned to his sorrow the ar- rant cowardice of the men who had been urging him on in his tirades of slander; not one of whom when he was taking his punishment at Santa Ana had dared to interfere in his behalf. He had counseled hemp and mobbing for pluto- crats and capitalists, but when a little mob-law had been applied to himself he whimpered. He had said from the sand lot platform: "I hope I will be assassinated, for the success of this move- mment depends on that;" but when offered an opportunity to play martyr for the cause, he had fled the chance with all the agility that fear lent his heels. From that day on his star waned. When, with pistol in hand, he had taken to his heels and fled from an unarmed opponent he had shown himself to be a cowardly blatherskite. Rule had unmasked him. His followers began to desert him. The politicians who had hoped to ride into power on the back of this ex-drayman, when his following began to desert him, scram- bled out of his party with as much speed as they had tumbled into it. Rule a few years later was drowned in Newport bay.

ORANGE.

The territory of Orange originally bore the name of Richland. In 1870 A. B. Chapman and Andrew Glassell bought the allotments of sev- eral of the Yorba heirs in the Santiago de Santa Ana rancho, comprising several thousand acres. This tract was subdivided into ten, twenty and forty acre lots. Eighty acres were divided into town lots.

A ditch from the Santa Ana river was con- structed to the tract in the winter of 1871-72. Several vineyards of muscat grapes were planted in the spring of 1872, and a few orange trees. Early in 1873 a post-office was established and named Orange. The agitation for the formation of a new county to be named Orange was quite active about this time. The town of Orange had hopes of becoming the seat of government of the new county. The former name of the dis- trict, Richland, fell into disuse and Orange took its place both for the town and school district. A school house was built in 1873. In 1874 the first church was built. It belonged to the Meth- odist denomination, but was also used by others. A hotel was erected, but as the patronage was not sufficient to support it, it was used as a sani- tarium. Three stores, the hotel and a saloon constituted the business houses of the town in 1875. In the winter of 1878-79 a new ditch was constructed at a cost of $60.000. This gave an abundant water supply and the settlement flour- ished.

The ravages of the yellow scale in the early 'Sos retarded citrus tree culture, and the vine dis-

ease materially injured the raisin industry. The energy and perseverance of the people overcame all obstacles and the district has become a large producer of oranges and lemons. Orange sup- ports six churches, each owning its own house of worship. The denominations represented are the Methodist, Presbyterian, Christian, Lt- theran, Baptist and Episcopalian. The town supports a free library, containing about 3,000 volumes. Connected with the library is a read- ing room. Orange supports two weekly news- papers, the Orange Post, established in 1885 by William Ward, and, passing throughi several hands, it was bought in 1892 by its present editor and proprietor, Mrs. Alice L. Armor. The Orange News was founded in February, 1886, by its present publisher, James Fullerton.

Orange is an incorporated city of the sixth class. It is located at the junction of the kite- shaped track and the surf line of the Southern California or Santa Fé Railroad. It is also con- nected with Santa Ana by a motor line.

TUSTIN.

In 1867 Columbus Tustin and N. O. Stafford bought of Bacon & Johnson a tract of land containing 5,000 acres. This they divided equally between them. Mr. Tustin, on his portion, sub- divided about 100 acres into town lots and named the place Tustin City. On the town site, at his own expense, in 1872, he built a school house. The same year a post-office was estab- lished in the town or city. In 1887 the Tustin branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad was built to the town, which ever since has remained the terminus of that road. The town has a bank, hotel, store and other business facilities. It has an excellent school, employing six teachers. The Presbyterians and Adventists have church build- ings.

FULLERTON.

Fullerton while one of the youngest towns of the county is one of the most thriving. It is a child of the boom and was founded in 1887. It is located on the Santa Fé Railroad, twenty-tliree miles southeast from Los Angeles and ten miles northerly from the county seat. It is surrounded by an excellent fruit country and does a heavy shipping business in English walnuts, oranges and lemons. The oil from a number of wells in the oil district is piped to Fullerton for ship- ment. The town has several hotels, a number of mercantile establishments, a bank and a news- paper, the Fullerton Tribune, established in 1898. The union high school building, a brick structure, costing about $10,000, was completed and dedicated in 1898. The town is not incor- porated. At a recent election the question of incorporating was decided in the negative.

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

WESTMINSTER COLONY.

In the autumn of 1871 Rev. L. P. Webber secured from the Los Angeles and San Bernar- dino Land Company a tract of 8,000 acres lying between Anaheim and the ocean on which to locate a colony. It was intended to be a temper- ance colony. The settlers pledged themselves not to grow grapes for the production of wine and brandy. The founder endeavored, as far as he was able, to secure settlers of his own church and the colony was known as a Presbyterian settlement. The first church erected in the colony was Presbyterian. A tract of 160 acres in the center of the colony lands was subdivided into town lots. A hotel, a school house, three churches, a blacksmith shop, two store build- ings, a doctor's office and drug store were built on the town site; then, the town stopped grow- ing and has remained stationary ever since. Of late years dairying has become the principal in- dustry and two creameries are located near the town. Near Westminster are the famous peat lands, where trainloads of celery are grown and shipped to the eastern states.

GARDEN GROVE.

The town of Garden Grove was founded in 1877 by Dr. A. G. Cook and Converse Howe. A post-office was established the same year. A large business house was built and a store opened in it. The building was burned down in 1880. The town has a fine school house and em- ploys five teachers. It has a hotel, a Methodist church, a Holiness church and a Latter-day Saint's organization. There are a number of walnut groves in its immediate vicinity. It is surrounded by an excellent agricultural coun- try.

LOS ALAMITOS.

A large sugar factory was located on the Ala- mitos rancho in 1897. Around this has grown up a town. It is located on a branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad, extending from the Santa Ana line at Lorra, near Anaheim, to Ala-

mitos, nine miles. The beet sugar factory dis- tributes about a half a million dollars yearly among the farmers in this district. There is a school building, a church and boarding houses for the employes of the factory.

BUENA PARK.

The town of Buena Park was laid out in 1887. It is located on the Southern Pacific Railroad, thirteen miles northerly of Santa Ana. It has a condensed milk factory, established in 1889. This factory distributes monthly about $15,000 for milk and labor. The town has a hotel, two gen- eral merchandise stores, a school of two depart- ments, and a Congregational church.

NEWPORT BEACH.

Newport Beach is the chief seaport of Orange county. It is ten miles southwest of Santa Ana and is reached by the Santa Ana & Newport Railroad. The town contains a school house, a Methodist church, a post-office and a mercantile establishment. It has a wharf where freight and passengers are landed. It is a favor- ite seaside resort for the people of Santa Ana.

CAPISTRANO.

The first settlement in Orange county was made at what was formerly known as San Juan Capistrano. The mission of that name was founded in 1776. After the secularization of the missions an Indian pueblo was established here, but it was not a success. A Mexican popula- tion built up a town at the ruins of the old Mis- sion buildings. Capistrano is probably the most thoroughly native Californian of any town in the state. The Mission church, destroyed by an earthquake, was the largest and most imposing building ever built by the Mission fathers. Its ruins attract many visitors. Capistrano has a hotel, several stores, a school house and a num- ber of saloons. Church service is still held in a room of the old Mission buildings. Capistrano is on the main line of the Santa Fe Railroad, sixty miles from Los Angeles and about the same distance from San Diego.

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

CHAPTER XXXIV. RIVERSIDE COUNTY.

EARLY SETTLEMENTS.

R IVERSIDE county, the youngest of the counties of Southern California, was formed of segregated portions of San Bernardino and San Diego counties. San Ber- nardino parted with 590 square miles of her ter- ritory, which included the rich valleys and foot- hills of the southwest section. In this area are the cities and towns of Riverside, Corona, Beau- mont and Banning. The early history of the portion segregated is properly a part of the his- tory of San Bernardino, but to make a continu- ous narrative I give a brief outline of the first settlement of that county.

The earliest settlement within the bounds of what is now San Bernardino county was made at what is known as Old San Bernardino, or, as it is sometimes called, the Old Mission of San Bernardino. In the year 1820 an adobe building forty varas wide by eighty long, with walls three feet thick and thatched with tules, was erected on a sloping mesa of the upper Santa Ana val- ley. It was not built for a mission church, as is generally supposed. It was built as a store house for the large crops of wheat raised by the Mis- sion Indians of the valley, and a part of it was used as the residence of the mayordomo or over- seer of the neophytes. The rancho on which it was located belonged to the Mission San Ga- briel and was named by the padres San Ber- nardino. From the rancho the county derived its name.

After the secularization of the Missions in 1835, the rancho was used by Don Antonio Ma- ria Lugo as a cattle range. One of his sons re- sided in the old building erected by the padres. In 1842 Governor Alvarado granted to José Maria Lugo, José del Carmen Lugo (sons of Don Antonio Maria Lugo) and Diego Sepul- veda the Rancho de San Bernardino, containing nine square leagues, or about forty thousand acres. Upon this tract is located the city of San Bernardino. The Lugos built houses for them- selves and for their vaqueros and thus became the first settlers.

The Jurupa, another of the Mission ranchos, was granted to Juan Bandini in 1838 by Gov- ernor Alvarado. Bandini stocked the rancho

with horses and cattle. The mountain Indians and the renegade neophytes, who had joined their gentile brethren, were expert horse and cattle thieves. They made frequent raids upon the stock of the rancheros of the valley and ren- dered both their lives and their property unsafe. To resist the encroachments of the Indians, the ranch owners encouraged immigration. The first colony to settle in the valley consisted of twenty families of New Mexico. They located on the upper part of the Jurupa. Their town, known as Agua Mansa (still water), was built on the low bank of the Santa Ana river. It was entirely destroyed by the great flood of 1862. At the close of the Mexican era (1847) the settlements in the San Bernardino valley consisted of a few scattered ranch houses, with their accompani- ments of corrals and jaceles or huts of the Indian laborers.

After the discovery of gold in 1848 the immi- grants who reached Salt Lake City too late to cross the Sierra Nevadas on account of the deep snow in the mountain passes had to choose be- tween wintering with the Saints or reaching California by some Southern route. Early in 1849, an advance guard of Mormons had found a route to Southern California that was not blocked by snow in the winter. This route led southwesterly from Salt Lake along the foot of the Wasatch Mountains, then through the Utali valley to the southern end of Utalı Lake, where it struck the old Spanish trail from Los Angeles to Santa Fe. This trail entered the San Bernar- dino valley by the Cajon Pass.

A train of 500 wagons came by this route to California in the winter of 1849-50. Jefferson Hunt, a former captain of the Mormon Bat- talion, was the guide. In the winter of 1850-51 a large number of immigrants came by that route, and for many years the belated gold- seekers reached the land of promise by the Mormon trail, as it was called.

Brigham Young, recognizing the necessity of some more accessible outlet to the ocean for the inland empire that he hoped to found than over the high Sierras or eastward to the Mis- souri across the long stretch of arid plains, carly in the spring of 1851 sent out a colony to form a Mormon stake of Zion somewhere near

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the mouth of the Cajon Pass, The first detach- ment of this Mormon colony, consisting of 150 families, reached the San Bernardino valley early in May, 1851. While the leaders were looking for a location the immigrants remained en- camped at the southwest entrance to the Pass.

In June about 300 wagons arrived from Salt Lake. A portion of these were Mormons and the remainder belated gentiles from the "states." During the summer about 900 Mormons arrived in the San Bernardino valley. In September the leaders of the band, Amasa Lyman and Charles Rich, bought the San Bernardino rancho, con- sisting of eight square leagues, from the Lu- gos. The stipulated price was $77,500. It was bought on credit, the Mormons depending on their future grain crops for the purchase money. The colonists set about improving the land, and the same year of their arrival they had 3,000 acres sown in grain. In the sprnig of 1852 the Indians became troublesome and the Mormons built a fort on part of what is now the site of San Bernardino City. The Indians were subdued and the Mormons located on their individual tracts. The rancho was subdivided into five, ten, twenty, forty and eighty acre lots. These lots were sold on reasonable terms to persons de- siring to settle. The colony became quite pros- perous. In 1856 the colonists produced 30,000 bushels of wheat, 15,000 bushels of barley and 7,000 of corn. They owned, according to the assessor's report of that year, 14,470 cattle and 1,558 horses. The population on the ranch was estimated at 3,000. In the town of San Bernar- dino there were ten business houses.

In 1857 trouble came upon the colony. For ten years Brigham Young had acted as governor of the state of Deseret, as the Mormons called their settlements in the Salt Lake valley. He and his followers had given the United States government a great deal of trouble. President Buchanan shortly after taking office appointed Amos Cummings governor of Utah to super- sede Young and sent a force of 2,500 soldiers to aid Cummings in enforcing the laws. Brigham and the Twelve Apostles rebelled and prepared for war. He issued a mandate ordering all the Mormons in the distant Stakes of Zion to return to Salt Lake. The faithful at San Bernardino obeyed. They disposed of their property for whatever they could get for it and departed. Some remained. These were called "indepen- (lents" and were regarded by the faithful as ren- egades. Amasa Lyman and Charles C. Rich, the purchasers of the rancho and the leaders of the colonists, with a train of thirty wagons, took their departure for Salt Lake April 25, 1857. This was the first train to go. During the sum-

mer and fall about 1,200 Mormons left San Bernardino for Salt Lake.

In December, 1857, about 25,000 acres of the rancho which had not been subdivided and placed on sale was transferred by Lyman, Rich, Hanks & Co. to Messrs. Conn, Tucker, Allen & Coopwood. Although many of the Mormons remained and some of those who obeyed the "prophets' " call returned later, San Bernardino thereafter ceased to be a Stake of Zion and ceased to be distinctively a Mormon colony.

Up to 1870 the increase in the population of the county was slow. It was isolated and far from market. Most of the land was held in large tracts and was devoted to the raising of cattle and sheep.

The early '7os was the colony-forming era of Southern California history. This form of coloni- zation wrought a great change in the class of immigrants coming and in the kind of produc- tions grown. It was the transition period from cattle and sheep to grain and fruit. San Bernar- dino county profited greatly by the change, but of this more anon when we come to treat of Riverside.

FORMATION OF RIVERSIDE COUNTY.

Having given a brief outline of the history of one of the counties from which the most populous portion of the new colony was segre- gated, I take up the formation of Riverside county. The first attempt to form the county of Riverside was made in the legislature of 1891. Three ambitious towns in Southern Cali- fornia were at the same time seized with a de- sire to become county seats, and bills were intro- duced in the legislature of 1891 to form the three new counties from territory taken from the three old counties, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and San Diego.

Pomona county was to have been formed from the eastern portion of Los Angeles county and a slice taken from the western side of San Ber- nardino. Riverside county sliced a triangle off the southwestern part of San Bernardino and appropriated a rectangle of San Diego's north- western area; while San Jacinto county cut deep into San Diego's eastern area. Bills cre- ating these counties were introduced in the leg- islature. Then there was a triangular contest between the inchoate counties, each fighting its rivals. The old counties, San Bernardino and San Diego, bitterly opposed the schemes of the divisionists. One San Bernardino editor de- nounced the division plan as "geographical sacri- lege," and another charged the divisionists with attempting mayhem on the Saints (Diego and Bernardino). The Riverside bill passed the senate with only eleven opposing votes and the

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hopes of its progenitors soared high. The county offices were divided up and a seat se- lected for the new county. Then came an agon- izing delay. The assembly had become in- volved in one of those interminable scandals that crop out during the sessions of our legisla- ture. Before the "waste basket scandal" could be hushed up the session ended and the River- side bill died on the files.

In the legislature of 1893 the Riverside scheme came to the front early in the session; the other two division projects were held in abeyance or at least were not pushed with vigor, and did not reach a vote. The act to create the county of Riverside was approved March II, 1893. Riverside county was formed from the southwestern part of San Bernardino county and the northern part of San Diego. From San Bernardino it took 560 square miles and from San Diego 6,418, thus giving the new county an area of 7,008 square miles. It is bounded on the west by Orange county and on the east by the Colorado river. In its contour Riverside county is widely diversified. In it rises one of the highest peaks (Mount San Jacinto) in Southern California and the deepest depressions below the sea level are found within its limits.

It possesses every variety of climate. In the wooded cañons of Mount San Jacinto the snow never melts; in the depression of the Colorado desert the heat exceeds that of the torrid zone; while on its western mesas, where the breezes waft the fragrance of the rose and the orange blossom, perpetual spring rules the year.

Its productions are as varied as its climate. Its mountains produce lumber ; its deserts yield salt, and its western plains are the greatest orange-growing districts in the world. It pro- duces deciduous fruits as well as the semi-tropic. Peaches, apples, apricots, prunes, pears and cher- ries thrive and yield abundantly. In the low- lands along the Santa Ana river alfalfa makes dairying a profitable industry. Gold, silver, coal, coal asbestos are found within its borders.

ERA OF AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENTS.

The terrible drought of 1863 and 1864, which virtually put an end to cattle-raising as the dis- tinctive industry of Southern California, brought about the subdivision of many of the large grants that had been held for stock ranges. The de- cline of the cattle industry compelled the agriculturists of the south to cast about for some other use to which their lands could be turned. The later '6os and the early '7os might be called the era of agricultural experiments in California. Olden-time tillers of the soil will recall perhaps with a sigh the silk-culture craze, the Ramie-plant fad, the raisin-grape experi-

ment and other experiences with tree and plant and vine that were to make the honest farmer happy and prosperous, but which ended in dreary failure and often in great pecuniary loss.

To one of these fads-the silk-culture craze- Riverside owes its location, and for this reason the sericulture mania deserves more than a pass- ing notice. To encourage silk culture in Cali- fornia the legislature in 1866 passed an act au- thorizing the payment of a bounty of $250 for every plantation of 5,000 mulberry trees two years old. This greatly stimulated the planting of mulberry trees if it did not greatly increase the production of silk.

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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 35

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