USA > California > Contra Costa County > History of Contra Costa County, California; with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 13
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Road No. 12, of which Barrett Avenue is now the easterly portion, extended from Road No. 14, now Twenty-third Street, to a point a little west of the junction of Garrard and Barrett Avenues, and thence southwest to a junction with Road No. 26, now Standard Avenue, about 100 feet west of Washington Avenue. In January, 1901, the Santa Fe shops were 5
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moved from Stockton to Richmond; urgently necessary repair work on cars and engines had, prior to that, been done in the open. It is rumored that, in making the blueprints for the layout of construction of shops and roundhouse, the tracing was inadvertently placed upside down, so that the plans as shown thereon provided for the shops and roundhouse to be westerly instead of easterly of the main line. At all events the roundhouse was built so that it was squarely on and across that portion of Road No. 12. In 1901 an abandonment of the portion of Road No. 12, from and across the railroad on down through the roundhouse and shops, was put through the board of supervisors, on condition that the Santa Fe give a new roadway, graded and graveled, and sixty feet wide, in exchange. That road was afterward abondoned to the Santa Fe Company's use in exchange for the present Garrard Boulevard, eighty feet wide. It was filled to grade and an oil macadam top put on by the company, and served for many years; within the past few months (November, 1926) the Santa Fe and the Key System have completed a fine job of paving the portion of the boulevard from Ohio to Macdonald Avenues with concrete base and bitumen top.
As is the case with all new railroad towns, the Santa Fe's first depot or station was a box car; then came a frame building on the east side of the track near where Ohio Avenue crossed the railroad. A reading room for the employees was also constructed there by the company. The station and reading room were maintained there until moved to their present loca- tion at the west end of Macdonald Avenue.
INCORPORATION AND ANNEXATION MATTERS
On October 5, 1903, the first petition for incorporation of the city was filed with the board of supervisors. The territory described and sought to be incorporated included all west of Twenty-third Street now within the present city boundary. The supervisors reduced the area so as to exclude about everything but the subdivided territory on the Potrero, but the sponsors for incorporation preferred not to have the proposition go to a vote that way. On September 6, 1904, another peti- tion was filed describing a smaller portion than that described in the first. There were various delays by the supervisors in passing on the matter, and they finally lost jurisdiction ; so on June 5, 1905, a third petition was filed. In this was described a small territory. On July 3, 1905, the board of supervisors made an order calling an election . on Thursday, August 3, 1905. At that election 256 votes were cast in favor of and 52 against incorporation. On August 7 the supervisors canvassed the vote and made an order declaring Richmond duly incorporated as a city of the sixth class, under the General Incorporation Act.
The first board of trustees were: Edward J. Garrard, Frank Bab- cock, Samuel R. Curry, Frank Critchett, and Herman B. Kinney. The first meeting of the board was held in the main office of the Critchett Building, August 14, 1905. Samuel R. Curry was selected by the board as president; Wm. R. Satterwhite was appointed city attorney; Robert
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G. Stitt was chosen as city recorder ; and W. Stairley, as treasurer. Harry Livingston had been elected city marshal, and J. N. Galbraith, city clerk.
The boundaries of the new city were about as follows: Beginning on the east line of the wharf of the Pacific Coast (now Standard) Oil Com- pany; thence northeasterly along line of the wharf and east line of the land of the oil company to a point about 450 feet north of Standard Avenue ; thence southeast to intersection of north line of Ohio Street with easterly line of right of way of the Santa Fe Railway; thence northerly along right of way line to north line of Macdonald Avenue 100 feet west of First Street; thence south to Cutting Boulevard; thence southwesterly in a line running about 1000 feet northwest of the old road where it crossed the Potrero to the brickyard, over to the edge of the tide-land surveys; thence following the outer line of the tide lots to near the outer wharf; thence zigzaging around so as to leave Ferry Point out, and then following outer boundary of tide lots to place of beginning.
A census taken at that time showed a population of 2118.
On December 22, 1905, all the territory within the present city limits lying west of a point 170 feet east of Twenty-second Street was annexed. On October 12, 1908, a board of fifteen freeholders consisting of H. C. Wyatt, president, and Dr. C. L. Abbott, F. E. Adams, Levi Boswell, L. D. Dimm, J. A. Follett, E. J. Garrard, E. A. Gowe, I. E. Marshall, John Roth, H. H. Turley, E. M. Tilden, Dr. Chas. R. Blake, L. S. Higgins, and I. M. Perrin, were elected and prepared our present charter, which was ratified by vote of the people on February 9, 1909; was ap- proved by concurrent resolution of the legislature and adopted by the assembly on-February 17, 1909, and by the senate on February 25, 1909; was filed in the office of the secretary of state on March 4, 1909; and went into effect at noon of July 1, 1909. It provides for election of a city council of nine members, whose terms of office are six years each, these to be elected on the second Monday in May of each odd-numbered year. The council each year select one of their own members as pre- siding officer, designated as mayor, and also appoint a city manager, a clerk, and all other city officials.
The members of the first council under the new charter were: Edward J. Garrard, John N. Hartnett, James C. Owens, Edward McDuff, Otto R. Ludwig, Homer E. Wyatt, John J. Dooling, Joseph B. Willis, and Jerry A. Follett. Their first meeting was held on July 6, 1909. Willis was chosen as mayor; and the following appointments were made: T. Park Jacobs, city clerk; W. Stairley, treasurer; H. H. Tutley, auditor ; I. E. Marshall, assessor and tax collector; Lee D. Windrem, city attor- ney; Orlin Hudson, engineer ; Jas. P. Arnold, chief of police; Dr. H. M. Barney, commissioner of health and city physician; and Wm. Lindsay, police judge.
On October 17, 1911, an election was held for annexation of all the territory east of Twenty-third Street now within the city limits, and also the greater part of what is now El Cerrito, but failed to carry.
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On May 28, 1912, an election for annexation of the territory east of Twenty-third Street was again held, and carried. The territory annexed did not include any east of San Pablo Avenue lying south of the Santa Fe Railway or Stege Junction, nor what is platted and known as Rich- mond Annex west of San Pablo Avenue.
THE STANDARD OIL COMPANY
The Standard Oil Company's refinery is the pioneer, and the largest of the city's industries, and might well be called the industrial backbone of the city of Richmond. In 1901 the Pacific Coast Oil Company, as this branch of the Standard was then known, with their refinery at Alameda, and W. S. Rheem as general manager, bought, on his recommendation, 117 acres of land from Mrs. Emily S. Tewksbury, and about November 1, of that year, began grading and other work for the construction of a new refinery, as they were abandoning the Alameda location for the more advantageous one in Richmond. This was the nucleus of their holdings of 1350 acres and their present immense oil refinery, the largest west of the Mississippi River. In this connection the following item from Mar- tinez, dated November 29, 1926, is of interest :
"Martin W. Joost, Contra Costa County tax collector, today received the largest individual tax payment ever received in this county when the Standard Oil Company tendered its check for $376,143.21 in payment of the first tax installment on its Richmond refinery and the oil storage and pipe lands in this county.
"Joost, in reporting the record payment of a third of a million dol- lars by one concern, stated that this equals almost the total amount col- lected to date, $465,000. None of the other heavy payers of taxes have sent in their checks so far."
Luther D. Dimm was assistant superintendent; John C. Black, con- struction engineer; E. A. Gowe, cashier; Frank Babcock had charge of the pipe fitting department; Ed. Axelson, Sr., was head of the boiler de- partment; G. B. Fredenberg was superintendent of the acid works; and Joseph F. Brooks, who is now manager of the refineries throughout Cali- fornia for the company, with offices in their twenty-two-story building in San Francisco, was in charge of the can factory.
As there are no producing oil wells in this vicinity, one might wonder where all the oil comes from to keep a plant of such capacity supplied. Great storage tanks and reservoirs were built in the apparently inexhaus- tible oil fields in the interior of the State, and a double pipe line nearly 300 miles long was laid to conduct the oil therefrom to Richmond. The oil was heavy and ran slowly; hence it was necessary to establish pump- ing stations at various points throughout its length, and it is even neces- sary to heat the oil at these stations so that it will flow more freely. This great pipe line transportation scheme was a vast experiment, for which many predicted failure ; but the fact that millions upon millions of barrels of oil have been pumped through the stations, and that the company has
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since laid another line or two alongside of the first ones, and other com- panies have adopted the same system of oil transportation, is the best proof of its success.
The oil transported through these lines is stored in tanks and reser- voirs on the hills about halfway between Pinole and Richmond, at what is known as the "Tank Farm"; from there the oil flows by gravity through about three miles of pipe to the refinery.
To give some idea of the immensity of this plant, we have but to say that for the five-year period from 1915 to 1920 the average daily run of crude oil through the refinery was approximately 50,000 barrels, and for the past year the average has been about 80,000 barrels per day. The daily average of men employed at the plant in 1915 was 1800; in 1919 it was 3400; in March, 1920, on account of the large amount of construction work going on, it was 4500; and for the past year the daily average has been about 2800 men.
In January, 1917, the company adopted the eight-hour day for their men, and while the number of employees from 1915 to 1920 increased about 100 per cent, the payroll increased to about $700,000, or about 300 per cent. In 1926 the monthly payroll averaged about $550,000.
In 1921 the company adopted a plan for giving the employees an op- portunity to become stockholders in the company, permitting them to make installment payments of not to exceed twenty per cent of their monthly salary, the company agreeing to credit them with fifty per cent additional for each dollar so paid on the purchase price of the stock. A large number of the employees grasped this wonderful opportunity. The scheme was brought to a close in December, 1926; and the company issued stock to eighty-seven per cent of its men.
The products of this plant are many and varied, and are distributed all over the world. The company owns its own fleet of steamers and oil barges, thus adding to the convenience of delivery.
TRANSPORTATION AND POWER FACILITIES
The Richmond harbor, in point of tonnage, ranks among the great ports of the country, and ranks fourth among Pacific Coast ports. More than 5,480,000 tons of cargo, excluding lumber, passed over Richmond's docks in 1925. The city has sixteen miles of deep water front.
The Santa Fe Railroad's Pacific Coast Terminal is at Richmond, where are located its great freight yards and shops employing more than 750 men. The Southern Pacific's Ogden, Shasta, Sunset, and San Joaquin Valley Lines converge at Richmond. These two transcontinental carriers maintain an inter-switching agreement and operate in rotation the Rich- mond Belt Line. This service gives Richmond factories the most conven- ient and advantageous local and transcontinental shipping service on the Pacific Coast. Switching charges, on either line, on a car destined for a main-line haul, are absorbed by the carrier.
Richmond enjoys a trap-car or L. C. L. service based on a flat rate of $2.70 per car for the movement of L. C. L., provided the line-haul
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revenue equals $15. For this fee of $2.70, the Southern Pacific or Santa Fe will pick up carload lots of L. C. L. shipments at the plant and trans- fer them to freight warehouse, or handle incoming L. C. L. shipments from freight station to plant. Local switching charges are 34 cents per ton, $7.20 per car minimum.
Richmond is served by a belt line railway which is independently owned. It is operated over alternating five-year periods by both the Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe, connecting these railways with the wharves. The Richmond Belt Line operates 11.30 miles of track, 8600 feet having been added early in 1926.
Since 1921 the tonnage at Richmond has increased seventy per cent. In 1925 a total of 30,174 cars were handled over the Belt Line Railway, which is within the switching lines of both the Santa Fe and the Southern Pacific as regards a main-line haul. Passing through the most highly developed section of industrial Richmond, the services of the Belt Line Railway are a distinct asset to every manufacturing concern locating within the territory it feeds.
No city in the United States is more advantageously placed with re- spect to fuel and power than Richmond. The Western States Gas & Electric Company is the chief power distributor in the city, but the Pacific Gas & Electric Company and the Great Western Power Company also serve Richmond. The high-power transmission lines from the hydro- electric plants in the Sierra Nevada Mountains reach Richmond first of the Bay Cities, and Richmond thus has first call on the vast resources of the hydro-electric power projects. Rates are set by the California Rail- road Commission, and have been characterized by Herbert Hoover as "the cheapest in the United States."
At Richmond are the Pullman Shops, the Standard Oil Refinery, the Republic Steel Package Company (head office, Cleveland), the Certain- teed Products Company, the Santa Fe Shops, the Pacific Sanitary Manu- facturing Company (4 plants), and more than fifty other industries, which in 1926 turned out $185,000,000 of manufactured goods.
A recent survey showed that Richmond possesses more than 106 miles of splendidly paved streets. By reason of their effect on traffic and transportation, good streets are a distinct asset to every city, and Rich- mond has followed a consistent plan of street improvement commensurate with her growth and industrial importance.
SCHOOLS OF THE CITY
A splendid system of public, high, and vocational schools serves the people of Richmond, and high standards of instruction prevail. Because of the industrial life upon which the city depends, especial emphasis is placed upon vocational and trade school work.
The first public school within the present boundaries of Richmond was held in a small frame building on the west side of San Pablo Avenue about 500 feet north of McBryde Avenue. This was the first school in the San Pablo school district, which included all of the territory com-
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prised within the San Pablo Rancho. On February 2, 1903, the district was divided into three parts, forming the Richmond, Stege and San Pablo school districts. After the city of Richmond had grown, and had annexed the lands east of Twenty-third Street, and including Stege, by the election of May 28, 1912 (though the annexed territory did not in- clude all of the Stege district), the Richmond and Stege districts were consolidated, and that is why the Fairmont, Kensington and Harding schools, all in the city of El Cerrito, are under the jurisdiction of the trustees, and form a part of the Richmond school district at this time.
The first building, with its additions, which housed as many as eighty pupils at one time, stood until quite recently, and in later days was used as a road house and saloon. The first teacher to preside there was a Miss Heniky, a woman of unusual ability, able to converse fluently in five different languages. After five years of service she resigned and married. Professor Skinner, then a teacher in the Berkeley school, ac- cepted the position, as he was given a much larger salary than the then little hamlet of Berkeley could afford to pay. Miss Ruth Ann Nicholl was also one of those who taught in that building-and taught one of our present teachers, then Emily Boorman and now Mrs. Axtell.
The Richmond public schools proper had their beginning in March, 1901, when our city was a village of only a little more than 100 people- and most of these living in tents. The school opened in Richards Hall, on the northwest side of Richmond Avenue adjacent to the Critchett Hotel, with fifteen pupils, from the first to the sixth grade inclusive. A. Odell, a veteran of the school room, was the teacher. During his term and through his efforts the school was removed, as soon as the building would house them, to the basement of the old First Methodist Church, a frame building on Richmond Avenue near Martina Street. This build- ing was later torn down to make room for a newer brick structure. Mr. Odell was stricken with typhoid fever and the last two weeks of the term were taught by Miss Calista Rumrill. Miss Emily Boorman (now Mrs. Axtell) opened the next term in July, 1901, with eighty-seven pupils, the school still being in the church basement.
The San Pablo school district, of which we were then a part, had voted bonds for the construction of a new school building for San Pablo, at its present location on Market Street, and one for the Stege section out on Potrero Avenue adjoining the Stege home place, now East Shore Park; but on account of the rapid growth of Richmond, a portion of the funds were diverted to the construction of our first school building-a two-room affair now used by the old volunteer firemen as a clubroom-on the half-block of property at the southwest corner of Standard Avenue and Castro Street, donated by Mrs. Emily S. Tewksbury for school pur- poses. In the fall of 1901 Miss Boorman, with her numerous flock, moved into this new building, and soon a Miss Henry was employed to assist her.
In June, 1901, the trustees of the San Pablo school district, viz., J. R. Nystrom, Harry Ells and John Peres, applied to the University of Cali-
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fornia for a man to take charge of their scattered schools. Walter T. Helms-who was born on January 3, 1877, near San Lorenzo, and had graduated at the Hayward High School and at the University of Cali- fornia and was taking postgraduate work there-was recommended and at once employed. He entered upon his duties in July, 1901, as principal of the three schools of the district. The one at San Pablo had its prob- lems to solve, Richmond was in embryo, and the Stege school was incon- venient to reach ; but Mr. Helms was equal to the occasion.
During 1901 the population had increased rapidly and the small quar- ters then occupied by the school were too small; also the children of the east side were handicapped by the long walk to the school on the west side. For their accommodation J. R. Nystrom, clerk of the board, se- cured the use of the loft in the barn on the Wicks property at the south- west corner of Sixth Street and Ohio Avenue, in the early part of 1902; and here the first school on the east side of town was held, with Miss Elizabeth Carpenter, now Mrs. James Cruickshank, as teacher. The school was afterwards moved to Henry J. Fitzgerald's building at the corner of Main and Haight (now Fifth) Streets. After the opening of Macdonald Avenue in the early part of 1902, it became necessary to pro- vide more room; and a small frame building on the west side of Second Street, a little north of Macdonald Avenue (now occupied by a Chinese laundry), was secured for the purpose, and another teacher was added to the faculty.
Upon the division of the district in February, 1903, Mr. Helms re- mained as principal of the San Pablo schools at a salary of $100 per month. There were six other teachers-viz .: Ruby Roth, Nellie Jones, Susan Leonard, Ada Roth, Elizabeth Carpenter and Mrs. L. L. Johnson -at salaries of sixty-five dollars per month. For the year, the enroll- ment was 277 pupils, with an average daily attendance of 187. That year there was apportioned to the Richmond school district $2741 from State funds, and $3072.90 from the county funds, a total of $5813.90. A bond issue was voted that year for a new building, and the little build- ing on Standard Avenue was shunted to one side and a six-room two- story building erected. This was sold in 1912, was moved west across Standard Avenue, and is now an apartment house.
The original Tenth Street school building was constructed with a part of that bond issue, on the west side of Tenth Street between Macdonald and Bissell Avenues, in 1903. It was a frame building of four rooms. Four more rooms were added, but the growth of the school was so rapid that even with these added rooms it was too small. This eight-room structure was sold in 1912 to Theo. Marcollo, moved to the east side of First Street, and converted into an apartment house. John E. Zumwalt was selected as the principal of the school (now Lincoln) in 1903, and continued till his death in 1924.
In 1907 Richmond had two elementary schools, the one on Standard Avenue and the Tenth Street School, with an average daily attendance of 577 pupils, and fourteen teachers. In October, 1926, there were ten
1
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elementary schools, one junior high school, one high school, and depart- ments of part-time study, kindergarten, and Americanization. One hun- dred ninety-four teachers and supervisors are employed, and the total enrollment is 5484.
RICHMOND UNION HIGH SCHOOL
In 1907 the Richmond Union High School District was formed, and is made up of the territory originally comprising the San Pablo School District. William F. Belding, L. D. Dimm and B. B. Mclellan were the original board of trustees. The first meeting of the board was had in the old Pioneer Club rooms. Professor Walter T. Helms was chosen as supervising principal, and thereupon organized the faculty, consisting of Prof. B. X. Tucker, as principal (he still is), and Miss Ruth Petersen (now Mrs. B. X. Tucker ) and Miss Alberta Bell (now Mrs. A. H. Bur- nett). The school opened in the old unused original two-room school building on Standard Avenue. A bond issue was then put over for the purchase of the site now occupied by the school, on Twenty-third Street between Macdonald and Bissell Avenues, and the construction of the original building at a total cost of $85,000. Since that time various ad- ditions have been made to the grounds and building, at a total cost of about $100,000.
In 1924 the board purchased about twenty acres just beyond the city limits, on the east side of Twenty-third Street, at a cost of $60,000, and on October 29, 1926, awarded a contract for the construction of the new high school building at a total cost of $592,991. The linoleum for the building was contracted for on the same day at a cost of $8460.
ROOSEVELT JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL
The Roosevelt Junior High School, on grounds taking in the entire block bounded by Eighth and Ninth Streets and Bissell and Chanslor Avenues, was built in 1920, costing with the grounds a total of $425,000. It has a capacity for 1200 pupils, and the auditorium built in conjunction with it has a seating capacity of 1500.
NEWSPAPERS
On July 7, 1900, the Record made its first appearance as a weekly, Lyman Naugle, editor. There was no postoffice and the papers were mailed from Stege. When the postoffice was established, Naugle was appointed postmaster. The Richmond Record made its appearance as a daily on February 8, 1902.
The Santa Fe Times was established in 1902 by W. B. Brown. He moved to Macdonald Avenue and published the Richmond Terminal. George Ryan succeeded to the ownership in 1913.
The Tribune was established in 1903, but did not long survive.
In 1910, J. L. Kennon established the Weekly Herald. This was merged with the Record under the name of the Record-Herald.
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The Richmond Daily Leader was established in March, 1912, By G. A. Milnes. The Daily Leader and Daily Record-Herald were merged that same year, and F. J. Hulaniski was manager of the combined papers. He started the Contra Costan, a weekly, which was issued by the Record- Herald office.
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