History of Kern 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 16

Author: Morgan, Wallace Melvin, 1868- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company
Number of Pages: 1682

USA > California > Kern County > History of Kern 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 16

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It was of no use. Miss Mooney knew blarney when she heard it. Then Fox and Young painted the glamor of the British nobility and showed Miss Mooney how much better off she would be as a member of one of the oldest families of England than as a dancer and singer in a vaudeville theater in the wild west. It made no difference to Miss Mooney how fine the British nobility might be if the British nobility was going to renounce her, and she indicated as much. It began to look pretty desperate for that five-dollar-a- column stuff, but Fox rallied his jaded eloquence and taking an argumentative tone he recounted the history of the Marquis of Queensbury, showed that the old gentleman was a true old sport, quick to recognize merit, not too fas- tidious in his associates and amusements and altogether unlikely to play the part of a prude or a pharisee when the variety actress was presented to him as his daughter-in-law. The argument fell flat. The opposition had preju- diced her mind too thoroughly.

Then Young played his last trump card. He raised himself to the full of his raw-boned height and assumed a belligerent air. "Let them renounce you, if they dare," he exclaimed, "and you go on the stage as Lady Sholto Douglas, daughter-in-law of the Marquis of Queensbury. With the talent you've got -- "

The practical instinct of a good press agent won where flattery and per- suasion failed.

"I'll do it!" exclaimed Miss Mooney, springing up.

"Get on your hat," said Fox, also springing up.

Fifteen minutes later Fox and Young and Deputy Sheriff Joe Droul- liard were ushering Miss Mooney into the little room where Sholto sat brood- ing his unhappy fate.

Another fifteen minutes, and they were receiving her in the little corridor, and the happy Sholto was consoling himself in his imprisonment with dreams of future bliss.

The San Francisco papers had another big story next morning; another when, a few days thereafter, came a cablegram containing the cheerful consent of the Marquis to his son's proposed alliance; another when Sholto was released without a complaint of insanity actually having been placed against him, and still another when Lord Douglas and Miss Mooney were happily married in an Episcopal church in San Francisco.

It is pleasant to conclude the story with the statement that they are still living happily on a ranch in Canada where Sholto has learned to farm and where Lady Sholto reigns with all the grace of sweet domesticity. her children growing up about her.

Not All Beer and Skittles

But it was not all champagne and romance with the Rosedale colonists. Only a small proportion, even among the industrious knew how to irrigate or understood the use and duty of water. A lot of them had a reckless habit of shutting down the gates of the side ditches when they wanted to go to their meals, and the water, backing up, would break the main ditch and flood five or ten acres of land before anyone knew anything about it. The low lands were the ones invariably flooded in this manner, and presently, what with the breaking of ditches and the prodigal use of water at all times, the lower lands became water-logged and black with the alkali that the rising water level brought up.

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The Land Company put teams and men at work digging miles of drain ditches. About the time they were finished the dry years came, and the trees and vines on the high lands that had escaped the drowning began to perish for want of water. The Calloway's water right was good only after certain other ditches had been supplied.

There was no home market except for a very limited amount of fruit and farm produce, and shipments of fruit to the east began to show returns in red figures. Added to everything else was the financial panic that swept over the entire country in 1893-4. It is little wonder that Rosedale colony became a reproach in the county and that Bakersfield's second great hope for the cutting up of the great land holdings of the county came to naught.

It did not quite come to naught, for a few steady, industrious farmers stayed with their Rosedale land, and in the end developed fine homes and valuable property. They did it, moreover, with no less labor and waiting than the ordinary farmer has to undergo in any new country before his land pays for itself and begins to earn him a competency. At the present time, sixteen or seventeen years after it was denounced as a failure, Rosedale col- ony is as fair and pleasant a place and the farmers there are as happy and prosperous as any to be found in all the valley.

But the Fergusson administration of the Kern County Land Company affairs ended in general denunciation, and the big concern was more unpop- ular than at any other time, before or since, in the history of the county.

Another Swamp Land Contest

Another incident that added to the bad favor in which the Land Com- pany found itself about the year 1895, was the contest over swamp lands bordering Buena Vista lake between settlers and the Land Company. This contest began to assume the form of open hostilities in March of the year named. Haggin claimed the land under certificates of purchase from the state as swamp land obtained by Duncan Beaumont in the '70s and as- signed to Haggin. The settlers claimed that when the United States deeded the swamp and overflow land in California to the state the land in dispute was unsurveyed and was, as a matter of fact, a part of the bottom of a navigable lake and so was not conveyed by the grant to the state and was not subject to sale by the state.

The contest was soon carried into the courts, but while it was pending there men sent out under the command of Count Von Petersdorf tore down a number of the settlers' houses and threw them off the land. The settlers rallied, replaced their houses and again were driven off. There seems to have been no bloodshed, but both parties to the contest were armed, and arrests were frequent. There was quite a furore over the affair, but the proceedings of the justice court before which the combatants were brought were not of a character to promote solemnity. One day a company of settlers, all of whom were or had been fully armed, would be brought into court and duly charged with disturbing the peace by loud, boisterous and tumultuous language, fighting or offering to fight and exhibiting fire arms with the threat then and there to do bodily harm to certain other persons then and there present, all of which was contrary to the peace and dignity of the people of the state of California, etc. The settlers would then be admitted to bail in certain generous sums and released on their own recognizance. The next day Von Petersdorf and a dozen or so of his men would be haled before the

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court on a similar charge and released in the same manner. Altogether a sufficient total of bail bonds was named by Justice Fox to have bought all the land in dispute several times over. Eventually W. S. Tevis and H. A. Jastro took a hand in the matter, met the settlers and effected a compromise in which the Land Company got the land but the settlers were reimbursed for their improvements and expenditures.

The Jastro Administration

Not very long after that date H. A. Jastro became the general manager of the Land Company and inaugurated a new policy in the handling of the affairs of the concern. Under Carr's administration nearly all the money handled in the Haggin and Carr offices went out. Carr was buying land all the time, and building canals or making other improvements. Fergusson, of course, took in large aggregates of cash, but in another sense his adminis- tration was an extravagant one, for the colonization scheme consumed a large sum and was not a success, and the ranches paid little if any more under Fergusson than under Carr. Jastro put the business on a paying basis. Enterprises that did not yield a balance on the right side of the ledger were discouraged, and a minimum amount of money was spent on improvements that did not add to the immediate revenue producing power of the property.

Jastro's policy and its revenue producing result probably have prevented further efforts to sell the Kern County Land Company holdings to the present time. At least there have been no more colonization projects on the part of the Land Company, although the company has sold three consid- erable tracts for colonization-the Wasco and Mountain View colonies, which were handled by the California Home Extension Association, and the Lerdo tract which is to be colonized by the Lerdo Land & Water Company.

CHAPTER XIII

Important Events of a Decade, 1890-1900

The desert gold mines of Goler were first worked in the spring of 1893, and in December of that year a newspaper correspondent writing from Kane springs states that approximately $50,000 had been taken out by the thousand or more men who had been there. Four-fifths of this amount was found by less than a dozen men. and the bulk of the remaining fifth was taken out by a small fraction of the nine hundred and eighty-eight others. Coming from Bakersfield or Los Angeles the first camp in the Goler district was at Red Rock cañon, in a side gulch of which were developed the richest placer diggings in the state. At the time of the letter eight men were taking out $1000 a week from the Bell claim in this gulch. Over the ridge in another draw Sullivan & Black were doing about as well. At Goler, fifteen miles east of Red Rock. a few had struck it rich, others were doing fairly well, and many were obliged to live on the money they had brought with them. Bonanza gulch placers were yielding thirty cents to the pan from the bed rock. Twelve miles east of Goler at Summit, the Van Sykes had struck it rich.

That the desert mines had been prospected by the first of the California gold seekers was shown by the discovery in 1894 by W. J. Langdon of a

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location notice posted by Hiram Johnson bearing date of 1853. On a rock near by Langdon also found a pair of rusty gold scales, and by an old fire place, buried under three feet of drifting sands, the same prospector found a. black whiskey bottle with gold dust in it to the value of $6.20.

The desert placers were exceedingly rich on the surface, but the great. lack of water, not only for washing but even for drinking, held back devel- opment until the remainder of the state was long overrun by the placer miner and his burro. In 1894 Langdon, Ben Magee of Selma, a man by name of Cummings from Los Angeles, and F. M. Mooers, formerly a newspaper man of New York, panned the first gold in the Randsburg district, then unnamed. Even then, although the sands were found to be exceedingly rich, the dif- ficulties of desert mining discouraged the majority of the party from con- tinuing. They all drifted away except Mooers who went back to the Summit mines for a while, worked out his placers there, and then, in partnership with John Singleton and C. A. Burcham, went back to the Rand district and began dry washing in a gulch. They made about $5 per day each here, and later struck a better placer on the top of the hill.

Discovery of the Yellow Aster

One night when they had been away from camp and were coming home late they lost their way and made their bed in a gulch by chance. They slept late, and when Mooers opened his eyes in the morning the sun was glistening on the little particles of free gold in the ledge about his head. Burcham got his hammer, struck the rock of the projecting vein, and laid bare before the dazzled eyes of the three prospectors the treasure of the Yellow Aster. This was in the fall of 1895. Not for more than a year later was the wealth of the great mine demonstrated. For a long time its owners were content to take out its riches in a modest way. They had no money to begin with, and large development on the desert meant the investment of large sums. Ore for the first millings was hauled to Garlock, a distance of ten miles. Water for all purposes was hauled back from the same place and retailed for ten cents a gallon or three dollars per barrel. Later water was piped from Goler and from Squaw springs on Squaw mountain.

With the Yellow Aster. Mooers, Burcham and Singleton located the Rand, Olympus and Trilby claims, combining them under the name of Yellow Aster mine. In 1898 they built a thirty-stamp mill, and afterward increased it to one hundred stamps. The mine is now reckoned as the largest gold mine in the state. The ore is quarried out in glory holes, run down to the mill in cars and handled in every way on a wholesale scale.

Other Famous Desert Mines

Other famous mines of the Rand district include the Kinyon, named for its owner, who came to the desert without a dollar, and took out $40,000 with a windlass the first year from a little shallow shaft a short distance from the Yellow Aster. Silas Drouillard was grubstaked by the sheriff and his deputies in Bakersfield and went to Randsburg in search of the desert's treasure. The desert lured him across the sands until he dropped in ex- haustion beside a rock. As a parting blow in the face of fate he struck the rock with his hammer and broke off a chunk that even in the dazzling days of the first Randsburg boom was worthy a place on a shelf in a saloon where the hungry-eyed prospectors could look and marvel between their libations

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to the fickle Fortune of the desert. The Wedge, Hammond's Winnie, and the Ramey brothers' Butte were among the strikes that gave the camp its first fame.

The Town of Randsburg

The town started first on the Yellow Aster property where Cuffle had a store and Mrs. Freeman ran a boarding house. In 1895 Abram Staley and his son Homer opened a blacksmith shop on the flat, the first wooden build- ing on the present townsite. Charles Keehn opened the first store in the town proper; Montgomery Brothers started a saloon, John Crawford started another, and after that the arrivals were too rapid and numerous to be remem- bered.

During the rush of 1896 Randsburg had its first experience of the dis- order that belongs by tradition to new mining camps. "The Dirty Dozen," as the members of a gang of dry washers from an older camp chose to call themselves. conceived the pleasant pastime of visiting Randsburg of even- ings. making a rough house in the different saloons and finally promenading the streets, firing their revolvers. As most of the houses in the camp had only canvas walls and as the members of the Dirty Dozen were careless in their aim there was a general protest which resulted in a mass meeting on the porch of the Cliff house (hotel) and the organization of the Citizens' committee. At first it was planned to make it a vigilante organization, but soberer discussion resulted in the agreement that the disorders were not grave enough for such means of repression, and "Ironsides" Raines was hired to act as town marshal at a salary of $100 per month. A number of citizens were made deputy constables without pay. Personal notice was served on all the known members of the Dirty Dozen that their visits could be dispensed with, and a notice in the following words was posted in the streets :

The Citizens of Randsburg have organized to enforce the laws. Ten Deputy Constables have been appointed, and any riotous and threat- ening conduct will be punished.

by order of the

CITIZENS' COMMITTEE

There was no further disorder. At least there was no further general menace to life or limb, although for some time afterward the diversions of the miners that assembled in the desert camp differed somewhat from those of a Sunday-school picnic.

At the present time there is more genuine, profitable mining going on in the Randsburg district than at any other time since the camp was estab- lished. All the mines named heretofore are worked with profit, and in addi- tion the King Solomon, Sunshine and Merced are yielding good returns to their owners. Mooers of the Yellow Aster is dead, but his heirs and his original partners, Burcham and Singleton, still own the mine and are taking out about 600 tons of $5 ore per day.

Discovery of Tungsten Mines

About ten years ago, during the progress of a strike of union miners at the Yellow Aster, Charles Taylor, one of the strikers, and Tom Mccarthy went prospecting and discovered the afterward famous tungsten mines of Randsburg district. It soon developed that the tungsten deposits were among the largest and most accessible in the world, and the quality was excep-

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tionally good. Somewhere between two million and three million dollars worth of the mineral have been taken out, and the mines are but fairly opened up.

The Mojave mines were discovered about the time of the first Rands- burg rush or a few months later. The Queen Esther, Carmel, Golden Treas- ure and other mines of Mojave are celebrated producers, but the district never attained the fame that was accorded to Randsburg.

The Amalie District

Among the more important of the recent mining operations in the county are those about Amalie, a short distance above Caliente on the north- ern side of the Tehachapi pass. The Amalie mines carry both silver and gold, and with depth the ledges improve greatly. The Gold Peak, Amalie and other less celebrated mines of that vicinity have passed the stage of experiment and are reckoned as certain producers in the hands of competent management. Mining men familiar with the district prophesy that the future will see Amalie recognized as one of the most important mining sections of the state.

Other Important Events

Other matters that lend a special interest to the busy and eventful period in Kern county's history about the years of 1890 to 1900 include the building of the electric light, gas and street railway systems of Bakersfield, the begin- ning of the utilization of the waters of Kern river for the development of electric power, discovery and development of the desert mines, the local phases of the great railroad strike of 1894, the visit of the Oakland contingent of Coxey's army, the second incorporation of Bakersfield and the issuance of the celebrated Shaw decree, by which the terms of the Miller-Haggin agree- ment were given a semblance, at least, of judicial authority.

Gas and Electric Plants

The first gas plant was built and operated by L. P. St. Clair, Sr., and O. O. Mattson about the first part of 1889. Later H. A. Blodget and H. A. Jastro bought out Mattson's interest. The first plant was a crude affair comprising eight retorts, and the gas was manufactured from gasoline. In summer it was too rich, and in winter it was too thin for perfectly satis- factory use. During the summer of 1889, it is recalled, a big bellows was used to pump air into the holders to reduce the quality of the gas and pre- vent its smoking by reason of an excess of carbon. In the fall of 1889 the plant was changed to use coal instead of gasoline. The use of crude oil in the manufacture of gas was begun in 1896 and 1897, and continued to the fall of 1911, when natural gas from the great gas wells of the Standard Oil Company in the Buena Vista hills was turned into the mains.

It was not long after the gas plant was established that electric lighting began to gain greatly in popularity, and outside parties visited Bakersfield with a view to obtaining a franchise for an electric lighting system. They failed to get the franchise, but their visit spurred the local lighting com- pany into action, and electricity was added to gas as a means of illumina- tion in the city. In the spring of 1890 a 40-light dynamo was installed and a wood-burning steam engine was utilized to furnish power. The limita- tions of wood-generated steam and the advantages of water power in the generation of electricity were speedily recognized, and for a time a plan for using water power from the mill ditch was entertained. The fact that

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it is necessary to dry out the ditch occasionally for cleaning and repairs stood in the way of this plan, and the idea of maintaining a steam auxiliary plant for use when the ditch was out of commission did not appeal to the electric company.

It was the natural thing to turn to Kern river canon as a source of power, and the plans for the first power plant built there were drawn by Blodget, Jastro, W. S. Tevis, S. W. Fergusson and C. N. Beale. The first intention was to interest eastern capital in the enterprise, but when it was mentioned to Lloyd Tevis he said that he would take it up himself, and did so. Work was begun December 13, 1894, building the flume along the wall of the cañon to carry the water from the intake up the cañon to the water wheel at the canon's mouth where the present power house is located. The wooden flume first used to convey the water was later replaced by a tunnel driven in the rock of the cañon wall.

First Street Railway

The first street railway system was established about the same time as the gas plant. John M. Keith and H. A. Blodget were the originators of the project, and they called in H. H. Fish, who was operating a line of hacks and omnibuses and whose co-operation instead of competition was desirable. Fish went into the street car plan and Keith withdrew. The first equipment of rolling stock consisted of little horse cars, and one of the diversions of- fered the passengers was to help put the cars back on the track once in a while when the unaccustomed street car nags would get scared at some- thing and bolt off at a tangent from the rails.

With the building of the power plant in the cañon (finished in 1897) the horse car system was supplanted by electric cars and C. N. Beale joined with Fish and Blodget in the enterprise. Six or eight years later the Power, Transit & Light Company was organized as a subsidiary corporation of the Kern County Land Company, and the street car, gas and electric light- ing systems were taken over by it. In 1911 the San Joaquin Light & Power Corporation bought out the Power, Transit & Light Company. Meantime, in 1897, the Electric Water Company, also a Land Company corporation, bought the Scribner Water Works and extended the system to meet the growing needs of the city.

The First Levee Canal

.What is known as the levee canal, built a little distance south of Kern river from the Kern Island canal near Panorama heights southwest to the Stine canal, was constructed in the summer of 1890. On May 8th a sub- scription paper was circulated for the purpose of raising money to buy land for a right of way and for building the levee, and the following subscrip- tions were secured: W. B. Carr, $500; Celsus Brower, L. S. Rogers, H. C. Park, H. A. Jastro, H. A. Blodget, W. H. Scribner, J. Neiderauer, Dinkel- spiel Brothers, Joseph Weringer, Solomon Jewett, Kern Valley Bank, A. C. Maude and J. E. Bailey, each $100; Paul Galtes, A. Weill and Hirshfeld and Brodek, each $150; C. L. Connor and Alex Mills (not the ancient marshal), each $50.

The right of way, however, was purchased by the county from Haggin & Carr for $4500, the deed being made on July 15, 1890. The levee canal was built along the right of way, and the dirt was thrown mostly on the side of the ditch next to the river so as to make an embankment sufficient

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to restrain any ordinary high water. This levee broke toward the north end at the time of the flood of 1893, and since then has been strengthened, a little dirt and sand being added whenever the river became threateningly high.

Ever since the first levee was built periodic movements have been started looking to the construction of an embankment that would permanently dis- pose of all possibility of the river getting into the town, but with the sub- sidence of the freshets the interest in the plans wane and only the inci- dental repairs and improvements mentioned have been made. The latest project for levee building includes the construction of a boulevard along the top of the proposed embankment, connecting with Oak street on the west and mounting Panorama heights on the east and connecting thence by Baker street and Truxtun avenue with the southern end of Oak street and forming a complete driveway around the northern half of the city. This project has been lingering in statu quo for several months past, but has not been definitely abandoned.

The Great Railway Strike

The great strike of the American Railway Union which began Thursday, June 28, 1894, affected Bakersfield and Kern about as it affected any other railroad division point. There was much excitement during the first few days of the tie-up, and on July 12th, two hundred men met at Reich opera house, which stood just across Jap alley from Weill's store, and organized the Citizens' committee of safety. S. W. Wible acted as chairman, and after the adoption of resolutions and a prayer by Rev. Henry, fifty men signed the roll as volunteer home guards, took the oath to support the con- stitution and pledged themselves to guard duty in case Company G of the National Guard were ordered away from town and their services were required. Officers were elected as follows: captain, F. S. Rice ; lieutenants, G. K. Ober and C. A. Maul ; sergeants, John O. Miller, G. L. Dillman, C. Von Petersdorf, Leo F. Winchell and H. C. Park; corporals, H. F. Condict, W. Lowell, A. W. Storms and R. M. Walker.

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History of Kern 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 16

Author: Morgan, Wallace Melvin, 1868- [from old catalog] Publication date: 1914 Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company Number of Pages: 1682

Author: Morgan, Wallace Melvin, 1868- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company
Number of Pages: 1682