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 22
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It was a full quarter of an hour after the wild demonstration began before Hicks was out in the tunnel, and at least five minutes more before the word was shouted down from the mountain side to the man at the 'phone by the river and by him transmitted to Bakersfield.
Of course Hicks went on the stage, and his first appearance was in the Armory in Bakersfield. An ordinary sitting room would have held the crowd. He fell as flat in Los Angeles, and everywhere. Hicks buried alive with heroic men risking their own lives to save him was an object of national interest. Hicks rescued dropped back to his old place and importance. He was a mucker, no different from any other mucker, no better nor more inter- esting than any other man that may be carrying a hod or sweeping up the litter on the streets.
The last heard of Hicks was that some widow had married him, and so he passed permanently from his brief pedestal of public prominence to the common level of domestic obscurity.
News Notes, 1899 to 1910
October 5, 1899-Scribner's opera house is filled at a reception to Major Frank S. Rice on his return from a campaign in the Philippines.
October 9-Mojave's business section is wiped out by a fire which is believed to be incendiary.
November 16-The sidewalk-building campaign is in full blast, and prop- erty owners on West Nineteenth street petition for the building of concrete walks from Chester avenue to Oak street, a total length-counting both sides-of 7556 feet.
December 15-Bakersfield expects free mail delivery soon.
December 21-Bakersfield is discussing park and levee plans, and Engi- neers W. C. Ambrose, W. R. Macmurdo and Walter James submit a report
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estimating that a sufficient levee to guard against all danger of flood from the river can be built for $12,000.
January 17, 1900 -- The corner stone of the Woman's Club hall at Six- teenth and H streets is laid, and the Beale memorial library at Seventeenth and Chester is nearing completion.
March 21-The Sunset Railroad Company is incorporated by local men.
March 28-Truxtun Beale deeds the Beale library to the city as a memorial to his father, General E. F. Beale.
April 11 -- Work starts on the electric railroad from Bakersfield to Kern.
July 19-A call is issued for a meeting of oil producers to organize to control the market and insure remunerative prices for oil. This is the begin- ning of the Associated Oil Company.
July 20-Meeting is held and a committee on organization is appointed consisting of C. A. Canfield, J. M. Keith, W. G. Kerckhoff, W. E. Knowles, E. L. Doheny, H. A. Blodget, W. H. Mckenzie, Burt Green, B. F. Brooks, O. Scribner, H. H. Blood and D. S. Ewing.
September 12-Producers' Oil Association is organized as a result of the meetings on July 19 and 20.
September 25-Judge Ross of the federal court in Los Angeles decides against the scrippers in the cases of Pacific Land and Improvement Company against Elwood Oil Company, and Cosmos Exploration Company against Gray Eagle Oil Company.
Electric cars will run on the new street railway soon after January 1,1901.
February, 1901-A building boom is on in East Bakersfield.
A campaign against illegal gambling starts. The games are closed on Sunday but run all the week.
April 17-A meeting is held preliminary to the organization of the First National Bank of Bakersfield.
April 18-The famous battle at Midway between representatives of the Mt. Diablo Oil Company and the Superior Sunset Oil Company occurs in the darkness of night, and G. P. Cornell and J. T. Walker, alleged gunmen in the employ of the latter company, are badly wounded. The battle is over sections 24 and 26, 32-23. The Mt. Diablo people get the land by court de- cision, but long litigation follows over the shooting affair.
April 25-Kern City floral carnival opens with Miss Della Wells as queen.
April 26-Bakersfield gets news of a decision against the scrippers in the case of Kern County Oil Company against Gray Eagle Oil Company.
May 18-The Southern Pacific is changing its engines from coal to oil burners.
May 20-George Hinkle has hard luck in a poker game, and just as he gets aces up with big money in the pot his wife enters and leads him out by the ear. At home Hinkle gives his wife a beating, and has to leave the town hastily to escape a band of fellow gamblers who are warming a pot of tar and emptying a feather bed.
May 23-The Masonic temple at Chester avenue and Twentieth street is dedicated with elaborate ceremonies.
May 25-The senior academic class of the high school is suspended for insubordination as the result of a quarrel about the place on the stage which
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NINETEENTH STREET LOOKING EAST FROM G STREET, BAKERSFIELD
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the commercial class is to occupy at the graduation exercises. The trouble is adjusted later and all graduate happily.
June 1-The county supervisors are putting oil on the Rosedale road for the first time.
June 10-An agitation for the closing of the stores at 6 o'clock is started.
June 25-The ministers and the retail clerks join in a meeting at the opera house to promote the 6 o'clock and Sunday closing movement.
July 5-Kern county's assessment totals $20,850,000, against $15,184,000 in 1900.
July 23-A petition with 441 signers is presented to the city trustees urging the purchase of parks for the city.
August 13-The Santa Fe Railroad adopts plans for a new depot at Bakersfield.
August 8-The site for the Lowell school is purchased.
August 20-The Edison Electric Company announces plans for building a power plant in Kern river cañon.
August 28-The Pacific Refinery (afterward the Phoenix) starts work on its refinery near Reeder lake, just west of Bakersfield.
October 16-The Standard Oil Company is securing rights of way for its pipe line to Point Richmond (the first pipe line built in the county). Producers are complaining of shortage of tank cars.
October 16-A party leaves Bakersfield to hunt grizzly bears in the mountains above Tejon.
October 16-The contract is let for the Lowell school.
October 20-The tracks of the Sunset Railroad have reached Hazelton in the Old Sunset field.
November-The Kern River Power Company is organized to build power plants on Kern river.
December 21-Kern Company, Uniform Rank, Knights of Pythias, is mustered in.
December 21-The supervisors let the contract to L. Wilcox to build a bridge across Kern river opposite the oil fields.
December 23-The first train leaves for Sunset over the new road.
December 24-The Southern Pacific has ordered more engines to handle the increased business that the oil fields create.
January 1, 1902-The St. Paul's Episcopal church at Seventeenth and I streets is consecrated.
January 3-Miller & Lux offer to give the herd of elk that has roamed on the company's lands for years to the Bakersfield lodge of Elks. The offer was accepted and the elk moved to the national park in the Sierras.
January 14-Work is progressing on the Producers' Savings Bank build- ing at Nineteenth and H streets, and the directors of the Bank of Bakersfield decide to build at Chester and Twentieth streets.
There is much talk about an electric railroad to the coast, and there are rumors that the Denver & Rio Grande will build through Walker's pass into Bakersfield.
The January shipments of oil from the Kern river field reach 3,000 cars and break all records.
January 31-The Board of Trade is organized with Frank S. Rice as presi- dent and the following additional members of the executive committee : L. M. Dinkelspiel, L. P. St. Clair, A. Weill, W. J. Doherty, Alfred Harrell, R. C. Hussey, L. C. Ross and S. C. Smith.
10
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February 10-The Southern Pacific begins building oil storage tanks along its tracks through the state.
February 20-E. F. Carter strikes a strong flow of gas on section 25, 32-23.
March 1-The First Congregational church celebrates its tenth anniver- sary. The church was organized on February 28, 1892.
April 15-The shippers lose again in contests over oil lands.
April 22-Miss Theresa Ellen Lacey is elected queen of the street car- nival to be held on May 3d.
May 2-The Oil Exchange building at H and Nineteenth streets is formally opened.
May 3-The Merchants' Free Street Carnival opens with Queen Tessie on the throne. The coronation ball is held on Monday night, and the week is given over to mirth and gaiety. Governor Gage visits the city on the last day of the carnival.
May 7-Oil companies talk of building a railroad to Maricopa with pri- vate capital.
May 11-The school census shows 2011 boys and 1911 girls of school age in the county.
May 21-Pipe is being delivered for the Standard Oil Company's pipe line to Point Richmond.
May 22-Ben Thomas is putting in a pump irrigation plant at Delano at a cost of $1200.
May 25-Company G wins a prize as the most efficient company in the regiment.
July 4-The Kern County Democrats hold a "non-partisan" Fourth of July celebration with a big barbecue on West Nineteenth street.
August 3-The first carload of materials for the Kern River Power Con- pany's canal is delivered.
September 3-The first Labor Day celebration is held in Bakersfield.
Many plans are discussed for building a railroad to Ventura and a meet- ing is held to consider a railroad to Kernville. None of these plans have yet materialized.
October 17-Dr. George C. Pardee speaks in Bakersfield. Governor Gage speaks at the opera house. A hot political campaign, both state and county, is in progress.
December 4-A petition is in circulation asking that the legislature create a second department of the superior court. The movement was successful, and late in the next spring Governor Pardee appointed Paul W. Bennett to the new office, a position which he filled continuously until his death in the summer of 1913.
January 7, 1903-Sheriff John W. Kelly closes the illegal gambling games which previously had been running wide open.
March 24-The Associated Oil Company starts work on a 470,000 barrel earthen reservoir in the Kern river field.
April 19-The outlaw, James McKinney, after being tracked from Visalia through the mountains to Arizona and back to Bakersfield, is killed in a battle with officers on Sunday morning about 9:30 o'clock in the Chinese joss house on L street between Twenty-first and Twenty-second streets. Marshal T. J. Packard and Deputy Sheriff W. E. Tibbet are shot and killed by Mckinney and an associate supposed to be Al Hulse, in whose room in the joss house the outlaw was hiding. Hulse is arrested, and B. M. Tibbet, who shot Mckinney, is appointed marshal by the city trustees.
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April 27-The Native Sons of the Golden West hold their state parlor in Bakersfield.
August 22-City election ballots are stolen from a vault in the city clerk's office to prevent their being recounted in a contest filed by E. P. Davis against the election of T. J. Packard as city marshal. The thieves took the ballots to a lonely gully east of Kern city and partly destroyed them by fire. J. T. Wells, a rancher hauling hogs to town before daylight in the morning, saw the fire and two men with a buggy. He reported to Constable Stroble, who, with Marshal Ham Farris of Kern, went out and found the ballots on the 24th and placed them in the safe in Justice Marion's office. The theft was not made public until September 10th.
November 10-The trial of Al Hulse begins in Judge Mahon's court.
November 20-The San Joaquin Valley Federation of Woman's Clubs meets in Bakersfield.
December 15-The city trustees decide on the intersection of Chester ave- nue and Seventeenth street as the site for the Beale memorial clock tower.
January 5, 1904-The election contest of E. P. Davis against T. J. Packard comes to a hearing before Judge Mahon after long delay, despite the death of Packard and the burning of the ballots, and Davis is declared elected by a vote of 442 to 445. Davis lost one vote and Packard nine in the hearing.
January 15-H. A. Jastro is elected vice president of the National Live- stock Association. Later he served several times as president.
April 15-G. P. Cornell, one of the men who were wounded in the Mid- way battle of April 18, 1901, enraged at the outcome of a preliminary exami- nation of men against whom he had brought a charge of deadly assault, fired seven shots from a Colt's automatic revolver at Dr. A. F. Schafer and E. J. Boust, one bullet passing through Boust's coat and the others flying wild about Nineteenth street in front of the Arlington hotel, where Cornell was standing at the time. One shot drew blood on the leg of a salesman stand- ing in the door of Weill's department store and another struck the shoe of John Herrick, who was standing in front of the Magnolia saloon.
May 16-The Knights of Pythias and Rathbone Sisters hold their state conventions in Bakersfield.
May 25-The second trial of Al Hulse for the murder of Packard and Tibbet begins. Hulse was convicted, but committed suicide several years later while still waiting in the county jail for the result of an appeal. He never went to prison.
November 2-The Independent Oil Producers' Agency files articles of incorporation.
November 8-Roosevelt carries Kern county and the Republicans elect an assemblyman, judge and two supervisors. Chairman E. M. Roberts of the Democratic county committee presents Chairman J. W. Wiley of the Republican committee with a new broom, which is hung out of the window of the Republican headquarters.
November 19-The Eagles celebrate the fourth anniversary of the found- ing of the Bakersfield aerie.
November 23-The Independent Oil Producers' Agency completes its organization and the member companies sign over to the agency leases cover- ing $25,000,000 worth of property.
November 28-The post office is moved to its present location in the Southern Hotel building on I street.
December-Water is giving serious trouble in the Kern river oil field.
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December 20-A campaign against the dance halls is in progress.
December 29-Litigation between the irrigating canal companies and the power development companies is settled and Judge Bennett issues a decree perpetually enjoining the Kern River Power Company from building storage reservoirs or from diverting water from Kern river except for power develop- ment purposes.
December 30-Water is turned through the Kern River Power Company's tunnel and power plant and electricity is carried to Los Angeles to run the street cars.
January 4, 1905-The county supervisors let the contract to the Edison Electric Company to build the road up Kern river cañon for $21,000.
January 9-The city trustees begin hearing a protest against the open dance halls, and on January 16th, after a stormy session of the board, Trustee R. McDonald left the meeting and the other trustees declined to renew the licenses of the saloons having dance houses in connection. Mayor H. H. Fish ordered the marshal to close the saloons having no licenses, but the saloons evaded the issue by selling soft drinks only. The dance hall cases were carried from the trustees to the city recorder's court, and the jury disagreed. The dance hall keepers applied to the superior court for a writ of mandate to compel the trustees to issue them liquor licenses, but the writ was finally refused.
March 5-Knights of Columbus lodge instituted.
March 25-The Catholics make plans for the new St. Francis church, which is to cost $40,000.
April 9-The new First Baptist church is dedicated.
April 12-The Salvation Army butys a lot at K and Twentieth street. Free mail delivery is to be established in Kern in June.
April 10-In the city election R. McDonald wins over H. H. Fish by a vote of 630 to 387, and Mayor Fish, in retiring from the board, declares that the election is a victory for the "wide open town."
April 25-The new board of city trustees reconsiders the action of the old board in refusing to issue licenses to the saloons having dance halls in connection. It is declared that the dance halls will not be allowed to run, but they are gradually reopened.
The Redmen are raising $5000 for a Fourth of July celebration.
May 1-The Santa Fe railroad has bought the Chanslor-Canfield Midway Oil Company's great holding of oil lands at Midway.
May 1-H. A. Jastro, on behalf of the Kern County Land Company, tenders the city thirty acres of land in the western part of the city for a public park on condition that the city spend at least $3000 per year in im- provements until a total of at least $30,000 is expended. The city accepted the tender, but did not comply with the terms, and the land was withdrawn by the donor.
May 12-Plans are submitted for the Elks' building on South Chester.
June 2-Burglars roll the safe out of the Santa Fe depot and across the street and maul it open with sledge hammers stolen from the section crew's tool box. Never apprehended.
June 17-Kern river is shipping little oil, but is storing a lot.
June 24-The jury finds E. P. Cornell not guilty of assault to kill E. J. Boust.
July 4-The Redmen's Fourth of July celebration is a great success. Mrs. Frank Fether is Goddess of Liberty, Miss Flo Massa represents Cali-
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fornia, and Miss Buxton represents Kern county in the big parade. Gov- ernor Pardee delivers the oration.
August 15-Scribner's opera house and adjoining buildings burn and a loud complaint concerning the fire department and the water supply results in a reorganization of the fire company.
August 21-The Standard Oil Company is pumping oil into its big earthen reservoirs west of the Kern river field at the rate of 30,000 barrels per day.
September 1-The Southern Pacific is corrugating the pipe for its pipe line between the Kern river field and Delano.
October 12-The dance halls are trying to get permission to run all night Saturday nights and until 3 o'clock in the morning other nights.
November 14-The county supervisors decide to build a new high school building to supplement the old one. The cost is estimated at $50,000.
December 23-The Public Ownership party is organized by Charles P. Fox and W. D. Young, and during the meeting, which is held in the court house, the heaviest earthquake shock felt in Bakersfield in many years occurs.
January 16, 1906-The corner stone of the new St. Francis church is laid by Bishop Conaty, who delivers an address in the open air to a great gathering of people.
April 3-Rev. A. M. Shaw, president of the Law and Order League of Kern County, issues a statement declaring war on the dance halls, but some years more elapse before they are finally closed, not to reopen.
April 4-The Allison Machinery Company installs a steam plant to furnish steam heat to downtown business houses.
April 8-The Buckeye Refinery is making kerosene oil in the Kern river field.
April 17-Plans are drawn for the Bakersfield opera house.
April 19-A mass meeting is held at Armory hall to draft plans in aid of the San Francisco fire sufferers and $2777 is subscribed by the citizens present.
May 27-Kern river reaches the highest point since 1893.
May 30-The contract between the Independent Oil Producers' Agency and the Associated Oil Company expires and producers begin shutting down their wells on account of the low price of oil.
July 4-The Bakersfield Board of Trade makes an excursion to the Ama- lie mining district which is showing renewed activity.
July 7-The Masons have placed a six-ton granite boulder in the center of their plot in Union cemetery.
August 11-Plans for the Santa Fe's new round house are announced.
August 23-Bakersfield's assessment roll totals $3,147.213.
September-Northern Kern county farmers will get $300,000 for wheat grown on 30,000 acres.
September 3-The Brodek block at Nineteenth and K streets is burned. Loss $41,000.
September 9-Bakersfield trustees adopt plans for a new sewer system calculated to serve a population of 20.000 people.
September 10-Bakersfield city schools open with 702 pupils: Kern schools, 415.
September 29-The new St. Francis Catholic church is nearing com- pletion.
October 14-Al Hulse, partner of Outlaw Mckinney in the joss house battle of April 19, 1903. commits suicide in the county jail where he is await-
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ing the result of his appeal from the superior court, where he was convicted of murder.
October 25-S. C. Smith and C. A. Barlow, candidates for congress from the eighth district, hold a joint debate on the issues of the campaign at Armory hall, and one of the largest audiences that ever attended a po- litical meeting in Bakersfield is present.
November 2-Stud poker games are closed by Sheriff Kelley's order.
November 5-The new Bakersfield opera house is opened with Checkers. a character play.
November 6-The Democrats carry the county by pluralities ranging from 400 to 1000.
November 11-Gen. William R. Shafter. commander in chief of the San- tiago campaign in the Spanish-American war, died at the home of his son- in-law, Capt. W. H. McKittrick, fifteen miles south of Bakersfield.
November 13 -- Bakersfield trustees are discussing dollar gas to no effect.
November 17-Delano ranchers have filled the warehouses and have thousands of sacks of wheat piled in the streets waiting shipment.
November 23-After a two days' session in the Kern river fields the Independent Oil Producers Agency closes a contract to sell to the Associated Oil Company 950,000 barrels of stored oil at twenty-five cents, and all its product for the ensuing year, estimated at 2,555,000 barrels at twenty-seven and one-half cents.
December 6-The shortage of cars for handling oil is causing agitation for the passage of the "Texas car law."
December 7-Lindsay B. Hicks and five other miners are buried alive by the collapse of the Edison Power Company's shaft in the Kern river cañon.
December 11-News reaches Bakersfield that Hicks is still alive and work of rescuing him is begun.
December 15-Committee of Home Extension Association inspects Wasco land and decides to locate a colony there.
December 22-Hicks is rescued after sixteen days' imprisonment in the collapsed power shaft and the town of Bakersfield goes wild with joy.
December 27-Hicks makes his first appearance on the stage at the Armory and is a decided failure as a footlight hero.
January 14, 1907-City trustees order an election to vote bonds as fol- lows: For a new sewer system, $120,000; for a city hall and site, $50,000; for the improvement of city parks, $30,000.
January 19-Geologists estimate the original oil deposits of the San Joaquin valley fields at 1,254,000,000 barrels, of which 112,000,000 barrels have been taken out.
January 18-Cornerstone of Oil Center Congregational church is laid, W. W. Riley, pastor.
January 18-Woodmen of the World initiate sixty candidates.
January 25-The Porter-Higgins Company buys 2000 acres north of De- lano and a large acreage east of Bakersfield, and plans to bring colonists from the east.
February 1-One hundred and ninety families secure allotments of land in Wasco Colony.
February 6-State Federation of Woman's Clubs begins its sixth annual session in the First Methodist church.
February 8-Mrs. E. D. Buss of Bakersfield is elected president of the State Federation of Woman's Clubs.
February 10-The Standard is paying thirty cents for Midway oil.
February 18-The price of highballs, Tom and Jerrys, all case goods and
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fancy drinks is raised to twelve and one-half cents by Bakersfield thirst em- poriums.
March 22-Cosmopolitan hotel block burns, loss $25,000.
March 25-A $120,000 bond issue for building a new sewer system car- ries by a vote of 499 to 91.
March 26-The $30,000 bond issue for improving city parks is defeated by a vote of 321 to 219. It needed two-thirds to carry.
March 27-The $50,000 city hall bonds are defeated by a vote of 16 for and 213 against.
April 15-J. E. Bailey becomes mayor of Bakersfield. Truxtun Beale tenders two-black park to the city.
April 16-City trustees begin investigation of fire department that re- sults in retirement of Chief Willow and nearly all the old firemen.
April 16-African Methodist conference for Northern California meets in Bakersfield.
April 21-Consolidation of Bakersfield and Kern is under discussion.
April 22-Many burglaries occur in Bakersfield.
May 6-The sixth regiment, N. G. C., is mustered out and Company G goes with it.
May 15-The Edison Electric Company's first power plant in Kern river cañon is put in commission.
May 16-A month's course of lectures at the Woman's Club hall by State University professors is begun. Truxtun Beale, who pays the expenses of the course, proposes to make it an annual affair.
May 24-The Bakersfield Club is drawing plans for a club building. May 28-State Aerie of Eagles meets in Bakersfield.
May 31-Burglars crack Attorney Claflin's safe with a sledge hammer and try to enter three other offices in the Bank of Bakersfield building.
June 11-Colored Mason's grand lodge meets in Bakersfield. Illegal gam- bling is being suppressed.
June 21-A petition for the consolidation of Bakersfield and Kern is put in circulation.
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