USA > California > Los Angeles County > History of Los Angeles county, Volume I > Part 55
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Lankershim and vicinity are to the northwest of Los Angeles, the two places being thirteen miles apart. The altitude of this little city is 680 feet above the ocean's level. As early as 1910 the census reports gave the population as 1,500. The place is well built on modern plans. Its streets are fine and shady ; cement walks obtain everywhere. Lodges, churches, schools, a good hotel, a bank and theatre have long since been adjuncts of the place. The local newspaper has ever been a stanch supporter for the upbuilding of the town, which is situated in a real garden spot of the county. The peach and apricot are the favorite fruits produced in the locality. All kinds of grains, grasses and vegetables are easily grown, with profit to the husbandman. More than a dozen years ago the district sur- rounding Lankershim had, of its 12,000 acres, 9,000 under cultivation; 5,000 acres were in fruits and nuts, 700 acres in alfalfa, 500 acres in melons and vegetables, 200 acres in Irish potatoes, 400 acres in vineyards, and the balance in grain and hay. The near-by great city of Los Angeles demands all the choice fruits and vegetables the community can spare. A local canning plant employs 300 persons in season, while the immense drying yards give work to 600 employees, turning out $100,000 worth of dried fruits annually. Local markets handle much of the crops of apples, pears, alfalfa, melons and vegetables. In 1912, one of the several wineries produced 60,000 gallons of fine wine. During the same year there were 12,000 laying hens in the township.
Lankershim and Chatsworth Park townships were organized from a part of San Fernando Township in 1902 and 1905, respectively.
1
ORGAN
COMPA
PIPE ORGAN FACTORY, VAN NUYS
GRAMMAR SCHOOL, VAN NUYS
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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
Van Nuys is located nineteen miles northwest of Los Angeles City, at an elevation of nearly 700 feet. It is one of the later settlements of the county, has the true ring of enterprise and is rapidly advancing. The soil in and near the place is very rich and free from alkali and hard-pan. In 1913 Van Nuys boasted of a lighting system covering forty miles of beautiful boulevards costing $100,000. The system embraced three-light posts placed near enough together to illuminate the entire driveway. Among the well established institutions of the place is the Chamber of Commerce and most excellent public schools. An early and important industry found here is the large piano and pipe organ factory, producing and selling $500,000 worth of instruments annually and giving employ- ment to more than one hundred persons. Other industries operating for
LANKERSHIM BOULEVARD
many years are the cement pipe plant and sheet metal works. In a work called "Southern California," published in 1915, the following appears concerning Van Nuys: "Hereabouts are 5,000 acres of young orchards just commencing to bear. The principal fruits grown are peaches and apricots. There are 5,000 acres of alfalfa, 500 acres of melons and vege- tables, 500 acres of potatoes, 300 acres of corn, 1,000 acres of lima beans, 3,000 acres of sugar beets and 10,000 acres of hay and grain. The alfalfa and vegetables are grown by irrigation from private wells, but all other crops are raised without irrigation. The average season's rain fall is seventeen inches. One hen ranch keeps 20,000 laying hens. Bearing orchards here bring from $700 to $1,000 per acre, but there is now avail- able unimproved lands amounting to 15,000 acres that can be had at from $250 to $500 per acre." Another important industry is that of growing the famous Baby Lima Beans, the thousands of acres thus cultivated yielding to the owners a net annual income of over $3,000,000. In the same locality eight cuttings of alfalfa are made every twelve-month.
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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
The twice-a-week newspaper, published at Van Nuys, is a reliable local publication, giving the news and assisting materially in upbuilding the community. The paper was established as a weekly, in 1911.
Van Nuys has churches as follows-Methodist Episcopal, Baptist, the Missionary, Catholic, Church of Christ, Episcopal, Presbyterian and Christian Science.
The lodges include the Masonic bodies, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, Knights of Columbus and American Legion.
While the hum of mechanical industry is heard, much of the wealth realized comes from the soil of the surrounding country. There are in suc- cessful operation at Van Nuys the Robert Morton Pipe Organ factory, the Van Nuys Canning plant, Golden State cannery, sash and door factory, the Holly hatchery, with a capacity of 200,000 chicks each three weeks, and the Van Nuys Nursery Company. The poultry business is the second largest in California. Well may this little city be known, as it is, "The Hub of the Los Angeles Valley."
The Chamber of Commerce is a live, practical body of business men with Mark Grimes, president; A. E. Streeter and Stanley W. Williams, vice presidents ; Lewis E. Bliss, treasurer ; U. E. McClary, secretary, with fifteen well-known business men and orchardists as a Board of Directors. Van Nuys was annexed to Los Angeles in the spring of 1915, and the present beautiful city building-an enameled pressed brick structure-was finished in 1916.
Owensmouth is ten miles west of Van Nuys and has existed as a com- munity and town since about 1908-10. All that has been said about the soil and products naturally produced in Van Nuys holds good in the Owensmouth locality.
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VIEWS ON VERDUGO ROAD
MATS
CHAPTER XLIV
EAGLE ROCK AND MONTEREY PARK
Eagle Rock is situated at the northern door of Los Angeles. Just to the east of her limits we find beautiful, progressive Pasadena, and on the west is Glendale. This place has had a most wonderful growth. In 1920, the United States census gave it 2,250 souls, while present careful official estimates by the water company, etc., show that it is close to the 5,000 mark. Again it may be said that when it was incorporated, in March, 1911, it only had 600 population. Five years later it was 1,800, an increase of 300 per cent. The material growth has been great. Official records show the "doubting Thomases" that the assessed valuation increased from $900,000 to $2,410,000. The building permits have totaled not less than $100,000 in every year since incorporation. For the year 1920, they totaled $629,000; and the first six months in 1921 they were $388,633-all for residences.
It was originally designed, and still is a city of home-builders, who do not cater to the rush and pellmell of a factory town, desiring rather a quiet city of homes, superior schools and churches of the various denomina- tions, believing in the Christian religion. No inducements are offered to manufacturers, for they bring, as a rule, an undesirable class of citizens.
Eagle Rock is coming to be an exceptional place as an educational center. Few places of its size in the country, can show better school facili- ties. Here we find the Occidental College, a Presbyterian school of impor- tance, owning a campus of ninety acres, with fine new buildings costing $500,000 and a field for athletic sports, with a $25,000 stadium.
The Woman's Twentieth Century Club has a $10,000 Club House; the' Masonic fraternity, with its Eastern Star Chapter, has a good membership. The religious denominations here represented by good organizations are : Methodist Episcopal, Presbyterian, Congregational, Christian Science, Episcopal and a large Roman Catholic congregation.
A beautiful postoffice building was opened for use October 1, 1921, with a postmaster, an assistant and six carriers.
Of the municipal history of Eagle Rock, let it be stated that in March, 1911, it became a city and had for its first board of trustees: John T. Bailey (chairman or president), W. K. Cowan, C. W. Young and James Knichelor ; city clerk, J. S. Pitman. The presiding officers since, have been as follows: 1912. George E. Cox; 1913, Henry E. Needham; 1914-15, Crowell Galpin : 1916, James S. France ; 1920, Robert Abbott ; 1922, Sherrill B. Osborne. The present (1922) trustees are Elmer M. Bergsvik, H. B. Curtis, George C. Mattison, B. Sherrill Osborne and Jesse Taylor. The highly efficient city clerk is Benjamin B. Martsolf. The bonded indebted- ness is now (outside of school bonds ), $220,000. The city water is derived from numerous deep wells-from 160 to 200 feet deep-and is classed as good, pure and soft water as California affords.
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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
The business affairs of the growing city are looked after by the Eagle Rock Chamber of Commerce, and to this organization the writer is indebted for many of the material facts contained in this article.
MONTEREY PARK
This is an incorporated city, having been organized as a city of the sixth class in December, 1921, and now has a population of approximately 5,000 people, composed largely of the laboring class and business men. It is a part of one of the old-time ranchos and is situated among the hills, a few miles from Belvedere, the site being far beyond the end of the First Street
"THE ROCK BIRD SHADOW," EAGLE ROCK
car line from Los Angeles. A system of auto-busses takes passengers from the car line every half hour of the day. The chief industry is a large tile factory. while just toward the city of Los Angeles is an immense brick yard, employing hundreds of workmen. A newspaper has been published in the vicinity for a number of years. It is known as the Monterey Progress and® is in its eighth volume. The churches are represented by the Roman Catho- lic, Methodist Episcopal (a community church under control of the Metho- dists), Christian Science (worshiping in a private building), and the Seventh Day Adventists. The civic societies in this newly organized city include the Masonic, Eastern Star, the Odd Fellows and Rebekahs. There is also a lively Chamber of Commerce, with M. G. Watkins as its president ; John E. Ackley, secretary and J. R. Jones, treasurer ; among its vice- presidents, W. J. Stewart and Thomas Berry. The bonded indebtedness was contracted solely for school purposes and is in amount $225,000. The
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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
First National Bank which opened April 20, 1922, cares for the necessary banking interests of the thriving new place.
The 1922 city officials are as follows: Trustees, F. H. Vercoe (presi- dent ), Theodore Fulton, W. J. Stewart, G. L. Smalley, and H. W. Sher- wood; city attorney, T. A. Berkbile; city clerk, A. W. Langley; health officer, J. A. Maronde ; marshal, B. W. Bascom ; recorder, James H. Amis ; treasurer, F. C. Merriam.
The public library of the city is a branch of the Los Angeles County library system ; its present efficient librarian is Mrs. Charles Thomas.
Bleaching the nuts
This load worth $1365.
Under & spreading walnut tree
CHAPTER XLV
THE CITY OF WHITTIER
The first account in history of "Whittier, California" was in a county history issued by the Lewis Publishing Company of Chicago, in 1889-two years after the platting of the village-in which appears the following para- graph : "Whittier is a village founded by a body of Quakers from Indiana, Illinois and Iowa, who own around the town a large tract of land. It is about twelve miles east of Los Angeles, and has an elevation of 400 feet. All kinds of fruit and grain known to Southern California can be raised here. There is a commodious Friends meeting-house, a public school, and a prospective college that is to be under the control of the Friends."
This settlement was effected in 1887, and soon after many others (not of the Friends' religious faith) came in to aid in building up the handsome city of today. Indeed this has come to be one of the real substantial, enter- prising business centers of California's fair domain. Today it stands amidst the orange groves at the foot of Whittier Hills, an attractive city of more than 8,000 souls. Don Pio Pico, the last Spanish governor of California, made his home near Whittier. There, too, is Whittier College, recently enlarged by a large endowment fund. This section of Los Angeles was . first to develop the great oil industry in California. The output, in 1907, was placed at 2,500 barrels daily or about 1,000,000 barrels a year-an immense amount of crude oil coming from the bowels of the earth, to enrich the entire community. Hundreds of oil derricks may now be seen as indica- tive of a large, productive petroleum oil field, now one of Whittier's chief resources of wealth.
The city is located on a spur of the Southern Pacific railway and also. on the Pacific Eelectric line, which gives rapid and frequent transit between the city and Los Angeles. The State Reform, or Industral School for Boys, is located at Whittier and draws from the State about $4,000 monthly for its support. There are many strong banking concerns in the place, an account of which is given in the chapter on Banks and Banking. There are more than a score of fraternal societies, representing the Masonic, Odd Fellows, Elks and Knights of Pythias orders. Within the city limits, and near by, are 11,500 acres of highly developed fruit and nut orchards. In the Whittier district there were, ten years ago, more than 4,497 acres of bearing citrus groves, 6,300 acres of walnut groves with one walnut and three fruit packing plants. The Whittier Citrus Fruit Growers' Association has a well equipped lemon curing and packing house, with a capacity of a dozen cars of fruit at one curing. The normal season's shipment is in excess of nine hundred cars. The Whittier Vegetable Growers Association has for years handled the products of more than four hundred acres of gardening articles. The packing house was erected at Evergreen. In 1913, six hundred tons of tomatoes alone were canned and shipped. Then there
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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
are hundreds of acres of lima and black-eye beans, grown on the foothills, while alfalfa waves like an ocean of green in many a beautiful valley hard by the little city, whose every industry has always been of a legitimate character.
The water supply of Whittier comes from the San Gabriel River, and from the community-owned wells, some as deep as one thousand feet.
The Pathological Laboratory of the University of California, was located there, in 1905, and has proven of much benefit in the scientific study of plant life and fruit diseases. The educational advantages found in Whittier are exceptionally good. Besides its College, its public schools are excellent. Its buildings are the pride of the people, who never begrudge what is paid for educational training such as is usually received at Whittier.
WHITTIER IN 1894
It almost goes without saying that this sprightly city derived its name from the beloved "Quaker Poet," John Greenleaf Whittier.
As to other industries found here, it should be stated that the Quaker Colony Canning Company is one of the largest fruit canneries in California. It is capitalized at $500,000. From recent data furnished the writer, Whittier now has industries not before named as follows: Six oil-well companies ; ten packing house plants and many lesser enterprises. The newspaper press is represented by excellent publications-the Pacific Friend, the Quaker Campus and Whittier News. The churches include these: The Church of God, Two Friends churches, one Evangelical Luth- eran, a Baptist, United Brethren, Christian, Christian Scientist, Methodist Episcopal, Free Methodist, Mexican Mission, Mission Tabernacle, Naza- rene, Congregational, Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Seventh Day Adventist, Dunkards, and United Presbyterian. The lodges are numerous and highly prosperous. Of these the Masonic bodies, the Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias and Elks are among the foremost.
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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
MUNICIPAL HISTORY
Whittier, the namesake of John Greenleaf Whittier, the beloved Amer- ican poet who owned property here and wrote a poem for the town named for him, was incorporated a city of the sixth class on March 5, 1898. Its first board of trustees and officers were: Willis Reider, president; B. F. Arnold, clerk; William Hiatt, attorney; and trustees, Lewis Butman, William V. Coffin, Lewis Landreth and Benjamin F. Arnold. By years the following have served as presidents of the Board: 1898, Willis Reider ; 1900, J. H. Seales ; 1902, C. W. Clayton ; 1904, C. Trueblood ; 1906, J. H. Wilkins; 1907, C. C. Buffington; 1908, J. S. Todd; 1910, F. E. Frantz and D. Reid; 1912-15, O. W. Maulsby; 1916-20, F. W. Wright; 1920 to present date, C. L. Cliff.
The 1922 Board of Trustees is C. L. Cliff (president), O. S. Coppock, WV. B. Green, L. Hoyt Denney and J. T. Thornburgh; Clarence O. True- blood, clerk; Richard W. Pearson, treasurer.
The recent city reports show the following concerning the valuations, tax-rate and finances of the corporation : Estimated value of property, in 1922, $15,000,000; assessed valuation (fifty per cent of actual value), $7,043,890; bonded indebtedness (July, 1922), $728,500. The United States Census for 1920 gave Whittier a population of 7,997, and the city clerk's estimate in July, 1922, was 10,500. The tax-rate is $2.10 in the country and $2.24, per $100, in the city. The water supply is owned by the city and costs to the average household for domestic use and yard irriga- tion, $3.45 per quarter. The Southern Counties Gas Company furnished natural gas at $1.00 per thousand cubic feet. The city has in excess of thirty miles of paved street and more in course of construction.
One of the first acts of the founders of the city was to obtain good water. The first supply was furnished by the Pickering Land and Water Company, in 1887, it being obtained by tunneling in Turnbull canyon. Twelve years later (1899), the city voted bonds for the erection of a pump- ing station two miles to the west of the city, near the San Gabriel River. In 1906, additional bonds were floated to extend the system, and again in 1919 an election was caled to vote on a $360,000 bond proposition, to rebuild and extend the water system. The vote carried, and bonds were sold in December of the same year. A new reservoir at the end of Greenleaf Avenue, and other wells, were among the improvements. The reservoir holds almost 7,000,000 gallons of water. There are now six wells in opera- tion. The ten miles of pipe ranges from four to twenty-four inches in diameter.
The present park system includes Central, Alta and Broadway parks, which are small, but well improved, $30,000 having been appropriated last year for such work. But the Chamber of Commerce will never rest until larger parks are secured for the growing city.
The Murphy-Memorial Hospital is due to the generosity of Col. Simon J. Murphy, Jr., who, having been confined in a local hotel while very ill, determined, when he recovered, to build a hospital in memory of his father, Colonel Simon J. Murphy, Sr. He erected it in Alta Park, overlooking the city and in plain view of a great scope of handsome landscape scenery, including the snow-capped mountains rising in the background. It is
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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
claimed to be among the most modern of such institutions for its size, it being equipped with fifty-five beds. Since it opened in May, 1921, the average daily number of inmates has been twenty-three. The hospital stands as a monument to the Murphy family and should teach others of wealth that money thus expended is the best investment which can be made. The Murphy-Memorial Hospital has recently been donated to the city.
The Public Library of the city was established in 1900, stands at the corner of Greenleaf Avenue and Bailey Street, and is a handsome, compact and fuly up-to-date institution. It now has about 17,000 books on its shelves. The present building was erected in 1906. The Board consists of M. C. Owens, J. C. Roberts, Mrs. Reba Smith, Miss M. E. Grippen and Mrs. A. D. Clark.
STREET SCENE, WHITTIER
The Chamber of Commerce of Whittier is one of great strength and harmony and is doing much toward the advancement of the city and country adjacent. It had its origin about 1914. The membership is upwards of five hundred, having a total income of $20,000. The present head of the Chamber is Jefferson Walbridge; secretary, M. J. Haig.
The postoffice at Whittier dates back to the early '80s. It was located in Alva Starbuck's drug store, and Mr. Starbuck was postmaster, but today it requires many persons to attend to its business, which in 1920, amounted to $33,480.00.
The chapter on Banks and Banking will give the facts about Whittier's financial institutions :
The building permits for the year 1920 amounted to $953,109. This was quite a contrast with the amount of $147,779, in 1906. The value of oil products in the Whittier District is $50,000,000 per year. The operating companies are : Standard Oil Company, Union Oil Company, Home Oil Company, Colorado Oil Company, Whitley Oil Company, Shell Oil Com- pany, General Petroleum Company and others.
The value of agricultural products in this district, in 1920, was: Valen-
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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
cia oranges, $2,000,000; navel oranges, $368,000; lemons, $1,250,000; English walnuts, $1,500,000 ; avocados, $100,000 ; tomatoes, $236,000 ; oats and barley hay, $120,000 ; alfalfa, $150,000; other products, $175,000.
The just pride of all the citizens of Whittier is her educational institutions, including colleges and public schools. The High School was established in 1900. It is now within Union districts-three in number- and the assessed valuation of property is about $14,000,000. The discov- ery of new oil wells has increased the valuation in these combined districts to about $25,000,000. The beauty of the Whittier schools is the spacious grounds on which the school buildings are located. There are now four good school houses within the city and others soon to be added.
The Whittier State School-formerly known as the Boys Reformatory School-has undergone great changes for the better. The State Legislature of 1921 brought these radical changes about. Still working with delinquent boys and the general problem of delinquency, this State school is more and more recognized as an educational institution. The new law provides that any boy though not a delinquent, but needing an education and a moral training, can be admitted to the school, although not sent by the courts. This feature will naturally call many boys to it who formerly were not admitted. It is really a great school, handled well by competent men and women.
The fruit industry, so near to the mind and pocket-book of the people of Whittier, is best expressed in term of boxes shipped from the place yearly. For the year ending October 31, 1921, the shipments amounted to 3,000 carloads of citrus fruits. This vicinity also furnishes the great Murphy packing plant's supply of fruit from the Murphy citrus orchards. A very modest estimate of the actual moneys distributed to the growers of citrus fruits in the Whittier District places the annual amount at $5,000,000. Thousands of men and women find employment in this branch of industry ; hence the thousands of happy contented people and pretty improved homes among the honest toilers.
THE WHITTIER DISTRICT
What is known as the Whittier District is inclusive of Rivera, with a population of about 1,000. It is the heart of the Valencia orange production and the pioneer English walnut section.
Los Nietos-Population, 500; has an immense plant of the Pacific Sewer Pipe Company.
El Ranchito-Population of 300; choice orange and nut lands round about.
Santa Fe Springs-Population, in 1921, 200; dairy and citrus fruits until recently, but now the great oil well industry takes the lead over all undertakings. It is destined to become a very large and wealthy point in this section of California.
Norwalk-Population, 2,000; dairying, hay, citrus; factory for manu- facture of airless tires.
La Harba-Population, 1,000; heart of the choice lemon district; also oranges and English walnuts. This locality is called "frostless." Here is located the famous Murphy-Emery oil lease of the Standard Oil Company.
CHAPTER XLVI COVINA, SAN DIMAS, ARTESIA AND NORWALK
These sprightly cities are to the east and southeast of the city of Los Angeles.
Covina is twenty-one miles distant and is a station point on the Southern Pacific system and also on the Pacific Electric line, with trains running every half hour through the day. It has, by honest count, 2,000 people. Its elevation above sea-level is 560 feet. Up-to-date business blocks and beautiful residences, with modern churches and schoolhouses, make hand- some the little city which, as a matter of fact, is within the great citrus territory known as the Covina Citrus District. It ships more of such fruit products than any other district in the country. In and around this place are thousands of acres of orange, lemon and other fruit orchards. As long ago as 1913, the annual car load shipments amounted to 1,840 cars. Bearing orchards sell as high as $3,600 per acre. They are money-makers, even at that figure. The place now has three solid banks, mentioned at length in the chapter on Banks and Banking in this work. These financial institu- tions are the First National, Covina National and' Valley Savings Bank, with combined resources amounting to $3,000,000. Unfortunately, the city records have been misplaced so that a list of the first officers and exact date of incorporation are not at hand. It is certain that the "city" is a score or more years of age, at least, and that its presidents (sometimes called mayors ) from 1910 to the present, have been these gentlemen : 1910, L. L. Ratekin ; 1912, C. S. Beardsley, who served till 1916 and was succeeded in that year by J. N. Wilson; 1916-18, J. N. Wilson; 1919, R. A. Welch; 1920, John M. Stanton ; since 1922, J. P. Overholtzer. The other city officers at this date include: Daley S. Stofford, clerk; M. Leonhart, treasurer; Robert Crenshaw, superintendent of streets, marshal, tax-collector and superin- tendent of the city farm; J. J. Sanders, chairman of the Board of Health ; Thomas B. Reed, attorney ; Mr. Douglas, engineer ; Howard Harris, water superintendent. The five trustees are President Overholtzer, George Max- field, Smith Budd, H. Longworth and Glen Harnish.
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