USA > California > Los Angeles County > Pasadena > History of Pasadena, comprising an account of the native Indian, the early Spanish, the Mexican, the American, the colony, and the incorporated city, occupancies of the Rancho San Pasqual, and its adjacent mountains, canyons, waterfalls and other objects of interest: being a complete and comprehensive histo-cyclopedia of all matters pertaining to this region > Part 30
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Z. DECKER : public administrator, 1886 to 1888.
BENJAMIN S. EATON. associate justice of Los Angeles county court of sessions, 1854-55; district attorney, 1855-56 ; associate justice again 1862-63.1 [Judge Eaton was also city assessor of Los Angeles in 1857, and city clerk, 1863-64.]
*Elected.
+" From the organization of the county in 1850 to the creation of the board of supervisors in 1852, the court of sessions (consisting of the county judge and two associate justices) administered the civil af- fairs of the county, in addition to their ordinary judicial functions."-Hisl. Los Angeles Co. 1880, p. 50. Ou January 1, 1880, the court of sessions was supplanted by the superior court, as now in vogue.
233
DIVISION THREE - BRAINS.
THOMAS J. FLEMING : county treasurer, 1893 to 1895.
MANUEL, GARFIAS : county treasurer, 1850-51.
P. M. GREEN : assemblyman, 1879 to '81.
DR. JOHN S. GRIFFIN : county superintendent of schools, elected June 7, 1856 ; coroner, 1862 to '65,
C. F. HOLDER : trustee of State Normal School at Los Angeles, 1890 to '92.
COL. E. J. C. KEWEN : district attorney, 1860-61 ; assemblyman 1863 to '65. [Col. Kewen had been attorney general of the State from December 22, 1849, to August 13, 1850, before he came to Los Angeles county and settled at our Pasadena " Old Mill.'] .
PROF. C. H. KEYES : president Throop Polytechnic Institute ; mem- ber Advisory Council National Educational Association. 1895.
ABBOT KINNEY : U. S. Indian Commissioner, 1881 to '83 ; State For- estry Commissioner, from May, 1886 to 1890.
ENOCH KNIGHT : Register U. S. Land office at Los Angeles, 1893-4-5, during President Cleveland's second term.
T. S. C. LOWE : State Commissioner of Yosemite Park, 1892-94.
T. P. LUKENS : trustee of State Normal School at Los Angeles, 1892-94.
H. W. MAGEE : state inspector of banking institutions, 1894-95.
A. J. MCLACHLAN : district attorney, 1890-92 ; congressman 1895-96.
H. H. MARKHAM ; congressman, 1884-1886; governor, 1890-94.
JOHN MCDONALD : commissioner of deeds at Pasadena for the States of Arizona, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington.
E. T. PIERCE : principal State Normal School at Chico, 1889-92 ; principal State Normal School at Los Angeles, 1892-95.
DR. H. A. REID : member for Wisconsin of United States Sanitary Com- mission, 1861-64.
CAPT. D. R. RISLEY : U. S. Marshal, 1884 to'88, during President Cleveland's first term.
H. N. RUST: Commissioner of Immigration, 1886; U. S. Indian agent, 1891-93 ; member and secretary of board of judges in department of Ethnology at World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893.
J. DEBARTH SHORB : member at large of State Viticultural Com- mission. 1890-94 ; county treasurer, 1892-93. [Resigned, and Fleming appointed to fill vacancy ].
C. M. SIMPSON : assemblyman, 1892-94; state senator, 1895.
GEN. GEORGE STONEMAN : governor, January, 1883 to January, 1887.
W. H. WILEY: State Agricultural Commissioner for 6th Con- gressional district, 1892-94.
B. D. WILSON: U. S. Indian agent, 1852-53 ; member of county board of supervisors, 1853, and 1861 to 1865 ; state senator, 1855-57 ; and again 1869 to 1872.
JOHN W. WOOD, Ph. G .: member State Board of Pharmacy, 1891 to '95.
WALDO M. YORK : judge of superior court, Los Angeles county, 1893 and 1895.
234
HISTORY OF PASADENA.
THE STORY OF THE POSTOFFICE.
For ten years after Pasadena's settlement by Americans it was com- monly called the "Indiana Colony ; " and it was more than two years after the date of settlement before a local postoffice was obtained ; but none of the old settlers could tell with any certainty just when they began to have a postoffice of their own. I pursued the inquiry among them for nearly a year, and the nearest to any definite date I could get was, that Miss Jennie Hollingsworth (now Mrs. J. R. Giddings) remembered that she wrote a letter during the colony picnic in the old oak grove at Lincoln park on July 4, 1876, and there was no postoffice here then, for she had to send her letter to Los Angeles for mailing. For several months before a local office was finally obtained, young Morton Banbury, son of Col. J. Banbury, kept up a sort of "free delivery " service for all the lower portion of the colony. He was attending school in Los Angeles and rode back and forth every day on his own pony. The mail for these people all came to Los Angeles ; and every day after school he called at the postoffice there for the colony mail, and distributed it on his way home to such families as lived on the line of his ride. He did this merely as a neighborly accommodation ; and was as careful and anxious and painstaking to do it satisfactorily to the people served as if he had been getting a good salary for it. As the months wore on and the mail matter increased, the little kindness which he had set out to do for the neighbors became a serious burden of care and overtaxing labor, in addition to his daily ride of eighteen miles on horseback and his daily work to keep up with his classes ; and he broke down under the strain, took sick, and died September 4, 1877.
I did get a few random points in regard to the first efforts at securing a postoffice, but nothing definite enough to call "history "; and at last I wrote to Washington explaining my dilemma and appealing for reliable in- formation. In reply I received the following :
POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT,
OFFICE OF THE FOURTH ASSISTANT POSTMASTER GENERAL.
WASHINGTON, D. C., February 9, 1895.
Respectfully returned to the writer, with the desired information at- tached :
OFFICE
POSTMASTER
DATE OF APPOINTMENT
Pasadena
Josiah Locke (established)
March 15, 1875
Pasadena
Office discontinued.
Dec.
30,
1875
Pasadena.
Office re-established.
Sept.
21, 1876
Pasadena
Henry T. Hollingsworth
Sept.
21, 1876
Pasadena
Arthur S. Hollingsworth
June 18, 1879
Pasadena . Romayne Williams.
April 7, 1880
Pasadena
Albert O. Bristol
July
31, 1885
Pasadena
Bayard T. Smith
Oct.
25, 1886
Pasadena
Frank H. Oxner
March 25,
1887
Pasadena
Willis U. Masters.
June
20, 1887
Pasadena George F. Kernaghan*
March 19,
1891
*Mr. Kernaghan's certificate or commission is dated February 20, 1892, to run four years from De- cember 16, 1891. It is signed by Benj. Harrison, President, and by S. A. Whitfield, acting Postmaster- General.
235
DIVISION THREE - BRAINS.
From the records, as will be seen, the office of Pasadena was first es- tablished March 15, 1875, and was afterward on December 30, 1875, Discon- tinued; and was re-established September 21, 1876. The office was made third-class [appointment vested in the President] on the appointment of Albert O. Bristol, July 31, 1885.
R. A. MAXWELL, 4th Asst. P. M. General.
The original colonists had set out to establish their business center in the vicinity of Orange Grove Avenue amd California street. [See oak tree cut, page 167.] The school-house was first built there, and the first two churches were in that vicinity. The name Pasadena was formally adopted by the colony Association on April 22, 1875; but it seems to have been agreed upon in the petition for a postoffice prior to this action, for the date March 15, 1875, is given when the name first appears in the records at Washington. Josiah Locke (uncle to Seymour Locke, now a well-known business man of Pasadena), who was first named as postmaster, then owned and occupied thirty-five acres along the north side of California street where the Garfield school and Congregational church now stand, and up to Orange Grove Avenue. The postmaster's salary was set at twelve dollars per year. Mr. Locke declined to serve .* No reports were made to the De- partment, for nobody else seemed willing to incur so much care and respon- sibility for so little pay ; and accordingly the whole record at Washington was canceled, and Pasadena as a postoffice name was snuffed out.
Meanwhile the new settlement east of Fair Oaks Avenue had been de- veloping rapidly ; and L. D. Hollingsworth had erected a small building of up-and-down rough boards, making a room 20x30 feet, where McDonald, Brooks & Co.'s office now stands-No. 7 East Colorado street. Here he opened a small store to accommodate the settlers, so they would not have to go or send to Los Angeles for every little purchase of family supplies. But a postoffice? Where was the self-sacrificing individual who would be wil- ling to serve as postmaster for One Dollar per month? Young Henry T. Hollingsworth finally came to the rescue, threw himself in the breach and " filled a long-felt want." He was going to open a watchmaker and jewel- er's window in his father's store, and so he consented to act as postmaster. Accordingly a new petition for mail service was sent to Washington, and Pasadena was revived or re-established as a postoffice, with H. T. Hollings- worth as postmaster, September 21, 1876. D. M. Graham was then here as an invalid, and had taken to driving his two-horse buggy daily between the colony and Los Angeles, partly as an out-door recreation for his own health, and partly as an accommodation for the settlers and their winter visit- ors. And he took the contract to carry the mail on this new route, thus be- coming the first official who ever made a inail delivery in Pasadena. Yet I
*Mr. Locke died at Indianapolis, Ind., March 5, 1885. He had been connected with several news- paper enterprises in his life ; and in a biographical sketch of him the Indianapolis Journal said : "He spent a couple of years in California and planted an orange grove at Pasadena, which he sold but a few weeks ago [to H. W. Magee], the grove costing him $2,500 and selling for $17,500.
He was for about a year in Chicago, as manager of The Advance [the Congregationalist paper]."
236
HISTORY OF PASADENA.
found it impossible to learn the exact date or any particulars of this first delivery. ' Mr. Graham died in 1893; and Mr. Hollingsworth in 1895, is keeping a large jewelry store in Los Angeles
The postoffice being finally established at the Colorado and Fair Oaks corner instead of the California and Orange Grove corner, was a grievance to the original colony people in the latter vicinage .* Then in November of the same year [1876] the original colony school-house on lower Orange Grove Avenue was moved up to the new five-acre school lot given by B. D. Wilson just across the street from the Hollingsworth store. And this was another grievance to the Orange Grove people. [For fuller particulars, see chapter 9 : "Annals of the schools ".]
S. Washburn afterward owned the Hollingsworth store for awhile but was not postmaster. Romayne Williams clerked for Washburn, and became postmaster April 7, 1880 ; then he bought out the store business himself and put up a new building of his own -since known as the Williams Hall block, and itself a pantheon of historic associations. On February 27, 1883, he moved the store into his new building, and of course the postoffice went with it. In the old place there were only 27 postoffice boxes ; in the new place there were 360 boxes. Pasadena had grown so rapidly as to justify this large increase ; and Mr. Williams was always a man to keep full up to the front line of the procession -in fact generally a little ahead. In August, 1882, this had been made a money order office, while yet in the old building.
When Cleveland became president, in 1885, of course it was "innings" for the democrats. Pasadena had always had a republican postmaster ; but now the time for a change had come, and A. O. Bristol, one of the only five democrats in the original colony Association, was commissioned postmaster July 31, and took possession of the office September 1, 1885. During 1886 the business increased so much that it was found necessary to seek larger and better quarters for it. The Union of March 5, 1886, said :
"The Pasadena postoffice is doing a big business. Its money orders are over $60,000 a year ; its supplies for this quarter amount to $1,000; about 1,000 letters daily are received ; registry business last quarter, 234 packages sent and 258 received. The fine new quarters provided last Fall are already too sinall for the public, though large enough inside for the postal work ; and the 420 boxes (253 "call " and 167 lock) are insufficient for the demand."
March 15, 1886, the San Gabriel Valley Railroad first contracted to carry the mail between Los Angeles and Pasadena, this service having be- fore been done by W. T. Vore's hack line, after D. M. Graham gave it up.
The estimates and allowances for postal service are made annually one year in advance ; and hence there is no provision at Washington for such mail-bag booms in local postoffices as Pasadena experienced early in 1886. The allowance for clerk hire at Pasadena proved utterly inadequate to meet
* A new ;postoffice called " Hermosa " was established at corner of Columbia street and Sylvan Drive, Jan. 3, 1883, but afterward had the name changed to South Pasadena. [See Chap. 35.]
237
DIVISION THREE -BRAINS.
the emergency. Bristol was a man of good grit ; and he held on till he was completely snowed under with accumulations of mail impossible to be dis- tributed, even with the extra help he had hired out of his own pocket ; and his requests and bills for extra help were rejected at Washington. Then he quit -resigned suddenly by telegraph, and got out with a big fund of "ex- perience " in his head but some hundreds of dollars less funds in his pocket. The Washington authorities telegraped back, October 25, 1886, that Bayard T. Smith had been appointed postmaster, vice Bristol, resigned ; so Smith took hold to win his spurs as a democratic official. But criticism and com- plaints filled the air, and there was a clamor for better mail service -many persons, as I often heard them myself, foolishly claiming that the trouble was all because the democrats had got into power again. Mr. Smith soon got tired of the "honors of office"; and in self-defense he published in the Union of February 5, 1887, an official statement, from which I make a few extracts :
" Funds available Monthly
Salary at $1,400 per annum $116 67
Private contributions toward rent of office. 40 00
Money order commissions (available about six months after
22 50
earned )
Total $179 17
AVERAGE EXPENSES.
Clerks' hire.
$176 23
Rent for December and January. 50 00
Lights and fuel. 18 00
Sundry expenses 6 33 $250 58
Monthly deficit $71.41. The public can hardly expect the postmaster to do more, under the circumstances."
But alas, the unfeeling public did expect more, and continued to up- braid the postmaster until the sweets of office soured and palled upon his taste ; and on February 29, 1887- only three weeks after publishing his financial dilemma and personal defense, as above, he resigned in favor of Frank H. Oxner, who had served as his deputy. So Oxner was appointed to fill the vacancy March 25, 1887-but he died before his commission ar- rived.
Next, Willis U. Masters was appointed June 20, 1887 -the fourth democratic postmaster within two years. The new man went in with reso- lute zeal to redeem the credit of his party and administration, and give Pasadena such a mail service as her necessities and amount of business would justify. With Jacksonian grit he took the responsibility, and hired enough help to keep the office in good running order for a few months. But when the winter tide of tourist business rolled in, he too was swamped, and the breakers of mail matter rolled over him as ruthlessly as they had over his predecessors. And the Daily Star of December 13, 1887, gave a re- port of the situation, from which I summarize the main facts :
238
HISTORY OF PASADENA.
"The postoffice was not opened to-day. Back mail is piled all over the floor two feet deep. It is utterly impossible to do the postoffice work of Pasadena with the number of clerks allowed by the Postoffice Department. Since July 1 Mr. Masters had paid for clerk hire $2,055 out of his own pocket to keep the work going on right, but could get no allowance for it at Washington, nor increase of clerks, and hence had discharged all his extra help-and here was the result."
As soon as the situation became known an impromptu meeting sent out a committee to raise funds to assist the postmaster, consisting of T. P. Lukens, Geo. E. Meharry, B. W. Bates, A. F. Mills, L. F. Miller. They raised $350 in two hours, which was increased to $500 the next day. A vacant store-room was secured, piles of mail bags dumped into it, both hired and volunteer assistants were set at work, and in about a week the vast ac- cumulation of back mail was assorted and distributed to its proper owners.
During December 12 and 13, Washington was besieged with telegrams calling for the authorization of more postoffice clerks at Pasadena. Ex- congressman H. H. Markham telegraphed to the Postmaster General about it. Col. W. A. Ray, chairman of Citizens committee, also telegraphed the Postmaster General. Prof. M. M. Parker, president of the city council, telegraphed to Gen. Wm. Vandever, then our member of congress. And Rev. E. L. Conger telegraphed to his brother, a member of congress, to aid us in the matter. Out of all this effort came at last some relief, and more clerical help was provided for the office.
In March 1888, the office was removed from its place on Fair Oaks Avenue into a larger and more commodious room in the Morgan block on south Raymond Avenue, where it still remains - 1895. And at that time the extensive and improved box system, with Yale locks, and passage way or lobby on two sides, were put in nearly the same as now.
FREE DELIVERY.
The Pasadena Standard of July 6, 1889, said :
" Free delivery of mail commenced Monday, July 1. The carriers are : Capt. A. C. Drake, business portion of city north of Colorado street. L. T. Lincoln, business portion south of Colorado street. A. L. Petrie, mounted, northern outlying district. C. R. Dillman, mounted, eastern district. E. Watson, mounted, southern district. Drake and Petrie are old soldiers. The other three have been clerks in the postoffice."
The same paper in October said :
"During the month of September our free mail carriers delivered 38,838 pieces of mail matter, and collected from the street boxes 11,621 pieces."
And February 8, 1890, it said again :
"The total receipts of the Pasadena postoffice in 1889 were $13,519.28. Total expenses $11,021.88. Leaving $2,497.40 net revenue to the govern- ment."
During 1890 our postoffice matters went on smoothly under W. U. Masters headship, without any marked historic event to note.
239
DIVISION THREE - BRAINS.
On April 23-24, 1891, occurred the visit of President Harrison and Postmaster General John Wanamaker to Pasadena. And Mr. Masters being both postmaster and president of the Board of Trade at the time, stood at the forefront of all the reception ceremonies in honor of the distinguished visitors. For full particulars of this event, see Chapter 16 : " President Harrison Day."
Mr. Kernaghan had been appointed postmaster as Masters's successor, but had not yet taken formal possession of the office, and thus he stood as adjunct host of the Postmaster General. Very soon thereafter Mr. Kernag- han came into his kingdom, and during the year had occasion to make sun- dry changes. The Star of September 23, gave the following report :
" The improved postoffice is a wonderful advance over the old one and its neat appearance is a pleasant surprise to those who have not been keep- ing track of the progress of work there. The walls of the whole interior have been rekalsomined, the working room has been entirely partitioned off by glass frames extending from the top of the boxes to the ceiling ; the de- partments have been rearranged, with a neatly enclosed corner for the m oney- order and stamp business ; speaking tubes and call bells have beenrunfrom the postmaster's desk to different parts of the room ; and the woodwork of the outer and inner divisions of the office have been revarnished. These im- provements are made by the owner of the building, Mr. Morgan, under the superintendence of Mr. Staats."
October 19, the paper again reported thus :
" By reference to the annual report of the postmaster-general for the year ending June 30, 1890, it will be seen that only two offices of the presi- dential class were not self-sustaining -- the gross receipts did not pay the ex- penses. Of these two the Pasadena office was one. We are informed that no change for the better has taken place in receipts and expenses for the year ending June 30, 1891"
It then goes on to mention that the free delivery district had been reduced, two carriers had been dismissed, and clerkhire cut down until the remaining clerks were "overworked and underpaid," in the efforts of the P. O. De- partment at Washington to get itself onto a paying basis. The Star of December 24, contained some statistics furnished by postmaster Kernaghan which are worth preserving for future reference and comparison, hence I quote them here :
Receipts from sale of stamps, stamped envelopes, etc., for the fiscal year ending June 30, '91 ... $11,540.83 Total number of pieces of mail matter handled by the carriers during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1891, 982,968 Total handled during year ending June 30, 1890. 799,824
Increase
183,144
Number of letters dispatched from this office during the month of July, 1891, 29,711. During the month of October, 1891, 35, 171.
The receipts of the office for the months of September and October of this year, as compared with the corresponding months of last year, show an increase of 3373 per cent.
240
HISTORY OF PASADENA.
The mounted carriers of this office travel upwards of 9,400 miles each per year, while the foot carriers each cover a distance of about 4,000 miles in the same time.
In January, 1895, the Los Angeles Times published a tabular exhibit of the business of the Los Angeles postoffice for the years 1890-91-92-93- 94, showing the steady annual increase. Mr. Kernaghan made a corres- ponding exhibit of the Pasadena postal business for the same years, and the result showed our annual increase to be 17 4-5 per cent. greater than theirs. From some private memoranda in the office I gleaned the following statis- tics worth preserving :
Stamps sold in December, 1892 $1,716 40
Stamps sold in December, 1893. 2,032 87
Stamps sold in December, 1894. 2,747 09
Total number pieces registered in 1892 2,365
Total number pieces registered in 1893 3.300
Total number pieces registered in 1894. 4,39I
As an illustration of how the registered package business inundates the postal service for a week or two before the Christmas holidays each year, Mr. Kernaghan gave me a footing of this business during six working days, from December 16 to 22 inclusive, for three successive years, as follows :
Pieces registered from December 16 to 22, in 1892 290
Pieces registered from December 16 to 22, in 1893. 562
Pieces registered from December 16 to 22, in 1894 835
August 15, 1894, a branch office called Station A was established at North Pasadena, with David McLeod as chief clerk in charge.
The Pasadena postoffice service in 1895, Geo. F. Kernaghan being still postmaster, has 744 lock boxes and thirty-six drawers. There are five carriers, two afoot and three mounted; and four inside clerks. The foot carriers traverse from fifteen to eighteen miles per day, and the mounted ones about thirty miles. The total allowance for salaries is now $3, 000 per annum.
CHAPTER XII.
THE TEMPERANCE QUESTION-First Saloon in the colony .- The historic anti-saloon agreement .- The city's prohibitory ordinance.
THE TEMPERANCE QUESTION.
The original colony settlers of Pasadena were mostly of a class who wished to establish the moralities and decencies of a Christian civilization as the dominant sentiment and practice in their community ; and they con- sidered a saloon or any place for the beverage sale of liquors, as wholly in- consistent with and contrary to that purpose. But in spite of this senti- ment, some time in 1875, M. Rosenbaum, a native of Hamburg, Germany, started a little store on Orange Grove Avenue, about where J. W. Wood's
241
DIVISION THREE - BRAINS.
pretty cottage now stands, and along with other goods kept liquors for sale. This aroused such a storm of indignation and energetic protest that he was soon compelled to give up the business ; and the building was afterward used for a number of years as a Chinese wash house. That first attempt to establish the liquor trade here brought forth the formal and of- ficial action of the colonists, as reported in Hon. P. M. Green's sketch of Pasadena history written for the Farnsworth pamphlet of 1883, from which I quote :
" The San Gabriel Orange Grove Association, at a meeting of the stockholders held on the 17th day of February, 1876, by a unanimous vote adopted the following resolution :
" Resolved, That the members of this Association are opposed to the sale of liquors upon the Association's grounds,"
thus placing the seal of its condemnation on the traffic, and doing all that it could, in its corporate capacity, to mould public sentiment and give character to the community on this subject."
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