USA > California > Los Angeles County > History of Pomona Valley, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the valley who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 16
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To distribute water for domestic use throughout the city the new company laid a complete system of iron pipe, furnishing an ample supply of water under good pressure to all the settled portions of the city. This was also done in Clare- mont. To handle the business of distribution two municipal companies were organized-the Pomona City Water Works, covering the territory in Pomona, and the Union Water Company, covering the town of Claremont.
"For the purpose of continuously distributing and controlling the irrigating water, the Land and Water Company organized four semi-independent corpora- tions, namely: The Irrigation Company of Pomona, which supplied the lands through the southern and middle section of the Pomona territory to the amount of about 2,500 acres ; the Palomares Irrigation Company, which supplied about 600 acres lying north of the lands covered by the Irrigation Company's system; the Del Monte Irrigation Company, which was to supply about 3,000 acres still farther north; and the Canyon Water Company, which was intended to supply the lands in the North Palomares Tract and portions of the Loop and Meserve Tract. To these several corporations the Land and Water Company transferred
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certain wells and other sources of water supply, together with interests in pipe systems by means of which water could be conveyed from the wells to the lands to be irrigated therefrom ; and as portions of these lands were sold by the com- pany, shares of stock in the several irrigation companies were transferred and issued to the land purchaser, so that ultimately the control of the water supply became vested entirely in the owners of the lands irrigated from that particular source.
"The canyon water used to supply a greater portion of the Loop and Meserve tract was merged by the owners of the land and water rights into what is now known as the Canyon Water Company, and this company now manages the dis- tribution of the greater part of the San Antonio Canyon waters, the original Canyon Water Company organized by the Pomona Land and Water Company having ceased its activities, and another corporation known as the North Palo- mares Irrigation Company having taken over the distribution of irrigating water to the lands in the North Palomares Tract, and on certain other adjacent lands."
In its conduct of an enterprise of such magnitude and power the Land and Water Company and its subsidiary companies have been governed by certain princi- ples : the preservation of the integrity of the water supply which naturally belongs to a given section ; a control of water development which will guarantee clear, un- conflicting rights and title to certain and adequate supply, not in any given year or years but indefinitely ; yet such private ownership and mutual direction as is con- sistent with the larger protective principles stated.
In the meantime others were boring wells on the Loop and Meserve Tract farther east. The first well was sunk by Samuel B. Kingsley in 1883 on lot 27 of this tract, owned by Robert Cathcart. Water from this well was led to the "Kingsley Tract" of 300 acres for domestic use. In 1886 Richard Gird secured the right to develop water on the Cathcart and Camp lots and on that which C. C. Johnson had bought from Lopez west of Towne Avenue and north of the San Bernardino road. On the latter he sunk three wells producing over fifty inches, and on the former sixteen or seventeen more, yielding at the time 120 inches. Messrs. Cathcart and Camp received half of the water developed, according to their contract with Gird ; the other half, together with the water from the Johnson wells, went to Chino and furnished the chief supply for the domestic water system of the town and for irrigation-on the Chino ranch. It is stated that "his expenditures for development of water in this district and the pipe line to Chino cost over $70,000."
At the time when Fred J. Smith bought his El Verde ranch of H. K. W. Bent, between Towne and San Antonio avenues and south of San Bernardino, he had wished rather to purchase Block 32 just north of this, rightly forecasting that it was in the artesian belt. He now effected an agreement with C. C. Johnson and with Mr. Hixon, who had bought the block with development rights, for the drilling of a well on this block, just south of the north line. This yielded a good flow at only 180 feet. .
With their half of the water flowing from the Gird wells on Blocks 26 and 27, J. B. Camp and Robert Cathcart combined with F. J. Smith and organized the Citizens Water Company. They then obtained a franchise from the city and installed a complete system of piping for the delivery of domestic water throughout the city, paralleling lines of the Land and Water Company, and providing the town with a competing water supply. With the steady growth of the community, the supply did not greatly exceed the consumption and the rates
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were low. As Mr. Smith says, "It is interesting to note in this connection that for seven years the two domestic water companies supplied the city of Pomona with water at one-third of the rates prevailing in Southern California cities, donating to them in this way about $100,000; both companies finally selling their pipe lines to the incorporators of the Consolidated Water Company."
Still another group of artesian wells was drilled by John E. Packard on the Dunne Tract, from which he obtained about sixty inches of water. From this source he supplied the subdivision of his eighty-acre vineyard tract with domestic water, and also his 450-acre orange grove with water for irrigation.
TUNNEL'S
Thus far we have considered the sources of water in the canyon stream, in flowing cienegas, and in artesian wells. There remains the development of water by tunnels. Last in our consideration, it is not last in importance, nor in point of time, for the tunnels east of Indian Hill were opened in the early eighties and furnish a large part of Pomona's domestic water supply.
The man who began the development of water from this source and who remained until his death an active leader in the water activities of the Valley was Peter Fleming. Being identified especially with the earlier days of Clare- mont, fuller reference is made to him in that connection. Some time after he had moved from Spadra to his place east of Indian Hill called Sycamore Ranch, and while conducting successfully his bee ranch there, Mr. Fleming became interested in the problem of water development, and decided to run a tunnel northward into the bed of the wash which here rises rapidly. He bought the water rights on the Kessler place to the east and began work. Many regarded the venture a foolish one. But at length a good flow of water was developed which now supplies over 400 acres of citrus fruit orchards. In combination with J. A. Packard on Section Three and Colonel Roher on Section Two, the Syca- more Water Development Company was formed to handle this water. Later there was a reorganization, James Becket joining Fleming, and landowners who had acquired water interests from the Sycamore Company forming the Mountain View Water Company. Fleming and Becket proposed to furnish water for the town of Glendora, and bonds were voted to buy the water, but through a tech- nicality the bonds were invalidated and the project failed.
The next chapter in the story of water development is on the Consolidated Water Company, but being quite recent it may be briefly told. Without entering into the circumstances of its formation, it may be said that J. T. Brady and G. A. Lathrop joined Fleming and Becket in organizing the Consolidated Water Com- pany. Incorporating the first of August, 1896, with a capitalization generously in excess of the valuation of the properties which they proposed to absorb, they issued bonds and bought out both the Citizens Water Company and the Pomona City Water Works, absorbing also the holdings of Fleming and Becket. Peter Fleming was made superintendent of the company and so continued as long as he lived. This company has since extended its tunnel east of Indian Hill, 5,000 feet in length, and reaching a depth of 110 feet below the surface at its upper end, giving a 175-inch supply from this alone.
"The Consolidated Water Company," says Mr. Smith, "now has water resources of 450 inches, sufficient for a population of 20,000 people, and a dis- tributing system of seventy miles of pipe." He also records that "Another tunnel
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enterprise was constructed at a cost of $55,000 by Josiah Alkire, and developed sixty inches of water. This cuts the southwest wall of the Palomares cienega dyke on the Kenoak Tract, the water being used for many years as an additional supply for the Packard orange grove tract."
CONSERVATION
Notwithstanding that it follows long after the main period of this history, the story of water development in the east valley may very properly be rounded out by the section from Mr. Smith's "Coming of the Water," which is reproduced in toto:
"The heavy draught of all these wells and tunnels, together with others not named, on the cienegas and underground waters of the district, so lowered the water plane in the early nineties that pumps had to be installed. A cycle of dry years between 1895-6 and 1904-5 emphasized the fact that we were drawing on our water capital and that something must be done to even up the account.
"There was but one method of redeeming the situation.
"Tentative experiments as early as 1895 had shown that the flood waters in winter spread above the tunnels north of Claremont had brought beneficial results, but no systematic work was done until 1905, when much larger amounts of flood water were diverted and arrangements made to establish more definite spreading areas. Larger ditches were constructed, but no permanent work of any kind was undertaken.
"Encroachments that were being made on the basin led to the formation of the Pomona Valley Protective Association in 1908. This is a voluntary associ- ation composed of mutual water companies and individuals, together with two public utility corporations representing 1,800 miner's inches out of a possible 2,600. It was organized for the purpose of preventing encroachments on the water supply and conserving all the flood waters of the canyon tributary to the underground waters of the district. It has been a pioneer in Southern California in spreading flood waters on the gravel cones below canyon mouths, and if not the largest factor in water development in the Pomona Valley, it has greatly enlarged and extended the results of development along other lines, and proved of immense value in conserving the flood waters, placing them where they would become gradually available where needed on the lands below. The association acquired title to 650 acres of waste land on which 10,000 to 15,000 inches can be taken in ditches along the crest of the ridges, from which the water is fanned out over the brush-covered surface, sinking so rapidly that on good spreading land an acre will absorb 100 inches of constant flow.
"The benefits that have followed spreading operations can best be under- stood when it is remembered that for thirteen years prior to 1917 the Martin and Del Monte cienegas had not flowed. Conservation in 1904-5 and 1906 brought them back, and in the winter of 1907-8 they flowed 335 inches. The Martin cienega continued to flow until 1912, when pumping was again resumed and continued until 1915, and today there is 225 inches flowing from the Martin cienega wells. Again, in 1914, by spreading operations, the water plane was raised in the territory above Claremont an average of about forty feet. From February to June in 1915 it was raised still higher, and for about 100 days an average of about 2,000 inches was spread, or 4,800,000 inch hours that would
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have gone to waste if it had not been diverted and spread upon the gravels near the mouth of the canyon.
"In 1916 the actual conservation work averaged 3,000 inches for a like period, or 7,200,000 inch hours, worth to the community, at one cent per inch an hour, $72,000, and a total value for the years 1914-15-16 would aggregate more than $170,000 in water alone, not considering the reduction in cost of producing on account of increased flow from tunnels and artesian wells and reduced lift on account of the water plane being higher.
"In 1875 the combined water resources of the Valley would not have sustained 400 acres of citrus fruits ; today over 8,500 acres largely devoted to citrus fruits draw a sufficient supply from the water developed and conserved on this side of the San Antonio wash. The cienega wells are flowing, the water plane is high, and the groves can face the future with confidence that in the annual draught on the water they are not overdrawing their capital, and that they stand prepared to meet a long dry spell if it should come again. Truly it has been a period of won- derful and intelligent development that has made the future of the Pomona Valley full of promise, and has placed this Valley in the forefront of all citrus fruit- growing sections of the State."
ELECTRIC LIGHT AND POWER
Two of the large public utility enterprises which began in the last century are those of the gas and the electrical companies, the former organized in 1887, and the latter in the early nineties. Before the days of the Southern California Edison Company, a company was formed to transform the water power in San Antonio Canyon into electric current of high voltage and transmit this to the Valley for use in lighting and power. The idea of transmission of power over so great a distance was new in this country, and was conceived by C. G. Baldwin, then president of Pomona College. Through his energy the San Antonio Light and Power Company was organized, with a capital of $75,000, and the plant established. Much pioneer work had to be done. A long tunnel was run through "Hogsback," and high voltage lines were strung to Pomona. At first the current was used mainly for electric lights in Pomona and Claremont. Much of this first work has been abandoned or replaced as the science of electrical engineering has advanced, and the first company was taken over by others ; still it was a bold and valuable piece of pioneer engineering, the first really long-distance transmission of power in this country and one of the first in the world.
The history of the later electric companies, especially of the Southern Cali- fornia Edison Company, which now supplies the Valley with electric light and power, is well known.
The growth in both these industries has been enormous. When the Gas Company was first organized in 1887, it laid pipes for local distribution through the business part of the town only. Mr. Albert Dole, long president of the com- pany and interested in the enterprise from his first coming, says that when he came, in 1893, they were manufacturing about 20,000 cubic feet a day. For some years the business was taken over by the Edison Company ; but in 1916 gas and elec- tricity were again separated with the advent of the Southern Counties Gas Com- pany. The production of gas has increased from 250,000 feet at that time to the present output of 2,600,000 feet daily in the "Pomona district," which includes also San Dimas, La Verne, Claremont, Upland, Ontario, Chino, Covina, Glendora
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and Azusa, besides an average of 600,000 feet which is sent to San Bernardino County.
A larger and more recent history should narrate more fully the beginning and remarkable growth through many vicissitudes, of the Home Telephone Com- pany, organized about 1903, and becoming quickly an indispensable public utility, with an unusually large proportion of the population in this region enrolled as subscribers. In all its history, Mr. D. S. Parker, now superintendent, has been the most active defender of the company's interests and so of the public.
CHAPTER SEVEN INDUSTRIES OF THE VALLEY
SPADRA, PUENTE AND THE GRAIN COUNTRY-SPADRA AFTER THE RAILWAY- JAMES M. FRYER, F. M. SLAUGHTER AND SENATOR CURRIER-VINEYARD AND ORCHARD-VITICULTURE-DECIDUOUS FRUITS-OLIVE CULTURE-ORANGES AND LEMONS-COOPERATIVE MARKETING-BUSINESS AND MANUFACTURE- POMONA MANUFACTURING COMPANY-BUSINESS-BANKS.
While Pomona was booming, and the newcomers were developing water and laying the foundations of the citrus industry, the south country kept steadily on producing the great staples, grain and hay and live stock, as it had been doin™ for two generations, and for which its bottom lands, near to the underlying wate: strata, were especially adapted. This is true of all the land near the southern hills, and the large feed marts of Hicklin and Graber and Smith, of Wright and of Hinman, have been supplied from the hroad alfalfa and grain fields south of Pomona ; yet the towns of Puente and Spadra lead in this their largest production.
SPADRA, PUENTE AND THE GRAIN COUNTRY
The fertile fields to the west of the San Jose Hills and stretching northward from the Puente Hills-Las Lomas de la Puente-have been, since the first crops harvested by the Workmans and Rowlands, the great granary of this region. When the Southern Pacific Railroad came out and built its station, a large ware- house was erected and a little hamlet grew up at this point. Then as the early eighties brought new people and new activity all about, and the district bade fair to become a populous one, a real townsite was projected. Two men, Mr. H. E. Pomeroy and Mr. G. W. Stimson, in 1885, purchased 236 acres from the Rowland Ranch, north of the Southern Pacific Railroad and east of the Azusa Road, and organized the Puente Townsite Company, the directors of the incorporation in- cluding, besides these men, Albert and William R. Rowland and A. Amar. Sub- dividing about fifty acres, they laid pipes for the distribution of water from the San José Creek. There was then a population in the district of about four hun- dred. In the store of Unruh and Carroll the post office was located, with H. P. Carroll as postmaster. Other stores were those of J. Bellomini, and Grimaud & Reaumbau. A fine hotel was built called the Hotel Rowland, whose outlook over the Valley and toward the mountains was unsurpassed. Tributary to this center, at least in part, was a large territory, including the 25,000 acres of the Rowland estate and 24,000 more which Lucky Baldwin had secured when he purchased the Workman interests. Besides the E. J. Baldwin warehouse of 140,000 sacks capacity, there was the F. J. Gilmore warehouse holding 120,000 sacks; on the pastures were 30,000 head of sheep of Lucky Baldwin, and other thousands on the broad lands of Francisco Grazide. The produce shipped from the Putente Station in 1886 amounted to 126 carloads of wheat, seventy-eight of barley and hay, besides quantities of potatoes, wool and wine. In addition to this were
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smaller quantities of oil and oranges, for a few orchards had been planted, and the first of the oil wells which have so enriched this region had been bored.
Hitherto we have followed the history of Spadra down to the coming of the Southern Pacific Railroad, noting the chief events which marked its progress- the arrival of Ricardo Vejar, one of the grantees under the Mexican Government, the foreclosure by Schlesinger and Tischler, the acquisition of half the rancho by Louis Phillips, and the beginnings of the village with the coming of the Rubottom and Fryer families.
The completion of the railroad to Spadra and the arrival of the first train were memorable events in the Valley, and many drove in to witness it from all the country around, some of whom had never before seen a locomotive. It was the meeting of the railway and the stage, literally and figuratively. Stages con- tinued to run between Spadra and San Bernardino. On the very day when the first train came, J. J. Reynolds (so it is reported) driver of the eastern stage coach, stepping into the railway coach-a small, bare car with seats along the sides-thrilled the passengers and others with the account of his trip, in which he had barely escaped from the attack of highwaymen.
The railway provided, of course, an easier market for the grain and hay, but Nadeau's stages still continued to carry quantities of freight, and his cara- vansary in Los Angeles, which occupied the block between Fort (Broadway) and Spring streets on First, with the adobe on the corner and the board fence all about, was still a depot for many travelers.
As the terminus of the railway for two years, Spadra was also an important depot, the most important station between Los Angeles (or perhaps El Monte) and San Bernardino. The new townsite of Pomona was a standing joke in this terminal city. It was called generally "Monkeytown," and a certain lady is now often "joshed" because of an incident which occurred during the first boom of 1876. A young man who had been working for the railroad was about to leave for the East, and came to settle with this young woman, whom he owed about five dollars for washing which she had done for him. But he had very little money, and what he had he needed for the journey. So he urged her to accept in payment a deed for two lots in the new townsite of Pomona. Reluctantly she was consenting, when her father interposed, "What do you want of those lots? They aren't worth the paper and print of the deed. Besides you'll always have to be paying taxes on them." So she refused to take for her five-dollar washing bill a deed to two of the lots on which the Consolidated Railway Station of Pomona now stands! Even so good an authority as Lippincott's Gazetteer, as late as in the early nineties, defined Pomona as a small village two miles east of Spadra.
With the railway came new settlers and new activity. Mr. A. B. Caldwell bought out Long and Swift, who had for a long time kept the store and saloon opposite Rubottom's, and the cutting and shooting which had been so common here passed into story. Here one of the Lillys, a quiet Southerner, soon after his coming to Spadra had killed Ben Standifer when the latter, at some fancied insult, had called for an apology with a cut of a whip. Here the poor old Englishman. Furness, had drunk himself to death, only.wishing to live as long as his last legacy of a thousand dollars held ont. Here acquaintances of Long, knowing of his superstition and troubled conscience for having assisted Furness in the fulfilment of his wish, as they sometimes charged him, would enjoy his startled look and pale face when, someone having rolled a ball or stone over the floor of the back
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room in the evening, they would whisper, "Hark, what was that?" "It must be old Furness stumbling about." Mr. Caldwell was soon appointed postmaster and served until his place was taken by Mr. James M. Fryer.
After Charles Blake had died, George Egan bought a place opposite the Fryers and built his larger store, a part of which, as we have seen, was moved later to Pomona. About the time George Egan moved his store to Pomona, another family moved from Pomona to Spadra. Robert Arnett, a Southern gen- tleman who had come across the plains to California in 1853, and had engaged in farming and teaching in the northern part of the state, had been for a time farm- ing on land which he rented from Palomares and Vejar. But in 1874 he came with his family to Spadra and identified himself with this town. He soon bouglit fifty acres of land and became one of the producers in the Valley of hay and grain and stock. Two of his daughters married sons of the pioneer, Richard C. Fryer. Ella was married to Henry Fryer, who later moved to Pomona, and Isabel was the loved and respected wife of James M. Fryer.
Though not a newcomer but the son of an old-timer, James M. Fryer was a powerful factor in the new life of the town, as indeed he has always been. On his ranch, which has increased from fifty to over a hundred acres, he has also added to the products of Spadra quantities of grain and hay, and later a consider- able output of oranges and walnuts. But his chief contribution and service to the town and Valley have been as a leader in its civic, intellectual and spiritual life. An efficient postmaster for nearly two decades, a devoted member and director of the school district for over forty years, from its organization until, a short time ago, his son, Roy Fryer, was elected in his stead, and chairman of the board of trustees in the Baptist Church since its present organization, he has accomplished a work and enjoyed a reputation which are rare indeed, in this or any place.
There were others, of course, who came to Spadra in the seventies and eighties and contributed to its progress, but of whom we can not tell here. Some were residents of Spadra for a longer or shorter time and then moved away, like A. H. Tufts who came in 1873 and has since been engaged successfully in the real estate and insurance business in Pomona, or like Peter Fleming, who was later identified with Claremont and Pomona, as told in other chapters.
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