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 18
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Then followed the unifying of the associations, when representatives of all the local associations met in Los Angeles and effected the organization of an "Exchange," adopting twenty-four rules governing this organization. The incor- poration was dated October 26, 1893. Its name was the "San Antonio Fruit Exchange." Its members were the four associations mentioned-the Claremont California Fruit Growers Association, the Pomona Fruit Exchange, the Ontario Fruit Exchange and the A. C. G. Citrus Association. Changes have since occurred in the lines of division. Instead of the Claremont Fruit Growers Association there are six separate organizations-the San Dimas Orange Growers Associa- tion, the San Dimas Lemon Growers Association, the La Verne Orange and Lemon Growers Association, the College Heights Orange and Lemon Growers Association, the El Camino Citrus Association, and the Claremont Citrus Asso- ciation, which replaced the Indian Hill Citrus Association. The A. C. G. Associa- tion and the Ontario Fruit Exchange withdrew to join other exchanges ; while the Southern California Fruit Exchange Board, later the California Fruit Growers Exchange, was formed with representatives from each of the exchanges to cen- tralize and unify the whole business.
Mr. P. J. Dreher, the president of the first association, formed at Claremont in 1893, has been for more than twenty-five years the leader of the exchange movement in this district, being secretary and manager of the San Antonio Ex- change during most of this time, and a director of the Southern California and State Exchanges from the time of their organization. The increase in the amount of fruit handled by the exchange in this district during Mr. Dreher's term of service, from the 6,300 boxes shipped by the Claremont Fruit Growers Associa- tion in 1892-1893 to the nearly 2,000,000 boxes handled by the San Antonio Exchange alone in the season 1916-1917, is a striking indication of the wonderful growth of this industry in the Valley.
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BUSINESS AND MANUFACTURE
Turning from agriculture to other industries in Pomona, one enters the town and considers its business and its manufactures. As is well known, the paramount industry of the Valley is fruit growing. It is not a manufacturing center in any sense ; yet it is not entirely devoid of manufacturing enterprises. Various lines of business have carried on such work of construction as they required and could do at home ; wagon builders and wheelwrights, shoemakers, tailors, plumbers and tin workers, lumber mills and rugmakers have engaged in the usual home manufac- tures. But the essential industries of the Valley have developed several larger enterprises. Out of the large demand for pipes and tanks and roofing has grown up the Caldwell Galvanized Iron Works, which was begun by B. F. Caldwell in a small way about 1890. Instead of the two small lumber yards and one planing mill in 1887, there are now three large lumber yards and three planing mills. Whyte's Brick Yard, which began almost before the town did, now turns out 25,000 bricks a day.
The early factories for drying and marketing deciduous fruits are at present replaced by two large canning establishments, handling four or five million quart cans of deciduous fruits and tomatoes per season. A still larger enterprise is that of the ice factories built in connection with the large packing houses for the icing and precooling of citrus fruits.
The automobile has introduced a volume of business in repairs and minor construction which is almost incredible. If brought together in one factory it would cover many acres of ground, employing hundreds of mechanics in Pomona alone.
The largest single establishment is the Pomona Manufacturing Company. This company was organized in 1902 by Elmer E. Izer, S. M. Fulton and George W. Ogle, who were joined early in 1903 by Grant Pitzer. Beginning in a small way in a hay barn, which had been used as an old pipe workshop, the business has grown to be the one manufacturing concern of really large proportions in the Valley. Its large Pomona Duplex pumps are now sold in a dozen States. From its founding until his death, the genius of the company was Elmer E. Izer. While making a specialty of pumps for oil wells and irrigating systems, the company has a large foundry and machine shop, and does all kinds of work in iron and brass and other metals, employing over a hundred men and running night and day.
Coming from the manufactures stili farther into the heart of the town, one finds the business of "the street" advancing steadily from 1887 to the present time, though not quite with even pace, for there have been times of depression and times of quickening. Especially following the year of the great boom and reaching a crisis in 1893, Pomona felt keenly the tide of depression which rolled over the whole country. But fortunately, it suffered far less than many places. This is readily accounted for in several ways-by the substantial character of its growth, the relatively small inflation of prices and the actual values involved in the real estate transactions of the boom, by the quiet, holding-on faith of its leading citizens, and by the great stabilizing power of a few strong institutions. It would far outrun the scope of this narrative to relate the development of the many busi- ness concerns whose combined movement makes up so large a part of the vital progress of the community. From a street (hardly more) of scarce a hundred stores and places of business of all kinds, has grown a compact city, with miles of business blocks, including one or two modern office buildings, like the Invest-
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ment Building, in which the Chamber of Commerce is housed, and the Fruit Ex- change, and where a number of leading professional men have their offices.
The progress of the town is well reflected in the activities of such concerns as the Building and Loan Association, and especially it is most faithfully indicated in the development of its banks. The two building and loan companies have aided many in the building of homes, and provided many more with safe investment. The older of these companies, the Mutual Building and Loan Association, was organized in 1892 with assets of less than $4,000. Its resources now are $2,000,000.
The Home Builders Association, though founded fifteen years later, in 1908, has made a remarkable growth in its nearly twelve years of business.
The first banks in the Valley were organized in the fall of 1883, in the midst of the city's most rapid growth. The Pomona Bank was incorporated September 13, with H. A. Palmer, president, and F. L. Palmer, treasurer. Mr. R. S. Day, formerly of Oakland, was cashier, and Capt. George Mitchell, a retired navy officer, was for a time its teller. This bank was quartered in the Palmer Building, just erected, where Zilles' store is now located. This is one of the few concerns in Pomona which was obliged to close in the dark days following the boom.
The Pomona Valley Bank was organized in October- the 26th, to be exact- and its officers were J. H. Smith, president, J. E. McComas, vice-president. and Dr. Thomas Coates, cashier. Their first place of business was in the old Ruth Block, one of the first brick buildings in town, built by Rev. P. S. Ruth at the corner of Third and Main. Here also was the post office while Mr. Ruth was postmaster. Later the bank erected its own building at the northeast corner of Second and Main. It was during its early days in the Ruth Block that the Firey- Coates incident occurred which is told in another chapter. In April, 1885, when Dr. Coates retired as cashier, Mr. Carlton Seaver took his place, and the following year succeeded to the presidency, thus beginning his long term of service in the banking and business affairs of the Valley. At the same time Stoddard Jess became cashier, beginning then his remarkable career in which he rose to recogni- tion as one of the leading bankers not only in Los Angeles, but in the country.
The Jesses, Stoddard and his father, George, though conservative business men, brought new life to the bank, and in June, 1886, it was reorganized as the First National Bank of Pomona. Mr. Carlton Seaver was president, Dr. Coates, vice-president, and Stoddard Jess, cashier ; its directors included also J. E. Mc- Comas. George H. Bonebrake and George Jess. Whether it is considered as the successor of the Pomona Valley Bank, or from its reorganization as the First National, it is the oldest banking establishment in the Valley, and one of the oldest as well as one of the strongest in the Southwest. Since 1889 it has occupied its present quarters in its own pressed brick building at the northwest corner of Second and Main streets. Various changes have occurred, of course, in its officers and directors. Stoddard Jess removed to Los Angeles, and Jay Spence, who followed him, as did also John Law and C. E. Walker, who bought out Mr. Seaver's interests. Mr. Charles M. Stone, president of the bank since 1915, be- came cashier in January, 1904, having come to Pomona from Burlington, Vt., with the Pomona Land and Water Company, in 1887. Senator Currier, who has served longest on the board of directors, was chosen a director in January, 1898. With all the changes in its personnel, its guiding principles have remained un- changed ; these are best expressed in the three words, strength, security and serv- ice. Its strength may be judged from its increase from a capital of $50,000 at first to a capital and surplus of $400,000 now, and from two facts-that it has
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never failed to pay dividends, formerly semi-annual, now quarterly, and that it has never lowered its dividends; both remarkable, if not unique, records. Its security was notably witnessed by its ability to stem the tide of adversity which came with the panic of 1893, when so many institutions went to the wall. Backed by the New York banks, it was able not only to weather the storm itself, but to carry through many other concerns dependent upon it. Of its service to the people, a large number of the leading enterprises of the Valley-packing houses, precooling plants, business blocks, manufacturing and business firms, institutions of all sorts-can testify, and to its indispensable aid in launching their business or in tiding over seasons of waiting or of crisis. Without borrowed capital sup- plied by bankers who not only are conservative and discriminating, but have faith in the Valley and its essential industries, neither the individual growers nor the great fruit associations could tide over the "off" years when drought or frost cut off returns.
Such is the story of the First National Bank, told in some detail not because it is the only bank, or unique in the character of its business, but because it is the oldest and largest and to a considerable extent typical of the growth and service which have characterized all the banks of the Valley.
The People's Bank was organized in 1887, and occupied the new block erected at the time by C. E. White, a leader in the enterprise, at the corner of Second and Thomas streets. The Dole brothers of Bangor, Maine, who came to California that year, were large stockholders, William B. Dole being president of the bank and John H. Dole, cashier. In 1901 the People's Bank was merged with the Na- tional Bank of Pomona, its name being changed later to the American National Bank of Pomona. At the time of the merger of the People's Bank with the National, Charles M. Stone, who had been cashier of the People's Bank since the death of Jolin H. Dole, went to the First National, of which he later became cashier and president as related, and Jolin Storrs became cashier of the National, later the American National.
The Savings Bank of Pomona was first organized in July, 1904, as the Sav- ings Bank and Trust Company, changing to its present name in 1914. The found- ers of the bank included L. T. Gillette, president; E. Hinman, vice-president ; Frank C. Eells, secretary and cashier ; and W. L. Wright, now president of the bank. With a transfer of stock in 1910, William Benesh became president and C. D. Baker, cashier, the latter succeeded in 1915 by A. B. Endicott. The growth of the bank is indicated by its resources, which from $84,000 in 1905 increased to $363,000 in 1915, and to $730,000 at the beginning of 1920.
Pomona's fourth bank, the State Bank of Pomona, was incorporated in March, 1906, by Peter Ruth, E. R. and S. E. Yundt, A. C. Abbott, A. N. Moly- neaux. J. W. Fulton, C. B. Roberts and John R. Mathews. In 1909 A. C. Abbott was elected president and J. A. Gallup, vice-president. In 1910 a branch of the bank was opened at La Verne, with H. J. Vaniman in charge. Its business has grown steadily from resources of $200,000 in 1907, to $1,273,000 at the present time.
CHAPTER EIGHT SOCIAL, INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL LIFE OF POMONA
EDUCATION-POMONA SCHOOLS FROM 1875-HIGHER EDUCATION-CHURCHES AND RELIGIOUS LIFE-EARLY CONDITIONS-CATHOLIC, BAPTIST, EPISCOPAL, METHODIST, CHRISTIAN, PRESBYTERIAN AND CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES -- FRATERNITIES-NEWSPAPERS-POMONA TIMES-POMONA PROGRESS-THE REVIEW AND OTHER PAPERS-PUBLIC LIBRARY-SOCIAL LIFE IN POMONA.
EDUCATION
From the time of the first pioneers in the Valley, Pomona has not lacked those who were keenly interested in the education of her children, and willing to devote time and thought to its prosecution. The organization of the Palomares school district, the opening of the first school in the adobe house in the Spanish Settlement, and the erratic wanderings of the first building and its teachers. have been described in the fourth chapter, the building of the Central School House and the beginning of the Pomona school system in chapter five, and a reference to the Spadra school was made in the last chapter. We may now consider further the Pomona schools after 1875.
Mr. Coleman, the first principal in the Central School House, was obliged to resign within the year on account of his health, and the board secured, as principal of the school, Mr. Dwight N. Burritt, a native of Auburn, N. Y., and a graduate of the University of Michigan. He was also a good teacher and did much to build up the school, though in the midst of hard times, remaining in charge until 1882, when he turned his attention to fruit growing. Soon after he came Mr. Burritt had bought six acres on Holt Avenue near Gibbs, and a year or two later had added six more adjoining. He was a trustee in the Methodist Church from the time of its organization, in 1877, till 1886. Following Mrs. Emma Loughrey McComas as assistant was Miss Anna Hoyt, who became Mrs. Hiram McComas, and Miss Nannie Strauss. Both the rooms on the main floor of the building were used instead of only one, as during the first year. The trustees of the dis- trict, in locating the Central building at Holt and Ellen (now Park) avenues, had purchased three acres of land, which in those days was regarded as ample room, and had planted a large number of flowering shrubs and trees-pepper, acacia, cypress and rubber trees. These trees, whose grateful shade has been enjoyed by so many, were already making the grounds attractive. Among the children who attended the school during these first years were Dave Reed and his sister Mattie, who was later an assistant with Professor Little ; Peter Ruth, whose father, Theodore, was merchant, postmaster and express agent, among other offices, and whose grandfather, Rev. P. S. Ruth, was the pioneer Episcopal rector ; Herman and Charles Conner, the latter a physician later in Pomona; Frank Eno, now a professor in an Eastern college, whose parents came to Pomona in 1875, and the
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Burdick children-Laura, now living with her aunt, Mrs. Lucretia Burns, in Los Angeles, Anna, whose husband, J. N. Teague, was a well-known pioneer in San Dimas and Pomona, and is now a prominent agriculturist in Los Angeles, as men- tioned elsewhere, and Lucretia (Mrs. F. P. Brackett), who has collaborated with the author in writing this story.
Another, who is well remembered as a teacher with Mr. Burritt following Anna Hoyt and Nannie Strauss, was Ada Connor, now Mrs. Frances Ada Patten, of Los Angeles, who taught here from 1879 to 1881. Born of a family of pio- neers who came to California in 1857 and to Los Angeles in 1870, she proved an excellent teacher, and is remembered with affection and respect by all who knew her as their teacher. Charles M. Patten, whom she married January 1, 1883, came to Pomona on the day of the first auction sale of lots in the townsite, as one of the train crew.
The summer of 1882 saw a complete change in the teaching force. Mr. Burritt resigned after serving four years, and Prof. F. E. Little became principal, with Mattie Reed assistant. At this time there were only thirty-six pupils alto- gether. One of Professor Little's devices to improve the standard of the school was the publication in the local paper of a report of attendance, deportment and scholarship. The list of names from one of these reports may be of interest (the figures are considerately withheld) : Lucretia Burdick, Mahel Garland, Grace Smith, Lizzie Ruth, Alice Armstrong, Fred and George Holt, Elmo and Bessie Meserve, Mollie Goodhue, Brunner, Daniel and Willie Halliday, and John Loop. This is the full list of students then in the grammar school. In 1884 the growth was such as to require the upper story. The census this year showed 446 children of school age. In 1884-1885 three new buildings had to be built, and $10,000 was voted for this purpose and for an addition to the Central building. In the Kingsley Tract a one-room building was erected, a two-room building in the north, or Palomares, district, and a two-room building in the south district. Mrs .. Brink was principal of the Sixth Street school for a long time, and Miss Harriet Palmer began her long service here at that time.
After the city was incorporated the first school board to be elected under the new charter met and organized January 10, 1885. Mr. C. Howe was president and R. A. Allen secretary, the other members being F. D. Joy, J. A. Driffil and O. J. Newman. At the end of the school year, in 1888, Professor Little resigned and Mr. F. A. Molyneaux was engaged in his place. From such beginnings the Pomona schools have grown to a system of a dozen large schools with more than a hundred teachers and over 2,800 pupils in attendance.
The public schools of the foothill towns are mentioned in their appropriate places.
. Besides its public school system, Pomona has had a number of private schools. The Pomona Business College, founded in 1900 by Mr. Daniel Brehaut, has furnished hundreds of young people practical training for business positions in this and other places. More than three-fourths of the business houses in this Valley have been provided with graduates from this college.
The Academy of Holy Names is a select school which was founded primarily to serve the families of the Catholic Church, but a much larger constituency than this testifies to the value of its service. When the Academy was established, in 1898, its building was dedicated with special ceremony by the late. Bishop Mont- gomery. The first Lady Superior, Sister Mary Celestine, was followed by Sister
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Mary Rose, Sister Mary Benedicta and Sister Mary Olier in turn, Sister Olier being the present incumbent. Besides the regular courses of primary, grammar and high school, its music department is of high rank and well patronized, more than a hundred students altogether being in attendance.
The people of the Valley have always manifested a keen interest in higher education. This is demonstrated first, of course, in the excellence of its high school. It has also appeared in its support of college and university. A consid- erable number of students have always attended the large universities, California and Stanford in the North. The denominational colleges of the Methodist, Bap- tist and Presbyterian Churches all have their followings. Some were interested in 1884 in the movement of the Presbyterians to establish a "Sierra Madre Col- lege" at Pasadena, and later in the founding of Occidental. In 1885 and 1886 a good many of the thinking people of the Valley, regardless of denomination, shared in the discussion and organization of the Baptist College, feeling the need of a Christian college of high standard nearer home. This attitude toward higher education found its largest fruition for this section in Pomona College, whose story is briefly told in another chapter. The work of La Verne College is also mentioned elsewhere.
CHURCHES AND RELIGIOUS LIFE IN POMONA
In its church life Pomona has not been unlike many other communities whose people are, in large proportion, intelligent, God-fearing people, recognizing at least the supreme value of the church as a factor in civilization and in the good order and clean atmosphere of the town.
As in the average city of this type, the leading denominations of the country have organizations and church buildings. Unlike many cities of its size in this and other states, its church life has been generous and genuine, involving a good proportion of the population and sincere in its expression. Here, again, the high class of people who compose so large a part of its population makes for this result, and in turn attracts ever to itself others of like spirit, thus determining still more and strengthening the better characteristics of the community.
But this high standard has not always characterized the place. While it has not been without its churches and their following from the first, yet the early days of the town were very different from the latter days. The atmosphere of the place was more that of the saloon than of the church, and the fierce struggle between the elements of evil and license which dominated the old town and the elements of decency and progress which now control was the most momentous and significant movement in all Pomona's history. While the churches took a vigorous and vital part in this struggle, the account is reserved for another chap- ter, as a part of "Pomona's Municipal Life," rather than as a part of its church work.
A visitor to Pomona in the late seventies or early eighties would have found it much easier to locate a social gathering at one of the dozen or so drinking places on a Sunday morning than to find a meeting of church people for worship. This is well illustrated by a story which Colonel Firey tells of his own experience, when visiting the town with Prof. W. T. "Tibbs, shortly after their arrival in Cali- fornia. Mr. Tibbs was a minister of the Christian Church, a man of culture and refinement, yet full of humor. The friendship, begun by a chance acquaintance as train companions, and renewed by an accidental meeting in the Los Angeles
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post office, led them to drive out together to Pomona. Dissatisfied with Los Angeles and San Diego, after considerable wandering about, Colone! Firey said to Mr. Tibbs one day, "What was that place we liked so much as we came into Southern California on the train?" "Let me think," said Tibbs: "wasn't it asso- ciated with fruits? Yes, it was called Pomona." "Well, let's go out there." So they came to Pomona.
One evening they were looking for a prayer meeting which they had been told was held by the Baptists on Thursday evening. Hearing some singing in the second story of Mother King's Hotel, they went into the saloon on the lower floor to make inquiry. "What will you have?" the barkeeper asked, and was doubtless staggered at the order-"Where is the Baptist prayer meeting?" "Don't know ; some sort of meeting upstairs." So they went up and walked in, to find not a Baptist prayer meeting, but a Good Templars Lodge in session !
Meeting Senator McComas at Brown's Hotel, Mr. Tibbs inquired if there were any Campbellites in the place. Senator McComas could have told him all about the Methodists, and doubtless did, being a leading member in that church himself, but he was not so well posted in regard to the Disciples of Christ. He knew of one "Christian," however, a Mr. James, who was then at work on a · building for Mr. Kirkland, the Methodist minister, the house which, by the way, · is generally known as the Ayer house, and which was occupied a little later by Pomona College, in the first term after its organization by the Congregationalists. Senator McComas took them around and introduced Mister Tibbs to Mr. James. "Are you a Campbellite?" asked Mr. Tibbs. With a queer look on his face, Mr. James replied soberly, "A Christian, sir, a Christian." "Where do you meet on Lord's day?" Then Mr. James learned that Tibbs was also a "Christian." The following Sunday they went with Mr. James to a second-story room in the build- ing where Joe Wright had his office, a wretched place, in which, nevertheless, the little handful of Christians met and observed the Lord's Supper every Lord's day. Calling upon Professor Tibbs to speak, they at once discovered his calling and his ability, and although he was seeking rest after a breakdown from strenuous work in the East, he was persuaded to accept the pastorate, which he filled so well until compelled to retire.
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