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 21
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In February, 1887, about a dozen officials of the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Railroad, in Judge Firey's office, met about twenty interested landowners. and separate agreements were drawn up granting right of way, with certain provisos as to the location of stations and stopping of trains. Ten acres at North Pomona were deeded by E. D. Rice, George Parsons and A. R. Meserve. It had not been decided whether the station should be called North Pomona or Palo- mares or Palermo. C. F. Loop and others deeded a one-hundred-foot right of way through the proposed town of Claremont, and passenger and freight stations were located on the east and west of Alexander Avenue. Others deeded the right of way east through Mud Springs.
A boom of new townsites along the right of way followed at once as a matter of course. In March there was a special excursion to Azusa, which was for the moment the terminus of the San Gabriel Valley road. The Slausons, J. S. and J., officers of the new Azusa Land and Water Company, were in the party. Here, at the time of the auction sale, people stood in line all night to get a good choice of lots, and some paid fifty dollars for place in the line.
The new town of San Dimas was launched with much success by the San José Land Company, organized by M. L. Wicks, and including thirty or forty others, among them a railway official whose inside knowledge was valuable. The lands offered for sale by the company included not only the town of San Dimas, but all of the San José Addition, which was subdivided into twenty-acre lots.
The boom sale was typical. The only building in sight was the boom hotel built by the company. Brass bands accompanied the excursionists and there was much excitement. One eager buyer who had selected a lot from the map went to the spot to see what it looked like before making his purchase, only to find, when he returned to the auctioneer, that the lot had been sold. More eager than ever then, he bought another on faith, and went afterward to look at it. This he found in a deep gully. "Well," he said, "I shall not have to do any excavating."
On the old homestead of W. N. Davis, south of Glendora, a new town, called Alosta, was laid out by George E. Gard and D. W. Field, and lots amounting to $30,000 were sold at auction.
Claremont, which seems to have been also "on the inside," came first among the towns farther east in its incorporation, advertising and auction sale. This is
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easily understood when one notes, in the list of the members of the company organized to promote the town, the names of F. S. Reigart of Topeka, and William Dunn, general agent of the Califorma Southern Railroad. This com- pany was incorporated January 20, 1887, under the name of the Pacific Land Improvement Company. It included also E. F. Kingman and George H. Fuller- ton of Riverside, the latter president of the company. The auction sale of Clare- mont lots was held April 14, after a month of judicious advertising. In May, on the 25th, was the opening sale of lots at Lordsburg, and a week later that of Palomares, as North Pomona was then called. Wholesale advertising preceded each public sale. The local and city papers published long articles and columns of announcements about the new towns and their auction sales. "Claremont the Beautiful" became a by-word ; one article said, "There is no doubt but that every lot will be readily sold. Before the railroad connects with Los Angeles, Claremont will be a good-size town, with post, express, telephone, telegraph, hotel and news- paper offices, stores and residences." The clear mountain view, the artesian water already flowing in the town, and the attractions of the canyon and mountains all were lauded to the skies.
Attractions of the Palomares townsite were that two street railways would soon connect it with Pomona. Messrs. Firey, French and Company had a franchise for a line up Garey Avenue, and Packard and White had one up San Antonio Avenue. Meserve and Rice advertised "No chenanekin (sic), no pool, no fixed price list."
The Claremont sale was really a remarkable success, dne chiefly to the genial manner and good tactics of Frank Miller, whose preliminary campaign as general agent of the company had prepared the way, and of Col. W. H. Holabird, who conducted the sale. Workmen were actually engaged in laying railway track through the town while the sale was in progress.
At the great pageant in 1913, celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of Pomona College, the scenes of this sale were re-enacted, Colonel Holabird himself taking his old part.
The sale at Lordsburg was also "an immense success." Three brass bands conducted as many excursion parties to the place. Twenty-five hundred people were present and lots amounting to $200,000 were sold. One purchaser, Herman Silver. gave $14,000 for Block 71, but the sales averaged from $250 to $500 each. At the Palomares auction a week later, the sale realized somewhat less than $30.000.
Before considering these new towns more in detail the influence of the new railroad upon Pomona and upon the Southern Pacific may be noted. The con- trast between the policies of the two roads was striking. Before the advent of the Santa Fé there was only one local train a day to Los Angeles, and that a pas- senger car on a local freight. One would leave Pomona at about eight o'clock in the morning and arrive about noon. Returning, one might take an overland freight at sundown and reach Pomona about two o'colck in the night. As one old-timer said, "The policy of the old road was 'the public be damned'; the policy of the new road was to cater to the public in every way." This resulted in a marked improvement in the service of the Southern Pacific also. When it was evident that the Santa Fé would pass north of the city a movement was started at once to make connections with it. Colonel Firey, Charles French and others formed a company and built the line to Palomares (North Pomona) by way of
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Garey and Orange Grove avenues. This was completed and a "dummy" was running over the road soon after the railroad was finished.
NORTH POMONA
Of the four Santa Fé towns within the region covered in this history, the one nearest to Pomona was perhaps least likely, on account of its location, to become a large place, although just as highly favored by Nature as the others. The most attractive feature given the town by its promoters, the name of Palomares, has been changed to the uninteresting designation of North Pomona. Essentially a citrus growing district its chief buildings are the packing houses of the Indian Hill Citrus Association. A number of comfortable residences have been built among the orange groves. Its chief distinction is in the great Richards Orange Orchard, for a long time the largest orange grove in the world.
LA VERNE, LORDSBURG AND LA VERNE COLLEGE
Since the town of Lordsburg has combined with the town of La Verne and taken the name of La Verne City, it may be forgotten that they were formerly two distinct towns. Lying to the north of the City of Lordsburg, and the town- sites of Palomares and North Palomares, La Verne extended from Claremont on the east to San Dimas on the west, the line of division being the old Dalton parti- tion line, which is now the eastern line of B. A. Woodford's Valencia grove. Northward the district reaches over the mountains and is co-terminal with the county. The town itself was located on the highlands below the foothills which divide the San Dimas and San Gabriel basin on the west from the San Antonio and Santa Ana basin on the east. In their choice of soil and climate and view, the settlers of La Verne made no mistake ; in all these it is unexcelled. Only the location of the railway caused other towns, no more favored otherwise, to out- strip this one in population. And one of the preliminary surveys for the Santa Fé did pass through its center. A fine class of people composed its founders, among whom were L. H. Bixby, Solomon Gates, Dr. H. A. Reid and M. L. Douglas. A newspaper called the La Verne News was started in 1888, published by John Symes and edited by Dr. H. A. Reid. Mr. Frank Wheeler was one of La Verne's most earnest backers, and though his residence is now in Claremont, he is still loyal to the many superlative merits of La Verne.
More than once the place seemed likely to die for want of water. At times orange growers had to haul water in wagons for their trees, and the sources of supply were as remote as San Dimas and San Antonio canyons. La Verne men were interested in boring for water on Indian Hill. Of the eighteen-year contest with San Dimas over its canyon supply, one writer said, "The case has finally been settled amicably to all parties. San Dimas and La Verne both get the canyon water in winter, when neither of them want it, and both districts go without it in the summer time, when there is no water in the canyon, and when it is most needed." The same writer gives this account of the origin of the La Verne Land and Water Company: "Many ranchers in La Verne * would be hauling water to their trees in tank-wagons today but for the magnanimity of R. A. Wallace, who in 1899 owned a choice orange and lemon grove of twenty acres. Wallace bought fifteen acres of unimproved land, put down a well to a depth of 310 feet, by way of an experiment, and was surprised to find, when tested, that
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he pumped over forty inches of water. This was more than he needed. He could have sold it at a fancy price. Instead of this, however, he called his friends and neighbors together and gave them the fifteen acres and the well at exact cost to him. Thus La Verne Land and Water Company was formed, all the stockholders being ranchers of the community. Only recently this company has been reorgan- ized as the La Verne Water Company, combining with it the Live Oak Water Company, Mesa Land and Water Company, and La Verne Heights Water Com- pany, with F. R. Curtis as president, and R. L. Davis, secretary."
It is only within a few years, that Lordsburg, like St. Petersburg, dropped its "burg" and, uniting with its neighbor and rival to the north, adopted its more euphonious and attractive name of La Verne City. It was first named Lordsburg because it was Lord's burg. A Mr. I. W. Lord bought the property of Col. George Heath and others north of the Mud Springs Road, and organized a com- pany to promote the new town. It was at this time that J. W. Sallee sold his ranch for some $50,000, a fabulous sum to one who had never seen so much money in all his life. After this he was often seen about town, very much "stuck up," in an ill-fitting suit of clothes and a stove-pipe hat. The town was laid out with broad streets bordered with eucalyptus trees, and a number of buildings were put up, especially a large hotel building, the biggest of all the string of "boom" hotels that marked the young towns on the new road.
Soon, however, came the bursting of the boom and all development ceased. There remained, of course, the Mexican ranchers on their large estates south and west of the townsite, the Vejars and Yorbas, the Sotos and Carrions. To the north of the town proper and in La Verne a considerable acreage had been planted to citrus fruits, and ranchers had established their homes. Notable among these ranches was the Evergreen Ranch of 160 acres, purchased of the Sotos in 1884 by J. A. Packard of Chicago, who acquired a fortune in the manufacture of "Frazer's Axle Grease," bought the ranch, built a fine residence and developed a place often visited because of its beauty. Mr. Packard's example has been followed by others, especially in recent years, so that the place is known for its fine groves and its foothill homes.
Besides the citrus groves to the north and cattle and grain ranches to the south, there was yet another element which helped to keep the town alive, during the slump in real estate and other activities which followed the boom. The huge caravansary built by Lord's company, after standing empty for some years, attracted a group of the Church of the Brethren, or Dunkers, sometimes called Dunkards, who saw in it an ideal center for a colony. In 1891 the building and grounds were purchased by a company of these men, consisting of David and Henry Kuns, Samuel Overholtzer and Daniel Houser, who became the trustees of the Lordsburg College. This name was changed to La Verne College later, when Lordsburg became La Verne City. The importance of this institution lies in the fact that it is the only college of the Church of the Brethren west of McPherson, Kans. Organized at first by its trustees as a stock company, the property was formally taken over by the Church of the Brethren in 1908. From the first the Kunses were the mainstay of the College, giving lavishly of their means and time and counsel. The first president was Dr. S. F. Garst, who served from 1891 to 1893. Others who have followed were E. A. Miller, 1893-1899; W. I. T. Hoover, 1899-1901; \V. C. Hanawalt, 1902-1908; W. F. England, 1908-1912; J. P. Dickey, 1912-1913; Edward Frantz, 1913-1915; and Dr. S. J. Miller, the present incumbent. From its founding until 1912 the work was chiefly
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of academic grade, but in 1912 Dr. W. I. T. Hoover reorganized the work and established the collegiate course leading to the Bachelor of Arts degree.
Another institution financed by H. L. Kuns is the David and Margaret Home for Children. The La Verne Hotel building, erected as a boom hotel, has thus been transformed into a valuable and useful institution.
The L.a V'erne Leader, formerly the Lordsburg-La Verne Leader, first ap- peared May 12, 1910. W. A. Adams was its first publisher and editor. Other papers had had only a very brief or spasmodic existence before this time, among then the La Verne News, mentioned above, and the Lordsburg Sunbeam, which appeared in 1899; but the Leader has grown steadily from its first appearance into an established place. John M. Reed and H. H. Webb followed Adams in the conduct of the paper. Then came the "leadership" of William H. Greene from 1912 until recently (1918) Ulrich Knoch, a well-known publisher of Los Angeles, has taken it over.
The change of name from Lordsburg to La Verne City was accomplished in August, 1917, there being practically no opposition to the change. The occasion was celebrated with a public wedding in which "Miss Lordsburg" was wedded to "Mr. La Verne," with appropriate ceremonies, a banquet and much festivity.
SAN DIMAS
In the "prehistoric" days of San Dimas, there was no town of this name, but from the very first of this story much has been said of "Mud Springs," as one of the stations on the Overland Stage route, where horses were watered and fed between El Monte and Cucamonga. There was not even a settlement here in those days, only a house or two and some barns where Mr. Clancy lived in charge of the station. The place was called Mud Springs because of a number of springs or cienegas, two large ones especially, which made the whole region marshy. Teams could not drive across it, and if one got stuck in the mud or turf a whole acre . would shake with his struggles. When the Santa Fe Railway was built across the cienega, north of the old road, it was necessary to drive piling deep down and plentifully to secure a solid road bed. The name "Mud Springs" is retained as a station of the Pacific Electric Railway.
The canyon north of Mud Springs was early called San Dimas. Its name. according to Ramon Vejar, originated in this curiously trivial circumstance. When Ygnacio Palomares first pastured his herds in this part of the country, he built a rude corral up in the canyon in which to keep some of his cattle at times. But it was far from their hacienda and the Indians would run them off again and again, until he gave it up in disgust and called the canyon "San Dimas," after the one who was crucified with Christ and repented before his death on the cross, because, forsooth, he also repented of having chosen this as a place of refuge for his stock! Sometime in the later sixties, as has been noticed, the Cunninghams "took up" a quarter section of government land, including a part of San Dimas Canyon, and the family lived here for a number of years. Between the Cun- ninghams and the north line of Dalton's, or San José Addition, was the ranch of Cyrus Burdick, also referred to earlier, where is now the C. C. Warren place.
Here in San Dimas Canyon lived also Henry Dalton himself, where in his later years he found himself bereft of friends and fortune, worsted at last through interminable litigation. As some one has said, "He was always lawing." And so in 1884 he lived in a little shack, with his Mexican wife, cultivating a little
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patch of potatoes, and almost or quite forgotten by the world which was formerly so ready to give him respect. Thus he was found one day by Mr. Fred J. Smith, who had a letter of introduction to him, at the time of his coming to Southern California, from one who had been a partner of Dalton in his better days and still supposed him to be a man of large means and influence. They had been together in mining and other ventures in South America, and had each cleared up $200,000, so it is said. "He is a fine fellow," the partner said, "who owns great tracts of land ; but he has one failing-his fondness for lawsuits." So this was the end of one who had owned a third of the San José Rancho, all of the Azusa, and the San Francisquito ranchos, many thousands of acres, including some of what is now the highest priced farming land in the world.
Well known among the first settlers in this vicinity were the Martins, W. C. and W. T., who were also pioneers in El Monte. In 1869, Toots Martin (W. T.) came with his family to the mouth of San Dimas Canyon, east of the Cunning- hams. to engage in farming and keeping of bees, which he did for two years, when he moved to the east of Indian Hill, as we shall see later. In the following year, 1872, his father, Wm. C. Martin, or Uncle Billy, sold out his hotel at El Monte and purchased a homesteader's claim to 160 acres on the highlands and foothills at the mouth of the canyon. For fifteen years he lived here on his foot- hill ranch, farming and raising bees, until in 1887 he sold the property to the San José Land and Water Company and moved to Pomona. Though at some distance from other people, he was a well-known and influential man, "straight and gen- erous to a fault" as a neighbor said.
Of those who came to the San Dimas region in the early days and have made it their home, some of them to the present time, the Teague families are the oldest. Mr. C. P. Teague came with others of the Mound City Land and Water Association, which bought the Dalton interests in Azusa and in the San José Rancho and its additions. In October, 1878, Jasper N. Teague, his son, came as a surveyor for this company, and having the power of attorney in all affairs pertain- ing to the company for his father, who did not settle here till later. At this time there was not a house within miles of Mud Springs; nothing except the chimney of an old house, probably the Clancy house, which had been the station for the stages when they ran by way of Mud Springs. Against this old chimney, not far from one of the larger springs, the Teagues built their house, when J. N. Teague had been joined by his brother, David C. Teague. Above the barn which they also built was another spring. The affairs of the Mound City company did not prosper and the Teagues turned their attention to raising grain. Beginning the first of January, 1879, they plowed a thousand acres and planted it to grain. But the crop was a failure, returning only four sacks of grain to the acre. The supply of water was very meager, only a miner's inch of water from the canyon for 7,000 acres of land. This was supplemented with a little from the San Gabriel, but the head was too small and Duarte, farther west, had it two days in the week first. On the east bank of the cienega they had sunk a well which yielded a ten-inch flow at first, but in the dry years this gave out. The abandoned shaft of this first well may still be seen. They raised some sheep and cattle also, but under great odds. All the stock had to be driven to the stream on the Carrion place when the water in the cienegas was low. Undaunted they planted again the next season and were rejoicing in a luxuriant crop of grain, tall and heavy- as fine a stand of grain as could be grown-when again they were disappointed. The spring was unusually wet, and week followed week with practically no sun-
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shine at all. In four days they lost it all. So for nearly three years there seemed nothing but hard luck and misfortune. And the end was not yet. Before the third crop was harvested the Mound City company failed and the property passed into the hands of J. S. Slauson of Los Angeles, who held mortgages against the company and finally foreclosed, bidding in all its holdings at the face of the mortgage. The Teagues lost what they had put into the company and most of the land which they were purchasing. They were obliged to move, but were allowed to move their buildings, and got something for the crop. Still the Teagues were not defeated. The father, C. P. Teague, had joined his sons in 1881, and Harvey and Robert, two other brothers, had also come. Buying and leasing more land, they pitched in harder than ever and began to get ahead. At one time they had leased 7,000 acres, including all of the San José Addition. The elder Teague was peculiarly fortunate in locating wells, seeming to sense in some way the underground streams of water. After a time the interests of the family in the Addition were given over largely to the two brothers, J. N. and D. C. Teague. In 1887 the two divided their interests here, the latter remaining in San Dimas, while the former moved to Pomona. J. N. Teague had married Anna, the second daughter of Cyrus Burdick, and for a dozen years or more the family lived in their attractive home on Park Avenue. During this time he was busy with many interests-raising grain, threshing, growing citrus fruits and contracting, always directing large gangs of men and buying and selling property. He was a "live wire" and an influential man in the city, until his removal to Los Angeles. Since then, by his tremendous energy, his intelligent management and good judgment he has become one of the largest growers of vegetables in the Southwest, handling large contracts for the government, and an expert in agri- culture and soils.
After the father, C. P. Teague, had been here for a time, he returned to their home in the North, to sell their old ranch. While there the mother died and the father came back to Mud Springs. There were also four daughters. On his return C. P. Teague with his son, Robert, leased several thousand acres of what became La Verne for farming and grazing, building about a quarter of a mile up the road from Mud Springs, near the present Santa Fé crossing. David C. and Robert M. Teague, the oldest and youngest sons, are still living in San Dimas, the former a little east of the old place, and the latter by his nursery in the heart of the town.
Turning our attention now to another early settler in San Dimas, one who came to the region shortly after J. N. and D. C. Teague and has remained until the present time is Eli W. Schuler. He is thus also one of San Dimas' oldest living residents. Still vigorous in body and keen of mind, he recalls with much satisfaction the times of forty years ago. His family had come to California in 1864. After a visit to the Valley in 1879 he decided to come here to live. His mother had come from Iowa on account of asthma, and had bought a land claim of John Paine. From a recital of his own recollections one gathers an interesting impression of the surroundings of that time. For, as he says, he knew all the old-timers intimately-the Cunninghams, the Martins, the Burdicks and the Teagues, who came about the same time. He was a "partner of Colorel Heath in the haypress." He worked during harvest for "Chino Phillips." For some time he assisted Hancock, the surveyor, and has since been valuable to other surveyors in locating old corners and tracing out old lines. He had a high respect for Hancock who surveyed the county "when it was sectionized by the Government,
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after the Treaty of God-a-loop (Guadalupe )" and of whom he says: "He knowed how to run a straight line, and he knowed how to measure one, if he hadn't as much education as some." From his contact with surveyors he has a most com- mendable and somewhat rare respect for corner stakes and landmarks of every sort. "Me and Tonner had many a scrap with folks who would tamper with the corners and move stakes over to suit their own convenience." And he had a good word for Tonner. "He always got the lion's share, but he had awfully good traits and he had an awfully nice woman in Mrs. Tonner. Tonner thought the Mexicans as good as any. Once there was a raffle and voting for the prettiest girl in the Valley. 'Mother King's' daughter was getting a large share of the votes, when Tonner came in, asked how many she had and how many votes there were. Then he said, 'Put up your money, Schuler ; no use to throw it away. I don't like to see this business so one-sided,' and cast a majority vote for a pretty Mexican girl."
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