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 22
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Schuler was deputy sheriff under Hamner, Cline and others, and knew Billy Rowland well, though he did not serve under him. "I was always a Republican," he says. "They tried to raise me a Democrat, but I was spoiled in the makin'." But he claims a good friend in the stanch Democrat, F. M. Slaughter, of whom he tells many stories. "Slaughter was a good story teller-told them well and liked to. After the emigrants came from the East he would tell a lot of harrowing stories about the Indians, as people were sitting on the porch in front of his home at Rincon, and then, as some harmless Indian came up, he would shout, 'Indians, by G-, Schuler, Indians,' and pretend to be terribly scared, while the visitors ran to hide, really frightened." Schuler's own stories of crossing the plains were blood-curdling enough. A hundred men, he says, were necessary as guards for the train, and these men must be able to hit a mark, three bullets out of five, at sixty yards. Of Mrs. John Brown, who was in the party, he says, "Braver woman never lived; I saw her kill three Indians." There was great danger of stampeding the cattle, and this was done not only by the Indians but by Mormons who often incited them to mischief. "The Mormons in them days," he says, "were regular Bull-she-vys." When Mr. Schuler came to Mud Springs he "farmed." One sea- son he had 1,000 sacks of barley, 6,000 sacks of wheat, which he sold at fifty and sixty cents a hundred, and 300 tons of hay, which he was to sell at $9.50 a ton, but he says, "The fellow busted on me, and I only got two dollars a ton." Mr. Schuler has acquired considerable property during his long residence here and is still a hard-working citizen, whose place could not easily be filled.
While this story does not include the history of Glendora, Charter Oak and Covina, a brief reference may here be made to some things of interest in the. country south and west of San Dimas. In 1880 a considerable amount of land called the Covina Tract, was purchased by two brothers from Costa Rica, by the name of Badillo, who made payments on the purchase in part with money bor- rowed through Hollenbeck of the First National Bank of Los Angeles. Though industrious and making various improvements, they were unable to complete their payments. The times were inauspicious and it became necessary for the bank to foreclose. This would have left the Badillos penniless, and one of them left precipitately, but the other won the admiration of Mr. Hollenbeck, who, it is said, had been a poor boy and left Missouri with only three dollars in his pocket. More- over, Mr. Hollenbeck had lived in Costa Rica, and had acquired some money raising coffee there, so was especially interested in Badillo and deeded to him a
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nundred acres of the property, on a part of which the city of Covina has arisen since.
To trace the title to the lands of San Dimas in the "prehistoric" days, one must go back again to the Mexican grants of 1837 and the following years. It will be recalled that Don Luis Arenas received a grant from the Mexican gov- ernment of an undivided third interest in the Rancho San Jose and in the San José Addition, also full title to the Azusa Rancho, north of Puente and adjoining the San Jose Addition on the west. All this property Arenas sold to Henry Dalton, and the sale was confirmed December 24, 1844, by Manuel Requena, first constitutional alcalde, and endorsed by José Antonio Carillo, Pio Pico and Andres Pico, "Commandantes of Squadron," and commissioners appointed for this service. In June, 1866, Dalton deeded to one Francois L. A. Pioche for $5,000 an undi- vided half of his interest in the San José Rancho, and three years later, for $10,000 he gave the same Francois L. A. Pioche a mortgage for these four ranches: "the Azusa Rancho, containing one square league, the Rancho San José Addition, containing one square league, the Rancho San Francisquito, containing two square leagues, and the Rancho San José." For several years the mortgage was renewed for decreasing amounts, his wife, Guadalupe Zamorano de Dalton then signing the mortgage with him. Then Pioche died and in May, 1874, his executors served notice of action to foreclose. On October 1, 1874, Dalton bor- rowed $20,000 of the Los Angeles County Bank, which had recently organized with J. S. Slauson and J. M. Griffith among its incorporators. The mortgage given on this date to the bank, covering all his interest in the four ranchos, and the previous mortgages to Pioche, were the sources of endless litigation between the bank and the Pioche heirs on the one hand and the Daltons, or Lewis Wolfskill, their attorney, on the other. Mr. Wolfskill did his best to save his client, and for a time 500 acres in the Azusa Rancho were reserved for a homestead.
On January 27, 1877, the Probate Court record shows that Wolfskill took over from the Pioche heirs all of Dalton's indebtedness to them, his mortgages and titles involved, giving them $40,000 therefor, $5,000 in cash and the balance in notes secured by mortgage to all the Azusa and San José ranchos (except the 500-acre homestead), Dalton having deeded his attorney everything. In the midst of this little tangle the Mound City Land and Water Association came on the stage. This company was incorporated July 25, 1878, with a capital stock of $200,000. James B. and David H. Seawell, Thomas H. Hudson, W. A. Spurlock, George W. Morgan and Lewis Wolfskill were the larger stockholders. These were joined two months later by J. N. Teague and his father, and by James H. and Wm. T. Clark. On this date an agreement was secured by Seawell and others as individuals, with Wolfskill and the Daltons to convey to them all the Rancho Azusa, all right and title in the Rancho San José and its Addition and all water, water rights and franchises pertaining to these properties (which included some rights in the San Gabriel River). The consideration was $140,000, of which $10.000 was paid down, $25,000 was due in sixty days and the balance in two annual payments. All these interests were made over by these individuals to the Mound City Land and Water Association, October 2, 1878. At the same time they gave Wolfskill a mortgage on the whole property for the sum of $105,000, given in the form of two equal notes, on each of which he paid down $31,000, the mortgage being at once assigned to the Farmers and Merchants Bank. Now appears the ghost. Six months later the Los Angeles County Bank brought suit against the Daltons, Wolfskill and fifty(!) other defendants enumerated indi-
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vidually and as corporations, asking judgment for over $22,000. After many summons and demurrers the specter of the mortgage becomes very real in the person of the sheriff, who is ordered to sell the property at auction.
By this time claims were allowed of over $60,000, and the sheriff's sale in June, 1880, realized $55,000, of which the Los Angeles County Bank took $25,000 and the executors of Pioche, by S. L. Theller, Gustave Tonchard and Gustave Dussol, took $30,000. Numerous other sheriff sales followed as other claims were presented and allowed. In the next five years the four great ranches of thousands of acres were tossed back and forth like a basketball, or as in a game of battledore and shuttlecock, deed after deed was made out for the whole property, and mortgages were assigned and reassigned, with amounts at issue running from $1,000 to $100,000. Wolfskill to Cardwell, Daltons and Wolfskill to the Los Angeles County Bank, Wolfskill to Sabichi, Dalton to Sabichi, the Pioche execu- tors to J. Mora Moss, and then to Martz and Martz, everybody by the sheriff to the Los Angeles County Bank, et cetera ad infinitum! But as early as April, 1880, the Mound City Land and Water Association deeded its entire interest in the four ranchos to J. S. Slauson, and in the end everybody else had done the same thing, the last transfer being that of Widney and Smith and the Los Angeles County Bank, on April 15, 1887. By this time Henry Dalton, his creditor Francois L. A. Pioche, his attorney, Lewis Wolfskill, (his Mexican wife, Guadalupe, too, doubtless) and the other principals, were all dead, the first boom and its conse- quent depression were past, and another company was coming upon the stage with a new and bigger boom.
When it became evident that the new railway was to run through the Valley north of the San José hills, M. L. Wicks, who had been associated with C. T. Mills in organizing the Pomona Land and Water Company, now formed a new company, including in it one or two officials of the Santa Fé Railroad and several who had been interested in the Mound City Association. The largest stockholders were M. L. Wicks, George W. Hughes, R. F. Lotspeich and F. Sabichi, but more than thirty others were included, exclusive of some whom Wicks represented as trustee ; and the holdings ran from three shares to seven hundred. The capital stock of 3,000 one-hundred-dollar shares was all subscribed. This company was incorporated February 28, 1887, as the San José Ranch Company, and in the next two months received from J. S. Slauson (and nominally from others) title to all the Dalton interests and the Mound City Association interests in the two ranches known as the Rancho San José and the Rancho San José Addition. The consid- eration in the Slauson deal was $150,000, for half of which he took a promissory note for $75,000, receiving a mortgage on the whole property, but agreeing to release from its lien blocks of land as sold, under certain conditions. It was stipu- lated that the Teague brothers were not to be disturbed in their lease of the land during the current season. The company also bought of Louis Phillips 66534 acres at the northwest corner of his half of the San Jose Rancho. Thus the new company acquired possession of a large part of the land north of the San José hills from La Verne to Glendora and the Azusa ditch, and including a pait of what is now Covina, being the whole of the San José Addition and all of the Dalton section in the San José Rancho-nearly 8000 acres.
The San José Ranch Company assumed for itself the name of the rancho, though operating on the Addition and edge of the rancho itself, as did also the water company soon to be mentioned, but it gave to the town the name of the canyon, San Dimas, which has been explained.
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In San Dimas, as elsewhere, the development of water has been a vital prob- lem. The purchase of the San José Addition and a part of the rancho itself by the San José Ranch Company carried with it the rights in all the water on the land (and under it) besides certain claims to water in the San Dimas and San Gabriel canyons. The supply from the "mud springs" was quite inadequate, as the Teagues had learned, so the company drilled wells around the cienega and secured a good flow at first. But in time this died down, and they tunneled under- neath, so as to tap the wells some forty feet underground and thus obtained a permanent supply.
While the San Jose Ranch Company was developing water in the Valley another company, called the San José Land and Water Company, was formed to handle the water at the mouth of the San Dimas Canyon. Securing a quantity of land they incorporated in May, 1887, with Col. T. W. Brooks and M. G. Rogers of Pomona, and C. M. Wells of Los Angeles, as officers. The Colonel was an interesting character because of his rugged figure and ways and his varied career as miner and soldier, serving under General Crook in the war against the Sioux. The land purchased by this company included the 160 acres of Uncle Billy Martin, the 160 acres of J. B. Chappel to the west, and another 160 acres on the east. Some of this was good bottom land, some waste, and some mesa. Altogether it gave them command of a large supply of water, which they began to develop at once, running a tunnel and making some improvements.
But the San José Land and Water Company immediately came into conflict with the San José Ranch Company, which disputed their claims to the canyon water. Then began a series of lawsuits which stopped the work in the canyon, and which became one of the most complex and hotly disputed water contests in the history of water development. The firm of Wells and Dunnigan led the battle for the Land and Water Company. C. M. Wells was a courteous little gentleman, who was for a time president of the Los Angeles Chamber of Com- merce, but Dunnigan was a vigorous, combative attorney. Over a score of suits were fought over the water rights in San Dimas Canyon, and some of these were carried to the Supreme Court. During a large part of this time Dunnigan was in actual possession of the canyon, but unable to do much work. Like the Kilkenny cats, tied together by their tails, they fought till only the tails remained. In the meantime M. L. Wicks, who was the capitalist of the Ranch Company-a visionary too, but not a "scrapper"-grew weary of the contest, and gave up his interest in the canyon to develop the water in the cienega. Thirty-three inches were secured here. But a number of the people who wanted more water and less litigation combined to employ E. J. Fleming as attorney, to look after their interests. Largely as a result of their pressure, the San José Ranch Company offered them all their holdings-land, water rights and pipes, representing perhaps $20,000-but no deal was effected, and a group consisting of the Johnstones, C. B. Sumner and others, purchased their water rights and pipe lines, but not their land. This group organized the San Dimas Irrigation Company. Later there was a settlement of the various claims in a decision handed down by Judge Lucien Shaw. Those adjudicated to have prior rights in the cienega water formed the Cienega Water Company. There was also the Artesian Belt Water Company, formed by W. A. Johnstone, William Bowring and A. B. Smith to take over and develop the water first struck in a well drilled by J. O. Enell on the edge of the San Dimas wash.
Eventually these various companies have combined to form the San Dimas Water Company, which was organized in 1911. Both William Bowring and
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W. A. Johnstone have been actively interested parties in the water developments of the San Dimas region, and are recognized by every one as authorities in regard to water in this region, each having served in every capacity from zanjero to president, and that over a period of years covering the whole history of the town.
The first citrus orchard in San Dimas or La Verne was the fifteen-acre grove set out by D. C. and C. P. Teague in 1886, who now began to turn their attention from grain farming on a large scale to fruit growing. The youngest son of the family, R. M. Teague, in 1889 bought 10,000 young trees and began his nursery business, which now reaches out all over the country, and even abroad. But it has had its ups and downs. Twice it has been almost "down and out." In the early nineties the output had reached 250,000 trees, when overproduction and the panic caused a drop in the market and half the stock was sold out at figures that left the proprietor $50,000 in debt. Then prices rose again to seventy-five cents and one dollar a tree and remained for six years, when the sale of trees reached 350,000, in 1913, more than half of them going to the San Joaquin Valley. Other ventures have cost him dearly, but the Teagues were always indomitable, and "R. M." has pluckily risen to the top again in a conservative nursery of large variety and proportions.
The citrus industry is almost the only one in San Dimas. Why should there be any other? It is in the very heart of the citrus belt. In fact it is doubtful if there is anywhere in the world a spot more favored by nature for raising lemons and oranges-so free from frost and other damaging conditions. And so gener- ally has this become recognized that the available land has practically all been set out by growers; prices of bearing groves mount higher and higher; and the canyons and coigns of vantage in the foothills above are becoming more and more seized by retired men of means for beautiful residence places. The great packing houses do an enormous business. In the San Dimas district are about 2,500 acres of citrus fruits, nearly 1,500 being in lemons. The San Dimas Lemon Association in one season ships 850 carloads of lemons, including its branch house at Glendora, 450 carloads being from the San Dimas district alone ; and this output is steadily increasing, nearly a third having been added in five years.
In the development of this industry, in its organization and in the marketing of the fruit, one of the most valuable men in the region has been Mr. Frank Harwood, for twenty years manager of the association and then president from that time to the present.
Upon this basic industry of citrus fruit growing there has grown up in San Dimas a small modern city of unusual attraction.
For over seventeen years San Dimas has had its own local paper. The San Dimas Eagle was launched by H. H. Kinney, for a time the proprietor of the Pomona Times and now an attorney in Los Angeles. When the paper was bought by Mr. C. L. Compton, the present proprietor, its name was changed to the San Dimas Press.
San Dimas united with the La Verne and Lordsburg (now La Verne City) districts in the building and maintenance of the Bonita Union High School. Organized in 1903, it has grown to a school of ten teachers and over a hundred pupils. For a dozen years it has been under the able direction of Professor Arthur Durward.
Few towns in Southern California have made such rapid and substantial growth as San Dimas. In the period from 1894 to 1915 its assessment listing
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increased from $139,434 to $1,463,218-more than tenfold. No one probably has had a more vital part in this progress than Hon. W. A. Johnstone. Coming here with his father's family in the early days of the town he has been identified with nearly all its more important enterprises, especially in the water development and in the bank, of which he has been president since its organization. His election to the State Assembly was a just recognition of his worth not only to the city of San Dimas but to the district.
CHARTER OAK
At the corner of the three ranchos, the Puente, the San José and the San José Addition, is the village of Charter Oak. The corner is that known as S. J. No. 10. and was formerly marked by the Tinaja Oak. One would like to find that this was the same as Charter Oak, but the fact is that the Tinaja Oak is gone long since, and that the tree called Charter Oak is at some distance from this corner, though both were in the B. F. Allen forty acres constituting the N.W. 14 of the S.E. 14 of Sec. 8. T. 1 S., R. 9 W. The origin of this name is happily described by William Hoogendyk, a resident of the place, in the following excerpt :
"It was not until after Mexico had declared independence from Spain that the peaceful Mission, then grown to a large and prosperous community, began to lose its peace and happiness. With the first breaking out of hostilities between California and the United States, a prominent Mexican official, San Antonio, took command of the Los Angeles volunteers to give battle to the Americans. The battle of the San Gabriel River was disastrous to the Americans. They fled from the battlefield, losing their flag and some valuable papers. In the fall of the year San Antonio, wishing to return to his home in Mexico, left Los Angeles in great splendor, accompanied by a few soldiers. The captured flag and the papers were entrusted to him to deliver safely to the Mexican government. It was a rainy day when he left Los Angeles. They stopped at the San Gabriel Mission for refreshments, and were here joined by two traders, and on the saddles of these men were bags of gold received in exchange for various trinkets at the various Missions. The rain increased, and the party which had intended to stop at Cienega, which was only a watering place between Los Angeles and San Bernar- dino, camped instead near some friendly Indians, under some oak trees about twenty miles from Los Angeles. At the Mission a Spaniard who had been unmercifully treated by the Mexicans, seeing the cavalcade start, with revenge in his heart carried the news to the Americans, who were camped a few miles away. Eager to recapture the flag and the papers, the Americans started in pursuit, and came upon San Antonio's party among the live oaks of the upper San Gabriel Valley. Fearing an attack from unfriendly Indians, San Antonio and his party pitched their camp some distance from the main traveled road. They buried their gold, with the flag and the papers, near a large oak tree, for, should they be surprised, the tree, by reason of its size, would serve as a mark to enable any survivor to recover the treasure. Fires were built, and the clothing dried. The evening meal was taken. With the coming of twilight was heard the clatter of hoofs. Americans in pursuit, San Antonio climbed the big oak, while the soldiers made ready for flight. Volley after volley was fired at the small party of Americans. History has never told the story of the slaughter of the battle. San Antonio remained in the tree all night, and two days after his departure he
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returned to Los Angeles, alone and in rags, with his feet bleeding, and almost exhausted. No one has ever found the flag, the valuable papers, or the gold that was cachéd by this great tree. An American officer and a troop of soldiers returned to the spot several days later, still in pursuit of their flag and papers, but the rain had made it impossible to find the caché. Holes were dug all around the large tree without success. When the search was given up and they were about to depart, the officer, giving a last look at the place, said: "This indeed is a replica of the old Charter Oak.' Many years have gone by since the historic oak which held the beneficial charter has been blown down on the shores of Connecticut. But the historic tree of the upper San Gabriel Valley still stands. In its bark is cut the Sign of the Cross to commemorate the deed. In 1886 settlers bought the land in the vicinity and planted it to orange trees. The place of this historic tree first belonged to Walter Allen, brother-in-law of William Bowring, and neighbor of H. C. Mace, the only two remaining pioneers of this section. It was the task of W. H. Collins, a later purchaser of the land, to level the land of the many holes dug by the treasure-hunters around the tree.
"The Charter Oak of the Pacific Coast stands in the orange grove now owned by R. H. Rowland, in a beautiful, prosperous community named Charter Oak. This historic spot is midway between three prominent cities of the upper San Gabriel Valley. Three miles to the east we find the prosperous city of San Dimas; three miles to the north the beautiful city of Glendora, while three miles to the west the ever growing city of Covina. Thousands of acres around this tree have been planted to trees bearing the golden fruit, and many who have visited the upper San Gabriel Valley can truthfully say that the golden orange gardens of Hesperides are reproduced on the shores of the Pacific."
CLAREMONT AND POMONA COLLEGE
Claremont was placed on the map by the Pacific Land Improvement Com- pany, as already noted. The land which this company secured was chiefly a part of the eighty acres of Andres Duarte, purchased of H. A. Palmer, 160 acres in the west half of Section 10 owned by Charles French, and the land owned by the Pomona Land and Water Company south of the upper line of the rancho (which crosses the town as explained before) as far as Cucamonga Avenue. The plot of the town was recorded in April, 1887, and included only that portion which lay, north and south, between Tenth Street and Cucamonga Avenue and between Alexander and Forest avenues, west and east, the last designation being one of the original names, when Yale, Harvard, College, Dartmouth and Princeton avenues were known by the more prosaic names of Tremont, Palmer, Pearl, Warren, Goddard and Forest. Most of these were for Eastern stock- holders. Palmer Avenue was named for H. A. Palmer, who bought the Duarte place, then held by Toots Martin, in 1883, and later moved his house from Pomona to Claremont.
One of the company's advertising circulars says: "The name Claremont is indicative of clear mountain air ; clear mountain water ; clear from malaria, frost, fogs and most of 'the ills that flesh is heir to.' The site was chosen before any of the adjoining places were dreamed of. We had the entire line to select from, for the building of the railroad was then a secret known only to a few. This exquisite place was chosen; first, because of the perfect altitude; second, because of the unlimited supply of artesian water; third, because of the unsurpassed scenery
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