USA > California > Riverside County > History of Riverside County, California > Part 5
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Dr. Craig came to town and built a little hotel on the site of the present Carnegie library. He afterwards moved to Crafton, as did ultimately Scipio and Professor Paine. Scipio Craig was for years the editor of the Colton Semi-Tropic, and finally established in the new town of Redlands the very successful newspaper known as the Citrograph. Professor Paine made a reputation as a successful educator, and finally located at Crafton, and is now one of the leading horticulturists of this section. It is interesting to note that these last named settlers were led to surrender the government claims and seek other means of livelihood because of a plague of grasshoppers that swept over the valley from the surrounding hills during several of the early years of the colony. In some seasons every green thing was destroyed excepting such few plants as were carefully protected. Even the bark upon the orange trees was in many cases eaten clean.
In the first years of the colony there came to settle here a coterie of spiritualists and free thinkers, rather clannish in their ways, all of whom have long since passed away, leaving no de- scendants here to take pride in the beautiful city whose building they helped to initiate. Nothing remains to remind one of their presence except the names of a few of our public streets-Denton, Cridge, Tibbetts, etc.,-and the record of the efforts of Mrs. L. C.
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Tibbetts to secure from the government the original navel orange trees from which have been propagated the millions of trees which have made Riverside and California famous and wealthy_ __ Prof. William Denton, one of this party, was a state geologist, a volumin- ous writer upon psychological and scientific topics, and a lecturer of ability. He resided here for a short time only. His sisters were Mrs. Seibold and Mrs. Cridge. Mr. Cridge built the cottage on the edge of the great arroyo which was so long occupied by Dr. John Hall and family, and when the doctor's son, Priestley Hall, came into the management of his father's estate he subdivided the tract now known as Hall's Addition and named two of the streets after his father's old neighbors. L. C. Tibbetts was a farmer rather than a horticulturist, and devoted such time as he could spare from his numerous lawsuits in caring for his grain fields and his horses and cattle. He probably had less to do with the introduction of the beautiful navel orange which has made the country so famous than others whose work has never had recognition. It was his wife-a woman of strong personality and influence in the little neighborhood -through whose efforts the trees were obtained. The story as told the writer by two of those who shared in the work which resulted in so much good to the state is about as follows: One evening when Josiah Cover and Samuel McCoy were visiting with Mrs. Tib- betts, the subject of obtaining new varieties of fruit with which to experiment in the new country came up, when one of them told of his having read in the encyclopedia of a seedless variety of the orange grown at Bahia (or Bay-hay-eye as "Si" called it) in Brazil, which was described as the finest orange in the world. "Si" wondered if it wouldn't be possible to obtain a tree from that dis- tant country, when Mrs. Tibbetts answered that she believed it would. She had personally known Mr. Sanders of the Department of Agriculture while a resident of Washington, and knew that it was a part of his duty to secure desirable trees and plants from abroad. She would write at once to inquire. This she did, and as a result in due time there arrived from Washington two small specimens of the desired variety. The work of planting and caring for these trees was given to "Si" and "Sam," who were engaged in the nursery business near by, and in order to facilitate the fruiting of the variety T. W. Cover got them to put buds into his vigorous seedling trees. A few years later the writer was one of a committee of eight
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or ten citizens who gathered at the home of G. W. Garcelon to sample the first perfect specimen produced here of this wonderful orange. Its quality proved so greatly superior that its propagation by budding was immediately forced to the limit, and this so weak- ened the original trees that a healthy eight-year-old offspring aver- ages larger than either of the parent specimens do today, one of which was in recent years moved to the junction of Palm and Mag- nolia avenues and the other planted by President Roosevelt in the patio of the Glenwood Mission Inn.
Perhaps there is no better way to convey a correct idea of the lawless conditions existing in those times than to relate some of the experiences of those who first located. The miserable half-breed race which had so long ranged without restraint over the entire section seemed to have no respect for the new settlers' rights, and not only allowed their own stock to bother the newcomers, but felt perfectly free to appropriate all the desirable animals of the others not properly protected. Among those conspicuous in organizing to protect private rights was Luther C. Tibbetts. A strong corral was built upon his ranch where stray horses and cattle were impounded, and, cowardice not being one of his failings, he, as pound master, stood ever ready with his gun to defend the stock placed in his care. On the inside of the corral he built a bullet-proof fort, in which he spent his nights to be ready for marauding horse thieves. It was afterwards necessary to organize a sort of vigilance committee, composed of the young and vigorous citizens, to put a stop to the persistent thieving of the Mexicans. Several affrays occurred in which shots were exchanged, with fatal results in some cases, Jack Myers being handy in the use of his rifle, but few of these shooting affairs seem to have resulted in bringing matters into court. One of these that did not result in bloodshed deserves record as illus- trating the conditions at that time. Horses had been stolen from D. S. Strong, and for many months no information was obtained as to their whereabouts. An itinerant Jewish peddler finally gave information concerning them, saying he had seen the animals in a distant neighborhood none too safe for honest citizens. Lots were drawn to select the man who should take charge of the effort for their recapture, and the duty fell upon Thomas Cundiff. He was a well-built man, with good nerve and an eye that meant business, and when, backed by Mr. Strong, he boldly rode into the thieves'
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den with his gun ready for action before they had opportunity to get their own weapons, they were forced to surrender the stolen animals. It was only after the law-breakers were killed or impris- oned that an end was put to these lawless conditions.
Above and below the original colony there were considerable tracts of government land and many interesting tales are told of the claim-jumping indulged in. The "Anchorage" resort, on the Colton road north of town, is located on a claim which the original squatter lost when he yielded to his perennial thirst and went away to indulge in a drunken spree. All the squatters in this earthly paradise were not saintly in their habits, and when they indulged in practices such as would horrify present-day W. C. T. U. mem- bers there was always someone more or less worthy ready to take advantage of their foolishness. Sometimes a title properly held led to a struggle rather serious in character, like that resulting from the efforts of the litigious Tibbetts to gain possession of the land of S. D. Stephenson, located at the corner of Palm avenue and Sierra street. The former, who always believed himself a better lawyer than the judge, was of the opinion that a man could not hold two eighty-acre tracts which were not contiguous, and when the crop was ready to harvest on one of Mr. Stephenson's tracts he sent H. F. Cleine with a mower to cut it, and came on the ground himself armed with a scythe. At an old settlers' meeting in 1897, John G. North, a son of the founder of the colony, who later attained prominence among the attorneys of the state, told in a humorous way the result of the conflict. He said: "It is the story of the jumping of a claim and a dispute over the possession of the grain crop. The two men con- cerned were Sandy and Luther. The grain was ready to harvest, and then came the jumping. As I remember it, Luther thought he had a right to harvest it, and Sandy objected, and a difficulty came out of it, in the course of which it is said that Luther sang a hymn. Sandy protested. Luther insisted. Sandy went and got a double- barrelled gun and filled Luther reasonably full of number twelve shot. It was then that Luther sang the hymn: 'A charge to keep I have.' Sandy was arrested, tried, and fined $250. Just what crime he was supposed to have committed I do not remember, but after a careful consideration of the act performed and the penalty imposed, I think it must have been for a violation of the game law." Mr. Stephenson, forty years later, is a peace-loving and respected
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citizen living with his family at Highgrove; Mr. Cleine, the chief witness in the case, runs a grocery store on Park avenue, while Mr. Tibbetts, after wasting his means in years of needless and costly litigation, died in poverty at last, an object of the kindly pity of his neighbors.
It seems remarkable that so many of the original settlers should have left none of their names among the citizens of the Riverside of today. But there are some who are still with us, or have left children who take pride in the work of their parents in the making of the city. Among them are Rev. C. Day Noble, an invalid brother of Mrs. H. M. Streeter, whose children are still living here. His nearest neighbor was George Leach, a musician of ability, who gave his services freely for the entertainment of the people. His sister Sarah was an army nurse during the Civil war and spent her last years as an inmate of a home in this state, provided for those who had so served. Lucy G., another sister, recently ended a long and useful life at the county hospital.
Among those who held a government claim on the east side was James Patton, who is spending his remaining years with his daugh- ter, Mrs. J. A. Simms. E. M. Sheldon and his son Fred took up eighty acres each, and the family have remained in Riverside ever since. John Wilbur, with his sons, took up 240 acres, and occupied the home upon it until his death. He was a school trustee for sev- eral years. Twelve of his thirteen children, and many grandchil- dren survive him. James Boyd, a native of Scotland, was one of the earlier settlers, and still remains a vigorous man at seventy- three. After trying Australia and different places in California he finally took up a claim of 160 acres in Riverside, upon which his wife and himself have ever since resided. It was he who took the contract for the original grading and planting of Magnolia avenue, and he also did the first work upon Main and other important streets of the city. But more than all, he takes pride in the large family of boys and girls, to whom he has been able to give the advantages of a college schooling.
It is, of course, impossible to give a complete list of those who settled here in the colony days-or previous to the purchase of the unsold lands by S. C. Evans and his associates in 1875. But among those not heretofore mentioned whose families have remained in Riverside are George W. Garcelon, D. H. Burnham, Rev. M. V.
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Wright, Capt. C. C. Miller, P. D. Cover, Dwight S. Strong, Dr. Joseph Jarvis, David Battles, A. McCrary, Ezra and Otis Sheldon, J. R. Huberty, J. W. Van Kirke, E. J. Davis (who built the Reyn- olds hotel), Dr. Stephen Volk, Wilson B. Russell, Mrs. Rebecca Shaw, Dr. S. S. Patton and Walcot Burnham, the last-named being the first to build a house on Magnolia avenue.
What faith and hope these pioneers must have possessed who dared to undertake the establishment of their farms and orchards sixty miles from the only local market which the little village of Los Angeles then offered, and with only the promise of a railroad across the continent to carry their products to larger and more dis- tant ones. But the genial and stimulating climate helped their optimism. Distance did indeed "lend enchantment to the view" of the rugged encircling mountains, and the beauty of the flower- decked plains in springtime was a source of happiness to the men and women who undertook the hard and prosaic duties of home- making in a new land. The water was made to flow in the newly constructed ditch, and the plows turned up the virgin soil to fit it for cultivation. The list of things planted experimentally is a long one, including almost everything grown in the temperate and semi- tropic regions. Nobody knew what would prove the best adapted or most profitable. Besides the orange, lemon and lime, there were large plantings of apple, pears, apricots, almonds, walnuts, olives, figs and innumerable varieties of grapes. All did well, but the raisin grape and the apricot were the first crops to give a satis- factory profit. Riverside was the first community in the state to export raisins in large quantities, her shipments for one year amounting to over 200,000 boxes. Alfalfa growing was, of course, a source of quick and certain revenue, but it was not until the growth of the cities of the state in recent years provided a market for the stock grown upon it that it took the prominent place it now holds. But from the first it was the culture of the orange and lemon that held the interest of the people and led to the developments which have made Riverside the most conspicuous among the orange growing sections of the world.
The first orange tree brought into Riverside was hauled from a Los Angeles nursery by L. C. Waite. He got in too late on a Saturday night to allow of their being immediately planted, and Dr. Shugart, fearing that the tender roots would suffer from expos-
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ure, got out early on Sunday morning, March 1, 1871, and promptly planted those brought for himself, and therefore has the credit of having planted the first orange trees in Riverside. Judge North and Mr. Waite planted their trees on the Monday following. As common seedling trees cost $2 apiece, it prompted the early starting of nurseries for their home propagation, and orange seeds were obtained from Tahiti for this purpose. The first nursery of this kind was established by D. C. Twogood on his dry claim, but owing to the failure of the plan to build a higher canal he was com- pelled in 1872 to move this to that portion of his land lying where irrigating water could be had. The wonderful stories told of the profits of orange growing helped greatly to encourage those pros- pective millionaires under the hardships they suffered during the eight years required to bring a seedling tree into profitable bearing. So they worked and waited. Some of them found great encourage- ment in visiting the bearing orchards of B. D. Wilson at San Gab- riel, where they saw seedling fruit selling to peddlers for cash at $60 a thousand. As this was equivalent to from $7 to $10 a box it is no wonder they dreamed confidently of the wealth to be theirs when their trees reached maturity. It is a fact that when the first few trees came into bearing in Riverside their product netted the owners from $50 to $100.
The first three winters were excessively dry and the land had to be flooded to fit it for breaking, but the work was pushed dili- gently. A heavy frost, such as occasionally handicaps the Cali- fornia orange grower, came one winter, and had a deterrent effect upon the weak-hearted among intending settlers. But, in spite of discouragements, the growth was steady and the people hopeful and happy.
In April, 1872, the first wedding occurred, when Lillian, the sixteen-year-old daughter of Dr. K. D. Shugart, became the bride of L. C. Waite; and "they lived happily ever after," and have run no risk of Rooseveltian criticism because of failure to raise a good family to share the material blessings their industry has won.
The Rev. I. W. Atherton, the Congregational clergyman who performed this first marriage ceremony, had just organized the first church in the settlement, calling it the "Congregational Union" with a view to uniting in it Christians of all denominations. Its members were Mr. Atherton and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Charles B.
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Comstock, W. J. Linville, William Sayre and Miss Nancy M. Burt, the latter being the only survivor of those pioneer members. A year later they built the little white church which stood for so many years on the corner of Sixth and Vine streets. When the Congregationalists, needing larger quarters, built on Seventh street, they sold this building to the Christian church, who finally moved it to Seventh street and incorporated it in the larger edifice which they now occupy.
By 1873 the settlement became almost self-supporting. There were but a little more than sixty acres planted to the orange and lemon, but the grain and hay grown on the irrigated lands, and the alfalfa, fruits, cattle and hogs, were a sure source of revenue, since the increasing population created a home market. Of those who came in these years there was a large proportion who became per- manent residents. G. W. Garcelon built, on Seventh street, a resi- dence more modern and complete than were most of the makeshift shanties of the first settlers. James H. Roe, in telling of this period, says "the most luxurious vehicle in the valley-a two-horse lumber wagon-was sent to Los Angeles to meet Edwin Hart, myself and family, and in this we were driven across the country to Riverside, it taking two days for the trip." After crossing the desert, where thousands of acres of vineyards now cover the wide expanse, the party forded the river, and, passing through the hills over a shoulder of Rubidoux mountain, caught their first glimpse of their future home. "It must be confessed," he says, "it was a deso- late prospect. A dozen or so of small houses scattered over the mile square; a few streets outlined by little pepper trees; the giant mountains and bare granite foothills all around, seeming, in our ignorance of distance, to take nearly all the room or view. It is no wonder that for the moment we felt that we had come to the ends of the earth and that a feeling of homesickness would creep in. But as we clasped hands with old friends and caught the infection of their hope we soon came to accept the golden visions of those who had come before."
H. W. Robinson soon after put on stages to San Bernardino and Los Angeles, with a fare of ten cents a mile; but the public felt it was worth it. Expectations were held that the Texas Pacific would build to San Francisco within a year or two, and this hope of easier communication with the outside world, and a means pro-
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vided for marketing the crops when they should mature, gave courage to push on in the work undertaken.
The village at this time had some three hundred inhabitants, and there were 3000 acres under cultivation, one-third or more being set to fruit trees. Already some 10,000 shade trees had been planted along the streets, a feature which, continuing in later years, has given the city a reputation for beauty, of which it is justly proud. On Christmas day all the citizens assembled in the little school-house, where a banquet was provided and the people fraternized happily, regardless of political or religious differences, which so often divide older communities. The telegraph was ex- tended into town about this time, John G. North being the first operator.
Few of the pioneer families have had a larger share in the up- building of the city than has that of Capt. C. C. Miller, who first came to do a bit of engineering work for the Temescal Tin Mine Company, and, finding other work, brought his family here in the fall of 1874. His children are: Frank A., Edward E., Mrs. G. O. Newman and Mrs. Alice Richardson. The family lived for a time in the tiny little Deere cottage, on Seventh street, which has in time sheltered under its rose-covered roof so many of the early families. In 1875 he purchased the block where the elegant Glen- · wood Mission Inn now stands, building the first little adobe "Glen- wood" from bricks made from a mound which stood in the center of the lot, and here the family ran a hotel so successfully as to compel its repeated enlargement. In 1881 he sold it to his son Frank, whose energy and taste have made of it, if not the largest and finest, at least one of the most unique and popular in the United States.
Benjamin Hartshorn of San Francisco had become the pos- sessor of some 8,600 acres of government land lying south of Arling- ton avenue. In 1874, S. C. Evans, a banker from Fort Wayne, Ind., who was looking for an investment in California, joined with Capt. W. T. Sayward in the purchase of this property, at a cost of about $8 an acre. Later they acquired some 3,000 acres of land, joining it on the south, called the "Rancho Sobrante de San Jacinto." This purchase extended their holdings to the dry wash of the Temescal creek, north of Corona. This consolidated territory they first called the New England Colony, and the owners
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filed claims on the Santa Ana river for water with which to irrigate it. It was ultimately subdivided and put upon the market under the name of Arlington. In surveying for their irrigating canal they discovered that they could not deliver the water high enough to serve the larger and more desirable portion. They also found that the owners of the Southern California Colony Association lands objected to the building of a large canal through their prop- erty, and negotiations were finally entered into which led to the purchase of four-sevenths of the stock of the association, owned by Hon. Charles N. Felton of San Francisco, and the consolidation of nearly all the territory in the valley under the control of a cor- poration known as the Riverside Land and Irrigation Company.
This change of ownership ended the colonial period of River- side history. Judge North ceased longer to shape the policy of the settlement, although a conspicuous and influential citizen until 1880, when he left with his family to become the manager of the Washington Irrigated Colony near Fresno. In 1888 his advancing age caused him to give up active business, and he lived a retired life at Fresno with one of his daughters, Mrs. Shepard, until death claimed him on the 22nd of February, 1890.
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CHAPTER III. THE DAWNING OF A NEW ERA By E. W. Holmes
With the purchase by the Evans-Sayward syndicate of the Southern California Colony Association lands and water system, thus consolidating under a single management all the various tracts in the valley, and with ample means at their command to provide for the valley's development, there dawned a new era. So widely advertised had been the charms of climate and other attractions by the boomers of the various Southern California towns that a deep interest had developed all through the northern states, and stimulated a desire everywhere to undertake new ventures in a land where life could be spent so agreeably, and where so much was promised in a business way to the intelligent and industrious pioneer. A railroad had been completed in the fall of 1874 from Wilmington through Los Angeles to Spadra on the east and San Fernando on the north, and only a little over a hundred miles remained uncompleted over the lofty and rugged Tehachapi moun- tains to give the south railway connections with San Francisco and the East. The certainty that the easterly extension of the Southern Pacific would shortly be completed overland through the San Gor- gonio Pass removed forever the doubt which had delayed the ex- tensive orchard planting which the climatic conditions and the result of experimental work had so clearly demonstrated to be the true line of the section's growth. Excepting when the winter floods made the bridgeless Santa Ana unfordable Robinson's stage line afforded the only accommodations for public travel into Riverside, and the products of the valley were hauled by team to Spadra, or Los Angeles, sixty miles away.
During 1875 there was quite an influx of newcomers, enthu- siastic and energetic, followed in 1876 by a still larger immigration, made easier by the completion in the latter year of the railroad to Colton, on its way overland. So many of the men and women who came in these years were conspicuous in the work of creating the Riverside of today-with the planting of its orchards, the study of varieties and methods of cultivation, the inauguration of the
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