USA > California > Riverside County > History of Riverside County, California > Part 7
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Among those who became residents of Riverside during this year, and have had a large part in the affairs of the valley, was Hon. B. F. White of Weymouth, Mass. He was a man of ability and public spirit, and served later as a school trustee and member of the city board. He was killed in a runaway accident while en- gaged in public business. The senior John Allen came this season from Presque Isle, Me., to visit his son, B. F. Allen, and later an- other son, John A. Allen, joined his relatives here and purchased a thirty-acre orange grove on Colton avenue, all becoming perma- nent residents. P. S. Dinsmore and family located here in June and Edward Treat and family later in the year. In July, O. T. Dyer, an Illinois banker, arrived and began the construction of a small bank building on the corner of Main and Ninth streets. This first Riverside bank was opened for business on the 6th of Decem- ber. The firm was composed of William H. Dyer of Troy, N. Y., Otis T. Dyer of Wyoming, Ill., and Miss E. C. Dyer was cashier. About the same time there arrived many people from Galesburg, Ill., among whom were Orson Johnson and wife, parents of A. P. and O. T. Johnson; John Aberdeen and family, Rev. Charles But- ton and wife. Martin Hoover and wife (from Leavenworth, Kan.), Dr. C. W. Craven, and his parents, Mr. and Mrs. C. V. Craven, and S. H. Ferris and family, and others. C. W. Filkins, who later succeeded Dr. Greves as postmaster, located in November, and opened a store on Main street. George R. Thayer and wife, from Weymouth, Mass., arrived the same month, and in December, D. M. Bradford and family, from Cornell, Iowa, and Miss E. C. Dyer became residents. James Chalmers and family also came this sea- son, and built a home on the block where the courthouse now stands.
On the 22nd of April a reception and banquet was given Hon. H. M. Streeter, who had been chosen the fall before to represent the county in the lower branch of the state legislature. It was given to testify the citizens' appreciation of his services as assem- blyman, especially with reference to his success in securing the adoption of a law by which a town council or board of county super- visors were empowered to fix water rates each year, instead of
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allowing corporations to fix such rates arbitrarily, as they had pre- viously been free to do.
A floral fair, successful artistically as well as financially, was held by the ladies, May 22, under the management of Mrs. James Bettner and others, and a handsome sum realized for the benefit of the library association, that institution not having become the property of the city.
Evergreen Cemetery Association was incorporated this sea- son, with E. Conway, L. M. Holt, Capt. B. B. Handy, L. C. Waite and J. B. Camp as directors.
During the summer the California Southern railroad was incor- porated, and a survey made by Fred T. Perris, from San Bernar- dino to San Diego, through the Box Springs and Temecula canyons
All these matters we are recording indicate a rapid growth of the valley, but nothing shows this more clearly than the result of the presidential election, when the Democratic majority of the county seat was for the first time overcome by the majority which Riverside gave some of the Republican candidates.
In November the supreme court handed down a decision in the long-fought water litigation between W. O. Price vs. the River- side Land and Irrigation company. The result was a curious one, showing the absurdity of the law's delay. Mr. Price, who repre- sented the land owners, discouraged over the failure to get a de- cision, had sold his place on the corner of Arlington and Riverside avenues, to A. P. Johnson and returned east. Mr. Johnson had settled the contested point by purchasing water stock of the com- pany, as had most of the other parties who had undertaken the contest so many years before:
The year 1881 brought an increasing number of those who were to be conspicuous in Riverside affairs. Among these were Matthew Gage, from Kingston, Canada; H. B. Everest, from Den- ver; Rev. Dr. George H. Deere, from Minnesota; T. H. B. Chamb- lin, George Frost, Charles G. Hurd, Orin and W. H. Backus, A. M. Denig, Bradford Morse, George M. Skinner, George H. Ful- lerton, W. A. and C. P. Hayt, W. P. Lett, C. A. Crosby, Dr. Clark Whittier, W. H. Fessenden, Peter Klinefelter, George M. Morse, J. W. Bryant, Thomas and Kenneth Hendry, J. K. Wood- ward, J. H. Fountain, A. L. Whitney, B. F. Locke, Harry Kearne J. E. Hill, H. D. Noland and H. Saunders.
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Notwithstanding the fact that her orchards and vineyards have offered, when properly worked, reasonable assurance of wealth, the people of the valley have shared with other sections of the state an occasional mining epidemic, and these have usually resulted in financial loss to those who have yielded to temptation in this direc- tion and invested their hard-earned capital in mining ventures. In the early '80s the finding of gold indications near where now stands the Victoria club house, on the banks of the big arroyo, and elsewhere in the neighborhood, led to search being made every- where for the precious metal. Claims were staked out, and it was asserted that nobody dug a well who did not "pan out" the gravel found at the water level. But, while gold was found in many places about the valley, it was generally in too small a quantity to war- rant looking for. On the further side of the Temescal range silver was found and a mining town laid out. Tin for a time was mined by an English company, in the hills between Riverside and Corona. Abram Hoag successfully worked the Gavilan gold mine, and it was claimed took out $500 a week for a while. The Mexicans had found considerable gold in the hills between Perris and Elsinore, making wages with their crude methods, and here clearly defined veins have been quite extensively worked by Americans in recent years- the Good Hope, the Santa Rosa and other claims giving promise of rich returns. Of these the Good Hope has thus far alone justi- fied the expense incurred in developing it.
It was during this season that the Arlington Presbyterian church edifice was completed. Its original cost was upwards of $3,500. It was dedicated on Sunday, April 24, 1881. The pastor was Rev. A. G. Lane, and he was assisted by Rev. J. W. Ellis of Los Angeles, who preached the dedicatory sermon, and by Rev. Charles Button of the local Baptist church, and Rev. W. H. Cross, Congregationalist. The music was furnished by C. W. Packard, or- ganist; Mrs. S. B. Bliss, soprano; Mrs. J. H. Benedict, contralto; J. H. Roe, tenor, and O. T. Dyer, bass.
In the winter of 1881 the first Universalist sermon was preached in Riverside by Rev. J. H. Tuttle, a distinguished clergy- man of that denomination. On the 20th of July following, Rev. George H. Deere and wife came from Minnesota to make this city their permanent home. Mr. Deere was not only a man of scholar- ship and ability, but was one who, by reason of his sincere and
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kindly nature, won the respect and regard of all. Besides his faithful work as a pastor he gave a splendid service during many years as chairman of the school and library boards of the city. At the close of the first service, held on the Sabbath following his arrival, a meeting was held, over which William Finch presided, at which a committee was chosen, consisting of Dr. Deere, Dr. Shugart, L. M. Holt, P. S. Russell, Ira C. Haight, A. B. Derby and George M. Skinner, through whose efforts a church organiza- tion was effected. One of the original school buildings, for which a larger one was to be substituted, was purchased and moved to the spot now occupied by the Southern Pacific passenger station on Market street, where services were held until the growth of the society enabled it to build the beautiful stone church which this society now occupies on Lemon street.
There appears, in the minutes of Mr. Roe regarding this sea- son, an item concerning an orchard product and the method of its shipment, which will have interest to those familiar with pres- ent Riverside products and prices. He reports that Dr. Jarvis and his brother John T., ran a steam fruit dryer near Arlington, where were then extensive apricot orchards, and that they cured, packed and shipped the most valuable load of apricots ever sent out of Riverside. There were over 4,800 pounds of first quality, which sold at 27 cents per pound, and 600 pounds at 22 cents. W. C. Johnson hauled them to Newport in a six-horse team, from which point they were shipped by water to San Francisco.
It was the proud boast of the Riverside orchardist in the pio- neer days, as it is today in the newly-planted sections of California, that we had no insect pests to endanger the health and productive- ness of our trees. The red scale (aspidiotus aurantii) was, before any means had been discovered of effectively fighting this pest, ruining the San Gabriel groves, and when Dr. Whittier was found to have imported a lot of nursery trees from the infected section, in entire ignorance of the danger incurred, a mass meeting was called to prevent their planting. There being no law then in exis- tence preventing the spread of dangerous pests, the citizens raised the necessary fund and purchased and burned the entire shipment. A few years later a few specimens were found where the pest had evidently been introduced by visitors who had brought San Gabriel oranges along with their lunches, and had thrown the rind about
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as they partook of them. In spite of the fact that such appropria- tion of public funds was not specifically permitted in the law under which the city was then organized, the city trustees paid the owners in certain blocks the sum of $1,800 to cut off the entire tops of their trees and give the stumps a thorough coat of whitewash. This served for a while, but ultimately infections appeared which made necessary the securing of legislation to enable the valley to organize protective action, but in spite of all the effort and ex- pense incurred it has not been possible to eradicate, but only meas- urably control the spread of such orchard pests. Such control, however, has prevented the ruin of our orchards.
The published statements regarding affairs in Riverside, at the close of 1881, furnish a few items of interest. During the year land had been sold to the extent of $392,404, and over $140,000 worth of new buildings had been erected. Miss M. C. Call and Lillian Putnam and Miss M. H. Harris were the only teachers in the city district schools. Congratulations were in order over the fact that money could now be borrowed on good security at from 10 to 12, instead of 18 per cent, as had often heretofore been de- manded. Matthew Gage, whose grand work in developing the great system which bears his name, and has made possible the growth of an orange acreage larger than the original settlement, had but just arrived with his family, and was following his trade of jeweler in a portion of Roe's drug store.
The fame of Riverside's beauty and success as a fruit-growing town was becoming national, and was already prompting the under- taking of similar ventures in other favored sections. Most con- spicuous among the successful imitators of Riverside was that un- dertaken by Judson & Brown, where what is now Redlands. The name of this new colony was suggested by the fact that it was in the red soil of Riverside that the finest oranges were grown-a quality of soil conspicuously found in Redlands. In the advertise- ments first printed by a local promoter this new tract to be put upon the market was advertised as "an extension of East River- side," in order to use the prestige of the older colony. Corona also utilized us in calling herself South Riverside, until the time came when she had demonstrated the possession of advantages of her own to excuse her preferring an independent and more euphoni- ous name. Even East Riverside finally dropped that name to call
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herself Highgrove, because high groves are supposed to be less in- jured by frost-though the powers which control temperatures do not seem to be greatly influenced by the names which mortals attach to a section.
CHAPTER IV. THE DAWNING OF A NEW ERA (CONTINUED) By E. W. Holmes
The town had now outgrown the little hall in the Odd Fellows' building. To supply the need for larger accommodations for en- tertainments and public meetings a little cheap "opera house" was built on the south side of Eighth street, between Orange and Lemon. It was covered both on the roof and sides with corru- gated iron, and, though it had a stage with curtain and wings, could only serve as a makeshift. It was here that the first comic opera was performed and where traveling shows appeared. But some- thing better was greatly needed, and Albert S. White, with char- acteristic public spirit, undertook to incorporate a Citrus Fair As- sociation, the main purpose of which was to build a pavilion with a large auditorium and committee rooms, required for fair pur- poses. His plan involved the raising of $5,000, and by fall the entire amount had been subscribed, in $25 shares. The building was completed the following season and served admirably for the purposes designed until destroyed by fire in 1886. The sum raised from the sale of stock was only sufficient to complete the building itself, and the stage, curtain and scenery required to equip it for general public use were not secured until a year or two later, when the writer organized an amateur dramatic club, which gave a "benefit for pavilion improvement," which provided the needed funds. The plays staged for this benefit were a dramatization of Dickens' "Our Mutual Friend" and the popular old farce, "Box and Cox." All of those who took part, twenty-eight years ago, are living, and all but one are still residents of Riverside.
The members of the club were: Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Backus,
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E. W. Holmes, Charles F. Packard, Frank Patton, Miss Kate Overton, Mrs. W. P. Russell, Miss Jessie Gill (now Mrs. Frank Patton) and George Rotner. In this connection the fact is recalled that one of the first companies of professional players to make use of our pavilion stage was one managed by Kendall Holt and wife, who found Riverside so attractive that they gave up theatrical life and became permanent residents. He was, until his death a few years since, a city editor on one of our dailies, and his widow is still teaching elocution to our youth and giving her services as a reader when needed for benevolent objects.
The increased values of orchard property ten years from the first planting is shown by the sale, in 1881, of fifteen acres belong- ing to Capt. B. B. Handy, located at the top of the hill on Brock- ton avenue, for $15,000. C. A. Tinker was the purchaser. Several years later an adjacent seedling grove is said to have sold for $3,000 an acre, a price never exceeded in these later years. But all this section now has a greater value for residence use than for orange growing.
In January, 1882, Riverside had an unusual experience-her first and only real snow storm. The 11th had been a beautiful day, but the mercury dropped to 26 degrees during the night following. Toward morning it became overcast and the temperature moder- ated. Finally, at daybreak, the snow began falling, and increas- ing, fell steadily all day and into the night, and when morning came there was a layer of the white covering fully eight inches in depth. For a while during the storm the orchardists had vainly tried to shake off the snow from the trees, heavy already with fruit, but finally gave up the work as hopeless, and many trees split down with the burden. Strangely enough the presence of the body of damp snow held the temperature steadily at 32 degrees and little fruit was injured. Impromptu sleighs were rigged up, and a few took advantage of the rare conditions to enjoy a sleigh ride. The snow, when melted, showed an equivalent of 1.40 inches rainfall.
The spring of 1882 saw the first steps made in an undertak- ing which had tremendous influence in shaping the valley's growth, since it doubled the irrigable acreage of the valley, induced large investments of foreign capital, and added immensely to the popu- lation of the city. Matthew Gage this season filed on section 30, located on the extension of East Eighth street. It was taken under
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the desert land act, which enabled a person to take up 640 acres of dry land, with three years in which to redeem it, by bringing irrigating water upon it. It was the possession of this land which furnished the motive for Mr. Gage's persistent search for water, and prompted his successful effort to secure the large capital nec- essary to build the Gage canal across the rough intervening country to a point where it was possible to spread it over the many thou- sands of acres, where are now our finest orange and lemon groves.
Although this great work was initiated at this time, the three years allowed the claimant in which to secure the title to his land had nearly expired before the water reached it. But we may as well give at this point a brief story of this great undertaking. With no capital excepting faith and an undaunted courage, Mr. Gage per- sistently pressed forward until the work was accomplished, and his name will be forever linked with a development ranked among the most important in the history of Southern California. In his search for a water supply, Mr. Gage found a tract of several hun- dred acres in the Santa Ana river bottom, several miles above Colton, owned by J. A. Carit. This land had a right to all the water flowing in the river, after previous claims had been supplied, and he was convinced that by sinking wells of moderate depth in the lands adjacent to the stream, he should find artesian water in abundance. He bonded this property for $75,000, for a limited time, not having the capital necessary to enable him to purchase it, and then went quietly at work obtaining rights of way for a canal from this land to the plain above Riverside, upon which his claim was located. His ambition had now risen far beyond the original scheme of supplying water for his own land. He now proposed to water the whole territory between Riverside and the foothills. The Iowa Land and Development Company, of which Governor Merrill was the president and S. H. Herrick and A. J. Twogood the local representatives, had purchased some 2,000 acres of land where Highgrove now stands, which amount was later increased to some 3,500 acres. As the owners of this tract would be Mr. Gage's largest customers he went to Iowa to confer with Governor Merrill. The Iowa company had received overtures from Carit in regard to selling them his water-bearing lands, but Mr. Gage had secured the only available right of way, and for this and other reasons they closed a contract with him, agreeing to
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take 335 inches-an amount afterwards increased. Armed with this contract, Mr. Gage returned, closed his bargain with Carit, and commenced the work of canal building. Nearly all the owners of land under the flow of the proposed canal took water stock, and with this substantial collateral he obtained all the ready money re- quired. He guaranteed to purchasers a water right of an inch to five acres for $100 per acre, when his canal should be completed. The original Gage Canal terminated at section 30, the system serving the land owners under this canal in the Highgrove section having purchased a right from Mr. Gage to about 725 inches of water.
The Riverside Trust Company, Mr. Gage's successor, after- wards extended the system across the big arroyo, and now sup- plies an immense area of the best mesa and hillside lands in the state, whose product in quantity and quality is unsurpassed. Con- siderably over a million dollars have been expended upon this water system, which in canal mileage and value is not inferior to that of the original Riverside Water Company plant.
An irrigation district was later organized to furnished water for land above those just described, but purchasers of land found that the district, like many others organized at that time under the state law, had everything required excepting water. Among these land owners was Ethan A. Chase, and it was through his efforts mainly that the Riverside Highland Water Company was organized and made one of the best water systems in the valley. About a million dollars were required to purchase water-bearing lands at distant points in Lytle creek and in the Santa Ana river bottom, and to establish the pumping plants and pipe lines required. The company is now pumping nearly a thousand inches of water to a point in the hills 500 feet above the bottom, from where it flows in pipes to the various orchards.
The oldest and best of the water rights along the river furnish a supply for the West Riverside section. And these are supple- mented by an immense quantity pumped from wells where no one dreamed in the early days that water could be obtained. Modern pumping machinery and the building of great electric power lines through what was literally desert lands only a few years ago are transforming the sandy wastes tributary to Riverside and Corona into broad green fields of profit-paying alfalfa, as well as into other
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lines of development inviting settlement, and this diversifying of the resources of the county bids fair to maintain a prosperity which once depended upon practically a single branch of horticulture.
The record of the sales of land in 1882 is a wonderful one for so young a town, footing up $522,338, and the changes which a dozen years had brought is indicated by the fact that it was in this season that the venerable and popular postmaster, Dr. Greves, who first took charge of the office at a salary of $5 a year, was supplanted by C. W. Filkins, who was given a salary of $1,700.
It was in this year that the first effective steps were taken in providing the city with a public park: the four blocks which Mr. Evans had given in exchange for the original plaza had become little better than a tule-grown frog pond-a public nuisance. Dr. Clark Whittier proposed to build a brick sanitarium, and desired to locate it upon the corner of the park at the junction of Eighth and Market streets. He offered to fill the pond and park, the cen- tral portion, if he should be given the north and south portions fronting on Eighth and Tenth streets. The consent of every prop- erty owner in town had to be obtained to legalize the trade. The building erected is now a part of the Holyrood hotel. The bargain was a fine one for the doctor, and hastened the building up of that section, but it has always been a source of regret that the action taken had forever restricted the area of our only centrally located park. A little later the citizens raised $2,000 to use in building a bandstand and beautifying the grounds, and in recognition of his interest in securing the improvement of the park it was finally named the Albert S. White park. In recent years, George N. Reyn- olds built the pretty fountain which occupies a central location.
On the 1st of August, 1882, the California Southern railroad was completed from San Diego, through Temecula canyon, to Point of Rocks, near where the Southern Pacific road now crosses it. Owing to the San Bernardino interests of Chief Engineer Perris, all efforts to locate the line by an easier grade directly through Riverside failed. The Riverside station was therefore located three miles from town. H. E. Allatt was the first station agent.
Three years later the Santa Fe road completed the building of its line through the Cajon Pass and made connection with the Riv- erside-San Diego road, by which means the valley was brought into direct connection by rail with Chicago and the east. In Septem-
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ber, 1885, the Santa Fe company asked for a right of way for a line from East Riverside to Los Angeles, through the valley, and the people of Riverside, led to suppose this was to be the main overland line of that system, generously raised the money neces- sary to give the company a right of way and depot grounds. On the 22nd of March, 1886, this line was opened to travel, amid gen- eral rejoicing, for it gave the city direct rail connection with Los Angeles and all points in the east, and led to a reduction of $60 a car on the rate for oranges.
This was but the commencement of a great amount of railroad building, which has given the city the benefit of three great trans- continental lines, and a local trolley system inferior to none in the state. A steam motor system was built, mostly by local capital, in 1888, connecting Riverside and San Bernardino. It did not prove a profitable investment to the stockholders, who lost prac- tically all they put into it, and was finally purchased by the South- ern Pacific company, by which that road obtained its present valu- able depot grounds on Market street, in the very heart of the city. But the result gave the valley connection with a second great rail- road system.
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