USA > California > San Benito County > History of San Benito County, California : with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, farms, residences, public buildings, factories, hotels, business houses, schools, churches, and mines : with biographical sketches of prominent citizens > Part 34
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Monterey has long been known for its eqaable temperature and for its health-giving atmosphere and breezes. It was the first capital of California, and has always enjoyed, amongst old Californians, the reputation of being the healthiest aud most delightful spot in their State ; and it is, undoubtedly, the most perfect place for the invalid and the valetudinarian to winter in, and for the seeker after pleasure and recuperation to sun- mer at, upon the Pacific coast, and perhaps in the world. Fully realizing these facts, the Southern Pacific Railroad Company some two years ago, built a road from a point on their main coast-line, and now run two trains daily each way between San Francisco and this charming city by the sea.
There is probably no place upon the Pacific coast so replete with natural charms as Monterey. Its exquisite beauty and variety of scenery is diversified with ocean, bay, lake and steamlet; mountain, hill and valley, and groves of oak, cypress, sprnec, pine and other trees, The mountain views are very beautiful, particularly the Gabilan and Santa Cruz spurs. That which will the quickest engage the observation of the visitor, however, is the pine-fringed slope near town and the grove that surrounds the " Hotel del Monte."
FASHIONABLE SKA-SIDE RESORT.
As some requirement of the public at large has always had a hand either in pointing out almost every well-known spot, of picturesque beauty in the world, or at least in developing it, so it was the fact that San Francisco needed a fashionable sea- shore resort that brought Monterey into celebrity after it had swung around the circle of civilization almost into oblivion. As I bave spoken of it as a resort, it is not difficult to prove its claims. It has an ideal atmosphere and temperature-it is in California and is not that enough ?- in a section of country where winter never visits, and where summer, too, is forgotten; and in their place tbe lucky inhabitants have tbat blissful
climate which contains all the attractions of the fickle element and none of its drawbacks. It is a purified, idealized elimate; never cold, never hot ; always halmy, never enervating ; and possessing in its moderation the rare quality of being bracing. Too dry for malaria or fover, too mill and oven for pneu- monia and its near blood relation, consumption, ennnot one forgive any amount of enthusiasm upon sneh a elimate ? But Monterey is not all climate; it is scenie as well. It is a spot to inspire poets, and to nerve the artist's hand ; and it is also an all-the-year-round resort, as the thermometer varies only ahont six degrees from January to June. It was California's first capital eity, but its situation being hardly adapted to that honor, it was stripped of that prominent position and became simply Monterey. But its thousands of happy visitors can support its loss of political importance, and perhaps he thank- ful that its beautiful location was not monopolized by business, or its fine bay and sea view marred by the inevitable disfig- urciment of traffic and its adjuncts. Besides being climatic and scenic, Monterey is likewise historical. We were all taught at school, if you will recollect, that many parts of the Pacific coast were made picturesque by ruins; but in this instance they are not the ruins of barbaric splendor.
PICTURESQUE RUINS OF CARMELO.
The architecture of the Mission challenges admiration. It is vast, solid and dignified, bearing, intentionally, a decided resemblance to the Syrian Mount Carmel; the mound-like effect is arrived at by a gentle slope of the walls of the com- pact main buildings from the ground to the roof. It is a noble edifice, even now, and fitted well to its surroundings. In no land in the world does verdure reach a higher state of perfec- tion than in California ; trees and plants alike grow to fabu- lous sizes, while the coloring in the landscape effects, and the hues of ocean and sky rival the tropics, and in the midst of this is Monterey ; and four miles away through pleasant roads and bewildering groves of eypress is the picturesque Mission, framed in a landscape unlikely to mar the thoughts which this stately ruin will inspire, as one looks upon its noble towers, its ruined, grass-grown stairs, all the handiwork of this little body of men, who left their own country, not to mnend their fortanes or earn riches, but true to a principle, and in a spirit deserving of devout respect, however antagonistic it may seein to inany. In those narrow cells they said their pater- moster; up and down those moss-encrusted stairs they went upon their daily rounds of work and prayer ; and to whatever duties their successors in faith may now devote themselves, that drooping structure demands for the co-workers of Father .Innipero Serra profound respect.
Tbe Bay of Monterey is a magnificent sheet of water, and is twenty-eight miles from point to point. It is delightfully adapted to boating and yachting ; and many kinds of fish (and
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HOTEL DEL MONTE BATHING PAVILION.
ELEGANT SEASIDE HOTEL AND NOTHING BEACH
especially rock-rx tarracula, pepino, Spanish inachoral and funadler, may 1- taken at nil times of the suns ani val- non during portions of the outer months For bathing pur- press the beach i all that would be desired long sweep of wide gently sloping, denn white and the very por fection of n hathing beach, and was safe that children uns play and leather upon it with entire seurity There are also great varioting of sea meses, shells, pebbles and agated Satte rol here and there along the rim of the bay, fringil as it is at all times with the creamy ripples of the surf
Tilt HOTEL. 10.6 MONTE
To those who resort to Monterrey as a fashionable watering plare during the summer, or as a health resort during winter. the " Hotel del Monte" is locked upou as one of the greatest of all the attractions, not only on account of it- ling the ment magnificent structure of the kind on the Pacific coast, but because it is one of the largest, hand- somest, und ure of the mnost elegantly 13 - furnished sen-side hotels in the world. Indeed, no oeran house upon the At- lantic approaches it in its plan of ex- ... terior, while its in- terior finish, accom- modations andl np- pointments are inneh superior to those of any like estaldishment in the United States, It is built in the modern Gothic style, and is 385 feet in length and 115 in width, with wings; there are two full stories, an attic story, and several thors in the central tower or observatory. Its ground floor in some respects resembles that of the Grand Union at Saratoga ; and as in that and other Eastern summer hotels, the lady guests have access to all the public rooms, and especially to the office or lobby in the front center of the building, which is 42x48 feet: connecting with the lobby is a reading-room, 24x26; then a ladies' billiard room, 25x62; then a ladies' parlor. 34x42. and then, with a hall or covered veranda between, a ball-10011 36×72. There is a corridor extending the whole length of the building, twelve feet wile. The dining-room is 45x70; a chil- dren's and servaut's ilining-room is attached, and apartments for parties who may prefer dejeuners a la fourchette. The kitchen is 33x40 feet. There are twenty-eight suites of rooms ou this Hoor, each with bath-room and all other modern improvements. There are three staircases, one at the inter-
nif ofthenlwing anla granl stan Fa hig from the laten In to ul atry the as fiens ont
impros ml There is ala promenad the wall ligth of the bathing towels fest ins with in the altar sors the mo are thirteen antes all twents in . nel nome mats tive ani absent rights fet in light there an tin Dran in the ut nator th ol tre an about fifty it in light The hotel is light i through est with gas mal at the works up the ground, and sql i with water from an art 11 no profile na sinat time both in the perf at enteiton of the Bil in the apparatus for esting malung Ham elegantly furnished I throughout The la li ' Millingen a of the largest and most elegantly appointed in the I niter bowling alley and smoking mans for gentlemen At n short distance fruit the hotel is a stabin mind corrige - hunsr. Ingernnngh tại nữ commelat rixty
the hoste i sent the
hot and call water thrunglent tin hu. tol, and all other
HOTELDEL MONTE .MONTEREY
and improvement. The grounds, con king of about our hundred and twenty-six acres, are entirely onclient and at beautifully worked with pine, oak, colar and express. There have ben about one thousand two hundred young the allel. mint of which are English walnut.
BEAUTIFUL SPEROISIONGS.
Croquet plats, swings, an enclosure for lawn tennis, etc., are provided, and choice flowers, whrules and graswe are grow- ing under the eye of an experienced gardener. The hotel necommestates four Inwired people; It is only a stone's throw from the station, which is connected with it by a wide gravel and cement walk. The company also own seven thousand acn~ of land, through which there are many excellent drives, and over which roam au abun lance of game, including innurn. erable deer. There are also several trout streams near by, from which the gamey fish may be taken at nll time in the year, except when the rivers are swollen by rains.
166
THE BATHING ADVANTAGES OF MONTEREY.
SUPERIOR AND SAFE BATHING
The beach is only a few minutes' walk from the Hotel del Monte, and is a very fine one. Mr. W. H. Daily, the cham- pion swimmer of the Pacific coast. and who has made himself well acquainted with the character of several of the most noter beaches from San Francisco to Santa Monica, says, in a letter lated Monterey, December 15, 1879, "I have made a careful examination of the beach at this place, as to its fitness for purposes of hathing. I find it an easy, sloping beach of fine saud : no gravel, no stones anywhere below high-water mark. I wadel and swain up the beach a quarter of a mile, that is, toward the rast, and also westward toward the warehouse, and found a smooth, sandy bottom all the way; no rocks, no sea- wand and no undertow. The whiteness of the sand makes the water beautifully elear. I consider the beach here the finest on the Pacific coast. I was in the water an hour yesterday, and found it, even at this time of the year, none too cold for enjoyable bathing."
LARGE AND COMPLETE BATH HOUSK.
The bathing establishment is the largest and most complete on the Pacific coast, and contains warin salt water plunge and swimming baths, four hundred rooms, and a swimming tank one hundred and fifty feet by fifty, varying in depth from three' to six feet, heated by steam pipes and supplied with a constant flow of water from the sea ; and in addition thereto a number of rooms for those who prefer individual baths of hot and cokt salt water-with ample douche and shower facilities.
BEAUTIFUL PLEASURE DRIVES.
The drives over the new macadamized roads throughout the seven thousand acres owned by the company, and elsewhere about the ohl eity, reveal countless attractions of shore and grove. Civilization and modern ingenuity and wealth of means have aided nature ; and not only invalids, tourists and artists flock to Monterey, but the fashionable have elaimed it as their own under the impression, as usual, that the best of this world's pleasures is fashion's hirthright-indeed, if one would but think of it, it is probably very fortunate that health resorts are usually capable of being made attractive, or else the great giddy world would be in danger. And thus Monterey's long dream has been permanently broken. As Mr. W. H. Mills, editor of the Sacramento Record-Union, in a letter to his paper, about a year ago, said : " Her destiny is not that of a trading eenter. She will produce no millionaires. No stock exchanges will establish themselves in her peaceful old streets. It is her lot to he the fashionahle and favorite watering-place of California ; the resort of invalids from less genial climes ; a winter as well as a summer haunt for people in delieate health;
in fact, a sanitarium of the prosperous kind that has received the imprimatur of fashion.
"The Hotel del Monte has settled this question, and the pos- sibilities of the place. It has lifted it out of the rut in which it had lain so long and so coutentedly, and has, in conjunction with the railroad, brought it within easy reach of everybody. Its pleasant climate, its interesting associations, its natural heauties, its fine bathing, will all combine to render it more popular from year to year, and we may be sure that in a littlo while its elaims will be recognized by that steady extension of country-house building in the neighborhood which always attends such revivals." MONTEREY HAS THUS REACHED HER RENAISSANCE.
PACIFIC GROVE RETREAT.
Pacific Grove Retreat is on the beautiful Bay of Monterey, one and a half miles from the ancient capital of the State. It will be open annually for the reception of visitors, tourists, and campers from June Ist till about the end of September. As a healthful place of resort it is not surpassed by any locality in the State. For beauty of location it cannot be excelled, its laagnificent pine grove affording pleasant shade and extending to the water's edge. For all forms of bronchial or throat affections, it is a well-recognized fact that residence in pine groves is peculiarly beneficial. There are in the Grove, mineral waters of the very bighest excellence, and referenec can be given to persons well known throughout the State, as to the advantage to he derived from their use.
SEA-BATHING.
Sea-bathing can be indulged in with safety and comfort on a beautiful, sandy heach. A large number of entirely new bathing suits for ladies, gentlemen and children have been pro- vided, and every attention will he paid to the wants of bathers. A new bath-house has also been erceted.
We wish to call the attention of those who often have a few days at their disposal for recreation, to the peculiar advantages possessed by this peerless sea-side resort. It is easily accessible either by land or water, has a most healthful and invigorating climate, splendid sea-bathing, beautiful drives, salt and fresh water fishing and game at easy distances, and for the ladies and children no more pleasant occupation can be found than in gathering the exquisite mosses and shells with which the beach abounds; while for invalids its mineral waters are second to none in the State. Besides all these advantages, there are none of the disturhing influences which exist at so many watering- places, as no immorality of any kind is permitted on the grounds.
Parties wishing to visit this pleasant sea-side resort will please notice that they have the right to provide themselves with everything needful for sleeping and eating during their
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF RESIDENTS
Biographical. .
HON. JOHN KING ALEXANDER
HON. JOHN KING ALEXANDER Superior Julge of Monterey county, is a native of Brandou, Rankin county Mississippi, an.l was born October 8, 1939. His parents names were B. F. and Caroline W. Alexander. His early life was spent in Jackson, Mississippi, from 1541 nutil July, 15.4.
His father started for California in the fall of 1549, aud arrived in January, 1830. In 1854, the family, consisting of mother, a sister and brother younger than .lohn K., set out to join the father, which they did at Sacramento in August of that year. They came by the Panama route, on the steamer El Dorado from New Orleans, and from the Isthinus to San Francisco by the steamer California. Immediately on arrival in San Francisco, they went to Sacramento by the steamer Nem l'orhl, and joined the father, who was a citizen of Saera. mento and a contractor.
In 1858, the father of John K. was interested in the Wood- house Quartz Mill Company, in Calaveras county, and here the subject of this sketch did his first mining for about a year. He afterward lived in Diumoud Springs, Amador county, where hiv acted as clerk for the firm of A. & G. P. Merrill.
John K. attended the Sacramento High School, and after- wards studied law under George R. Moore, and was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of California, on motion of M. M. Estee, October 7, 1862. In the fall of 1869 he was nominated by the Democracy of Sacramento county for the office of District Attorney, to which position he was elected by n majority of 683 votes, although said county was then, as now, overwhelmingly Republican. This position he held for two years, commencing March, 1870. While still District At- torney, he was nominated for County Judge of Sacramento county, in 1871, but was not elected. Ile has always made his home in Sacramento nutil he removed to Monterey county in August, 1874. His father and mother are now (1881; living in Sacramcuto City. His father was born in South Carolina. ,January 28, 1811, and his mother in Tennessee, Oct. 10, 1822.
He practiced law in Sacramento as the partner of G. R. Moore, J. W. Armstrong and A. C. Freeman, the law author and com- piler.
He married Miss Sallie B. Carothers in August. 1865, who was a native of Carthage, Illinois. Their children are named Elmer Pendleton Alexander, born June 15, 1871, and Roy Lamar Alexander, born June 20, 1876.
He came to Salinas City August 9, 1874, and engaged in the practice of law, which business increased on his hands, and his practice became extensive and Incrative. He is a law- yer of acknowledged ability.
In September, 1879, he was elected to the Superior Judge-
ships having laan nominate Ily the Imorate and online by the Republicans, and assuune lits lut - in January 1450
He has lad no deusions several and quite a number affirinal to the Supreme Court He received the highest com. pline at over pail to a Jala Is the Supreme court inthe ca of the People .s. Wall as reparte I in Paint La Jour Farbe" The Court says "We have examined that part of the transcript with great care, and are obliged to was, in justice to the learned judge who provided at the trial, that the change (.) the jury is a very char and alde statement of the law of the homicide. It is a lengthy charge, completely covering all the points in the case, and is, in our opinion, entirely correct"
JORN WIKNAM 1FIGHT
JOHN WIKHAM LEIGH is A Virginian by birth and was "lucated at the I'niver-ity of that State He had just gra.hit. atel when, in 1917, he was commissioned First Lieutenant in n regiment of riflemen, in I'nited States army. He served two years in the Mexican war as conunander of a company whoer ''aptain was killed. He was brevettid l'aptain, and also served! as aid-de-camp. The regiment being one of the "ten " added to the "line " for the war, went out of service at its flow. In 1849 he read law with .ludge Kent, son of the chancellor, in Y Y.
Being dyspeptic from the change of life, he came to Califor- nia the following year, ISSO, "around the Horn," iu clipper ship Sea Witch, arriving in San Francisen in July of that year. Still dyspeptic and unalde to work in the city, he went in the full, to the mines of Agua Fria, Maripra county. There, and in mines to the southward, working with pick aud shovel, he remained until the next fall, when he returned to San Fran- cisco and found employment in the city ; first ns law reporter of the San Francisco Heralt, John Nugent e litor. He was then promoted to editorial staff as assistant editor. He had three years' experience as such.
He then quitted the journalistic profession, became stock- grower in Santa Clara county and subsequently in Monterey county. In 1861, married Miss Bowie, daughter of Hamilton Bowie, once Treasurer of San Francisco.
In 1862 he went to Virginia and entered the Confederate service as Major, Fourth Virginia Artillery, and served about a year in that capacity and then resigned, returning to California, where his wife had remained. He resumel stock-growing, and in 1863, in association with M. Malarin and the tirin of San- jurjo, Bolado and Pujol, established a "matanza" in the town of Monterey, slaughtering cattle and sheep by the thousand fur hides and tallow. The drouth of 1863-4 destroyed the live stock of the State and he abandoned that business.
In 1865 he went, with family, back to Virginia to live, but fiuding climate intolerable, in 1867 he again returned to Cali- fornia, and at once assumed charge of Stockton Gazette as editor. In December, 1868, he came to Monterey, and from that date to present has been editing; first the Monterey Democrat,
168
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF RESIDENTS.
for some years in the town of Monterey, and later in Salinas City This is the oldest newspaper now in the county, having ben established in 1967, and has always been a leading, influ- ential, andl able journal.
Hle was the " non-partisan " candidate for delegate to the late Constitutional Convention from his district, which returned a . Workingmau ."
H- has seen a great deal of the world in its various check- ered phases, which has fitted him for all the duties of active life, and given himn quick and accurate mind by which to cor- rectly estimate and decide upon passing events, either at home or abroal. Ile belongs to a long-lived family, and is able to undergo for many years the ups and downs of human expe- rience.
HON. W. A. HILL
W. . ]. HILt., the subject of this sketch, is the editor and proprietor of the Salinas Inder, and present State Senator from the Sixth Senatorial Distriet, embracing Monterey, Santa Cruz, aud San Benito counties.
lle i- of Scotch parentage, aud was boru on the farm of his father, John Hill, near Prescott, Canada West, in the year 1840. He is the eklest of ten sons and three daughters, all of whom, together with his parents are still alive. Hc enme to California by water in 1862, arriving in San Francisco in April of that year. He went to the Cariboo (B. C.) mines and penetrated the wildls of Alaska the same suminer, returu- ing to California in the fall.
In March, 1863, he crossed the Sierras and went to the new miuing camp of Aurora, Nevada, where he remained until July, and then proceeded to Virginia City; thenee he went to Salt Lake City, and from there to the Boise mines in Idaho Territory, arriving there in Angust, 1863.
He went over to the adjoining county of Owyhee in the spring of 1864, and kept a ferry on the Owyhee river for the three succeeding years, iu the midst of perhaps the bloodiest Indinn war ever waged on the Pacific coast. During a con- siderable portion of that time his only companions were his trusty dog and Henry riffe, his nearest neighbors being distant forty miles one way and seventy-five the other. Inside of three years he was badly wounded sevou times in his fights with the red men-shot through both shoulders and the left thigh, stabbed in the breast, etc., besides receiving numerous slight wounds that he says he " never counted " Although but a young man, it was then that the sobriquet of "Old Hill" was applied to him by persons who had heard of his daring exploits, hard-fought battles and hair-breadth escapes on the frontier, bnt who did not know him personally. They thought he must be some tongh, hard old case of a mountaineer !
At the close of the Indian war in the spring of 1867, he sold out his ferry and went to Silver City, the county seat of Owyhee connty, where he purchased the Weekly Avalanche
(newspaper), which had been established there a couple of years before. He published that journal till the spring of 1876, when le came to his present home, Salinas City, and purchased the Inder, which he has conducted with marked ability ever since.
In 1874 he introduced the first steain-press and run the first daily paper (Idaho Daily dealanche) in Idaho Territory. Although always a consistent Republican, yet during his resid- ence in Idaho, his popularity was such that he was elected to the offices of county clerk, sheriff, aud tax-collector by hand- some majorities in a strong Democratie county.
He was one of the Centennial Commissioners from Idaho, and was also tendered the Republican nomination to Congress from that Territory. Espousing the cause of the new Consti- tution here in 1879, the large majority rolled up in favor of that instrument in Monterey county, was greatly due to his individual etforts exerted through the columns of his paper.
At the general election two years ago, Mr. Hill was elected to the State Senate by a handsome majority, the Republican nuund new Constitution parties both nominating and supporting him. His course in the Senate has been such as to win the respeet of his political opponents and command the admira- tiou of his friends. At the last regular session he was tho author, introducer and chief advocate of the famous Debris Repeal measure, known as Sennte Bill, No. 27, which probably caused more commotion than any other bill ever before intro- duced into the Legislature of this or any other State.
Mr. Hill's able and exhaustive speech in support of the measure attracted mneht attention and gave him a State repu- tation. He is six feet high, strongly built, and has an iron will which nothing can sway from what its possessor believes to be right. He is a gentleman of liberal education, extensive reading, and varied information, and is a ready and forcible writer; makes no pretentions to finished oratory, but is an earnest speaker and never fails to command attention.
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