USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume I > Part 69
USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume I > Part 69
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Reminiscences given by L. C. Waite were of great historic interest. He saw a number of his old pupils present and others who had come before him while he was justice of the peace. On his first trip to River- side from Los Angeles stage horses were changed three times. Tommy Peters, a well-known local character, drove the stage. His father-in- law, Doctor Shugart, bought the block where Postmaster Cunningham now has his home and on this block the first orange trees were planted. Some of them are still standing there. Rain had fallen just after his arrival and there was a desire on the part of the settlers to plant out some fruit and ornamental trees. He was sent to Los Angeles for the stock, taking T. J. Wood with him. "I took Wood with me because I didn't know an apricot from an orange tree then," said Mr. Waite. "We
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bought the trees from the O. W. Childs' nursery, where the Examiner office is now located on Broadway. In the lot of trees purchased were one cypress, peppers, two blue gums and some fig trees. The two eucalyptus trees were planted on Seventh Street in front of what is now Sutherland's mission packing house. They were the first eucalpti brought to the San Bernardino Valley. Four pepper trees were planted out oppo- site the Salt Lake depot. Judge North, Doctor Greves and Doctor Shugart planted out the trees. Some of them were planted on the Episcopal Church block, the first block given for church purposes. Many of the trees were eaten up by grasshoppers.
"The first water to reach Riverside by canal was received on July 1, 1871, and the whole population of twenty-five people turned out at mid- night to celebrate with a bonfire."
Mr. Waite said he furnished the first bridegroom for Riverside forty- two years ago this month.
Mr. Waite thought that the loyalty of Riversiders to Riverside had been a potent element in the development and progress of the city.
Mayor Ford discussed the development of the surrounding country and told of the planting of the first budded orange tree here. This was a Kona tree from Kona Island and was planted on the P. S. Russell place on Colton Avenue and Russell Street. The blossoms were care- fully counted and treasured the first year. This was in 1877.
The mayor told of a trip made by himself, L. C. Russell, Tom Miller and Will Derby to Strawberry Valley. No hay could be found between Riverside and the old Webster ranch at the foot of the San Jacinto Mountains. While hunting. their horses turned loose in the Tauquitz Valley the next morning, the young men came across the tracks of a grizzly bear and later a mountain lion crossed the trail. There were plenty of deer in the Box Springs Mountains. The season was very dry and cattle were dying all over the plains. Horse thieves were numer- ous, and as a member of the vigilante committee he helped run them down. Doctor Hall was president of the vigilantes. Mr. Ford said he made a trip to Temecula after horse thieves and the vigilantes were unable to get hay for their horses until they arrived there. They failed to locate the horse thieves on that trip.
Referring to the host, Mr. Ford said he verv early showed business acumen and saw to it that his teachers earned their money. His first glimpse of him was when as a youngster he dived into Spring Brook. He thought that if anybody could buy "Plin" for his own valuation and sell him for his actual worth he would make money.
S. C. Evans was the last speaker of the evening. He made reference to early day incidents involving various members of the company. He recalled Jose Jensen's father and the tales he told of early life in Cali- fornia and of his long acquaintance with Abundo Rubidoux and Heber Parks and others of the older pioneers. He. too, told of the horse thieving times and of the excitement incident on the capture of an Indian horse thief in what is now the courthouse block. He revived memories of the old swimming hole and the old schoolhouse with twelve-inch planks and what happened to any boy who wore shoes to school. He told how horses were bought at two for $10; how Indians shot wild geese at Casa Blanca with bows and arrows, and of the organization of an archery club to emulate them. H. A. Puls made his bow and arrows and he has them yet.
Mr. Evans recalled how his father staked his all in Riverside, and how, when the family left Fort Wayne, Indiana, his mother worried
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because even the old brick home had been mortgaged to raise money for the new settlement.
Money was scarce in those early days. The canal was in process of construction and many Indians were employed. His father was accus- tomed to pay each Indian $1 at the end of the week and give him a due bill for the remainder of his wages on a scrap of brown paper. These were redeemed when a tenderfoot came in and bought a piece of land.
Mr. Evans paid a high tribute to the pioneers who had cherished through all early hardships artistic and moral ideals. Such experiences can never be repeated, he said, since there are no longer areas to be settled, and for this reason the history of early days should be accurately chronicled.
Several moved at once for the organization of a permanent historical society. Mr. Evans named as a committee to formulate plans for such a society James Boyd, Mayor Ford, L. C. Waite, B. W. Handy and L. H. Edmiston.
The company then adjourned to the cloister music room, where an organ and song recital of old-time melodies was given by Miss Harden- burg, Mrs. Annie Mottram Craig and Mr. Hilverkus.
THE PIONEERS PRESENT
Name.
Year of Arrival.
Abunda Rubidoux
1852
Jose Barelas
1852
Jose Jensen
1855
H. C. Parks.
1867
Henry Jensen
1867
Ellsworth T. Smith
1870
L. C. Waite.
1870
S. D. Stevenson
1870
A. J. Twogood.
1870
G. W. Thomas
1870
W. P. Russell
1871
W. M. Ables.
1871
C. A. Ables.
1871
F. A. Bixler.
1871
L. V. W. Brown
1871
James Boyd
1872
Otis Sheldon
1872
Ezra Sheldon
1872
S. L. Wright
1873
D. S. Strong
1873
M. R. Shaw
1873
J. M. Callum.
1873
F. W. Twogood
1873
J. A. Wilbur
1873
J. B. Huberty
1874
F. A. Miller.
1874
E. E. Miller
1874
P. D. Cover.
1874
F. D. Battles.
1874
G. O. Newman. 1875
O. S. Stiles.
1875
Stanley A. Crawford
1875
F. C. Sheldon 1872
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James Carlyle
1875
R. P. Cundiff.
1875
J. A. Simms 1875
John Vankirk 1875
H. P. Kyes
1875
B. F. Allen
1876
B. W. Handy
1876
Luther C. Russell
1876
H. A. Puls.
1876
A. L. Whitney
1876
H. A. Westbrook
1876
Oscar Ford
1876
G. D. Cunningham.
1876
S. C. Evans.
1876
P. T. Evans.
1876
Joseph Jarvis
1877
George Gittoe
1877
H. B. Stewart
1877
J. E. Cutter .
1878
L. H. Edmiston.
1878
Charles Edmiston
1878
Charles E. Waite.
1878
J. O. Heap.
1878
G. A. Kingman
1878
G. D. Duncan
1879
A. L. Woodill
1879
It will be noted in the holdings of the pioneers up to 1880 the list is given by the number of trees and vines each pioneer had and not the acreage.
Grapevines occupy considerable space, for that was the time in which raisin making took up much of the fruit activity of the settlers, when hundreds of carloads of raisins were shipped. There was no large holders of orchards in those days and everyone was easily able to take care of his own holdings.
FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY, September 14, 1870-September 14, 1920. Had the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of River- side depended on the pioneers it would have been a sad failure, for of the original settlers who came under the administration of the Southern California Colony Association, headed by Judge North, hardly a dozen remain, but the celebration was conducted by the later comers who stood ready to do honor to those who under new and discouraging conditions remained steadfast to the end. There were thousands on the grounds to join in bestowing honors to the handful that remain.
The writer can hardly do better than by copying largely of the pub- lished reports of the Riverside Press of September 15. 1920.
It is well that we pay tribute of respect at this time, when Riverside is celebrating its golden anniversary, to the pioneers who made the River- side of today possible. And we can with broadness of spirit include with them all pioneers.
A pioneer is a sort of John the Baptist, one crying in the wilderness, "Prepare ye the way." With broad and unfettered spirit he shuns the life of ease and luxury. He courts hardships, adversity ; he seeks adven- ture, he longs for new lands and a life free and untrammeled by con- ventions. He is a man of indomitable spirit, of far-seeing vision.
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The true pioneer is no laggard or lazy man. Lovers of luxurious ease do not cross plains in ox teams in search of new scenes and new homes and new opportunities. They do not convert desert wastes into blooming gardens ; they do not make two blades of grass grow where only one grew before. The pioneer does all this, and very largely it is the succeeding generations that benefit from his enterprise and well-directed energy.
It was of such metal that the pioneers of Riverside were made. They were practical idealists. Today such lasting monuments as Magnolia Avenue, the Gage Canal, our orange groves, our system of parks and tree lined boulevards and the Mission Inn tell of their far-sighted vision and their desire to make better the settlement and the city they called home. We are the beneficiaries of their pioneer labors and their idealism, and today we unite in doing them honor. We hope ever to keep green their memories and to be worthy the heritage they have bequeathed us.
Fifty years ago today the deed was signed that transferred the site of the present City of Riverside to Judge J. W. North and his associates ; and that event definitely fixed the beginning of Riverside. We do well to celebrate the event and we cannot go too far in paying honor to the pioneers who founded the city of which we are all so proud today.
The Riverside of today was then a sheep ranch, and not a very good one at that. Our neighbors at San Bernardino who had developed quite a prosperous settlement on the moist lands in the artesian belt there laughed at the tenderfeet who were foolish enough to think they could make anything of the arid plains of the Rubidoux ranch.
It took faith, courage and vision to launch the experiment of starting a fruit colony on lands that had hitherto afforded only scanty grazing for scattered bands of sheep. Judge North and the first settlers whom his enthusiasm induced to come here could hardly have foreseen the tremendous importance of the orange industry, the possibilities of alfalfa and the attractions of climate and environment that would draw thus a vast population from the East to Southern California.
Truly it would have been difficult to forecast in those days the River- side of today, a great area of fertile fields and productive orchards and a modern city with conveniences and special features that give it fame all over the United States. But because the pioneers had a vision of what was to come and because they persevered in bringing water to the arid lands, in planting orchards and vineyards and in developing a com- munity life on high planes of co-operation, education and righteousness, the Riverside of 1920 was made possible.
Riverside was the pioneer among the communities of the state in the development of intensive agriculture as represented by the small fruit ranch ; and we followed that piece of pioneering by developing the world famous navel orange and by inaugurating the plan of the co-opera- tive marketing of fruit. Riverside was one of the pioneer communities of the state in municipal prohibition, thus pointng the way to a great national policy. Riverside set the example of the development of a great system of street trees under the care of a tree warden. And Riverside has set the pace for the Southwest in the utilization of the beautiful and appropriate architecture of the Spanish missions.
We are celebrating the anniversary this year of the coming of the Pilgrim Fathers; and the roots of Riverside go back to the traditions and ideals of the Pilgrims. Judge North was the graduate of a New England college and his ideals of community life were influenced by the training he received there. Nowhere in the country have the principles of the Pilgrims been better cherished and exemplified than in the group of small colleges that have made New England education famous. And it
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was no accident that the founder of Riverside was the product of that type of education. Moreover, many of the early settlers of Riverside came directly or by a second migration from New England; and they gave an impetus to the development of Riverside along lines of high moral ideals, liberal provision for education and real civic righteousness.
Riverside is what it is today as one of the finest home cities in the land because we have continued to cherish and apply the fine ideals of the pioneers; and as we begin the journey today towards the milestone that will mark not the half century but the century mark in our history, may we continue to glory in those principles and look forward to the day when Riverside shall even more fully exemplify those noble ideals that sent the Pilgrim band across the seas and pioneers of a latter day across the plains and mountains to this fair land beside the western sea.
Last night was one of the most eventful in the history of Riverside. It marked the fiftieth anniversary of Riverside and the beginning of a new era, and exercises in honor of the occasion held at Fairmount Park were attended by more than 5,000 people.
Many in the audience were pioneers of Riverside, San Bernardino, Pomona, Claremont and other cities of the valley who had witnessed during the last half century the transformation of this country from fields of sagebrush and greasewood to its present high state of develop- ment and beauty.
Addresses reminiscent of the early days of Riverside before the advent of the automobile, the railroad and even the buggy or carriage, singing by Mrs. Isobel Curl Piana, the sweet-voiced Riverside soloist, and tuneful music by Prof. G. Hilverkus and his well-trained band were the main features.
There were many personal touches to the occasion, which resembled more a big family reunion than anything held in Riverside for many years. The old-timers called each other by the first name and referred to many incidents of the days that seem almost like a dream now, but which were stern reality to the settlers who had vision and faith and have lived to see Riverside become one of the most famous cities in the world.
Mayor Horace Porter was never in a happier mood, and through his efforts a great deal of human interest was lent to the occasion.
Preceding the regular program a picnic supper was served at the park. This gave the old-timers the opportunity to swap yarns of the pioneer days. For more than an hour after the feast a social get-together time was enjoyed.
The Riverside Military Band opened the program with a march, "America First," and the overture, "Orpheus" (Offenbach), and this was followed with two solos by Madame Piana. She sang two old-time favorites, "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Charms" and "Coming Through the Rye."
Mayor Porter in presenting the singer spoke of four Riverside men and women who had gone out into the world and made a name for themselves, namely, Ray Wilbur, president of Stanford University, and his brother, Curtis Wilbur, judge of the Superior Court at Los Angeles ; Marcella Craft, a well-known singer, and Madame Piana.
"I would like to read Walt Whitman's poem, "The Pioneers," as I face you pioneers this evening," Mayor Porter said. "All honor to you pioneers who blazed the way through forest and desert, to you noble women who braved the heat and hardship of the desert and made pos- sible the beautiful Riverside we have today. You have built better than you realized."
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James Boyd, who entered the Golden Gate with his wife in 1867 and a few years later came to Riverside when it was yet 500 miles from any railroad and there were no shade trees to protect the settlers from the hot rays of the desert sun, spoke on "The Founding of Riverside."
"Miners and farmers comprised the population of the state," he said, when he came, "and if you were a miner you took your gold and silver to the mint and had it coined into hard coin. There was no paper money until the Central and Union Pacific Railroads were built."
He prefaced his remarks with a summary of conditions in California before the American colonist took possession of the land. He said Los Angeles was founded September 4, 1781 with great pomp and religious ceremonies, quite unlike the founding of Riverside, where less than a half dozen men decided on the site of the colony. California of the Spanish occupation was isolated from the world.
"The raising of cattle and horses was the only occupation," he stated, "and it is said that if a visitor had a saddle and bridle he could ride through the whole length of California without a cent of expense. The missions were always hospitable and would not take any compensation. but were willing to accept donations for the poor. The Spaniards amused themselves riding around, visiting and having dances, the Indians doing the work.
"In 1870 when we first came to Southern California wild geese cov- ered the naked plains south of Los Angeles, where now a high state of cultivation exists. It took weeks to get a letter East, but the completion of the transcontinental railroad put California in more rapid communi- cation with the outside world.
"San Bernardino County, from which Riverside was formed even- tually, was even more isolated, for it was situated seventy-five miles inland from the coast, half of the distance being over a waterless and treeless desert and over bridgeless, sandy river beds and rocky, sandy, dry washes from the mountains.
"The only way to reach Southern California was by water, stage coach or by wagon overland, coastwise or across the plains by ox team. Can you wonder then that Southern California was sparsely settled and that Los Angeles was only an outgrown village, less than the size of Riverside today ?
"Riverside was founded at the end of the old and marked the dividing line between the old and the new, and was indeed the originator of much that is new in setlement.
"The old colony idea, that has prevailed so much in California, and which is spreading to other states, was a new idea where people could settle in communities on a small acreage of land and enjoy all the benefits of country life with all the advantages of city life, doing away with the isolation of farm life, with all of its drawbacks and loneliness that was driving the farmer's wife insane and her children out into the large cities of the civilized world. Judge North, the leader in the found- ing of the colony of Riverside, foresaw that, for he says in a circular issued March 17, 1870, dated at Knoxville, Tennessee, asking people in sympathy with his idea, to assist in founding a new colony: 'We expect at an early day to have schools, churches, lyceum, public library, reading room, etc., and we invite such people to join our colony as will esteem it a privilege to build them.' Riverside of today is more than a fulfillment of Judge North's prophetic judgment."
With Miss Grace Boardman leading, the audience sang "Riverside, My Riverside," at the conclusion of Mr. Boyd's address.
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S. L. Wright, who has been in the valley for forty-seven years, read a short paper on how the original navel orange trees were brought to Riverside. It follows :
"It was through the efforts of Mrs. L. C. Tibbets, a woman of strong personality and influence that the three original navel trees were brought to Riverside in the spring of 1875, and were planted soon after, of which one died, being trampled down by a cow.
"One evening two old bachelors by the names of Josiah Cover and Sam McCoy, with whom I was well acquainted, were visiting with Mrs. Tibbets. The subject of getting new varieties of fruit for the new coun- try came up, when Sam McCoy told of having read in the encyclopedia of a seedless variety of the orange grown at Bahia, in Brazil, which was described as the finest orange in the world. Sam McCoy thought it might be possible to obtain a tree from the distant country, when Mrs. Tibbets answered she believed it would.
"She personally knew Doctor Saunders of the Department of Agri- culture of Washington, D. C., and said she would write to him at once and see if she could get some of the trees. As a result, in a short time she received three small trees of the desired variety. I saw the trees planted in the spring of 1875 when I was on my way to school. When I was passing Mrs. Tibbets called me in to see the little trees planted. Little did I think what it meant to the developing and prosperity of this city at that time. Mrs. Tibbets placed these trees in the care of Sam McCoy and Josiah Cover.
"The original trees were removed from the Tibbets home and replanted about seventeen years ago, one by the late President Roosevelt in the Patio of the Glenwood Mission Inn, and the other at the head of Old Magnolia Avenue.
"Through the efforts of Miss Sophronia LaRue, the pioneers have secured a four-ton granite rock at the mouth of the Santa Ana Canyon, which is placed in the plot near the original navel tree at the head of Old Magnolia Avenue in honor and remembrance of Mrs. L. C. Tibbets for the valuable service she rendered in getting the most wonderful citrus fruit for this city in the world."
John S. McGroarty, well-known Southern California historian and poet and author of the Mission Play, made an interesting address on Riverside in California history.
"The first white American to pass through this valley," he said, "was Isaac Williams. This was long before Riverside was founded. Williams came from the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania, where I was born. I have often wondered how Williams wandered out here. When I visited my old home in Wyoming Valley not long ago I tried to find out some- thing about this strange man.
"It was only family tradition, however, that he left home before the gold discovery days and he was never heard of again."
He said the first white men to visit the valley, however, came 150 years ago. They were headed by Juan de Anza, famous captain of Tubac, who blazed the first inland trail from Sonora in Mexico to Monterey in California without the loss of a man. He was the first white man to pitch a camp where Riverside now stands.
"While Riverside is only fifty years old as a civilized community," he said, "it is considerably older in human history."
The speaker made an interesting reference to Don Antonio Maria de Lugo, who once owned all the land from the slopes of the San Bernardino Mountains at the Arrowhead to the sunny waters of Santa Monica Bay,
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and drew a picture of how he would have enjoyed the hospitality of Don Antonio had he lived in his days.
"I often wish I had been a member of Lugo's family and had held onto his lands until today," he surmised.
"The hospitality that existed in the early days of the valley is not present now. I guess the hearts of the people are just as warm, but the outward hospitality does not exist."
Mr. McGroarty paid a high tribute to the Riverside pioneers, who made the "desert to blossom as the rose and two blades of grass to grow where one had grown before."
"The first of all, they built a shrine to the living God. I have been to other cities in Southern California, but in one thing in particular Riverside excels. It never had to do over again the things its pioneers did first. The men who founded Riverside were sure men. They felt their way and made no mistakes. As David Starr Jordan once said. 'they knew what they were doing.'
"When they planted the navel orange tree they knew it would be a success. Every hope they had for Riverside has been fulfilled, every vision realized.
"Now what of the future? Riverside must either stand still or go ahead. Even as they who went before us builded for us, so must we strive to build for the generations who shall follow in our steps when we have passed on to that other country from whose bourne no traveler returns.
"The Riverside that was visioned by its founders stands here today. Their dreams went no further, not perhaps so far, as this milestone to which we now have come. Wherefore, there must be another and a new vision of Riverside if it is ever to be anything more than it is now.
"I will tell you what my vision of the future of Riverside is. It shall become a city of great schools, where the youth of the world shall come for educational training. There is no reason why you should not have the greatest library school of the world and the greatest high school. Here shall be a great hospital where the sick shall come to find hope and healing.
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