USA > California > San Diego County > San Diego > History of San Diego, 1542-1908 : an account of the rise and progress of the pioneer settlement on the Pacific coast of the United States, Volume I > Part 26
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Besides the offices mentioned, he served as public administra- tor from 1860 to 1867. He was also intimately connected with the San Diego & Gila R. R., and was its president in 1858 and for some years after. Judge Witherby was a genial and pop- ular man. .
WRIGHTINGTON, Thomas. With the possible exception of Henry D. Fitch, Thomas Wrightington was the first American settler in San Diego. He came with Abel Stearns, on the Ayacucho, in 1833, and settled, while Stearns went on up the coast. Wrightington was supercargo of the vessel. He was from Fall River, Mass., was a shoemaker by trade, and had a good education. He applied for naturalization in 1835 and got provisional papers in 1838. He served as a volunteer in the Mexican War. He held several minor offices, both under the Mexican and American governments. Bancroft spells his name Ridington, which is erroneous.
Ile married Juana Machado de Alipás, widow of Damasio Alipás and daughter of José Manuel Machado. Their children were José, Serafina. and Luis. José was sent to Boston with the intention that he should be adopted and brought up by an unele : but, having taken offense at a colored footman in his uncle's house. he went off to sea on his own account. He was a whaler all his life and married a Chilean woman. Serafina
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HISTORY OF SAN DIEGO
was married to John Minturn. Luis was killed by a horse, at San Juan.
Mrs. Wrightington was a widow several years, and a well remembered character of. Old Town. She was a mother to all the unfortunates around the Bay. She spent her last days with her daughter, Mrs. Israel, at Coronado.
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CHAPTER XIII
THE JOURNALISM OF OLD SAN DIEGO
HE first paper published in the city of San T Diego was the San Diego Herald. The ini- tial number appeared on May 29, 1851, only twelve days after the first publication of La Estrella de Los Angeles (The Star of Los Angeles). In September of the preceding year a small sheet called the San Luis Rey Coyote had been issued by some army officers stationed at that mission, purporting to be edited by one C. Senior (Sí Señor). It was a comic journal neatly written, and contained a map and some useful information; but it was not in any proper sense of the word a newspaper, and only one number was published. It is not known how many copies were issued.
The Herald was at first a four-page four-column paper, pub- lished every Thursday. The subscription priee was $10 per annum, and the advertising rates were: 8 lines or less, $4 for the first insertion and $2 for each subsequent insertion; busi- ness cards at monthly rates and a discount offered to yearly advertisers. The reading matter in the first number, including a list of 320 letters which had accumulated in the San Diego postoffice, filled five and three-fourths columns. The local adver- tisements made two columns, and those of San Francisco adver- tisers eight and one-fourth columns. The paper contained quite a little local news and was well set up and printed.
The editor and proprietor of this paper was John Judson Ames. He was born in Calais, Maine, May 18, 1821, and was therefore a few days past his thirtieth birthday when he set- tled in San Diego. He was a tall, stout, broad-shouldered man, six feet six and one-half inches high, proportionately built, and of great physical strength. His father was a shipbuilder and owner. Early in the 40's young Ames's father sent him as seeond mate of one of his ships on a voyage to Liverpool. Upon his return, while the vessel was being moored to the wharf at Boston, a gang of rough sailor boarding-house runners rushed on board to get the crew away. Ames remonstrated with them. saving if they would wait until the ship was made fast and cleaned up, the men might go where they pleased. The run-
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HISTORY. OF SAN DIEGO
ners were insolent, however, a quarrel ensued, and one of the intruders finally struck him a blow on the chest. Ames retal- iated with what he meant for a light blow, merely straighten- ing out his arm, but, to his horror, his adversary fell dead at his feet. He was immediately arrested, tried for manslaughter, convicted, and sentenced to a long term in the Leverett Street Jail. The roughs had sworn hard against him, but President John Tyler understood the true facts in the case, and at once pardoned him. After this, he was sent to school to complete his education. A few years later, being of a literary turn, he engaged in newspaper work, and in 1848 went to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and started a paper which he called the Dime Catcher, devoted to the cause of the Whig party, in general, and of General Zachary Taylor's candidacy for the presidency, in particular.
After the discovery of gold, he joined the stream of immi- grants and came to California via Panama, arriving at San Francisco October 28, 1849, without a penny in his pockets. Borrowing a handcart, he engaged in the business of hanling trunks and luggage. He always kept as a pocket-piece the first quarter of a dollar he earned in this way. His financial con- dition soon improved and he formed a number of valuable friendships, especially among his Masonic brethren at San Fran- cisco. He was present at the first meeting of any Masonic lodge in California, that of California Lodge (now No. 1) : on Novem- ber 17, 1849. On the following 9th of December he became a member of this lodge, presenting his demit from St. Croix Lodge No. 40, F. & A. M. of Maine. He also became interested in newspaper work, writing under the pen name of "Boston."
The question naturally occurs at this point: What was it which induced a man thus situated to leave these friends and settle in a little town of five or six hundred inhabitants ? Ames's own writings may be searched for the answer, in vain. It is scarcely sufficient to suppose that it was due to his desire for independent employment, for at that time the region could not support a paper which would pay its publisher & living. The matter has excited wonder in other quarters. Thus, a writer in the Sacramento Union says :
A number of young but well-defined interests called for the publication of an organ in this end of the Western American seaboard, though San Diego at that early day, no less than in later times, offered very little encouragement of the quality of local support to a newspaper. Any person who was willing to accept the chances of an easy living, and endure the dull routine of a little out of the way place, holding on for advantages that must certainly come by and by, might publish a newspaper in San Diego successfully; and such a person seems to have been
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DESIGNS OF SENATOR GWIN
found in the conductor of the organ at that place. To him belongs the merit of establishing the press on that lonely shore.
The answer to this question rests upon the testimony of liv- ing men, to whom Ames disclosed it in confidence, and is strik- ingly confirmed by the whole policy of the Herald. Ames estab- lished the Herald as the organ of United States Senator William M. Gwin, who expected to bring about the division of the state, the annexation of Lower California and the Sandwich Islands, and the construction of a Southern transcontinental railway ter- minating at San Diego. This, of course, would have made San Diego the capital of the new state, and probably the most in- portant city on the Pacific coast. That Gwin had the purposes mentioned, and that the first transcontinental railway project was for a line on the 32nd parallel and intended as an ontlet for the Southern states, are historical facts too well known to require proof. From the first, the Herald vigorously supported Senator Gwin's policies, the project of state division, and the Southern transcontinental railway. Moreover, the surprisingly large volume of San Francisco advertisements in the Herald can scarcely be accounted for on any theory except that the paper was subsidized by means of these advertisements. It is scarcely reasonable to suppose that there was business enough here to justify San Francisco merchants in using more than half of Ames's space for their advertisements, at the start. and to keep this up for years. As a matter of fact, Ames took only a slight part in the public life of San Diego, and spent all the time he possibly could in San Francisco. Gwin failed in all these schemes. although he served as senator from California two full terms from 1849 to 1860. He also failed to keep his promises to Ames, and the editor's end, broken in health, for- tune, and ambition, was truly a sad one. But this is antici- pating: at the present point in our story, our editor is young. strong, and full of hope.
In getting his paper established at San Diego, he had to over- come obstacles which. as he himself says. "would have disheart- ened any but a 'live Yankee.'" He issned a prospectus in December, 1850, and took subscription and advertising con- tracts on the strength of it. Had his plans prospered, the Herald would have been the first newspaper printed south of Monterey : but delays and difficulties followed. He says in his first number :
We issued our prospectus in December last, and supposed at the time that we had secured the material for our paper; but when we come to put our hand on it, it wasn't there! Deter- mined to lose no time, we took the first boat for New Orleans, where we selected onr office, and had returned as far as the
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HISTORY OF SAN DIEGO
Isthmus, when Dame Misfortune gave us another kick, snagged our boat, and sunk everything in the Chagres River. After fish- ing a day or two we got enough to get out a paper, and pushed on for Gorgona, letting the balance go to Davy Jones' Locker. Then comes the tug of war, in getting our press and heavy boxes of type across the Isthmus. Three weeks of anxiety and toil prostrated us with the Panama fever by which we missed our passage in the regular mail steamer-the only boat that touched at San Diego-thereby obliging us to go on board a propeller bound for San Francisco. This boat sprung a leak off the Gulf of Tehauntepec-came near sinking-run on a sand- bank-and finally got into Acapulco where she was detained a week in repairing. We at last arrived in San Francisco, just in time to lose more of our material by the late fire.
Some side lights are thrown upon his adventures, by the way, by those to whom he related them more in detail. On arriving at Chagres, he found much difficulty in getting his outfit trans- ported across the Isthmus. The only means of conveyance was by barges or canoes up the Chagres River to the head of nav- igation at Gorgona or Cruces, and thence on the backs of mules to Panama. He engaged a bungo with a crew of native boat- men and started up the river. When the boat was snagged, the standard of the press, a casting weighing about four hundred pounds, was part of the sunken material and, although the river was shallow, the boatmen were unable to lift it up on the boat again. After watching their futile efforts for half a day, Ames lost his patience completely and, jumping overboard in a frenzy and scattering the boatmen right and left, he seized the press and placed it upon the boat, himself. Arriving at Cruees, he experienced great difficulty in getting his goods transported by mules, and had to pay exorbitant prices. When he reached Panama, he was compelled by the attack of fever to remain some time, along with a number of California immigrants wait- ing for a steamer. During this time of waiting, he set up his plant and published a paper called the Panama Herald, half in English and half in Spanish.
It would seem that a man of so much strength and tenacity of purpose was of the sort to make a success of his newspaper venture at San Diego; and, indeed, though the Herald was somewhat erratie, it never lacked in vigor.
Ames east in his lot with the new town (Graytown, or Davis's Folly), which was then just starting. He had met William Heath Davis before coming, and the latter aided him to the extent of almost $1,000 in getting his press set up-a debt which was never discharged. The office of the Herald was over the store of Hooper & Co., at the corner of Fourth and California Streets. About two years later, when the new town had proven a temporary failure, the Herald was removed to Old Town, and
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TRIPS OF EDITOR AMES
for the greater part of its life occupied the second floor of a building owned by Louis Rose, at the northwest corner of the plaza.
Ames's frequent trips to San Francisco, doubtless made for the purpose of looking after his political fences as well as his advertising patronage, began soon after his settlement in San Diego. It has been suggested that his readers, as well as him- self, needed an occasional rest. Having no partner, it was his custom to leave the paper in charge of his foreman or some friend whom he could induce to undertake the burden. This course led to trouble on more than one occasion. It was quite the usual thing for an issue or two to be skipped at such a time. While he was away on these and other trips, it was Ames's cus- tom to write long letters to the Herald, which he signed "Bos- ton," and hence he became locally known as "Boston."
His first trip to San Francisco seems to have been on Octo- ber 30, 1851, when he left his foreman, R. M. Winants, in charge of the paper, "with a good pair of scissors and a vast pile of exchanges."
On January 24, 1852, he went to San Francisco again, leav- ing "the amiable trio, Vaurian & Co.," to occupy the editorial chair. Vaurian was the pen name of a contributor to the Herald, whose identity is unknown.
In the latter part of August, 1852, Ames left for the Atlan- tic States, and did not return until the following March. He left the keys of his office with Judge James W. Robinson, but in December a man named William N. Walton came to San Diego and, representing to Judge Robinson that he had arranged with Ames in San Francisco to publish the paper, was allowed to take possession. He proceeded to publish the paper in his own name from December 4 until Ames's return, March 19-21, 1853, when he suddenly disappeared. The only allusion Ames made to this affair upon his return was this:
During our absence in the Atlantic States, last winter, a friend to whom we loaned the keys of our office allowed a usurper to enter there, who made such sad havoc with our working tools, to say nothing of the injury done to the reputa- tion of the Herald, that it will take some time yet to get things established on the old basis.
Six years later this Walton was arrested in Portland, Oregon, on a charge of robbery, and the Herald, in commenting on this, says that at the time of the Walton episode he had closed the office "for the season."
The Herald of August 13, 1853, contained the following announcement :
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HISTORY OF SAN DIEGO
We shall leave on the first steamer for San Francisco, to be absent about two weeks. A friend of acknowledged ability and literary aequirements will occupy the Old Arm Chair during our absence.
This was the prelude to the most amusing serape that Ames's absences led him into, as it was the occasion when Lientenant Derby edited the Herald for six weeks (instead of two) and changed its politics, as related farther on. Ames seems to have learned something from this experience, for upon starting again for San Francisco, about December 3rd, of the same year, leav- ing one "Borax" in charge, he gave the editor pro tem. of the paper "strict injunetions not to change its politics," as Derby had done.
In April, 1855, Ames went East again. It is said this trip was made on public business, but nothing has come to light to show what the public business was. Ames himself states that he was present at the convention of the American (Knownoth- ing) party, in Philadelphia, when Fillmore was nominated for president. It is a matter of record that he brought out Phoe- niriana at this time, and it is also understood that he married and brought his wife to San Diego with him upon his return, some time the following spring.
During this prolonged absence, Ames left Wm. H. Noyes in charge of the paper, who took good care of it, not only at this time, but also on several subsequent occasions when Ames went to San Francisco. In April, 1857, when about to depart on such a trip, Ames left the following savage attack upon certain officials for insertion in the next issue :
Malfeasanee in Office: We have for a long time been aware of the utter unfitness of our County Clerk and Re- corder for the position which he occupies. It is well known that this County is deeply in debt, but it is not so well known that the greatest portion of this debt has gone into the hands of county officers. . The salary of the County Judge of this county is fixed by law at $1000 and yet for a long time Mr. Conts, the County Auditor, has been issuing scrip to him at the rate of $1200 per annum.
He then goes on to say that a party had a bill against the county, of long standing, which after some trouble he got ap- proved, and demanded the issnance of serip to him first, so that it would be the first paid when the county had any money. He charges that Couts promised to do this but evaded it and issued scrip clandestinely to his friends ahead of it.
It is to be regretted that there are not other offices in the county to which he (Conts) could be cleeted or appointed, as he at present only fills the following: County Clerk, County Re- eorder, County Anditor, Clerk of the Court of Sessions, Clerk
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SOME EDITORIAL APOLOGIES
of the First District Court, Clerk of the Board of Supervisors and Clerk of the Board of Equalization; the income of which offices is greater than that of any other officer in the county.
This looks as though Gilbert had been reading the San Diego Herald when he drew his character of Pooh Bah, in the opera of the Mikado. In the next issue of the Herald Noyes repudi- ates this blast and "wishes it distinctly understood that it owes its paternity to the regular editor."
The issue of May 30, 1857. contains an apology for its lean- ness in the matter of news, "the editor being absent in San
WILLIAM H. NOYES
Francisco, the sub-editor gone into the country, and, to crown all, the 'devil' having sloped, leaving us 'alone in our glory,' with an overabundance of labor to perform, and a dearth of local news."
It is probable that on account of his relations with Senator Gwin, Ames had free steamer transportation during the first two or three years of the Herald's life. Derby seems to have had some such thought in his mind when writing this :
"Facilis descensus Avermi, which may be liberally translated :
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HISTORY OF SAN DIEGO
It is easy to go to San Francisco. Ames has gone."
During the last year or two of the Herald's publication in San Diego it was not so "easy," for the paper severely criti- cises the Holliday steamship line, complains of its poor service and high fares, "which prevent the editor from going to San Francisco on pressing business," indicating, possibly, that the free pass had been called in.
The political complexion of the paper was changed several times. The first issue announced it to be "Independent in all things, neutral in nothing," but soon afterward it supported Bigler for governor, and the full Democratic ticket nominated by the Benicia convention. But Ames was independent enough to kick over all party traces when he felt like it. He opposed President Pierce and severely criticised him at times; one rea- son for this doubtless being the fact that Pierce had vetoed a bill appropriating money for the improvement of the San Diego River. In April, 1855, he hoisted the name of General Sam Houston for president. In May, 1856, he came out for Fillmore and Donelson for president and vice-president, and went over completely to the Knownothing party, substituting for his original motto the following: "Thoroughly American in principle, sentiment and effort." This bolt to the Know- nothing party appears not to have produced any results. The town and county were Democratic up to the time that Horton came, and for some little time thereafter. When the Know- nothing movement died out Ames returned to the Democratic fold. In 1857 his motto was changed to: "Devoted to the interest of Southern California."
It is clear that Ames suppressed many things which he thought might- hurt the reputation of the town. The trouble with the San Francisco volunteers, following the Garra insur- rection, is scarcely mentioned in the Herald. Again, while Ames was away on one of his trips, the editor pro tem. thought proper to write up and condemn certain disorders. Some of the citizens protested against this publicity in a letter in which they declared it was contrary to Ames's policy to have such items appear. It may be inferred from this that much inter- esting historical material has been lost, on account of this pol- icy of suppression-a policy which is not yet extinct.
The many difficulties under which the paper struggled would make an interesting story could Ames himself tell it. There was no telegraph, no telephone, no railroad in those days, and for news of the outside world he was dependent upon a semi- monthly mail service by steamer, which service was poor and irregular. He seems to have depended for his exchanges almost entirely upon the pursers of the steamers calling at this port.
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THE PASSING OF AMES
In almost every issue of the paper he acknowledges the receipt of bundles of papers, or growls about the neglect of those who should deliver mail and do not. After the transcontinental stage line was opened to the East (August 31, 1857) matters went somewhat better.
In the latter part of 1855 the Herald ran for some time a list of all the postoffices in California and at all times it was found necessary to fill up with miscellaneous matter.
Another source of trouble was the difficulty of obtaining sup- plies of print paper, and several issues were printed on com- mon brown wrapping paper, for the reason that the paper ordered had, through some neglect or blunder at San Francisco, not arrived.
The failure of Gwin's schemes had a very depressing effect upon Ames, whose hopes and expectations had been very high, and other causes tended to discourage him. His wife died March 14, 1857, and not long after unknown parties mutilated and destroyed the monument at her grave. On October of this year, while he was absent in San Francisco, a gale blew down and completely demolished his house at Old Town, known as "Cosy Cottage." These things saddened and embittered him and, already somewhat given to indulgence in liquor, he became dissipated and broken in health. He married again, about 1858 or 1859. Soon after this, Brigham Young ordered the Mormons living at San Bernardino to come to Salt Lake to aid him in resisting the United States troops under Albert Sydney John- ston, and most of them sold out in haste for whatever they could get. The influx of Americans who bought them out, together with the discovery of gold in Holcomb Valley, made San Ber- nardino quite lively and Ames determined to remove his paper to that place. The last number of the San Diego Herald was issued April 7. 1860, and then Mr. Harvey C. Ladd, a Mormon who had been a resident of San Diego, hauled the ontfit to San Bernardino, and Ames began the publication of the San Ber- mardino Herald. The new paper did not prosper, however, and in a short time he sold out to Major Edwin A. Sherman. Ames's end was now near, and he died on the 28th day of July, 1861. He had one son, called Huddie, born in San Diego, November 19, 1859. and died in San Bernardino March 27, 1863. His widow married again, and she is now also deceased.
The press which was used in printing the San Diego Herald was an old-fashioned Washington hand press, made by R. Hoe & Co., New York, and numbered 2327. It is still in use, in Inde- pendence, Inyo County, where it prints the Inyo Independent. After using it for a time to publish the San Bernardino Patriot. at the beginning of the Civil War, Major Sherman employed
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HISTORY OF SAN DIEGO
Mr. Ladd to haul it across the mountains to Aurora, then in California, but now in Nevada, where in. May, 1862, he com- menced the publication of the Esmeralda Star. Three years later he sold the outfit to other parties, and it was later taken to Independence. It should be brought to San Diego to form the nucleus of an historical collection. There may be a few scattered numbers of the Herald in the hands of old residents, but the only collection known is that in the San Diego public library. A few numbers are missing, but it is almost complete. The preservation of this invaluable file is due to the care of Mr. E. W. Morse.
In estimating the character and achievements of John Jud- son Ames, there are some things to condemn, but, on the whole. much to praise. He was large-hearted, generous, and enterpris- ing. For that time, his education was good and he wrote with clearness and fluency. He had opinions of his own and was not backward about expressing them. In speaking of the New Eng- land Abolitionists, he refers to them as "such men as Garrison and Sumner, who are distracting the country with their treason- able and fanatical preachings." Like other journalists, he found it impossible to please all the people all the time. and there was frequently local dissatisfaction with his utterances. June 10, 1852, he published a letter, signed by nine residents and business men of San Diego, discontinuing their subscriptions. and made sarcastic comments on it ; and a few months later he says : "There are several individuals in this city who don't like the Herald. We don't care a damn whether they like it or not." On another oeeasion he broke out thus :
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