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 II > Part 8
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Article 4 .- If the party of the second part or said company does not construct at least twenty miles or perform an equiva- lent amount of work, coupled with the purchase of materials as aforesaid before January 1, 1881, or does not construct one hundred and sixteen miles before January 1, 1882, unless pre- vented by unforeseen causes or causes which could not have been prevented by the use of ordinary forethought, or unless pre- vented by perils and delays of navigation, then upon due proof thereof, and upon demand by the party of the first part, or the majority of the persons in interest represented by said party, said trustees shall thereafter hold all said lands and things not theretofore conveyed by them under the terms of this agreement, in trust for the equitable benefit of the original grantors, their heirs and assigns, and shall distribute and dispose of the same as any Court of competent jurisdiction, upon the petition of any person interested and upon full hear- ing shall direct. Provided, however, that any default may be waived by the party of the first part or by a majority of the persons represented by said party; and the same shall be deemed to be waived if the party of the first part or the major- ity of the persons represented by the party of the first part do not make demand as aforesaid within sixty days after the happening of any default as aforesaid; but the waiver of any default shall not be considered the waiver of any default sub-
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HISTORY OF SAN DIEGO
sequently made. And provided that such default and distribu- tion shall not release the party of the second part from the obligations of this contract or from any lawful claim for damages for the non-fulfillment thereof.
Article 5. The trustees shall not be liable for the default or misconduct of each other, nor for the default or misconduct of any agent or attorney selected by them in good faith in the discharge of their trust.
And the Purchaser at any sale made by them of any of the lands aforesaid shall not be liable for the application of the purchase money and shall not be under any necessity of in- quiring into the expediency or legality of any such sale.
Upon the death, resignation, or incapacity, or refusal to act of any of said trustees, the remaining trustee or trustees may fill such vacancy or vacancies, or without filling the same shall act with the same power as the original trustees could have done if their number had remained undiminished.
Upon the filling of any vacancy the title to all the lands and things remaining unconveyed shall vest in the trustees thus constituted without the necessity of any formal convey- ance, but each trustee shall bind himself, his heirs, executors and administrators to execute such deed for the continuance of the trust as Counsel learned in the law may reasonably ad- vise or require; and the original conveyances to said trustees shall be made accordingly.
In witness whereof the parties aforesaid have hereunto set their hands and seals the day and year first above written.
FRANK A. KIMBALL. (Seal) KIDDER, PEABODY & Co. (Seal)
B. P. CHENEY. (Seal)
GEO. B. WILBUR. (Seal)
LUCIUS G. PRATT. (Seal)
THOS. NICKERSON. (Seal)
Recorded at the request of Frank A. Kimball, October 27, 1880, at 35 min. past 10 o'clock A. M.
GILBERT RENNIE,
County Recorder.
CHAPTER IL.
PHENOMENA OF THE GREAT BOOM
IKE all western cities of consequence, San L Diego has experienced a series of booms and boomlets, interspersed by periods of depres- sion and temporary decline; but when "The Great Boom" is spoken of it is the phenom- enal and sensational boom of 1886-88, which is referred to. This was epochal and serves to divide the past from the present, just as the Civil War does with the people of the South. As Southern- ers refer to events which happened "before the war," or "after the war," so San Diegans speak of things "before the boom," and "after the boom."
As we have seen in previous chapters, many things conspired to increase the growth of San Diego during the eighties. The completion of the Santa Fé Railroad system was doubtless the largest factor, but this was contemporaneous with the develop- ment of water systems and other public utilities, and with the inauguration of the most aggressive enterprise in connection with Coronado. There were many lesser factors working to the same end, and it would have been strange indeed if San Diego real estate had not responded to these influences. Furthermore, there were national and even world-wide conditions which fos- tered the movement. This decade witnessed an enormous expan- sion on the part of western railways and was marked by daring speculation in many different parts of the globe.
But when all these material influences have been mentioned there remains another which was far more powerful and which supplies the only explanation of the extraordinary lengths to which the boom was carried. This latter influence was psycho- logical rather than material, but it was none the less effective on that account. The people were hypnotized, intoxicated, plunged into emotional insanity by the fact that they had unan- imously and simultaneously discovered the ineffable charm of the San Diego climate. Climate was not all-there was the bay, the ocean, the rugged shores, the mountains-but the irresistible attractions were the climate and the joy of life which it implied.
If someone should suddenly discover the kingdom of heaven, of which the race has dreamed these thousands of years, and
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should then proceed to offer corner lots at the intersection of golden streets, there would naturally be a rush for eligible loca- tions, and this sudden and enormous demand would create a tre- mendous boom. It happens that San Diego is the nearest thing on earth to the kingdom of heaven, so far as climate is concerned. This fact was suddenly discovered and men acted accordingly. The economy of heaven is a factor which has never been much dwelt upon, and economic considerations were sadly neglected by those who went wild over real estate in the height of the boom. It was forgotten, for the moment, that men cannot eat climate, nor weave it into cloth to cover their nakedness, nor erect it as a shelter against the storm and the night. Such a reminder would have seemed puerile at the time. The only vital question was: Can we find land enough between Los Angeles and Mexico to accommodate the people who are coming, and can we get it platted into additions fast enough to meet the demand ? If this question could be answered affirmatively, it was enough. Obviously, the people would continue to come, prices would con- tinue to soar, and everybody would get rich at the expense of his neighbor, living happy forever after.
Now, there was reason in this logic, if it had only been tem- pered with common sense. It is absolutely true that the climate of San Diego is a commodity of commercial value. Almost everybody would prefer to live here if they could afford the luxury. The mistake was in failing to create conditions which would make it possible for them to do so. This involved the pro- saic matter of making a livelihood by some other means than exchanging real estate every few days at a profit. That process did not create wealth, but only exhausted it. What San Diego wanted in boom days, and wants now, is a means of producing new wealth to sustain that large element of its population which is not yet able to retire upon a competency, together with new population of the same kind that would like to come.
Probably no one could draw a true picture of the boom unless he lived through those joyous days and had a part in what went on. Fortunately, San Diego possessed a citizen peculiarly equipped for the work of observing and recording the phenom- ena of the times-a man who could see both the strength and the weakness of the situation, who united shrewdness with a sense of humor, and was also gifted as a writer. This citizen was Theodore S. Van Dyke, author, hunter, engineer, farmer, lawyer, and various other things. Above all he was-Theodore S. Van Dyke. Speaking of the class of people who came, saw, and bought, thereby making the boom, he says :
It was plain that they were in fact buying comfort, im- munity from snow and slush, from piercing winds and sleet-
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CAUSES OF THE BOOM
clad streets, from sultry days and sleepless nights, from thun- der-storms, cyclones, malaria, mosquitoes and bed-bugs. All of which, in plain language, means that they were buying cli- mate, a business that has been going on now for fifteen years and reached a stage of progress which the world has never seen before and of which no wisdom can foresee the end. The proportion of invalids among these settlers was very great, at first; but the numbers of those in no sense invalids but merely sick of bad weather, determined to endure no more of it, and able to pay for good weather, increased so fast that
THEODORE S. VAN DYKE
A noted author who did much to make the advantages of San Diego known to the world. His book, "Millionaires of a Day," dealt with the great boom. He was one of the originators of the San Diego flume enterprise
by 1880 not one in twenty of the new settlers could be called an invalid. They were simply rich refugees.
In 1880 the rich refugee had become such a feature in the land and increasing so fast in numbers that Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties began to feel a decided "boom." From 1880 to 1885 Los Angeles City grew from about twelve thousand to thirty thousand, and both counties more than doubled their population. But all this time San Diego was about as completely fenced out by a system of misrepresenta- tion as it was by its isolation before the building of the rail-
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HISTORY OF SAN DIEGO
road. Much of this misrepresentation was simply well-mean- ing ignorance; but the most of it was pure straight lying so universal from the editor to the brakeman on the cars and the bootblack on the street that it seemed to be a regularly or- ganized plan. So thorough was its effect that at the opening of 1885 San Diego had scarcely felt any of the great pros- perity under full headway only a few hundred miles north.
But when the extension of the railroad to Barstow was be- gun and recognized as a movement of the Santa Fé railway system to make its terminus on San Diego Bay, the rich refugee determined to come down and see whether a great railroad was foolish enough to cross hundreds of miles of desert for the sake of making a terminus in another desert. He came and found that though the country along the coast in its unirrigated state was not as inviting as the irrigated lands of Los Angeles and San Bernardino, there was yet plenty of water in the interior that could be brought upon it. He found there was plenty of "back country" as rich as any around Los Angeles, only it was more out of sight behind hills and table-lands, and less concentrated than in the two counties above. He found a large and beautiful bay surrounded by thousands and thousands of acres of fine rich slopes and table- lands abounding in the most picturesque building sites on earth. He found a climate made, by its more southern latitude and inward sweep of the coast, far superior to that of a hundred miles north, and far better adapted to the lemon, orange, and other fine fruits. He found the only harbor on the Pacific Coast south of San Francisco; a harbor to which the proud Los Angeles herself would soon look for most of her supplies by sea; one which shortens by several hundred miles the distance from the lands of the setting sun to New York; a harbor which the largest merchant vessels can enter in the heaviest storm and lie at rest without dragging an anchor or chafing paint on a wharf.
The growth of San Diego now began in earnest, and by the end of 1885 its future was plainly assured. A very few who predicted a population of fifty thousand in five years were looked upon as wild, even by those who believed most firmly in its future. Even those who best knew the amount of land behind it and the great water resources of its high mountains in the interior believed that twenty-five thousand in five years wonld be doing well enough. Its growth since that time has exceeded fondest hopes. It is in truth a surprise to all and no one can truthfully pride himself upon superior sagacity, how- ever well founded his expectations for the future may be. At the close of 1885 it had probably about five thousand people. At the close of 1887, the time of writing this sketch, it has fully thirty thousand with a more rapid rate of increase than ever. New stores, hotels, and dwellings are arising on every hand from the center to the farthest outskirts in more be- wildering numbers than before, and people are pouring in at double the rate they did but six months ago. It is now im- possible to keep track of its progress. No one seems any longer to know or care who is putting up the big buildings,
W. MIFFLIN SMITH
A pioneer of San Diego, and one of the oldest members of the Order of Elks in the United States ; also one of the original members of the "Jolly Corks."
REV. DR. G. H. HARTUPEE
For fifty-one yearsa minister and educa- tor of the M. F. Church in connection with the North Ohio and Southern California conferences and for eleven years a resident of San Diego.
FRANK S. BANKS
Past Exalted Ruler of San Diego Lodge B. P. O. E. 168, and prime mover in secur- ing the erection of the beautiful Elks Building.
GEORGE N. HITCHCOCK
Native of Boston. Prominent in educa- tional and humane work in San Diego for forty years.
J. W. WILLIAMS Junior member of the firm of Nason and Company.
CHARLES H. BARTHOLEMEW Postmaster of San Diego.
BISHOP J. EDMONDS Cashier Peoples State Bank.
E. O. HODGE Cashier Southern Trust & Savings Bank.
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COMMENTS OF H. G. OTIS
and it is becoming difficult to find a familiar face in the crowd or at the hotels.
This was written at the height of the boom. A more conserv- ative note was sounded by Mr. Harrison Gray Otis, who was here in May, 1886, for the purpose of "writing up" Coronado Beach, and incidentally expressed some opinions upon San Diego and its new boom :
She has got it and is holding on to it with the tenacity of death and the tax collector. Values are "away up" and movements in real estate active. · I hear of a score of men who
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HOTEL DEL CORONADO DURING CONSTRUCTION
The building of this great hostelry and the accompanying development of Coronado was one of the important events of boom days
have made their "pile" within a twelvemonth, and I know that a score more are pursuing the eagle on Uncle Sam's twenties with a fierceness of energy that causes the bird o' freedom to scream a wild and despairing scream, that may be heard far across the border of the cactus Republic. This is peculiarly a San Diego pursuit; you never see anything of the sort in Los Angeles, where the populace take care of the noble bird and encourage him to increase and multiply greatly. The Angeleños understand the national chicken busi- ness, you see.
The boom in lots and blocks is by no means confined to the business center, but has spread far up the sage-shrouded hills where the view is magnificent, but water scarce. While
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HISTORY OF SAN DIEGO
there are not lacking evidences of solidity in the movement of real estate in the more central portions of the town, I can- not avoid the conviction that the excessive inflation of out- side lands is unhealthy, unsound, and destined to bring dis- appointment to the inflaters, if I may coin a word. When un- improved blocks on the highlands, far from the center, and even from the outer edges of business, that a short time ago could be bought for $600, have been boosted in price to as many thousands there is afforded an excellent opportunity for the cautious investor to stand from under, lest the mushroom- like structure fall down and "squash" itself right before his face.
But San Diego is going ahead, and is bound to be an in- portant place one of these good days. She is partaking of the general and splendid prosperity of the whole southern coast, and will continue to prosper according to her deserts. (No reference to sand.) Only it is regretful to see men who have already had more than their share of disappointment and weary waiting for the "good time coming"-to see these men, some of whom still live here, planting financial seed that can- not sprout and spring until another long decade. What I mean specifically, is that unproductive outside lands at fancy prices are not a safe investment in San Diego. So, at least, it seems to a man up a sagebrush.
Mr. Van Dyke wrote a Story of the Boom, in January, 1889, in which he said :
The great boom has had probably no sequel on earth. Cities had indeed grown faster and prices had advanced more rapid- ly than here. Greater crowds of people may have rushed here and there, and far wilder excitement over lots and lands has been seen a thousand times. But the California boom lasted nearly three years, although the wild part of it lasted only about two years. It covered an area of many thousand miles and raged in both town and country. And above all it was started and kept up by a class of immigrants such as has never before been seen in any part of the world, immigrants in pal- ace cars with heavy drafts or certified checks in their pockets, a fat balance in bank behind them, and plenty of property left to convert into cash. Nearly $100,000,000 were by this class invested in Southern California, and the permanent in- crease of population has been nearly 200,000 in the last four years.
Some of the facts: First: There is scarcely an instance of anyone building for his own use a house costing $5000 or more in which the owner is not living today, or if he has sold it is living in another one. In other words, the people of means who settled here are almost to a man here today.
Second: That whenever a man, whether rich or poor, has bought a piece of land and settled down to make it produce something, he is there today contented and doing well. In some places too many good houses have been built for sale only-a foolish thing generally, because the man who wants to pay over $2000 for a house usually wants to follow his own
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THE PROFESSIONAL BOOMER
tastes about it-its style and location. The good houses that stand empty after being once occupied by the owner, you may almost count on your fingers, while a piece of land aban- doned after occupancy it is next to impossible to find.
Third: That the country outside the cities and towns is settling today faster than three years ago, and that even the towns are growing, the floating population being steadily re- placed by a permanent one. The new register, the school enrollment and average attendance list, the postoffice receipts, and all other means of comparison show a larger population today in every city of Southern California than there was a year ago, when every building was overflowing with strangers.
The true "boom" period extends from the summer of 1886 to about February, 1888-about eighteen months in all-and this was precipitated by the repetition of what in 1885 had surprised everyone-the increase of travel in summer, instead of its diminution, as has always been the case. In the sum- mer of 1886 people came faster than ever, and it became very natural to ask where is all this going to end? Nearly every one of them bought something, nearly one-half of them be- came immediate settlers, and the majority of the remainder declared their intention of returning in the winter to build and remain. Such a state of affairs would have turned the heads of almost any people, but still the Californians kept quite cool. It required the professional boomer to touch off the magazine.
In the summer of 1886 the professional boomer came. The business of this class is to follow up all lines of rapid set- tlement, chop up good farming land into town lots 25 or 30 years ahead of the time they are needed, and sell off in the excite- ment enough to pay for the land and have a handsome profit left over. The boomer came from Kansas City, Wichita, Chi- cago, Minnesota, New York, Seattle and everywhere, and with the aid of a brass band and free lunch (which had a marvel- ous influence on the human pocket) he began his work. Most of them were in Los Angeles county, but a few found their way to San Diego, enough to leaven the whole lump. By the Californians generally the boomer was pronounced a fool, and his 25-foot lots, brass band, free lunch, clown exhibitions, etc., laughed at. But it soon became the boomer's turn to laugh.
A boom is a boom the world over, he said. In such times a lot is a lot. You can sell a 25-foot lot for $100 a great deal more easily than you can sell a 50-foot lot for $150. When the world gets a crazy fit, work it while it lasts for all there is in it.
His reasoning quickly proved itself correct. He captured the tourist and the tenderfoot by the thousand, took in scores of old conservative capitalists from the East, who could talk as sensibly as anyone about "intrinsic value" and "busi- ness basis," etc., but who lost their heads as surely as they listened to the dulcet strains of the brass band and the silver tongue of the auctioneer. Rich old bankers, successful stock and grain operators, and smart folks of all kinds, who thought that they were the shrewdest of the shrewd, fell easy victims to the arts of the boomer. Few things were more amusing
PIERCE- MORSE BLOCK
This was the most notable structure of boom days, and at the time of its erection it was gen- erally thought that it had fixed the business center of the city at Sixth and F Streets. Its architecture is typical of its period and differs much from present standards
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MAD SPECULATION
than to see the price of a lot doubled and quadrupled upon these wise old chaps by a few eappers acting in well-trained concert with the auctioneer. The most of the old boys thus taken in were exactly of the same class as those that have been lying around San Diego anxious to buy something, but afraid to examine it. Then they were fighting for a chance to pay $2.00 apiece for brass dollars. Now when offered a sack of gold dollars for 50 cents apiece, they dare not open the sack to look at them.
The natives could not look on such scenes as these without being infected, and it was not long before they became en- tangled in the whirl. They not only laid out additions and townsites, but bought lots of others; not with any expecta- tion of using them, but with the same idea that all the others had-to turn them over to someone else in sixty days at an advance of at least double or triple the amount of the ńrst payment.
A necessary result of the folly was to raise the price of good business property beyond what business could afford to pay. Farming property, in too many instances, was raised too high in price, though nothing in comparison with city property.
It would be idle to recount the many fools that met the in- credible prices offered and refused, the monstrous priees paid by the lot for land that was worth only $50 or $100 per acre, and could not in any event be worth more than $100 a lot in ten years. The enormous supply was forgotten, and folks acted as if there were but a few hundred lots left upon this favored corner of creation, toward which all were so eagerly rushing. The fact was, that if every train for the next ten years were loaded down with actual settlers, not more than half the lots laid out could be settled.
So it went on for 18 months with priees constantly rising; people coming faster than ever, and acting more crazy than ever. It soon became quite unnecessary to show property. It was greedily bought from the map in town by people with no idea of even the points of the compass. . Most of the speculators had no need to resort to the banks. Coin was abundant everywhere. A man offering to loan money on mort- gage would have been laughed at as a fool. As a matter of course, too many people bought diamonds and squandered the money in various forms of extravagance, instead of paying up and keeping even as they went along. But thousands more kept out of debt, and though disposed to take a hand in the game, played it cautiously.
The hammer and saw rang all day long on every hand and improvements of every kind went on rapidly under the influence of abundance of money. The worst feature of this, however, was that in Los Angeles, and especially in San Diego county, little of it went into true development of resources. In San Bernardino county, most of it went into new water- works and other things to develop productive power. But in other counties, especially our county, conveniences for tour- ists and people yet to come absorbed the most of it. . . A very few aided such things, but fully ninety per cent. of
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HISTORY OF SAN DIEGO
San Diego thought that bay and climate alone would build a great city, and many declared upon the street that they "didn't care if you could not raise a bean within forty miles of San Diego." The beautiful and fertile country back of it was of no moment whatever, and a railroad into it, such as is now building, wasn't worth talking of for an instant. The great flume went ahead, notwithstanding, and the country settled up without their knowing it. The necessity for a rail- road to Warner's Ranch, at least, became so apparent that Governor Waterman and a few others got it started. Once started, its extension to the East would follow as a matter of
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