USA > California > Santa Barbara County > History of Santa Barbara county, California, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 34
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Protest overruled and the Board proceeded with the canvass and count of the ballots of the precinets of Santa Barbara, Montecito, Carpenteria, San Buena- ventura, La Cañada, Santa Paula, and Santa Clara. The Board then canvassed and recounted again the ballots of the preeinets of Los Alamos and Santa Maria, with the same results as before, on the 25th inst. The following was the official result :-
CANDIDATES.
Santa Clara.
Santa Paula.
San Buenaventura
La Cañada.
: Carpenteria.
Montecito.
Santa Barbara.
La Patera.
| Los Cruces.
Santa Maria.
| Los Alamos.
Total.
Justice Supreme Court- Lorenzo Sawyer O. C. Pratt.
29 29 61 61
49
64
20
19
17
183 185
49
4
3
11
437
Joseph Crockett .. W. T. Wallace ..
39
55
32
43
30
237
40
35
4
47
622
District Judge-
'y! ) de la Guerra. Wulver Murray.
39 43
40 43
45
15
27 30
16
23 187
5
6
16
19
433
.
When the returns from San Luis Obispo were received, it was found that Pablo de la Guerra was duly elected Judge of the Second Judicial District.
RATES OF ASSESSMENT.
Most of our readers will remember the general complaint of the inequality of the rates twenty or even fifteen years ago. The law provided that all property should be assessed at its cash value. Land improvements and stoek were the largest items on the assessment roll. Land in the northern part of the State was assessed at $20.00 per acre; in the southern part of the State the same quality of land was assessed at twenty-five cents per acre. The large raneheros had some influence by which they would get their large tracts at a nominal rate, fre- quently as low as three cents per acre. The man who purchased a small tract, and by his own industry made it produetive, was assessed at the highest rates. Cash in hand was assessed without deduction. In some instances, when a wholesale increase of the assessment was made, this was raised above its actual count.
Complaints became so loud after the assessment of 1869 that a general increase of estimated values took place, and the appraisement of 1870, though much below the cash value, was a great advance on pre- vious years.
Among the cases cited were the lands of the Dib- blees and Hollisters :-
Two-thirds of the Lompoe, 26,644 acres, assessed at $9,322.40; Gaviota, 8,888 acres, at $3,666; Santa Ana, 13,196 aeres, at $3,958; La Espada, 13,300 acres, at $3,325; San Julian, 48,221 aeres, at $14,466.30; Salsepuides, 6,657 aeres, at $1,664.25; Las Cruces, 1,000 aeres, at $300.
A total of 117,926 aeres assessed only $35,701.95.
This was not considered a tenth of the value of the land; in faet, the Lompoe alone was sold a few years later at more than ten times the assessed value of the whole of the ranches.
The Philadelphia Petroleum Company's lands were assessed :-
Simi, 92,340 aeres, at $23,085; Las Posas, 26,600 acres, at $7,980; San Francisco, 5,313 acres, at $2,656; Thomas R. Bard, San Pedro, 4,439 acres, at $6,658. This was less than thirty cents per acre.
It was remarked that these low rates were recog- mized by Thomas B. Dibblee and T. R. Bard, as Supervisors, themselves being owners.
The Hollister, Dibblee, Cooper, and Bard traets, amounting to 319,189 acres, was assessed at $103,696. José Arnaz's land, on the Santa Ana, was assessed at thirty cents per acre, though he asked $20 an acre.
In town it was not much better. J. A. Johnson sold a block to O. L. Abbott for $5,000 which was assessed at $350. Lot 230 on State Street that was sold for $5,000, and held afterwards at $16,000, was assessed at $400, though the Supervisors subse- quently raised it to $1,000.
14
46
630
39
58
31
39
30
233
40
34
33
1
39
578
67
36
30
29
4
4
13
11
444
50
54
19
15
17
Very Respiy Youre, OHMY las han.
C. F. MCGLASHAN.
CHARLES FAYETTE MCGLASHAN was born near Janesville, Wisconsin, August 12, 1847. His ancestors were from Clan McGlashan, in the Highlands of Scotland. His father, Peter McGlashan, was one of the pioneers of Wisconsin, having removed thither from western New York. The mother dying in 1849, the father started to California in 1851, with his seven children, of whom the subject of this sketch was next to the youngest, and was the only son. Stop- ping one year in Missouri, and one at Salt Lake, they reached California in 1854. His boyhood was passed in the Coast Range Mountains, about twenty miles west of Cloverdale, and his earlier education was received in the Sotoyome Institute, at Hcalds- burg. At seventeen, he engaged in teaching, first in the Sotoyome Institute, and subsequently in EI Do- rado County. In 1868, he went East, and took a course of instruction at Williston Seminary, East- hampton, Massachusetts. Returning to California in 1871, he was Principal of the Placerville High School for a year and a half. December 25, 1871, he married Miss Jennie M. Munsow, at Cold Springs, El Dorado County, and their daughter, Undine, is now living in San Francisco. In 1872, he became Princi- pal of the Truckee Public Schools, which position he retained until October 1874, when he went to Utah as correspondent of the Sacramento Record-Union, and spent some months in investigating the Mount- ain Meadows massacre. The accounts published in the Record-Union gave to the world for the first time, the real facts of that awful tragedy, and un- doubtedly exerted an influence in securing the arrest and conviction of John D. Lee. In 1875, he began the practice of law, in Truckee, and for four years met with very encouraging success. During these years, however, he continued to correspond regularly with the Record-Union, and becoming interested in journalism, edited the Truckee Republican, and finally became its proprietor. While occupying this posi- tion, he undertook the task of collecting the facts connected with the fate of the Donner Party, who in 1846-47, were imprisoned in the wintry snows of the Sierras, on the shores of Donner Lake. He visited nearly all of the twenty-six survivors, devoting a considerable portion of two years to interviews and correspondence upon the subject. The " History of the Donner Party," an octavo volume, of about 300 pages, met with a rapid sale, and has already passed through four editions. April 7, 1878, he married Miss Nona G. Keiser, at Truckee, and they have had three daughters, Nettie V., June Laura, and Gertie, the
last-named dying during infancy. In May, 1880, he sold the Republican to good advantage, and removed to Santa Cruz. In September, 1880. after the assassin- ation of Theodore Glancey, Mr. MeGlashan became the editor of the Santa Barbara Press, and in Decem- ber following he purchased the paper.
About the year 1871, he began experimenting upon a method of aerial navigation, the distinguishing feature of which was that the balloon, or aerostat, should be connected by a rope, or cord, with a truck moving upon rails or wires stretched along the sur- face of the earth. In endeavoring to transmit electricity from these earth wires to the balloon, he also discovered a method of telegraphing to moving railway trains. In March, 1882, he gave a publie ex- hibition of his Train Telegraph, at San Francisco, which was pronounced an entire suecess by the metro- politan journals. Almost every prominent news- paper in America has since commented upon the practicability and necessity of such a system of tele- graphing to moving trains, and Mr. McGlashan is now preparing to go East to endeavor to introduce his invention upon the great trunk lines of railroad.
Mr. McGlashan's career as a journalist is likely to be obscured by the importance of the train telegraph discovery, but nevertheless deserves recognition. He had been employed on the Record-Union, by that vet- eran journalist, W. H. Mills, and to him, perhaps, he owes his trenchant, matter-of-fact, but at the same time, candid method of stating facts. His letters con- cerning the Mountain Meadows massacre came like a revelation to the public. Mr. McGlashan has also written the liveliest descriptions of snow-bound trains, snow-plows and other incidents of life in the upper Sierras ever put in print. When he was placed on the that Press at Santa Barbara, he had a work to perform few journalists would care to undertake. Journalism in Santa Barbara was a sui generis. something unlike the profession generally. The journals had been ably edited; there had been no lack of talent, in fact, many of the writers have since been employed on the metropolitan journals. They were of the violent order. Bitter personalities marked their editorials. One editor had been assassinated; another had been pounded and cowhided. An ineendiary fire, kindled in one office, had aroused the people at midnight. The daily papers had been in the habit of flinging the lie, the coward, poltroon, and swindler at each other for years. The readers of the papers had become used to it-were not alarmed or frightened, in the least, at the terrible fusillade of paper bullets. It was even
BIOGRAPHY OF C. F. McGLASHAN.
thought that they rather enjoyed it; that a paper could not flourish without the daily seasoning of bit- ter personalities.
Mr. McGlashan has demonstrated the contrary. He has abused no one. Uniform courtesy has marked his editorials. While he has advocated positive Re- publican principles, he has treated all diverging opinions with respect. The Greenbacker cannot complain of being misrepresented. The Democrat is surprised and delighted to find that he is not charged with being a thief, traitor, or ignoramus. No sneers at an honest opinion, however mistaken the editor might think it, were ever allowed to find place in the paper. .
No anecdotes of doubtful influence, even though penned by a Prentice, were displayed in its columns. Mr. McGlashan judged rightly that a clean, respect- able sheet would be appreciated and supported. Under the guerrilla system the Press, though often stimulated by donations from the rich men of the county, had run down until the moral and physical fiber necessary to make even a presentable appearance were wanting. Under his care the subscription list increased; the ads became a sure thing, valuable to the paper for the price that was paid for them, and to the tradesman for the increased sale of his wares. Some of the old patrons, who had in times past made donations to the paper, predicted the necessity of an appeal to them for the cash to make good the ex- pected deficit, which, however, never came. No bonus was received to bind the editor or compromise his independence. There were no suspicions, as in times past, of the paper being the organ of any clique, land association, or scheme to swindle the public, and what was better than all, the ledger showed a balance on the right side. It is said that it is the only paper in Santa Barbara that has ever paid. The business prospered until new type, new machinery, and material were necessary. Me., as he is familiarly called, is a hard worker. If anybody can work eighteen hours out of the twenty it is he. When the last line of proof had been read and the daily publication taken off of his mind, then he turned to the project of train telegraphy. When all Santa Bar- bara was asleep, he was poring over the books in which the scanty knowledge of electricity was found, and when day by day, night by night, one after another of the necessary conditions were worked out and the project of telegraphing to and from moving trains became probable, how reluctantly he left the studio to snatch that minimum of sleep which his own experience had taught him was necessary for mental work.
The michine was wrought out and tested on the rails of the Cential Pacific near San Francisco, and a message, the first ever sent from a moving train, for- warded to his wife, she who had been to him almost a source of inspiration when all the papers were rid- iculing the idea as visionary. Those who have never
triumphed over the forces of nature and the doubt- ing sneers of an incredulous public, can form no idea of the sublime pleasure of such a moment.
The immense importance of the discovery can only be conjectured. If the machine can be made to work on long lines, as on short ones, Mr. McGlashan may live at rest, if such a thing is possible for him, the rest of his days. The general principle may be easily understood though the machinery is too com- plex to be understood without a drawing. The fol- lowing diagram will perhaps help to form an idea of it :-
·A
B
Let A and B represent two wires at the same height, running along near a railroad track, mounted on insulators. These wires may be ten, twenty or thirty miles long, a half inch in diameter, and perhaps a foot apart. The wire marked A is connected with the battery at A, and is insulated everywhere else. The B wire is connected with a battery at B, or car- ried in the ground, and is also insulated at all other points. It will readily be seen that if a truck is made to run over these wires at any point between A and B, the two points A and B will be in contact. But the truck is composed of two parts, separated by insulation, and here is the merit of the invention. The two parts are connected by a wire which passes through the writing machine in the car running at the same rate of speed as the truck, and thus the train is in telegraphic communication with A and B.
It will readily be seen that though two wires are up, the portions of each wire from the connecting truck towards the insulated part are not used, thus making the wire in use just the length of one wire. The machinery to put this principle in practice is complicated, and is necessary to make the workings practical over crossings, turnouts, switches, past depots, and stations, with which communication must be kept up.
The skill of able railroad men and machinists will undoubtedly help work out the problem. The Penn- sylvania Central has put their machine shops at his service for any work which he wishes done. Rail- road men generally through the United States man- ifest much interest in the discovery.
Mr. MeGlashan has always a pleasant word for his numerous friends. He is possessed of a splendid physique, and but for a rigid determination to do three men's work, would enjoy the best of health.
He is fond of society, takes part in musical festi- vals, and all other meetings tending to promote social intercourse. He is fond of the woods, mount- ains, and streams, and will often trench on his sleep- ing hours, getting up early in the morning, and walk several miles to surprise game at their sunrise haunts. The Santa Barbara people will miss his pleasant companionship.
.
141
AMERICAN OCCUPATION.
The San Francisco Chronicle and other city papers took up the matter, and showed that while the whole real estate in Santa Barbara was assessed at 8775,864, a single estate (the Petroleum Company's) was held at $2.000,000. A correspondent taking the whole assessments under consideration, proved that the forty-five small owners paid on 12,862 acres eighty times as much per acre as the large holders.
The following article, reprinted from the working- man's paper at San Francisco, appeared in the Times of May 25, 1870 :-
" We affirm that in Santa Barbara County, as else- where, it has been the custom of Assessors to rate the lands of monopolists at ten cents per acre, or some other such nominal sum, while the same quality of land belonging to a farmer was assessed at $15.00 to 820.00 per acre. In these localities the large land- holders, at convention or election times, will trade off every other candidate for the Assessor, in order to escape equitable taxation, and the scoundrel wretch elected under such patronage is in duty bound to perjure his soul, and oppress the poor by taxing them to the utmost farthing, and suffering the rich to go free.
" . . If the land-sharks continue their depredations and annoyances, the settlers ought to take them out to the woods, together with their own shyster abet- tors and advising confederates, and hang and have done with them. Nothing less fervid than the flames of hell should be the portion of the scheming villain who, through the tricks and technicalities of the law, would unhonse and expel the industrious settler and his family, driving them forth houseless, homeless, in the unspeakable desolation and deeper-than-midnight gloom of despair, cursing the demon-like cruelty of man and repining at the seeming forgetfulness of God."
The Times generally denounced the unequal assess- ments; the Press, on the contrary, approved of the existing rates, as the Times said, in the interest of the big landholders. It was shown in hundreds of instances that land was sold for four, ten, and twenty times its assessed value. In one instance land was sold for $100, when it paid taxes at a valuation of $2.75 per acre.
Sturgeon, under the nom de plume of .. El Cabo," stirred up so much feeling by newspaper articles that the assessments of large tracts in 1870 were nearly double what they were the year before.
BEAR FIGHT, IN WHICH THE BEAR GOT THE BEST OF IT, AND OTHER BEARS.
[" Post," May 5, 1869.]
On Friday evening last, Mr. William Hampton, who resides on the north side of the San Marcos Mountains, about fifteen miles from this place, killed a young bear near his home, and on turning around found himself, with his gun empty, in rather dis- agreeable proximity to the old bear. Thinking dis- cretion the better part of valor, he quietly withdrew and made moderate time for his house, forgetting, in his thoughts for personal safety, the bear that he had shot. Next morning, accompanied by his part-
ner and a dog, he returned to the place to find the dead bear, hoping, also, to meet the living one. IIe was met by the infuriated beast, who had remained by the cub during the night. The bear overturned him before he had a chance to use his gun, and com- menced mangling Mr. Hampton at a rate that would soon have reduced him to fragments. To make mat- ters still worse his partner's gun, placed against the bear's head, failed to explode. The dog, a large one, however, made such an attack in the rear that the bear let go the man to attend to his new enemy, giving the man a chance to haul off for repairs. Mr. HI. was able to ride to town, and is in a fair way of recovery. Does not care to meet the animal again.
TIIAT BEAR.
[Santa Barbara Papers.]
An enormous bear had been preying upon the stock around Montecito for years, the damage being estimated at upwards of $1,000. Large rewards were offered for his destruction, but he eluded traps and poison, and seemed invulnerable to bullets, until July 17, 1873, he was slain by Callis and Hubbard, of Carpenteria. He weighed over 1,000 pounds.
Bears are so destructive at Montecito that the citizens have offered a reward of $50.00 for every one killed within certain limits of the town.
A bear at the Lone Tree Ranch, at Santa Rita, visited the house and drove the inmates up a ladder After looking around at things he left.
Signal, April 29, 1871, says that wild animals are so abundant in the mountains as to make the country practically useless for grazing.
IRREGULARITIES OF OFFICERS.
The loose way in which county business was trans- acted has often been referred to. W. T. Williams, District Attorney, discovered an appropriation or retention of funds not warranted by law on the part of the District Judge, Pablo de la Guerra, and the Clerk of the Court, F. A. Thompson, and had them brought before Justice H. G. Crane for preliminary examination. C. E. Huse, A. Packard, and Judge de la Guerra himself were sworn. The testimony elicited the facts that some of the fees were paid to the Judge, but that the most of them were retained by the Clerk and not accounted for. It was apparent, also, that those which the Judge received were nct charged to him when he drew his salary, so that all the fees were nearly unaccounted for. The examira- tion lasted several days.
Judge Crane held Thompson to answer before the Grand Jury in the sum of $1,000. A writ of habeas corpus was sued out before Judge Maguire, returnable on Tuesday, February 19, 1872.
Judge Magnire said that he had spent some hours in examining the testimony taken before the Justice of the Peace, and that it was not necessary to repeat it.
Judge Fernald, for defendant, claimed that no
19
142
HISTORY OF SANTA BARBARA COUNTY.
money as fees had been proved as received; that no defalcation could lie until District Attorney Williams showed receipts for $192; thought the whole exam- ination was a fraud; that the acquittal of the defend- ant was a foregone conclusion. A dispatch was produced from the Controller's office in Sacramento, that no money had been deducted from the salary of Judge de la Guerra on account of fees. Fernald denied any importance to the dispatch; that it was not sworn to; that it was not even known that he was a Clerk in the office.
Judge Maguire said the accounts of the Clerk were evidently loosely kept. Some litigants had paid in advance, and others not at all. He remarked that the Clerk was a long-time friend, but that setting as a Judge he knew no friends, no enemies; but must conclude that after a thorough "examination of the testimony he could not hold'the defendant to answer, and ordered him to be discharged.
The following scene occurred (according to the Times) at the close :-
Fernald: "Thank God! Justice at last."
District Attorney Williams: "Well, 1 presume this don't prevent the next Grand Jury from opening the matter ?"
Judge Maguire: " Mr. District Attorney, you will please not interrupt me until I have" finished my notes."
District Attorney : " I presume you won't place an injunction on the next Grand Jury's taking up the case ?"
Mr. Fernald: "I except to this kind of interrup- tion from counsel."
District Attorney: " You can except. as much as yon please under the protection of the court, but you can't go outside and except."
Mr. Fernald (demonstratively): "You may be a big man, Mr. Williams." (Here Sheriff Porter seized Mr. Williams, who was approaching Fernald, who also appeared belligerent. Judge Maguire called Williams to order without avail, and the Sheriff tried to push him into a chair.)
District Attorney to Sheriff: "Why not sieze him (pointing to Fernald). He raised his cane to strike me."
Judge Maguire: " Mr. Williams, you are not now before a Justice of the Peace. I order you to keep the peace, or I will place you under arrest."
Mr. Williams insisted on the other man being taken into custody too, referring to Fernald.
Deputy Sheriff Ames: "I have him in charge; he's all right."
Order was finally restored, and peace returned to bless Santa Barbara.
The whole affair seemed to involve but $192, the most of which Frank A. Thompson had dropped into his pocket without giving it further thought.
Judge de la Guerra acknowledged having received money to a trifling amount, how much, or how little,
he could not tell, as he had made no account of it. It was very annoying to him undoubtedly, but the manly way in which he confessed his carelessness endeared him to the people, who would have par- doned a much greater matter in one so thoroughly upright and honest.
CREATION OF THE COUNTY OF VENTURA AGITATED.
It was early foreseen that the incorporation of the southeastern part of the county into a new body was a probable event. It seemed to be separated from the rest of the county by high mountains, which came boldly down to the sea, making commu- nication at times very difficult. There was ample territory of fertile land, which was fast being settled up. The project, of course, was not well received by the western part of the county. The Supervisors issned a remonstrance in the following words :---
REMONSTRANCE.
Office of Board of Supervisors 'March 5, 1870. Of Santa Barbara County.
Whereas a Bill has lately been introduced in the Assembly of this State to divide the county of Santa Barbara, and to form a new connty to be called " Ventura," to be composed of the first township of this county,
Be it Resolved, That in the unanimous opinion of this Board, the proposed division would result very disastrously to the general interests of the whole county, as well as to the district proposed to be segre- gated.
1. By subjecting the few property owners of said district to an onerous taxation for the support of the machinery of a new county government, namely, from $30,000 to $40,000 per annum, to be raised from a population of about 2,000, including men, women, and children.
2. In, that the balance of the county likewise will be subject to a much heavier taxation than at present inasmuch as the expenditures would be materially unchanged, and the same amount would necessarily have to be raised from a much less amount of prop- erty, and, in that the county is already encumbered with arrears to the amount of $30,000.
3. In, that the heavy taxation would necessarily cripple the agricultural and other interests which are but lately begun, and are struggling against the dis- appointments and irretrievable losses resulting from the hitherto unfavorable, and yet critical season. That the owners of a large amount of the taxable property of the section sought to be cut off from the county, and who, according to the best information of this Board, being nearly the whole of the tax-payers of the balance of this county (being in effect more than three-fourths in amount of all the tax-payers of Santa Barbara) are strongly opposed to the attempted division. That in accordance with the requirements of the law, the tax levy for the fiscal year of 1870, should be made before the first day of March. This
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