USA > California > Santa Barbara County > History of Santa Barbara county, California, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 36
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AMBITIOUS TOWNS.
The towns along the coast, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Sau Buenaventura, and San Diego, were full of advocates for each one as a terminus for a continental railroad. Each, like a young girl putting on a gay dress and fascinating smile, coquetting with the capitalist for the road. Each one, when they had a chance, would privately make faces at the other, and say "you are no better than you ought to be." Santa Barbara did not think much of the harbor of San Diego; the channel was crooked and narrow, the anchorage shallow; could not get in or out except at high tide. The country was noth- ing but sand any way; no soil, no rain. Los Angeles had to lighter the goods and passengers; in a storm they could not land at all; the town was a long way from the water. Santa Barbara claimed to have the best harbor on the coast; would point to the fact that vessels were frequently unable to pass the bar at San Francisco on account of the swell; that when in, a norther would often bump them against the wharves, while the Santa Barbara harbor was always safe for entrance or anchorage; had the best climate, the most fertile soil, and all the accessories for a great city.
RAILROAD MEETING.
A meeting to consider the necessity of giving assistance to the railroad project, was held May 18, 1870. Resolutions proffering assistance were passed. W. W. Hollister, President; Geo. P. Tebbetts, Secretary. Committee on Resolutions, Charles Fer- nald, Dr. J. B. Shaw, Capt. W. E. Greenwell, John Edwards, W. Delaney, E. N. Woods.
Resolution 3. That the property-holders and peo- ple of Santa Barbara County will, if necessary, grant material aid to promote the speedy completion of such a railway, if constructed on the line of the present survey through the county connecting San Francisco with St. Louis and the East.
The Press warned its readers that raising the price of real estate, and then waiting for the road to come would not build it.
May 28, 1872. Adjourned meeting to consider railroad matters. Committee of Conference-W. W. Hollister, Geo. Young, James B. Shaw, John Edwards, D. W. ap Jones, R. K. Sexton, F. W. Frost, O. L. Abbott, S. C. McKeebey, H. Ghleymer, C. E. Huse, E. B. Boust, M. Cook, S. B. Brinkerhoff, W. E. Greenwell, M. H. Biggs, L. Raffour, T. Wallace More, D. W. Thompson, Charles Fernald, Russel Heath, L. T. Burton, Thos. B. Dibblee, James A. Blood, Pablo de la Guerra, J. A. Johnson.
Resolutions were passed pledging five per cent. of the property of the county.
The speakers referred to the facts, generally mis- understood by the people, that Santa Barbara was not in a direct line with the proposed road; that Tulare Valley was the arc, and Santa Barbara the chord; that Tulare Valley was mostly level, while this route
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was rough and mountainous; that there was plenty of Government land on the other route; none here; that to get the road on the longer and rougher route we must make a large donation. Mr. Huse expressed himself as willing to give half his property to have a road through here."
About this time J. T. Richards became editor of the Times. Richards was supposed to be in the interest of the Scott road, as was Thomas R. Bard, formerly in the employ of Scott, and still manager of his vast landed estates.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SUPERVISORS AT THE TERM, 1872.
AUGUST
The citizens presented three petitions in favor of granting assistance to a railroad company, also one to postpone aid. The District Attorney filed opin- ions on same. The Board discussed the railroad project during the afternoon and drafted a letter to A. Hayward, Esq., President of the California Atlan- tic and Pacific Railroad Company, and the Clerk was instructed to spread the letter at length upon the minutes of the Board.
OFFICE OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF SANTA BARBARA CO., CAL.
Santa Barbara, September 12, 1872.
ALVINZA HAYWARD, PRESIDENT OF THE CALFOR- NIA ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY, SAN FRANCISCO - Sir: A petition has been filed before the Board, signed by some of the members of the Railroad Committee, and other residents of the county of Santa Barbara, asking that there may be submitted to the qualified electors of the county at the next annual election, the question whether this county shall aid in the construction of the California Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, by the issue of its bonds equal to five per cent. of the value of its taxable property in this county, according to its valuation on the assessment roll of the fiscal year last past, subject to the conditions which may be proposed by this Board. We deem it proper to sug- gest that your company, if it desires to obtain aid of this county in the construction of your road, shall prepare a petition and submit it, with your proposi- tions as to the conditions on which said aid shall be received by your company to this road, in time for action thereon on the 4th day of October next. In- closed herewith we transmit drafts of the petitions referred to, from which you will be enabled to ascer- tain the wishes of our people in the premises, and the conditions upon which they think it advisable to grant any aid to your road. It becomes our duty, officially, to see that proper safeguards are provided for the protection of the interests of the county, and inasmuch as very little time will be allowed for the interchange of ideas as to the proper mode of sub- mitting the question of subsidy to our people, we desire to say that it will be necessary that your proposition and agreements shall be in writing and duly executed, so that it shall be of binding effect upon your company in the event that it shall be sat- isfactory to us, and in the event that the vote of our people shall be favorable thereto. We are of the opin- ion that it is necessary that a perfect understanding between your company and the Board be arrived at
before the 5th day of October next, the time limited for calling the election. Yours very respectfully,
[Seal]
THOS. R. BARD, THOS. W. MOORE, JNO. EDWARDS.
Supervisors Santa Barbara Co.
Attest, F. A. THOMPSON, Clerk. By JOHN C. PLATT, Deputy.
The Supervisors adjourned from day to day to receive an answer to their communication. The President of the road accredited Mr. Coffin to the Supervisors to make all necessary arrangements and explanations. The discussions were very lengthy, and resulted in divided opinions.
FAILURE INDICATED.
In the Santa Barbara Press of September 7, 1872, was the first intimation of the failure of the project for building a coast line. The article intimated that the Central Pacific Company had probably entered into a compromise with T. Scott, in which the latter was to connect with the former on the line, by way of Bakersfield, the branch road to run from Los Angeles via San Diego.
At a meeting of the Committee of Twenty-six, Charles Fernald resigned his position as President. It was evident that the committee were not a unit on the building of the road, as a proposition to bring about a county subsidy was met with much opposi- tion. A proposition to make Mr. Richards Chair- man was opposed on the ground that he was attorney for Scott.
Three rival roads seem to have claimed the sup- port of Santa Barbara; the Colorado and Pacific by the Central Pacific Company, the Atlantic and Pacific, and the Texas Pacific. The first was pro- posing to run through Bakersfield with the main line, and reach the coast at San Diego and Los Angeles by a branch. The second proposed to run a coast line from San Francisco to San Diego, and thence to St. Louis. Alvinza Hayward was at the head of this company. The Texas and Pacific was supposed to be Tom Scott's road.
The Times announces September 4, 1872, that the Press has commenced a daily in the interest of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, advocating an uncondi- tional subsidy. From this time it seemed that divided counsels governed the people regarding a railroad, one party being dominated by Hayward, and the other by Tom Scott.
September 11, 1872. At a meeting of the Twenty- six, it was resolved that in case of aid being voted to assist in bringing a railroad into the county, and that in case the Atlantic and Pacific should fail to build the road in consequence of the neglect or refusal of San Francisco to denote or subscribe $10,- 000,000 stock, then Santa Barbara should donate the subsidy to any road that should connect the county with San Francisco or St. Louis.
The Signal and Times favored the Tom Scott plan; the Press, the Atlantic and Pacific. Tom Scott was held
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SANTA BARBARA RAILROADS.
up by the Southern California papers as the greatest philanthropist and patriot of the age.
THE WAR BETWEEN THE " PRESS" AND " TIMES"
Did not cease or become less vindictive after J. T. Richards took the editorial chair. The Times, Sep- tember 14, 1872, said :--
" The Santa Barbara Press has commenced a rail- road company's daily. Its professed polities is Re- publican; its religion, unconditional aid to the Califor- nia Atlantic and Pacific Railroad."
The Press says, this "glaring falsehood," etc .; Mr. Richards ought to be ashamed of himself for such unblushing effrontery. But it is in keeping with his whole course before the committee in which he seems to act as if the public were as stupid as he is brazen. Evidently he has no more regard for his own word than the people of Santa Barbara now have, after his attempt to mislead and frustrate them in their efforts to secure a railroad. Profess- ing to be a friend to the movement, he yet places every conceivable obstacle in the way to prevent the necessary action being taken by our citizens in order to secure the county against any possible loss, and at the same time secure the construction of the road.
" . . The people have little use for him or his opinions on railrond matters, and if he is the paid agent and retainer of Scott, he would do well to move his organ down to Hueneme, where Scott's legitimate interests lie, and there work for him in a manly and open-handed manner."
OPPOSITION.
In the meeting of the Twenty-six to inaugurate measures to vote a subsidy, it was evident that Rich- ards, Greenwell, and Dr. Shaw were opposed to the Atlantic and Pacific. Richards made a motion to adjourn sine die, which was seconded by Greenwell. The motion was lost by an overwhelming vote.
The petition asked the Supervisors to call an elec- tion to determine whether the county would grant aid to the amount of five per cent. of its property to the construction of a railroad connecting San Fran- cisco and St. Louis via Santa Barbara, subject to the following conditions :--
That San Prancisco should vote $10,000,000; that the proceeds of the bonds should be expended on the road within three years; that bonds should issue only as the work progressed in the county, and then for one-third in stock, not subject to assessment, and the balance in preferred stock; that the railroad extend to Santa Barbara all the advantages that it does to San Francisco, as far as the circumstances permit.
The route was particularly described.
DR. SHAW VINDICATED.
Some reflections having been cast on Dr. Shaw for the course he took in regard to the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad by the Press and Index, the citi-
zens got up the following testimonial, which was extensively signed (published in the Times) :-
" We, the old residents of Santa Barbara, having known for many years Dr. James B. Shaw, our kind physician and good friend, and hearing that he has been spoken disrespecttully of by the newspapers, the Press and the Index, of Santa Barbara, take the occasion to express to him our appreciation of not only his many acts of charity to the poor in our midst, but his continuous devotion to the interests of Santa Barbara. We look upon him as one of our people, and hope that his life may be long among us. (Signed) P. Joseph, M. Gonzales, O. S. F., Rev. James Villa, M. H. Biggs, U. Yndart, F. A. Thompson, Fran. de la Guerra, B. Gutierrez, W. E. Greenwell, Charles Fernald, J. F. Maguire, J. M. Andonaegui, Gaspar Oreña, John C. Kays, S. Loomis, R. Forbush, J. E. Goux, L. T. Burton, R. M. Wallace, Henry Carnes, Chas. Pierce, John S. Bell, José Lobero, N. A. Covar- rubias, Arza Porter, John Scollan, D. W. ap Jones, R. Cohen, A. M. de la Guerra, J. J. Alizalde.
At an adjourned meeting of the Twenty-six, Green- well, Shaw, and Richards took strong ground against the issuing of bonds, and a sharp discussion took piace about the condition that the issuing of bonds should depend upon San Francisco issuing $8,000,000 or more. The measure was opposed by Huse, John- son, and others, but was carried by a vote of 8 to 7. A motion to adjourn sine die was lost by 4 to 12.
Richards held several proxies, and a move was made that the places of several of the Board who were absent be declared vacant; carried, upon which the matter of Richards' amendment was taken up again, and an uproar succeeded, which ended by Greenwell, Shaw, Richards, and Biggs withdrawing. A counter petiton was circulated.
The Times, September 21, 1872, took decided ground against the subsidy to the California Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, and published a dispatch that the Supervisors of San Francisco had postponed the subject indefinitely.
The action of the Board of Supervisors of San Francisco effectually quieted the projects of Califor- nia Atlantic and Pacific Railroad. The Index, in its fourth number, September 21st, significantly asked what it meant for Santa Barbara, and answered as follows :-
" WHAT NO RAILROAD MEANS.
"It means that we are to live in the half-asleep state in which we have lived so far. It means that the steady and rapid increase of prices and values of real estate, since the prospect of a railroad has been taken into account, must now cease with the removal of the principal cause and be followed by a decline. It means that some of our business men, who are working more in hopes of future than for the present amount of trade, must suffer loss and anxiety. It means that prices of goods and clothing and house- hold wares must be higher, while yet profits on them are less, owing to decreased demand and lack of competition in the carrying trade. It means that,
20
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HISTORY OF SANTA BARBARA COUNTY.
with the finest fruit country God ever made, we cannot become fruit growers for want of a market, easily and speedily accessible. It means that as a country we are to remain importers rather than exporters-not a prosperous condition. It means that we are to continue to sell potatoes during six months of plenty, at a cent a pound, and buy them back again the next half year at two cents. It means that money is to be, as it was before, hard to get and harder to keep. It means a loss of $2,000,000, an amount equal to one-third of all our assessed property, which would have been paid out in our county, and mostly to our own people during the next three years, but will now go into the pockets of farmers and laborers beyond the Coast Range. It means that the bustle and business and flush times that invariably attend the building of a railroad are not for us to enjoy. It means that our chances are forever gone of being on a trunk railway between the East and the West, and that henceforth our ambition can look no higher than to be known as a station on some branch road, leading nowhere. It means that our prospects for becoming a popular place of resort and a great watering place are thrown far into the indefinite future. It means that the unexampled advertising and prominence our vicinity has lately enjoyed throughout the United States, in the columns of great newspapers and maga- zines, will result in small profit to us, when otherwise it would have been worth thousands of dollars to the
county. .
Is the picture a pleasant one to con- template? What shall we say of the men and news- papers who cannot conceal their elation at the prospect ?"
The Press, September 28, 1872, contends that the opposion to the California Atlantic and Pacific Rail- road was occasioned by the visit of Tom Scott to Santa Barbara.
BEFORE THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS, SEPTEMBER, 1872.
Colonel Hollister advocated immediate action by allowing the people to vote on the question of assist- ance. "No other road will ever be built here. This is our only chance." He proposed to adjourn from day to day to get an answer from the Directors of the company.
Mr. Fernald: " Does not this look like haste? Why adjourn from day to day ? Do we propose to tie this county to the company ? I say, for one, No! Gen- tlemen say the people will vote for it. Which com- pany, may I ask, does Mr. Coffin represent? Why don't he come out and say where he stands? Who are his principals ? And what is this company, pray? It is a company of speculators and gentleman paupers! Alvinza Hayward is a prudent man; has $15,000,000 invested in mining stocks. Is he going to build this road ?"
At a meeting of the Board of Supervisors, Septem- ber 22, 1872, Russel Heath, Colonel Hollister, and others urged action favoring a subsidy to the Califor- nia Atlantic and Pacific Railroad. Judge Fernald plead for delay.
Mr. Heath disclaimed being a lawyer or learned man like Judge Fernald, but thought he might answer some of the objections.
Did not think Alvinza Hayward a gentleman pau- per, nor the Directors in San Francisco, nor the Board of fifty Trustees.
He thought they were men of means. He thought they owned some 8,000,000 acres of land, which would become valuable when the road was built. The Directors were among the wealthiest people of San Francisco; were by no means paupers.
" Now consider what Fernald has said about a vote of the people on this question. It is with poor grace that he sneers at the people and scorns their petition for a chance to aid the railroad. Who is he sent here to represent? Not the people, but a large bank interest. I would like to see the gentleman go before the people and say to them what he has said here. I say this is an uprising of the people, and they have a right to be heard.
" The gentleman says he wants a railroad. If he has a proposition for one, if he represents any com- pany, let him say so. We are prepared to hear him. I am committed to no company, and only ask aid to this company because it is the only one that proposes to do anything for us. I am ready to work with any company that will give us a railroad on fair terms, but I believe that Mr. Scott is opposed to the only road that offers us any chance at all, and so 1 say give us the California Atlantic and Pacific Road. Does the gentleman say we cannot enter into a building contract with this company ? He will not take that position for he knows we can, and that we are safe in doing so."
Mr. Fernald: " One word, if you please. I am in want of a road so much that I am determined not to be committed to any company that can keep us out of a road. I now solemnly declare that I do not represent any company, Scott, Stanford, or any one else. Come the charge from where it will, on the authority of a citizen or newspaper, I say what I say as a citizen. Talk about stock! What an absurd- ity! The county can't own stock, as the Bar of this State will attest. That won't wash! It won't hold water! If the bonds of the company are worth anything. why not sell them ? They won't sell for two bits a cord! I am in favor of a railroad as much as any one, but let us not be in haste; there is time enough."
Hollister: " I am free to say that I do not under- stand the love of these gentlemen for a railroad. They seem to want it very much, but do all they can to oppose our getting one. They must love a rail- road much as the Fiji Islanders love the mission- aries-so well that they kill them and eat them up."
The coast papers generally were very indignant over the proceedings of the Board of Supervisors of San Francisco, which virtually killed the coast road. One paper, commenting on the opposition to a coast line of road, remarked that the engine might disturb the slumbers of grizzly bears, which were common along the coast.
The divided opinion regarding the policy of aid- ing the California Atlantic and Pacific Railroad seemed to have affected the Supervisors. Some of them said they had no right to inaugurate means of assistance until the company should ask for it. Others thought the bonds might be used to pay expenses already accrued without building the road.
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Colonel Hollister agreed to enter into sufficient bonds to indemnify the county against all loss in the matter.
END OF THE RAILROAD PROJECT.
The terms proposed by the Supervisors in their call for a vote on the question of aiding the road was such that the friends of the road repudiated it in the following address :-
" To the Voters of the County of Santa Barbara: The Citizens' Railroad Committee of Santa Barbara County, in view of the changed circumstances for the present, in matters pertaining to the California Atlantic and Pacific trunk line of railroad through our county, recommend at the forthcoming election that you vote No on the question of subsidy, for the following reasons :-
"The order made by the Board of Supervisors ignores the will of the people, as manifested by the numerously-signed petitions laid before them, and the committee are not prepared to submit to the will of three men in opposition to the almost unanimously expressed views and opinions of the voters of this county.
" Your committee believe that the people should be judges in such matters; but the Board of Super- visors, disregarding the expressed wishes of the voters, have arrogantly and unwarrantably usurped the power of constituting themselves the judges of what is best for yon, and of making and forcing upon you an order for which you did not petition.
" We still firmly believe that the thirty-fifth par- allel can and will be built. Although our plan for aiding this road has been delayed, it has not been defeated. On this unsolicitated order of the Board of Supervisors, submitted to your suffrages at the ensuing election, we most emphatically say, VOTE NO!
" W. HOLLISTER, Chairman, " A. L. LINCOLN, Secretary."
At a meeting of the committee a resolution was offered and carried, censuring the Times and approv- ing the course of the Press.
HOLLISTER TO THE FRONT.
At the final meeting of the Board of Supervisors Colonel Hollister addressed them as follows :--
" Gentlemen of the Board of Supervisors: I have heard in astonishment the words of this order as now read. A plain proposition was presented to you in the humble petitions of the California Atlan- tie and Pacific Railroad Company, and of your fellow-citizens. To these petitions you give no heed, and, instead, you grant an order which we do not want and for which we do not ask; for which no one has asked that I have heard of. You put us off when we came before you a fortnight ago, because the railroad company had not presented a petition and contract. They now present both. But what do you say? You offer us an order which no com- pany, not a single citizen, has ever asked, and you refuse to grant us what we have been urging and entreating you to do. Gentlemen, we have asked for bread, and you have given us a stone; we have asked for a fish, and you have given us a serpent, a huge anaconda, a monster of the monopolies of Scott and Stanford stretching from the north to the south along this coast, in the coils of which we are to be crushed to death, and then swallowed. without re-
morse! Gentlemen, we don't want this order. It is death to us. It strangles all our hopes. It denies us all our rights. And at whose bidding is it done? Where is your petition asking for it? Where is your authority for making such an order? Have you any law for it? Does any citizen here want it?"
Bard: "The Board has already agreed to this order, and it is useless to argue upon it."
Hollister: " Will you not consent to insert the words, 'the California Atlantic and Pacific, or any other railroad company ?'"
Bard: " We have agreed to this order as it stands."
Abbott: "Why not make the order read so as to extend the route on to the Needles?"
" As it now reads it stops on the boundary line of the county, about where Stanford's road is to run on its course to Los Angeles."
Bard: " What do you say, Captain Moore, are you willing to amend it?"
Moore: "No; let it stand."
Bard: "That is all, I believe. The Board may as well adjourn."
Huse: " Before the Board adjourns I would like to make one or two inquiries in order to understand the matter: Ist. Does the Board absolutely refuse to insert any words so as to apply this aid to the Cal- ifornia Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Company ? 2d. If you refuse to do that will you not insert, 'and from the line of this county to the Colorado River, by route of the 35th parallel?' Now will the Board refuse? For what reason? Your order recites that the road commences at San Francisco and runs down the coast. Why not define its course after it leaves this county? Why should the Board be arbi- trary about the matter? For whose benefit? It seems to me that I am not asking too much of this Board. You are our fellow-citizens. You reside among us and have your own property here. The people have elected you to promote their prosperity, not to defeat it. If you sell it (this county) you will be held responsible for it by the people."
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