USA > California > Santa Barbara County > History of Santa Barbara county, California, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 37
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Bard: " I eall you to order, sir."
Moore: "Sit down, sir; you can't address this Board in that manner."
Huse: " My language is proper and I cannot with- draw it. I said, 'if you sell out this county.' You may do it unadvisedly. I no not charge either of you with improper motives. In this sense, I say we shall hold you responsible for your action in this matter."
Moore: " You may go cast as far as you have a mind to, but we don't want to be bound to any company."
Hollister: " But, Captain Moore, that lets in any company through our county on the line of the Atlantic and Pacific Road. That will be fatal to us. No other company can benefit us as much, as any- body ean see. Our highest hopes will be more than realized by the construction of the road we are try- ing to aid. Now, it will not do to let in any other
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company on their line. Better a thousand times for us all to let this fail entirely. Pass this order, and you take our weapons away from us. We are then entirely at the mercy of Scott and Stanford; but if you insert the words, . the California Atlantic and Pacific Company,' we are safe."
Packard: "The Board is not bound to favor one company and exclude others."
Hollister: "The petition is for the California At- lantic and Pacific, and none other."
Packard: "1 thought I was harmonizing all the interests. That is what I am aiming to do. I desire to pass an order aiding some road."
Moore: " We don't want to be bound to any road. We are willing to aid the California Atlantic on reasonable terms."
Hollister: " Make your own terms, and you have my note and bond for $300,000 to back the company."
Packard: " I have a proposition which I would like to submit. I think we need not hurry. We can't build the road this year, anyway. Let us offer the subsidy to any company and make it a gift out- right."
Abbott: "Is it not necessary to insert, 'a first-class trunk of the usual grade?' We ought to guard our- selves against any swindling schemes."
Edwards: "The gentleman is correct, no doubt. The gauge of the road should be inserted."
Johnson: " Four feet eight inches is the usual gauge, or four feet eight inches and a half."
Bard: "The Clerk will insert the words, 'with a gauge of four feet eight and a half inches,' if that is correct."
Hollister: "This don't protect us. We want a trunk line connecting us directly with the East, on the line of the 35th parallel. Aid to any other road is a hindrance to this road, which is the only one we can offer to aid. We cannot afford to lose this trunk road. Better scalp us at once."
Coffin: "I suppose it is useless to say much more, but I admire the easy grace and coolness with which the Board has appropriated our route, which has cost us thousands of dollars and two years of hard toil to survey and locate."
Huse: " May I inquire if the minutes show how the members of the Board voted on the question ?"
Bard: " We have all subscribed to the order."
Huse: "That don't show. If two voted for it the third would sign it. Let the records show how each one voted."
The Board declined to act, and soon after adjourned.
The Times of October 23, 1872, contained a fanci- ful description of the last meeting of the friends of the California Atlantic and Pacific Railroad.
SARCASTIC ON SANTA BARBARA.
Referring to an article in the Santa Barbara Press, on the prospects of having a great city, the Alta (S. F.) says :-
" The Press publishes a long editorial to prove that
Santa Barbara is to become a great city, notwith- standing the opposition of Mr. Scott and Leland Stanford, who are supposed to be in terror lest the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad should take away their occupation. Santa Barbara has no doubt some reason for aspiring to a metropolitan position. It has room for many houses; clay for bricks can be found in abundance at no great distance; water can be stored in cisterns; fire-wood can be obtained in large quantities from Santa Cruz; an artificial harbor might be constructed; railroads could be built across the mountains which intersect the county in every direc- tion; and there is no law to prevent an increase of the population by immigration or otherwise. In consideration of these advantages, in addition to the unsurpassed salubrity of the climate, we agree with the Press that Santa Barbara should become a great city."
The Press replied in a column of indignation. As an evidence of the crowded state of the hotels, the Press, November 9, 1872, appeals to the young busi- ness men who have rooms at the hotels to vacate them, and take rooms in the outskirts of the town, that the numbers of strangers visiting the place might not be turned away, especially, as many of these strangers were invalids, who had come a long distance.
A public meeting was held, and committees ap- pointed to secure rooms for strangers, so that it was thought 100 more visitors could be accommodated. It was proposed to erect a hotel villa, which should have a central dining-room and offices, with a number of small houses connected by planked walks. This could be erected at once so as to accommodate the traveling public, until larger hotels could be erected. The committee to provide rooms was composed of O. L. Abbott, N. W. Winton, R. Bently, J. Phelps, D. D .; J. W. Hough, D. D .; Capt. W. H. Johnson, G. P. Tebbetts.
The papers up and down the coast generally com- menced the enterprising talk of the Santa Barba- renos, and wished them success. The Lompoc Record thought a railroad along the coast would treble the population in a year, and proportionally enhance values. Los Angeles was rather disposed to make fun of the matter, and headed an article
"WHOOP 'EM UP LIVELY."
" Santa Barbara has gone into the railroad business in a frenzy, and her journals are full of the subject. So fervid are their disquisitions that one can almost see the inflamed eye of a locomotive between the lines in their newspapers, and hear the snort of the iron horse as one unfolds the wrappers. In the graceful language which the dilettante editor of the Press sometimes permits himself to use, ' Whoop 'em up.'"
During the railroad excitement, Tom Scott and his party frequently visited Santa Rarbara. His pres- ence always created a flutter in the prices of real estate.
DEFEAT OF THE SUBSIDY.
The question of subsidy came before the people, and resulted in an overwhelming defeat of the proj-
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ect, the vote standing for the subsidy 168; against, 1,110.
NEW EFFORTS FOR A ROAD.
It was generally understood that the defeat of the subsidy was a refusal to aid Scott in a San Diego road, and the efforts of newspaper and other advo- cates did not end here. Santa Barbara was spunky, and would not give the matter up. The Index wrote a series of articles numbering twenty or more, set- ting forth the advantages of Santa Barbara as a terminal point for a transcontinental road. These efforts of the Santa Barbara papers were not always received in a friendly manner by the coast papers.
A writer in the Signal, March 14, 1874, comment- ing on the articles in the Index concerning Santa Barbara as a terminus for a railroad, says :-
" He evidently thinks that the Atlantic and Pacific Company is composed of fools. He (Index man) says they (the Atlantic and Pacific Company) will build a road from St. Louis, and make Santa Barbara the terminus; that they will do, notwithstanding the first place they touch there is just as good a harbor as at Santa Barbara; a flourishing town, and better than all an extensive agricultural country to back it; that they will ignore the existence of these advan- tages, and construct a road thirty miles further up the coast, at a cost of not less than $600,000, in order to reach the town of Santa Barbara, where there is a good climate, no fogs, no winds, perpetual sunshine, and where no one has died within the memory of the oldest inhabitant, and they even have the presump- tion to ask San Francisco to aid them in this matter.
" This last evidently refers to a proposition made in the Index to have the railroad terminate at Santa Barbara, and connect with San Francisco by a line of swift steamers. The Signal thinks that a road will be built up the Santa Clara River a distance of forty miles, within a few years, with or without assistance.
CHANGE OF BASE.
From opposing Tom Scott and his railroad schemes, the Press became an advocate of his measures. The reason was found in the following telegram :-
" NEW YORK, August 9th. At the reorganization of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Company to-day, Thomas A. Scott was elected President, Andrew Pierce, Jr., Vice President and General Manager, and Gen. Clinton B. Fisk, Treasurer. John Edgar Thomp- son, Thomas A. Scott, Alfred L. Lennis, and David Solomon, of the Pennsylvania Railroad, were chosen Directors. The election of Scott to the Presidency is said to indicate an alliance between the 32d and 35th parallel transcontinental projects for one line of railroad to San Francisco."
The Press announced that henceforth they should look upon Tom Scott as a friend to Santa Barbara, though rather apprehensive that he would build up Hueneme rather than Santa Barbara, and pitied San Diego. It will be remembered that San Diego was to be the terminus of the 32d parallel, or Texas and Pacific Road.
" Poor San Diego! The shadows gather darkness, if we read aright the omens. Our predictions con- cerning Scott's relations to the Atlantic and Pacific Road appear about to come true."
"INDEX," JUNE 11, 1874.
In the 19th article on railroads the writer says :-
" We have claimed. and now reiterate it, that Santa Barbara a few years hence will be the most impor- tant commercial city in Southern California. As sure as a transcontinental railroad is ever built below the snow line, this prediction will be verified. 'But,' we hear many say, 'you have no harbor.' We answer whether you call our bay a harbor or not, we do not care. We have the safest place for transacting com- mercial business with sailing and steam vessels there is on the Pacific Coast. We make no exception to the land-locked bay of San Diego, or even the mag- nificent bay of San Francisco. The port of Santa Barbara can carry on a large commercial business safer and cheaper than can be carried on at San Diego, Wilmington, or San Francisco. We assert this without fear of successful refutation. Here any amount of ocean commerce can be transacted with greater safety to vessels and cargoes than at any other port on the Pacific Coast. In time, experience, and the low insurance on bottoms doing business at this port, and on their cargoes, will satisfactorily demonstrate the verity of our position beyond cavil. Here we have no use for tug-boats, or for channel pilots, or lighters. The expenses of these tug-boats, pilots, and lighters are not added to the com- mercial transactions carried on at the port of Santa Barbara. Technically, according to a strict definition of the word ' harbor' as a nautical, the bay of Santa Barbara is not a harbor, or place of refuge in a storm, because the bay is not closely land-locked. But as regards the safety of the vessels at all seasons of the year, transacting commercial business, the bay of Santa Barbara is a harbor, and is far superior in the means of saving vessel and cargo, and in com- mercial conveniences, to the best land-locked harbor on the Pacific Coast.
The whole of Santa Barbara channel may be des- ignated as a harbor. The port of Santa Bar- bara is almost land-locked by the islands that inclose what is called the Santa Barbara Channel. The space between the island of San Miguel and Point Concepcion on the main-land is the entrance to this channel on the west, while the space between Point Conversion and the Anaeapa Islands is the entrance on the east. Owing to the mountainous character of these islands, and also of the main shore, and the position of the islands lying, as they now do, in a row, and forming a protection against the storm of the open ocean, that portion of the sea known as the Santa Barbara Channel possesses all the advantages of a harbor, and is a harbor in reality. Every one who comes down the coast and through the channel, aboard ship, experiences sensations as the vessel rounds Point Concepcion, that he is entering a place of safety, a haven of peace. a harbor. He finds himself entering another sea, basking under another sun, soothed by another climate, and the prow of the vessel clearing its way through smoother waters. The cold northeast wind ceases, and a gentle, invig- orating sea-breeze mingles with a warm southern air, and every voyager is stirred with new life and hap- pier feelings. During a period of thirty years pre- vious to the erection of our first wharf, there were not twelve consecutive hours that surf-boats could
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HISTORY OF SANTA BARBARA COUNTY.
not land freight and passengers on the Santa Bar- bara beach.
" Never has a vessel been lost in Santa Barbara Channel by stress of weather. A southwestern storm is the only one that can effect a vessel in this port. These seldom occur. When they are coming the barometer gives the hint, and every vessel can run for the open channel, or lie under the mountain islands on the south of the channel. In all the past year there was not one day in which vessels could not come into or go out of this port, or lie alongside of our wharves, while, during the same time, there were a score of days when no vessel could go into or out of the bay of San Francisco through the Golden Gate."
In the concluding number of the articles on the transcontinental railroad, the author sums up the reasons for constructing the Atlantic and Pacific as follows :-
1st. It avoids the snow that blockades the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads, and the expense of snow-sheds.
2d. It avoids the blockade of the moving sand- hills of the Colorado Desert that would obstruct the Texas Pacific Road, a blockade worse than a snow- bank.
3d. It is the shortest route across the continent from the Mississippi Valley to a commercial port on the Pacific shore.
4th. It can be more cheaply constructed and more cheaply operated than a railroad can be on any other of the transcontinental routes.
5th. It will carry transcontinental freight at lower rates, and yield larger dividends from net profits, than would be possible on any other route.
6th. It is so favorably located that when con- structed it will control a much larger through busi- ness than the Texas Pacific route could secure.
7th. It will, at all seasons of the year, be the pleasantest for transcontinental passengers, tourists, and excursion parties.
8th. It passes through a superior agricultural country, while nearly the whole route of the Texas Pacific is through a howling desert of sand and gravel.
9th. It directly intersects or approaches to, on the right and left, the richest mineral regions in the world.
10th. It would cause the construction of a larger number of feeders, or branch roads, than would a railroad constructed on the Texas Pacific route.
11th. It would create for itself a more extensive way trade than it would be possible to create on the Texas Pacific route.
12th. It would secure the trade of Utah as far north as Salt Lake Valley, and also the trade of the State of Nevada as far north as the mines of Eureka and White Pine.
13th. It would save the general Government more money in the transportation of Indian and military supplies than could be saved on the Texas Pacific route.
14th. It would be more secure from destruction from an enemy in time of war than a road located near the Mexican boundary line.
15th. It reaches a port on the Pacific Ocean through the Soledad Pass, nature's transcontinental railroad gateway, the only practicable route for a broad-gauge railroad from the interior of the continent to Pacific tide-water.
16th. Its western end would reach an inexhaust- ible supply of petroleum, which will soon take the place of coal as fuel for locomotives and steam ships.
17th. Its Pacific terminus will be where the prin- cipal furnaces for the reduction and separation of the metaliferous ores of the Great Basin will be estab- lished.
18th. Its Pacific terminus would practically be at the city of Santa Barbara, the safest place on the coast for carrying on an extensive ocean commerce.
19th. There is no port on the Pacific Coast where transshipment from cars to ocean vessels, and from ocean vessels to cars, could be carried on so. con- veniently, and so cheaply, as at Santa Barbara.
RAILROAD MEETING IN THE CITY HALL.
November 7, 1875, a resolution was passed indors- ing the appointment of *J. P. Stearns as delegate to the Railroad Convention to St. Louis; also of the appointment of J. T. Richards by City Council to same position; also approving a transcontinental road, which should combine the Atlantic and Pacific Road from St. Louis and the Texas Pacific at Albuquerque, in New Mexico, thence westward in a grand trunk line to some point near California, where the road could then branch to San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and Santa Barbara, as insuring the interests of the whole Union, and as of vital importance to the interests of Southern California.
Mr. Huse stated that he would say a word in sup- port of the resolutions and in explanation of them :-
"It might seem strange that they embraced so broad a ground; but the railroad that is to be built is not for the benefit of one town, but it is to be a great national work. It would do us no good to have a road to the Mojave Desert. We must con- nect with a transcontinental road or else we are at the mercy of the great monopoly which controls the northern part of the State and would control the southern also. If we watch the course of the Cen- tral Pacific Railroad, which is already at Tehachapi Pass, and will shortly reach Los Angeles, and will cut into Arizona in the near future-unless gentle- men have watched this giant monopoly, they cannot be aware of this serpent which would crush it in its folds. [Here he read an extract from the Call, con- taming an account of a surveying party the Central Pacific had sent into Arizona towards the Needles, to be absent some months.] We may ask what does this mean ? It means that the railroad which was subsidized about the time of the war has pushed its road down from the northern portion of the State, and is stretching out to the east. It has monopo- lized all California to keep out all other roads. No
* Appointed by the Governor of California.
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SANTA BARBARA RAILROADS.
individual can build the road we propose. But this company (Central Pacific) is rich, and if it is suffered to keep out other roads there will be no competition; they will charge what fares and freights they like. Some companies, by their charters, are compelled to submit to prices fixed by the Government; but it is not so with the Central Pacific and Southern Pacific Railroads. Immigration is rapidly coming this way, and the country will soon be settled. Shall those who come this way be saddled with this overwhelm- ing monopoly ? No. We want competition. We want those who come here to raise crops of wool, nuts, honey, oil, etc., not to be compelled to cross mountains for a market. By the route we propose we are 300 miles nearer Salt Lake. But the Central Pacific Railroad wants to take all the trade to San Francisco, which, like a sponge, is sucking up every- thing. They are not going to Tulare Valley and Los Angeles to benefit those places, but to reach Arizona, and thus leave us out in the cold. It is not enough that Government has given woods and lands to assist it; woods and lands will not build railroads, money is necessary. Money is dear, so we must have European capital; but we cannot get that unless we get good security. If we cannot get American capital we must have European; but that cannot be obtained if Government will not guarantee interest on the bonds. The railroad company asks Govern- ment nothing but a guarantee, for which they will give their lands in return. The Government can secure itself against any possible loss by taking a mortgage on the track and rolling stock. When it gives this guarantee we can take the bonds to the Rothchilds, or any other capitalists, and get the necessary money. The people of the South want this road to open up the country, and will aid us. The grand thing for us is to get a connection with the main line. If the road were going through a thickly-populated country the people along the line would take a hand in it; but three-quarters of the way is through uncultivated land, and, therefore, we must have Government aid. If this road goes to Los Angeles and San Diego we shall have our share. San Diego is a good harbor, but a pilot is necessary; Los Angeles is fifteen miles from the coast; Santa Monica is building a road to meet the Independence and the Topeka and Atchinson Roads. If we get this road, then all the trade will come this way. We have a good harbor, well pro- tected; can build wharves where vessels can discharge every day; no pilots are required; there are no shoals; ships with cargoes of tea and silks from China and Japan can come alongside of our wharves and discharge any day in the year. The goods can be passed across the continent over a line that will never be snow-bound, where there are easy grades, and thus sippiy not only the Eastern States but Europe itself."
He compared our peaceful harbor with Santa Monica and Los Angeles, showing the permanent advantages of Santa Barbara as a transcontinental railroad terminus.
Russel Heath spoke in favor of the projeet. Had always recognized the importance of a road by the southern route. When the Government first lent its aid to a transcontinental road, from a variety of cir- cumstances it chose the northern route. The south- ern one was not understood or known by many people. Few people came that way. He himself came that way; saw no serious obstacles in its con-
struction. The time has come for us to act. It is now a necessity. Freights across the continent have doubled within a year. There is no necessity for it. Labor and materials have not advanced. It is the work of the great monopoly; that is why the capi- talists of Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Or- leans, and Texas have taken hold of it-have deter- mined to build a competing line. Colonel Hollister, Mr. Ivison, and Mr. Rynerson also spoke in favor of extending encouragement to the consolidated trunk line. Mr. Richards thought his business would not permit him to go to the convention. Mr. Stearns accepted the position and generously refused to accept anything towards defraying his expenses.
The convention referred to was held in St. Louis to bring about a system of railroading which should avoid the losses of competing lines, avoid the extor- tionate rates of monopolies, and organize a system of through lines which should carry freights at a living rate for both producer and consumer, and thus develop the country.
For many reasons, too numerous to mention here, the new railroad combination failed to work, and a second time Santa Barbara saw her hopes of a road dashed; but nil desperandum seemed to be their motto, and a third effort was made. This was to build a railroad along the coast from Ventura to San Luis Obispo, with the expectation of making, at some time, a through line from San Francisco into Mexico, also tapping the Southern Pacific at Newhall. The third effort was more modest in aims than the others, but was, nevertheless, creditable to Santa Barbara, and deserves to receive "honorable men- tion."
RAILROAD MEETING.
January 2, 1876, a committee, consisting of C. E. Huse, S. B. Brinkerhoff, W. W. Hollister, and O. L. Abbott, drew up a set of resolutions in favor of build- ing a railroad from Ventura to San Luis Obispo by county bonds, and asking the delegates in the Legis- lature to obtain the passage of a law authorizing Santa Barbara to issue bonds to the amount of $500,- 000 in aid of such an enterprise. A committee con- sisting of Hollister, Brinkerhoff, Heath, Huse, and Judge Hall was appointed to draw up a bill in accord- ance with the sentiments of the meeting. Mr. Grin- nell, a capitalist of New York, thought the bonds of Santa Barbara might be floated three per cent. interest, at ninety cents.
January 3, 1876, a meeting to consider the neces- sity and method of building a railroad took place at Tebbetts' Hall. Hollister, Brinkerhoff, Huse, and Abbott were appointed a committee to draft resolu- tions expressive of the meeting, which was done in a set of resolutions advocating an appropriation by the county of $500,000 towards the work, to be voted on at a special election, and that the chair appoint a committee to draw up a bill to be presented to the Legislature for action. Hollister, Heath, Brinker-
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hoff, Huse, Ivison, and Judge Hall were appointed. Mr. Stearns declined acting on account of private business. Mr. Grinnell, a banker from New York, gave his views as to the probable value of the county bonds in the money markets. Mr. Huse gave some facts about the taxable property of the county, and the unanimity of tax-payers in favor of the project; thought the opposition would come from those who paid no taxes, as the opposition to all works of improvement had, ard instanced the stage road in 1858, and other cases. A bill was introduced into the Legislature, in accordance with the wishes of the people as expressed at these meetings. When the printed copy of the bill appeared, it did not meet the views of many of the people, and a series of meetings were held to consider the subject.
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