USA > California > Kings County > History of Tulare and Kings counties, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the counties who have been identified with their growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 24
USA > California > Tulare County > History of Tulare and Kings counties, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the counties who have been identified with their growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 24
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The early business men of Lemoore were: J. H. Fox, B. K. Sweetland, Max Lovelace, A. Mooney, D. Brownstone, John Heinlen, R. Scally, Justin Jacobs, G. W. Follett. John Hayes, Benjamin Hamlin, C. W. Barrett, Amos M. Ayers, Dr. L. M. Lovelace, A. S. Mapes, E. Erlanger, George W. Randall, Dr. N. P. Duncan, 11. Larish, R. E. McKenna, the latter serving as postmaster, receiving his appointment in 1886. F. M. Powell, now postmaster, is another one of the early men identified with the city.
The Southern Pacific Railroad entered the town in 1877 and the growth of the town has been steady, the greatest strides having been made, however, since the creation of Kings county.
Lemoore was incorporated as a city of the sixth class in June, 1900, and has a municipal water and sewer system. The first grammar school was organized in Latache (now Lemoore) in 1873, and a cheap school building was erected on two acres of land donated to the district (then called Lake) by a Mr. Armstrong. The building was eighteen by thirty feet and was dedicated with a "country dance" on one December night in 1873. The first teacher was a Mr. Simpson. and the forty to fifty pupils who attended this first school came from the surrounding country, some being residents of the Kingston country on Kings river to the northeast. The citizens of Lemoore evidenced a commendable pride in their publie schools when in 1857 a new $10,000 school building was erected. In 1885 the name of the district was changed from Lake to Lemoore, which name it now
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bears. In the year 1912 there was erected a magnificent new grammar school building at a cost of $40,000. A very substantial high school building was erected in 1910.
The city is well supplied with churches, public halls, etc. There are two banking institutions, and two weekly newspapers, The Repub- lican and The Leader.
The rich soil and the diversified farming interests with ample irrigating facilities surrounding Lemoore insure continued substan- tial growth. The leading industries upon which the city relies are dairying, fruit raising, raisins, wine and general agriculture.
CHAPTER XXIX EVOLUTION OF THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY
(An address by John G. Covert, Superior Judge of Kings County, Before Members of the Supervisors' Convention.)
In speaking today of the evolution of the San Joaquin Valley I shall mean the industrial and social development. and I shall not use the word evolution in a technical sense, nor as a geologist would use it I shall direet my remarks towards the unfolding of the potentialities of the valley and its development during the last half century. I shall further premise my remarks by briefly defining and outlining the territory which in my opinion it comprises:
Beginning at a point a few miles south of the city of Bakersfield. where the Tehachapi Mountains, a spur of the Sierra Nevada, join the Tejon Mountains. a spur of the Coast Range, and thence extending in a northwesterly direction a distance of about three hundred miles to a point just north of the city of Stockton. varying in width from forty to sixty-five miles, and containing approximately 7,500.000 acres, lies one of the most fertile and prosperous valleys in the world. and it constitutes and is known as the San Joaquin Valley.
So far as I am familiar with history, the San Joaquin Valley was first seen by the eyes of white men about March 30, 1772. A few days before that date an expedition had set out from the Mission Monterey headed by Pedro Fages and Father Crespi on a tour of exploration. Padre Junipero, the famous Franciscan missionary, was at that time in charge of the Mission Monterey, and it was at his instigation the expedition was undertaken. The small party headed by Pedro Fages and Father Crespi found their way without adventure to the waters of Suisun Bay, and then eastward along its southern
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border. until they reached a point near Mount Diablo, where the magnificent river and valley that was afterwards known as the San Joaquin was presented to their admiring view. At that time, doubtless in honor of the patron saint of the Franciscans, the river was called San Francisco, and it was not until several years later, probably sometime between 1796 and 1813, that the name of San Joaquin was given to this magnificent stream. The honor of bestowing this name upon the river, from which the valley subsequently took its name, is credited to Gabriel Moraga, a doughty Spanish soldier, who lead some troops into the northern end of this valley about that time in pursuit of hostile Indians. Just when the name San Joaquin was bestowed upon this river and valley and by whom is involved in uncertainty, but it is a fact that for over a hundred years this great valley and river have been known by that name.
Mount Diablo, by some supposed to be an extinct voleano, a peak in the Coast Range Mountains, stands sentinel like just off the southwestern extremity of the valley, and from its top, a height of about four thousand feet, may be obtained a most excellent view of the valley and river. This mountain has been adopted by the United States as a datum point for the purpose of sectionalization of the lands of the central part of the state, and there is hardly a deed or other written instrument affecting land in the San Joaquin Valley which does not bear the familiar legend "Mount Diablo Base and Meridian." The expedition sent ont by Padre Junipero in 1772 seems to have been the last effort upon the part of the Franciscans to explore this territory, and so far as I know, no attempt was ever made to found a mission, although there were some Indians in the valley and in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on the east.
The San Joaquin Valley first began to attract the attention of the American people in the days of '49. The discovery of gold by John Marshall was a signal for a rush to the Pacific Coast by a class of energetic and daring men, whose efficiency as pioneers has never been excelled, if ever equalled. The lure of gold, stories of wonderful opportunities, and the appeal of a new country brought men to California by the thousands. Whatever may have been their intention about permanently residing here, when they set ont upon their journey westward, once here. the charm of climate and scenery claimed them forever after. The men who came here in those days came to dig gold. They turned their faces towards the mines. . 1 plodding agricultural pursuit would not satisfy them. Many of them had abandoned good farms and the occupations of their fathers for the fascination of gold digging, and nothing could divert them from this occupation. On their way to the mines many passed over the fertile lands of the valley, and its possibilities attracted their attention and appealed to them, even in their feverish rush to the gold diggings.
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Years later when disappointment came, as it comes to so many who hunt fortune in mines, their thoughts turned back to the valley with its opportunities, and hundreds of the miners became farmers; some of their youth and strength was expended to be sure, but still full of energy and hope they determined to wrest from the hosom of the valley with the plow the fortune they could not dig from the bowels of the mountains with the spade. There was some farming done about Stockton in the early '50s. Farm produce commanded a big price and found a ready market among the miners.
The first great business or industry of the valley, however, was the cattle business, interspersed to some extent by sheep raising. The mild short winters, the abundance of grass that grew upon the plains, and the many streams of water made the San Joaquin Valley an ideal grazing country, and the plains at one time were covered from Stockton to Bakersfield with cattle. These were the days of cattle kings. Their herds roamed and grazed at will, save the occasional round-up or rodeo, when the calves were marked and branded and the cattle fit for beef were cut out and driven to the nearest shipping point or market. During the period when the cattle business was supreme in the San Joaquin Valley, Major Domo and his crew of vaqueros played a prominent part of the drama of life. Here in this valley were developed the most skillful and daring riders in the world; also the most expert men with the lasso or riata. These were still days of picturesque and romantic life in California. The vaquero with his beantifully decorated Mexican saddle, with its famous Visalia tree, that is now known in every cow country west of the Mississippi, his silver-mounted bridle and spurs, riding easily and gracefully, was an objeet of admiration and emulation. There were few boys in those days who did not intend to become vaqueros when they grew up. The horse and saddle called to them like the ship calls to the boy bred beside the sea. Before passing the vaquero I will say a word or two for his noble mount-the California mustang. There have been horses that could run faster but never a horse that conld run further; never a horse that could live on less forage and pick it himself, often from pasture already elosely cropped; never a horse with a nobler heart, nor that would respond more quickly to rein and spur than the tough, nervy little mustang that did the work on the cattle ranges and now has passed away in the process of evolution like his companion, the vaquero. Sheep grazing was an industry at about the same time, or a little later than when the cattle business was at its heiglit. The same climatie conditions and fertile plains that attracted cattle men were equally inviting to sheep men. This was prosiac and far less attractive business than the cattle industry.
Sheep herding was done on foot and attending conditions were
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such that it generally was the last resort of the wage earner. However, as a business it probably paid as well or even better than the more attractive business of cattle raising. There was always some antipathy between cattle men and sheep men, which seems to be found in every place where those two industries come in contact upon the range, for it is a well-recognized fact among stock men that cattle will not graze upon a range over which sheep have been driven if they can avoid it. It appears that some odor from the wool or body of the sheep attaches to the grass which causes it to be offensive to the nostrils and palates of the bovine.
Wheat farming was the next great industry that appeared in the San Joaquin Valley. This business was the thin edge of the entering wedge that displaced the stock men and drove them back step by step until the only refuge left them was the remote and less desirable land for cultivation, also the Spanish grants, vast tracts of land which had during the time of Spanish sovereignty in this state been granted to certain Spanish settlers, and had been in turn recognized by Mexico and by the United States when California was finally ceded to our government. The humble yet powerful fence began to appear. It was no longer possible to travel in the direction which fancy or business suggested. Roads and trails began to turn at right angles, and fences marked a line over which one may no longer freely pass. Stock grazing, the first great industry of the valley, now had in a measure passed and in its place came wheat farming. In the earlier days in California it seemed everything took its size and character from the lofty mountains, great trees and valleys. The wheat farms were no exceptions. They were of great size and were operated upon a gigantic scale. Farms consisting of several thousand acres of land were not infrequent, and as might be supposed it required hundreds of horses and mules and scores of men to perform the necessary work in carrying on the business of those ranches. The plains with an average annual rainfall would produce great crops of grain yielding from fifteen to as high as seventy bushels per acre, the crops varying from year to year in accordance with the rainfall and climatic conditions. Some localities too were more productive of certain crops than others. Wheat raised in the San Joaquin Valley was generally of an excellent quality, and was considered to be among the best milling wheat in the workl. The extensive fields, the level lands, the character of the soil and dry climate made possible cultivation and harvesting by methods more rapid and economical than thus far had ever been used in any other place. The cradle and the reaper and the single plow were too slow for farming in the San Joaquin Valley. Implements and machinery adapted to the necessity of the time were rapidly invented or introduced from other places and these were improved upon and
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perfected until a high degree of efficiency was reached; as evidenced by the great gang plows and combined harvesters and other machines of like nature now familiar to all farmers of this great valley.
For about thirty years wheat or grain farming held sway. Then the unceasing repetition of crops, together with indifferent cultivation, began to tell and grain raising no longer paid as it did in the earlier days. Summer fallowing and irrigation were resorted to. This was found to be of great aid in the production of crops; but even then the land would not yield as it had in former years, and the profits from wheat raising, as a general thing, steadily grew less. During all this time immigration had continued and the population of California, and incidentally the San Joaquin Valley, was rapidly growing. New men with new ideas appeared upon the scene. The depreciation of profits in grain raising caused farmers to consider other crops. Fruit and wine began to attract more attention. Bees and poultry were found to yield large profits on small investments and with little care. Alfalfa was introduced and that forage was found well adapted to the valley. The large farm no longer paid. The owners, with a few notable exceptions, began to divide and sub- divide their holdings. The profits from trees and vines were found to be immense. Fruit orchards, vineyards and alfalfa pastures began rapidly to surplant grain fields. There followed a rapid development in the wine, raisin and cured fruit industry. The alfalfa pasture stimulated dairying and the live stock business. Experience, the best of all teachers, soon taught the farmers the variety of crops and fruit that was best adapted to his soil; the breed of cows best suited for the dairy; the kind of horses, hogs and poultry that made the best returns; and having learned, as rapidly as circumstances would permit, they began to weed out the less desirable and less profitable, and to replace them with the kind best suited to the valley. Now we had reached what we might call the third epoch or lap in the development of the industries of the San Joaquin Valley.
Blossoming trees and budding vines in the spring, followed by a bounteous crop in the summer, appeared where once wheat and barley had grown. The green fields of spring and the brown stubble fields of fall had given way to fragrant and gorgeous blooms. goklen fruit and pleasing autumn tints. Along the foothills of the Sierras was found a warm protected region, generally referred to as the thermal belt, upon which oranges, lemons and kindred fruit grew luxuriantly and ripened early. The population was still increasing rapidly. Thousands of pretty and comfortable cottages and bunga- lows, with now and then large and commodious houses that might properly in many instances be called mansions, began to appear everywhere, affording happy and comfortable homes to the people of the valley. The cattle men and the wheat farmers, in many
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instances, had looked upon the San Joaquin Valley as a place for extensive business operations in their particular lines; but gave little attention to it as a home for their families. The farmer now began to build with the intention of spending and ending his days upon the farm, and with a proud hope that when he passed away that his property would afford a home for his posterity. Accordingly he built with the design of procuring to his family all the advantages and comforts that his prosperous condition afforded.
As I stated before, the San Joaquin Valley comprises approx- imately 7,500,000 acres. Of this about 500,000 acres are planted to fruit trees, vines and alfalfa. This leaves over 7,000,000 acres of the valley yet devoted to wheat raising and grazing; and among this latter portion are found thousands of acres of the very best land of the valley. Lack of irrigation water from natural streams is the chief cause of the lack of development. This condition is now being rapidly overcome by means of pumping plants, of which I shall say a word later. Horses and mules, beef, pork, mutton, wool. honey and poultry are also industries that pay exceedingly well. Wine of recent years has grown to be one of the principal industries of the San Joaquin Valley, the annual yield or produce of this commodity being about 225,000 tons, and is worth approximately $2,250,000.
These respective industries not only yield magnificent incomes upon the investments and repays well the efforts and labor of the farmer, but they afford remunerative and congenial employment to thousands of men, women and children. The children of the valley are afforded unusual opportunities for finding light and paying occupation by reason of the fruit harvest coming in the summer during the school vacations. In order to take care of the annual fruit crops it has been necessary to establish in the different cities and towns and convenient shipping points great packing houses and canneries, which, when installed with machinery and facilities for properly curing and packing the fruit, afford one of the principal industries of the urbane life of the valley. All these years on the very edge of the San Joaquin Valley had been hidden away a treasure we little dreamed we had-petroleum oil. Though some hint of its presence had been given by seepage that appeared on the surface as tar springs or like manifestations, we never expected to find this ideal fuel in the great and paying quantities that we now have it. We were mostly farmers and we did not look deeper than the fertile surface for our opportunities. Again new men'and new ideas made themselves known. Prospect wells were drilled and oil was struck. Almost like magie a forest of towers sprang upon the several districts where oil had been discovered. A fever of excitement ahnost as great as that caused by the discovery of gold now took hold of
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the people, and the development of the oil industry of this valley was so rapid that those who took an active part could scarcely realize the rapidity with which this business grew. The discovery of oil came at an opportune time. The population was growing, capital was accumulating, and there was need of some outlet for surplus energy. The fuel of the valley was growing scarce. Industries were growing rapidly. The steam and gas engine was coming more and more into use, and a cheap and plentiful fuel was the most necessary factor in the industrial situation, and its discovery solved what might have been a serions problem.
If the oil fields of the San Joaquin Valley should in the course of time become exhausted the people have learned a great lesson, and the lack of fuel will be provided against by planting forests of trees adapted to this purpose. This precaution, together with the great source of electric power in the Sierras will forever settle the question of fuel and power so far as we are concerned. The oil wells yield so abundantly that if the consumption was restricted to this valley we could not consume it in ages. But great pipe lines reaching from the oil fields of the valley across the Coast Range Mountains leading to Point Richmond, Monterey and Port Harford carry the oil night and day from the fields to those deep water ports, and huge steamers docked beside the wharf will load as conveniently and readily as the locomotive tender takes on water at a siding. In addition to the pipe lines great trains of cars carry oil daily to the many points that are eager to procure this most excellent fuel. The oil industry has added vastly to the wealth of the valley and provided employment for thousands, and has made many an enterprising man wealthy beyond the most ambitions dreams of his youth.
From that day in 1772 when the little expedition headed by Pedro Fages and Father Crespi set out from the Mission Monterey up to the present time, transportation has been an important factor in the development of the valley. All our progress and evolution especially in the beginning was not accomplished withont hardships and exertion. All the cattle men and most of the miners found their way across the valley on horse-back and their camp equipments were carried upon the backs of horses or mules. This means of trans- portation served for awhile, but increased population and development called for greater facilities. This was supplied by the stage and freight teams; augmented greatly by the navigation of the San Joaquin river and its tributaries. The stage lines at one time fairly well covered the valley, and one could reach by their means all the principal towns and mining districts south of Stockton. Along the same roads upon which the stages plied their traffic also traveled the great freight teams, that carried supplies and provisions to the mines and interior towns. These teams sometimes consisted of as
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many as twenty-four horses or mules, and as high as fonr or five wagons conpled in train. The stages and freighters found all they could do to handle the business of the day. The flat-bottomed stern- wheel river boats with huge barges in tow plied up and down the San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Tnolnmne rivers as far as they were navigable, and these crafts, too, found occupation for all their tonnage and passenger accommodations. Railroad companies were not slow in appreciating the opportunities of the Pacific coast, and they built and extended their lines into this state. With the appear- ance of railroads in the San Joaquin Valley transportation nnder- went a rapid evolution. The stage with its galloping horses and marvelously skilled drivers, together with the freight teams, were relegated to the mountain districts and less accessible regions. River navigation was gradnally abandoned. The railroads covered their territory and competition under the attending conditions rendered the steamboat business unprofitable, consequently steamboat com- panies practically withdrew from all points of operation south of Stockton. The first railroad in the valley was down its center on the eastern side of the San Joaquin river. This line was built by the Central Pacific Railroad Company ,but was afterward taken np by the Southern Pacific Company, which has owned and operated it ever since, and after it entered into the valley it was rapidly pushed on over the Tehachapi Mountains, with many tunnels and its cele- brated loop, until it reached Los Angeles, and thence turned east- ward, connecting the San Joaquin with the northern and sonthern part of the state and with the eastern states.
From this pioneer line down the valley several short lines of feeders were constructed, which have proved highly valuable in the progress and development of the territory which they covered. Later a line was laid down the valley on the western side of the San Joaquin river, beginning at Tracy and connecting with the original line at Goshen Jnnetion, and later on again at Fresno.
About 1893 there was constructed from San Francisco to Bakers- field what was known as the San Francisco and San Joaquin Valley railroad. This was later on taken by the Santa Fe and has become a part of its great system. Of recent years the oil industry and the rapid development among the foothill regions have demanded greatly increased railroad and transportation facilities, and this in a measure has been met by spurs from the Sonthern Pacific and certain independent companies that have organized and built short accommodation railroads in different places in the valley. It is evident that the rapid growth and population and development of the San Joaquin Valley will not only afford, but will demand, greatly increased transportation facilities. Probably there is no place in the world where railroads can be built and operated as cheaply as
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here. Tracks may be laid in any district and to any point within this valley by practically following the contour of the earth. The general level of the plains is such as to require but very little grading, and few cuts and the constructing of the roadbed may be done by plows and scrapers operated by horses, and at a cost per mile that is as cheap and probably less than the same work can be done for at any other place in the United States, or the world for that matter. I venture to say that in building a railroad from Bakersfield to Stockton along any line within the confines of the San Joaquin Valley it will not be necessary to resort to drilling or blasting and it is a certainty that no tunneling would be required.
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