USA > California > San Bernardino County > Ingersoll's century annals of San Bernadino County, 1769-1904 : prefaced with a brief history of the state of California : supplemented with an encyclopedia of local biography and portraits of many of its representative people > Part 29
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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
SOUTHERN ROUTES.
In the meantime it had become a certainty that a southern transconti- mental line would be built also. In 1853 the government had sent out a party to explore and survey routes in California to connect with the routes near the thirty-fifth and thirty-second parallels, which had already been explored Lieutenant Williamson, in charge of the party, reported as follows :
"Under the supposition that a road has been constructed from the Missis- sippi to the mouth of the Gila, if the question is simply how to continue the road to the Pacific, the answer is apparent. It would follow a nearly direct line to the entrance of the San Gorgonio pass, the best in the coast range; then through that pass into the San Bernardino valley ; and from thence to San Pedro or some other point in the vicinity of the coast. To go from the mouth of the Gila to San Francisco we must still go through the San Gorgonio pass."
In 1865 the Central Pacific Company had organized the Southern Pacific Company, with the intention of building a southern route. In 1866 the At- lantic & Pacific Company was organized and authorized to build a road from Springfield, Mo., by way of Albuquerque to the Little Colorado, and thence along the thirty-fifth parallel as nearly as possible to the Pacific coast. It was given large grants of lands, but no bonds. In 1871 the Texas Pacific road was incorporated to build through Texas, El Paso and New Mexico to the Colorado, and thence to San Diego. Still earlier the Memphis, El Paso & Pacific Railway Company had begun operations. All of these lines began construction from their eastern termini.
SOUTHERN PACIFIC.
Soon after its organization the Southern Pacific began building south- ward through California, and by 1872 had constructed a line as far south as Tehachapi. From this point its course was undecided. It might cross the Mojave desert direct to the Colorado river, or it might follow the San Gorgonio route. Los Angeles determined to secure the road at any cost, and after a long and bitter fight voted something over $600,000 subsidy, if the main line should be put through that city. In pursuance of their agreement to secure the subsidy the railroad at once built twenty-five miles of road to the north of Los Angeles to San Fernando and twenty-five miles east to Spa- dra, completing the work to that point in April, 1874. There for a time the work paused and uncertainty ruled. There were doubts whether the road would ever go any further-and some believed that San Bernardino was the ultimate terminus.
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In November, 1873, when it was known that the road would certainly reach Spadra, or Ruebottom's as it was more familiarly known, a meeting of the citizens of San Bernardino was held and the matter of offering induce- ments for the immediate completion of the line as far as San Bernardino was warmly discussed.
Judge Boren moved that a committee be appointed and steps be taken to find out what would induce the company to come into the valley before removing their force from the field. Colonel Kelting favored the committee, but did not believe the company could possibly avoid running their line through the town. Mr. Katz opposed the appointment, because it looked like truckling to the railroad people. The majority were in favor of a committee, at least, yet some citizens were opposed to the railroad on general principles. and didn't want one, anyway. The meeting finally appointed a committee of prominent citizens, with instructions to meet every Wednesday until fur- ther orders. Judge Boren was appointed chairman, W. H. Gould secretary and E. A. Nisbet corresponding secretary.
Despite the efforts of this committee no definite results followed. The Guardian and Argus and the people who write letters to the newspapers dis- cussed the situation warmly and grew enthusiastic over the future prospects of their city. The Guardian declared: "With the railway terminus in this town the business would quadruple in one year. And if we only display the energy dictated by common sense we will have the terminus within rifle shot of the town."
In October, 1874. Gen. D. D. Colton, Gen. S. T. Gage, Col. C. F. Crocker and Judge Underhill, Southern Pacific magnates, after going over the pro- posed route through San Gorgonio pass, returned to San Bernardino and met the citizens in a largely attended mass meeting. The meeting was called to order by the chairman, Hon. W. A. Conn, who introduced the rail- road men and outlined the object for which the meeting was held. He pointed out the vital necessity of the railroad to the county and the necessity of the citizens doing all possible to co-operate with the railroad people. Mr. Crocker acted as spokesman for the visitors, and made a lengthy speech, in which he set forth the benefits which San Bernardino would derive from the building of the road, and stated that they did not ask for a subsidy from the town, but would like to have the business men of the place subscribe for at least $100,000 worth of their bonds. This was their proposition. Judge A. D. Boren, at that time one of the heaviest property owners, and one of the most enterprising citizens, said :
"Mr. Crocker, if we subscribe for $100,000 worth of your bonds will you build your road through this place or anywhere near it?" There was then some talk of putting the depot at the foot of "E" street.
Mr. Crocker, in reply, said that the Southern Pacific was building a great transcontinental line to be run for all time; that their through business was
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of vastly more importance than the local traffic ever could be, and that they could not afford to swerve their line to the right or to the left to accommodate any little town ; that it was not alone the cost of building the additional few miles of track that a curve reaching and passing through San Bernardino would entail, but the cost of operating it for all time, and this additional mileage on all through trains would be so great that the company could not afford it; yet, to accommodate the people, they would build the line through the valley, and as near as they could to San Bernardino.
A later meeting of citizens discussed the bond matter, and decided, almost unanimously, with Senator Conn, "that if the railway company comes through the town, we, the committee, will propose to the county to buy the bonds; if it does not come through the town we will not raise one cent." Inasmuch as no definite promise of anything, not even a depot at the foot of E street, could be obtained from the railroad, no bonds were subscribed for.
In 1873 some wide-awake business men had organized the Slover Moun- tain Association, and purchased a tract of 2,000 acres of land southwest of San Bernardino. It afterwards developed that at the time of the first rail- road meeting in San Bernardino, arrangements had been practically com- pleted to locate the depot on this tract, which was directly in line between Spadra and the San Gorgonio pass and the owners of which had agreed to donate 640 acres of land to the railroad company, upon certain conditions.
At first the people of San Bernardino refused to believe that they were to be passed by. The Argus, in a warm editorial, declared: "God made San Bernardino a site for the central town of the valley, and the railroad, if inclined, and we have no reason to believe it to be, cannot change his fiat. The new town talk is simply nauseating ; it is possible a village may grow up around the depot ; if so let it and welcome."
The railroad reached Colton July 30, 1875. A depot, roundhouse, etc., were constructed, a hotel put up and other improvements made. The failure of San Bernardino to purchase bonds was not conducive to good feeling on the part of the railroad people to that town, and the Southern Pacific Com- pany threw its entire weight to the building up of Colton and diverting busi- ness to the new town. For a time this influence was keenly felt : Colton grew rapidly, while San Bernardino was almost at a standstill.
September 6, 1876, the northern and southern ends of the road were united and San Bernardino and Colton thus put into direct communication with San Francisco. There being no competition, and not enough local busi- ness to pay the expenses of keeping the local lines in operation, freight rates were very high. So high, indeed, that the merchants of San Bernardino en- tered into an arrangement with McFadden Bros., of Newport, Los Angeles county, who were the owners of a steamboat, to run their boat in competi- tion with the railroad in carrying freight for San Bernardino. They put on a mule train between Newport and San Bernardino, and it is a fact that
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freight from San Francisco, by this line, was more expeditiously delivered, and at lower rates than the railroad had laid it down at Colton.
When the Southern Pacific people saw that the merchants were in earnest and were succeeding in their opposition, they sent an agent and called a meeting of the San Bernardino merchants and shippers at Starke's Hotel. The company proposed a compromise, offering lower rates and bet- ter service. The rates were accordingly put down and a strong effort made to regain San Bernardino business. Many of the business men accepted the terms offered and the mule line was finally done away with. Although there was a marked improvement in service and in rates the freight was still all the "traffic would bear," and there were contin- ual complaints of the business men as to the treatment re- ceived from the company.
In March, 1881, the con- nection between the Southern Pacific and the Atchison, To- peka & Santa Fe, at Deming, ' New Mexico, was made and the first through passenger train between San Francisco and Kansas City, by the south- ern route, went over the road. Thus at last San Bernardino county was connected with the east by direct railway route.
In 1886 the Motor line be- tween Colton and San Bernar- dino was put into operation, G. W. LUCE having been built by R. W. Button. In November, 1888, this motor line was extended to Riverside. The same year a motor line between San Bernardino and Redlands was com- pleted. In 1892, the Southern Pacific Company purchased these motor lines, thus gaining direct entrance to Redlands, San Bernardino and Riverside. The same year a branch line was put in between Chino and Ontario.
The motor service between Riverside, Colton, San Bernardino and Red- lands has been maintained and a broad gauge system added.
During the last year the Southern Pacific Company has purchased land in the center of San Bernardino city, and a new and adequate railway Sepot and service is now promised that town-after thirty years of waiting.
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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
THE SANTA FE SYSTEM.
On the 7th day of July, 1866, an act passed Congress approving and sub- sidizing a new transcontinental line, starting from Springfield, Mo., "thence running by the most direct route to Albuquerque, N. M., thence to the head- waters of the Little Colorado, and then along the 35th parallel, north latitude, to the Colorado and thence to tide water."
There was a race between this road and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, which had been organized in Kansas. In 1879 the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, the St. Louis & San Francisco and the Chicago & Alton Companies were combined for the purpose of building a joint line from Albuquerque to the Pacific coast. San Diego, undaunted by her many failures to secure rail- road facilities, at once set to work to induce this new line to make San Diego Harbor its terminus. Mainly through the efforts of the Kimball Brothers, who had invested heavily in San Diego and vicinity, two representatives of Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, Messrs. G. B. Wilbur and L. G. Pratt, of Bos- ton, came to California and visited San Diego. These gentlemen were favor- ably impressed with the situation of San Diego, and also with the very liberal propositions made them by the Kimball Brothers and the citizens of San Diego generally.
San Diego offered "six thousand acres of land within the city, with a water front of one mile, $15,000 cash and 1,000 city lots ; Messrs. Kimball, of the National Rancho, offered 10,000 acres, with another mile of water front; Tom Scott, of the defunct Texas & Pacific, agreed to deed to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company, 4,500 acres of the land previously granted to him."
When San Bernardino heard that San Diego was to secure a visit from the railway men she was once more aroused. Mr. John Isaacs, who was then editor of the San Ber- nardino Times, and who took an active part in the campaign to secure the Santa Fe to San Bernardino, has furnished this statement of the work then done:
"On October 20, 1879, a meeting was held at the Court House, attended by the greater part of our leading business men, at which was discussed the advisability of trying to secure this new line. It was unanimously decided JOHN ISAACS that every effort should be used to this end, and a delegation consisting of Mr. Fred Per- ris, then county surveyor, and John Isaacs, was appointed to meet the railway men when they should arrive, while Messrs. Anderson and Gregory were in-
F T PERRIS
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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
structed to correspond with the railway officials in regard to their movements and extend an invitation to visit this valley. A committee to raise funds was also appointed, and by diligent labor secured $40.00, one of which was bogus.
With this sum the delegates started for San Diego, November 2d. The journey between the two cities was not a picnic in those days. There were no places of public entertainment along the road and few settlers. It was a three days' trip over rough and muddy roads. Upon arrival in San Diego it was found that Messrs. Wilbur and Pratt would not reach the city for five days. The committee, therefore, had ample time to spend its funds and to look over the lay of the land. They found that there were opposing interests at work. One party was bound that the road, if built at all, must come by the Interna- tional boundary line that had been surveyed and much talked of some years previous to this. Another party with interests along the coast and in the northern part of the county, was equally determined that the road must come that way. The San Bernardino men soon found that their presence was not considered desirable by one party, at least, and a determined effort to prevent their meeting the railway men when they arrived, was made.
Messrs. Wilbur & Pratt, however, declined the private hospitality that was pressed upon them, and went to the Horton House, where the San Bernardino delegation at last secured an appointment. At this interview there were present beside Messrs. Perris and Isaacs, Don Juan Foster, H. I. Willey and C. J. Cox. It lasted from 8 o'clock p. m. until 1:30 a. m., and Mr. Perris furnished facts and gave topographical data which these gentlemen were totally unprepared for. At the close of the talk Mr. Wilbur said: "Gen- themen, if you will come for us in two weeks we will go up and see your country."
That promise was the turning point for San Bernardino, and from that moment we may date our railroad history.
Well satisfied with their labors, the committee started for home, to be caught in the worst storm of the season and to reach San Bernardino after three days of hard, wet traveling. At the appointed time they met the two railroad men, accompanied by their engineer, Morley, and Harry I. Willey, at the Santa Margarita Rancho, and drove back to San Bernardino.
In the meantime a bureau of information had been started in this city ; a collection of its various products was gathered together, and all the inform- ation available regarding the resources of the county and its possibilities was compiled for the visiting railroad directors. Mr. Perris also took Engineer Morley over the line, from Santa Magarita through the San Gorgonio and Morongo Passes and to the summit of Cajon Pass, and Mr. Morley remarked of the Cajon Pass, which had been pronounced as insurmountable, "This is nothing : we can go through here easily enough."
An editorial in the Times of November 30, 1879, regarding the visit of
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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
these Santa Fe railway officials, says: "We have spent several days with the gentlemen now among us representing the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railway, and we are forced to the conclusion that their visit here is not a mere dodge, but that they mean business and are in earnest in their efforts to learn the feasibility of a road to our coast, the best route to be taken by it, the present and possible resources of the country through which they would pass, and other points bearing upon their line as a paying investment. They are here as an investigating committee, and upon their report future action will be taken by their company, and it is for the purpose of making an intelligent report that they are staying among us so long and making so studious an examination of the counties of Southern California."
As a result of the investigations of this committee the route by the way of Cajon Pass was decided upon and work was begun from the San Diego ter- minus in 1880, and by May, 1881, the graders were at work in Temecula cañon. The question of the route to be pursued between Temecula and the Cajon Pass was still unsettled. Riverside was making strenuous efforts to bring the line through the Temescal valley, Arlington and Riverside. As inducements she offered "free right of way from the Laguna (Elsinore lake) to the Santa Ana river at the narrows, $10,000 from the Tin company, 500 to 1,000 acres from the Sierra Ranch owners, $5,000 from the citizens of Arlington and vicinity, and 500 acres in the lower part of Riverside valley."
Another route was surveyed by way of Box Springs which would bring the line nearer to San Bernardino. Railroad meetings were held and proposi- tions were made, but nothing definite was arrived at.
August 21, 1882, the Southern California road was completed to Colton and a regular service put on, thus giving San Diego an outlet to the east and to San Francisco. Here construction stopped for nearly a year, and San Bernardino still debated the question of what she would offer to secure a depot within her own limits. At length she guaranteed right of way and depot grounds, amounting to some $20,000 in value, and it was settled that the road should pass through San Bernardino, and thence through the Cajon Pass to join the eastern extension which was being pushed through New Mexico and Arizona.
September 13, 1883, the first train whistle rang through the city of San Bernardino. But the long-awaited event had not been attained without a final struggle. The Southern Pacific road had interposed every possible obsta- cle-legal and material-to the advent of its rival. Its last stand was made at the intersection of the roads at Colton. Injunctions had been served to restrain the California Southern road, and some of its property at San Diego had been attached. Rather an amusing incident occurred with regard to the railroad crossing which was intended to be used at Colton. The San Diego Sun reports :
"The California Southern Railroad Company perpetrated the best joke
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of the season on the Southern Pacific Company, on Thursday night. It ap- pears that among the property levied on by the latter company was the rail- road crossing to be used at Colton. It had remained at National City for several months, and Mr. Bradt was ordered to take charge of it, as deputy sheriff, on Thursday. The limb of the law, when night came on, instead of sitting on the crossing, went to the hotel and was soon wrapped in profound slumber, dreaming of the sheriff's sale which was destined to never take place. Meanwhile the defendant got a force of men, hoisted the crossing on a car and immediately dispatched a special train to Colton. The surprise of Mr. Bradt when he arrived at the yards in the morning and found that his charge had been transported to San Bernardino county can better be imagined than described."
The Southern Pacific found it convenient to station locomotives and cars along its tracks where the crossing was to be placed, and at one time it looked as though serious trouble might arise, but when the last legal steps had failed and the company found themselves in danger of "contempt of court" proceed- ings, they removed the hindrances and aided in laying the disputed crossing.
The rejoicing over the entrance of the railroad was soon turned to mourn- ing. The winter of 1883-4 proved to be a flood year-second only to the great flood of 1862. Many washouts occurred along the line of the newly con- structed road, and some fifteen miles of track through the Temecula cañon was completely destroyed. This cañon is a narrow, winding gorge with most precipitous sides. The eastern engineers refused to believe that the modest little stream trickling through the bottom of the cañon far below their track could ever harm their carefully planned grades and bridges. They had lessons to learn concerning California streams.
For a time the railroad outlook was gloomy for San Bernardino, and black -- dead black-for San Diego. No move was made to repair the road, and in response to inquiries the railroad officials gave very unsatisfactory answers. The Southern Pacific, on the approach of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, had built a branch from its main line at Mojave across to the Needles on the Colorado river, in order to secure the subsidy offered by the government for the first line building through this territory. This branch, completed in April. 1883, seriously interfered with the plans of the new road. It must either parallel the Southern Pacific, or buy out the line from Needles to Mojave. The latter course was finally agreed upon, and in July, 1884, an arrangement was entered into whereby the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe secured the use of the Mojave line, and also the right to run their trains over the Southern Pacific tracks into San Francisco. At the same time it was announced that the California Southern extension would be completed to Waterman (now Barstow) and the breaks fully repaired. Work after this was pushed rapidly. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars was expended in repairing
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and rebuilding the line through the Temecula canon, and the extension was hurried along. In November, 1885, the California Southern was completed to Barstow, and San Bernardino turned out with fireworks and bands to wel- come her first transcontinental train. The editor of the Times, Saturday, November 14, 1885, comments thus :
"The last spike on the California Southern Railway was driven to-day, and San Bernardino is now in rail connection with the mining section and all of central United States by means of the Atlantic & Pacific and its branches. This important event, the most important in our history, has taken place quietly, without fuss or feathers, and while generally known, is the subject of no comment or rejoicing. Yet with the opening of this road a new era dawns upon us. San Bernardino will have on the railroad maps and time tables of the future a "local habitation and a name." She will no longer be ignored as here- tofore, but will take her proper place as the second city of Southern California. She will be made the distributive point for this section, and goods from the East will be left off at the San Bernardino depot, and not shipped first to Los Angeles and then returned to Colton with charges to pay both ways. The immense mining trade of which we have so long been deprived will now return to us. Eastern people will know of us and come here. The trains that pass will go through a fertile portion of our valley and not through the desert portion of it, and travelers who pass through will not believe as heretofore that San Bernardino was a desert and nothing else. All this is before us. The turning point in our history has come, and we greet it as we do all other blessings-in silence. We are perhaps the most undemonstrative people in. America. Nothing short of an earthquake will shake us up. San Diego is preparing for a great celebration on the completion of the road, and we -- well, we'll let 'em ; but we'll just be durned ef we'll make any fuss about it."
Evidently the editorial took effect, as the first train was duly welcomed.
The California Central had already begun the construction of the numer- ous branch lines which have made it the beneficiary of Southern California. In 1884 a survey was made for a line between San Bernardino and Los Angeles, via Pasadena and the San Gabriel Valley. In 1885 the Riverside, Santa Ana & Los Angeles Railway was incorporated to build the line through the Santa Ana cañon.
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