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 61
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102
The "campaign" varies from three to five months, according to the sea- son. During the campaign, Chino, and the factory are busy places. From 250 to 400 people are employed at the factory, and the monthly pay roll some- times runs up to $25,000. The large amount of teaming, the shipping of sugar and the bringing in of materials for the factory, makes a heavy freight business, and Chino is one of the most important shipping points of the Southern Pacific Railroad, between El Paso and Los Angeles.
The acreage annually devoted to beet raising in the vicinity of Chino, is about 8,000 acres, while the beets average 15.5 per cent of sugar. The an- nual output of the factory, varies from twenty to twenty-five million pounds of sugar. The plant now belongs to the American Beet Sugar Company. which also owns the factories at Oxnard, Cal., Rocky Ford, Colo., and Grand Island and Norfolk, Neb.
HOW BEET SUGAR IS MADE.
"First the beets are brought in by the farmers and deposited in large sheds with V-shaped bottoms, which are connected with the factory by means of channels through which a moderate flow of water carries the beets into the first washing machine. By means of a spiral the beets are tumbled about, washed, and carried on until they drop into an elevator which carries them to the top of the building, where they pass through an automatic weigher and are sliced in such a manner as to open up the pores of the beet as far as possible. The sugar beet is very similar to the honeycomb and in its little cells is secreted the sweet matter, so that in slicing it is desirable to open up as many of these cells as is possible. Hence the necessity of hav- ing the knives sharp, so that the cells may not be ruptured, but clean cut. As these slices come from under the cutter they are put in what is known as
599
HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
a diffusion battery. In this battery the sugar is extracted by soaking the sliced beets in water. Warm water is turned into the contents of a large iron jar holding several tons of sliced beets. This water circulates through the mass of cosettes (the name given to the sliced beets) and passes out through the bottom by means of a pipe, which enters the top of vat No. 2, the water being forced along by pressure.
"From one battery to another this liquid passes along until it has gone through fourteen jars or cells, when it is shown that sufficient water has passed through jar No. I. The water is now turned off and No. 2 becomes No. I and No. I is emptied of its cosettes and refilled, becoming No. 14. and so the circle is continued all day and all night, procuring in this way all the sugar in the cosettes in a liquid form, which now has the color of vinegar. This liquid is now taken to a measuring tank near by, from which it goes to a mixer, where it is mixed with lime and then put into a large tank for car- bonation, in which the lime and all foreign matter that it contains is ren- dered insoluble by means of carbonic acid gas forced through the bottom of the carbonating tank. Then the mixture goes through the filter press rooms where by means of an elaborate series of frames, it is filtered and becomes transparent. This entire process is repeated the second time. This finished, the syrup is treated with sulphur fumes and then passes into the 'quadruple effect - four large boilers in which the water contained is evaporated, when we have what is called 'thick juice.' This syrup is boiled in the vacuum pan and now becomes raw sugar, and is then run into the centrifugals and made into white sugar. The sugar is now damp like wet snow, and by means of a granulator, it is dried and through different sieves it is separated into the finer or coarser sugar, ready for the market."-The American Sugar Industry.
RICHARD GIRD.
Richard Gird was born in Litchfield, Herkimer county, New York, March 29th, 1836. His family on the mother's side was of Puritan descent. his grandmother tracing her lineage directly to one of the families who came over in the Mayflower. On the father's side the grandfather was a Virginian and the grandmother was of the Dutch stock of New York. Hence this typ- ical American combines the Puritan, the Cavalier and the Knickerbocker blood in his veins.
His father, John Gird, was a well-to-do farmer of high character :- it was his boast that he never allowed an obligation against him to mature. His mother was a woman of remarkably beautiful character and pos- sessed a great fund of information acquired by extensive reading. She con- stantly strove to instill in her children her own fine sense of honor and of honesty and the principles of natural morality. Mr. Gird's younger days
600
HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
were passed upon the farm and he led the life of a boy of the time,-working from early dawn to dusk through the long summer days and attending school during the winter, between chore times. It was severe training but it gave lessons in self reliance that no other upbringing affords. Mr. Gird himself says : "My father's business was that of dairying and required the closest application. Our holidays were very few. Work, work, work and study, study, study was the program. I had only a common school education, but it is my impression that the common school was more effective in its results in those days than it is now. I was known as a 'bad boy' and was switched every day, but however sharply the apple withe wound round my legs they never got a whimper out of me. Yet at sixteen I had gained a fair knowledge of trigonometry and other higher branches and had read all the books I could get hold of in my father's and the school district library and else- where."
The eldest son of the family, Henry, had gone to California in 1849 and his letters gave such inviting accounts of the country and life that Richard, then in his sixteenth year, decided to follow him. The boy was already known for his determined character and after many remonstrances and tear- ful interviews with his mother, his parents consented to his plan and his father fitted him out for the journey. He joined his brother in El Dorado county but was soon seized with Panama fever and was advised to seek a lower elevation. He then located on a ranch in the beautiful Russian River valley. This country was then but sparsely settled by whites but was occu- pied by a large number of Indians who were often troublesome.
After ranching here for several years, Mr. Gird decided to go to South America. He sailed from San Francisco for Valparaiso in Feb., 1858, hoping to find adventure and to learn something of the mining conditions in that country. With his blankets on his back, he traveled over the greater part of Chili, examining mines, etc. For several months he was in charge of a sec- tion of the first railroad built in South America, under that pioneer in rail- road financiering-Harry Meigs.
Mr. Gird returned to California by way of New York state and in 1861, went into Arizona, taking with him the first assaying and civil engineering outfit that ever went into the territory of Central Arizona. Here his active spirit led him into many enterprises and made him an important factor in the early development of the territory. In company with one Bradshaw, he established a ferry across the Colorado where Ehrenberg now stands; he broke the first trail from the river across the desert to the spot where Pres- cott is now located ; he made up a party to prospect in the Apache country. This party was frequently attacked by Indians and met with many hard- ships. Within a year all but three or four of the thirteen men who started out had been killed by the Indians. Later Mr. Gird joined a party of 100 men which has been organized to fight the Apaches in their own strongholds
601
HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY.
and with their own tactics. This body of men ranged over the country from Prescott to the banks of the Gila and punished the savage tribe so severely that their power was broken and they learned for the first time that they could not hope to destroy the white man.
During all of these trips, Mr. Gird carried a surveyor's compass with him and took acurate bearings of all natural objects of importance, such as mountain peaks, etc .; he also took full notes of all his journeyings. As a result of the knowledge thus acquired, the first Legislature of the Territory authorized him to make a map of the Territory. With the aid of this map, and acting upon Mr. Gird's advice, Gen. McDowell, then commander of the Department of the Pacific, located the military posts of Fort Grant, Fort Lowell, San Carlos and others, which are familiar names to the country. The young engineer was employed for some months in this work in the topo- graphical department of the army. He also, in connection with Prof. Whit- ney, made a number of geological maps of the country.
After a few years spent in San Francisco, during which he engaged in the business of manufacturing mining machinery, Mr. Gird returned to Ari- zona in 1874. He put up a number of mills at various mines ; erected and put into operation the first successful smelter in the Territory ; acted as deputy mineral land surveyor and made an immense number of assays-which work he always did gratuitously. In 1878, Edward Schieffelin returned from Southern Arizona and brought some ore which Mr. Gird at once recognized as promising. He joined the discoverer in making up and outfitting a party and went with them to explore the vicinity from which the ore had been taken. The result was the location of the famous Tombstone mining dis- trict. Through Mr. Gird's efforts and under his direction, a company was or- ganized, capital was secured, a saw-mill to supply lumber-the first in Southern Arizona-was built and reduction works were erected. He was the first superintendent of the mine's and turned out the first bullion from them. In 1881, Mr. Gird sold out his interest in these mines and after look- ing about for some months, purchased the ranch of Santa Ana del Chino com- prising about 37,000 acres, to which he added by subsequent purchases until it numbered some 46,000 acres.
In the same year he married Miss Nellie McCarty of San Francisco, a young lady whose character and attainments especially qualified her to be a helpmeet to her husband in all his future labors and usefulness.
The Chino Ranch had long been noted as one of the finest stock ranges in the country and Mr. Gird at once set about improving the breed of the stock on his own ranch and in the neighboring country. With this end in view he purchased three fine stallions in France and others in this country. For one stallion he paid $10,000 and was afterwards offered $40,000. He also imported Holstein cattle and experimented in crossing them with Durham stock, thus producing the best all around cattle for milk and for beef. As
602
HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
a result of Mr. Gird's public spirited efforts in this direction the grade of both cattle and horses in this county, and indeed throughout the southern end of the state was materially improved.
Mr. Gird believed that the small farmer was the backbone of our coun- try and that the breaking up of the large landed estates was essential to the best welfare of our state. The bottom lands of Chino Ranch were particu- larly adapted to small farms, since orchard fruits as well as vegetables and grain could be raised here successfully without irrigation. He decided to di- vide twenty thousand acres of the ranch into ten acre tracts and put them on the market. This was done just at the time that the "boom" ended and land sales were at a standstill throughout Southern California. He then began experimenting to find an agricultural product which would be especially adapted to the climate and general conditions and would find a ready market. Experiments were made with ramie, the pongee silk of the East Indies and Japan from which many valuable fabrics are produced, and also with can- aigre, which has been successfully raised for its tannic properties in some sec- tions of the United States.
H. T. Oxnard, who had just returned from Europe after a comprchen- sive examination into beet sugar culture, was then turning his attention to the possibilities of California in this direction. The experts agreed that sugar beets could not be ripened to their highest perfection in Southern Cal- ifornia as it required cold weather to bring out the sugar. Mr. Gird found, however. in his investigations, that the sugar beet was a native of the north shores of the Mediterranean, a climate almost identical with our own, and de- termined that it should do well under conditions so like its native land.
He procured seed and planted plots four rods square on different sec- tions of his ranch. A man was detailed to look after these plots and bring in samples for analysis at regular intervals, from June to December. Mr. Gird himself made a careful analysis of these beets and kept a full record of same every week during the season for four years. By his exhaustive exper- iments it was fully proved that sugar beets could be raised in Southern Cali- fornia and that they contained a much larger per cent of sugar than those raised in Europe.
As a direct result the Oxnards decided to build the Chino Beet Sugar factory. Mr. Gird gave them 2.500 acres of land, a bonus equivalent to $250,- 000, and also agreed to supply them with 4,000 acres of beets to begin work upon. To carry out this contract he bought the first steam-plow ever seen in Southern California and at times employed 600 men in the field. It was also necessary to design special seeders, cultivators and tools for this work, and Mr. Gird's original designs for these tools have since been largely copied.
So successful was the Chino enterprise that since then three other large plants have been erected in the southern end of the state, and the debt which
603
HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
this section owes to Mr. Gird for his faith and perseverance in pushing beet sugar culture can hardly be over estimated.
Mr. Gird is one of the men who have "made the west:" men who have worked with both hand and brain, who were ready to meet every emergency, who were never discouraged, never afraid. He has always been public spirited and open-handed. While he and Mrs. Gird lived at the Chino Ranch House, they kept open house and entertained many distinguished guests from other countries and from our own land. Their life was typical of the pastoral days of the Spanish era when a heart-felt welcome and an unstinted hospi- tality awaited every comer. It is to be regretted that this home-one of the last to carry us back to days when a touch of romance and unconventionality still lingered-is now closed.
For several years past Mr. Gird has been largely and successfully en- gaged in mining in Mexico; but he has now returned to California and will retain his interests and make his home in this section of the state.
CHAPTER XXI.
HIGHLAND.
E. J. Yokam.
The section of San Bernardino county known as Highland comprises a narrow belt of foothill slopes, skirting the southern base of the San Bernar- dino range of mountains and extending westward over ten miles from the gorge of the Santa Ana. These fertile table lands form the northeastern boundary of the San Bernardino Valley and are situated several hundred feet above the valley basin in the thermal, or frostless belt.
The Highland district is divided by topographical lines into what is locally known as "Highland," "East Highlands" and "West Highlands." Highland comprises about four square miles of the central portion and is an unbroken plateau inclining to the southwest and varying in altitude from 1300 to 1600 feet. The name was given to the region by W. H. Ran- dall, W. T. Noyes and others when the school district was organized in 1883.
Although there were several squatters on the territory embraced in Highland prior to 1870 the first permanent settlements were made after that date. Probably the first white man to occupy the territory was Walter A. Shay, Sr., who came to California in 1849. In 1856, he built a small house near the mouth of City Creek canon and lived here for a couple of years. In the early sixties Goodcell Cram took up a government claim west of City Creek and north of what is now Highland avenue. John E. Small later purchased the east half of this land which later passed into the hands of C.
604
HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY.
Allen, W. H. Randall and W. T. Noyes. Besides these, J. S. Loveland, C. D. Haven, W. R. Ingham, David Seeley, Mathew Cleghorn and George Mil- ler were among the early settlers.
· The first improvements made by these settlers were primitive in type. They were generally men of limited means and the prospect for making a living on these dry lands was not flattering. But during the decade between 1870 and 1880 water .began to be utilized. on the lands and the possibilities of the combination of water and this rich alluvial soil begain to develop. The early. settlers planted deciduous fruits and grapes with an occasional orchard of seedling oranges. In January, 1872, W. R. Ingham, who had come from New York state two years before, bought 120 acres of land and plant- ed a nursery of citrus trees, the first planted on this side of the valley. Mr. Ingham subsequently sold this land to David Seeley and others and it now produces some of the finest oranges in this district. In 1874 Mr. Ing- ham bought the ten acres where he resided for 25 years and planted about six acres of orange trees. Mr. Ingham was the first to util- ize the waters of City Creek for irrigation. For the first · year or two he hauled water from Harlem Springs, two miles away, to keep his W. T. NOYES young grove alive. He then constructed an earth ditch to bring the water of City Creek onto his land.
During the next few years several tracts were set out to seedling oranges but there was never a very large acreage of seedlings in Highland. In 1878, Mr. Ingham planted the first navel trees in this vicinity, having se- cured the buds from the original Washington Navel trees at Riverside. A year or two later he bought some of the Australian trees from a Los An- geles nurseryman at five dollars apiece. These inital groves having demon- strated that oranges could be successfully cultivated in Highland and facil- ities for irrigation having been much increased, many acres were planted to citrus fruits between 1880 and 1890. As it became evident that Highland's
605
HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
citrus fruit was unusually fine in quality, the deciduous orchards and vine- yards of former years were replaced by orange and lemon groves. A care- ful estimate of the acreage of the different orchards in Highland at present time gives an aggregate of 1493 acres. Perhaps ten per cent of this acreage is planted to lemons. These groves are chiefly in five, ten and twenty acre tracts mostly occupied by the owners whose cozy, vine-embowered homes furnish ideal conditions for the enjoyment of health and happiness.
None of these groves have reached the limit of production and few of them are in full bearing. The total volume of shipments of oranges and lemons from Highlands for the season of 1903-1904 was 760 carloads. There are five large packing houses equipped with the latest machinery and best appliances for grading and packing fruit for market.
Irrigation in Highland District.
In 1858, Louis and Henry Cram, constructed an earth ditch three miles in length from the mouth of the Santa Ana cañon to their homestead in what is now East Highlands. Frederick Van Leuven, another pioneer, was interested with them in this ditch and it was known as the Cram-Van Leuven ditch. Other appropriations of water were made from the Santa Ana river and contentions over water rights sprang up, thus leading to the first water litigation in the San Bernardino valley. As a result of the suits instituted, the Cram-Van Leuven ditch was awarded one-sixth of the flow of the river.
Water was taken out by other settlers on the north side of the river, and in 1885 these interests were consolidated in the North Fork Ditch Co., which reconstructed the ditch, making a stone cement ditch with a carrying capacity of 1,500 miner's inches, and extending to Palm avenue. in Highland, eight and a third miles. This consolidation gave to the North Fork and Cram-Van Leuven interests the ownership of one half of the flow of the Santa Ana.
When the Bear Valley dam was built in 1884, this intercepted a part of the flow of the Santa Ana river and as the bed of that stream is the only available channel by which the water could be brought from the reservoir into the San Bernardino valley, a contract was made between the North Fork Co. and the Bear Valley Co., whereby the Bear Valley people were granted the right to store water in the reservoir and to use the right of way of the North Fork owners in exchange for a stipulated amount of water to be delivered to the stockholders of the district.
In 1887-88 the Highland Ditch Co. constructed a stone and cement canal from a point on the Cook place in East Highlands around the foot- hills through Highland, about four miles in length, to which was added a pipe-line extension through West Highland to North San Bernardino, three miles in length. The canal has a carrying capacity of 1,500 inches and the
606
HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY.
pipe-line carries 1,400 inches. This property later passed into the hands of the Bear Valley Co.
In 1883-84, W. H. Randall and W. T. Noyes built a ditch from City Creek to their places. These ditches-a main and two branch canals-are nearly three miles in length.
The water of Plunge Creek is used upon the orchards of East High- land and is conveyed and distributed through open ditches to the lands of the owners. East and West Twin Creeks supply a portion of the orchards in West Highland, mainly through pipe-lines.
THE TOWN OF HIGHLAND.
As the young citrus groves of this district came into bearing, the ne- cessity for railroad facilities became apparent. Meetings of the citizens were held which were attended by the representatives of the Santa Fe Railway Co., who proposed to bring their track through Highland provided a free right of way was guaranteed. The citizens agreed to these terms and the sum of $10,000 was raised by voluntary subscription to purchase the right of way. In July, 1891, the branch of the Santa Fe, which completed the "kite shaped" track, was constructed between Redlands and San Bernar- dino through Highland, thus giving direct transportation facilities, and von- necting Highland, East Highlands and West Highlands.
A town site was laid out about Highland station, packing houses, busi- ness houses and residences followed-a thriving town was soon under way. Of the 2,000 poulation of Highlands district, more than half are now resi- dents of the town. A bank, hotel, lumber yard, and several stores all do a flourishing business. An addition to the town has been laid out within the past year and the lots readily sold at good prices. A number of fine dwell- ings have been built during the past season, a brick business block of three stores is approaching completion and a new twenty-five room hotel will be open for business in the fall.
Domestic Water Supply.
As the new town grew it became evident that provision must be made for a domestic supply of water other than that coming through open irri- gating ditches. The Highland Domestic Water Co. was incorporated by several of the citizens of the town, Sept. 28, 1898. Water bearing lands were purchased and the work of putting down wells and putting in a pump- ing plant was carried out under the management of W. F. Grow, the super- intendent. The company now owns thirteen acres of water-bearing land and the privileges of as much more, at the junction of City Creek and Cook canons on the north side of Highland avenue. The water is pumped from wells sunk to a depth of 100 feet in a gravel bed by pumps having a capacity
607
HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
of 450 gallons per minute. A stone and cement reservoir, enclosed under a well ventilated roof, has been constructed. This has a capacity of about 250,000 gallons. The water is distributed through more than nine miles of dipped steel and iron pipe to the consumers.
The present officers of the company are, L. C. Waite, president; A. G. Stearns, vice-president : Charles C. Browning, secretary, and W. F. Grow, superintendent.
Electric Road.
In July, 1903. the San Bernardino Valley Traction Co. completed an electric line to Highland connecting the town by trolley with San Bernar- dino, Redlands and Colton. The road and equipment are first-class and give an hourly service, thus furnishing cheap, rapid and convenient transporta- tion to local points.
Postoffice.
In 1887, the Messina postoffice was established at the junction of Base Line and Palm avenue, for the accommodation of the citizens of Highland and vicinity. For five years the mail was carried by private conveyance to and from San Bernardino and for the most of that time the postoffice was located in the store at that point and the proprietor acted as postmaster. On the completion of the railroad through Highland the mail service was transferred to the railway. June 1, 1899, the office was moved to the corner of Palm and Pacific avenues, the site of the new town. The name had been changed from Messina to Highlands, in response to a petition from the resi- dents. Jan. 1, 1899.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.