USA > California > Los Angeles County > Ingersoll's century history, Santa Monica Bay cities prefaced with a brief history of the state of California, a condensed history of Los Angeles County, 1542-1908 > Part 13
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DON ABEL STEARNS.
The first carriage in California. Bancroft states, was purchased by Temple and Alexander of San Pedro in 1849, the price, including horses, being $1000. Its appearance created a sensation in Los Angeles. In 1853 Anderson and Mathews advertised as carriage makers, and soon afterward John Goller began business as a black- smith and wagon maker. Warner says that his first wagon remained on hand a good while, the native people gazing on it with curiosity and dis- trust and then going back to their carretas. A number of firms now turn out vehicles-to the amount of $751.720. in 1906.
In 1851 the first flour mill was put up in Los Angeles ; there had long been " el Molino " at San Gabriel. In 1855 Don Abel Stearns and Jonathan R. Scott built a brick flour mill. About the same time Henry Dalton had a flour mill on his Aznsa rancho. The Eagle mills were built in Los Angeles in 1865 and destroyed by fire in 1874. There are now a number of flouring and grist mills in the county and their product for 1906 is given as $3,038.855.
In 1857 James Woodworth started a broom factory; in 1861 Perry and Woodworth established their planing mill and also manufactured beehives, furni- ture, etc. In 1873 Barnard brothers built a woolen mill on Pearl street. At this time the annual wool clip was very large and for some years this mill made
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blankets and woolen cloth : but it seems never to have been very successful and at last shut down, while the mill was used for the first ice plant in the city.
Within the last few years many new ventures in the way of manufactures have been made. In 1903 the model town of Dolgeville was established. Here felt is made and piano hammers and other articles for which felt is used. There are now several shoe factories in the county, one being located at San Pedro and one at Venice. The meat packing industry is one of the most important in the county, the product of packed meats, lard and by-products reaching $4,000,000.
Los Angeles does not claim pre-eminence as a manufacturing region, yet the last report of the state agricultural board lists her manufactured products as reaching a total of $20,000,000, which is not bad for a beginning.
CHAPTER IV.
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMERCE.
T RADING vessels had entered the port of San Pedro from the earliest his- tory of California, and the port had been a busy place in the forties. In August, 1840, according to Henry Mellus, thirteen vessels touched at this port. In 1849 the first steamer, the Goldhunter, entered the port. The first steamer to make regular trips was the Ohio, which carried passengers to San Francisco, charging " $55 for cabin passage, the bill of fare consist- ing of salt beef, hard bread, potatoes and coffee, without milk or sugar." Freight was $25 per ton. In 1872 the Pacific Mail Steamship Company put on its service, with passenger fare at $15 and freight $5 per ton. Before the building of the railroad in 1869 freight was hauled to the city by carts or wagons at the rate of $1.00 per hundredweight in the fifties. In 1852 Alexander & Banning put on the first stage, fare to the city $10; in 1867 J. J. Tomlinson established a rival stage line and Benjamin Hayes writes: " I vividly remember stand- ing in front of the United States Hotel in 1868, one GEN. PHINEAS BANNING. night of a steamer's arrival, and hearing the rival stages of Banning and Tomlinson come up Main street, racing to get in first, the horses on the gallop and in the darkness a man on each stage blowing a horn to warn people in the street to clear the track."
In 1855 fifty-nine vessels landed at San Pedro: in 1865 101 vessels touched at the port and in 1875 426 vessels entered ; in 1906 1700 vessels arrived bringing imports to the value of $15,000,000. In 1858 the port was changed from San Pedro to Wilmington, through the action of Col. Phineas Banning in building up that town. In 1871 the government, after several preliminary surveys, made
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an appropriation and began improving the harbor. From that date to the present work has continued more or less intermittently, and a very large sum has been expended in carrying out the extensive plans for the improvement of the inner harbor and the construction of an outer harbor.
We have seen the Californians galloping from San Diego to Monterey on their tough little horses, the best saddle horses in the world, all early visitors agree. Enroute they stopped at missions or ranchos and received entertainment and found fresh horses furnished them at every stopping place. Or, if a party were traveling, it might be accompanied by two or three Indian servants, driving a band of horses which supplied fresh mounts each day. Their women, and their baggage or freight, were trans- ported in carretas, the framework made of poles and hides and mounted on wooden wheels. The earliest mails were delivered more or less regularly by post riders. Even after the American occit- pation Los Angeles had no regular mails and no stages for several years.
In 1851, Gregory's Great Atlantic and Pacific Express arrived in Los Angeles, bringing the first direct overland mail to the town, forty-nine days from St. Louis. But one trip seems to have finished the Great Atlantic, etc. ; we hear no more of it. In 1852 a stage line was established between Los Angeles and the north, but MILITARY SADDLE OF DON ANDRES' PICO. it does not seem to have been main- tained regularly until about 1857, when David Smith established a bi-monthly route via Visalia. In 1862 a reg- ular tri-weekly stage ran from San José to Los Angeles. In the early fifties stages ran to San Bernardino, and Phineas Banning put on a regular stage between the city and San Pedro. In 1859 a weekly stage made trips to San Diego. In 1858 the Butterfield stage route was established. This carried the mails from St. Louis via the southern route through Los Angeles to San Francisco and gave the first regular overland mails ; the distance was 2880 miles and the shortest time made was twenty-one days. This service was a great advance over any previous one and was greatly appreciated ; but in 1861 it was replaced by the pony express, which traveled the central route. In 1857 Wells Fargo opened an office in Los Angeles. For years this company did the banking of the country as well as the express business.
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In 1866 Banning & Co. put on a fast coach from Wilmington to Fort Yuma, giving a seventy-two-hour ride, which was considered a feat in those days. The advertisement for this line reads: "Leave for Fort Yuma at 4 o'clock every Monday, passing through Los Angeles and San Bernardino. Returning, leave Fort Yuma every Sunday at 3 o'clock a.m." In 1867 a daily mail stage was maintained between Los Angeles and San José, then the terminus of the railroad. At the same time regular stage lines were operated between Los Angeles and Tucson, Arizona, and another line went to Prescott.
As the central point for so many stage lines, and as the outfitting point for a large trade carried on by wagon trains, Los Angeles was not altogether dull in the days before the railroad came. In the fifties the trade with Salt Lake was established and for many years large quantities of freight were hauled to Salt Lake, to Arizona, and even as far north as Idaho and Montana. In March, 1859, the Star reports 150 wagons leaving with goods to the amount of $180,000. This freighting business was of such importance and profit that when a railroad from San Pedro to Los Angeles was first proposed, there was decided opposition to it ; and the Southern Pacific met the same obstacle when it made its first pro- posals in this section. A bill for a railroad between the port and the city was proposed in 1861, but although the county was granted permission to vote bonds for the road, nothing was done until 1867, when the question of granting the directors a subsidy of $150,000 from the county and $75,000 from the city was submitted to the people and was carried by a vote of 672 to 700-a close shave. The road was completed in 1869 and, despite the gloomy forebodings of many citizens, soon proved itself a valuable asset to the county. In 1872 the Southern Pacific was building its line southward through the San Joaquin valley; two routes were surveyed, one through the Soledad pass and San Fernando valley to Los Angeles, with heavy grades and costly tunnels; the other crossed the Mojave desert to Needles, a comparatively easy route. After much discussion and negotiation, the railroad company agreed to take the Los Angeles route, provided the county would vote bonds to the amount of $500,000, including its holding in the Los Angeles and San Pedro road. The railway company on its part agreed to construct fifty miles of track within the county inside of eighteen months and within two years should connect Los Angeles and Anaheim by rail and should carry its main trunk line on its way to connect with any southern transcontinental line, through Los Angeles valley. The company carried out its agreement and completed its line north to San Fernando and east to Spadra, the first train going over the road April 4, 1874. The construction of the San Fernando tunnel required more than a year and the cost is reported at two and a half millions. The connection between Los Angeles and San Francisco was made September 8th, 1876-a great day in the annals of this county. The Southern Pacific was completed to its eastern connection in March, 1881, thus
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giving a through southern route-a consummation which had been talked of since the carly fifties.
The building of the Los Angeles and Independence road from Santa Monica to Los Angeles has been gone into in the Santa Monica history. It was fully believed at the time that this line would be continued to Independence and pos- sibly to a connection with the Central Pacific in Utah. In 1884 the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley road was constructed to Pasadena, its opening being celebrated by an enthusiastic excursion party, September 17th, 1885. Later it was completed to the San Gabriel river and in 1887 taken over by the Santa Fé system.
In 1879 representatives of a new corporation, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé, which was building a transcontinental line, visited California and decided upon San Diego as the terminus and the Cajon pass as the gateway for their road. In 1885 the Santa Fe company purchased the Southern Pacific branch already built from Needles to Mojave and built the connection between Barstow and San Bernardino, thus completing its line and giving Southern Cal- ifornia a second transcontinental line. November 29th, 1885, its trains began running into Los Angeles, using the Southern Pacific tracks from Colton until the completion of its own line in 1887.
The completion of the Santa Fe led to a rate war which was the first cause of the " boom " of 1886-7. At first the passenger rate from Chicago was dropped from $115 to $70, while freight rates were mercilessly slashed. On February 2Ist, 1886, tickets between the coast and the Missouri river were sold for $25; March 6th the prices dropped to $20 from Chicago and $35 from New York. For a few hours on March 8th tickets were sold in Los Angeles by the Southern Pacific for a flat rate of $1.00 to Missouri river points. This was the culmination.
Naturally, such an opportunity was seized by thousands of people who had hitherto never dreamed of seeing California ; and during the year that rates were below the normal, the rush continued. At first the newcomers looked around and purchased improved property, at reasonable figures ; as the influix continued, prices rose and property in and about Los Angeles changed hands at figures which astonished old timers; then the speculative fever seized old residents and new comers alike; and professional boomers and real estate sharks helped to feed it. Townsites were laid out anywhere; at first a business block, a hotel and water pipe and sidewalks were supplied ; later the bare ground staked off, was sold at the price of city lots. Advertising, auctions, bands and excursions helped the excitement and sold the property to people who confidently expected to make from fifty to five hundred per cent. on their deals-as had been actually done in some cases. Many of the present thriving towns of this county were thus born and, having real merit in spite of the wild methods and hopes, they have survived their flimsy foundation. Such are Glendale, "Garvanzo ", " Ah- susah ", Glendora. Alhambra, University, and others. While the real estate
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boom had, of course, a tremendous reaction and there were many losses, there was also large gain. Substantial improvements were made as a result which greatly enhanced the value of property and prepared the way for a more solid advance. Many water companies organized during this time developed the water supply ; many orchards set out as a speculative venture, proved to be solid investments ; many buildings which were put up under the influence of inflated values, helped to create confidence and soon became fitted to the demand. At the height of the boom, in May, June and July, 1887, usually the dullest months in the year, the real estate sales in this county reached $35,067,830, for the three months. After this sales began to drop off. Yet during 1887-8 nearly $20,- 000,000 was expended in building. A large number of dummy, or narrow-guage roads were built during this period and many branches of the railway lines were completed. The cable system of Los Angeles was one result of the sudden ex- pansion.
In 1886 a narrow-gauge line was built between Los Angeles and Glendale and in 1887 another narrow-gauge road was built to Pasadena. This road, known as the " Cross " road, absorbed the Glendale branch. In 1890 the " Ter- minal " Company, an organization of eastern capitalists, purchased the Cross roads and built a line to San Pedro. It was then believed that this was a move to secure terminal facilities at San Pedro for the Union Pacific ; but the plans for the completion of the line failed to materialize and it was not until 1900, when Senator W. A. Clark of Montana secured a controlling interest in the Ore- gon Short Line, that active work began in carrying out the long-talked-of con- nection between Los Angeles and Salt Lake. In1 1906 the San Pedro and Salt Lake railway was completed, thus giving Southern California another transcon- tinental line and opening up a new and rich territory tributary to Los Angeles. Los Angeles county now has nearly 700 miles of steam railway within her bor- ders; she has three transcontinental lines centering within her limits; she has the fine harbor of San Pedro, beside ports at Port Los Angeles, Redondo and Long Beach. She is thus fully equipped to hold her place as the distributing point for a very large territory and has at her command ample and easily reached markets for all of her surplus products.
CHAPTER V.
THE DAY OF THE TROLLEY.
F ROM the shrieking, log-wheeled, ox-drawn carretas, moving at the rate of two miles, or less, an hour to the broad gauge passenger coach, speeded by electric motive power at the rate of sixty miles an hour, is a transfor- mation that some citizens of Los Angeles have seen. The changes in the business and social life of the people, in the building and the general aspect of the country are scarcely less amazing. The city of Los Angeles, which in 1880 had a pop- ulation of 11,000 and was still for the most part made up of one-story adobes, has become a metropolitan, modern city, with a population of 250,000 and with twelve and fourteen story buildings equal to any in the United States. And the county has kept pace with the city. The assessment for 1880 for the county gave a total valuation of $18,593.773, while the assessment for 1907 was $375,719,358. In 1880 there were but three banks in the county, all in the city ; there are now about sixty banks doing business, nearly half of them in outside towns. In 1880 the county reported 192,000 bearing orange trees; the latest report of the State Board of Agriculture gives this county over 1,500,000 bear- ing orange trees and over 3,000,000 bearing fruit trees of all varieties. These figures are but indications of the tremendous changes brought about in the past quarter of a century by the development of our natural resources, the exploita- tion of our incomparable climate and the influx of eastern capital which has built up our railway systems. There can be no question that a large credit for our prosperity is due to our transportation facilities. The advance movement in the county began with the entry of the Souhern Pacific and Santa Fe roads; during the boom years a number of "dummy " roads were built, connecting the city with Pasadena, Glendale, Hollywood and Norwalk, and a broad gauge road to Santa Monica. During these years the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific built many branch roads-Pasadena, Santa Ana, and intermediate points ; Redondo ; Ballona and Santa Monica ; Long Beach, and Orange. Many new town sprang up along these lines and older places, like Downey, Compton, Florence, and a dozen other farming communities, took on a new aspect under the stimulus of the railroad.
In 1874 the first street-car line in the city of Los Angeles was built, run- ning down Spring street to Sixth. Horses, or more likely mules, were the motive power. A number of other horse-car lines followed and it was consid- ered in those days that Los Angeles was very well provided for in the way of transportation. In 1884 the first cable line was built, out West Second street to Belmont hill. This did not prove a successful venture and was aban-
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doned, as was an electric line attempted that same year, running out Pico street. During the boom a company was organized and plans were laid for a cable system which should give rapid transit to all parts of the city. Under the super- vision of Col. J. C. Robinson, an experienced engineer, these plans were carried out and June 8th, 1889, the first division of the new service, the line starting at the Grand Avenue power house, now the postoffice, down Seventh and "Fort " streets to the Baker block, was put in operation. The Temple street, Boyle Heights and Downey avenue divisions followed.
In 1891 the West Second street electric line was built and the first car went over it July Ist. This line over the heaviest grades in the city was looked upon with very serious doubts at first. But when its success was assured, develop- ments were rapid. In 1892 the Pasadena and Mount Wilson Company was organized by T. S. C. Lowe, and this, at the time the most remarkable moun- tain road in the world, was completed in 1893.
In 1895 Messrs. Sherman and Clark built the electric line to Pasadena. This was the first inter-urban street-car line and it was freely predicted that "it would never pay." Yet the next year the same gentlemen announced their intention of building an electric line to Santa Monica, and carried out their purpose. In 1895 the Traction Company entered the field and built their Uni- versity line.
But the trolley history of the county really began when the Cable Railway system was sold under foreclosure to the Electric Street Railway Company, in 1898, for $1,344,320. The company was at once reorganized and in 1901 H. E. Huntington was announced as its head. The extension of lines in the city since that date has gone steadily on. But the greatest work has been in the building of suburban lines. First the Pasadena line was extended to Altadena and the foot of the Mt. Lowe Incline; lines were built to Alhambra and San Gabriel, to Hollywood and Glendale. Then Long Beach, San Pedro, Redondo, and Newport were reached. These lines were constructed by the Pacific Electric Company and the Los Angeles Pacific. Within the past two or three years, roads have been built to Whittier, Monrovia, Covina, and Santa Ana. In 1903 the Pacific Electric constructed its building in Los Angeles, which gives a central point for its suburban lines. A number of elaborate and costly power plants supply the motive power and a large number of sub-stations distribute it. The expenditure of the many millions of dollars necessary to build and maintain this network of railways has been no small factor in our general prosperity.
The extension of these roads with their frequent and comfortable service caused an expansion of the beach towns. Long Beach, San Pedro, Redondo and Santa Monica experienced a sudden rise in values that recalled the days of '87. New beach settlements, Ocean Park, Venice, Playa del Rey, Manhat- 8
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tan, Hermosa, and half a dozen others were platted and put on the market. The quick transit brought new settlers to the beach; it also brought crowds of pleasure seekers; and at once new bathhouses and pavilions, hotels and piers were provided. It is probably safe to say that the population of our beach towns has been more than doubled during the past seven years.
But the suburban lines have created many new settlements between the city and the beach. People who could never hope to own a home within the city have been able to purchase a lot or a tract outside of the city, and at the same time be within easy reach of their places of business, or of labor. Many handsome homes have been built along the electric lines and such residence districts as Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Hollywood, South Pasadena, Hunting- ton Park, and others, have shown that there is a demand for high class sub- urban property.
The electric lines also carry the mails, express and freight. So satisfac- tory has their freight service proved that the older steam lines cannot compete with them. They are now handling carload lots which are transferred direct to the steam lines. The fact that they can give a frequent service and stop wherever freight or express matter is to be handled has been of great benefit to the dairymen and small farmers. They are thus able to put their vegetables, berries and produce on the market with an ease and a promptness which adds largely to their profits.
Los Angeles county increased in population at the rate of 67 per cent. be- tween 1890 and 1900. And her progress in the present decade has been accel- erated and will doubtless show an even greater gain in 1910. And we cannot question that there is a relation between the mileage of our electric railways, now about 700 miles in the county, and our growing population.
CHAPTER VI.
CITIES AND TOWNS.
T HE history of the city of Los Angeles is so closely interwoven with that of the county that the two can hardly be separated. Although Monterey was the capital most of the time during the early history of the country, Los Angeles had more inhabitants and was the center of a larger settled district. After the gold rush of the early fifties, San Francisco, Sacramento, and a number of northern towns exceeded Los Angeles in population ; but within the past three decades Los Angeles has steadily passed its rivals until now it is the second county and the second city in the state. During the past twenty-six years Los Angeles has made the most rapid, as well as the most constant, growth in population
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of any important city in the United States, the population now being estimated at 300,000.
There are now twenty-seven incorporated cities in the county, of which Pasadena, after Los Angeles, is the first in size.
PASADENA.
In August, 1873, a number of people, residents of Indiana, sent a committee to California to look over the country and select a tract for colonization, to be devoted to citrus and fruit culture. After traveling over Southern California these gentlemen decided upon a body of 4000 acres of the San Pasqual rancho. This grant had been made to Manuel Garfias in 1843 and was at this time owned by Dr. John S. Griffin and B. D. Wilson. The beautiful and highly improved ranches of L. J. Rose and Mr. Wilson, in this vicinity, showed what might be accomplished here. There were about fifty people in the original Indiana colony ; but many of these were unable to carry out their agreement and in consequence the purchase of the land was completed by a new organization, the Orange Grove Association. Each shareholder received a fifteen-acre tract while the balance of the land was held for the benefit of the company. In 1875 the name of Pasadena, meaning "Crown of the Valley ", taken from some Indian dialect, was adopted in place of " Indiana Colony."
The original irrigation system of the Orange Grove Association was the first in California to distribute water under pressure, through iron pipe. The plan was such a radical change from the old system of earthen ditches and little wooden flumes that it was much commented upon and criticised: but it has since then been largely imitated.
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