USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > Los Angeles from the mountains to the sea : with selected biography of actors and witnesses to the period of growth and achievement, Volume I > Part 12
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The Government abandoned Drum Barracks. This was a real loss to the community, as it had done a very large busi- ness as a supply depot for Government troops and posts cov- ering a large territory.
In 1867-68 began an important industry, namely, the har- vesting of castor beans planted and growing wild along zanjas. For a long time the beans were shipped to San Francisco for extraction of oil. In 1867 a small mill was started in Los Angeles.
First laying of iron pipe for distribution of water, council contracting for some 5,000 feet of two-inch pipe, laying of which was completed in 1868.
In 1868 the city voted to lease the city waterworks for a term of thirty years for $1,500 a year and the performance of certain stipulated terms. The original franchise holders then transferred their rights and privileges to a corporation known as the Los Angeles City Water Company, and al- though the franchise was vigorously fought by a section of the citizens, the water company won its fight to continue the franchise.
Ice, which had previously come from the San Bernardino Mountains, and was generally famous for lack of supply when most needed in the summer months, now began to arrive in regular shipments by boat from the Truckee River, and was distributed regularly by wagon from a central ice house on Main Street.
In 1868 J. A. Hayward of San Francisco and John G. Downey, with a capital of $100,000, opened the first regular bank in the old Downey Block under the firm name of Hay- ward and Company, but the bank failed for lack of patronage. In July of the same year Hellman, Temple and Company, with a capital of $125,000, opened a bank which was the real pioneer of the banking institutions of the city.
In 1868, on March 24th, the citizens voted on the long time fought over question of bonding city and county to help in the construction of the Los Angeles and San Pedro Railroad. The vote carried by a small majority, and on September 19th, the same year, first ground was broken for the railroad, work
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starting from the Wilmington end, where about a mile of rails was laid by November.
In 1868 West Sixth Street was the most traveled highway connecting the outside country. It was used by overland stages, the Owens River Valley trade, etc.
It was in 1869 that Isaac Lankershim bought for $115,000 the San Fernando Rancho, and with other San Francisco capitalists formed the San Fernando Farm Association, which Lankershim, afterwards associated with I. N. Van Nuys, farmed in a large way, some years later planting as much as 60,000 acres in wheat, much of which, on harvesting, was con- signed to Liverpool. In 1881 the ship Parisian, from Wil- mington to Liverpool, loaded with wheat and flour from this ranch, foundered at sea and was lost. Most of this large ranch is now incorporated as part of the City of Los Angeles.
One of the notable mining enterprises, with large bearing on the prosperity of Los Angeles, was the opening of the large Cerro Gordo lead and silver mines at Cerro Gordo, near Owens Lake, in the Owens Valley. Renee Nadeau undertook the difficult contract of transporting ore by large wagons and teams across the desert and San Fernando Mountains from the mines to Wilmington, where it was taken by boats to San Francisco and some to Swansea in Wales for treatment and smelting. These ore shipments became so large that the teaming of them became a wonderfully organized business, with headquarters in Los Angeles and stations built at in- tervals along the route to Owens Lake, the sites of many of the stations existing as posts along the way today, and the remains of others being still traceable though out of use for many a long year. These Cerro Gordo mines were by far the largest producers of silver and lead ores in California at that time.
In 1869, under Mayor Joel Turner, the Los Angeles Board of Education was organized, the forerunner of our modern school system.
May 10, 1869, was hailed as a red letter day in Los An- geles because of the completion of the Central Pacific Railroad by the driving of the historie gold spike at Promontory Point in Utah. Although it gave Los Angeles no direct rail connec-
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tion, it helped the connection between East and West and held out hope of direct railway connection in the near future.
In 1869 telegraph rates from Los Angeles to San Francisco were $1.50 for ten words, and 50 cents for additional five words.
Los Angeles in this year registered something over 2,400 voters.
On October 26, 1869, the Los Angeles and San Pedro Rail- road officially opened for use of the public. Everyone was in- vited on the first day to a free ride to the harbor, with dedi- catory ball held in the depot the same night. The depot was then on Alameda Street, corner of what was afterwards Com- mercial Street.
In 1870 all business activity of Los Angeles was centered on Los Angeles Street, north of First Street, and most of it on Main and Los Angeles streets. Spring Street was just beginning to show life, and an agitation that year was started on the question of "another street lamp for Spring Street," there being just one city light maintained on that street.
In 1870 the houses and stores of the city were numbered preparatory to compiling the first city directory, which made its appearance in 1871; 1870 also saw the construction of the first substantial bridge across the Los Angeles River, located where the Macy Street bridge now stands. Previous flimsy foot bridges had been carried away by winter floods many times, and this more pretentious bridge, built at an expense of about $25,000, was itself broken up by floods some years later.
In 1870 also the first street sprinklers were operated on the city streets, the council allowing the operator to collect contributions from residents and stores along routes.
Late in the year 1870 a Frenchman, Lachenais, who had killed a neighbor named Bell in a quarrel over water, for a time escaped penalty, but by dropping an indiscreet remark the crime was traced to him and the Vigilance Committee hanged him. Some months afterwards the presiding judge charged the grand jury to indict leaders of a lynching mob, but the grand jury replied that if the law had previously been faithfully executed such incidents would be unnecessary, and refused to take any steps to bring the lynchers to the bar.
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In 1871 the two original banking institutions in which Hell- man and Downey dominated, were consolidated, under the name of the Farmers and Merchants Bank, with a capital of half a million dollars, 25 per cent of which was called in at the start.
This year also witnessed the first attempt to form a Los Angeles Board of Trade, the forerunner of the present Cham- ber of Commerce, and although organization was effected, internal quarrels killed the institution and it soon died.
In 1871 the first steps were taken by the U. S. Government to improve the harbor at Wilmington and San Pedro. A
CORNER OF PALISADE PARK, SANTA MONICA
breakwater was built between Dead Man's Island and Rattle- snake Island.
In the same year the Southern District Agricultural So- ciety was organized, L. J. Rose, J. G. Downey and others being prominent figures in its inception. This society did much all through the city's history to promote agriculture and stock raising, and held annual exhibitions and trotting and running races.
In 1871 Santa Monica first began to attract attention as a seaside resort for the tired city man, the part of the beach then most favored being at the mouth of Santa Monica Can- yon, on the banks of which were the few residences and tents then housing the inhabitants.
Also in this year, summer excursions to Santa Catalina
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by way of Los Angeles and San Pedro Railroad to Wilming- ton and boat to the island became first popular with a limited number of people in Los Angeles. Occasional specially ad- vertised excursions were run over, and even a carrier pigeon service to Catalina was inaugurated in this year, the birds taking about an hour to cross to or from the mainland. Racing of these pigeons by rival owners was a popular sport, and one bird in that year is recorded as making the trip in fifty minutes.
In October, 1871, occurred the first recorded Chinese riot in the city. It started by fighting between rival Chinese fac- tions during which a police officer was wounded and a citizen killed. Citizens roused and attacked Chinese indiscriminately, resulting in the death by hanging and shooting of some nine- teen Chinamen, and an attempt was made to burn the whole Chinese quarter. Little punishment ever was meted out to the rioters, but the Chinese government protested to the United States Government and finally obtained a considerable indemnity.
In 1871-2 an immense wool boom struck the country. Wool which had previously brought 10 cents a pound was bid up in Los Angeles to 45 cents and even 50 cents per pound for dirty wool in the grease, just as it came from the clip, and many large crops were bought at these figures after the first offerings had been successfully disposed of in the East at a profit, but on the later large shipments sales failed to ma- terialize and large consignments were stored in Boston, much of it being sold there in 1872 at 15 and 16 cents a pound, and many large consignments were lost in the great Boston fire of that year. This wool craze meant very severe losses for many of the large Los Angeles merchants. It materially crip- pled many of them.
In 1872 the first steps were taken to insure the extension of the Southern Pacific Railroad, then building down the San Joaquin Valley, through the Tehachapi Mountains and to Los Angeles. Much of the old opposition to railroads in general still existed in the community, and it took a hard fight to carry the proposition, which contemplated county financial help, in an election by the voters. But the question eventually
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carried by a good majority in November of that year, and the authorities were then in a position to negotiate the terms of a concession with Leland, Stanford, Collis P. Huntington and others in control of that railroad.
Fire protection had been agitated for many years, but without definite results, and only in 1873 was the first real Volunteer Fire Company organized by thirty-eight progres- sive citizens, who called their organization "the 38's," as- sessing themselves $1 a month in membership fees for the privilege of dragging the one solitary hose cart owned by the organization through the dusty, uneven thoroughfares to the scene of all reported conflagrations.
In 1873 was organized the Board of Trade, of which the present Chamber of Commerce is a direct descendant. Incor- porated in August of that year with an initial membership of about 100 merchants, bankers, etc., eleven directors, admis- sion fee of $5, and they seem to have tackled the job of boost- ing the city and its surrounding areas right from the jump with something of the vim and energy which have character- ized the organization ever since. One of its first notable achievements seems to have been the securing from Congress of an appropriation for surveying and improving the harbor at San Pedro and Wilmington. Some few years later there was a pause in its activities due to discouragement caused by drouths, bank failures, etc., but it revived, and its work has been practically continuous since.
In 1873 operations were started in the first woolen mill by Barnard Brothers. Heretofore all wool raised in the country had been shipped out and woolen goods imported.
In December, 1873, came a package through Los Angeles from Washington, D. C., addressed to L. C. Tibbetts of River- side containing two small orange trees originally received in Washington from Bahia, Brazil, to be grown and tested by Tibbetts for the information of the U. S. Agricultural De- partment. These turned out to be the two original orange trees from which has sprung the whole navel orange industry which has meant so much to Los Angeles and to all Southern California and, indeed, to all California.
In 1874 a bandit, Tiburcio Vasquez, who had already had Vol. 1-8
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a spectacular career in the northern end of the state, invaded the vicinity of Los Angeles with a few followers. Some dar- ing holdups with enforced contributions, etc., resulted. The bandits kept the whole city and countryside stirred up, and posses sent out were outwitted time after time, but Vasquez was eventually corraled and captured with some of his fol- lowers, others escaping to the hills. He was turned over to the authorities of San Jose, where he was tried for murder, convicted and hanged early in 1875. The doings and capture of Vasquez were among the striking events of this period.
In 1874 the first street railroad was opened and operated in the city. It was built under a fifty-year franchise secured in 1869. It ran from the Plaza to Pearl (Figueroa) and Sixth streets, going by way of Main, Spring, First, Fort, Fourth, Hill, Fifth, Olive and Sixth. Rolling stock consisted of two one-horse cars, small platform, each end of single track with turn-out at the midway point. Often in winter, when mud was deep, the trip from one end of the line to the other consumed an hour. Waiting for a car was no joke, and one car was often forced to wait at the passing point many long weary minutes for the belated twin car from the other end. The driver was also conductor, and stops for passengers were by no means confined to street corners. Pick 'em up where you meet 'em-single fares 10 cents, 4 for 25 cents, 20 for $1. Tickets supposed to be bought at one of two designated stores in town instead of paying fares on cars. Soon afterwards the Main Street line started from Temple Block to Washington Gardens, and this was extended shortly after to Jefferson and out Jefferson to Wesley (University) Avenue and Agricul- tural Park to accommodate the patrons of the race course. This was quite a pretentious bit of street railroad, but the equipment and mode of travel were much the same as on the earlier line. Not until 1887 were there any'"early bird" cars running before 6 A. M., or "owl" cars operating after 10 P. M.
July, 1874, the Los Angeles County Bank was started with a capital of $300,000. In 1878 the bank moved into the bank- ing room vacated by the Temple and Workman bank after its failure.
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OPENING OF FIRST ELECTRIC LINE (1885)
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About this time Stephen M. White came to Los Angeles. He was elected district attorney in 1882, state senator in 1886, and became president of the Senate and then acting lieutenant governor. He was later elected U. S. Senator. As senator in Congress he took a decisive stand against C. P. Huntington in the matter of the selection of a site for the harbor for Los Angeles. The fight then made had a decisive influence when the final effort was made to locate the harbor at San Pedro. Senator White died on February 21, 1901. A statue to his memory, unveiled on December 11, 1908, stands today on the Broadway side of the county courthouse.
In January, 1875, the Commercial Bank was organized (five years later changed to the First National Bank). Most of the organizers of this bank were San Diego men, though L. J. Rose and two or three others were from Los Angeles. E. F. Spence was first cashier. J. M. Elliott, cashier in 1885, afterwards for so many years president.
In April, 1875, E. J. (Lucky) Baldwin bought the Santa Anita Rancho, having just sold his large interest in the Ophir mines of the Comstock for a sum reputed to be over $5,000,000. The price then paid by him for the ranch was $200,000.
In June, 1875, J. A. Graves, a young attorney, came to Los Angeles and practiced law by himself and in partnership with other well-known attorneys for many years. He operated the first typewriter used in this city. In 1903 he became vice president of the Farmers and Merchants National Bank, and is now its president.
California enjoyed wonderful prosperity in 1875. The influence of the riches of the Comstock mines, though mainly affecting San Francisco, extended also to Los Angeles. The natural resources of Southern California were gradually be- ing uncovered and developed, and much subdivision of large tracts in the vicinity of the city was being undertaken and many little outlying towns and settlements were now getting their start.
The wonderful prosperity of San Francisco at this time was primarily due to the immense riches being shipped there from the Comstock mines. All San Francisco was living in a financial elysium. Speculation was rife and everybody took
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a hand. One of the chief factors in keeping up this state of things in the northern city was W. C. Ralston, then president of the Bank of California, who was freely lending the vast resources of that institution for speculative purposes, entirely regardless of recognized banking principles. His example was an incitement to others until all San Francisco was in a mad financial whirl. Naturally, this state of affairs could not continue, and the inevitable happened. In October, 1875, the Bank of California closed its doors, and a few days later Ralston was drowned at North Beach, whether by accident or suicide has never been definitely determined. As a direct result of this, the Temple and Workman Bank of Los Angeles suspended. The greatest depression overtook business, and the bottom seemed to drop out of everything. The bank had ample resources, but its assets could not be quickly realized on under the panic conditions which existed. Under the circum- stances E. J. Baldwin, recognized at the time as the big in- dividual ready money source of Southern California, was applied to as most likely to be able to tide over the bank. He proved willing to advance $210,000 in consideration of a blan- ket mortgage on the real estate holdings of Temple and Work- man, to which was to be added a mortgage on some 2,200 acres of land owned by one Mattias Sanchez, an intimate friend of Temple and Workman. This was finally agreed to, but proved only a temporary expedient, the mortgages eventually being foreclosed in Baldwin's favor. Temple died practically pen- niless, Workman soon passed away, and Sanchez died prac- tically ruined.
Regarding the domestic gas supply. In the early days of the supply the rate was $10 per 1,000 cubic feet. There was great rejoicing among householders when this was twice de- creased to $7.50 and then to $6.75. But in 1876 citizens grew restive under these charges and a threatened boycott was resorted to unless charges were again reduced, which they were, as a result, to $6 a thousand.
On Sunday, April 9, 1876, the Cathedral of Santa Vibiana, commenced in 1871, was first opened for public services.
In September, 1876, was completed a piece of engineering work which has meant much to the City of Los Angeles,
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namely, the long tunnel of the Southern Pacific Railroad Com- pany through the San Fernando Mountains, length 6,940 feet. The need of this tunnel had been the main obstacle in the way of making the Southern Pacific Railroad connection from San Francisco and Sacramento to Los Angeles. Great was the re- joicing over the completion of this tunnel and the later exten- sion through it and to Los Angeles of the railroad. It was not long before much dissatisfaction was voiced regarding the arbitrary methods used by the railroad in handling the busi- ness to and from the city, there being no railroad commission existing in those days, the governing rule of the freight and passenger departments seemed to be "all that traffic would bear."
An unprecedented dry season in 1876-77 almost totally de- stroyed the then existing large sheep industry of Southern California.
The years 1877-80 were hard and a dull business period prevailed. It gradually gave place to more substantial con- ditions. It was in 1877 that William Mulholland, since famous as builder of the aqueduct, became first connected with the Los Angeles Water Company.
In 1879 I. N. Van Nuys acquired the site of the present Van Nuys Building at Seventh and Spring streets for approx- imately $7,000, there being on the lots at the time a house said to have been alone worth the amount.
In 1879 some 400 acres of land were donated by several public spirited citizens for the purpose of starting a Methodist college, and in 1880 the first building of the college was com- pleted on Wesley Avenue. This institution has since devel- oped into the University of Sonthern California.
Business, which until this time had clung close to the vicinity of the Plaza, began in the early '80s to definitely creep southward, having at this time reached almost to Sec- ond Street. The Baker Block at North Main and Arcadia was still the central building and business pivot of the town. The first cement pavement was laid at this time on North Main Street and round the Temple Block.
In 1880 came Albert Kinney.
In 1881 a definite effort was made to bring about the par-
E
RELICS OF THE OLDEN DAYS
Upper : The Plaza Mission. Lower : Workman's Ranches
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tition of California into two distinct states, Northern and Southern California, and a convention was formally called which met on September 8, 1881. Although the prevailing opinion was that state division was inevitable, the convention finally came to the conclusion that the time to bring it about was not propitious.
In 1881 Los Angeles celebrated her centenary. Popula- tion, 12,000. The well-known business of Hamburger's was established here in 1881 under the name of A. Hamburger and Sons, for a time located on Main Street near Requena, after- wards occupying the Phillips Block at Spring and Franklin streets specially built for them, finally moving in 1908 to their present quarters on Broadway and Eighth Street.
On December 4, 1881, the Daily Times was first issued, six days a week.
In the winter of 1881 Helen Hunt Jackson came to Los Angeles as an incident in her exploration of the Southwest in search of facts pertaining to the Indians, and on leaving Southern California she did much to bring about a realiza- tion of its charm and beauty through articles published in the Century Magazine.
In 1882 the first telephones in Los Angeles.
In the same year Col. Harrison Gray Otis joined forces with the then publishers and became manager of the Daily Times and the Weekly Mirror.
Reni Nadeau, after purchasing the southeast corner of First and Spring streets, erected on the site the Hotel Nadeau, notable as the first four-story structure in the city and a thor- onghly up-to-date hostelry, for many years after the social and business center of Los Angeles.
In Newmark's History is found the following: "In 1882, F. H. Howland, representing the Brush Electric Lighting Company, made an energetic canvass in Los Angeles for the introduction of the electric light; and by the end of the third week in August forty or more arc lamps had been ordered by business houses and private individuals. He soon proposed to light the city by seven towers or spliced masts-each about 150 feet high-to be erected within an area bounded by the Plaza, Seventh, Charity and Main streets. The seven masts
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LOS ANGELES IN THE '80S Upper View Centers in Old Court House
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were to cast $7,000 a year, or somewhat more than was then being paid for gas. This proposition was accepted by the council, popular opinion being that it was 'the best advertise- ment that Los Angeles could have'; and when Howland, a week later, offered to add three or four masts, there was considerable satisfaction that Los Angeles was to be brought into the line of progress. On the evening of December 31, the city was first lighted by electricity, when Mayor Tober- man touched the button that turned on the mysterious cur- rent. Howland was opposed by the gas company and by many who advanced the most ridiculous objections. Electric light, it was claimed, attracted bugs, contributed to blindness and had a bad effect on ladies' complexions !"
In May, 1883, the Los Angeles Board of Education sold the northwest corner of Spring and Second streets, 120 by 125, to the city for $31,000, the city using the inside 60 feet on which to erect a municipal building, and during the big boom in 1887 sold a corner 60 feet to John Bryson, senior, for $120,000. The Board of Education, in turn, out of the money received from the sale to the city, bought a strip of land between Fifth and Sixth streets running through Broad- way to Spring, with a frontage of 120 feet on each street, paying for the strip $12,500. This strip is now known as Mer- cantile Place and is at the present writing being sold by the Board of Education at the reported price of about $1,000,000. It can be seen that these two separate agencies of the city have taken full advantage of the respective good times to feather their nests for the advantage of the city.
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