USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > Men of achievement in the great Southwest Illustrated. A story of pioneer struggles during early days in Los Angeles and Southern California. With biographies, heretofore unpublished facts, anecdotes and incidents in the lives of the builders > Part 4
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
Soon after the close of flush "boom" times, the late Joseph Bayer sank an oil well out near the junction of Second and First streets. The Witmer Brothers had run a little cable road up Second street out there, and opened the western hills to settlement. Indications of oil had been noted there for years. Bayer's well was successful in a small way. Edward H. Doheny, an expert oil man from Western Pennsylvania, hearing of the discovery, put down wells, out of which small results were secured. The field soon extended widely, and the production of oil was rapidly increased. This had a marked effect on the prosperity of the city. But this oil industry will be fully treated in pages following.
Never did the world sec so great a real estate "boom" as that of Los Angeles and Southern California in 1885 to 1887. Never was there such a crash in realty as that of 1887. Never did a city and section suffer so little and recover so quickly from a collapse as was seen in Southern California, and particularly in Los Angeles. When the uplift in values began, property was abnormally low, the possibilities of the section considered. A large part of the increase in prices was entirely justifiable. At the time of the collapse the eyes of the world were turned to Los Angeles, and the many attractions of this part of the country had been made known to multitudes. "The people whose homes and interests were here knew what there was of substantial worth. They never lost courage, but proclaimed from the housetops in the ears of the world the truth concerning their section. That is why the collapse was only an eddy in the steady stream of prosperity, a mere interruption in the heart-beats of progress in a section and city teeming with vital forces of industry and growth.
30
MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT IN THE GREAT SOUTHWEST.
CHAPTER IX.
THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY.
By the beginning of 1897 the disastrous effects of the Baring Brothers' failure in London had exhausted themselves. A long period of stagnation in industries in all parts of the world had depleted the stock of finished goods of all classes. In the United States the election of William Mckinley to the Presidency, in 1896, had the effect of restoring confidence among business men, and at once affairs began to improve. This improvement grew with constantly-accelerating pace during the closing years of the century. All industries felt the stimulus of the new condition of affairs. The agitation in relation to silver coinage subsided in the United States. Silver mines that would not pay to work at the prices current for har silver were abandoned, and miners turned their attention to seeking for deposits of gold. The search was successful in abundant measure. The discovery of the yellow metal in Alaska helped to swell the rising tide of the new gold supply. The great revival of manu- ·facturing industries in all civilized countries, the highest point of activity being reached in the United States, is a fact too recent and too generally well understood to be yet a matter of history. In Southern California the government had begun to construct a great breakwater at San Pedro. Crops of citrus fruit were good, and the inflow of people became greater than since the year of the "boom." Railroads were busy, houses began to become scarce. Again activity in building houses began, and mechanics of all kinds found ready employment at good wages. People at the East were making money again freely, and felt that they could afford to spend some of their gains in travel. Many who for years had had their eyes turned to California as the home of their remain- ing years, found it possible to dispose of their property and business interests, where there was not too much sacrifice, and come out here at last.
In all times and places real estate is the last to show the effects of good times. But as money is made in other ventures, there always comes a disposition to put some of the surplus into property which cannot all "take wings and fly away." This took place to a remarkable degree in Southern California during the last year or two of the century. It might appear that the lesson of the boom and its collapse would have deterred wise men from investing in real property in Southern California. The fact is, the disasters of the collapsed "boom" were confined to people who bought beyond their means, or to those who put their money out carelessly in "wild-cat" townsites. Good lands in the territory south of the Tehachepi Pass never touched a point in values above their intrinsic worth in the wildest moment of the "boom." Many lost money who had tried to hold ten, twenty, fifty times more property than they could pay for. Others lost by thoughtlessly putting money into townsites on the tops of steep mountains, in river bottoms, or in poor lands at the price of good lands. There were instances of marvelous inflation of values, but this was not general. During the dull times there was selling pressure on really desirable business and residence property, and much of such character fell back below its intrinsic value. With the return of confidence, with the growth of population again and the constant demand for homes, and with the natural demand for new business ventures which were multiplying in all directions, real estate values began to grow firm and even to appreciate a little. Still there were a great many people who had been carrying an exces- sive load of unproductive property for ten or twelve years, and these were willing sellers at any price which would let them out of their investments without too much loss of capital. Many eastern people were coming in who wanted a winter home in Southern California, where they and their families might be exempt from the rigors of eastern blizzards and temperatures ranging from 20° to 50° below zero. There thus grew up an active demand for small tracts of land along the foothills. Pasadena grew very rapidly. Redlands became a city of considerable population. At Pasadena men of wealth, like Andrew McNally, the Chicago publisher, built for themselves handsome places. At Redlands the Smiley brothers were developing Smiley Heights into a para- dise. such as could hardly be matched elsewhere on earth. So many were the tourists who came to spend the winter that such men as I. N. Van Nuys were led to erect sumptuous hotels, like the Van Nuys in this city; and P. M. Green and others put up or added materially to similar hostelries in Pasadena and other cities. In the "boom" days, Walter Raymond, the conductor of excursions to Southern California, had put up a famous hotel, the Raymond, at South Pasadena. This had been destroyed by fire, and the site had stood unoccupied for several years during the business stagnation. With the turn of the financial tide, Mr. Raymond reconstructed the Raymond on the old site and on a scale far superior to the one destroyed by fire.
So the century passed into history with a revival of progress in the land where the great "boom" had col- lapsed. In 1880 the Federal census had credited the city of Los Angeles with a population of about 11,000 souls. The county had 33,000, and what is now Orange county was then in Los Angeles county. In 1890 the city had
31
MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT IN THE GREAT SOUTHIVEST.
51,000 people, and the county (although Orange county had been erected out of a large slice of the old territory,) had over 100,000. The census of 1900 gave the city 102,000 and the county 170,298. The growth from 1880 to 18go astonished all who heard of it. It was an increase of about 40,000 for the city and for the county nearly 70,000. For the ten years between 1890 and 1900 the city showed a growth of over 50,000 and the county nearly 70,000.
THE OUTPOST, HOLLYWOOD.
-
This adobe, still standing on the country place of Gen. H. G. Otis, was the ranch house on the Rancho Cahuenga, and was the headquarters of Gen. Andres Pico, in command of the final remnant of the Mexican forces when the Americans took possession of Los Angeles and of California generally. The "treaty of peace" signed by Capt. John C. Frémont and Gen. Andres Pico is a very remarkable document.
32 .
MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT IN THE GREAT SOUTHWEST.
TFF
LOSANGELES BUSINESS BLOCKS
11
American National Bank. Frost Building. Los Angeles Trust Building.
O. T. Johnson Building. Conservative Life Building.
Chamber of Commerce. Union Trust Building. Bryson Building
·
33
MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT IN THE GREAT SOUTHWEST.
CHAPTER X.
i
THE STORY OF TODAY.
-
As stated at the close of the last chapter, the Federal census of 1900 showed in the city of Los Angeles a population of 102,000. The third year of the new century is drawing to a close as this chapter is being prepared for the press. The population inside the city is growing at not less than 1000 a month. Careful estimates indi- cate a present population of between 140,000 and 150,000. Taking the Federal census of 1900 and the local school census of the same year, and comparing these figures with the school census of the spring of 1903, there results an apparent population of 136,000 at that time. This estimate is fully confirmed by the new connections made by the city water company, and again by the permits for new buildings issued by the Superintendent of Buildings for the three years since the Federal census was taken. Going back as far as 1894, the year when business stagnation had settled down over the United States like a pall, there was a good deal of building activity in Los Angeles. The permits for new buildings for that year amounted to $2,398,607. In 1895, when depres- sion still existed everywhere else, there were new buildings put up in this progressive city which cost $4,033,496. Next year, the worst of all, the new buildings cost $2,622,291. There was no improvement in this line during the next two years, the new buildings costing $2,614,575 for 1897 and $2,283,005 for 1898. In 1899 business was still slow, the cost of improvements in the building line being $2,245,792. The century closed with a record of $2,489,000 for the year, marking a slight turn in the tide. No city of the same size in the country showed so great growth in this period of stagnation as did Los Angeles. The opening year of the century marked a decided improvement, $4,099,198 being expended on new buildings. In 1902 this was more than doubled, the record being $9,603,132. The year 1903 shows a far greater sum spent in new buildings than the figure for the whole of last year. The expenditure runs at an average of $350,000 a day for all the time. January, 1903, opened with a record of 486 permits for new buildings, to cost $1,908,455. For the first six months of the year the gross sum comes to $6,418,663, more than a million dollars a month. During the next three months there were taken out 1888 permits for buildings to cost $3,279,136. The first half of October has a record of 439 per- mits for new buildings, whose aggregate cost will be $888,995. There is no sign of any slackening in building through the year 1904. Architects already report plans for 1904 for new buildings to cost over $2,000,000. How pressing the need for these new structures is will appear from the well-known fact that wooden buildings of good construction are costing $400 a room for flats of about four to six-room apartments. Where the style is above the average of wooden buildings, the cost is $500 a room.
At the present time, residences costing $10,000 to $20,000 each are common. Some fine homes are costing as high as $50,000. There are now being constructed three business blocks of twelve to fourteen stories, with steel frames and pressed-brick facings, fire-proof in all respects and of the highest type of modern building. This style of edifice was first begun here by Homer Laughlin, the Bradbury estate and T. D. Stimson. The Lanker- shim building, the Henne building and the Frost building followed in similar substantial style. Such a structure, too, was the Van Nuys Hotel, and this was followed by the Angelus, erected by John W. Hunt. The acme was reached first in the Union Trust Company's building on the corner of Spring and Fourth streets, followed by Herman W. Hellman, on the opposite corner, and then by H. E. Huntington, on the corner of Main and Sixth. There is nothing superior to these three structures in any city on the globe. The most modern methods known to the building trades are observed in all the details of these structures. The Times Building, on the corner of First and Broadway, is undergoing transformation and enlargement.
Whence comes all this impetus in the building line? First, from the general prosperity existing throughout the whole country and the concentration here of so many men of great wealth. But most of all from the magnifi- cent development made in and about Los Angeles by a syndicate of four great men. When the late C. P. Huntington passed away, leaving a vast fortune of about $30,000,000 to his nephew, Henry E. Huntington, Los Angeles was familiar ground to the enterprising possessor of this great sum. The Huntingtons are of the type of people who do things. They are builders. One of the closest friends of the Huntingtons on the coast for years has been Isaias W. Hellman. These men associated with themselves Christian de Guisne and Antoine Borel of San Francisco. These may be called the "Big Four" of Los Angeles. Securing control of the street- railway system of the city, they proceeded to spend a couple of million dollars in putting it in as good condition as skill and money could do the work. They then went on to construct electric lines to all important points within twenty or thirty miles of Los Angeles, making a great network of roads, radiating like spokes of a wheel,
34
MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT IN THE GREAT SOUTHWEST.
The CITY OF Today
In The Wholesale District -
Birds-eye Viewof Los-Angeles
In The Shopping District-
í
BADWAY
North Broadway From
--
South Spring St.
MARKER BOOS
FURNITURE
CARPETE
DRAPERIEA
Main
Cor. 3rd.
35
MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT IN THE GREAT SOUTHWEST.
with the city as the hub. They have put in something like $5,000,000 a year in this new work, giving employment to an army of men and putting a flood of money into circulation week by week. Great car barns and a system of shops for the repair and construction of cars form another important feature of this enterprise. Shortly before the close of the last century, the Hook brothers came from Denver to Los Angeles and put in a competing system of electric roads of the best type, covering certain portions of the city. The activity of the Hunting- ton-Hellman syndicate stirred up their competitors, and the Hooks built lines to the beaches. During the last few months the Huntington syndicate has acquired complete control of the Hook system. About ten years before this, Gen. M. H. Sherman and E. P. Clark constructed a well-built and thoroughly-equipped electric road to Pasadena, and to the beach at Santa Monica. The Huntington interests secured the Pasadena road, but the Sherman-Clark interest kept control of the line to Santa Monica. This they have improved by building a cut-off to shorten the distance, and at the same time reach the beach at new points. The outcome of all this is that Los Angeles has a system of urban and interurban rapid-transit roads surpassed by no city in the country, and matched by only two or three. The work is by no means done. Construction is going on in several directions, at a pace as rapid as at any previous time. The plans of the "Big Four" are far-reaching, contemplating lines to San Bernardino, Riverside and Redlands, on one side, and Santa Barbara on the other, with a possibility of going as far as San Diego, south, and San Francisco, north.
Another factor in the great development of the immediate past, of the present moment, and of the immediate future, is the interest Senator W. A. Clark of Montana has taken in Southern California. The success of the Oxnard Sugar Factory, at Chino, suggested to Senator Clark and his brother, J. Ross Clark, that there was an opening here in this industry. Six years ago or more they purchased a large tract of land between Anaheim and the ocean, on which they put up a large sugar factory. This brought this enterprising man of affairs frequently to Los Angeles. When T. B. Burnett came here, some dozen years ago, and, as the representative of Hon. Richard C. Kerens of St. Louis, George B Leighton of Vermont and others, spent from $3,000,000 to $5,000,000 on the Terminal Railroad system, the plan was to build on to Salt Lake. Then came the years of general depression, and the plan lay in abeyance. It remained for Thomas E. Gibbon of this city to find the one man in the United States to take up this great enterprise. That man must be free from all other railroad entan- glements, and must be able to build the road in the face of the strong opposition existing roads were sure to raise. Senator Clark was not a railroad man, and his annual income was so colossal that it would suffice to build the road without selling a bond. Gibbon found the right man, and consummated the sale of the Terminal road to that man. Senator Clark at once began the construction of a railroad on the most advanced modern plan, with the finest roadbed, the heaviest steel rails and the best equipment known in the American railroad world. The line to San Pedro was practically rebuilt, and then a new line was begun to Pomona, thence to Riverside, ulti- mately to go over the mountains and on to Salt Lake. It is an open secret that those in control of existing lines, which were to be practically paralleled by Senator Clark's enterprise, put every possible obstacle in the way. Their efforts proved futile, and the outcome has been that Senator Clark has secured the branch of the Oregon Short Line, running in a southwesterly direction through Utah into Nevada. As 1904 opens,' large forces of builders are at work in Utah and on the California end of the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake road, pushing on to complete the gap between this city and the Great Salt Lake.
Such is the condition of affairs in these opening days of 1904. Population in Los Angeles is increasing at the rate of 1000 a month. The Huntington-Hellman syndicate is spending three or four million dollars a year in building a network of interurban railroads all over Southern California. Senator Clark is rushing work on a new transcontinental railroad, which will give Los Angeles five several connections with all points of the compass, northerly and easterly. The government is spending half a million dollars a year in making accommodations for ocean-going vessels at San Pedro, with an inner harbor at Wilmington. The people of Los Angeles generally are spending over a million dollars a month in the erection of new edifices in the city. All the surrounding towns are growing apace, and the country is filling up as rapidly, or nearly so, as the city is. - The citrus crop now on the trees, and soon to come on the market, is estimated at 35,000 carloads, over 10,000,000 boxes, worth probably $10,000,000 to the growers, and nearly, if not quite, $20,000,000 to the section, including picking, packing and freight charges.
Here, fortunately, Labor is free and Capital not unwarrantably restricted. There is scarce a cloud on the sky of the industrial situation in Southern California. Here is going on the most remarkable development ever known to mankind, and it seems destined to go on without let or hindrance for an indefinite time to come. There appears no influence likely to check, for long, prosperity in this section for the next fifty years to come. Judging the future by the past, the conclusion is forced on the mind of those who think, that prosperity is to be the lot of all deserving people who dwell in Southern California, almost in spite of any events that may come else- where, no matter how depressing their influences may be.
36
MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT IN THE GREAT SOUTHWEST.
PRESBYTERIAN
-
FIRST METHODIST EPISCOPAL
-
CCCC
-
JEWISH TEMPLE B'NAI B'RITH
E
FIRST CONGREGATIONAL
-
FIRST BAPTIST
CHURCH OF THE UNITY
37
MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT IN THE GREAT SOUTHWEST.
There are thirteen commercial banks in Los Angeles, with a combined capital and surplus of over $7,000,000, and deposits of nearly $30,000,000. There are nine savings banks, with nearly $17,000,000. The clearances for the current year will come to more than $250,000,000.
There are 134 churches, embracing all the principal denominations of religion. They are presided over by faithful pastors and eloquent preachers, and the membership indicates that religious enterprises share in the general prosperity.
In the city are sixty-three public schools, including a State Normal institution, with an attendance of over 1000 pupils. There are ten private schools. There are over 600 teachers and over 30,000 children who attend.
The Public Library contains a total of 80,000 volumes, and the circulation last year amounted to 806,000, which is one book in every ten days for each family in the city. This indicates a very high grade of intelligence.
AMERICAN MAYORS OF LOS ANGELES CITY.
1850
A. P. Hodges
1873-4
J. R. Toberman
1851
B. D. Wilson
1875-6
Prudent Beaudry
1852
John G. Nichols
1877-8
F. A. McDougal
1853
A. F. Coronel
1879-82 J. R. Toberman
1854
Stephen C. Foster.
1883-4
Cameron E. Thom
1855
Thos. Foster
1885-6
E. F. Spence
1856
Stephen C. Foster
1887-8 Wm. H. Workman
1857-8 John G. Nichols
1889
John Bryson
1859
D. Marchessault
1889-92
H. T. Hazard
1860
H. Mellus
1893-4
T. E. Rowan
1861-4
D. Marchessault
1895-6
Frank Rader
1865
José Mascarel
1897-8 M. P. Snyder
1868-9
C. Aguilar
1899-1900 Fred Eaton
1869-71
Joel Turner
1901-4
M. P. Snyder
1871-2
C. Aguilar
POPULATION.
City
County.
1850
1,610
1850
3,530
1860
4.399
1860
11,333
1870
5,614
1870
15,309
1880
11, 183
1880
33,881
1890
50,395
1890
101,454
1900
102,479
1900
170,298
*1903
140,000
*Estimated.
ASSESSMENT VALUATIONS ON CITY PROPERTY.
1860
S 1,425,648
1888
$ 39,476,712
1870
2,108,061
1889
46,997,10I
1880
7,259,598
1890
49,320,670
1883
12,232,353
1896
52,242,302
1884
14,232,353
1898
60,930,266
1885
16,273,535
1899
64,915,320
1886
18,448,535
1900
67,576,047
1 887
27,803,924
1903
109,923,823
ASSESSMENT VALUATIONS ON COUNTY PROPERTY.
1870
$ 6,918,074
1888
$102,701,629
1883
26,138,117
1903
164,620,322
38
MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT IN THE GREAT SOUTHWEST.
EAST 28M AND SANPEDRO STS. IOROOMS
TEMIPLE AND CUSTER STS . 10 ROOMIS
SCHOOL
933 833
FANGELE
EAST SIXTH ST. NEAR MAPLE AVE IOROOMS
WEST 2IST AND NORWOOD STREETS JOROOMS
--
SPRING ST SCHOOL (
SSENTOUS ST. SCHOOL
. .............
-
GRIFFIN AVE SCHOOL;
KNOWLEDGEIL IL
TEMPLE ST.SCHOOL
SUCCESS .
39
MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT IN THE GREAT SOUTHWEST.
OUTSIDE TOWNS.
Of the outside towns in Los Angeles county, the oldest is San Gabriel, founded by the mission fathers in 1771, at the old mission, and the present village a few years later.
San Pedro became the embarcadero, or port, to Los Angeles and the back country as soon as the Mission
San Gabriel and Pueblo Los Angeles were founded.
El Monte was one of the first villages founded by Americans. In 1852 J. A. King, William B. Lee, Samuel King and Dr. T. A. Mayes settled there. A year later T. A. Garey, still living and for fifty years known as one of the most skillful horticul- turists in Southern Cali- fornia, settled at El Monte.
Among other early set- tlers were Ira W. Thomp- son, Samuel M. Heath, Dr. Obed Macy and F. W. Gib- son. In 1857 there were fifty families there.
The first "colony" found- J. H. CLARK'S RESIDENCE, SANTA MONICA. ed in Southern California was at Anaheim, where a large number of German people settled in 1857. Gen. Banning settled at Wilming- ton in 1858.
Antonio Maria Lugo settled near Downey in 1855. About 1860 ex-Gov. John G. Downey obtained possession
MRS. G. S. HOLMES' RESIDENCE, OCEAN VIEW AVENUE, SANTA MONICA.
of a part of the Rancho Santa Gertrudes, and after the war a number of South- ern people settled, first at Gallatin, near where Rivera is now, but Downey City soon took the lead.
In 1860 Senator John P. Jones and Col. R. S. Baker secured possession of the lands above Santa Monica, and a city began to loom up there soon after.
In 1873 the "Indiana col- ony" bought the San Pas- qual Rancho from Dr. John S. Griffin. This was the beginning of Pasadena.
In 1874 Rev. Chas. F. Loop settled at Pomona, and largely through his en-
terprise the foundations of that city were laid. He was one of the earliest in the State to promote olive grow- ing, both for making oil and pickling, making a special visit to France and Italy, whence he imported several new varieties of olive trees.
Monrovia and Whittier and many smaller places are the outgrowth of the great "boom."
MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT.
HENRY EDWARDS HUNTINGTON.
"P EACE hath her victories no less renowned than war" is an axiom than is usually assented to by most people in a perfunctory way. Yet it must be admitted that up to the close of the nineteenth century the man of peace played but an insignificant role in the drama of life, in comparison with the martial hero. During the past few years there has been noticeable something of a change in this re- spect in the Anglo- Saxon world. Our great captains of '11- dustry are coming into their own. This is right, for surely if the man who causes two blades of grass to grow where one grew be- fore is deserving of credit, how much more so, then, the man who furnishes profitable occupa- tions for thousands, and creates happy homes in the wil- derness. This page is devoted to a brief mention of some of the leading achieve- ments of one of these captains of in- dustry, H. E. Hun- tington, during his brief residence of five years in South- ern California.
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.