USA > California > Contra Costa County > The history of Contra Costa County, California > Part 34
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It might not be amiss to tell of some of the early experiences of those who came to Richmond and entered into the newspaper game. At the time the Record was launched as a daily it became necessary to discard the hand-press and install a cylinder press. The editor secured an old plant at Nevada City and had it shipped to Richmond. The cylinder press, which had done duty at the former place for many years, was un- packed from the barley-sacks and assembled. At that time H. B. Kinney had installed a small electric-light plant in the city, but the concern did not operate in the daytime. It became necessary to rig up levers on the big press, and in this manner the paper was issued regularly until the town grew large enough to justify a day electric service.
At one time a pugilist came over from San Francisco to fight a local pug, and he was induced to do his three weeks' training in the Record office. He was a godsend for the Record force during the three weeks that he sweat and grunted grinding out the daily edition of the paper. It may be needless to add that the pugilist who so kindly served the Record force was knocked out in the third round by his antagonist.
The tribulations of the Record force in the early days of the town were many. The failure of the "ghost to walk" was a trivial matter com- pared to the work of getting out the paper with two feet of water in the shop during rainy weather. The Record had moved into its own build- ing, now the Bank of Richmond, and the paper was published in the basement. The water was in the habit of coming in in torrents when- ever it rained, and in those years it used to rain every day throughout the winter. The mechanical force was divided into shifts and the office
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HISTORY OF CONTRA COSTA COUNTY
was bailed out with buckets. The editor provided rubber boots for the printers, and the paper never missed an issue. The main trouble was in keeping the water down below the level of the bed of the press. Two lady compositors, who set the type by hand, were carried by the men on the force to their stools, where they perched above the water and waves beneath them. After a while the Record became more prosperous, and a gasoline engine was purchased. This proved to be less reliable than the pugilist who so faithfully ground out the few hundreds of copies of the paper. The engine used to have a habit of going on a strike occasionally, when the hand process of issuing the paper was again resorted to.
At the time Doctor Brown published the initial issue of his paper he had no press and secured the loan of the Record machinery. He had his forms made up in Santa Fe and hauled over to the Record shop at the Point. The man who undertook the contract of delivering the forms did not know what a delicate job he had on his hands, and proceeded to handle the type pages as he would sacks of coal. The result was that the Times did not issue that week. The forms were "pied" in the street on Washington Avenue, and Doctor Brown secured some sieves and re- covered his type from the fourteen inches of dust.
The journalistic history of Richmond is interesting and contains much of the strenuosity and characteristics of the upbuilding of the city in all other lines of endeavor. There are now three daily newspa- pers representing fairly well a little city of the size and capabilities of Richmond-the Record Herald and the Independent in the evening field, and the Daily News in the morning field, with the Terminal, a weekly publication, also in a state of more or less active journalistic eruption-and it is to the credit of the city of Richmond that this num- ber of publications can obtain support sufficient to maintain them in a creditable amount of excellency.
MANUFACTURING AND PAYROLL
The following is a partial list of industries now in operation in Rich- mond and their monthly payroll. From this list many small industries are omitted.
Manufactory
Investment
Pay-roll $200,000
Standard Oil Company .
$15,000,000
Pullman Car Shops .
2,000,000
75,000
Chant your
RICHMOND
349
Manufactory
Investment
Pay-roll
California Wine Association
$3,500,000
$15,000
S. F .- Oakland Terminal Railway
2,500,000
20,000
Healy-Tibbitts Co.
150,000
4,000
S. F. Quarries Co.
200,000
4,500
Santa Fe Railway
4,000,000
75,000
Southern Pacific Co.
1,500,000
10,000
Metropolitan Match Co.
1,000,000
2,500
Pacific Gas & Elec. Co. .
500,000
3,000
Western States Gas & Elec. Co.
750,000
4,000
East Bay Water Company .
1,000,000
3,000
Other water companies
100,000
1,000
Great Western Power Co. .
50,000
500
California Cap Co. .
200,000
7,500
Richmond Pressed Brick Works
200,000
2,500
Western Pipe & Steel Co
1,000,000
5,000
Tilden Lumber Co. .
100,000
2,000
Stege Lumber & Hardware Co.
25,000
1,500
Pacific Porcelain Ware Co. (three plants)
500,000
6,000
Richmond Belt Line Railway
100,000
1,000
Santa Fe Foundry Co. .
50,000
1,500
Richmond Navigation Co. .
25,000
1,000
Ludewig Markets
100,000
1,500
General Roofing Company .
500,000
20,000
Richmond Knitting Factory
100,000
. .. . .
Capital Art Metal Works
100,000
. . . . .
Sundry factories
200,000
30,000
MYSTERY OF THE SHELL MOUNDS
The many and extensive shell deposits, or "Indian mounds," existing all along the Gulf and Pacific Coast have greatly excited the curiosity of people newly arrived in the country, and especially those of an edu- cational turn of mind. The reason for the existence of such mounds has been sought for without much satisfaction. The theory most generally accepted is that the Indian tribes spent their winters on the seashore, subsisting chiefly on fish and oysters, and the shell banks remain as monuments of age-long appetite for crustaceans.
350
HISTORY OF CONTRA COSTA COUNTY
Probably the greatest shell mound on the Pacific Coast is at Rich- mond, and it has attracted much attention and curiosity for many years. Now it is to be entirely removed to make room for modern improve- ments along the bay shore, where great activity in the way of shipping interests is confidently expected before long.
Researches were made in this gigantic mound from 1906 to 1908 by direction of the University of California, and 146 skeletons were found and taken out. Professor Nelson of the university gave an opinion at the time that the big Richmond mound was the official burying-place of prehistoric men. He estimated that there were over 630 specimens of implements, weapons, and ornaments found in the mound by excava- tion, consisting of spear points, pottery, charm stones, shell jewelry, mortars and pestles, bowls, needles, and similar articles made of stone, bone, shell, and baked clay ; also curious whistles were found, made of bird bones.
STANDARD OIL COMPANY'S REFINERY
A new town was virtually put on the map when the Standard Oil Com- pany established its Richmond Refinery. When the company broke ground for its plant in 1901 Richmond was a little community of scarcely two hundred people. Today it is a thriving city of twenty-three thousand inhabitants.
The steady, normal development of a great manufacturing plant to the point where this refinery is today employing twenty-seven hundred people, with a monthly pay-roll of two hundred and sixty thousand dol- lars, could not but act as a great stimulus to any community. But the benefits and the influence of the Richmond Refinery are not to be meas- ured by the development of any one town. Rather, might the plant and the industry it represents be designated as one of the important factors in the recent development of the entire Pacific Coast.
The establishment of the Richmond Refinery was one of the biggest single boosts to manufacturing and home industry in the history of Cali- fornia-possibly the biggest. And this because it provided what was so badly needed-a means whereby a larger percentage of the output of the California petroleum fields could be placed on the market at its full worth, as refined products instead of as crude oil. To the advantage of both consumer and producer, its benefits extend the length of the western coasts of two continents, from Nome to Cape Horn; also into
Bootchapin.
35I
RICHMOND
Oriental countries. Wherever petroleum products are now marketed on the Pacific Coast, they are not Eastern products, but the output of our own California fields.
"But just what is an oil refinery?" some of our readers have asked us. "How do you refine oil, and what do you manufacture at Richmond?"
Briefly, crude oil is a complex mineral compound, and it is the work of a refinery to break up this crude material into its constituent parts- clarify and treat them, and manufacture them into finished products ready for the public's use. The plant at Richmond is one of the largest refineries in the world, and manufactures practically all the main prod- ucts obtainable from crude oil. The detailed, technical processes by which they are obtained can only be hinted at here.
If you are familiar with Civil War history, you will perhaps recall the story of the resourceful "Johnny Reb," prisoner of war. To vary the monotony of confinement and to cater to his appetite for spirituous liquor, he built a miniature still out of a coffee-pot. Having filled this with corn bread and water, he put it over a hot fire, and as the vapors came off caught them in an improvised condenser-an old can soldered to the top of the pot. Primitive and miniature as was this improvised still, it is illustrative of one of the main processes of oil refining-the process of distillation-which in essentials is the same whether carried on in a coffee-pot or in a great battery of thousand-barrel stills. Beyond this the refining process is complex and technical-suitable only for scientific discussion.
Despite this fact, an oil refinery is by no means an uninteresting place to the layman. From point of size alone, Richmond is somewhat im- pressive, covering as it does a territory of 788 acres, or 1.225 square miles.
The raw material, or crude oil, for this Refinery City is supplied from the "Tank Farm" at San Pablo, five miles distant. San Pablo is the ter- minus of the 330-mile pipe-line from the California oil-fields, and the oil which is stored here in great tanks-holding an aggregate of four and a half million barrels-is run down to Richmond by gravity as needed.
The selection of the correct crude oil for the particular product to be manufactured is an important consideration, for all Standard illumi- nating and lubricating oils and other products are made from selected
352
HISTORY OF CONTRA COSTA COUNTY
crudes. If asphaltum for roofing or paving materials is to be made, a crude oil shown by test to be best suited for this purpose is selected. In the same way, by rigid tests, crude oils are chosen for the manufacture of Pearl oil, Red Crown gasoline, Zerolene, and other products. A stock especially suited for one product may almost entirely lack the essentials that go to make others, and the laboratory experts who determine these things, and who later, after exhaustive tests, give a refined product its clearance papers, conduct their work with the greatest possible care.
And this Refinery City, to which the crude oil comes, is not merely big-it is busy ; busy night and day, week in and week out, Sundays and holidays, from January Ist to December 31st, distilling, treating, filter- ing, testing-with frequent shifts of men so that none of the work is slighted, no one overworked.
Directed by executives of long experience ; manned by expert chem- ists, superintendents, and other men of scientific as well as practical training ; provided with a physical equipment thoroughly modern and second to none in the world, Richmond Refinery is in a position to main- tain with efficiency this intensive pace of manufacture. One hundred and forty-one big stills, with a total charging capacity of 60,000 barrels ; adequate condensers and receiving houses; fifty-five agitators (which "look like giant truffles," as one visitor put it) !; four hundred and seven- ty-six storage tanks; an engine-house capable of developing twenty- four thousand horse-power ; an acid plant manufacturing two hundred and sixty-five thousand pounds of sulphuric acid daily ; a grease plant ; an asphaltum plant; a can factory, with a capacity of 25,000 five-gallon cans a day ; a cooperage or barrel works; a machine-shop; a tank-car repair-shop, and several pump-houses, are some of the main divisions of the refinery's equipment. And interconnecting the entire plant, mak- ing it a manufacturing plant, runs a maze of pipe lines-360 miles in all -through which are handled the crude and many of the refined oils, as well as the steam, air, fresh and salt water used in their manufacture and in the hospital.
In addition to its manufacturing facilities, Richmond is admirably equipped for the prompt and economical loading of its products for dis- tribution to the consumer. Pipe-lines leading directly to the railroad yards are run along the "loading racks" beside the tracks, and from these refined oils, gasoline, and other products are run into the big rail-
Swall
353
RICHMOND
road tank cars with which every one is familiar. The extensive loading racks permit fifty cars to be filled at one time. All barrel and case goods are loaded into box cars direct from the warehouse platforms.
Of greater interest, perhaps, are the refinery's facilities for discharg- ing its products by sea. A short distance from the refinery, extending almost a mile out into the bay, is the Richmond pier where Standard Oil Company tankers take on fluid cargoes for bulk distribution to its main distributing stations on the Pacific Coast, and to inland points reached by light-draft steamers that ply on the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. At Point Orient, about five miles distant from the re- finery, an ideal shipping point because of the deep water and protected location, the company has another pier, storage tanks, and docks. Prod- ucts are pumped from the refinery to the storage tanks and then run by gravity down to the dock and into the tankers and other vessels for shipment to the Orient and Central and South American ports. During the present year shipments bound for New York have also cleared from this dock, for the superiority of California asphaltum has brought about a fast-increasing demand for this product in the East.
Such is the Richmond Refinery, the company's largest manufacturing plant. Its development from small beginnings to its present size has been healthy, logical, and in entire accord with the demands of the market for refined products, and with the development of the com- pany's crude product and that of the producers from whom it purchases oils. The first stills were completed and fired at Richmond on July 2, 1902. At that time but eighty men were employed at the refinery, and during the first months they refined only 780 barrels of crude oil a day. Since its beginning construction work at Richmond has never ceased, and today twenty-seven hundred men are required to operate the plant which is refining on an average 60,000 barrels of crude oil daily.
The refinery is still growing and will continue to grow, healthily and logically, as it has in the past. As the demand for its product increases, so will the capacity of the refinery be increased to meet that demand- just as El Segundo, and the company's newest refinery at Bakersfield, were built to supply the increasing southern trade of California and ad- joining States. And always will every care be taken, every known means be employed, to make Standard products everything that their name implies-uniform products of the highest quality and reliability.
354
HISTORY OF CONTRA COSTA COUNTY
STEGE
Stege is situated near the southern boundary of Contra Costa County, not far from the Alameda County boundary line, in direct communica- tion with both Oakland and Richmond. This community is rapidly forging ahead. Located here are the California Cap Works, the United States Briquette Company, the Stauffer Chemical Works, and the Stege Lumber Manufacturing Company.
CHAPTER XXVII
ANTIOCH
BY RUDOLPH A. WILSON, OF THE ANTIOCH LEDGER STAFF
ANTIOCH is one of the oldest towns in California, having been original- ly founded in 1850, the year following the discovery of gold, and has a history in every way as interesting and romantic as any of the early settlements in the Golden State. In the brief space allotted me it will be impossible to more than scratch the surface of things historical, and it will be my purpose to refer only briefly to the more important and in- teresting items of the early history of our beautiful little city, which gives promise in the not distant future of becoming one of the leading interior cities in California.
During the past few years a considerable number of people have made inquiry at the Ledger office for information concerning the name "An- tioch." "How did Antioch get its name?" is the question usually asked, though some have wanted to know the derivation of the word. For the purpose of supplying satisfactory answers to these questions I have been asked to prepare an article that will give such information as is available. I have found the subject intensely interesting, and am con- strained to add such other data, historical and otherwise, as have come to my notice in the course of my investigations.
Most of my readers, I dare say, are aware that the name is often men- tioned in the Bible, and some at least will recall that it was in the an- cient city of Antioch the followers of the meek and lowly Nazarene were first called "Christians."1 Some may not know, however, that the , ancient city of Antioch in Asia was named in honor of the tyrant king Antiochus, the arch-enemy of the Maccabean Jews. The following his- torical sketch will furnish such information as is now extant concerning our ancient namesake :
"Antioch, the ancient capital of the Greek kings of Syria, and long
1 See Acts xi:26.
356
HISTORY OF CONTRA COSTA COUNTY
the chief city of Asia, lies in a beautiful and fertile plain, on the left bank of the river Orontes, fourteen miles from the sea. In ancient times, by its navigable river and its harbor, Seleucia, it had communication with all the maritime cities of the west, while it became on the other hand an emporium for the merchandise of the east, for behind it lay the vast Syrian desert, across which traveled the caravans from Meso- potamia and Syria. The city was erected by Seleucus Nicator about 300 B. C., and was the most splendid of sixteen cities built by him in honor of his father, Antiochus. In early times a part stood upon an island which has now disappeared. The rest was built partly on the plain and partly on the rugged ascent toward Mount Cassius, amid vineyards and fruit-trees. The ancients called it 'Antioch the Beautiful,' and 'The Crown of the East.' It was a favorite residence of the Seleucid princes and of the wealthy Romans, and was famed throughout the world for its splendid luxury. Its public edifices were magnificent. The city reached its greatest glory in the time of Antiochus the Great, and un- der the Roman emperors of the first three centuries. At that time it con- tained 500,000 inhabitants, and vied in splendor with Rome itself. Nor did its glory fade immediately after the founding of Constantinople; for though it then ceased to be the first city of the east, it rose into new dignity as a Christian city. It was one of the earliest strongholds of the new faith-indeed, it was here that the name "Christian" was first used. During the apostolic age it was the center of missionary enterprise, and it became the seat of one of the four patriachs. Ten councils were held here from 252 to 380 A. D. Churches sprang up exhibiting a new style of architecture which soon became prevalent; and even Constantine spent a considerable time here, adorning it, and strengthening its har- bor, Seleucia. The downfall of the city dates from the fifth century. In 538 it was reduced to ashes by the Persian king Chosroes, but was part- ly rebuilt by Justinian. The next important event in its history was its conquest by the Saracens in the seventh century. In the ninth century it was recovered by the Greeks under Nicephorus Phocas, but in 1084 it again fell into the hands of the Mohammedans. The Crusaders be- seiged and took it in 1098. At the close of the thirteenth century, the Sultan of Egypt seized it. At present it forms a portion of Syria, in the province of Aleppo, and has a population of 17,500, mostly Turks, em- ployed in silk-culture, eel-fishing, and in the production of corn and oil.
1750 Jrede.
357
ANTIOCH
It exhibits almost no traces of its former grandeur, except the ruins of the walls built by Justinian, and of the fortress erected by the Crusa- ders. It suffered from an earthquake in 1872.
"Another ancient city named Antioch is situated in Pisidia, founded also by Nicator. It was declared a free city by the Romans in the sec- ond century B. C., and made a colonia under Augustus, with the name Cæsarea. It was often visited by St. Paul."
The thoughtful reader will notice several interesting points of re- semblance in this description of the ancient Antioch and our own fair city. First, note that it lay on the left bank of the river, in a fertile and beautiful plain, fourteen miles from the sea. Next, note the reference to the rugged ascent toward the mount (substitute Diablo for Cassius, and you will note a topographical likeness) amid vineyards and fruit- trees. A close scrutiny of a map of the locality in which the Asian city stands will reveal other striking points of resemblance. Also, a picture of the water-front of Antioch in Asia is remarkably like a correspond- ing view of Antioch, California, as seen from the river. The principal difference which will occur to you is in the matter of size, in which de- tail the ancient city compares better with San Francisco or Los An- geles. These resemblances, striking as they are, however, are purely coincidences, as there is not the slightest reason for believing that they occurred to the minds of the people who chose the name for this place, the name having been selected, as will be shown further on in this ar- ticle, by a minister of the Christian denomination, for reasons which are obvious.
Antioch is one of twelve towns in the United States bearing this name. There were thirteen, but one of the post-offices-Antioch, Arkan- sas-was discontinued by the Government in 1916, its patrons now be- ing served by a rural free delivery route from Beebe. Believing that you will be interested to learn something of these twelve namesakes, I have sent inquiries to them, and every one has responded, some with very interesting letters. This much may be said now, however : Antioch, California, is the largest and most important of them all, many of the others being little more than country post-offices. Antioch, Illinois, is the next largest, and is the only other one in which there is a newspaper published.
Antioch was not the first name of this locality, it having been orig-
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HISTORY OF CONTRA COSTA COUNTY
inally adjacent to a settlement known by the more pretentious title of "New York of the Pacific," which was designed to become the metropo- lis of the Pacific Coast. It was known in early times as Smith's Land- ing, from the Rev. W. W. Smith and his brother, Joseph H. Smith, who were among the original settlers. In the following paragraphs we give historical sketches written by the Rev. W. W. Smith and Captain George W. Kimball, which will be especially interesting to those who are disposed to hark back to the early days. Captain Kimball's article follows :
"In 1848 I ran a packet between Maine and New York, and on my last trip I made up my mind to go to California, and conceived and drew up a plan for building a ship to carry poor people like myself. It resulted in the following agreement : 'We, the undersigned, are desirous of engaging in an enterprise on the golden shores of California, the Paradise of America, where summer reigns perpetually ; while the fer- tile soil is yielding its increase abundantly, fruits growing spontaneous- ly, fishes sporting most plentifully, and where wild game is most pro- lific, on the shores of the Pacific. Our object is to settle a township, or effect a permanent settlement on the coast of California, at some cen- tral point, in some capacious and commodious harbor, where the salu- brity of the climate, the fertility of the soil, mill privileges, timber for ship-building, and other purposes, conveniences for fisheries, for coast- ing, and other natural advantages, shall warrant a healthy and rapid set- tlement. For the accomplishment of the above-mentioned object, we appoint George W. Kimball, of Frankfort, county of Waldo, State of Maine, as our lawful agent, to purchase or build, man and equip, a ship suitable to perform said voyage to California ; said ship to be ready for sea by the 10th day of October, 1849. From two to three hundred of us will build and own a fine packet of six hundred tons, by paying $101 each ; this packet will make one voyage per annum from Maine to Cali- fornia, taking out passengers, produce, etc., and returning with the ex- ports of the Pacific. We will take our families, farming utensils, tools for the mechanic, and apparatus for a sawmill. On our arrival the first object will be to select a township; second, build a sawmill; erect a public depot for our families and baggage, until private dwellings can be built. When the packet sails, a school will commence for all on board, where the art of reading, writing, arithmetic, navigation, surveying,
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