USA > California > Contra Costa County > The history of Contra Costa County, California > Part 37
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There are large pits of a fine quality of sand located just east of town, and hundreds of carloads and boatloads are shipped annually. Other miscellaneous products, such as potatoes, onions, beans, and various small fruits and berries, contribute many more carloads to the grand total. Altogether close to eight thousand carloads of varied products are shipped from Antioch every year.
Among other interesting items concerning Antioch are the following : It has the finest climate on earth; deep water-frontage where ocean- going vessels can and do come ; the largest paper mill west of the Missis- sippi; one of the best equipped high schools in the State ; a municipally owned water system with plenty of filtered water; the best streets of any town of its size in the country ; numerous river transportation lines ; two transcontinental railroads ; two electric-power lines ; two banks with combined resources of nearly a million dollars ; many modern stores with complete stocks, where goods are sold at prices so moderate that there is no temptation to shop in the city ; a beautiful public library, and many modern business and residence buildings. Antioch has a popula- tion upward of twenty-five hundred, and is fifty miles from San Fran- cisco, at the junction of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers.
This town is entering upon an era of unusual growth and develop- ment, and the prospects are that within a very few years it will be one
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of the most important interior towns in California. Since the comple- tion of the new street improvements, building has taken on fresh im- petus, and within the past year or two many handsome residences and new business buildings have been erected. A fine large brick garage (the third one in town) has just been completed, and the new telephone building will be ready for occupancy in a few weeks. Antioch is truly the "Metropolis of eastern Contra Costa."
CHAPTER XXVIII
DANVILLE
DANVILLE is eighteen miles south of Martinez, and is in the very choi- cest portion of the famous San Ramon Valley, with the beautiful Los Tampos Range on the west, whose varying shadows change with every hour of the day's sunshine and are ever admired, while Mount Diablo rears its towering height of nearly four thousand feet on the east. These physical features account for the uniform climate of the place which renders it so desirable for homes.
The town had its inception some time about 1859, when Andrew and Daniel Inman, then owners of what is now Kelly brothers' property, put up the first building to be used for a blacksmith shop. Not long af- terward M. Cohen, of the firm of Wolf & Cohen, merchants, of Alamo, then a flourishing business center, saw the advantages of the location for a store and erected the building on the corner which, after defying the elements for nearly sixty years, was torn down only recently. About the time the store was built came the question of a name for the town. Inmanville and a number of others was suggested, but all proved unsatisfactory, when Andrew Inman proposed they should leave the naming to his mother-in-law, "Aunt Sallie" Young, grandmother of A. J. Young. She asked that it be called Danville, after her native place in Kentucky.
A two-story hotel, afterward destroyed by fire, was built by a Mr. Harris. In this building the post-office found a home, in a windowless 7 by 9 room, in which Harris, as postmaster, often performed his cleri- cal duties by the aid of a lantern. For many years the mail was carried from Walnut Creek on horseback. J. Madison Stowe, now mayor of Pacific Grove, was the mail-carrier at one time. The mail was due at Danville at 4 P. M. daily, and was always on time, unless "Jim" was challenged by some boy on the road to play a game of marbles for "keeps," at which time it was "unavoidably late." A second store was established by P. E. Peel. He was succeeded by John Conway, who for
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many years carried on a successful business. Thus by the addition of one enterprise after another the little town had a prosperous growth.
The Grangers' hall, the first public building of the place, came in 1872-73, and two years later the Presbyterian church was built, at that time the finest church edifice in the county. The first schoolhouse was an old building, built in 1865, and stood one mile south of town. In 1870 it was moved to town, and occupied the identical spot where the gram- mar-school building now stands and which took its place in 1895.
In the summer of 1891 the Southern Pacific Railroad reached the town. Soon after John Hartz surveyed and offered his addition to the town of Danville, the lots being soon sold, and from that time progress has been rapid, and the result is the achievements of the present time. The Oakland, Antioch & Eastern Railway made its advent in 1914, and by it the distance from San Francisco to Danville is reduced from fifty-six miles to thirty-two miles, and the schedule time is cut to half the former time required to make the trip.
Danville's future is promising. Many improvements are in contem- plation, among them the erection of the high-school building at a cost of $15,000, which is to meet the requirements of the school organized five years ago, and a new grammar-school building will soon be needed. Enterprises of various kinds are to be developed. The magnificent im- provements at Diablo, with the expected influx of population as a re- sult of the sale of many lots in that estate, together with the scenic high- way to the summit, promises much. El Rio has done much and will do more for the future of Danville.
It is eminently proper here, in addition to those already mentioned, to name a few of the many pioneers who have been instrumental in the development of Danville and the adjoining region : Thomas Flournoy, J. J. Kerr, John P. Chrisman, J. E. Close, R. O. Baldwin, William Z. Stone, William Meese, D. N. Sherburne, Charles Wood, Dr. J. L. Labarce, A. J. Young, J. O. Stewart, and R. B. Love.
CHAPTER XXIX
PITTSBURG
BY OTIS LOVERIDGE
PITTSBURG, with about six thousand people, is the second largest city in Contra Costa County. Its location is a logical one for the building of a manufacturing and distributing city, being at the point where the Sac- ramento and San Joaquin rivers join with the deep waters of Suisun bay, and also on the principal railways that radiate from the bay cities to all parts of the State and Nation, thereby having access to both river and ocean traffic.
The natural advantages of the present site of Pittsburg first attracted attention as far back as 1847, when the United States Army and Naval Engineers investigated it as a possible military and naval base. Their re- port was in every way favorable, but the project was never carried out.
A townsite was surveyed and christened "New York of the Pacific." Upon the discovery of coal near Mount Diablo, about fifty years ago, the place became known as Black Diamond. It is believed that a large coal-field in that region still remains undeveloped. In 1909 the present name of Pittsburg was appropriately bestowed, the town having shown conclusively that it was to become a great manufacturing center.
It is interesting to note that in 1850 a strong effort was made to re- move the State capitol, then at San Jose, to New York of the Pacific. The proposition was submitted to a vote of the people, but was defeated by a small margin. General Sherman, in his "Early Recollections of California," says: "I made a contract to survey for Colonel J. D. Stevenson his newly projected city of New York of the Pacific, situated at the mouth of the San Joaquin River. The contract also embraced the making of soundings and the marking out of a channel in Suisun Bay. We hired in San Francisco a small metallic boat with a sail, laid in some stores, and proceeded to the United States ship 'Ohio.' At Gen- eral Smith's request we surveyed and marked the line dividing the city of Benicia from the government reserve. We then sounded the bay,
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back and forth, and staked out the best channel up Suisun Bay. We then made the preliminary survey of the city of New York of the Pa- cific, which we duly plotted."
About ten years ago Pittsburg began its industrial growth, which will undoubtedly continue until it ranks as one of the larger cities of California. Its previous support had been that of the coal mines and the fishing industry. The present industrial growth is largely the result of the industry and foresight of the late C. A. Hooper, one of the State's most successful financiers, who some years ago became the own- er of the Rancho los Medanos, an old Spanish grant on which the town- site is located. Mr. Hooper was a man of extraordinary vision as to the future, and believed firmly that Pittsburg was a city of destiny. In every way possible he fostered and promoted the town's upbuilding. At his death, in July, 1914, he was succeeded in the management of his en- terprises and companies by W. E. Creed, his son-in-law, a well-known lawyer of San Francisco. Mr. Creed, since assuming the management of the estate, has demonstrated that he too is deeply interested in Pitts- burg's welfare and development, and is devoting himself with earnest- ness and vigor to that end.
As a deep-water shipping point, Pittsburg possesses advantages un- surpassed by any other city on the Pacific Coast. Ocean-going vessels, loading and unloading cargoes, are a daily sight at her docks. Her ship- ping facilities will be further enhanced by the dredging operations in Suisun Bay from Martinez to Pittsburg, a survey having been reported upon favorably by the chief of the Army engineers in January, 1916. With thousands of acres of level land stretching away from the water- front, the town has every incentive for becoming a great manufacturing center.
Pittsburg has a pay-roll of more than two million dollars annually, with a list of industrial enterprises that have long since passed the ex- perimental stage, and are in fact among the largest and most important of their kind on the Western Coast.
The transportation facilities of Pittsburg are unexcelled by any other city on the bay. In addition to the splendid shipping advantages noted above, Pittsburg is served by two main-line railroads, the Southern Pa- cific and the Santa Fe, and the interurban electric line of the Oakland, Antioch & Eastern Railway. There are forty-two passenger trains daily.
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Several lines of river steamers also run to and from her docks, carrying freight and passengers.
Pittsburg takes great pride in her public schools. She has recently completed an eighty-five-thousand-dollar grammar school, and employs the latest methods along every line for the mental, physical, and es- thetic advancement and uplift of the children. The pupils receive in- struction in music, athletics, folk-dancing, and military drill. Thus their growing characters are rounded out in a manner equal to the results at- tained in much larger cities. The physical welfare of the pupils is care- fully watched by a trained nurse, who daily visits the various classes, whose average daily attendance is 850 pupils.
Turning to Pittsburg's various industries, we find that one of the earliest established plants was that of the Redwood Manufacturers Company, which has a capitalization of one million dollars and operates here one of the largest woodworking plants in the world, making into finished products redwood and pine lumber, which is brought in by coastwise vessels from the great forests of the northern coast. The com- pany also carries large stocks of northern fir and other woods. The manufacturing facilities of the Redwood Manufacturers Company is second only to their immense stock, and its product finds a ready mar- ket in almost every civilized community in the world where wood prod- ucts are used.
Residents of Pittsburg are justly proud of the modern plant of the Columbia Steel Company. Many improvements have been made since the establishment was founded, about seven years ago, the company having recently made extensions that will increase its capacity by fifty per cent. By its modern and efficient methods of manufacture, the Col- umbia Steel Company has secured the bulk of the steel-casting trade on the Pacific Coast, and by continually improving its plant and keeping up a high order of skill among its employees, of whom. there are five hun- dred, there is no prospect of anything but progress and advancement.
A few years ago almost all steel castings were made in Eastern foundries and shipped out to the coast, thereby entailing much expense and delay to the customers. Now it is possible to obtain quick deliveries and excellent quality at lower prices than was ever before possible. As a consequence the whole Pacific Coast has been benefited, and the in- dustries using this product have been greatly stimulated.
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Again we use a superlative in describing another of Pittsburg's in- terests. The Bowers Rubber Works is the largest factory for the manu- facture of rubber products west of Chicago. Fire hose, belting, packing, automobile tires, and several other products comprise the output of this concern. Its plant is equipped with up-to-date machinery, and the build- ings and grounds cover a considerable acreage. The plant is a model of neatness and is located on the water-front, giving the plant access to both water and rail transportation. A ready market is found, not only in the principal cities of the United States, but in many foreign countries. About 250 men are employed in the work. Bowers Rubber Works is a valuable asset to the county, and Pittsburg in turn is proud to be its home.
The only electro-chemical plant on the Pacific Coast is in operation at Pittsburg. There is no other plant of this kind west of Detroit. The Great Western Electro-Chemical Company is the name of the organiza- tion, which is capitalized at two and a half million dollars. Caustic soda and chloride of lime, commonly known as bleaching powder, will be manufactured at the plant. Caustic soda, or lye, enters largely in the manufacture of soap, and is also an important adjunct in the refining of oil and the preserving of fruit. There are many uses for chloride of lime, but the largest demand for it arises from the fact that it forms the base of a large number of fire extinguishers. Salt and burnt lime are important agencies in the manufacture of these chemical products, and as both are found in large quantities around the bay sec- tion, the selection of Pittsburg as a site for the plant was a fortunate one. As the name, electro-chemical, implies, electricity is used as an aid to the mechanical manufacture of the chemical products. Two hundred or more men are employed in this plant.
Pittsburg has as one of its water-front industries the plant of B. P. Lanteri, shipwright and dredger builder. His plant is situated on the south banks of what is known as New York Slough, about three-quar- ters of a mile east of the city of Pittsburg. The location is particularly well adapted to this plant, inasmuch as it is close to the delta country, where dredgers are extensively operated, and also on account of its shipping facilities, with spur tracks from two transcontinental main lines in the yard, with deep water so that steam schooners and sea-going vessels can discharge lumber and materials on the wharf, making a
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minimum cost for cartage and handling. Here have been built six of the largest clam-shell dredgers in the world, some of them swinging 230- foot booms, which until the present had never been attempted. Although this firm does considerable dredger building and repairing, it also does all kinds of boat and barge building and designing, having designed and built some of the best gasoline towboats in and about the bay regions, and having just completed and launched from its ways the ferryboat "City of Seattle," which is to operate between Martinez and Benicia.
On account of the rare facilities found here for distribution, Pitts- burg is made the base of operations for the largest fish concerns on the coast, and is the center of the fishing industry of the rivers of the State. Fully a thousand men devote their entire time to the catching of fish, and to this class of labor half a million dollars is paid annually. The fish chiefly taken from the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers are salmon, striped bass, shad, and catfish. In order to give some idea of the extent of this industry, it is only necessary to state that during the can- ning season three tons of shad-roe (fish eggs)' are obtained daily by one firm from that one kind of fish. Shad-roe is a new by-product that is being extensively developed and for which there is a growing demand.
While the principal offices of some of our fish concerns are located in San Francisco, the business of packing and distributing the products is carried on at Pittsburg because of the superior advantages found here for shipping. The fishing business is followed largely by Italians, whose large families have supplied much of the labor employed in other in- dustrial lines. The business of fishing is carried on in such a quiet way that the casual observer has no conception of the magnitude of the in- dustry, covering, as it does, shipments to all parts of the world.
Among the large operators of the fishing industry are the American Fish & Oyster Company, and the F. E. Booth Company, the latter em- ploying from two to three hundred men several months in the year in their canning operations, in addition to their packing business.
The Los Medanos Rancho, a tract of land of approximately ten thousand acres, was originally granted by the Mexican Government in 1835 to José Antonio Mesa and José Miguel Garcia, or Mesa, and was finally patented October 8, 1872, by the United States Government to their successors, Jonathan D. Stevenson et al. In 1849 and 1850 the Mesas conveyed the ranch to Stevenson and others, who laid out upon
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it a site for a city, known for a long time as "New York of the Pacific." From this circumstance it derived the name "New York Ranch," by which it is sometimes known. Its true name, "Los Medanos," is derived from the sand hills that sweep down to the river adjoining the eastern boundary of the ranch ; the word "Medanos" means sand-drift, or sand- hill, or what is commonly known as a "sand spit." Stevenson and his associates disposed of the property to one of the pioneer banking con- cerns of San Francisco, namely, Pioche, Bayerque & Co., who after a term of years in turn transferred it to L. L. Robinson, a California pi- oneer railroad builder and mining operator, and he at his death be- queathed the property to his sister, Mrs. Cutter, of San Francisco, from whom the title passed to the present owners, C. A. Hooper & Co.
The tract as a whole is a rich agricultural property, and during early years and up to the ownership of L. L. Robinson was devoted to graz- ing and stock-growing. Robinson during his lifetime divided the prop- erty into farming subdivisions containing from three hundred to six hundred acres and leased them to farmers, some of whom are still on the property, having found it both a pleasant and profitable place to live.
There has grown up on the rancho, on its water-front, two consider- able towns-Antioch, on its eastern boundary, and Pittsburg, about midway. With the rancho's central location at the confluence of the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers, and at a point where the traffic from the interior of the State and country passes to and fro from the cities around San Francisco Bay, very likely it will not be long until its acre- age will pass from agriculture to an industrial manufacturing and dis- tributing center and furnish homes for a large mercantile and industrial population.
Pittsburg has about twelve miles of paved and macadamized streets, well lighted, and every street in the improved area is sewered and ma- cadamized. Contrary to the general rule of the newer towns of the Pa- cific Coast, Pittsburg is compactly built, although in no way congested, thus enabling it to have every street fully improved.
A hotel (The Los Medanos) has just been completed on Cumberland Street between Eighth and Ninth streets, which doubtless marks a new era in the development of the town. The building will probably cost $60,000. It is to be one of the best hotels on the Pacific Coast outside of the larger cities, and will be modern in every respect. Every conve-
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nience necessary is to be had. Every room has hot and cold water, elec- tric lights, telephone, steam heat, and rooms en suite with private baths. The hotel is to be luxuriously furnished throughout.
Within the last two years there have been erected in Pittsburg many brick business blocks, and there are now planned several more. Also within the year there will be under way the building of the new Catholic church, at a cost of from $25,000 to $30,000, the site having already been secured. The Congregational people have also planned a new build- ing, and intend to spend an equal if not greater amount in their im- provement.
The Pittsburg Dispatch, of Pittsburg, California, was financed and launched by A. P. Betterworth, recently postmaster at Elk Grove, and H. C. Jackson, reporter of the Sacramento Union, the first issue being published January 3, 1917. For one week the experiment was tried of publishing a daily, but at the end of that time the owners decided that the field was hardly ready for such a publication, hence the sheet was placed on a semi-weekly basis. The plant of the Pittsburg Dispatch is well equipped, and as soon as the growing business of a growing town justifies the move the publication of the daily will be resumed.
CHAPTER XXX
BAY POINT
BY CHARLES L. TRABERT
IN CONNECTION with his great lumber interests in Oregon and Califor- nia, C. A. Smith during the summer of 1907 began an investigation of the possible sites on San Francisco and adjacent bays for the establish- ing of a much needed manufacturing and distributing plant for his product. Three essentials had to be considered-proximity to railroad lines for shipment of the forest product, deep water for his vessels that brought the raw product from the mills, and proper drying conditions for lumber. After much investigation, the Contra Costa County shore and Suisun Bay was decided upon as most attractive. The present site of Bay Point was then ranch land and tule bog. Smith, with a compan- ion, went over the district afoot, and in crossing the fields now occupied by the town-site was held up at the point of a gun by one of the owners of the property as a trespasser and ordered off the premises. Naturally, he complied with such moral suasion.
However, the attractive site and suitable location for his purpose was settled in his mind, and shortly thereafter he became acquainted with the owners of the property he coveted. On November 26, 1907, a deal was made with the Cunningham heirs and those of A. H. Neeley, con- veying to Smith's interests about fifteen hundred acres and a mile and a half of tide-water frontage, now Bay Point. This land, while original- ly a part of a Spanish grant, had been patented to the antecedents of the Cunninghams and Neeleys by General Grant when President of the United States.
On part of this tract was immediately established the Bay Point plant of the C. A. Smith Lumber Company, and a strip 2658 feet wide on tide- water, extending back to the foothills, was reserved for the town-site, officially designated on the filed plats as "The City of Bay Point." The transcontinental tracks of the Southern Pacific Company and the Atchi- son, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company divide the town-site into
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practically two equal parts. That portion between the railways and the bay was set aside for manufacturing sites, and the portion between the railroads and the foothills of Monte del Diablo was immediately platted as the town proper, the idea being to provide a site for the homes of the employees of the C. A. Smith Lumber Company.
At the time of the purchase the property that later became Bay Point consisted of a post-office, a grain warehouse, a ranch house, a saloon, and a general store. Before long it began to grow, and today it has a population of about one thousand people. The town has a ten-thousand- dollar graded school and a number of excellent stores handling gro- ceries, meats, drugs, hardware, general merchandise, and in fact every- thing necessary in a community of this kind. There are two churches (Congregational and Catholic), with another (Lutheran) about to be built. Here in the shadow of Monte del Diablo, where rail and water meet, are the neat and happy homes of hundreds of contented citizens. The Club House and office building of the C. A. Smith Lumber Com- pany are notable for a city of the size. Streets, curbs, and sidewalks are established and a sewer system is completed.
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