given to the river first named Porzinucula discovered by Portolá's
expedition of 1769. This discovery, as recorded by Padre Crespi, was made
upon the anniversary of the feast of our Lady of Angels. The Pueblo de
Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles was founded in 1781. Till then there
had been in the new country only missions and presidios, the military
stations; but the settlement of colonies in pueblos was part of the
original Spanish plan, and the necessity of obtaining additional supplies
for the use of the presidios gave the needed stimulus.
[Illustration THE PUEBLO OF LOS ANGELES. EARLY SPANISH PLAN. SUERTES FROM C
TO E.]
Under instructions issued by Governor Néve a site for a dam was first
selected, water being then as now a primary essential. The pueblo was
placed on high land near these facilities for irrigation, a plaza of two
hundred by three hundred varas being laid out, with corners facing the
cardinal points, so that three streets should run perpendicularly from each
of its four sides, that no street might be swept by the winds. Yet
tradition saith that Los Angeles winds have not kept always to the cardinal
points. Solares, or house-lots, of twenty by forty varas were given to
settlers in numbers equal to the available suertes, field-lots. Two suertes
of dry, and two of irrigable land, were given to each family. One fourth of
the suertes were left vacant, as realangas or government lands, while a
number, called propios, were reserved for municipal expenses. Colonists
received ten dollars a month each, for two years; also regular rations,
seeds, clothing, and live stock. Twelve men with their families, including
eleven women and twenty-six children, were the colonizers of Los Angeles.
They were principally Spanish soldiers. On September 14, 1781, the plaza of
the new town was solemnly dedicated by the mission priests, who came in
procession from San Gabriel, attended by Indian neophytes and a guard of
soldiers. To the twelve settlers, twelve building-lots were given. These
were laid out on three sides of the plaza, while the fourth was reserved
for a church and public buildings. In 1786 the Governor sent José Arguello
to formally renew the leases of houses, lots, and branding-irons. At this
time not one settler could sign his name. A small church was erected in
1784. It was but twenty-three by fifty feet in size, and was served by the
padres of San Gabriel. One of these, Padre Oumetz, was for thirty years a
companion of Serra in his missionary labors. He died at San Gabriel in
1811. It was at least twenty years before Los Angeles ceased to be
dependent on San Gabriel and to develop a small trade of its own. Outside
the pueblo provisional grants of ranchos were soon made. The largest and
best of all of these was known later as Los Nietos, and was given to the
heirs of Manuel Nito by Figueroa, who divided it into tracts in 1834. The
Dominguez rancho, given by Fages to Don José Dominguez, was regranted by
Sola in 1822 to Sergeant Christobal Dominguez. La Zanja, the home of the
Verdugos, the Encino and the Simi ranchos, Las Virgines, El Conejo Santa
Ana, the Bartolo Tapia and Antonio Maria ranchos, were the homes of such
families as the Picos and Ortegas, whose wealth and power contributed to
the future glory of the pueblo near which they lived, while the Félix ranch
was actually within the pueblo bounds.
[Illustration DON PIO PICO, THE LAST MEXICAN GOVERNOR.]
Settled largely by soldiers, Los Angeles came under military government and
was slow to develop self-governing local principles. It was ruled by
commissionados, of whom Félix was the first, and by alcaldes. But local
jurisdiction was limited, and cases went beyond the towns to be decided by
military garrisons a hundred miles away. By 1810 the population was 365 and
the crops in the fertile, well-watered plain amazingly large. By 1820 the
ninety-one pobladores now occupying the town site were able to supply much
produce to the presidios, while 56,600 vines were flourishing in the
vineyards about San Gabriel.
In 1814 Padre Gil Taboada laid the corner-stone of a new church, but the
site was changed and there was difficulty in raising the necessary funds;
so the building was not completed until 1822. The builders were Indian
neophytes, who were paid at the rate of one real (12-1/2 cts.) a day. The
citizens contributed five hundred cattle, and the missions subscribed seven
barrels of brandy, worth $575, wine, cattle, and mules. A new government
building was added, and both this and the church were surrounded by houses
of the aristocracy. Ignacio Coronel was one who at this time petitioned for
a house-lot near the "new" church. The first resident priest, Fray Geronimo
Boscana, took possession of his parish house in a town of six hundred
souls. The church was enlarged in 1841, and reroofed in 1861. Education in
Los Angeles began with a village school taught by Maxima Piña, who began
his labors in 1790, receiving a salary of $140 a year. Coronel was a later
teacher.
[Illustration DON ANTONIO F. CORONEL, WITH SPANISH CANNON BROUGHT TO SAN
DIEGO BY SERRA IN 1769.]
In 1822 California became a province of the Mexican Empire, the military
office was abolished, the alcaldes were retained, a secretary and treasurer
were added, and an elective body, the Ayuntamiento, was established. Thus
the government of Los Angeles went on about as it had gone under the rule
of Spain. The Ayuntamiento was elected annually until 1839, and proved a
most versatile body, constantly changing its political attitudes during the
controversies of later years.
The mission fathers made little objection to this change of government, but
when, in 1824, Mexico became a republic and Alta California its territory,
they opposed themselves to the ruling powers. From this time on the Mexican
Government pressed its plans of secularization until, in 1834, the ruin of
the missions was complete, and that of the gentle Indians, whose rights
they had hitherto guarded, was begun.
Durant Cilly, a visitor to Los Angeles in 1827, found a "city of gardens,"
and in 1830, a prosperous year of large crops, there were one thousand
inhabitants who, by vessels landing at the port of San Pedro, engaged in a
large trade in hides and tallow.
[Illustration THE OLD PLAZA CHURCH, LOS ANGELES.]
In 1818 the first American arrived in Los Angeles. He was followed by a
succession of trappers and hunters. There was Captain Paty who, with a
party of Kentucky trappers, visited the town and was baptized into the
Catholic faith at San Diego, Don Pico acting as sponsor. Pryor's party
settled in the pueblo, and built houses and planted vineyards. Next came
sailors of the brig _Danube_, which went ashore off San Pedro on Christmas
Eve, 1828. These were all hospitably welcomed in Los Angeles. Samuel
Prentice of Connecticut came, and John Gronigen, the first German settler,
planted his vineyard on the ground afterwards occupied by the Domingo
block. A trade with Santa Fé sprang up, and Wolfskill, who came with a
party of trappers in 1830, brought Mojave blankets, exchanging them for
mules. In 1832-33 more Americans came from New Mexico. There were
Paulding, Carpenter and Chard, Moses Carson, and later Benjamin Hayes, who
was for eleven years district judge of Los Angeles, and, after 1847, more
trappers and many sailors, who were willing to remain and plough land. Last
of all came the American merchant, farmer, and speculator. By 1836, there
were in Los Angeles forty-six foreigners, of whom twenty-one were
Americans; also 553 Indians, the remaining 2228 inhabitants of the district
being Mexicans and Spaniards, the latter of pure Castilian blood, with a
generous and wise pride in a high descent, the aristocrats of the coast.
Slight attempts at ship-building were made at San Pedro in 1831, Padre
Sanchez of San Gabriel aiding Wolfskill, Pryor, Prentice, Fount, and
Loughlin to build a schooner. In 1833, when Antonio Osio had charge of the
port trade, Los Angeles shipped one hundred thousand hides and twenty-five
thousand centals of tallow, but the trade slackened after the
secularization in 1834. The cattle of San Gabriel were all slaughtered, and
by 1840 the mission live stock had disappeared. Padre Estenéga in 1845 gave
up the mission estates to the Government.
A strenuous and important period in the history of the town followed. From
1831 to 1840 the Angelenos held themselves largely responsible for the
salvation of California, as they understood it; and Los Angeles became the
centre of political agitation. The South was divided against the North, and
often against itself, and many typical California battles, terrific in
bluster and intent, but bloodless in reality, occurred near the old pueblo.
It was during the banishment of José Carrillo, with whom Vincente Sanchez,
alcalde of Los Angeles, had quarrelled, that the trouble with Victoria,
the Mexican Governor, came. Sanchez had been deposed by the Ayuntamiento,
but was reinstated as alcalde by Victoria, who at the same time ordered the
imprisonment of eight prominent citizens. An insurgent army defeated
Victoria in a fight near Los Angeles, and the Governor, deserted by his
army, surrendered to Echeandia December 4, 1831, and was allowed to depart
the country. Sanchez was put in irons. One hundred citizens took part in
this battle.
Los Angeles was made not only a city but the capital in 1835, and soon
became the storm-centre of the country. There may have been lack of zeal in
providing necessary public buildings for the Government, but there was none
at all in furnishing abundantly that quality of fiery zeal essential to
Mexican revolutions. Governor Carrillo made the town his residence in 1838.
Alvarado succeeded him when the plots and counterplots of the disputacions
had sent Carrillo to the North.
[Illustration A TYPICAL COTTAGE]
José Figueroa made an able governor, but he died in 1835, and a period of
conflict, during which Los Angeles, as the capital of the South, was
arrayed against the North, followed. Alvarado, who had declared California
a sovereign state, entered the town in 1837 and subdued the Mexican
sympathizers. Two years later Alvarado divided Alta California into two
districts, making Los Angeles the capital of the South, with Santiago
Arguello as prefect.
Great efforts were at this time made to beautify the city, and there were
gay scenes in these days in the old pueblo. The owners of the great ranches
entertained largely, visiting from house to house, dressing gayly, and
engaging in all sorts of equestrian sports. The men lived in their saddles;
the women were the gayest and sweetest of hostesses, while they were yet
domestic, and brought up large families easily in the free, open-air life
which the conditions of fine climate and rich soil made possible. When
Micheltorena in 1842 made his capital in Los Angeles, the gayeties reached
their height; he was received with enthusiasm by the Ayuntamiento; there
were speeches, salutes, and illuminations; balls and sports alternated with
juntas and revolutions. Yet Los Angeles was glad to be rid of Micheltorena
when he removed to Monterey, and its citizens were foremost in a revolt
against him in 1845, and fought him without the city in a battle where
there was much cannonading and no bloodshed. Pio Pico was head of the
Commission which met in Los Angeles and banished Micheltorena.
The city remained the capital of the department of the South, and Pio Pico
was Governor while José Castro acted as General. Castro again went to the
North and soon joined Carrillo against Pico in a new quarrel of North and
South.
It was in 1846, when California was rent with the controversy between
Castro, representing the military, and Pico, the civil power, and the March
Assembly was in session at Los Angeles, that the approach of the forces of
the United States, under Stockton and Frémont, forced the contending
commanders to unite at Los Angeles in opposition to a common foe.
Abel Stearns, the confidential agent of the United States in the South,
owned a warehouse in San Pedro. John Forster was made, in 1843, captain of
the port; in 1845 Commodore Jones landed here to make his apologies to
Micheltorena for his premature raising of the Stars and Stripes at
Monterey. Here Micheltorena embarked for exile; and here, in 1846,
Commodore Stockton disembarked with his sailors for the capture of Los
Angeles, having already raised the American flag at Monterey. Refusing all
the attempts at conciliation offered by Pico and Castro, Stockton united
his forces with those of the California battalion under Frémont, who had
landed at San Diego, entered Los Angeles, and raised the American flag at 4
P.M. of August 13, 1846.
Pico and Castro had left the city to escape the dishonor of surrender, and
the frightened inhabitants had fled to the neighboring ranchos, but
returned to their homes before night, attracted by the irresistible strains
of a brass band, and assured that they would be left unharmed.
[Illustration JOHN C. FRÉMONT.]
Stockton ordered the election of new alcaldes, and appointed Frémont
military commander of the district. When both commanders returned to the
North, Gillespie, with a garrison of fifty men, was left in charge of Los
Angeles. He seems to have interfered with the amusements of the people, and
to have made himself needlessly unpopular. A revolt was organized, and
Flores, one of Castro's generals, appeared, with three hundred men at his
back, and summoned the garrison to surrender. This Gillespie did, after
bravely holding Fort Hill for a time. The Americans took ship from San
Pedro on October 4th.
The reconquest of Los Angeles took place on January 18th. General Kearny,
with Kit Carson as guide, had succeeded in joining Stockton at San Diego,
and the united forces, after a two-hours' engagement at San Gabriel and
another brief skirmish without the city, entered Los Angeles, while the
leaders of the revolt fled to Cahuenga, and surrendered to Frémont, who
made generous terms of capitulation with Andres Pico, Flores, and Manuel.
This clemency endeared him to the Californians. It became his boast that he
could ride unharmed alone from one end of the conquered country to the
other. Stockton made him Governor of Los Angeles while the controversy
between Kearny and Stockton, as to which was the chief authority in the
conduct of affairs in the new country, was in progress. Frémont chose to
obey Stockton, with whom he had worked in unison during the Northern
conquests and before the arrival of Kearny. Kearny was technically in the
right in demanding the submission of Frémont, as the court-martial of the
latter (in Washington, at a later day) made evident; but under the
circumstances of the quarrel of the two leaders at Los Angeles, Fremont's
allegiance to Stockton seems to have been his only manly course.
This was an era in which Los Angeles grew from an easy-going Spanish pueblo
into a progressive American city. Nowhere have Americans stood more
completely in the position of conquerors in a new land. Called upon to
improvise hastily a government for a large body of strangers, these
citizens showed, together with carelessness and over-hastiness--and an
indifference to the rights of strangers, both Indians and Spaniards, of
which we cannot be proud--some of our best national traits. From the first,
the pioneers were courageous and teachable, and succeeded, after many
mistakes, in building up a permanent, well-organized, and progressive
municipality. General Frémont was undoubtedly most popular among the
Spanish people. His youth enabled him to enter in a large degree into
their sports; his clemency in pardoning Flores and the other generals of
the rebellion won their applause.
It was from his gubernatorial residence, the old two-story adobe at the
corner of Aliso and Los Angeles Streets, that Frémont set forth with Jesus
Pico and Jacob Dodson for his famous mustang ride to Monterey. The feat,
with its object--to defend his position as Governor against Kearny--was
such as to appeal to the imagination of the people of Los Angeles, both
Mexican rancheros and American trappers and sailors. Over desert and
mountain the three riders flew, leaving on the morning of March 22d and
reaching Monterey, five hundred miles away, on the afternoon of the fourth
day. The return was accomplished with equal speed, so that the trip of one
thousand miles was made in a little over eight days. Frémont did great
service in the Senate of the United States, where he pleaded for the land
rights of Indian and Spanish residents, and in later years, when his
influence aided in the exclusion of slavery from the new State of
California. The town council was re-established in 1847, Don José Salazar
and Don Enrique Abila being alcaldes; but in 1848 Governor Mason dissolved
the council and installed Stephen G. Foster as alcalde. A semi-military
rule was kept up under Colonel Stevenson until May, 1849, when a new
ayuntamiento was established.
The cattle trade was at its best from 1850 to 1860, when in one year one
hundred thousand hides at $15 apiece were shipped from San Pedro, but the
business was injured by the drouth of 1863 and 1864. The town grew slowly,
increasing in orchards and vineyards, its ranchos--many new ones having
been granted by Pico in 1846--sheltered in the bend of the Los Angeles
River, which, by ancient decree, is, from the mountains down, the property
of the city. In 1851 Los Angeles grapes brought in San Francisco 20 cts. a
pound; at the mines, $1. The city escaped the excitement of the gold fever,
although the yellow metal was first discovered near Los Angeles in 1835.
Among the noted Spanish families at the time of the conquest were the
Lugos, the Sepulvedas, the Bandinis, the Estudillos, the Oliveros, the
Picos, and the Coronels. Prominent among the pioneers of old Los Angeles
were the Workmans, Temples, and Wolfskills, David W. Alexander, Colonel
Couts, and Governor Downey, Judge J.R. Scott and Benjamin D. Wilson, Robert
S. Baker and Hugo Reid. Hon. H.C. Foster, one of the early mayors of Los
Angeles, became a resident of the city in 1847. Governor Pio Pico, who had
fled at the approach of Stockton to save the "honor" of Mexico, returned
and became a conspicuous private citizen. He lived to a great age, duly
performing his duty as a registered voter.
[Illustration OLD ADOBE. FRÉMONT'S HEADQUARTERS.]
It was Don Antonio Coronel, dead but a decade, who most picturesquely and
honorably represented to the new Los Angeles the old régime. He was of
"courtly presence, ripe experience, high integrity, and great personal
fascination," and was to his latest days "a quenchless patriot,
white-haired, clear-eyed, and supple," the life of any circle he might be
persuaded to adorn. His father, Don Ignacio Coronel, came to the town with
the Hijar Colony. He was a man of note and opened in 1839 a school--much
needed, if the fact be true that there were then in the pueblo but
fifty-four men who could read and write. Antonio was in 1843 Visitador del
Sud under the Mexican, and in 1853 Mayor of Los Angeles under the American,
Government. He was a warm friend of Helen Hunt Jackson, who thoroughly
identified herself with the interests of the older peoples of Los Angeles
and its environs.
[Illustration FIRST STAGE IN THE ASCENT OF MT. LOWE, CONNECTING WITH
ELECTRIC ROAD ON ECHO MOUNTAIN.]
Up to 1852 the houses in Los Angeles were of adobe,--the sun-baked brick of
the country,--and these were comfortable indeed, cool in summer and warm in
winter. It was in one of these ample residences--that of Colonel J.G.
Nichols--that the Rev. J.W. Brier, of the M. E. Church, held the first
regular Protestant service, and in another that the Rev. Dr. Wicks, a
Presbyterian, opened the first English-speaking school. These events were
in 1850, so that church and school were ready to receive the first American
child (Gregg Nichols, who was born in April, 1851).
The corner of Third and Main Streets blossomed into brick in 1852, in the
new, proud, one-story building, serving, in 1859, as the home of Captain
Winfield S. Hancock, who was always exceedingly popular in Los Angeles. He
revisited the city a few years before his death, and received an
enthusiastic ovation.
In 1849 San Pedro had the first steamer, the old _Gold Hunter_, and by 1859
the _Senator_ made three monthly trips. There was now a stage line to San
Diego, and overland stages left for the East three times a week. Frequent
freight trains passed between the city and Salt Lake, but it was not until
the coming of the several railroads that Los Angeles attained its
phenomenal growth and became the great city of the Southwest. Set richly
between the sparkling waves of the Pacific and the jasper heights of the
Sierra Madre Mountains, Los Angeles now rests in its fertile plains, a
radiating jewel, its suburbs climbing the bases of its hills, its roads
ascending cañons, its sparkling beaches curving sharply inward from the
sea. Its clustered cottages are surrounded with trees and flowers, which
bloom throughout the year in inconceivable profusion. Its streets are lined
with graceful pepper and eucalyptus trees, its palatial homes are set amid
tropic foliage, its hills are crowned with public institutions. The
southern portion of the city is level, but on the north and south are
hills. Within the city limits, at a level of three hundred feet above the
sea, may be found great variety of location, while seven public parks, soon
to be united by boulevards, add to the beauty of the natural scenery. No
wonder that in twenty years the population has grown from 11,000 to
103,000--increased during the winter months by thousands of tourists, who
are brought easily to the gates of this city of the sunset land. Its daring
trolleys mount the great hills from rose garden to snowy height, its
railroads, entering from east and north, bear the charmed traveller through
sunny ranches of olive and walnut tree, through great vineyards and orange
orchards; and to ships entering the harbor at San Pedro are revealed the
beauties of flower-swept hills, which in their season flaunt their fields
of yellow poppy toward the sea.
The saddest event in the history of modern Los Angeles was the land boom,
which, after first enriching and then ruining many inhabitants, collapsed
in 1889, leaving the town prostrate. The rise in values was so rapid that a
corner lot costing in 1851 thirty dollars, and worth in 1860 $300 a front
foot, increased by 1870 to $500 and by 1880 to $1,000 a front foot. In 1889
its sale was pushed to $2,500. Other lots worth in 1883 $20, brought in
1889 $800 a front foot. Lands outside the town, worth up to 1868 $1 an
acre, brought, in 1887, $1,000.
[Illustration A MODERN RESIDENCE.]
The effects of this over-expansion on the young, vigorous, richly dowered
community were, however, but temporary; the city of the Angels arose from
temporary defeat to enter at once upon an era of growth and prosperity
unexampled in the history of cities, and all but magic in its extent.
A dozen lines of railroad centre in the city, whose trade extends from
Fresno on the north to the easternmost limits of Arizona. Eighteen years
ago the city adopted a successful scheme of electric lighting, and its
trolley system is one of the best in the United States. For the last decade
the building trades have been rapidly growing. Building permits to the
value of $23,000,000 have been issued, and in 1900 alone $2,700,000 was
invested in new buildings.
The city has 200 miles of paved streets, 330 miles of sidewalks, and 160
miles of sewers; but its complete and perfect system of irrigation is one
of its greatest beauties. The "Zanjero" has from its earliest years been an
important municipal functionary, and the flowing of well-kept channels of
fine water, in sparkling zanjos along the sides of the principal streets,
adds to the beauty of roads and grounds, while through a system of new and
beautiful parks the visitor can obtain some of the finest views in the
world by simply driving about the city.
[Illustration STATE NORMAL SCHOOL.]