Transcriber's Note:
Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have
been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
The book uses both Phillippi and Phillipi.
An upside-down T symbol is represented as [Symbol: upside-down T].
[Illustration: Harris Newmark]
SIXTY YEARS
IN
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
1853-1913
CONTAINING THE REMINISCENCES OF
HARRIS NEWMARK
EDITED BY
MAURICE H. NEWMARK
MARCO R. NEWMARK
Every generation enjoys the use of a vast hoard bequeathed
to it by antiquity, and transmits that hoard, augmented by
fresh acquisitions, to future ages. In these pursuits, therefore,
the first speculators lie under great disadvantages, and, even
when they fail, are entitled to praise.--MACAULAY.
_WITH 150 ILLUSTRATIONS_
NEW YORK
The Knickerbocker Press
1916
COPYRIGHT, 1916
BY
M. H. AND M. R. NEWMARK
To
THE MEMORY OF
MY WIFE
In Memoriam
At the hour of high twelve on April the fourth, 1916, the sun shone
into a room where lay the temporal abode, for eighty-one years and
more, of the spirit of Harris Newmark. On his face still lingered that
look of peace which betokens a life worthily used and gently
relinquished.
Many were the duties allotted him in his pilgrimage; splendidly did he
accomplish them! Providence permitted him the completion of his final
task--a labor of love--but denied him the privilege of seeing it given
to the community of his adoption.
To him and to her, by whose side he sleeps, may it be both monument
and epitaph.
_Thy will be done!_
M. H. N.
M. R. N.
INTRODUCTION
Several times during his latter years my friend, Charles Dwight
Willard, urged me to write out my recollections of the five or six
decades I had already passed in Los Angeles, expressing his regret
that many pioneers had carried from this world so much that might have
been of interest to both the Angeleño of the present and the future
historian of Southern California; but as I had always led an active
life of business or travel, and had neither fitted myself for any sort
of literary undertaking nor attempted one, I gave scant attention to
the proposal. Mr. Willard's persistency, however, together with the
prospect of coöperation offered me by my sons, finally overcame my
reluctance and I determined to commence the work.
Accordingly in June, 1913, at my Santa Monica home, I began to devote
a few hours each day to a more or less fragmentary enumeration of the
incidents of my boyhood; of my voyage over the great wastes of sea and
land between my ancestral and adopted homes; of the pueblo and its
surroundings that I found on this Western shore; of its people and
their customs; and, finally, of the men and women who, from then until
now, have contributed to the greatness of the Southland, and of the
things they have done or said to entitle their names to be recorded.
This task I finished in the early fall. During its progress I entered
more and more into the distant Past, until Memory conjured before me
many long-forgotten faces and happenings. In the end, I found that I
had jotted down a mass of notes much greater than I had expected.
Thereupon the Editors began their duties, which were to arrange the
materials at hand, to supply names and dates that had escaped me, and
to interview many who had been principals in events and, accordingly,
were presumed to know the details; and much progress was made, to the
enlarging and enrichment of the book. But it was not long before they
found that the work involved an amount of investigation which their
limited time would not permit; and that if carried out on even the
modest plan originally contemplated, some additional assistance would
be required.
Fortunately, just then they met Perry Worden, a post-graduate of
Columbia and a Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Halle,
Germany; a scholar and an author of attainments. His aid, as
investigator and adviser, has been indispensable to the completion of
the work in its present form. Dr. Worden spent many months searching
the newspapers, magazines and books--some of whose titles find special
mention in the text--which deal with Southern California and its past;
and he also interviewed many pioneers, to each of whom I owe
acknowledgment for ready and friendly coöperation. In short, no pains
was spared to confirm and amplify all the facts and narratives.
Whether to arrange the matter chronologically or not, was a problem
impossible of solution to the complete satisfaction of the Editors;
this, as well as other methods, having its advantages and
disadvantages. After mature consideration, the chronological plan was
adopted, and the events of each year have been recorded more or less
in the order of their happening. Whatever confusion, if any, may arise
through this treatment of local history as a chronicle for ready
reference will be easily overcome, it is believed, through the dating
of the chapters and the provision of a comprehensive index; while the
brief chapter-heading, generally a reference to some marked occurrence
in that period, will further assist the reader to get his bearings.
Preference has been given to the first thirty years of my residence in
Los Angeles, both on account of my affectionate remembrance of that
time and because of the peculiarity of memory in advanced life which
enables us to recall remote events when more recent ones are
forgotten; and inasmuch as so little has been handed down from the
days of the adobe, this partiality will probably find favor.
In collecting this mass of data, many discrepancies were met with,
calling for the acceptance or rejection of much long current here as
fact; and in all such cases I selected the version most closely
corresponding with my own recollection, or that seemed to me, in the
light of other facts, to be correct. For this reason, no less than
because in my narrative of hitherto unrecorded events and
personalities it would be miraculous if errors have not found their
way into the story, I shall be grateful if those who discover
inaccuracies will report them to me. In these sixty years, also, I
have met many men and women worthy of recollection, and it is certain
that there are some whose names I have not mentioned; if so, I wish to
disclaim any intentional neglect. Indeed, precisely as I have
introduced the names of a number for whom I have had no personal
liking, but whose services to the community I remember with respect,
so there are doubtless others whose activities, past or present, it
would afford me keen pleasure to note, but whom unhappily I have
overlooked.
With this brief introduction, I give the manuscript to the printer,
not with the ambitious hope of enriching literature in any respect,
but not without confidence that I have provided some new material for
the local historian--perhaps of the future--and that there may be a
goodly number of people sufficiently interested to read and enjoy the
story, yet indulgent enough to overlook the many faults in its
narration.
H. N.
LOS ANGELES,
_December 31, 1915_.
FOREWORD
The Historian no longer writes History by warming over the pancakes of
his predecessors. He must surely know what they have done, and
how--and whereby they succeeded and wherein they failed. But his own
labor is to find the sidelights they did not have. Macaulay saves him
from doing again all the research that Macaulay had to do; but if he
could find a twin Boswell or a second Pepys he would rather have
either than a dozen new Macaulays. Since history is becoming really a
Science, and is no more a closet exploration of half-digested
arm-chair books, we are beginning to learn the overwhelming value of
the contemporary witness. Even a justice's court will not admit
Hearsay Evidence; and Science has been shamed into adopting the same
sane rule. Nowadays it demands the eye-witness. We look less for the
"Authorities" now, and more for the Documents. There are too many
histories already, such as they are--self-satisfied and oracular, but
not one conclusive. Every history is put out of date, almost daily, by
the discovery of some scrap of paper or some clay tablet from under
the ashes of Babylon.
Mere Humans no longer read History--except in school where they have
to, or in study clubs where it is also Required. But a plain personal
narrative is interesting now as it has been for five thousand years.
The world's greatest book is of course compulsory; but what is the
_interesting_ part of it? Why, the stories--Adam and Eve; Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob; Saul and David and Samson and Delilah; Solomon, Job,
and Jesus the Christ! And if anyone thinks Moses worked-in a little
too much of the Family Tree--he doesn't know what biblical archæology
is doing. For it is thanks to these same "petty" details that modern
Science, in its excavations and decipherings, has verified the Bible
and resolved many of its riddles!
Greece had one Herodotus. America had _four_, antedating the year
1600. All these truly great historians built from all the "sources"
they could find. But none of them quite give us the homely, vital
picture of life and feeling that one untaught and untamed soldier,
Bernal Diaz, wrote for us three hundred years ago when he was past
ninety, and toothless--and angry "because the historians didn't get it
straight." The student of Spanish America has often to wish there had
been a Bernal Diaz for every decade and every province from 1492 to
1800. His unstudied gossip about the conquest of Mexico is less
balanced and less authoritative, but far more illuminative, than the
classics of his leader, Cortez--a university man, as well as a great
conqueror.
For more than a quarter of a century it was one of my duties to study
and review (for the _Nation_ and other critical journals) all sorts of
local chronicles all over Spanish and English America--particularly of
frontier times. In this work I have read searchingly many hundreds of
volumes; and have been brought into close contact with our greatest
students and editors of "History-Material," and with their standards.
I have read no other such book with so unflagging interest and content
as these memoirs of Harris Newmark. My personal acquaintance with
Southern California for more than thirty years may color my interest
in names and incidents; but I am appraising this book (whose proofs I
have been permitted to read thoroughly) from the standpoint of the
student of history anywhere. Parkman and Fiske and Coues and Hodge and
Thwaites would join me in the wish that every American community might
have so competent a memorandum of its life and customs and growth, for
its most formative half-century.
This is _not_ a history. It is two other much more necessary
things--for there is no such thing as a real History of Los Angeles,
and cannot be for years. These are the frank, naïve, conversational
memoirs of a man who for more than sixty years could say of Southern
California almost as truly as Æneas of his own time--"All of which I
saw, much of which I was." The keen observation, the dry humor, the
fireside intimacy of the talk, the equity and accuracy of memory and
judgment--all these make it a book which will be much more valued by
future generations of readers and students. We are rather too near to
it now.
But it is more than the "confessions" of one ripe and noble
experience. It is, beyond any reasonable comparison, the most
characteristic and accurate composite picture we have ever had of an
old, brave, human, free, and distinctive life that has changed
incredibly to the veneers of modern society. It is the very mirror of
who and what the people were that laid the real foundations for a
community which is now the wonder of the historian. The very details
which are "not Big enough" for the casual reader (mentally over-tuned
to newspaper headlines and moving pictures) are the vital and enduring
merits of this unpretentious volume. No one else has ever set down so
many of the very things that the final historian of Los Angeles will
search for, a hundred years after all our oratories and "literary
efforts" have been well forgotten. It is a chronicle indispensable for
every public library, every reference library, the shelf of every
individual concerned with the story of California.
It is the _Pepys's Diary_ of Los Angeles and its tributary domain.
CHARLES F. LUMMIS.
PREFACE
The Editors wish to acknowledge the coöperation given, from time to
time, by many whose names, already mentioned in the text, are not
repeated here, and in particular to Drs. Leo Newmark and Charles F.
Lummis, and Joseph P. and Edwin J. Loeb, for having read the proofs.
They also wish to acknowledge Dr. Lummis's self-imposed task of
preparing the generous foreword with which this volume has been
favored. Gratitude is also due to various friends who have so kindly
permitted the use of photographs--not a few of which, never before
published, are rare and difficult to obtain. Just as in the case,
however, of those who deserve mention in these memoirs, but have been
overlooked, so it is feared that there are some who have supplied
information and yet have been forgotten. To all such, as well as to
several librarians and the following, thanks are hereby expressed:
Frederick Baker, Horace Baker, Mrs. J. A. Barrows, Prospero Barrows,
Mrs. R. C. Bartow, Miss Anna McConnell Beckley, Sigmund Beel, Samuel
Behrendt, Arthur S. Bent, Mrs. Dora Bilderback, C. V. Boquist, Mrs.
Mary Bowman, Allan Bromley, Professor Valentin Buehner, Dr. Rose
Bullard, J. O. Burns, Malcolm Campbell, Gabe Carroll, J. W. Carson,
Walter M. Castle, R. B. Chapman, J. H. Clancy, Herman Cohn, Miss
Gertrude Darlow, Ernest Dawson and Dawson's Bookshop, Louise Deen,
George E. Dimitry, Robert Dominguez, Durell Draper, Miss Marjorie
Driscoll, S. D. Dunann, Gottlieb Eckbahl, Richard Egan, Professor
Alfred Ewington, David P. Fleming, James G. Fowler, Miss Effie
Josephine Fussell, A. P. Gibson, J. Sherman Glasscock, Gilbert H.
Grosvenor, Edgar J. Hartung, Chauncey Hayes, George H. Higbee, Joseph
Hopper, Adelbert Hornung, Walter Hotz, F. A. Howe, Dr. Clarence
Edward Ide, Luther Ingersoll, C. W. Jones, Mrs. Eleanor Brodie Jones,
Reverend Henderson Judd, D. P. Kellogg, C. G. Keyes, Willis T.
Knowlton, Bradner Lee, Jr., H. J. Lelande, Isaac Levy, Miss Ella
Housefield Lowe, Mrs. Celeste Manning, Mrs. Morris Meyberg, Miss
Louisa Meyer, William Meying, Charles E. Mitchell, R. C. Neuendorffer,
S. B. Norton, B. H. Prentice, Burr Price, Edward H. Quimby, B. B.
Rich, Edward I. Robinson, W. J. Rouse, Paul P. Royere, Louis
Sainsevain, Ludwig Schiff, R. D. Sepúlveda, Calvin Luther Severy, Miss
Emily R. Smith, Miss Harriet Steele, George F. Strobridge, Father
Eugene Sugranes, Mrs. Carrie Switzer, Walter P. Temple, W. I. Turck,
Judge and Mrs. E. P. Unangst, William M. Van Dyke, August Wackerbarth,
Mrs. J. T. Ward, Mrs. Olive E. Weston, Professor A. C. Wheat and
Charles L. Wilde.
CONTENTS
PAGE
IN MEMORIAM v
INTRODUCTION vii
FOREWORD xi
PREFACE xv
CHAPTER
I.--CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH, 1834-1853 1
II.--WESTWARD, HO! 1853 6
III.--NEW YORK--NICARAGUA--THE GOLDEN GATE, 1853 14
IV.--FIRST ADVENTURES IN LOS ANGELES, 1853 27
V.--LAWYERS AND COURTS, 1853 45
VI.--MERCHANTS AND SHOPS, 1853 60
VII.--IN AND NEAR THE OLD PUEBLO, 1853 80
VIII.--ROUND ABOUT THE PLAZA, 1853-1854 97
IX.--FAMILIAR HOME-SCENES, 1854 112
X.--EARLY SOCIAL LIFE, 1854 128
XI.--THE RUSH FOR GOLD, 1855 146
XII.--THE GREAT HORSE RACE, 1855 157
XIII.--PRINCELY _RANCHO_ DOMAINS, 1855 166
XIV.--ORCHARDS AND VINEYARDS, 1856 189
XV.--SHERIFF BARTON AND THE _BANDIDOS_, 1857 204
XVI.--MARRIAGE--THE BUTTERFIELD STAGES, 1858 220
XVII.--ADMISSION TO CITIZENSHIP, 1859 240
XVIII.--FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH THE TELEGRAPH, 1860 260
XIX.--STEAM-WAGON--ODD CHARACTERS, 1860 274
XX.--THE RUMBLINGS OF WAR, 1861 289
XXI.--HANCOCK--LADY FRANKLIN--THE DELUGE, 1861 299
XXII.--DROUGHTS--THE _ADA HANCOCK_ DISASTER,
1862-1863 310
XXIII.--ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN, 1864-1865 328
XXIV.--H. NEWMARK & COMPANY--CARLISLE-KING DUEL,
1865-1866 342
XXV.--REMOVAL TO NEW YORK, AND RETURN, 1867-1868 359
XXVI.--THE CERRO GORDO MINES, 1869 379
XXVII.--COMING OF THE IRON HORSE, 1869 393
XXVIII.--THE LAST OF THE VIGILANTES, 1870 408
XXIX.--THE CHINESE MASSACRE, 1871 421
XXX.--THE WOOL CRAZE, 1872-1873 437
XXXI.--THE END OF VASQUEZ, 1874 452
XXXII.--THE SANTA ANITA _RANCHO_, 1875 472
XXXIII.--LOS ANGELES & INDEPENDENCE RAILROAD, 1876 485
XXXIV.--THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC, 1876 496
XXXV.--THE REVIVAL OF THE SOUTHLAND, 1877-1880 509
XXXVI.--CENTENARY OF THE CITY--ELECTRIC LIGHT,
1881-1884 525
XXXVII.--REPETTO AND THE LAWYERS, 1885-1887 546
XXXVIII.--THE GREAT BOOM, 1887 564
XXXIX.--PROPOSED STATE DIVISION, 1888-1891 588
XL.--THE FIRST _FIESTAS_, 1892-1897 602
XLI.--THE SOUTHWEST ARCHÆOLOGICAL SOCIETY,
1898-1905 616
XLII.--THE SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE, 1906-1910 633
XLIII.--RETROSPECTION, 1910-1913 641
INDEX 653
ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING
PAGE
HARRIS NEWMARK. IN HIS SEVENTY-NINTH YEAR
Engraved from a photograph _Frontispiece_
FACSIMILE OF A PART OF THE MS 2
REPRODUCTION OF SWEDISH ADVERTISEMENT 3
PHILIPP NEUMARK 10
From a Daguerreotype
ESTHER NEUMARK 10
From a Daguerreotype
J. P. NEWMARK 10
From a Daguerreotype
MR. AND MRS. JOSEPH NEWMARK 10
LOS ANGELES IN THE EARLY FIFTIES 11
From a drawing of the Pacific Railway Expedition
BELLA UNION AS IT APPEARED IN 1858 26
From a lithograph
JOHN GOLLER'S BLACKSMITH SHOP 27
From a lithograph of 1858
HENRY MELLUS 50
From a Daguerreotype
FRANCIS MELLUS 50
From a Daguerreotype
JOHN G. DOWNEY 50
CHARLES L. DUCOMMUN 50
THE PLAZA CHURCH 51
From a photograph, probably taken in the middle
eighties
PIO PICO 68
From an oil portrait
JUAN BANDINI 68
ABEL STEARNS 68
ISAAC WILLIAMS 68
STORE OF FELIPE RHEIM 69
JOHN JONES 102
CAPTAIN F. MORTON 102
CAPTAIN AND MRS. J. S. GARCIA 102
CAPTAIN SALISBURY HALEY 102
_El Palacio_, HOME OF ABEL AND ARCADIA STEARNS 103
From a photograph of the seventies
THE LUGO RANCH-HOUSE, IN THE NINETIES 103
J. P. NEWMARK 112
From a vignette of the sixties
JACOB RICH 112
O. W. CHILDS 112
JOHN O. WHEELER 112
BENJAMIN D. WILSON 113
GEORGE HANSEN 113
DR. OBED MACY 113
SAMUEL C. FOY 113
MYER J. AND HARRIS NEWMARK 128
From a Daguerreotype
GEORGE CARSON 128
JOHN G. NICHOLS 128
DAVID W. ALEXANDER 129
THOMAS E. ROWAN 129
MATTHEW KELLER 129
SAMUEL MEYER 129
LOUIS SAINSEVAIN 154
MANUEL DOMINGUEZ 154
_El Aliso_, THE SAINSEVAIN WINERY 154
From an old lithograph
JACOB ELIAS 155
JOHN T. LANFRANCO 155
J. FRANK BURNS 155
HENRY D. BARROWS 155
MAURICE KREMER 168
SOLOMON LAZARD 168
MELLUS'S, OR BELL'S ROW 168
From a lithograph of 1858
WILLIAM H. WORKMAN AND JOHN KING 169
PRUDENT BEAUDRY 169
JAMES S. MALLARD 169
JOHN BEHN 169
LOUIS ROBIDOUX 174
JULIUS G. WEYSE 174
JOHN BEHN 174
LOUIS BREER 174
WILLIAM J. BRODRICK 175
ISAAC R. DUNKELBERGER 175
FRANK J. CARPENTER 175
AUGUSTUS ULYARD 175
LOS ANGELES IN THE LATE FIFTIES 188
From a contemporary sketch
MYER J. NEWMARK 189
EDWARD J. C. KEWEN 189
DR. JOHN S. GRIFFIN 189
WILLIAM C. WARREN 189
HARRIS NEWMARK, WHEN (ABOUT) THIRTY-FOUR YEARS OLD 224
SARAH NEWMARK, WHEN (ABOUT) TWENTY-FOUR YEARS OF AGE 224
FACSIMILE OF HARRIS AND SARAH NEWMARK'S WEDDING
INVITATION 225
SAN PEDRO STREET, NEAR SECOND, IN THE EARLY SEVENTIES 254
COMMERCIAL STREET, LOOKING EAST FROM MAIN, ABOUT 1870 254
VIEW OF PLAZA, SHOWING THE RESERVOIR 255
OLD LANFRANCO BLOCK 255
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK 290
ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON 290
LOS ANGELES COUNTY IN 1854 291
From a contemporary map
THE MORRIS ADOBE, ONCE FRÉMONT'S HEADQUARTERS 291
EUGENE MEYER 310
JACOB A. MOERENHOUT 310
FRANK LECOUVREUR 310
THOMAS D. MOTT 310
LEONARD J. ROSE 311
H. K. S. O'MELVENY 311
REMI NADEAU 311
JOHN M. GRIFFITH 311
KASPARE COHN 342
M. A. NEWMARK 342
H. NEWMARK & CO.'S STORE, ARCADIA BLOCK, ABOUT 1875,
INCLUDING (LEFT) JOHN JONES'S FORMER PREMISES 343
H. NEWMARK & CO.'S BUILDING, AMESTOY BLOCK, ABOUT
1884 343
DR. TRUMAN H. ROSE 370
ANDREW GLASSELL 370
DR. VINCENT GELCICH 370
CHARLES E. MILES, IN UNIFORM OF 38'S 370
FACSIMILE OF STOCK CERTIFICATE, PIONEER OIL CO. 371
AMERICAN BAKERY, JAKE KUHRTS'S BUILDING, ABOUT 1880 371
LOEBAU MARKET PLACE, NEAR THE HOUSE IN WHICH
HARRIS NEWMARK WAS BORN 384
STREET IN LOEBAU, SHOWING (RIGHT) REMNANT OF ANCIENT
CITY WALL 384
ROBERT M. WIDNEY 385
DR. JOSEPH KURTZ 385
ISAAC N. VAN NUYS 385
ABRAHAM HAAS 385
PHINEAS BANNING, ABOUT 1869 400
HENRI PENELON, IN HIS STUDIO 400
_Carreta_, EARLIEST MODE OF TRANSPORTATION 401
ALAMEDA STREET DEPOT AND TRAIN, LOS ANGELES & SAN
PEDRO RAILROAD 401
HENRY C. G. SCHAEFFER 428
LORENZO LECK 428
HENRY HAMMEL 428
LOUIS MESMER 428
JOHN SCHUMACHER 428
WILLIAM NORDHOLT 428
TURNVEREIN-GERMANIA BUILDING, SPRING STREET 429
VASQUEZ AND HIS CAPTORS 452
(_Top_) D. K. SMITH,
WILLIAM R. ROWLAND,
WALTER E. RODGERS.
(_Middle_) ALBERT JOHNSON,
GREEK GEORGE'S HOME,
G. A. BEERS.
(_Bottom_) EMIL HARRIS,
TIBÚRCIO VASQUEZ,
J. S. BRYANT.
GREEK GEORGE 453
NICOLÁS MARTINEZ 453
BENJAMIN S. EATON 464
HENRY T. HAZARD 464
FORT STREET HOME, HARRIS NEWMARK, SITE OF BLANCHARD
HALL; JOSEPH NEWMARK AT THE DOOR 464
CALLE DE LOS NEGROS (NIGGER ALLEY), ABOUT 1870 465
SECOND STREET, LOOKING EAST FROM HILL STREET, EARLY
SEVENTIES 465
ROUND HOUSE, WITH MAIN STREET ENTRANCE 476
SPRING STREET ENTRANCE TO GARDEN OF PARADISE 476
TEMPLE STREET, LOOKING WEST FROM BROADWAY, ABOUT
1870 477
PICO HOUSE, SOON AFTER COMPLETION 477
WILLIAM PRIDHAM 500
BENJAMIN HAYES 500
ISAAC LANKERSHIM 500
RABBI A. W. EDELMAN 500
FORT STREET, FROM THE CHAPARRAL ON FORT HILL 501
ANTONIO FRANCO AND MARIANA CORONEL 520
From an oil painting in the Coronel Collection
FOURTH STREET, LOOKING WEST FROM MAIN 520
TIMMS LANDING 521
From a print of the late fifties
SANTA CATALINA, IN THE MIDDLE EIGHTIES 521
MAIN STREET LOOKING NORTH FROM SIXTH, PROBABLY IN
THE LATE SEVENTIES 530
HIGH SCHOOL, ON POUND CAKE HILL, ABOUT 1873 530
TEMPLE COURT HOUSE, AFTER ABANDONMENT BY THE
COUNTY 531
FIRST STREET, LOOKING EAST FROM HILL 531
SPRING STREET, LOOKING NORTH FROM FIRST, ABOUT 1885 566
CABLE CAR, RUNNING NORTH ON BROADWAY (PREVIOUSLY
FORT STREET), NEAR SECOND 567
EARLY ELECTRIC CAR, WITH CONDUCTOR JAMES GALLAGHER
(STILL IN SERVICE) 567
GEORGE W. BURTON 594
BEN C. TRUMAN 594
CHARLES F. LUMMIS 594
CHARLES DWIGHT WILLARD 594
GRAND AVENUE RESIDENCE, HARRIS NEWMARK, 1889 595
ISAIAS W. HELLMAN 616
HERMAN W. HELLMAN 616
CAMERON E. THOM 616
YGNÁCIO SEPÚLVEDA 616
FIRST SANTA FÉ LOCOMOTIVE TO ENTER LOS ANGELES 617
MAIN STREET, LOOKING NORTH, SHOWING FIRST FEDERAL
BUILDING, MIDDLE NINETIES 617
HARRIS AND SARAH NEWMARK, AT TIME OF GOLDEN WEDDING 636
SUMMER HOME OF HARRIS NEWMARK, SANTA MONICA 637
HARRIS NEWMARK, AT THE DEDICATION OF M. A. NEWMARK
& CO.'S ESTABLISHMENT, 1912 644
J. P. NEWMARK, ABOUT 1890 644
HARRIS NEWMARK BREAKING GROUND FOR THE JEWISH
ORPHANS' HOME, NOVEMBER 28TH, 1911 645
SIXTY YEARS
IN
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Sixty Years in Southern California
CHAPTER I
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH
1834-1853
I was born in Loebau, West Prussia, on the 5th of July, 1834, the son
of Philipp and Esther, _née_ Meyer, Neumark; and I have reason to
believe that I was not a very welcome guest. My parents, who were
poor, already had five children, and the prospects of properly
supporting the sixth child were not bright. As I had put in an
appearance, however, and there was no alternative, I was admitted with
good grace into the family circle and, being the baby, soon became the
pet.
My father was born in the ancient town of Neumark; and in his youth he
was apprenticed to a dealer in boots and shoes in a Russian village
through which Napoleon Bonaparte marched on his way to Moscow. The
conqueror sent to the shop for a pair of fur boots, and I have often
heard my father tell, with modest satisfaction, how, shortly before he
visited the great fair at Nijni Novgorod, he was selected to deliver
them; how more than one ambitious and inquisitive friend tried to
purchase the privilege of approaching the great man, and what were his
impressions of the warrior. When ushered into the august presence, he
found Bonaparte in one of his characteristic postures, standing
erect, in a meditative mood, braced against the wall, with one hand to
his forehead and the other behind his back, apparently absorbed in
deep and anxious thought.
When I was but three weeks old, my father's business affairs called
him away from home, and compelled the sacrifice of a more or less
continued absence of eight and one half years. During this period my
mother's health was very poor. Unfortunately, also, my father was too
liberal and extravagantly-inclined for his narrow circumstances; and
not being equipped to meet the conditions of the district in which we
lived and our economical necessities, we were continually, so to
speak, in financial hot water. While he was absent, my father traveled
in Sweden and Denmark, remitting regularly to his family as much as
his means would permit, yet earning for them but a precarious living.
In 1842 he again joined his family in Loebau, making visits to Sweden
and Denmark during the summer seasons from 1843 until the middle
fifties and spending the long winters at home. Loebau was then, as
now, of little commercial importance, and until 1849, when I was
fifteen years of age and had my first introduction to the world, my
life was very commonplace and marked by little worthy of special
record, unless it was the commotion centering in the cobble-paved
market-place, as a result of the Revolution of 1848.
With the winter of 1837 had come a change in my father's plans and
enterprises. Undergoing unusually severe weather in Scandinavia, he
listened to the lure of the New World and embarked for New York,
arriving there in the very hot summer of 1838. The contrast in
climatic conditions proved most disastrous; for, although life in the
new Republic seemed both pleasing and acceptable to one of his
temperament and liberal views, illness finally compelled him to bid
America adieu.
[Illustration: Facsimile of a Part of the MS.]
[Illustration: "Note.--The 'F' in the above announcement is the
abbreviation for Fabian, one of Philipp Neumark's given names, at
one time used in business, but seldom employed in social
correspondence, and finally abandoned altogether."]
My father was engaged in the making of ink and blacking, neither of
which commodities was, at that time, in such universal demand as it is
now; and my brother, Joseph Philipp, later known as J. P. Newmark,
having some time before left Sweden, where he had been assisting
him, for England, it was agreed, in 1849, after a family council, that
I was old enough to accompany my father on his business trips,
gradually become acquainted with his affairs, and thus prepare to
succeed him. Accordingly, in April of that year, I left the family
hearth, endeared to me, unpretentious though it was, and wandered with
my father out into the world. Open confession, it is said, is good for
the soul; hence I must admit that the prospect of making such a trip
attracted me, notwithstanding the tender associations of home; and the
sorrow of parting from my mother was rather evenly balanced, in my
youthful mind, by the pleasurable anticipation of visiting new and
strange lands.
Any attempt to compare methods of travel in 1849, even in the
countries I then traversed, with those now in vogue, would be somewhat
ridiculous. Country roads were generally poor--in fact, very bad; and
vehicles were worse, so that the entire first day's run brought us
only to Lessen, a small village but twelve miles from home! Here we
spent the night, because of the lack of better accommodations, in
blankets, on the floor of the wayside inn; and this experience was
such a disappointment, failing to realize, as it did, my youthful
anticipations, that I was desperately homesick and ready, at the first
opportunity, to return to my sorrowing mother. The Fates, however,
were against any such change in our plans; and the next morning we
proceeded on our way, arriving that evening at the much larger town of
Bromberg. Here, for the first time, the roads and other conditions
were better, and my spirits revived.
Next day we left for Stettin, where we took passage for Ystad, a small
seaport in southern Sweden. Now our real troubles began; part of the
trip was arduous, and the low state of our finances permitted us
nothing better than exposed deck-quarters. This was particularly
trying, since the sea was rough, the weather tempestuous, and I both
seasick and longing for home; moreover, on arriving at Ystad, after a
voyage of twelve hours or more, the Health Officer came on board our
boat and notified us that, as cholera was epidemic in Prussia, we
were prohibited from landing! This filled me with mortal fear lest we
should be returned to Stettin under the same miserable conditions
through which we had just passed; but this state of mind had its
compensating influence, for my tears at the discouraging announcement
worked upon the charity of the uniformed officials, and, in a short
time, to my inexpressible delight, we were permitted to land. With a
natural alertness to observe anything new in my experience, I shall
never forget my first impressions of the ocean. There seemed no limit
to the expanse of stormy waters over which we were traveling; and this
fact alone added a touch of solemnity to my first venture from home.
From Ystad we proceeded to Copenhagen, where my father had intimate
friends, especially in the Lachmann, Eichel and Ruben families, to
whose splendid hospitality and unvarying kindness, displayed whenever
I visited their neighborhood, I wish to testify. We remained at
Copenhagen a couple of months, and then proceeded to Gothenburg. It
was not at this time my father's intention to burden me with serious
responsibility; and, having in mind my age, he gave me but little of
the work to do, while he never failed to afford me, when he could, an
hour of recreation or pleasure. The trip as a whole, therefore, was
rather an educational experiment.
In the fall of 1849, we returned to Loebau for the winter. From this
time until 1851 we made two trips together, very similar to the one
already described; and in 1851, when I was seventeen years of age, I
commenced helping in real earnest. By degrees, I was taught the
process of manufacturing; and when at intervals a stock had been
prepared, I made short trips to dispose of it. The blacking was a
paste, put up in small wooden boxes, to be applied with a brush, such
a thing as waterproof blacking then not being thought of, at least by
us. During the summer of 1851, business carried me to Haparanda, about
the most northerly port in Sweden; and from there I took passage,
stopping at Luleå, Piteå, Umeå, Hernösand, Sundsvall, Söderhamn and
Gefle, all small places along the route. I transacted no business,
however, on the trip up the coast because it was my intention to
return by land, when I should have more time for trade; accordingly,
on my way back to Stockholm, I revisited all of these points and
succeeded beyond my expectations.
On my trip north, I sailed over the Gulf of Bothnia which, the reader
will recollect, separates Sweden from Finland, a province most
unhappily under Russia's bigoted, despotic sway; and while at
Haparanda, I was seized with a desire to visit Torneå, in Finland. I
was well aware that if I attempted to do so by the regular routes on
land, it would be necessary to pass the Russian customhouse, where
officers would be sure to examine my passport; and knowing, as the
whole liberal world now more than ever knows, that a person of Jewish
faith finds the merest sally beyond the Russian border beset with
unreasonable obstacles, I decided to walk across the wide marsh in the
northern part of the Gulf, and thus circumvent these exponents of
intolerance. Besides, I was curious to learn whether, in such a
benighted country, blacking and ink were used at all. I set out,
therefore, through the great moist waste, making my way without much
difficulty, and in due time arrived at Torneå, when I proceeded
immediately to the first store in the neighborhood; but there I was
destined to experience a rude, unexpected setback. An old man,
evidently the proprietor, met me and straightway asked, "Are you a
Jew?" and seeing, or imagining that I saw, a delay (perhaps not
altogether temporary!) in a Russian jail, I withdrew from the store
without ceremony, and returned to the place whence I had come.
Notwithstanding this adventure, I reached Stockholm in due season, the
trip back consuming about three weeks; and during part of that period
I subsisted almost entirely on salmon, bear's meat, milk, and
_knäckebröd_, the last a bread usually made of rye flour in which the
bran had been preserved. All in all, I was well pleased with this
maiden-trip; and as it was then September, I returned to Loebau to
spend one more winter at home.