FIRST ADVENTURES IN LOS ANGELES
1853
Once fairly well settled here, I began to clerk for my brother, who in
1852 had bought out a merchant named Howard. For this service I
received my lodging, the cost of my board, and thirty dollars each
month. The charges for board at the Bella Union--then enjoying a
certain prestige, through having been the official residence of Pio
Pico when Stockton took the city--were too heavy, and arrangements
were made with a Frenchman named John La Rue, who had a restaurant on
the east side of Los Angeles Street, about two hundred feet south of
Bell's Row. I paid him nine dollars a week for three more or less
hearty meals a day, not including eggs, unless I provided them; in
this case he agreed to prepare them for me. Eggs were by no means
scarce; but steaks and mutton and pork chops were the popular choice,
and potatoes and vegetables a customary accompaniment.
This La Rue, or Leroux, as he was sometimes called, was an interesting
personality with an interesting history. Born in France, he sailed for
the United States about the time of the discovery of gold in
California, and made his way to San Francisco and the mines, where
luck encouraged him to venture farther and migrate to Mazatlán,
Mexico. While prospecting there, however, he was twice set upon and
robbed; and barely escaping with his life, he once more turned
northward, this time stopping at San Pedro and Los Angeles. Here,
meeting Miss Bridget Johnson, a native of Ireland, who had just come
from New York by way of San Diego, La Rue married her, notwithstanding
their inability to speak each other's language, and then opened a
restaurant, which he continued to conduct until 1858 when he died, as
the result of exposure at a fire on Main Street. Although La Rue was
in no sense an eminent citizen, it is certain that he was esteemed and
mourned. Prior to his death, he had bought thirty or thirty-five acres
of land, on which he planted a vineyard and an orange-orchard; and
these his wife inherited. In 1862, Madame La Rue married John Wilson,
also a native of Ireland, who had come to Los Angeles during the year
that the _restaurateur_ died. He was a blacksmith and worked for John
Goller, continuing in business for over twenty years, and adding
greatly, by industry and wise management, to the dowry brought him by
the thrifty widow.
I distinctly recall La Rue's restaurant, and quite as clearly do I
remember one or two humorous experiences there. Nothing in Los
Angeles, perhaps, has ever been cruder than this popular eating-place.
The room, which faced the street, had a mud-floor and led to the
kitchen through a narrow opening. Half a dozen cheap wooden tables,
each provided with two chairs, stood against the walls. The
tablecloths were generally dirty, and the knives and forks, as well as
the furniture, were of the homeliest kind. The food made up in
portions what it lacked in quality, and the diner rarely had occasion
to leave the place hungry. What went most against my grain was the
slovenliness of the proprietor himself. Flies were very thick in the
summer months; and one day I found a big fellow splurging in my bowl
of soup. This did not, however, faze John La Rue. Seeing the
struggling insect, he calmly dipped his coffee-colored fingers into
the hot liquid and, quite as serenely, drew out the fly; and although
one could not then be as fastidious as nowadays, I nevertheless found
it impossible to eat the soup.
On another occasion, however, mine host's equanimity was disturbed. I
had given him two eggs one morning, to prepare for me, when Councilman
A. Jacobi, a merchant and also a customer of La Rue's, came in for
breakfast, bringing one more egg than mine. Presently my meal,
unusually generous, was served, and without loss of time I disposed of
it and was about to leave; when just then Jacobi discovered that the
small portion set before him could not possibly contain the three eggs
he had supplied. Now, Jacobi was not only possessed of a considerable
appetite, but had as well a definite unwillingness to accept less than
his due, while La Rue, on the other hand, was very easily aroused to a
high pitch of Gallic excitement; so that in less time than is required
to relate the story, the two men were embroiled in a genuine
Franco-Prussian dispute, all on account of poor La Rue's unintentional
interchange of the two breakfasts. Soon after this encounter, Jacobi,
who was an amateur violinist of no mean order, and had fiddled himself
into the affections of his neighbors, left for Berlin with a snug
fortune, and there after some years he died.
Having arranged for my meals, my brother's next provision was for a
sleeping-place. A small, unventilated room adjoining the store was
selected; and there I rested on an ordinary cot furnished with a
mattress, a pillow, and a pair of _frazadas_, or blankets. According
to custom, whatever of these covers I required were taken each evening
from stock, and the next morning they were returned to the shelves.
Stores as well as houses were then almost without stoves or
fireplaces; and as it grew colder, I found that the blankets gave
little or no warmth. Indeed they were nothing more or less,
notwithstanding their slight mixture of wool, than ordinary
horse-blankets, on which account in winter I had to use five or six of
them to enjoy any comfort whatever; and since I experienced difficulty
in keeping them on the cot, I resorted at last to the device of
tacking them down on one side.
In 1853, free-and-easy customs were in vogue in Los Angeles,
permitting people in the ordinary affairs of life to do practically as
they pleased. There were few if any restrictions; and if
circumscribing City ordinances existed--except, perhaps, those of 1850
which, while licensing gaming places, forbade the playing of cards on
the street--I do not remember what they were. As was the case in San
Francisco, neither saloons nor gambling places were limited by law,
and there were no regulations for their management. As many persons as
could make a living in this manner kept such establishments, which
were conspicuous amid the sights of the town. Indeed, chief among the
surprises greeting me during my first few weeks upon the Coast, the
many and flourishing gambling dens caused me the greatest
astonishment.
Through the most popular of these districts, a newly-found friend
escorted me on the evening of my arrival in Los Angeles. The quarter
was known by the euphonious title of Calle de los Negros--Nigger
Alley; and this alley was a thoroughfare not over forty feet wide
which led from Aliso Street to the Plaza, an extent of just one
unbroken block. At this period, there was a long adobe facing Los
Angeles Street, having a covered platform or kind of veranda, about
four feet from the ground, running its entire length. The building
commenced at what was later Sanchez Street, and reached, in an
easterly direction, to within forty feet, more or less, of the east
side of Nigger Alley, then continuing north to the Plaza. This formed
the westerly boundary, while a line of adobes on the other side of the
street formed the easterly line. The structure first described, and
which was demolished many years ago, later became the scene of the
beginning of an awful massacre to which I shall refer in due season.
Each side of the alley was occupied by saloons and gambling houses.
Men and women alike were to be found there, and both sexes looked
after the gaming tables, dealing monte and faro, and managing other
contrivances that parted the good-natured and easy-going people from
their money. Those in charge of the banks were always provided with
pistols, and were ready, if an emergency arose, to settle disputes on
the spot; and only rarely did a case come up for adjustment before the
properly-constituted authorities, such as that in 1848, which remained
a subject of discussion for some time, when counterfeiters, charged
with playing at monte with false money, were tried before a special
court made up of Abel Stearns and Stephen C. Foster. Time was
considered a very important element during the play; and sanguinary
verdicts in financial disputes were generally rendered at once.
Human life at this period was about the cheapest thing in Los Angeles,
and killings were frequent. Nigger Alley was as tough a neighborhood,
in fact, as could be found anywhere, and a large proportion of the
twenty or thirty murders a month was committed there. About as
plentiful a thing, also, as there was in the pueblo was liquor. This
was served generously in these resorts, not only with respect to
quantity, but as well regarding variety. In addition to the
prodigality of feasting, there was no lack of music of the native
sort--the harp and the guitar predominating. These scenes were
picturesque and highly interesting. Nigger Alley, for a while the
headquarters for gamblers, enjoyed through that circumstance a certain
questionable status; but in the course of years it came to be more and
more occupied by the Chinese, and given over to their opium-dens,
shops and laundries. There, also, their peculiar religious rites were
celebrated in just as peculiar a joss house, the hideously-painted
gods not in the least becoming a deterrent factor. Juan Apablasa was
among those who owned considerable property in Chinatown, and a street
in that quarter perpetuates his name.
Having crossed the Plaza, we entered Sonora Town, where my friend told
me that every evening there was much indulgence in drinking, smoking
and gambling, and quite as much participation in dancing. Some of this
life, which continued in full swing until the late seventies, I
witnessed on my first evening in Los Angeles.
Returning to Main Street, formerly Calle Principal, we entered the
Montgomery, one of the well-known gambling houses--a one-story adobe
about a hundred feet in width, in front of which was a shaded
veranda--situated nearly opposite the Stearns home, and rather
aristocratic, not only in its furnishings but also in its management.
This resort was managed by the fearless William C., or Billy Getman,
afterward Sheriff of Los Angeles County, whom I saw killed while
trying to arrest a lunatic. The Montgomery was conducted in an
orderly manner, and catered to the most fastidious people of Los
Angeles, supplying liquors of a correspondingly high grade; the charge
for a drink there being invariably twenty-five cents. It was provided
with a billiard parlor, where matches were often arranged for a stake
of hundreds of dollars. Games of chance there were for every
requirement, the long and the short purse being equally well
accommodated. The ranch owner could bet his hundreds, while he of
lowlier estate might tempt the fickle goddess according to his
narrower means.
A fraternity of gamblers almost indigenous to California, and which
has been celebrated and even, to an extent, glorified by such writers
as Mark Twain, Bret Harte and others, was everywhere then in evidence
in Los Angeles; and while it is true that their vocation was
illegitimate, many of them represented nevertheless a splendid type of
man: generous, honest in methods, courageous in operations and
respected by everybody. It would be impossible, perhaps, to describe
this class as I knew them and at the same time to satisfy the modern
ideal; but pioneers will confirm my tribute to these early gamesters
(among whom they may recall Brand Phillips) and their redeeming
characteristics.
As I have said, my brother, J. P. Newmark, was in partnership with
Jacob Rich, the gentleman who met me when I reached San Francisco;
their business being dry-goods and clothing. They were established in
J. N. Padilla's adobe on the southeast corner of Main and Requena
streets, a site so far "out of town" that success was possible only
because of their catering to a wholesale clientele rather than to the
retail trade; and almost opposite them, ex-Mayor John G. Nichols
conducted a small grocery in a store that he built on the Main Street
side of the property now occupied by Temple Block. There was an old
adobe wall running north and south along the east line of the lot, out
of which Nichols cut about fifteen feet, using this property to a
depth of some thirty feet, thus forming a rectangular space which he
enclosed. Here he carried on a modest trade which, even in addition to
his other cares, scarcely demanded his whole time; so that he would
frequently visit his neighbors, among whom Newmark & Rich were his
nearest friends. Often have I seen him therefore, long and lank,
seated in my brother's store tilted back in a chair against the wall
or merchandise, a cigar, which he never lighted, in his mouth,
exhorting his hearers to be patriotic and to purchase City land at a
dollar an acre, thereby furnishing some of the taxes necessary to
lubricate the municipal machinery. Little did any of us realize, as we
listened to this man, that in the course of another generation or so
there would spring into life a prosperous metropolis whose very heart
would be situated near where old Mayor Nichols was vainly endeavoring
to dispose of thirty-five-acre bargains at thirty-five dollars each--a
feature of municipal coöperation with prospective settlers which was
inaugurated August 13th, 1852, and repealed through dissatisfaction in
1854. Nichols, who, with J. S. Mallard and Lewis Granger, brought one
of the first three American families to settle here permanently, and
who married a sister of Mrs. Mallard, was the father of John Gregg
Nichols, always claimed to be the first boy born (April 24th, 1851),
of American parents, in Los Angeles. Nichols when Mayor was never
neglectful of his official duties, as may be seen from his record in
providing Hancock's survey, his construction of the Bath Street
School, his encouragement of better irrigation facilities, his
introduction of the first fruit grafts--brought, by the way, from
far-off New York--and his reëlection as Mayor in 1856, 1857, and 1858.
In 1869, another son, Daniel B. Nichols, of whom I shall speak, was a
participant in a fatal shooting affray here.
A still earlier survey than that of Hancock was made by Lieutenant
Edward O. C. Ord--later distinguished in the Union Army where,
singularly enough, he was fighting with Rosecrans, in time a resident
of Los Angeles--who, in an effort to bring order out of the pueblo
chaos, left still greater confusion. To clear up the difficulty of
adobes isolated or stranded in the middle of the streets, the Common
Council in 1854 permitted owners to claim a right of way to the
thoroughfares nearest their houses. This brings to mind the fact that
the _vara_, a Spanish unit equal to about thirty-three inches, was a
standard in real estate measurements even after the advent of Ord,
Hancock and Hansen, who were followed by such surveyors as P. J.
Virgen (recalled by Virgen Street) and his partner Hardy; and also
that the _reata_ was often used as a yardstick--its uncertain length
having contributed, without doubt, to the chaotic condition
confronting Ord.
Graded streets and sidewalks were unknown; hence, after heavy winter
rains mud was from six inches to two feet deep, while during the
summer dust piled up to about the same extent. Few City ordinances
were obeyed; for notwithstanding that a regulation of the City Council
called on every citizen to sweep in front of his house to a certain
point on Saturday evenings, not the slightest attention was paid to
it. Into the roadway was thrown all the rubbish: if a man bought a new
suit of clothes, a pair of boots, a hat or a shirt, to replace a
corresponding part of his apparel that had outlived its usefulness, he
would think nothing, on attiring himself in the new purchase, of
tossing the discarded article into the street where it would remain
until some passing Indian, or other vagabond, took possession of it.
So wretched indeed were the conditions, that I have seen dead animals
left on the highways for days at a time, and can recall one instance
of a horse dying on Alameda Street and lying there until a party of
Indians cut up the carcass for food. What made these street conditions
more trying was the fact that on hot days roads and sidewalks were
devoid of shade, except for that furnished by a few scattered trees or
an occasional projecting veranda; while at night (if I except the
illumination from the few lanterns suspended in front of barrooms and
stores) thoroughfares were altogether unlighted. In those nights of
dark streets and still darker tragedies, people rarely went out unless
equipped with candle-burning lanterns, at least until camphine was
imported by my brother, after which this was brought into general use.
Stores were lighted in the same manner: first with candles, then with
camphine and finally with coal-oil, during which period of advancement
lamps replaced the cruder contrivances.
Southern California from the first took an active part in State
affairs. Edward Hunter and Charles E. Carr were the Assemblymen from
this district in 1853; and the following year they were succeeded by
Francis Mellus and Dr. Wilson W. Jones. Carr was a lawyer who had come
in 1852; Hunter afterward succeeded Pablo de la Guerra as Marshal.
Jones was the doctor who just about the time I came, while returning
from a professional call at the Lugos at about sunset, nearly rode
over the bleeding and still warm body of a cattle-buyer named Porter,
on Alameda Street. The latter had been out to the Dominguez _rancho_,
to purchase stock, and had taken along with him a Mexican named Manuel
Vergara who introduced himself as an experienced interpreter and
guide, but who was, in reality, a cutthroat with a record of one or
two assassinations. Vergara observed that Porter possessed
considerable money; and on their way back to Los Angeles shot the
American from behind. Jones quickly gave the alarm; and Banning,
Stanley and others of the volunteer mounted police pursued the
murderer for eighty-five or ninety miles when, the ammunition of all
parties being exhausted, Vergara turned on the one Vigilante who had
caught up with him and, with an adroit thrust of his knife, cut the
latter's bridle and escaped. In the end, however, some of Major
Heintzelman's cavalry at Yuma (who had been informed by a fleet Indian
hired to carry the news of the fugitive's flight) overtook Vergara and
shot him dead. These volunteer police or Rangers, as they were called,
were a company of one hundred or more men under command of Dr. A. W.
Hope, and included such well-known early settlers as Nichols, J. G.
Downey, S. C. Foster, Agustin Olvera, Juan Sepúlveda, Horace Bell, M.
Keller, Banning, Benjamin Hayes, F. L. Guirado, David Alexander, J. L.
Brent and I. S. K. Ogier.
Under the new order of things, too, following the adoption in 1849 of
a State constitution, County organization in Los Angeles was effected;
and by the time I declared myself for American citizenship, several
elections had been held. Benjamin Hayes was District Judge in 1853;
Agustin Olvera was finishing his term as County Judge; Dr. Wilson W.
Jones was County Clerk and Recorder--two offices not separated for
twenty years or until 1873; Lewis Granger was County Attorney; Henry
Hancock was Surveyor; Francis Mellus (who succeeded Don Manuel
Garfias, once the princely owner but bad manager of the San Pasqual
_rancho_), was Treasurer; A. F. Coronel was Assessor; James R. Barton
was Sheriff and also Collector of Taxes; and J. S. Mallard, whose name
was given to Mallard Street, was Coroner. Russell Sackett was a
Justice of the Peace here when I arrived; and after a while Mallard
had a court as Justice, near my store on Commercial Street. All in
all, a group of rather strong men!
The administrative officials of both the City and the County had their
headquarters in the one-story adobe building at the northwest corner
of Franklin Alley (later called Jail Street[1]) and Spring Street. In
addition to those mentioned, there was a Justice of the Peace, a
_Zanjero_, and a Jailer. António Franco Coronel had but recently
succeeded Nichols as Mayor; A. S. Beard was Marshal and Tax Collector;
Judge William G. Dryden was Clerk; C. E. Carr was Attorney; Ygnácio
Coronel was Assessor; and S. Arbuckle was Treasurer.
António Franco Coronel, after whom Coronel Street is named, had just
entered upon the duties of Mayor, and was busy enough with the
disposal of donation lots when I first commenced to observe Los
Angeles' government. He came from Mexico to California with his
father, Don Ygnácio F. Coronel; and by 1850 he was the first County
Assessor. He lived at what is now Alameda and Seventh streets, and had
a brother, Manuel, who was City Assessor in 1858.
Major Henry Hancock, a New Hampshire lawyer and surveyor, came to Los
Angeles in 1852, and at the time of my arrival had just made the
second survey of the city, defining the boundaries of the
thirty-five-acre City lots. I met him frequently, and by 1859 I was
well acquainted with him. He then owed Newmark, Kremer & Company some
money and offered, toward liquidation of the debt, one hundred and ten
acres of land lying along Washington and extending as far as the
present Pico Street. It also reached from Main Street to what is now
Grand Avenue. Newmark, Kremer & Company did not wish the land, and so
arranged with Hancock to take firewood instead. From time to time,
therefore, he brought great logs into town, to be cut up; he also
bought a circular saw, which he installed, with horse-power and
tread-mill, in a vacant lot on Spring Street, back of Joseph Newmark's
second residence. The latter was on Main Street, between First and the
northern junction of Main and Spring; and between this junction and
First Street, it may be interesting to note, there was in 1853 no
thoroughfare from Main to Spring. As I was living there, I acted as
his agent for the sale of the wood that was left after our settlement.
The fact is that Hancock was always land poor, and never out of debt;
and when he was particularly hard up, he parted with his possessions
at whatever price they would bring. The Major (earlier known as
Captain Hancock, who enjoyed his titles through his association with
the militia) retained, however, the celebrated La Brea _rancho_--bought
at a very early date from A. J. Rocha, and lying between the city and
the sea--which he long thought would furnish oil, but little dreamt
would also contain some of the most important prehistoric finds; and
this ranch, once managed by his wife, a daughter of Colonel Augustin
Haraszthy, the San Francisco pioneer, is now owned by his son, George
Allan Hancock.
George Hansen, to whose far-reaching foresight we owe the Elysian Park
of to-day, was another professional man who was here before I reached
Los Angeles, having come to California in 1850, by way of Cape Horn
and Peru. When he arrived at Los Angeles, in 1853, as he was fond of
recounting, he was too poor to possess even surveying instruments; but
he found a friend in John Temple, who let him have one hundred dollars
at two per cent interest per month, then a very low rate. Thereupon
Hansen sent to San Francisco for the outfit that enabled him to
establish himself. I met Hansen for the first time in the last few
weeks of 1853, when he came to my brother's store to buy a suit of
clothes, his own being in rags. He had been out, very probably, on an
expedition such as subjected a surveyor, particularly in the early
days, to much hard work and fatigue. Hansen, a good student and fine
linguist, was prominent for many years and made more land measurements
hereabouts than did any one else; he had the real management, in fact,
of Hancock's second survey.
Among others who were here, I might mention the Wheeler brothers.
Colonel John Ozias Wheeler, at various times an office-holder, came to
California from Florida, and having endured many hardships on the trip
along the Mississippi, Arkansas and Gila rivers, arrived at the Chino
_rancho_ on August 12th, 1849, afterward assisting Isaac Williams in
conveying a train of supplies back to the Colorado River. The next
year he was joined by his brother, Horace Z. Wheeler, who came by way
of the Isthmus, and later rose to be Appraiser-General of the Imperial
Customs at Yokohama; and the two young men were soon conducting a
general merchandise business in Los Angeles--if I recollect aright, in
a one-story adobe at the northeast corner of Main and Commercial
streets. Extravagant stories have been printed as to Wheeler's
mercantile operations, one narrative crediting him with sales to the
extent of five thousand dollars or more a day. In those times,
however, no store was large enough to contain such a stock; and two
successive days of heavy sales would have been impossible. In 1851
Colonel Wheeler, who had been on General Andrés Pico's staff, served
as a Ranger; and in 1853 he organized the first military company in
Los Angeles.
Manuel Requena, from Yucatan, was another man of influence. He lived
on the east side of Los Angeles Street, north of the thoroughfare
opened through his vineyard and named after him--later extended east
of Los Angeles Street. As early as June, 1836, Requena, then
_Alcalde_, made a census of this district. He was a member of the
first, as well as the second, third, fifth and seventh Common
Councils, and with David W. Alexander was the only member of the first
body to serve out the entire term. In 1852, Requena was elected a
Supervisor. Mrs. Requena was a sister of Mrs. Alexander Bell and Mrs.
James, or Santiago Johnson, and an aunt of Henry and Francis Mellus
and Mrs. J. H. Lander. Requena died on June 27th, 1876, aged
seventy-four years.
Henry N. Alexander appeared in Los Angeles at about the same time that
I did--possibly afterward--and was very active as a Ranger. He too
occupied positions of trust, in business as well as public life, being
both City and County Treasurer--in the latter case, preceding Maurice
Kremer. It is not surprising, therefore, that he became Wells Fargo &
Company's agent when much uphill work had to be done to establish
their interests here. He married a daughter of Don Pedro Dominguez.
Alexander moved to Arizona, after which I lost track of him.
John W. Shore, who was here in 1853, was County Clerk from 1854 to
1857, and again from 1860 to 1863. He always canvassed for votes on
horseback until, one day, he fell off and broke his leg, necessitating
amputation. This terminated his active campaigns; but through sympathy
he was reëlected, and by a larger majority. Shore was a Democrat.
Mention of public officials leads me to speak of an interesting
personality long associated with them. On the west side of Spring
Street near First, where the Schumacher Building now stands, John
Schumacher conducted, in a single room, as was then common, a grocery
store and bar. A good-hearted, honest German of the old school, and a
first-class citizen, he had come from Würtemberg to America, and then,
with Stevenson's Regiment, to California, arriving in Los Angeles in
1847 or 1848. From here he went to Sutter's Creek, where he found a
nugget of gold worth eight hundred dollars, for which he was offered
land in San Francisco later worth millions--a tender which the
Würtemberger declined; and the same year that I arrived, he returned
to Los Angeles, whose activity had increased considerably since he had
last seen it. In 1855, Schumacher married Fräulein Mary Uhrie, from
which union six children including two sons, John and Frank G.
Schumacher, were born. The eldest daughter became Mrs. Edward A.
Preuss. Schumacher established his store, having bought nearly the
whole block bounded by Spring and First streets and Franklin Alley
for the value of his famous gold nugget; and there he remained until
the early seventies, the Schumacher Block being built, as I have said,
on a part of the property. Mrs. Schumacher in 1880 met with a tragic
death: while at the railway station in Merced, she was jolted from the
platform of a car and was instantly killed.
For something else, however, Schumacher was especially known. When he
returned in 1853, he put on sale the first lager beer introduced into
Los Angeles, importing the same from San Francisco, of which
enterprise the genial German was proud; but Schumacher acquired even
more fame for a drink that he may be said to have invented, and which
was known to the early settlers as _Peach and Honey_. It contained a
good mixture with peach brandy, and was a great favorite, especially
with politicians and frequenters of the neighboring Courthouse,
including well-known members of the Bar, all of whom crowded John's
place, "between times," to enjoy his much-praised concoction. Whenever
in fact anyone had a cold, or fancied that he was going to be so
afflicted, he hastened to John for his reputedly-certain cure.
Schumacher, who served as Councilman in 1855, 1856 and 1857, was
proficient in languages and, as an interpreter, often gave his time
and services freely in assisting his less-gifted neighbors,
particularly the poor and unfortunate, to straighten out their
affairs. In the fall of 1860, he had a narrow escape through the
carelessness of a customer who threw a lighted match into a can of
powder. Schumacher owned some acreage in what was known as the Green
Meadows, a section located near what is now South Figueroa Street; and
this land he held with Jacob Bell, who was assassinated, as I shall
relate, by a Frenchman named Lachenais--hanged, in turn, by an
exasperated mob.
Most political meetings of that period took place at the Plaza home of
Don Ygnácio Del Valle, first County Recorder. From 1841, Don Ygnácio
lived for some time on the San Francisco _rancho_ granted by the King
of Spain to his father and confirmed by patent in 1875. He also owned
the more famous Camulos _rancho_ on the Santa Clara River, consisting
of several thousand acres north and west of Newhall, afterward
selected by Helen Hunt Jackson as the setting for some of the scenes
in her novel, _Ramona_; and these possessions made him a man of great
importance. During his later life, when he had abandoned his town
residence, Del Valle dwelt in genteel leisure at the _rancho_, dying
there in 1880; and I will not miss this opportunity to attest his
patrician bearing and genial qualities.
At the time of my arrival, there was but one voting precinct and the
polling place was located at the old municipal and County adobe
already spoken of; although later a second polls was established at
the Round House. Inside the room sat the election judges and clerks;
outside a window stood the jam of voters. The window-sill
corresponded to the thickness of the adobe wall, and was therefore
about three feet deep. This sill served as a table, upon it being
placed a soap- or candle-box, into which a hole had been cut for the
deposit of the votes.
There was also no register, either great or small, and anyone could
vote. Each party printed its own tickets; and so could any candidate.
This resulted in great confusion, since there were always many tickets
in the field--as many, in fact, as there were candidates; yet the
entire proceeding had become legalized by custom. The candidate of one
party could thus use the ticket of the other, substituting his own
name for his opponent's, and leaving all of the remainder of the
ticket unchanged; in addition to which there was such a lack of
uniformity in the size and color of the ballots as greatly to add to
the confusion in counting.
To make matters worse, the ballot-box was not easily reached because
of the crowd which was made up largely of the candidates and their
friends. Challenging was the order of the day; yet, after crimination
and recrimination, the votes were generally permitted to be cast.
Although it is true, of course, that many votes were legitimate, yet
aliens such as Mexicans, who had not even considered the question of
taking out citizenship papers, were permitted to vote while Indians
and half-breeds, who were not eligible to citizenship at all, were
irregularly given the franchise. The story is told of an election not
far from Los Angeles at which a whole tribe of Indians was voted;
while on another occasion the names on a steamer's passenger-list were
utilized by persons who had already voted, that very day, once or
twice! Cutting off the hair, shaving one's beard or mustache,
reclothing or otherwise transforming the appearance of the
voter--these were some of the tricks then practiced, which the new
registry law of 1866 only partially did away with.
Sonorans, who had recently arrived from Mexico, as well as the aliens
I have mentioned, were easy subjects for the political manipulator.
The various candidates, for example, would round-up these prospective
voters like so many cattle, confine them in corrals (usually in the
neighborhood of Boyle Heights), keep them in a truly magnificent state
of intoxication until the eventful morning, and then put them in
stages hired from either Banning or Tomlinson for the purpose; and
from the time the temporary prisoners left the corral until their
votes had been securely deposited, they were closely watched by
guards. On reaching the voting place, the captives were unloaded from
the stage like so much inanimate baggage, and turned over to friends
of the candidate to whom, so to speak, for the time being they
belonged. One at a time, these creatures were led to vote; and as each
staggered to the ballot-box, a ticket was held up and he was made to
deposit it. Once having served the purpose, he was turned loose and
remained free until another election unless, as I have intimated, he
and his fellows were again corralled and made to vote a second or even
a third time the same day.
Nearly all influential Mexicans were Democrats, so that this party
easily controlled the political situation; from which circumstance a
certain brief campaign ended in a most amusing manner. It happened
that Thomas H. Workman, brother of William H., once ran for County
Clerk, although he was not a Democrat. Billy was naturally much
interested in his brother's candidacy, and did what he could to help
him. On the evening before election, he rented a corral--located near
what is now Macy Street and Mission Road, on property later used by
Charles F., father of Alfred Stern, and for years in partnership with
L. J. Rose; and there, with the assistance of some friends, he herded
together about one hundred docile though illegal voters, most of whom
were Indians, kept them all night and, by supplying fire-water
liberally, at length led them into the state of bewilderment necessary
for such an occasion. The Democratic leaders, however, having learned
of this magnificent _coup_, put their heads together and soon resolved
to thwart Billy's plan. In company with some prominent Mexican
politicians led by Tomás Sanchez, they loaded themselves into a stage
and visited the corral; and once arrived there, those that could made
such flowery stump speeches in the native language of the horde that,
in fifteen or twenty minutes, they had stampeded the whole band! Billy
entered a vigorous protest, saying that the votes were _his_ and that
it was a questionable and even a damnable trick; but all his protests
were of no avail: the bunch of corralled voters had been captured in a
body by the opposition, deciding the contest. These were the methods
then in vogue in accordance with which it was considered a perfectly
legitimate transaction to buy votes, and there was no secret made of
the _modus operandi_ by either party.
During these times of agitated politics, newspapers (such as they
were) played an important part. In them were published letters written
by ambitious candidates to themselves and signed, "The People," "A
Disinterested Citizen," or some equally anonymous phrase. As an
exception to the usual maneuver, however, the following witty
announcement was once printed by an office-seeker:
George N. Whitman, not having been requested by "Many
Friends," or solicited by "Many Voters," to become a
candidate for the office of Township Constable, at the end
of the ensuing September election, offers himself.
Here I am reminded of an anecdote at the expense of John Quincy Adams
Stanley, who in 1856 ran for Sheriff against David W. Alexander, and
was County Assessor in the middle seventies. Stanley was a very
decent but somewhat over-trusting individual; and ignoring suggestions
as to expenditures for votes, too readily believed promises of support
by the voters of the county, almost every one of whom gave him a
favorable pledge in the course of the campaign. When the ballots were
counted, however, and Stanley learned that he had received just about
fifty votes, he remarked, rather dryly: "I didn't know that there were
so many _damned liars_ in the county!"
Another interesting factor in early elections was the vote of
Teháchepi, then in Los Angeles County. About thirty votes were cast
there; but as communication with Los Angeles was irregular, it was
sometimes necessary to wait a week or more to know what bearing the
decision of Teháchepi had on the general result.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] In April, 1872, officially named Franklin Street.