MERCHANTS AND SHOPS
1853
Trivial events in a man's life sometimes become indelibly impressed on
his memory; and one such experience of my own is perhaps worth
mentioning as another illustration of the rough character of the
times. One Sunday, a few days after my arrival, my brother called upon
a tonsorial celebrity, Peter Biggs, of whom I shall speak later,
leaving me in charge of the store. There were two entrances, one on
Main Street, the other on Requena. I was standing at the Main Street
door, unconscious of impending excitement, when a stranger rode up on
horseback and, without the least hesitation or warning, pointed a
pistol at me. I was not sufficiently amused to delay my going, but
promptly retreated to the other door where the practical joker,
astride his horse, had easily anticipated my arrival and again greeted
me with the muzzle of his weapon. These maneuvers were executed a
number of times, and my ill-concealed trepidation only seemed to
augment the diversion of a rapidly-increasing audience. My brother
returned in the midst of the fun and asked the jolly joker what in
hell he meant by such behavior; to which he replied: "Oh, I just
wanted to frighten the boy!"
Soon after this incident, my brother left for San Francisco; and his
partner, Jacob Rich, accompanied by his wife, came south and rented
rooms in what was then known as Mellus's Row, an adobe building for
the most part one-story, standing alone with a garden in the rear,
and occupying about three hundred feet on the east side of Los Angeles
Street, between Aliso and First. In this row, said by some to have
been built by Barton & Nordholt, in 1850, for Captain Alexander Bell,
a merchant here since 1842, after whom Bell Street is named, and by
others claimed to have been the headquarters of Frémont, in 1846,
there was a second-story at the corner of Aliso, provided with a large
veranda; and there the Bell and Mellus families lived. Francis Mellus,
who arrived in California in 1839, had married the niece of Mrs. Bell,
and Bell having sold the building to Mellus, Bell's Row became known
as Mellus's Row. Finally, Bell repurchased the property, retaining it
during the remainder of his life; and the name was again changed. This
famous stretch of adobe, familiarly known as The Row, housed many
early shopkeepers, such as Ferner & Kraushaar, general merchants,
Kalisher & Wartenberg, and Bachman & Bauman. The coming to Los Angeles
of Mr. and Mrs. Rich enabled me to abandon La Rue's restaurant, as I
was permitted to board with them. None the less, I missed my brother
very much.
Everything at that time indicating that I was in for a commercial
career, it was natural that I should become acquainted with the
merchants then in Los Angeles. Some of the tradesmen, I dare say, I
have forgotten; but a more or less distinct recollection remains of
many, and to a few of them I shall allude.
Temple Street had not then been opened by Beaudry and Potts, although
there was a little _cul-de-sac_ extending west from Spring Street; and
at the junction of what is now Spring and Temple streets, there was a
two-story adobe building in which D. W. Alexander and Francis Mellus
conducted a general merchandise business, and at one time acted as
agents for Mellus & Howard of San Francisco. Mellus, who was born in
Salem, Massachusetts, February 3d, 1824, came to the Coast in 1839,
first landing at Santa Bárbara; and when I first met him he had
married Adelaida, daughter of Don Santiago Johnson, and our
fellow-townsman, James J. Mellus--familiarly known as plain Jim--was
a baby. Alexander & Mellus had rather an extensive business in the
early days, bringing goods by sailing vessel around Cape Horn, and
exchanging them for hides and tallow which were carried back East by
the returning merchantmen. They had operated more or less extensively
even some years before California was ceded to the United States; but
competition from a new source forced these well-established merchants
to retire. With the advent of more frequent, although still irregular
service between San Francisco and the South, and the influx of more
white people, a number of new stores started here bringing merchandise
from the Northern market, while San Francisco buyers began to outbid
Alexander & Mellus for the local supply of hides and tallow. This so
revolutionized the methods under which this tradition-bound old
concern operated that, by 1858, it had succumbed to the inevitable,
and the business passed into the hands of Johnson & Allanson, a firm
made up of Charles R. Johnson, soon to be elected County Clerk, and
Horace S. Allanson.
Most of the commercial activity in this period was carried on north of
First Street. The native population inhabited Sonora Town, for the
most part a collection of adobes, named after the Mexican state whence
came many of our people; there was a contingent from other parts of
Mexico; and a small sprinkling of South Americans from Chile and Peru.
Among this Spanish-speaking people quite a business was done by
Latin-American storekeepers. It followed, naturally enough, that they
dealt in all kinds of Mexican goods.
One of the very few white men in this district was José Mascarel (a
powerfully-built French sea-captain and master of the ship that
brought Don Luis Vignes to the Southland), who settled in Los Angeles
in 1844, marrying an Indian woman. He had come with Prudhomme and
others; and under Captain Henseley had taken part in the military
events at San Bartolo and the Mesa. By 1865, when he was Mayor of the
city, he had already accumulated a number of important real estate
holdings and owned, with another Frenchman, Juan Barri, a baker, the
block extending east on the south side of Commercial Street, from
Main to Los Angeles, which had been built in 1861 to take the place of
several old adobes. This the owners later divided, Mascarel taking the
southeast corner of Commercial and Main streets, and Barri the
southwest corner of Commercial and Los Angeles streets. In the
seventies, I. W. Hellman bought the Mascarel corner, and in 1883, the
Farmers & Merchants Bank moved to that location, where it remained
until the institution purchased the southwest corner of Fourth and
Main streets, for the erection of its own building.
Andrés Ramirez was another Sonora Town merchant. He had come from
Mexico in 1844, and sold general merchandise in what, for a while, was
dubbed the Street of the Maids. Later, this was better known as Upper
Main Street; and still later it was called San Fernando Street.
Louis Abarca was a tradesman and a neighbor of Ramirez. Prosperous
until the advent of the pioneer, he little by little became poorer,
and finally withdrew from business.
Juan Bernard, a native of French Switzerland, whose daughter married
D. Botiller, now an important landowner, came to California by way of
the Horn, in search of the precious metal, preceding me to this land
of sunshine. For awhile, he had a brickyard on Buena Vista Street; but
in the late seventies, soon after marrying Señorita Susana Machado,
daughter of Don Agustin Machado, he bought a vineyard on Alameda
Street, picturesquely enclosed by a high adobe or brick wall much
after the fashion of a European _château_. He also came to own the
site of the Natick House. A clever linguist and a man of attractive
personality, he passed away in 1889.
An American by the name of George Walters lived on Upper Main Street,
among the denizens of which locality he was an influential person.
Born at New Orleans as early as 1809, Walters had trapped and traded
in the Rocky Mountains, then teamed for awhile between Santa Fé and
neighboring points. Near the end of 1844, he left New Mexico in
company with James Waters, Jim Beckwith and other travelers, finally
reaching Los Angeles. Walters, who settled in San Bernardino, was at
the Chino Ranch, with B. D. Wilson and Louis Robidoux, when so many
Americans were made prisoners.
Julian Chavez, after whom Chavez Street is named, was here in 1853. If
he was not native-born, he came here at a very early day. He owned a
stretch of many acres, about a mile northeast of Los Angeles. He was a
good, honest citizen, and is worthy of recollection.
Ramón Alexander, a Frenchman often confused with David Alexander, came
to Los Angeles before 1850, while it was still a mere Mexican village.
Pioneers remember him especially as the builder of the long-famous
Round House, on Main Street, and as one who also for some time kept a
saloon near Requena Street. Alexander's wife was a Señorita Valdez. He
died in 1870.
Antoine Laborie was another Frenchman here before the beginning of the
fifties. He continued to live in Los Angeles till at least the late
seventies. A fellow-countryman, B. Dubordieu, had a bakery in Sonora
Town.
Philip Rheim, the good-natured German to whom I have referred, had a
little store and saloon, before I came, called _Los dos Amigos_, as
the proprietor of which he was known as Don Felipe. Nor was this title
amiss; for Felipe married a native woman and, German though he had
been, he gradually became, like so many others who had mated in the
same way, more and more Californian in manners and customs.
A month after I arrived here, John Behn, who had a grocery business at
the northeast corner of First and Los Angeles streets, retired. He had
come to Los Angeles from Baden in 1848, and, after forming one or two
partnerships, had sold out to Lorenzo Leck, a German Dane, who reached
here in November, 1849, and whose son, Henry von der Leck, married a
daughter of Tom Mott and is living at San Juan Capistrano. Leck opened
his own store in 1854, and despite the trials to which he was to be
subjected, he was able, in 1868, to pay John Schumacher three thousand
dollars for a lot on Main Street. Leck had a liking for the
spectacular; and in the November previous to my arrival was active, as
I have been told, with Goller and Nordholt, in organizing the first
political procession seen in Los Angeles. The election of Pierce was
the incentive, and there were gorgeous transparencies provided for the
event. It was on this occasion that a popular local character, George
the Baker, burned himself badly while trying to fire off the
diminutive cannon borrowed from the Spanish _padre_ for the event.
In the one-story adobe of Mascarel and Barri, on the corner of
Commercial and Main streets, now the site of the United States
National Bank, an Irishman named Samuel G. Arbuckle, who had come here
in 1850 and was associated for a short time with S. Lazard, conducted
a dry goods store. From 1852 to 1856, Arbuckle was City Treasurer.
In the same building, and adjoining Arbuckle's, John Jones, father of
Mrs. J. B. Lankershim and M. G. Jones, carried on a wholesale grocery
business. Jones had left England for Australia, when forty-seven years
old, and a year later touched the coast of California at Monterey and
came to Los Angeles. Twice a year, Jones went north in a schooner, for
the purpose of replenishing his stock; and after making his purchases
and having the boat loaded, he would return to Los Angeles. Sometimes
he traveled with the round-bellied, short and jolly Captain Morton who
recalled his illustrious prototype, Wouter van Twiller, so humorously
described by Washington Irving as "exactly five feet six inches in
height, and six feet five inches in circumference;" sometimes he
sailed with Captain J. S. Garcia, a good-natured seaman. During his
absence, the store remained closed; and as this trip always required
at least six weeks, some idea may be obtained of the Sleepy Hollow
methods then prevailing in this part of the West. In 1854 or 1855,
Jones, who was reputed to be worth some fifty thousand dollars, went
to San Francisco and married Miss Doria Deighton, and it was generally
understood that he expected to settle there; but having been away for
a couple of years, he returned to the City of the Angels, this being
one of the first instances within my observation of the irresistible
attraction of Los Angeles for those who have once lived here. It is
my recollection that Jones bought from John G. Downey the Cristóbal
Aguilar home then occupied by W. H. and Mrs. Perry; a building the
more interesting since it was understood to have served, long in the
past and before the American occupation, as a _calabozo_ or jail, and
to have had a whipping-post supposed to have done much service in
keeping the turbulently-inclined natives quiet. How many of the old
adobes may at times have been used as jails, I am unable to say, but
it is also related that there stood on the hill west of the Plaza
another _cuartel_, afterward the home of B. S. Eaton, where Fred,
later Mayor of Los Angeles, was born. Like Felix Bachman and others,
Jones entered actively into trade with Salt Lake City; and although he
met with many reverses--notably in the loss of Captain Morton's _Laura
Bevan_, which sank, carrying down a shipload of uninsured goods--he
retired well-to-do.
John, sometimes called Juan Temple--or Jonathan, as he used to sign
himself in earlier years--who paid the debt of Nature in 1866, and
after whom Temple Street is named, was another merchant, having a
store upon the piece of land (later the site of the Downey Block, and
now occupied by the Post Office) which, from 1849 to 1866, was in
charge of my friend, Don Ygnácio Garcia, his confidential business
agent. Garcia imported from Mexico both _serapes_ and _rebozos_; and
as every Mexican man and woman required one of these garments, Temple
had a large and very lucrative trade in them alone. Following the
death of Temple, Garcia continued under Hinchman, the executor of the
estate, until everything had been settled.
It was really far back in 1827 when Temple came to Los Angeles,
started the first general merchandise store in town, and soon took
such a lead in local affairs that the first Vigilance Committee in the
city was organized in his store, in 1836. Toward the fifties, he
drifted south to Mexico and there acquired a vast stretch of land on
the coast; but he returned here, and was soon known as one of the
wealthiest, yet one of the stingiest men in all California. His real
estate holdings in or near Los Angeles were enormous; but the bad
judgment of his executor cost him dear, and valuable properties were
sacrificed. After his death, Temple's wife--who once accompanied her
husband to Paris, and had thus formed a liking for the livelier French
capital--returned to France with her daughter, later Doña Ajuria, to
live; and A. F. Hinchman, Temple's brother-in-law, who had been
Superintendent of Santa Bárbara County Schools, was appointed
administrator. Hinchman then resided in San Diego, and was intensely
partial to that place. This may have prejudiced him against Los
Angeles; but whatever the cause, he offered Temple's properties at
ridiculous prices, and some of the items of sale may now be
interesting.
The present site of the Government Building, embracing as it then did
the forty-foot street north of it, was at that time improved with an
adobe building covering the entire front and running back to New High
Street; and this adobe, known after Temple's death as the Old Temple
Block, Hinchman sold for fifteen thousand dollars. He also disposed of
the new Temple Block, including the improvement at the south end which
I shall describe, for but sixteen thousand dollars. I remember quite
well that Ygnácio Garcia was the purchaser, and that, tiring of his
bargain in a couple of weeks, he resold the property to John Temple's
brother, Francisco, at cost.
Hinchman, for fourteen thousand dollars, also disposed of the site of
the present Bullard Block, whereon Temple had erected a large brick
building, the lower part of which was used as a market while the upper
part was a theater. The terms in each of these three transactions were
a thousand dollars per annum, with interest at ten per cent. He sold
to the Bixbys the Cerritos _rancho_, containing twenty-six thousand
acres, for twenty thousand dollars. Besides these, there were eighteen
lots, each one hundred and twenty by three hundred and thirty feet,
located on Fort Street (now Broadway), some of which ran through to
Spring and others to Hill, which were bought by J. F. Burns and
William Buffum for one thousand and fifty dollars, or fifty dollars
each for the twelve inside and seventy-five dollars each for the six
corner lots.
Returning to the Fort Street lots, it may be interesting to know that
the property would be worth to-day--at an average price of four
thousand dollars per foot--about nine million dollars. Eugene Meyer
purchased one of the lots (on the west side of Fort Street, running
through to Hill, one hundred and twenty by three hundred and thirty
feet in size), for the sum of one thousand dollars; and I paid him a
thousand dollars for sixty feet and the same depth. In 1874 I built on
this site the home occupied by me for about twelve years, after which
I improved both fronts for F. L. Blanchard. These two blocks are still
in my possession; the Broadway building is known as Blanchard Hall.
Blanchard, by the way, a comer of 1886, started his Los Angeles career
in A. G. Bartlett's music store, and has since always been closely
identified with art movements. He organized the system of cluster
street-lights in use here and was an early promoter of good roads.
[Illustration: Pio Pico From an oil portrait]
[Illustration: Juan Bandini]
[Illustration: Abel Stearns]
[Illustration: Isaac Williams]
[Illustration: Store of Felipe Rheim]
Charles L. Ducommun was here in business in 1853, he and John G.
Downey having arrived together, three years before. According to the
story still current, Ducommun, with his kit and stock as a watchmaker,
and Downey, with his outfit as a druggist, hired a _carreta_ together,
to transport their belongings from San Pedro to Los Angeles; but the
_carreta_ broke down, and the two pilgrims to the City of the Angels
had to finish their journey afoot. Ducommun's first store, located on
Commercial Street between Main and Los Angeles, was about sixteen by
thirty feet in size, but it contained an astonishing assortment of
merchandise, such as hardware, stationery and jewelry. Perhaps the
fact that Ducommun came from Switzerland, then even more than now the
chief home of watchmaking, explains his early venture in the making
and selling of watches; however that may be, it was to Charlie
Ducommun's that the bankrupt merchant Moreno--later sentenced to
fourteen or fifteen years in the penitentiary for robbing a
Frenchman--came to sell the Frenchman's gold watch. Moreno confessed
that he had organized a gang of robbers, after his failure in
business, and had murdered even his own lieutenants. Ducommun,
pretending to go into a rear room for the money, slipped out of the
back door and gave the alarm. Ducommun's store was a sort of
curiosity-shop containing many articles not obtainable elsewhere; and
he was clever enough, when asked for any rarity, to charge all that
the traffic would bear. I wonder what Charlie Ducommun would say if he
could return to life and see his sons conducting a large, modern
wholesale hardware establishment on an avenue never thought of in his
day and where once stretched acres of fruit and vine lands! Ducommun
Street commemorates this pioneer.
Ozro W. Childs, who came to Los Angeles in November, 1850, was for
awhile in partnership with J. D. Hicks, the firm being known as Childs
& Hicks. They conducted a tin-shop on Commercial Street, in a building
about twenty by forty feet. In 1861, H. D. Barrows joined them, and
hardware was added to the business. Somewhat later the firm was known
as J. D. Hicks & Company. In 1871, Barrows bought out the Childs and
Hicks interests, and soon formed a partnership with W. C. Furrey,
although the latter arrived in Los Angeles only in 1872. When Barrows
retired, Furrey continued alone for several years. The W. C. Furrey
Company was next organized, with James W. Hellman as the active
partner of Furrey, and with Simon Maier, the meat-packer and brother
of the brewer, and J. A. Graves as stockholders. Hellman, in time,
succeeded this company and continued for himself. When Childs
withdrew, he went in for importing and selling exotic trees and
plants, and made his home place, in more modern days known as the
Huntington Purchase and running from Main to Hill and Eleventh to
Twelfth streets, wonderfully attractive to such tourists as then
chanced this way; he also claimed to be the pioneer floriculturist of
Los Angeles County. Toward the end of his life, Childs erected on Main
Street, south of First, a theater styled an opera house and later
known as the Grand, which was popular in its time. Childs Avenue bears
the family name.
Labatt Brothers had one of the leading dry goods houses, which,
strange as it may seem, they conducted in a part of the Abel Stearns
home, corner of Main and Arcadia streets, now occupied by the Baker
Block. Their establishment, while the most pretentious and certainly
the most specialized of its day in town, and therefore patronized by
our well-to-do people, would nevertheless make but a sorry appearance
in comparison with even a single department in any of the mammoth
stores of to-day.
Jacob Elias was not only here in 1853, in partnership with his brother
under the firm name of Elias Brothers, but he also induced some of his
friends in Augusta, Georgia, to migrate to California. Among those who
came in 1854 were Pollock, whose given name I forget, and L. C.,
better known as Clem Goodwin. The latter clerked for awhile for Elias
Brothers, after which he associated himself with Pollock under the
title of Pollock & Goodwin. They occupied premises at what was then
the corner of Aliso Street and Nigger Alley, and the site, some years
later, of P. Beaudry's business when we had our interesting contest,
the story of which I shall relate in due time. Pollock & Goodwin
continued in the general merchandise business for a few years, after
which they returned to Augusta. Goodwin, however, came back to
California in 1864 a Benedick, and while in San Francisco accidentally
met Louis Polaski who was then looking for an opening. Goodwin induced
Polaski to enter into partnership with him, and the well-known early
clothing house of Polaski & Goodwin was thus established in the Downey
Block. In 1867, they bought out I. W. Hellman and moved over to the
southeast corner of Commercial and Main streets. Goodwin sold out to
Polaski in 1881, when the firm became Polaski & Sons; in 1883 Sam,
Isidor and Myer L. Polaski bought out their father, and in time
Polaski Brothers also withdrew. Goodwin became Vice-president of the
Farmers & Merchants Bank. Polaski died in 1900, Goodwin having
preceded him a short time before. Goodwin left his wife some valuable
property, and as they were without issue, she so richly endowed the
Children's Hospital, at her death, that the present building was made
possible.
The Lanfranco brothers--Juan T. and Mateo--came from Genoa, Italy, by
way of Lima, Peru and New York, whence they crossed the Plains with
James Lick the carpenter later so celebrated, and they were both here
in business in 1853; Juan, a small capitalist or _petit rentier_,
living where the Lanfranco Building now stands, opposite the Federal
Building, while Mateo kept a grocery store on Main Street, not far
from Commercial. In 1854, Juan added to his independence by marrying
Señorita Petra Pilar, one of fourteen children of Don José Loreto
Sepúlveda, owner of the Palos Verdes _rancho_; the celebration of the
nuptials, in dancing and feasting, lasting five days. It was at that
ranch that a great stampede of cattle occurred, due to fright when the
pioneer sulky, imported by Juan Lanfranco from San Francisco, and then
a strange object, was driven into their midst. About 1861, the first
Lanfranco Building was erected. Mateo died on October 4th, 1873, while
Juan passed away on May 20th, 1875. His wife died in 1877. A daughter
married Walter Maxwell; a second daughter became the wife of Walter S.
Moore, for years Chief of the Fire Department; and still another
daughter married Arthur Brentano, one of the well-known Paris and New
York booksellers.
Solomon Lazard and Maurice Kremer, cousins of about the same age, and
natives of Lorraine, were associated in 1853 under the title of Lazard
& Kremer, being located in a storeroom in Mellus's Row, and I may add
that since nearly all of the country development had taken place in
districts adjacent to San Gabriel, El Monte and San Bernardino, travel
through Aliso Street was important enough to make their situation one
of the best in town. Lazard had arrived in San Francisco in 1851, and
having remained there about a year, departed for San Diego, where it
was his intention to engage in the dry goods business. Finding that
there were not enough people there to maintain such an establishment
of even moderate proportions, Lazard decided upon the advice of a
seafaring man whom he met to remove his stock, which he had brought
from the Northern town, to Los Angeles. He told me that he paid
fifty-six dollars' steamer fare from San Francisco to San Diego, and
that the freight on his merchandise cost him twenty dollars a ton.
Among his native friends, Lazard was always known as Don Solomon, and
being popular, he frequently acted as floor-manager at balls and
fandangos. Lazard is still living at the good old age of eighty-seven
years. Kremer also reached here in 1852. In time, Timoteo Wolfskill, a
son of William Wolfskill, bought Kremer's interest, and the firm name
became Lazard & Wolfskill. Each of these worthy pioneers in his day
rendered signal service to the community--Lazard serving as Councilman
in 1862; and I shall have occasion, therefore, to refer to them again.
Abe Lazard, a brother of Solomon, who had spent some years in South
America, came in the late fifties. Dr. E. M. Lazard is a son of S.
Lazard.
While speaking of San Diego, I may remark that it was quite fifteen
years before the interesting old Spanish settlement to the South, with
which I had no business relations, attracted me; and as I was no
exception, the reader may see how seldom the early settlers were
inclined to roam about merely for sight-seeing.
In 1853, M. Norton and E. Greenbaum sold merchandise at the southwest
corner of Los Angeles and Commercial streets (when Jacob, J. L., an
early Supervisor and City Treasurer, 1863-64 and Moritz Morris,
Councilman in 1869-70, were competitors). In time, Jacob returned to
Germany, where he died. Herman Morris, a brother, was a local
newspaper reporter. Jacob Letter was another rival, who removed to
Oakland. Still another dealer in general merchandise was M. Michaels,
almost a dwarf in size, who emigrated to South America. Casper
Behrendt--father-in-law of John Kahn, a man prominent in many
movements--who arrived in 1851, was another Commercial Street
merchant. Still other early merchants whom I somewhat distinctly
recall were Israel Fleishman and Julius Sichel, who had a glassware,
crockery and hardware business; and L. Lasky, on Commercial Street.
Thomas D. Mott, father of John Mott, the attorney, who was lured to
California by the gold-fever of 1849, and to Los Angeles, three years
later, by the climate, I met on the day of my arrival. His room
adjoined my brother's store, so that we soon formed an acquaintanceship
which ripened, in the course of time, into a friendship that endured
until the day of his death. In the early sixties, he was the
proprietor of a livery stable on Main Street, opposite the Stearns
home. He was very fond of hunting, being an expert at dropping a bird
on the wing; and frequently went dove-shooting with his friends.
All of which, insignificant as it may at first appear, I mention for
the purpose of indicating the neighborhood of these operations. The
hunting-ground covered none other than that now lying between Main and
Olive streets from about Sixth Street to Pico, and teeming to-day, as
the reader knows, with activity and life. There sportsmen hunted,
while more matter-of-fact burghers frequently went with scythes to cut
grass for their horses.
Prudent Beaudry, a native of Quebec destined to make and lose several
fortunes, was here when I came, having previously been a merchant in
San Francisco when staple articles--such as common tacks, selling at
sixteen dollars a package!--commanded enormous prices. Two or three
times, however, fire obliterated all his savings, and when he reached
Los Angeles, Beaudry had only about a thousand dollars' worth of goods
and two or three hundred dollars in cash. With these assets he opened
a small store on Main Street, opposite the Abel Stearns home; and
again favored by the economic conditions of the times, he added to his
capital very rapidly. From Main Street Beaudry moved to Commercial,
forming partnerships successively with a man named Brown and with one
Le Maître. As early as 1854, Beaudry had purchased the property at the
northeast corner of Aliso Street and Nigger Alley for eleven thousand
dollars, and this he so improved with the additional investment of
twenty-five thousand dollars that he made his now elongated adobe
bring him in an income of a thousand a month. As stated elsewhere,
Beaudry went to Europe in 1855, returning later to Montreal; and it
was not until 1861 or later that he came back to Los Angeles and
reëngaged in business, this time in his own building where until 1865
he thrived, withdrawing, as I shall soon show, in the beginning of
1866. Beaudry Avenue recalls this early and important man of affairs.
David W. Alexander, Phineas Banning's enterprising partner in
establishing wagon-trains, was here when I came and was rather an
influential person. An Irishman by birth, he had come to California
from Mexico by way of Salt Lake, in the early forties, and lived for
awhile in the San Bernardino country. From 1844 to 1849, John Temple
and he had a store at San Pedro, and still later he was associated in
business with Banning, selling out his interest in 1855. In 1850,
Alexander was President of the first Common Council of Los Angeles,
being one of the two members who completed their term; in 1852, he
visited Europe; and in September, 1855, he was elected Sheriff of the
County, bringing to his aid the practical experience of a Ranger.
Before keeping store, Alexander had farmed for awhile on the Rincon
_rancho_; he continued to hold a large extent of acreage and in 1872
was granted a patent to over four thousand acres in the Providencia,
and in 1874 to nearly seventeen thousand acres in the Tejunga
_rancho_. George C. Alexander, David's brother, was Postmaster at San
Pedro in 1857.
The Hazards arrived in 1853 with a large family of children, Captain
A. M. Hazard having made his way with ox-teams from the East, via Salt
Lake, on a journey which consumed nearly two years. At first they took
up a claim about four miles from Los Angeles, which was later declared
Government land. The eldest son, Daniel, was employed by Banning as a
teamster, traveling between Los Angeles and Yuma; but later he set up
in the teaming business for himself. George W. Hazard became a dealer
in saddlery in Requena Street; and taking an active interest in the
early history of Los Angeles, he collected, at personal sacrifice,
souvenirs of the past, and this collection has become one of the few
original sources available for research.[4] In 1889, Henry T. Hazard,
after having served the City as its Attorney, was elected Mayor, his
administration being marked by no little progress in the town's growth
and expansion. Henry, who married a daughter of Dr. William Geller,
and after whom Hazard Street is named, is the only one of the
brothers who survives.
Sam Meyer, who met me, as related, when I alighted from the stage, was
another resident of Los Angeles prior to my coming. He had journeyed
from Germany to America in 1849, had spent four years in New Orleans,
Macon, and other Southern cities, and early in 1853 had come to
California. On Main Street, south of Requena, I found him, with
Hilliard Loewenstein, in the dry goods business, an undertaking they
continued until 1856, when Loewenstein returned to Germany, to marry a
sister of Meyer. Emanuel Loewenstein, one of the issue of this
marriage, and a jolly, charitable fellow, is well known about town. On
December 15th, 1861, Meyer married Miss Johanna,[5] daughter of S. C.
and Rosalia Davis, and the same year formed a partnership with Davis
in the crockery business. After two and a half years of residence in
Germany, Loewenstein returned to Los Angeles. Meyer, so long
identified with local freemasonry, died in 1903. A daughter married
Max Loewenthal, the attorney.
Baruch Marks, one of the very few people yet living who were here when
I arrived, is now about ninety-one years of age, and still[6] a
resident of Los Angeles. He was with Louis Schlesinger (who lost his
life when the _Ada Hancock_ was destroyed) and Hyman Tischler in the
general merchandise business in 1853 at Mellus's Row, the firm being
known as B. Marks & Company; and having prospered, he went to Berlin.
There, after the Franco-Prussian War, when much disaster befell
speculators, he lost most of his means; and greatly reduced in
resources, he returned to Los Angeles. Since then, however, he has
never been able to retrieve his fortune. Luckily he enjoys good
health, even being able at his advanced age, as he told me recently,
to shave himself.
In 1851, Herman Schlesinger reached Los Angeles and engaged in the dry
goods business with Tobias Sherwinsky. In 1855, Moritz Schlesinger,
Herman's brother, came here and clerked for the firm. In 1857,
Schlesinger & Sherwinsky, having made, approximately, fourteen
thousand dollars, which they divided, sold out to Moritz Schlesinger
and returned to Germany. A few years later Sherwinsky lost his money
and, coming back to California, located in San Diego where he died.
Schlesinger remained in Germany and died there, about 1900.
Collins Wadhams had a general store on the northeast corner of Main
and Commercial streets--a piece of property afterward bought by
Charlie Ducommun. At another time, Wadhams & Foster were general
merchants who, succeeding to the business of Foster & McDougal, were
soon followed by Douglass, Foster & Wadhams. Clerking for this firm
when I came was William W. Jenkins, who left for Arizona, years
afterward, where he led an adventurous life.
Henry G. Yarrow, often called _Cuatro Ojos_ or four eyes, from the
fact that he wore a pair of big spectacles on a large hooked nose, was
an eccentric character of the fifties and later. He once conducted a
store at the southwest corner of Los Angeles and Requena streets, and
was the Jevne of his day in so far as he dealt in superior and
exceptional commodities generally not found in any other store. In
other respects, however, the comparison fails; for he kept the
untidiest place in town, and his stock was fearfully jumbled together,
necessitating an indefinite search for every article demanded. The
store was a little low room in an adobe building about twenty feet
long and ten feet wide, with another room in the rear where Yarrow
cooked and slept. He was also a mysterious person, and nobody ever saw
the inside of this room. His clothes were of the commonest material;
he was polite and apparently well-bred; yet he never went anywhere for
social intercourse, nor did he wish anyone to call upon him except for
trade. Aside from the barest necessities, he was never known to spend
any money, and so he came to be regarded as a miser. One morning he
was found dead in his store, and for some time thereafter people dug
in his backyard searching for the earnings believed to have been
secreted there; but not a cent of his horde was ever found. There
were all kinds of rumors, however, respecting Yarrow. One was to the
effect that he was the scion of a noted English family, and that
disappointment in love had soured and driven him from the world; while
another report was that his past had been somewhat shady. Nobody,
apparently, knew the truth; but I personally believe that Yarrow was
honest, and know that when at one time, despite his efforts, he failed
in business, he endeavored to settle his debts upon the most honorable
basis.
Charles Hale, later associated with M. W. Childs, had a tin-shop just
where Stearns's Arcadia Block now stands. This shop stood on elevated
ground, making his place of business rather difficult of access; from
which the reader will gain some idea of the irregular appearance of
the landscape in early days. Hale in time went to Mexico, where he was
reported to have made a fortune.
August Ulyard arrived with his wife on the last day of December, 1852,
and rented a house near the Plaza. In competition with Joseph Lelong,
who had established his Jenny Lind bakery a couple of years previous,
Ulyard opened a bake-shop, making his first bread from yeast which
Mrs. Ulyard had brought with her across the Plains. There had been
nothing but French bread in Los Angeles up to that time, but Ulyard
began to introduce both German and American bread and cake, which soon
found favor with many; later he added freshly-baked crackers. After a
while, he moved to the site of the Natick House, at the southwest
corner of Main and First streets; and once he owned the southwest
corner of Fifth and Spring streets, on which the Alexandria Hotel now
stands. Having no children of their own, Ulyard and his wife adopted
first one and then another, until eventually they had a family of
seven!
Picturing these unpretentious stores, I recall a custom long prevalent
here among the native population. Just as in Mexico a little lump of
sugar called a _pilon_, or something equally insignificant, was given
with even the smallest purchase, so here some trifle, called a
_pilon_, was thrown in to please the buyer. And if a merchant
neglected to offer such a gratuity, the customer was almost certain to
ask for it.
Among the meat-handlers, there were several Sentous brothers, but
those with whom I was more intimately acquainted were Jean and Louis,
father of Louis Sentous the present French Consul, both of whom, if I
mistake not, came about the middle of the fifties. They engaged in the
sheep business; and later Louis had a packing-house of considerable
importance located between Los Angeles and Santa Monica, where he also
owned over a thousand acres of valuable land which he sold some time
before his death. They were very successful; and Sentous Street bears
their name. Jean died in 1903, and Louis a few years later.
Refúgio Botello was another wholesale cattle- and meat-dealer.
Arthur McKenzie Dodson, who came here in 1850 and later married Miss
Reyes, daughter of Nasário Dominguez, conducted a butcher shop and one
of the first grocery stores. He was also the first to make soap here.
For a while Dodson was in partnership with John Benner who, during a
quarter of a century when in business for himself, in the old Temple
adobe on Main Street, built up an important trade in the handling of
meat. James H. Dodson is Arthur's son.
Santiago Bollo also kept a small grocery.
"Hog" Bennett was here in the middle fifties. He raised and killed
hogs, and cured the ham and bacon which he sold to neighboring
dealers.
Possessed as he was of an unusual sense of rectitude, I esteemed
Francisco Solano, father of Alfredo Solano, for his many good
qualities. He was in the butcher business in Sonora Town, and was
prosperous in the early fifties.
An odd little store was that of Madame Salandie, who came to
California in 1849, on the same vessel that brought Lorenzo Leck. She
had a butcher shop; but, rather curiously, she was also a
money-lender.
I believe that Jack Yates was here in 1853. He owned the first general
laundry, located on Los Angeles Street between First and Requena, and
conducted it with success and profit for many years, until he
succumbed to the competition of the Chinese. Yates's daughter, Miss
Mary D., married H. J. Woollacott, at one time a prominent financier.
More than once, in recording these fragmentary recollections, I have
had occasion to refer to persons who, at one time or another, were
employed in a very different manner than in a later period of their
lives. The truth is that in the early days one's occupation did not
weigh much in the balance, provided only that he was honorable and a
good citizen; and pursuits lowly to-day were then engaged in by
excellent men. Many of the vocations of standing were unknown, in
fact, fifty or sixty years ago; and refined and educated gentlemen
often turned their attention to what are now considered humble
occupations.
FOOTNOTES:
[4] George Hazard died on February 8th, 1914.
[5] Mrs. Meyer died on September 4th, 1914.
[6] Marks died on July 9th, 1914.