ADMISSION TO CITIZENSHIP
1859
In 1858, my brother, to whom the greater opportunities of San
Francisco had long appealed, decided upon a step that was to affect
considerably my own modest affairs. This was to remove permanently to
the North, with my sister-in-law; and in the Los Angeles _Star_ of
January 22d, 1859, there appeared the following:
Mr. Joseph P. Newmark has established a commission-house in
San Francisco, with a branch in this city. From his
experience in business, Mr. Newmark will be a most
desirable agent for the sale of our domestic produce in the
San Francisco market, and we have no doubt will obtain the
confidence of our merchants and shippers.
This move of my brother's was made, as a matter of fact, at a time
when Los Angeles, in one or two respects at least, seemed promising.
On September 30th, the building commenced by John Temple in the
preceding February, on the site of the present Bullard Block, was
finished. Most of the upper floor was devoted to a theater, and I am
inclined to think that the balance of the building was leased to the
City, the court room being next to the theater, and the ground floor
being used as a market. To the latter move there was considerable
opposition, affecting, as the expenditures did, taxes and the public
treasury; and one newspaper, after a spirited attack on the "Black
Republicans," concluded its editorial with this patriotic appeal:
Citizens! Attend to your interests; guard your pocketbooks!
This building is one of the properties to which I refer as sold by
Hinchman, having been bought by Dr. J. S. Griffin and B. D. Wilson who
resold it in time to the County.
A striking feature of this market building was the town clock, whose
bell was pronounced "fine-toned and sonorous." The clock and bell,
however, were destined to share the fate of the rest of the structure
which, all in all, was not very well constructed. At last, the heavy
rains of the early sixties played havoc with the tower, and toward the
end of 1861 the clock had set such a pace for itself regardless of the
rest of the universe that the newspapers were full of facetious jibes
concerning the once serviceable timepiece, and many were the queries
as to whether something could not be done to roof the mechanism? The
clock, however, remained uncovered until Bullard demolished the
building to make room for the present structure.
Elsewhere I have referred to the attempt, shortly after I arrived
here, or during the session of the Legislature of 1854-55, to divide
California into two states--the proposition, be it added of a San
Bernardino County representative. A committee of thirteen, from
different sections of the commonwealth, later substituted a bill
providing for three states: Shasta, in the North; California, at the
middle; Colorado, in the South; but nothing evolving as a result of
the effort, our Assemblyman, Andrés Pico, in 1859 fathered a measure
for the segregation of the Southern counties under the name of
Colorado, when this bill passed both houses and was signed by the
Governor. It had to be submitted to the people, however, at the
election in September, 1859; and although nearly twenty-five hundred
ballots were cast in favor of the division, as against eight hundred
in the negative, the movement was afterward stifled in Washington.
Damien Marchessault and Victor Beaudry having enthusiastically
organized the Santa Anita Mining Company in 1858, H. N. Alexander,
agent at Los Angeles for Wells Fargo & Company, in 1859 announced that
the latter had provided scales for weighing gold-dust and were
prepared to transact a general exchange business. This was the same
firm that had come through the crisis with unimpaired credit when
Adams & Company and many others went to the wall in the great
financial crash of 1855.
I have mentioned the Mormon Colony at San Bernardino and its
connection, as an offshoot, with the great Mormon city, Salt Lake; now
I may add that each winter, for fifteen or twenty years, or until
railroad connection was established, a lively and growing trade was
carried on between Los Angeles and Utah. This was because the Mormons
had no open road toward the outside world, except in the direction of
Southern California; for snow covered both the Rockies and the Sierra
Nevadas, and closed every other highway and trail. A number of Mormon
wagon-trains, therefore, went back and forth every winter over the
seven hundred miles or more of fairly level, open roadways, between
Salt Lake and Los Angeles, taking back not only goods bought here but
much that was shipped from San Francisco to Salt Lake via San Pedro. I
remember that in February, 1859, these Mormon wagons arrived by the
Overland Route almost daily.
The third week in February witnessed one of the most interesting
gatherings of _rancheros_ characteristic of Southern California life I
have ever seen. It was a typical _rodeo_, lasting two or three days,
for the separating and re-grouping of cattle and horses, and took
place at the residence of William Workman at La Puente _rancho_.
Strictly speaking, the _rodeo_ continued but two days, or less; for,
inasmuch as the cattle to be sorted and branded had to be deprived for
the time being of their customary nourishment, the work was
necessarily one of despatch. Under the direction of a Judge of the
Plains--on this occasion, the polished cavalier, Don Felipe Lugo--they
were examined, parted and branded, or re-branded, with hot irons
impressing a mark (generally a letter or odd monogram) duly registered
at the Court House and protected by the County Recorder's certificate.
Never have I seen finer horsemanship than was there displayed by those
whose task it was to pursue the animal and throw the lasso around the
head or leg; and as often as most of those present had probably seen
the feat performed, great was their enthusiasm when each _vaquero_
brought down his victim. Among the guests were most of the _rancheros_
of wealth and note, together with their attendants, all of whom made
up a company ready to enjoy the unlimited hospitality for which the
Workmans were so renowned.
Aside from the business in hand of disposing of such an enormous
number of mixed-up cattle in so short a time, what made the occasion
one of keen delight was the remarkable, almost astounding ability of
the horseman in controlling his animal; for lassoing cattle was not
his only forte. The _vaquero_ of early days was a clever rider and
handler of horses, particularly the bronco--so often erroneously
spelled broncho--sometimes a mustang, sometimes an Indian pony. Out of
a drove that had never been saddled, he would lasso one, attach a
halter to his neck and blindfold him by means of a strap some two or
three inches in width fastened to the halter; after which he would
suddenly mount the bronco and remove the blind, when the horse,
unaccustomed to discipline or restraint, would buck and kick for over
a quarter of a mile, and then stop only because of exhaustion. With
seldom a mishap, however, the _vaquero_ almost invariably broke the
mustang to the saddle within three or four days. This little Mexican
horse, while perhaps not so graceful as his American brother, was
noted for endurance; and he could lope from morning till night, if
necessary, without evidence of serious fatigue.
Speaking of this dexterity, I may add that now and then the early
Californian _vaquero_ gave a good exhibition of his prowess in the
town itself. Runaways, due in part to the absence of hitching posts
but frequently to carelessness, occurred daily; and sometimes a clever
horseman who happened to be near would pursue, overtake and lasso the
frightened steed before serious harm had been done.
Among the professional classes, J. Lancaster Brent was always popular,
but never more welcomed than on his return from Washington on
February 26th, 1859, when he brought the United States patent to the
Dominguez _rancho_, dated December 18th, 1858, and the first document
of land conveyance from the American Government to reach California.
In mercantile circles, Adolph Portugal became somewhat prominent,
conducting a flourishing business here for a number of years after
opening in 1854, and accumulating, before 1865, about seventy-five
thousand dollars. With this money he then left Los Angeles and went to
Europe, where he made an extremely unprofitable investment. He
returned to Los Angeles and again engaged in mercantile pursuits; but
he was never able to recover, and died a pauper.
Corbitt, who at one time controlled, with Dibblee, great ranch areas
near Santa Bárbara, and in 1859 was in partnership with Barker, owned
the Santa Anita _rancho_, which he later sold to William Wolfskill.
From Los Angeles, Corbitt went to Oregon, where he became, I think, a
leading banker.
Louis Mesmer arrived here in 1858, then went to Fraser River and
there, in eight months, he made twenty thousand dollars by baking for
the Hudson Bay Company's troops. A year later he was back in Los
Angeles; and on Main Street, somewhere near Requena, he started a
bakery. In time he controlled the local bread trade, supplying among
others the Government troops here. In 1864, Mesmer bought out the
United States Hotel, previously run by Webber & Haas, and finally
purchased from Don Juan N. Padilla the land on which the building
stood. This property, costing three thousand dollars, extended one
hundred and forty feet on Main Street and ran through to Los Angeles,
on which street it had a frontage of about sixty feet. Mesmer's son
Joseph is still living and is active in civic affairs.
William Nordholt, a Forty-niner, was also a resident of Los Angeles
for some time. He was a carpenter and worked in partnership with Jim
Barton; and when Barton was elected Sheriff, Nordholt continued in
business for himself. At length, in 1859, he opened a grocery store on
the northwest corner of Los Angeles and First streets, which he
conducted for many years. Even in 1853, when I first knew him,
Nordholt had made a good start; and he soon accumulated considerable
real estate on First Street, extending from Los Angeles to Main. He
shared his possessions with his Spanish wife, who attended to his
grocery; but after his death, in perhaps the late seventies, his
children wasted their patrimony.
Notwithstanding the opening of other hotels, the Bella Union continued
throughout the fifties to be the representative headquarters of its
kind in Los Angeles and for a wide area around. On April 19th, 1856,
Flashner & Hammell took hold of the establishment; and a couple of
years after that, Dr. J. B. Winston, who had had local hotel
experience, joined Flashner and together they made improvements,
adding the second story, which took five or six months to complete.
This step forward in the hostelry was duly celebrated, on April 14th,
1859, at a dinner, the new dining-room being advertised, far and wide,
as "one of the finest in all California."
Shortly after this, however, Marcus Flashner (who owned some
thirty-five acres at the corner of Main and Washington streets, where
he managed either a vineyard or an orange orchard), met a violent
death. He used to travel to and from this property in a buggy; and one
day--June 29th, 1859--his horse ran away, throwing him out and killing
him. In 1860, John King, Flashner's brother-in-law, entered the
management of the Bella Union; and by 1861, Dr. Winston had sole
control.
Strolling again, in imagination, into the old Bella Union of this
time, I am reminded of a novel method then employed to call the guests
to their meals. When I first came to Los Angeles the hotel waiter rang
a large bell to announce that all was ready; but about the spring of
1859 the fact that another meal had been concocted was signalized by
the blowing of a shrill steam-whistle placed on the hotel's roof. This
brought together both the "regulars" and transients, everyone
scurrying to be first at the dining-room door.
About the middle of April, Wells Fargo & Company's rider made a fast
run between San Pedro and Los Angeles, bringing all the mail matter
from the vessels, and covering the more than twenty-seven miles of
the old roundabout route in less than an hour.
The Protestant Church has been represented in Los Angeles since the
first service in Mayor Nichols' home and the missionary work of Adam
Bland; but it was not until May 4th, 1859, that any attempt was made
to erect an edifice for the Protestants in the community. Then a
committee, including Isaac S. K. Ogier, A. J. King, Columbus Sims,
Thomas Foster, William H. Shore, N. A. Potter, J. R. Gitchell and
Henry D. Barrows began to collect funds. Reverend William E. Boardman,
an Episcopalian, was invited to take charge; but subscriptions coming
in slowly, he conducted services, first in one of the school buildings
and then in the Court House, until 1862 when he left.
Despite its growing communication with San Francisco, Los Angeles for
years was largely dependent upon sail and steamboat service, and each
year the need of a better highway to the North, for stages, became
more and more apparent. Finally, in May, 1859, General Ezra Drown was
sent as a commissioner to Santa Bárbara, to discuss the construction
of a road to that city; and on his return he declared the project
quite practicable. The Supervisors had agreed to devote a certain sum
of money, and the Santa Barbareños, on their part, were to vote on the
proposition of appropriating fifteen thousand dollars for the work.
Evidently the citizens voted favorably; for in July of the following
year James Thompson, of Los Angeles, contracted for making the new
road through Santa Bárbara County, from the Los Angeles to the San
Luis Obispo lines, passing through Ventura--or San Buenaventura, as it
was then more poetically called--Santa Bárbara and out by the Gaviota
Pass; in all, a distance of about one hundred and twenty-five miles.
Some five or six months were required to finish the rough work, and
over thirty thousand dollars was expended for that alone.
Winfield Scott Hancock, whom I came to know well and who had been here
before, arrived in Los Angeles in May, 1859, to establish a depot for
the Quartermaster's Department which he finally located at
Wilmington, naming it Drum Barracks, after Adjutant-General Richard
Coulter Drum, for several years at the head of the Department of the
West. Hancock himself was Quartermaster and had an office in a brick
building on Main Street near Third; and he was in charge of all
Government property here and at Yuma, Arizona Territory, then a
military post. He thus both bought and sold; advertising at one time,
for example, a call for three or four hundred thousand pounds of
barley, and again offering for sale, on behalf of poor Uncle Sam, the
important item of a lone, braying mule! Hancock invested liberally in
California projects, and became interested, with others, in the Bear
Valley mines; and at length had the good luck to strike a rich and
paying vein of gold quartz.
Beaudry & Marchessault were among the first handlers of ice in Los
Angeles, having an ice-house in 1859, where, in the springtime, they
stored the frozen product taken from the mountain lakes fifty miles
away. The ice was cut into cubes of about one hundred pounds each,
packed down the _cañons_ by a train of thirty to forty mules, and then
brought in wagons to Los Angeles. By September, 1860, wagon-loads of
San Bernardino ice--or perhaps one would better say compact snow--were
hawked about town and bought up by saloon-keepers and others, having
been transported in the way I have just described, a good seventy-five
miles. Later, ice was shipped here from San Francisco; and soon after
it reached town, the saloons displayed signs soliciting orders.
Considering the present popularity of the silver dollar along the
entire Western Coast, it may be interesting to recall the stamping of
these coins, for the first time in California, at the San Francisco
mint. This was in the spring of 1859, soon after which they began to
appear in Los Angeles. A few years later, in 1863, and for ten or
fifteen years thereafter, silver half-dimes, coined in San Francisco,
were to be seen here occasionally; but they were never popular. The
larger silver piece, the dime, was more common, although for a while
it also had little purchasing power. As late as the early seventies
it was not welcome, and many a time I have seen dimes thrown into the
street as if they were worthless. This prejudice against the smaller
silver coins was much the same as the feeling which even to-day
obtains with many people on the Coast against the copper cent. When
the nickel, in the eighties, came into use, the old Californian
tradition as to coinage began to disappear; and this opened the way
for the introduction of the one-cent piece, which is more and more
coming into popular favor.
In the year 1859, the Hellman brothers, Isaias W. and Herman W.,
arrived here in a sailing-vessel with Captain Morton. I. W. Hellman
took a clerkship with his cousin, I. M. Hellman, who had arrived in
1854 and was established in the stationery line in Mellus's Row, while
H. W. Hellman went to work in June, 1859, for Phineas Banning, at
Wilmington. I. W. Hellman immediately showed much ability and greatly
improved his cousin's business. By 1865, he was in trade for himself,
selling dry-goods at the corner of Main and Commercial streets as the
successor to A. Portugal; while H. W. Hellman, father of Marco H.
Hellman, the banker, and father-in-law of the public-spirited citizen,
Louis M. Cole, became my competitor, as will be shown later, in the
wholesale grocery business.
John Philbin, an Irishman, arrived here penniless late in the fifties,
but with my assistance started a small store at Fort Tejón, then a
military post necessary for the preservation of order on the Indian
Reservation; and there, during the short space of eighteen months, he
accumulated twenty thousand dollars. Illness compelled him to leave,
and I bought his business and property. After completing this
purchase, I engaged a clerk in San Francisco to manage the new branch.
As John Philbin had been very popular, the new clerk also called
himself "John" and soon enjoyed equal favor. It was only when Bob
Wilson came into town one day from the Fort and told me, "That chap
John is gambling your whole damned business away; he plays seven-up at
twenty dollars a game, and when out of cash, puts up blocks of
merchandise," that I investigated and discharged him, sending Kaspare
Cohn, who had recently arrived from Europe, to take his place.
It was in 1859, or a year before Abraham Lincoln was elected
President, that I bought out Philbin, and at the breaking out of the
War, the troops were withdrawn from Fort Tejón, thus ending my
activity there as a merchant. We disposed of the stock as best we
could; but the building, which had cost three thousand dollars,
brought at forced sale just fifty. Fort Tejón, established about 1854,
I may add, after it attained some fame as the only military post in
Southern California where snow ever fell, and also as the scene of the
earthquake phenomena I have described, was abandoned altogether as a
military station on September 11th, 1864. Philbin removed to Los
Angeles, where he invested in some fifty acres of vineyard along San
Pedro Street, extending as far south as the present Pico; and I still
have a clear impression of the typical old adobe there, so badly
damaged by the rains of 1890.
Kaspare remained in my employ until he set up in business at Red
Bluff, Tehama County, where he continued until January, 1866. In more
recent years, he has come to occupy an enviable position as a
successful financier.
Somewhat less than six years after my arrival (or, to be accurate, on
the fifteenth day of August, 1859, about the time of my mother's death
at Loebau), and satisfying one of my most ardent ambitions, I entered
the family of Uncle Sam, carrying from the District Court here a
red-sealed document, to me of great importance; my newly-acquired
citizenship being attested by Ch. R. Johnson, Clerk, and John O.
Wheeler, Deputy.
On September 3d, the Los Angeles _Star_ made the following
announcement and salutation:
CALLED TO THE BAR--At the present term of the District
Court for the First Judicial District, Mr. M. J. Newmark
was called to the bar. We congratulate Mr. Newmark on his
success, and wish him a brilliant career in his profession.
This kindly reference was to my brother-in-law, who had read law in
the office of E. J. C. Kewen, then on Main Street, opposite the Bella
Union, and had there, in the preceding January, when already eleven
attorneys were practicing here, hung out his shingle as Notary Public
and Conveyancer--an office to which he was reappointed by the Governor
in 1860, soon after he had been made Commissioner for the State of
Missouri to reside in Los Angeles. About that same time he began to
take a lively interest in politics; being elected, on October 13th,
1860, a delegate to the Democratic County Convention. A. J. King was
also admitted to the Bar toward the end of that year.
We who have such praise for the rapid growth of the population in Los
Angeles must not forget the faithful midwives of early days, when
there was not the least indication that there would ever be a lying-in
hospital here. First, one naturally recalls old Mrs. Simmons, the
_Sarah Gamp_ of the fifties; while her professional sister of the
sixties was Lydia Rebbick, whose name also will be pleasantly spoken
by old-timers. A brother of Mrs. Rebbick was James H. Whitworth, a
rancher, who came to Los Angeles County in 1857.
Residents of Los Angeles to-day have but a faint idea, I suppose, of
what exertion we cheerfully submitted to, forty or fifty years ago, in
order to participate in a little pleasure. This was shown at an outing
in 1859, on and by the sea, made possible through the courtesy of my
hospitable friend, Phineas Banning, details of which illustrate the
social conditions then prevailing here.
Banning had invited fifty or sixty ladies and gentlemen to accompany
him to Catalina; and at about half-past five o'clock on a June morning
the guests arrived at Banning's residence where they partook of
refreshments. Then they started in decorated stages for New San Pedro,
where the host (who, by the way, was a man of most genial temperament,
fond of a joke and sure to infuse others with his good-heartedness)
regaled his friends with a hearty breakfast, not forgetting anything
likely to both warm and cheer. After ample justice had been done to
this feature, the picknickers boarded Banning's little steamer _Comet_
and made for the outer harbor.
There they were transferred to the United States Coast Survey ship
_Active_, which steamed away so spiritedly that in two hours the
passengers were off Catalina; nothing meanwhile having been left
undone to promote the comfort of everyone aboard the vessel. During
this time Captain Alder and his officers, resplendent in their naval
uniforms, held a reception; and unwilling that the merrymakers should
be exposed without provisions to the wilds of the less-trodden island,
they set before them a substantial ship's dinner. Once ashore, the
visitors strolled along the beach and across that part of the island
then most familiar; and at four o'clock the members of the party were
again walking the decks of the Government vessel. Steaming back
slowly, San Pedro was reached after sundown; and, having again been
bundled into the stages, the excursionists were back in Los Angeles
about ten o'clock.
I have said that most of the early political meetings took place at
the residence of Don Ygnácio del Valle. I recall, however, a mass
meeting and barbecue, in August, 1859, in a grove at El Monte owned by
inn-keeper Thompson. Benches were provided for the ladies, prompting
the editor of the _Star_ to observe, with characteristic gallantry,
that the seats "were fully occupied by an array of beauty such as no
other portion of the State ever witnessed."
On September 11th, Eberhard & Koll opened the Lafayette Hotel on Main
Street, on the site opposite the Bella Union where once had stood the
residence of Don Eulógio de Celis. Particular inducements to families
desiring quiet and the attraction of a table "supplied with the
choicest viands and delicacies of the season" were duly advertised;
but the proprietors met with only a moderate response. On January 1st,
1862, Eberhard withdrew and Frederick W. Koll took into partnership
Henry Dockweiler--father of two of our very prominent young men, J. H.
Dockweiler, the civil engineer and, in 1889, City Surveyor, and
Isidore B. Dockweiler, the attorney--and Chris Fluhr. In two years,
Dockweiler had withdrawn, leaving Fluhr as sole proprietor; and he
continued as such until, in the seventies, he took Charles Gerson into
partnership with him. It is my recollection, in fact, that Fluhr was
associated with this hotel in one capacity or another until its name
was changed, first to the Cosmopolitan and then to the St. Elmo.
Various influences contributed to causing radical social changes,
particularly throughout the county. When Dr. John S. Griffin and other
pioneers came here, they were astonished at the hospitality of the
ranch-owners, who provided for them, however numerous, shelter, food
and even fresh saddle-horses; and this bounteous provision for the
wayfarer continued until the migrating population had so increased as
to become something of a burden and economic conditions put a brake on
unlimited entertainment. Then a slight reaction set in, and by the
sixties a movement to demand some compensation for such service began
to make itself felt. In 1859, Don Vicente de la Osa advertised that he
would afford accommodation for travelers by way of his ranch, _El
Encino_; but that to protect himself, he must consider it "an
essential part of the arrangement that visitors should act on the good
old rule and--pay as one goes!"
In 1859, C. H. Classen, a native of Germany, opened a cigar factory in
the Signoret Building on Main Street, north of Arcadia; and believing
that tobacco could be successfully grown in Los Angeles County, he
sent to Cuba for some seed and was soon making cigars from the local
product. I fancy that the plants degenerated because, although others
experimented with Los Angeles tobacco, the growing of the leaf here
was abandoned after a few years. H. Newmark & Company handled much
tobacco for sheep-wash, and so came to buy the last Southern
California crop. When I speak of sheep-wash, I refer to a solution
made by steeping tobacco in water and used to cure a skin disease
known as scab. It was always applied after shearing, for then the wool
could not be affected and the process was easier.
Talking of tobacco, I may say that the commercial cigarette now for
sale everywhere was not then to be seen. People rolled their own
cigarettes, generally using brown paper, but sometimes the white,
which came in reams of sheets about six by ten inches in size.
Kentucky leaf was most in vogue; and the first brand of granulated
tobacco that I remember was known as _Sultana_. Clay pipes, then
packed in barrels, were used a good deal more than now, and brier
pipes much less. There was no duty on imported cigars, and their
consequent cheapness brought them into general consumption.
Practically all of the native female population smoked cigarettes, for
it was a custom of the country; but the American ladies did not
indulge. While spending an enjoyable hour at the County Museum
recently, I noticed a cigarette-case of finely-woven matting that once
belonged to António María Lugo, and a bundle of cigarettes, rolled up,
like so many matches, by Andrés Pico; and both the little _cigarillos_
and the holder will give a fair understanding of these customs of the
past.
Besides the use of tobacco in cigar and cigarette form, and for pipes,
there was much consumption of the weed by chewers. _Peachbrand_, a
black plug saturated with molasses and packed in caddies--a term more
commonly applied to little boxes for tea--was the favorite chewing
tobacco fifty years or more ago. It would hardly be an exaggeration to
say that nine out of ten Americans in Los Angeles indulged in this
habit, some of whom certainly exposed us to the criticism of Charles
Dickens and others, who found so much fault with our manners.
The pernicious activity of rough or troublesome characters brings to
recollection an aged Indian named Polonia, whom pioneers will easily
recollect as having been bereft of his sight, by his own people,
because of his unnatural ferocity. He was six feet four inches in
height, and had once been endowed with great physical strength; he was
clad, for the most part, in a tattered blanket, so that his mere
appearance was sufficient to impress, if not to intimidate, the
observer. Only recently, in fact, Mrs. Solomon Lazard told me that to
her and her girl playmates Polonia and his fierce countenance were the
terror of their lives. He may thus have deserved to forfeit his life
for many crimes; but the idea of cutting a man's eyes out for any
offense whatever, no matter how great, is revolting in the extreme.
The year I arrived, and for some time thereafter, Polonia slept by
night in the corridor of Don Manuel Requena's house. With the aid of
only a very long stick, this blind Indian was able to find his way all
over the town.
Sometime in 1859, Daniel Sexton, a veteran of the battles of San
Bartolo and the Mesa, became possessed of the idea that gold was
secreted in large sacks near the ruins of San Juan Capistrano; and
getting permission, he burrowed so far beneath the house of a citizen
that the latter, fearing his whole home was likely to cave in,
frantically begged the gold-digger to desist. Sexton, in fact, came
near digging his own grave instead of another's, and was for a while
the good-natured butt of many a pun.
Jacob A. Moerenhout, a native of Antwerp, Belgium, who had been French
Consul for a couple of years at Monterey, in the latter days of the
Mexican _régime_, removed to Los Angeles on October 29th, 1859, on
which occasion the Consular flag of France was raised at his residence
in this city. As early as January 13th, 1835, President Andrew Jackson
had appointed Moerenhout "U. S. Consul to Otaheite and the Rest of the
Society Islands," the original Consular document, with its quaint
spelling and signed by the vigorous pen of that President, existing
to-day in a collection owned by Dr. E. M. Clinton of Los Angeles; and
the Belgian had thus so profited by experience in promoting trade and
amicable relations between foreign nations that he was prepared to
make himself _persona grata_ here. Salvos of cannon were fired, while
the French citizens, accompanied by a band, formed in procession and
marched to the Plaza. In the afternoon, Don Louis Sainsevain in honor
of the event set a groaning and luxurious table for a goodly company
at his hospitable residence. There patriotic toasts were gracefully
proposed and as gracefully responded to. The festivities continued
until the small hours of the morning, after which Consul Moerenhout
was declared a duly-initiated Angeleño.
[Illustration: San Pedro Street, near Second, in the Early Seventies]
[Illustration: Commercial Street, Looking East from Main, about 1870]
[Illustration: View of Plaza, Showing the Reservoir]
[Illustration: Old Lanfranco Block]
Surrounded by most of his family, Don Juan Bandini, a distinguished
Southern Californian and a worthy member of one of the finest Spanish
families here, after a long and painful illness, died at the home of
his daughter and son-in-law, Doña Arcadia and Don Abel Stearns, in
Los Angeles, on November 4th, 1859. Don Juan had come to California
far back in the early twenties, and to Los Angeles so soon thereafter
that he was a familiar and welcome figure here many years before I
arrived.
It is natural that I should look back with pleasure and satisfaction
to my association with a gentleman so typically Californian,
warm-hearted, genial and social in the extreme; and one who dispensed
so large and generous a hospitality. He came with his father--who
eventually died here and was buried at the old San Gabriel
Mission--and at one time possessed the Jurupa _rancho_, where he
lived. Don Juan was a lawyer by profession, and had written the best
part of a history of early California, the manuscript of which went to
the State University. The passing glimpse of Bandini, in sunlight and
in shadow, recorded by Dana in his classic _Two Years before the
Mast_, adds to the fame already enjoyed by this native Californian.
Himself of a good-sized family, Don Juan married twice. His first
wife, courted in 1823, was Dolores, daughter of Captain José
Estudillo, a _comandante_ at Monterey; and of that union were born
Doña Arcadia, first the wife of Abel Stearns and later of Colonel R.
S. Baker; Doña Ysidora, who married Lieutenant Cave J. Coutts, a
cousin of General Grant; Doña Josefa, later the wife of Pedro C.
Carrillo (father of J. J. Carrillo, formerly Marshal here and now
Justice of the Peace at Santa Monica), and the sons, José María
Bandini and Juanito Bandini. Don Juan's second wife was Refúgio, a
daughter of Santiago Arguello and a granddaughter of the governor who
made the first grants of land to _rancheros_ of Los Angeles. She it
was who nursed the wounded Kearny and who became a friend of
Lieutenant William T. Sherman, once a guest at her home; and she was
also the mother of Doña Dolores, later the wife of Charles R. Johnson,
and of Doña Margarita whom Dr. James B. Winston married after his
rollicking bachelor days. By Bandini's second marriage there were
three sons: Juan de la Cruz Bandini, Alfredo Bandini and Arturo
Bandini.
The financial depression of 1859 affected the temperament of citizens
so much that little or no attention was paid to holidays, with the one
exception, perhaps, of the Bella Union's poorly-patronized Christmas
dinner; and during 1860 many small concerns closed their doors
altogether.
I have spoken of the fact that brick was not much used when I first
came to Los Angeles, and have shown how it soon after became more
popular as a building material. This was emphasized during 1859, when
thirty-one brick buildings, such as they were, were put up.
In December, Benjamin Hayes, then District Judge and holding court in
the dingy old adobe at the corner of Spring and Franklin streets,
ordered the Sheriff to secure and furnish another place; and despite
the fact that there was only a depleted treasury to meet the new
outlay of five or six thousand dollars, few persons attempted to deny
the necessity. The fact of the matter was that, when it rained, water
actually poured through the ceiling and ran down the court-room walls,
spattering over the Judge's desk to such an extent that umbrellas
might very conveniently have been brought into use; all of which led
to the limit of human patience if not of human endurance.
In 1859, one of the first efforts toward the formation of a Public
Library was made when Felix Bachman, Myer J. Newmark, William H.
Workman, Sam Foy, H. S. Allanson and others organized a Library
Association, with John Temple as President; J. J. Warner,
Vice-President; Francis Mellus, Treasurer; and Israel Fleishman,
Secretary. The Association established a reading-room in Don Abel
Stearns's Arcadia Block. An immediate and important acquisition was
the collection of books that had been assembled by Henry Mellus for
his own home; other citizens contributed books, periodicals and money;
and the messengers of the Overland Mail undertook to get such Eastern
newspapers as they could for the perusal of the library members. Five
dollars was charged as an initiation fee, and a dollar for monthly
dues; but insignificant as was the expense, the undertaking was not
well patronized by the public, and the project, to the regret of many,
had to be abandoned.
This effort to establish a library recalls an Angeleño of the fifties,
Ralph Emerson, a cousin, I believe, though somewhat distantly removed,
of the famous Concord philosopher. He lived on the west side of
Alameda Street, in an adobe known as Emerson's Row, between First and
Aliso streets, where Miss Mary E. Hoyt, assisted by her mother, had a
school; and where at one time Emerson, a strong competitor of mine in
the hide business, had his office. Fire destroyed part of their home
late in 1859, and again in the following September. Emerson served as
a director on the Library Board, both he and his wife being among the
most refined and attractive people of the neighborhood.
It must have been late in November that Miss Hoyt announced the
opening of her school at No. 2 Emerson Row, in doing which she
followed a custom in vogue with private schools at that time and
published the endorsements of leading citizens, or patrons.
Again in 1861, Miss Hoyt advertised to give "instruction in the higher
branches of English education, with French, drawing, and ornamental
needlework," for five dollars a month; while three dollars was asked
for the teaching of the common branches and needlework, and only two
dollars for teaching the elementary courses. Miss Hoyt's move was
probably due to the inability of the Board of Education to secure an
appropriation with which to pay the public school teachers. This lack
of means led not only to a general discussion of the problem, but to
the recommendation that Los Angeles schools be graded and a high
school started.
Following a dry year, and especially a fearful heat wave in October
which suddenly ran the mercury up to one hundred and ten degrees,
December witnessed heavy rains in the mountains inundating both
valleys and towns. On the fourth of December the most disastrous rain
known in the history of the Southland set in, precipitating, within a
single day and night, twelve inches of water; and causing the rise of
the San Gabriel and other rivers to a height never before recorded and
such a cataclysm that sand and _débris_ were scattered far and wide.
Lean and weakened from the ravaging drought through which they had
just passed, the poor cattle, now exposed to the elements of cold rain
and wind, fell in vast numbers in their tracks. The bed of the Los
Angeles River was shifted for, perhaps, a quarter of a mile. Many
houses in town were cracked and otherwise damaged, and some caved in
altogether. The front of the old Church, attacked through a leaking
roof, disintegrated, swayed and finally gave way, filling the
neighboring street with impassable heaps.
I have spoken of the Market House built by John Temple for the City.
On December 29th, there was a sale of the stalls by Mayor D.
Marchessault; and all except six booths were disposed of, each for the
term of three months. One hundred and seventy-three dollars was the
rental agreed upon; and Dodson & Company bid successfully for nine out
of thirteen of the stalls. By the following month, however, complaints
were made in the press that, though the City Fathers had "condescended
to let the suffering public" have another market, they still prevented
the free competition desired; and by the end of August, it was openly
charged that the manner in which the City Market was conducted showed
"a gross piece of favoritism," and that the City Treasury on this
account would suffer a monthly loss of one hundred dollars in rents
alone.
About 1859, John Murat, following in the wake of Henry Kuhn,
proprietor of the New York Brewery, established the Gambrinus in the
block bounded by Los Angeles, San Pedro and First and what has become
Second streets. The brewery, notwithstanding its spacious yard, was
anything but an extensive institution, and the quality of the product
dispensed to the public left much to be desired; but it was beer, and
Murat has the distinction of having been one of the first Los Angeles
brewers. The New York's spigot, a suggestive souvenir of those
convivial days picked up by George W. Hazard, now enriches a local
museum.
These reminiscences recall still another brewer--Christian Henne--at
whose popular resort on Main Street, on the last evening of 1859,
following some conferences in the old Round House, thirty-eight Los
Angeles Germans met and formed an association which they called the
Teutonia-Concordia. The object was to promote social intercourse,
especially among Germans, and to further the study of German song. C.
H. Classen was chosen first President; H. Hammel, Vice-President; H.
Heinsch, Secretary; and Lorenzo Leck, Treasurer.
How great were the problems confronting the national government in the
development of our continent may be gathered from the strenuous
efforts--and their results--to encourage an overland mail route. Six
hundred thousand dollars a year was the subsidy granted the
Butterfield Company for running two mail coaches each way a week; yet
the postal revenue for the first year was but twenty-seven thousand
dollars, leaving a deficit of more than half a million! But this was
not all that was discouraging: politicians attacked the stage route
administration, and then the newspapers had to come to the rescue and
point out the advantages as compared with the ocean routes. Indians,
also, were an obstacle; and with the arrival of every stage, one
expected to hear the sensational story of ambushing and murder rather
than the yarn of a monotonous trip. When new reports of such outrages
were brought in, new outcries were raised and new petitions, calling
on the Government for protection, were hurriedly circulated.