DROUGHTS--THE _ADA HANCOCK_ DISASTER
1862-1863
On the first of January, 1862, after an experience of about five
years, I retired from the selling of clothing, which was never
congenial to me; and as I had been buying hides and wool on a small
scale since the middle of the fifties, I forthwith devoted myself to
the commission business. Frenchmen from the Basque country, among whom
were Miguel Leonis, Gaston Oxarart, Domingo Amestoy and Domingo
Bastanchury, had commenced to appear here in 1858 and to raise sheep;
so that in 1859 large flocks were brought into Southern California,
the sheep commanding a price of three dollars and a half per head. My
own operations, exceedingly small in the beginning, increased in
importance, and by 1862 I was fairly equipped for this venture. Corn,
barley and wheat were also then being raised, and I busied myself with
these commodities as well.
[Illustration: Eugene Meyer]
[Illustration: Jacob A. Moerenhout]
[Illustration: Frank Lecouvreur]
[Illustration: Thomas D. Mott]
[Illustration: Leonard J. Rose]
[Illustration: H. K. S. O'Melveny]
[Illustration: Remi Nadeau]
[Illustration: John M. Griffith]
Most of the early sheepmen prospered and in time bought large tracts
of land for their flocks, and with all of them I had dealings of more
or less importance. Amestoy's career is worthy of particular mention
as exemplifying the three cardinal virtues of business: honesty,
application and frugality. He and his wife took in washing; and while
the husband went from house to house, leading a horse with a large
basket strapped to either side, to collect and deliver the clothes,
the wife toiled at the tub. In the end, what they together had
saved became the foundation of their important investments in sheep
and land. Pedro Larronde, another early sheepman, married the widow of
his Basque fellow-countryman, Etchemendy, the tippling baker.
Having regularly established a commission business, I brought
consignments of varied merchandise from San Francisco on the
semi-monthly steamer _Goliah_, whose Captain at one time was Robert
Haley, and at another his brother Salisbury Haley, a brother-in-law of
Tom Mott; and I disposed of them to small dealers with whom I thus
became pretty well acquainted. These consignments were sold almost as
soon as they arrived. I was careful to bring in only staple articles
in the grocery line, and it was long before I appreciated the
advantage of carrying sufficient stock to supply a regular demand. On
the return trips of the steamer to San Francisco I forwarded such
produce as I had accumulated.
I do not recall any important changes in 1862, the declining months of
which saw the beginning of the two years' devastating drought. The
Civil War was in progress, but we were so far from the scene of strife
that we were not materially affected. Sympathy was very general here
for the Confederate cause, and the Government therefore retained in
Wilmington both troops and clerks who were paid in a badly-depreciated
currency, which they were obliged to discount at exorbitant rates, to
get money at all; while other employees had to accept vouchers which
were subject to a still greater discount. Notwithstanding these
difficulties, however, pay-day increased the resources of the pueblo
considerably.
Hellman & Brother, a partnership consisting of I. M. and Samuel
Hellman, dissolved, on January 2d, I. M. continuing in the dry goods
business while Sam took the books and stationery. Another brother and
associate, H. M. Hellman, a couple of years before had returned to
Europe, where he died. If my memory is accurate, I. W. remained with
I. M. Hellman until the former, in 1865, bought out A. Portugal.
Samuel A. Widney, who later had a curio store, was for a while with
Sam Hellman in a partnership known as Hellman & Widney.
On January 17th, Don Louis Vignes passed away in Los Angeles, at the
age of ninety-one years.
January also witnessed one of those typical scenes, in the fitting out
of a mule- and wagon-train, never likely to be seen in Los Angeles
again. Two hundred wagons and twelve hundred mules, mostly brought
from San Francisco on steamers, were assembled for a trip across the
desert to convey Government stores.
M. J. Newmark became a partner, on February 1st, in the firm of
Howard, Butterworth & Newmark, Federal and State Attorneys with
offices in the Temple Building, Los Angeles, and Armory Hall, San
Francisco; and it was considered at the time a rapid advance for a man
of but twenty-three years of age. The Los Angeles _Star_ of that date,
in fact, added a word of good fellowship: "We congratulate friend
Newmark on the association."
The intimate relations characteristic of a small community such as
ours, and the much more general effect then than nowadays of any
tragical occurrence have already been described. Deep sympathy was
therefore awakened, early in February, on the arrival of the steamer
_Senator_ and the rapid dissemination of the report that Dr. Thomas
Foster, the ex-Mayor, had been lost overboard, on January 29th, on the
boat's trip northward. Just what happened to Foster will never be
known; in San Francisco it was reported that he had thrown himself
into the sea, though others who knew him well looked upon the cause of
his death as accidental.
But slight attention was paid to the report, brought in by horsemen
from San Bernardino on February 4th, that an earthquake had occurred
there in the morning, until Captain Tom Seeley returned with the
_Senator_ to San Pedro and told about a seismic disturbance at sea,
during which he struck the wildest storm off Point Concepción, in all
his sea-faring experience. Sailors were then better all-round seamen
than now; yet there was greater superstition in Jack Tar's mind, and
such a storm made a deep impression upon his imagination.
I have alluded to the dependence of Los Angeles on the outside world,
no better evidence of which, perhaps, can be cited than that on the
twenty-second of February, George W. Chapin & Company of San Francisco
advertised here to furnish servants and other help to anyone in the
Southland. About the same time, San Bernardino parties, wishing to
bore a little artesian well, had to send to the Northern metropolis
for the necessary machinery.
In October, 1860, as I have intimated, Phineas Banning took A. F.
Hinchman into partnership, the firm being known as Banning & Hinchman,
and they seemed to prosper; but on February 12th, 1862, the public was
surprised at the announcement of the firm's dissolution. Banning
continued as proprietor, and Hinchman became Banning's Los Angeles
agent.
Although cattle-raising was the mainstay of Southern California for
many years, and gold-mining never played a very important part here,
Wells Fargo & Co., during the spring, frequently shipped thousands of
dollars' worth of gold at a time, gathered from Santa Anita, San
Gabriel and San Fernando _placers_, while probably an equally large
amount was forwarded out through other channels.
I have already pointed to the clever foresight shown by Abel Stearns
when he built the Arcadia Block and profited by the unhappy experience
of others, with rain that flooded their property; but I have not
stated that in elevating his new building considerably above the grade
of the street, somewhat regardless of the rights of others, he caused
the surplus water to run off into neighboring streets and buildings.
Following the great storm of 1861-62, the City sued Stearns for
damages, but he won his case. More than that, the overflow was a
Godsend to him, for it induced a number of people to move from
Mellus's Row to Arcadia Block at a time when the owner of vast ranches
and some of the best town property was already feeling the pinch of
the alternate dry and over-wet seasons. The fact is, as I shall soon
make clear, that before Stearns had seen the end of two or three
successive dry seasons yet to come, he was temporarily bankrupt and
embarrassed to the utmost.
By April, the walls and roof for the little Protestant Church at
Temple and New High streets had been built, and there the matter
rested for two years, when the structure, on which the taxes were
unpaid, was advertised for sale.
We have seen that the first Jewish services here were held soon after
the arrival of Joseph Newmark in 1854; under the same disadvantageous
conditions as had hampered the Protestant denominations, Mr. Newmark
volunteered to officiate on the principal holidays until 1862, when
the Reverend Abraham Wolf Edelman arrived. Born at Warsaw in 1832,
Rabbi Edelman came to America in 1851, immediately after he was
married to Miss Hannah Pessah Cohn, and settled successively in New
York, Paterson and Buffalo. Coming to California in 1859, he resided
in San Francisco until 1862, when he was chosen Rabbi of the orthodox
Congregation B'nai B'rith of Los Angeles, and soon attained
distinction as a Talmudic scholar and a preacher. The first services
under Rabbi Edelman were held in Stearns's, or Arcadia Hall; next, the
Congregation worshipped in Leck's Hall on Main Street between Second
and Third; and finally, through the courtesy of Judge Ygnácio
Sepúlveda, the court room was used. In 1873 the Jews of Los Angeles
erected their first synagogue, a brick building entered by a steep
stairway leading to a platform, and located on the east side of Fort
Street between Second and Third, on what is now the site of the Copp
Building next to the City Hall. In 1886, when local Jewry instituted a
much more liberal ritual, Rabbi Edelman's convictions induced him to
resign. The purchase of a lot for a home on the corner of Sixth and
Main streets proved a fortunate investment, later enabling him to
enjoy a well-deserved comfort and to gratify his charitable
inclinations. It is a strange coincidence that Reverend Edelman's
first marriage ceremony was that which blessed Samuel Prager; while
the last occasion on which he performed the solemn rites for the
dead--shortly before his own death in 1907--was for the same friend.
A. M. Edelman, the architect, and Dr. D. W. Edelman, both well-known
here, are sons of the Rabbi.
As late in the season as April, hail and snow fell in and near Los
Angeles. To the North of the city, the white mantle quite hid the
mountains and formed a new and lower snow-line; while within the city,
the temperature so lowered that at several intervals during the day,
huge hail-stones beat against the window-panes--a very unusual
experience for Angeleños.
Because of political charges preferred against A. J. King, then Under
Sheriff of the County, the latter, on April 10th, was arrested by
Henry D. Barrows, United States Marshal, who had been appointed by
President Lincoln, the year previous. Colonel Carleton, Commander of
the Southern Military Division, however, soon liberated King. On the
last day of the year, the Under Sheriff married the estimable Miss
Laura C. Evertsen.
Travelers to Europe have often suffered much annoyance through
safe-conduct regulations, but seldom have Americans had their liberty
thus restricted by their own authorities. Toward the middle of June,
word was received in Los Angeles that, owing to the suspicion lest
disloyalists were embarking for Aspinwall, all passengers for
California _via_ the Isthmus would be required to take out passports.
Anticipating, by forty years or more, Luther Burbank's work, attention
was directed, as early as 1862, to the possibility of eating the
cactus and thus finding, in this half-despised plant of the desert,
relief from both hunger and thirst. Half a century later, in 1913, Los
Angeles established the cactus candy industry through which the boiled
pulp of the _bisnaga_, often spoken of as the fishhook, barrel and
nigger-head variety, is made deliciously palatable when siruped from
ten to thirty days.
Ygnácio Sepúlveda, declared by the Los Angeles _Star_ "a young
gentleman of liberal education, and good, natural endowments, already
versed in legal studies," on September 6th was admitted to the
District Court Bar.
On January 18th, 1860, the first number of the _Semi-Weekly Southern
News_ appeared, containing advertisements in both English and Spanish.
It was issued by C. R. Conway and Alonzo Waite, who charged
twenty-five cents a copy, or seven dollars a year. On October 8th,
1862, the title was changed to the _Los Angeles Semi-Weekly News_.
In 1860, the Bella Union, as I have said, was under the management of
John King, who came here in 1856; while in 1861 J. B. Winston &
Company, who were represented by Henry Reed, controlled the hotel. In
1862 or 1863, John King and Henry Hammel were the managers.
I have told of the purchase of the San Pasqual _rancho_ by Dr. J. S.
Griffin. On December 11th, Dr. and Mrs. Griffin for five hundred
dollars sold to B. D. Wilson and wife some six hundred and forty acres
of that property; and a few hours afterward the Wilsons disposed of
two hundred and sixty-two acres for one thousand dollars. The
purchaser was Mrs. Eliza G. Johnston, wife of General Albert Sidney
Johnston. Mrs. Johnston at once built a neat residence on the tract
and called it _Fair Oaks_, after the plantation in Virginia on which
she had been born; and from this circumstance the name of the now
well-known Fair Oaks Avenue in Pasadena is derived. At the time of her
purchase Mrs. Johnston had hoped to reside there permanently; but the
tragic fate of her son in the _Ada Hancock_ disaster, following the
untimely death of her husband at Shiloh, and the apparent uselessness
of the land, led her to sell to Judge B. S. Eaton what to-day would be
worth far more than thousands of acres in many parts of the Southern
States. A curious coincidence in the relations of General Sumner, who
superseded General Johnston, to the hero of Shiloh is that, later in
the War, Sumner led a corps of Union troops at Fair Oaks, Virginia!
Don Ygnácio Coronel, father of António Franco Coronel, and the early
school patron to whom I have referred, died in Los Angeles on December
19th, aged seventy years. He had come to California in 1834, and had
long been eminent in political councils and social circles. I recall
him as a man of strong intellect and sterling character, kind-hearted
and popular.
Another effort, without success, to use camels for transportation over
the California and adjacent sands, was made in January, 1863, when a
camel express was sent out from New San Pedro to Tucson.
Elsewhere I have indicated the condition of the public cemetery. While
an adobe wall enclosed the Roman Catholic burial-place, and a brick
wall surrounded the Jewish resting-place for the dead, nothing was
done until 1863 to improve the Protestant cemetery, although
desecration went so far that the little railing around the grave of
poor Mrs. Leck, the grocer's wife who had been murdered, was torn down
and burned. Finally, the matter cried to Heaven so audibly that in
January, Los Angeles Masons appropriated one hundred and fifty dollars,
to be added to some five hundred dollars raised by popular
subscription; and the Common Council having appointed a committee to
supervise the work, William H. Perry put up the fence, making no
charge for his services.
About the middle of January word was received in Los Angeles of the
death, at Baltimore, of Colonel B. L. Beall, commander for years of
the Fort Tejón garrison, and active in the Mojave and Kern River
campaigns.
Death entered our home for the first time, when an infant daughter,
less than a month old, died this year on February 14th.
In February, the editor of the _News_ advised the experiment of
growing cotton as an additional activity for the Colorado Indians, who
were already cultivating corn, beans and melons. Whether this
suggestion led William Workman into cotton culture, I do not know; at
any rate, late in November of the same year F. P. F. Temple was
exhibiting about town some well-matured bolls of cotton raised on
Workman's ranch, and the next spring saw in El Monte a number of
fields planted with cotton seed. A year later, J. Moerenhout sent Los
Angeles cotton to an exhibition in France, and received from across
the water official assurance that the French judges regarded our
product as quite equal to that grown in the Southern States. This gave
a slight impetus to cotton-culture here and by January, 1865, a number
of immigrants had arrived, looking for suitable land for the
production of this staple. They soon went to work, and in August of
that year many fields gave promise of good crops, far exceeding the
expectations of the experimenters.
In the month of March a lively agitation on behalf of a railroad began
in the public press, and some bitter things were said against those
who, for the sake of a little trade in horses or draying, were opposed
to such a forward step; and under the leadership of E. J. C. Kewen and
J. A. Watson, our Assemblymen at that session, the Legislature of 1863
passed an act authorizing the construction of the Los Angeles & San
Pedro Railroad. A public meeting was called to discuss the details and
to further the project; but once more no railroad was built or even
begun. Strange as it seems, the idea of a railroad for Los Angeles
County in 1863 was much too advanced for the times.
Billed as one who had "had the honor of appearing before King William
IV. and all the principal crowned heads of Europe," Professor Courtier
held forth with an exhibition of magic in the Temple Theatre; drawing
the usual crowd of--royalty-haters!
In 1863, Santa Catalina was the scene of a gold-mining boom which soon
came to naught, and through an odd enough occurrence. About April,
Martin M. Kimberly and Daniel E. Way staked out a claim or two, and
some miners agreed on a code of laws for operations in what was to be
known as the San Pedro Mining District, the boundaries of which were
to include all the islands of the County. Extensive claims, chiefly in
Cherry and Joly valleys and on Mineral Hill, were recorded, and
streets were laid out for a town to be known as Queen City; but just
as the boom seemed likely to mature, the National Government stepped
in and gave a quietus to the whole affair. With or without foundation,
reports had reached the Federal authorities that the movement was but
a cloak to establish there well-fortified Confederate headquarters for
the fitting out and repair of privateers intended to prey upon the
coast-wise traders; and on February 5th, 1864, Captain B. R. West,
commanding the Fourth California Infantry, ordered practically all of
the miners and prospectors to leave the island at once. The following
September the National troops were withdrawn, and after the War the
Federal authorities retained control of a point on the island deemed
serviceable for lighthouse purposes.
In the spring of 1863, feeling ill, I went to San Francisco to consult
Dr. Toland, who assured me that there was nothing serious the matter
with me; but wishing to satisfy myself more thoroughly, I resorted to
the same means that I dare say many others have adopted--a medical
examination for life insurance! Bernhard Gattel, general agent of the
Germania Life Insurance Company, at 315 Montgomery Street, wrote out
my application; and on March 20th, a policy, numbered 1472, was
issued, making me, since the fall of 1913, the oldest living
policy-holder in the Southwest, and the twentieth oldest of the
Germania's patrons in the world.
Californians, during that period of the War when the North was
suffering a series of defeats, had little use for greenbacks. At one
time, a dollar in currency was worth but thirty-five cents, though
early in April it was accepted at sixty-five, late in August at
ninety, and about the first of October at seventy-five cents; even
interest-bearing gold notes being worth no more. This condition of the
money market saw little change until some time in the seventies; and
throughout the War greenbacks were handled like any other commodity.
Frank Lecouvreur, in one of these periods, after getting judgment in a
suit against Deputy Surveyor William Moore, for civil engineering
services, and being paid some three hundred and eighty-three dollars
in greenbacks, was disconcerted enough when he found that his currency
would command but one hundred and eighty dollars in gold. San
Francisco merchants realized fortunes when a decline occurred, as they
bought their merchandise in the East for greenbacks and sold it on the
Coast for gold. Los Angeles people, on the other hand, enjoyed no such
benefit, as they brought their wares from San Francisco and were
therefore obliged to liquidate in specie.
Among the worst tragedies in the early annals of Los Angeles, and by
far the most dramatic, was the disaster on April 27th to the little
steamer _Ada Hancock_. While on a second trip, in the harbor of San
Pedro, to transfer to the _Senator_ the remainder of the passengers
bound for the North, the vessel careened, admitting cold water to the
engine-room and exploding the boiler with such force that the boat was
demolished to the water's edge; fragments being found on an island
even half to three-quarters of a mile away. Such was the intensity of
the blast and the area of the devastation that, of the fifty-three or
more passengers known to have been on board, twenty-six at least
perished. Fortunate indeed were those, including Phineas Banning, the
owner, who survived with minor injuries, after being hurled many feet
into the air. Among the dead were Thomas W. Seeley, Captain of the
_Senator_; Joseph Bryant, Captain of the _Ada Hancock_; Dr. H. R.
Myles, the druggist, who had been in partnership, opposite the Bella
Union, with Dr. J. C. Welch, an arrival of the early fifties who died
in 1869; Thomas H. Workman, Banning's chief clerk; Albert Sidney
Johnston, Jr.; William T. B. Sanford, once Postmaster; Louis
Schlesinger and William Ritchie, Wells Fargo's messenger, to whom was
entrusted ten thousand dollars, which, as far as my memory goes, was
lost. Two Mormon missionaries, _en route_ to the Sandwich Islands,
were also killed. Still another, who lost not only his treasure but
his life, was Fred E. Kerlin of Fort Tejón: thirty thousand dollars
which he carried with him, in greenbacks, disappeared as mysteriously
as did the jewelry on the persons of others, and from these
circumstances it was concluded that, even in the presence of Death,
these bodies had been speedily robbed. Mrs. Banning and her mother,
Mrs. Sanford, and a daughter of B. D. Wilson were among the wounded;
while Miss M. Hereford, Mrs. Wilson's sister and the _fiancée_ of Dr.
Myles, was so severely injured that, after long suffering, she also
died. Although the accident had happened about five o'clock in the
afternoon, the awful news, casting a general and indescribable gloom,
was not received in town until nearly eight o'clock; when Drs. Griffin
and R. T. Hayes, together with an Army surgeon named Todd, hastened
in carriages to the harbor where soldiers from Camp Drum had already
asserted their authority. Many of the victims were buried near the
beach at New San Pedro. While I was calling upon Mrs. Johnston to
express my sympathy, the body of her son was brought in; and words
cannot describe the pathos of the scene when she addressed the
departed as if he were but asleep.
In June the Government demanded a formal profession of loyalty from
teachers, when Miss Mary Hoyt and Miss Eliza Madigan took the oath,
but Mrs. Thomas Foster and William McKee refused to do so. The
incident provoked bitter criticism, and nothing being done to punish
the recalcitrants, the Los Angeles Board of Education was charged with
indifference as to the allegiance of its public servants.
During 1863 sectional feeling had grown so bitter on account of the
War that no attempt was made to celebrate the Fourth of July in town.
At Fort Latham, however, on the Ballona Ranch, the soldiers observed
the day with an appropriate demonstration. By the end of July, troops
had been sent from Drum Barracks to camp in the city--for the
protection, so it was asserted, of Union men whose lives were said to
be in danger, although some people claimed that this movement was
rather for the purpose of intimidating certain leaders with known
sympathy for the South. This military display gave Northerners more
backbone; and on the twenty-sixth of September a Union mass-meeting
was held on Main Street in front of the Lafayette Hotel.
Eldridge Edwards Hewitt, a Mexican War veteran who came to California
in 1849 to search for gold, arrived in Los Angeles on July 31st and
soon went on a wild-goose chase to the Weaver Diggings in Arizona,
actually tramping with luggage over five hundred miles of the way!
After his return, he did odd jobs for his board, working in a
stationery and toy store on Main Street, kept by the Goldwater
Brothers, Joe and Mike, who had arrived in the early sixties; and
later he entered the employ of Phineas Banning at Wilmington, with
whom he remained until the completion of the Los Angeles & San Pedro
Railroad in 1870, when he became its Superintendent. When the Southern
Pacific obtained control of that road in 1873, Hewitt was made Agent,
and after the extension of the line from San Francisco he was
appointed Division Superintendent. In that capacity he brought Senator
Leland Stanford to me, as I shall elsewhere relate, to solicit H.
Newmark and Company's patronage.
It was in 1863 that Dr. J. S. Griffin, father of East Los Angeles,
purchased two thousand acres in that section, at fifty cents an acre;
but even at that price he was only induced to buy it by necessity.
Griffin wanted sheep-pasture, and had sought to secure some eight
hundred acres of City land along the river; but as this would prevent
other cattle or sheep from approaching the water to drink, the Common
Council refused Griffin's bid on the smaller area of land and he was
compelled to buy the _mesa_ farther back. It seems to me that B. D.
Wilson, J. G. Downey and Hancock M. Johnston, General Johnston's son,
also had something to do with this transaction. Both Downey and
Griffin avenues derived their names from the association of these two
gentlemen with that section.
A smallpox epidemic which had started in the previous fall spread
through Los Angeles in 1863, and owing possibly to the bad sanitary
and climatic conditions much vigilance and time were required to
eradicate it; compulsory vaccination not having been introduced (as it
finally was at the suggestion of Dr. Walter Lindley) until the summer
of 1876. The dread disease worked its ravages especially among the
Mexicans and Indians, as many as a dozen of them dying in a single
day; and these sufferers and their associates being under no
quarantine, and even bathing _ad libitum_ in the _zanjas_, the pest
spread alarmingly. For a time fatalities were so frequent and the
nature of the contagion so feared that it was difficult to persuade
undertakers to bury the dead, even without funeral or other ceremony.
Following the opening of the Owens River Mines this year, Los Angeles
merchants soon established a considerable trade with that territory.
Banning inaugurated a system of wagon-trains, each guarded by a
detachment of soldiers. The San Fernando mountains, impassable for
heavy teaming, were an obstacle to regular trade with the new country
and compelled the use of a circuitous route over poor roads. It became
necessary, therefore, to consider a means of overcoming the
difficulty, much money having already been spent by the County in an
abortive attempt to build a tunnel. This second plan likewise came to
naught, and it was in fact more than a decade before the Southern
Pacific finally completed the famous bore.
Largely because of political mistakes, including a manifestation of
sympathy for the Southern Confederacy that drew against him Northern
resentment and opposition, John G. Downey, the Democratic nominee for
Governor, was defeated at the election in September; Frederick F. Low,
a Republican, receiving a majority of over twenty thousand votes.
In October, a peddler named Brun was murdered near Chino. Brun's
brother, living at San Bernardino and subsequently a merchant of
prominence there, offered two hundred dollars of his slender savings
as a reward for the capture of the slayer; but nothing ever came of
the search.
In November the stern necessities of war were at last driven home to
Angeleños when, on the ninth of that somber month, Don Juan Warner,
Deputy Provost Marshal, appeared with his big blank books and began to
superintend the registering of all able-bodied citizens suitable for
military service. To many, the inquisition was not very welcome and,
had it not been for the Union soldiers encamped at Drum Barracks, this
first step toward compulsory enrollment would undoubtedly have
resulted in riotous disturbances.
I have frequently named Tom Mott, but I may not have said that he was
one of the representative local Democratic politicians of his day. He
possessed, indeed, such influence with all classes that he was not
only elected Clerk of Los Angeles County in 1863, but succeeded
himself in 1865, 1867 and 1869, afterward sitting in the State
Assembly; and in 1876, he was appointed a delegate to the National
Convention that nominated Samuel J. Tilden for the Presidency. His
relations in time with Stanford, Crocker, Huntington and Hopkins were
very close, and for at least twenty-five years he acted as their
political adviser in all matters appertaining to Southern California.
Tall, erect and dignified, scrupulously attired and distinguished by
his flowing beard, Tom was for more than half a century a striking
figure in Los Angeles.
A most brutal murder took place on November 15th on the desert not far
from Los Angeles, but few days passing before it was avenged. A poor
miner, named R. A. Hester, was fatally attacked by a border ruffian
known as Boston Daimwood, while some confederates, including the
criminals Chase, Ybarra and Olivas, stood by to prevent interference.
In a few hours officers and citizens were in the saddle in pursuit of
the murderous band; for Daimwood had boasted that Hester was but the
first of several of our citizens to whom he intended to pay his
respects. Daimwood and his three companions were captured and lodged
in jail, and on the twenty-first of November two hundred or more armed
Vigilantes forced the jail doors, seized the scoundrels and hung them
to the _pórtico_ of the old City Hall on Spring Street. Tomás Sanchez,
the Sheriff, talked of organizing a _posse comitatus_ to arrest the
committee leaders; but so positive was public sentiment, as reflected
in the newspapers, in support of the summary executions, that nothing
further was heard of the threat.
An incident of value in the study of mob-psychology accentuated the
day's events. During the lynching, the clattering of horses' hoofs was
heard, when the cry was raised that cavalry from Drum Barracks was
rushing to rescue the prisoners; and in a twinkling those but a moment
before most demonstrative were seen scurrying to cover in all
directions. Instead, however, of Federal soldiers, the horsemen were
the usual contingent of El Monte boys, coming to assist in the
neck-tie party.
Besides the murderers lynched, there was an American boy named Wood of
about eighteen years; and although he had committed no offense more
vicious than the theft of some chickens, he paid the penalty with his
life, it having been the verdict of the committee that while they
were at it, the jail might as well be cleared of every malefactor. A
large empty case was secured as a platform on which the victim was to
stand; and I shall never forget the spectacle of the youth, apparently
oblivious of his impending doom, as he placed his hands upon the box
and vaulted lightly to the top (just as he might have done at an
innocent gymnastic contest), and his parting salutation, "I'm going to
die a game _hen-chicken!_" The removal of the case a moment later,
after the noose had been thrown over and drawn about the lad's head,
left the poor victim suspended beyond human aid.
On that same day, a sixth prisoner barely escaped. When the crowd was
debating the lynchings, John P. Lee, a resident of El Monte who had
been convicted of murder, was already under sentence of death; and the
Vigilantes, having duly considered his case, decided that it would be
just as well to permit the law to take its course. Some time later, J.
Lancaster Brent, Lee's attorney, appealed the case and obtained for
his client a new trial, finally clearing Lee of the charges against
him, so that, in the end, he died a natural death.
I frequently saw Lee after this episode, and vividly recall an
unpleasant interview years later. The regularity of his visits had
been interrupted, and when he reappeared to get some merchandise for a
customer at El Monte, I asked him where he had been. He explained that
a dog had bitten a little girl, and that while she was suffering from
hydrophobia she had in turn attacked him and so severely scratched his
hands and face that, for a while, he could not show himself in public.
After that, whenever I saw Lee, I was aware of a lurking, if
ridiculous, suspicion that the moment might have arrived for a new
manifestation of the rabies.
Speaking of the Civil War and the fact that in Southern California
there was less pronounced sentiment for the Union than in the Northern
part of the State, I am reminded of a relief movement that emphasized
the distinction. By the middle of November San Francisco had sent over
one hundred and thirty thousand dollars to the United States Sanitary
Commission, and an indignant protest was voiced in some quarters that
Los Angeles, up to that date, had not participated. In time, however,
the friends of the Union here did make up a small purse.
In 1863 interest in the old San Juan Capistrano Mission was revived
with the reopening of the historic structure so badly damaged by the
earthquake of 1812, and a considerable number of townspeople went out
to the first services under the new roof. When I first saw the
Mission, near Don Juan Forster's home, there was in its open doors,
windows and cut-stone and stucco ruins, its vines and wild flowers,
much of the picturesque.
On November 18th, 1862, our little community was greatly stirred by
the news that John Rains, one of Colonel Isaac Williams' sons-in-law
and well known in Los Angeles, had been waylaid and killed on the
highway near the Azusa _rancho_ the night before. It was claimed that
one Ramón Carrillo had hired the assassins to do the foul deed; and
about the middle of February, 1863, a Mexican by the name of Manuel
Cerradel was arrested by Thomas Trafford, the City Marshal, as a
participant. In time, he was tried and sentenced to ten years in San
Quentin Prison. On December 9th, Sheriff Tomás Sanchez started to take
the prisoner north, and at Wilmington boarded the little steamer
_Cricket_ to go out to the _Senator_, which was ready to sail. A
goodly number of other passengers also boarded the tugboat, though
nothing in particular was thought of the circumstance; but once out in
the harbor, a group of Vigilantes, indignant at the light sentence
imposed, seized the culprit at a prearranged signal, threw a noose
about his neck and, in a jiffy, hung him to the flagstaff. When he was
dead, the body was lowered and stones--brought aboard in packages by
the committee, who had evidently considered every detail--were tied to
the feet, and the corpse was thrown overboard before the steamer was
reached. This was one of the acts of the Vigilantes that no one seemed
to deprecate.
Toward the end of 1861, J. E. Pleasants, while overseeing one of
Wolfskill's ranches, hit the trail of some horse thieves and,
assisted by City Marshal William C. Warren, pursued and captured
several, who were sent to the penitentiary. One, however, escaped.
This was Charles Wilkins, a veritable scoundrel who, having stolen a
pistol and a knife from the Bella Union and put the same into the
hands of young Wood (whose lynching I have described), sent the lad on
his way to the gallows. A couple of years later Wilkins waylaid and
murdered John Sanford, a rancher living near Fort Tejón and a brother
of Captain W. T. B. Sanford, the second Postmaster of Los Angeles; and
when the murderer had been apprehended and was being tried, an
exciting incident occurred, to which I was an eye-witness. On November
16th, 1854, Phineas Banning had married Miss Rebecca Sanford, a sister
of the unfortunate man; and as Banning caught sight of Wilkins, he
rushed forward and endeavoured to avenge the crime by shooting the
culprit. Banning was then restrained; but soon after, on December
17th, 1863, he led the Vigilance Committee which strung up Wilkins on
Tomlinson & Griffith's corral gateway where nearly a dozen culprits
had already forfeited their lives.