THE CERRO GORDO MINES
1869
It was early in 1869 that I was walking down Spring Street one day and
saw a crowd at the City Hall. On a large box stood Mayor Joel H.
Turner, and just as I arrived a man leaning against the adobe wall
called out, "Seven dollars!" The Mayor then announced the bid--for an
auction was in progress--"Seven dollars once, seven dollars twice,
seven dollars three times!" and as he raised his hand to conclude the
sale, I called out, "A half!" This I did in a spirit of fun; in fact,
I did not even know what was being offered! "Seven dollars fifty once,
seven dollars fifty twice, seven dollars fifty three times, and
sold--to Harris Newmark!" called the Mayor. I then inquired what I had
bought, and was shown the location of about twenty acres, a part of
nine hundred being sold by the City at prices ranging from five to ten
dollars an acre.
The piece purchased was west of the city limits, and I kept it until
1886 when I had almost forgotten that I was the owner. Then George
Williamson, one of the first salesmen of H. Newmark & Company, who
became a boomer of the period, bought it from me for ten thousand
dollars and resold it within two weeks for fourteen thousand, the
Sunset Oil Company starting there, as the land was within what was
known as the oil district. Since the opening of streets in all
directions, I have lost trace of this land, but incline to the belief
that it lies in the immediate vicinity of the Wilshire district.
My experience reminds me of Colonel John O. Wheeler's investment in
fifty or sixty acres at what is now Figueroa and Adams streets. Later,
going to San Francisco as a Customs officer, he forgot about his
purchase until one day he received a somewhat surprising offer.
On January 1st, A. J. King and R. H. Offutt began to publish a daily
edition of the _News_, hitherto a semi-weekly, making it strongly
Democratic. There was no Sunday issue and twelve dollars was the
subscription. On October 16th, Offutt sold his interest to Alonzo
Waite, and the firm became King & Waite. In another year King had
retired.
How modest was the status of the Post Office in 1869 may be gathered
from the fact that the Postmaster had only one assistant, a boy, both
together receiving fourteen hundred dollars in greenbacks, worth but a
thousand dollars in gold.
Henry Hammel, for years connected with the Bella Union, and a partner
named Bremerman leased the United States Hotel on February 1st from
Louis Mesmer; and in March, John King succeeded Winston & King as
manager of the Bella Union. King died in December, 1871.
In the winter of 1868-69, when heavy rains seriously interfered with
bringing in the small supply of lumber at San Pedro, a coöperative
society was proposed, to insure the importation each summer of enough
supplies to tide the community over during the wintry weather. Over
one hundred persons, it was then estimated, had abandoned building,
and many others were waiting for material to complete fences and
repairs.
Thanks to Contractor H. B. Tichenor's vigor in constructing the Los
Angeles & San Pedro Railroad, public interest in the venture, by the
beginning of 1869, had materially increased. In January, a vessel
arrived with a locomotive and a steam pile-driver; and a few days
later a schooner sailed into San Pedro with ties, sleepers and rails
enough for three miles of the track. Soon, also, the locomotive was
running part of the way. The wet winter made muddy roads, and this led
to the proposal to lay the tracks some eight or ten miles in the
direction of Los Angeles, and there to transfer the freight to
wagons.
Stearns Hall and the Plaza were amusement places in 1869. At the
latter, in January, the so-called _Paris Exposition Circus_ held
forth; while Joe Murphy and Maggie Moore, who had just favored the
passengers on the _Orizaba_, on coming south from San Francisco, with
a show, trod the hall's more classic boards.
Ice a quarter of an inch thick was formed here for several days during
the third week in January, and butchers found it so difficult to
secure fat cattle that good beef advanced to sixteen and a quarter
cents a pound.
On January 20th, I purchased from Eugene Meyer the southern half of
lots three and four in block five, fronting on Fort Street between
Second and Third, formerly owned by William Buffum and J. F. Burns.
Meyer had paid one thousand dollars for one hundred and twenty feet
front and three hundred and thirty feet depth; and when I bought half
of this piece for one thousand dollars, it was generally admitted that
I had paid all that it was worth.
Isaac Lankershim--father of J. B. Lankershim and Mrs. I. N. Van
Nuys--who first visited California in 1854, came from San Francisco in
1869 and bought, for one hundred and fifteen thousand dollars, part of
Andrés Pico's San Fernando _rancho_, which he stocked with sheep. Levi
Strauss & Company, Scholle Brothers, L. and M. Sachs & Company of San
Francisco and others, were interested in this partnership, then known
as the San Fernando Farm Association; but Lankershim was in control
until about one year later, when Isaac Newton Van Nuys arrived from
Monticello, where he had been merchandising, and was put permanently
in charge of the ranch. At this period Lankershim lived there, for he
had not yet undertaken milling in Los Angeles. A little later,
Lankershim and Van Nuys successfully engaged in the raising of wheat,
cultivating nearly sixty thousand acres, and consigning some of their
harvests to Liverpool. This fact recalls a heavy loss in the spring of
1881, when the _Parisian_, which left Wilmington under Captain Reaume,
foundered at sea with nearly two hundred and fifty tons of wheat and
about seventy-five tons of flour belonging to them.
J. B. Lankershim, owner of the well-known hotel bearing his name,
after the death of his father made some very important investments in
Los Angeles real estate, including the northwest corner of Broadway
and Seventh Street, now occupied by the building devoted to Bullock's
department store.
M. N. Newmark, a nephew of mine and President of the Newmark Grain
Company, arrived in 1869, and clerked for H. Newmark & Company until
1871, in which year he established a partnership with S. Grand in
Compton, selling general merchandise. This partnership lasted until
1878, when Newmark bought out Grand. He finally disposed of the
business in 1889 and, with D. K. Edwards, organized the firm of
Newmark & Edwards. In 1895 Edwards sold out his interest.
Victor Ponet, a native of Belgium, and once Belgian Consul here, while
traveling around the world, landed in California in 1867 and two years
later came to Los Angeles. Attracted by the climate and Southern
California's possible future, Ponet settled here, engaging first in
the pioneer manufacture and importation of mirrors and picture frames;
and before his retirement to live in Sherman, he had had experience
both as undertaker and banker.[30]
In 1869, General W. S. Rosecrans came south in the interest of the
proposed San Diego & Gila Railroad, never constructed. The General, as
a result, took up land around Sausal Redondo, and there by the summer
of 1869 so many people (who insisted that Rosecrans had appropriated
public land) had squatted, that he was put to no end of trouble in
ejecting them.
Though I have witnessed most of the progress in Southern California,
it is still difficult to realize that so much could have been
accomplished within the life-time of one man. During 1868-69 only
twenty-two hundred boxes of oranges were shipped from Los Angeles,
while the Southern counties' crop of oranges and lemons for 1913-14 is
estimated, I am told, at about twelve million boxes!
Due to the eight-day shindy marking the celebration of the Chinese New
Year, demand for a more concentrated rumpus was voiced in February,
1869, threatening an agitation against John Chinaman.
The same month, residents, wishing a school in which German should be
taught, and a gymnasium, petitioned the Common Council to acquire a
lot in New High Street for the purpose.
About 1869, the Los Angeles Social Club which, to the best of my
recollection, was the first of its kind in the city, was organized,
with headquarters in the earliest building erected by I. W. Hellman,
at the northwest corner of Los Angeles and Commercial streets. Among
other pioneer members were Captain Cameron E. Thom, Tom Mott, Eugene
Meyer, Sam and Charles Prager, Tom Rowan, I. W. and H. W. Hellman, S.
Lazard, W. J. Brodrick, John Jones, Kaspare Cohn, A. C. Chauvin, M.
and J. L. Morris, Leon Loeb, Sam Meyer, Dr. F. A. McDougal, B. Cohn
and myself. Somewhat later, the Club moved to the east side of Los
Angeles Street, between Commercial and Aliso. Still later, it
dissolved; and although it did not become the direct ancestor of any
of the several well-known social organizations in the Los Angeles of
to-day, I feel that it should be mentioned as having had the honor of
being their precursor and model.
Speaking of social organizations, I may say that several Los Angeles
clubs were organized in the early era of sympathy, tolerance and good
feeling, when the individual was appreciated at his true worth and
before the advent of men whose bigotry has sown intolerance and
discord, and has made a mockery of both religion and professed ideals.
It must have been early in the sixties that Alexander Bell sold the
southern end of his property to H. Heinsch, the saddler. On February
23d, 1869, the directors of the San Pedro Railroad selected the Mike
Madigan lot on Alameda Street, on a part of which the owner was
conducting a livery-stable, as the site for the depot in Los Angeles;
and Heinsch having allowed the authorities to cut through his
property, the extension of Commercial and Requena streets eastward
from Los Angeles to Alameda was hastened.
Late on February 14th, the news was circulated of a shocking tragedy
in the billiard saloon of the Lafayette Hotel, and at once aroused
intense regret, affecting, as the affair did, the standing and
happiness of two well-known Los Angeles families. About eight o'clock,
Charles Howard, a young lawyer of prominence and a son of Volney E.
Howard, met Daniel B. Nichols, son of the ex-Mayor; and some dispute
between them having reached its climax, both parties drew weapons and
fired. Howard was killed and Nichols wounded, though not fatally, as
was at first thought. The tragedy--the cause of which was never
generally known--made a profound impression.
The work of extending water mains along Fort, Spring and other streets
progressed steadily until the Los Angeles Water Company struck a snag
which again demonstrated the city's dependence. Difficulty in coupling
pipes called a halt, and the management had to send all the way to San
Francisco for _a complete set of plumbers' tools_!
In the spring, Tileston, Emery & Company, a Los Angeles and San
Gabriel firm, brought south the first steam separator seen here and
took contracts to thrash the farmers' grain. On June 3d they started
the machine, and many persons went out to see it work. Among features
pointed out were precautions against fire from the engine, which the
contractors declared made "everything perfectly safe."
From its inception, Wilmington sought, in one way or another, to rival
Los Angeles, and in April threw down the gauntlet. A. A. Polhamus, a
workshop engineer of the Los Angeles & San Pedro Railroad, (in 1887, a
manufacturer of straw wrapping paper somewhere between here and
Wilmington,) had built a velocipede; and no sooner was it noised about
than John Goller set to work to eclipse the achievement. About one
o'clock, therefore, on April 25th one of Goller's apprentices suddenly
appeared ready to make the first experiment. The streets were soon
crowded and interest was at fever heat. The young fellow straddled the
wheels, moved about half a block, and then, at the junction of Main
and Spring streets, executed a first-class somersault! Immediately,
however, other intrepid ones tried their skill, and the velocipede
was voted a successful institution of our young and progressive city.
[Illustration: Loebau Market Place, near the House in which Harris
Newmark was Born]
[Illustration: Street in Loebau, Showing (right) Remnant of ancient
City Wall]
[Illustration: Robert M. Widney]
[Illustration: Dr. Joseph Kurtz]
[Illustration: Isaac N. Van Nuys]
[Illustration: Abraham Haas]
By the first week in May, the velocipede craze had spread, crowds
congregating daily on Main Street to see the antics of the boys; and
soon H. F. Laurence announced the opening in Stearns's Hall, on May
14th, of a Velocipede School, where free instruction would be given:
afternoons to _ladies_ and evenings to men; and to further stimulate
interest, Laurence announced a raffle on May 15th of "a splendid
velocipede." By May 22d, J. Eastman had obtained permission of the
Common Council to build a velocipede track on the historic old Plaza;
but evidently he did not make use of the privilege, for a newspaper
writer was soon giving vent to the following sarcasm:
Our City Fathers tried to make a little coin by leasing the
Plaza as a velocipede circle or square; but, so far, the
velocipedist has failed to connect. I dare say the cost of
cleaning up the place of weeds backed the poor soul out!
It happened in 1869 that Judson, the financier, and Belshaw, a
practical miner, began working their lead mines in Cerro Gordo, in the
Owens River country; and as the handling of the ore necessitated a
great many wagons, Remi Nadeau obtained the contract for the
transportation of the ore brought down to Wilmington and then shipped
by boat to San Francisco. Remi had returned here about 1866, after
having been in San Francisco for four or five years; and eventually he
built the Nadeau Hotel at the corner of Spring and First streets,
where A. Bouelle, father of Frank A. Bouelle, had formerly kept a
little grocery store in an adobe. This ore was loaded on to very large
wagons, each drawn on level stretches by twelve or fourteen mules, but
requiring as many as twenty or more mules while crossing the San
Fernando Mountains--always regarded as one of the worst places on the
route. In order not to return with empty wagons, Nadeau purchased
supplies of every description, which he sold to people along the
route; and in this way he obtained the best financial results. This
was about the same time that Victor Beaudry (Prudent's brother, who
came in 1855, to mine at San Gabriel) opened a store at Camp
Independence, Inyo County, and became a stockholder in the Cerro Gordo
mines. In the early eighties, Beaudry was interested with his brother
in local real estate movements. He died in Montreal in 1888.
After a time, the mines yielded so much ore that Nadeau found himself
short of transportation facilities; but with the assistance of Judson
& Belshaw, as well as H. Newmark & Company, he was enabled to increase
his capacity until he operated thirty-two teams. Los Angeles was then
the southern terminus of his operations, although, during the building
of the numerous Southern Pacific tunnels, his headquarters were
removed to San Fernando, and still later, on the completion of the
railroad, to Mojave. Nadeau's assistant, Willard G. Halstead,
son-in-law of H. K. W. Bent, handled most of the business when Nadeau
was absent; A. E. Lott was foreman of teams and continually rode up
and down the line of operations; while Thomas O'Brien was
station-agent at Cerro Gordo. The contract had been very profitable to
Judson & Belshaw; yet when the agreement expired on January 1st, 1872,
they wished to renew it at a lower figure. Nadeau, believing that no
one else could do the work satisfactorily, refused the new terms
offered; whereupon Judson & Belshaw entered into an arrangement with
William Osborn, a liveryman, who owned a few teams.
The season of 1871-72 was by no means a good one and barley was high,
involving a great expense to Nadeau in feeding four or five hundred
animals; and right there arose his chief difficulty. He was in debt to
H. Newmark & Company and therefore proposed that he should turn his
outfit over to us; but as we had unlimited confidence both in his
integrity and in his ability, we prevailed on him to keep and use his
equipment to the best advantage. The suggestion was a fortunate one,
for just at this time large deposits of borax were discovered in the
mountains at Wordsworth, Nevada, and Nadeau commenced operations
there with every promise of success. In his work of hauling between
Cerro Gordo and Los Angeles, Nadeau had always been very regular, his
teams with rare exceptions arriving and leaving on schedule time; and
even when, occasionally, a wagon did break down, the pig-lead would be
unloaded without delay, tossed to the side of the trail and left there
for the next train; a method that was perfectly safe, since thieves
never disturbed the property. Osborn, on the other hand, soon proved
uncertain and unreliable, his wagons frequently breaking down and
causing other accidents and delays. To protect themselves, Judson &
Belshaw were compelled to terminate their contract with him and reopen
negotiations with Nadeau; but the latter then rejected their advances
unless they would buy a half-interest in his undertaking and put up
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the construction and
maintenance of the numerous stations that had become necessary for the
proper development of his business. Nadeau also made it a condition
that H. Newmark & Company be paid. The stations already constructed or
proposed were Mud Springs, Lang's Station, Mojave, Red Rock, Panamint,
Indian Wells, Little Lake, Haiwee Meadows and Cartago. Before these
were built, the teamsters camped in the open, carrying with them the
provisions necessary for man and beast. Cartago was on the south side
of Owens Lake, Cerro Gordo being on the north side, eighteen miles
opposite; and between these points the miniature side-wheeler
_Bessie_, of but twenty tons capacity, operated.
An interesting fact or two in connection with Owens Lake may be
recorded here. Its water was so impregnated with borax and soda that
no animal life could be sustained. In the winter, the myriads of wild
duck were worth talking about; but after they had remained near the
lake for but a few days, they were absolutely unpalatable. The
teamsters and miners operating in the vicinity were in the habit of
sousing their clothes in the lake for a few minutes, and when dried,
the garments were found to be as clean as if they had passed through
the most perfect laundry. Even a handful of the water applied to the
hair would produce a magnificent lather and shampoo.
Judson & Belshaw were compelled to accept Nadeau's terms; and Nadeau
returned from Nevada, organized in 1873 the Cerro Gordo Freighting
Company, and operated more extensively than ever before until he
withdrew, perhaps five years after the completion of the Southern
Pacific Railroad and just before the petering out of the Cerro Gordo
Mines. In their palmy days, these deposits were the most extensive
lead-producers of California; and while the output might not have been
so remarkable in comparison with those of other lead mines in the
world, something like eighty-five to ninety bars, each weighing about
one hundred pounds, were produced there daily. Most of this was
shipped, as I have said, to San Francisco; and for a while, at least,
from there to Swansea, Wales.
Nadeau at one time was engaged in the industry of raising sugar-beets
at the Nadeau _rancho_, near Florence, now Nadeau Station; and then he
attempted to refine sugar. But it was bad at best, and the more sugar
one put in coffee, the blacker the coffee became.
On April 24th, 1869, under Mayor Joel Turner's administration, the Los
Angeles Board of Education came into existence.
In the early sixties, the City authorities promised to set out trees
at the Plaza, providing neighboring property-owners would fence in the
place; but even though Governor Downey supplied the fence, no trees
were planted, and it was not until the spring of 1869 that any grew on
the public square. This loud demand for trees was less for the sake of
the usual benefits than to hide the ugliness of the old water tank.
On May 9th, F. G. Walther issued the first number of the _Los Angeles
Chronik_, a German weekly journal that survived scarcely three months.
The tenth of May was another red-letter day for the Pacific Coast,
rejoicing, as it did, in the completion of the Central Pacific at
Promontory Point in Utah. There, with a silver hammer, Governor
Stanford drove the historic gold spike into a tie of polished
California laurel, thus consummating the vast work on the first
trans-continental railroad. This event recalls the fact that, in the
railway's construction, Chinese labor was extensively employed, and
that in 1869 large numbers of the dead bodies of Celestials were
gathered up and shipped to Sacramento for burial.
William J. Brodrick, after wandering in Peru and Chile, came to Los
Angeles in 1869 and started as a stationer; then he opened an
insurance office, and still later became interested in the Main Street
Railway and the water company. On May 8th, 1877, Brodrick married Miss
Laura E., daughter of Robert S. Carlisle. On October 18th, 1898,
Brodrick died, having been identified with many important activities.
Hacks and omnibuses first came into use in 1869. Toward the end of May
of that year, J. J. Reynolds, who had long been popular as a driver
between Los Angeles and Wilmington, purchased a hack and started in
business for himself, appealing to his "reputation for good driving
and reliability" as a reasonable assurance that he would bring his
patrons right side up to their scattered homes; and so much was he in
demand, both in the city and its suburbs, that a competitor, J.
Hewitt, in the latter part of June ordered a similar hack to come by
steamer. It arrived in due time and was chronicled as a "luxurious
vehicle." Hewitt regularly took up his stand in the morning in front
of the Lafayette Hotel; and he also had an order slate at George
Butler's livery-stable on Main Street.
During the sixties, Dr. T. H. Rose, who had relinquished the practice
of medicine for the career of a pedagogue, commenced work as Principal
of the Boys' Grammar School on Bath Street, and in 1869 was elected
Superintendent of City Schools. He held this office but about a year,
although he did not resign from educational work here until 1873.
During his incumbency, he was Vice-Principal of the first Teachers'
Institute ever held here, contributing largely toward the founding of
the first high school and the general development of the schools prior
to the time when Dr. Lucky, the first really professional teacher,
assumed charge. On leaving Los Angeles, Dr. Rose became Principal of
the school at Healdsburg, Sonoma County, where he married a Mrs.
Jewell, the widow of an old-time, wealthy miner; but he was too
sensitive and proud to live on her income and, much against her
wishes, insisted on teaching to support himself. In 1874, he took
charge of the high school at Petaluma, where the family of Mrs. Rose's
first husband had lived; and the relationship of the two families
probably led to Rose and his wife separating. Later, Dr. Rose went to
the Sandwich Islands to teach, but by 1883, shortly before he died, he
was back in Los Angeles, broken in health and spirit. Dr. Rose was an
excellent teacher, a strict disciplinarian and a gentleman.
The retirement of Dr. Rose calls to mind a couple of years during
which Los Angeles had no City School Superintendent. While Rose was
Principal, a woman was in charge of the girls' department; and the
relations between the schoolmaster and the schoolmistress were none
too friendly. When Dr. Rose became Superintendent, the schoolma'am
instantly disapproved of the choice and rebelled; and there being no
law which authorized the governing of Los Angeles schools in any other
manner than by trustees, the new Superintendent had no authority over
his female colleague. The office of Superintendent of City Schools,
consequently, remained vacant until 1873.
Dr. James S. Crawford had the honor, as far as I am aware, of being
one of the first regular dentists to locate in Los Angeles. As an
itinerant he had passed the winters of 1863, 1864 and 1865 in this
city, afterward going east; and on his return to California in 1869 he
settled in the Downey Block at Spring and Main streets, where he
practiced until, on April 14th, 1912, he died in a Ventura County
camp.
In 1864, the California Legislature, wishing to encourage the silk
industry, offered a bounty of two hundred and fifty dollars for every
plantation of five thousand mulberry trees of two years' growth, and a
bounty of three hundred dollars for each one hundred thousand salable
cocoons; and in three years an enormous number of mulberry trees, in
various stages of growth, was registered. Prominent among silk-growers
was Louis Prévost, who rather early had established here an extensive
mulberry-tree nursery and near it a large cocoonery for the rearing
of silk worms; and had planned, in 1869, the creation of a colony of
silk-worms whose products would rival even those of his native _belle
France_. The California Silk Center Association of Los Angeles was
soon formed, and four thousand acres of the _rancho_ once belonging to
Juan Bandini, fourteen hundred and sixty acres of the Hartshorn Tract
and three thousand one hundred and sixty-nine acres of the Jurupa, on
the east side of the Santa Ana River, were purchased. That was in June
or July; but on August 16th, in the midst of a dry season, Louis
Prévost died, and the movement received a serious setback. To add to
the reverses, the demand for silk-worm eggs fell off amazingly; while
finally, to give the enterprise its death-blow, the Legislators,
fearful that the State Treasury would be depleted through the payment
of bounties, withdrew all State aid.
The Silk Center Association, therefore, failed; but the Southern
California Colony Association bought all the land, paying for it
something like three dollars and a half an acre. To many persons, the
price was quite enough: old Louis Robidoux had long refused to list
his portion for taxes, and some one had described much of the acreage
as so dry that even coyotes, in crossing, took along their canteens
for safety! A town called at first Jurupa, and later Riverside, was
laid out; a fifty thousand-dollar ditch diverted the Santa Ana River
to a place where Nature had failed to arrange for its flowing; and in
a few months a number of families had settled beside the artificial
waterway. Riversiders long had to travel back and forth to Los Angeles
for most of their supplies (a stage, still in existence, being used by
ordinary passengers), and this made a friendly as well as profitable
business relation with the older and larger town; but experiments soon
showing that oranges could grow in the arid soil, Riverside in course
of time had something to sell as well as to buy.
Who was more familiar both to the youth of the town and to grown-ups
than Nicolás Martinez, in summer the purveyor of cooling ice cream, in
winter the vender of hot _tamales_! From morning till night, month in
and month out during the sixties and seventies, Martinez paced the
streets, his dark skin made still swarthier in contrast to his white
costume--a shirt, scarcely tidy, together with pantaloons none too
symmetrical and hanging down in generous folds at the waist. On his
head, in true native fashion, he balanced in a small hooped tub what
he had for sale; he spoke with a pronounced Latin accent, and his
favorite method of announcing his presence was to bawl out his wares.
The same receptacle, resting upon a round board with an opening to
ease the load and covered with a bunch of cloths, served both to keep
the _tamales_ hot and the ice cream cool; while to dispense the
latter, he carried in one hand a circular iron tray, in which were
holes to accommodate three or four glasses. Further, for the
convenience of the exacting youth of the town, he added a spoon to
each cream-filled glass; and what stray speck of the ice was left on
the spoon after the youngster had given it a parting lick, Nicolás,
bawling anew to attract the next customer, fastidiously removed with
his tobacco-stained fingers!
FOOTNOTE:
[30] Died, February 9th, 1914.