THE LAST OF THE VIGILANTES
1870
As I have somewhere related, I began buying hides as far back as 1855,
but it was not until 1870 that this branch of our business assumed
such importance as to require more convenient quarters. Then we bought
a place on the southeast corner of Alameda and Commercial streets,
facing sixty feet on Alameda and having a depth of one hundred and
sixty-five feet, where we constructed a hide-house and erected a press
for baling. We paid P. Beaudry eleven hundred dollars for the lot. The
relatively high price shows what the Los Angeles & San Pedro Railroad
depot had done for that section. In the days when hides were sent by
sailing-vessels to the East, a different method of preparing them for
shipment was in vogue. The wet hides having been stretched, small
stakes were driven into the ground along the edge of, and through the
skins, thus holding them in place until they had dried and expanding
them by about one-third; in this condition they were forwarded loose.
Now that transportation is more rapid and there are tanneries in
California, all hides are handled wet.
In 1870, business life was centered on Los Angeles Street between
Commercial and Arcadia; and all the hotels were north of First Street.
Fort Street ended in a little bluff at a spot now between Franklin and
First streets. Spring Street was beginning to take on new life, and
yet there was but one gas lamp along the entire roadway, though many
were the appeals to add another lamp, "say, as far as First Street!"
Sometime in January, a number of ladies of this city met and, through
the exertions of Mrs. Rosa Newmark, wife of Joseph Newmark, formed the
Ladies' Hebrew Benevolent Society. Mrs. Newmark, as was once pointed
out in a notable open-air meeting of women's clubs (to which I
elsewhere refer), never accepted any office in the Society; but for
years she was untiring in her efforts in the cause of charity. The
first officers were: President, Mrs. W. Kalisher; Vice-President, Mrs.
Harris Newmark; Treasurer, Mrs. John Jones; Secretary, Mrs. B. Katz;
and Collector, Mrs. A. Baer. Three Counselors--Henry Wartenberg, I. M.
Hellman and myself--occasionally met with the ladies to advise them.
Aside from the fact of its importance as the pioneer ladies'
benevolent organization instituted in Los Angeles, the Society found a
much-needed work to do. It was then almost impossible to obtain
nurses, and the duty devolved on members to act in that capacity,
where such assistance was required, whether the afflicted were rich or
poor. It was also their function to prepare the dead for interment,
and to keep proper vigil over the remains until the time of burial.
During the year 1869 or 1870, as the result of occasional gatherings
in the office of Dr. Joseph Kurtz, the Los Angeles Turnverein was
organized with eleven members--Emil Harris leading in the movement,
assisted by Dr. Kurtz, Ed. Preuss, Lorenzo Leck, Philip and Henry
Stoll, Jake Kuhrts, Fred Morsch, C. C. Lips and Isaac Cohn. Dr. Kurtz
was elected President. They fraternized for a while at Frau Wiebecke's
Garden, on the west side of Alameda near First Street, about where the
Union Hardware and Metal Company now stands; and there, while beer and
wine were served in the open air, the Teutons gratified their love of
music and song. Needing for their gymnastics more enclosed quarters,
the Turnverein rented of Kalisher & Wartenberg the barn on Alameda
Street between Ducommon and First, used as a hide-house; and in that
rough-boarded shack, whose none too aromatic odors are still a
souvenir to many a pioneer resident, the _Turners_ swung and vaulted
to their heart's content. Classes were soon arranged for boys; and the
envy of all was the lad who, after numerous risks to limb and neck,
proudly topped the human pyramid. Another garden of this period often
patronized by the Turnverein was Kiln Messer's, on First Street
between Alameda and the river.
The Post Office was moved this year from the corner of North Main and
Market streets to the middle of Temple Block, but even there the
facilities were so inadequate that Wells Fargo & Company, in June, put
up a letter-box at the corner of Main and Commercial streets which was
emptied but once a day, at four o'clock in the afternoon, save on
steamer days when letters were taken out at half-past nine. One other
box was at the sole railroad depot, then at the corner of Alameda and
Commercial streets. The Post Office at that time was also so miserably
illuminated that citizens fumbled about to find their letter-boxes,
and ladies were timid about entering the building at night.
Postmasters were allowed small reserves; and for some time in 1870 the
Los Angeles Post Office was entirely out of one- and two-cent stamps.
In February, the way was prepared for the first city directory when
the houses of Los Angeles were ordered to be numbered, a public
discussion of the need for a directory having taken place the previous
December. When the collaborators began to collect names and other
data, there were many refusals to answer questions; but the little
volume of seventy pages was finally published in 1871.
Until 1870 Los Angeles had no bookbinder, all binding having had to be
sent to San Francisco; and a call was then sent out to induce a
journeyman to settle here.
On the fourteenth of February, Phineas Banning was married to Miss
Mary, daughter of Colonel J. H. Hollister--the affair being the
consummation of a series of courtly addresses in which, as I have
related, it was my pleasurable privilege to play an intermediary part.
As might be expected of one who was himself an experienced and
generous entertainer, the wedding was a social event to be long and
pleasantly remembered by the friends of the bride and groom. Mrs.
Banning, who for years maintained an attractive home on Fort Hill, is
now living on Commonwealth Avenue.
About this time, Colonel Isaac R. Dunkelberger came to Los Angeles to
live, having just finished his fifth year in the army in Arizona,
following a long service under Northern banners during the Civil War.
While here, the Colonel met and courted Miss Mary Mallard, daughter of
Judge Mallard; and on February 26th, 1867, they were married. For
eight years, from March, 1877, Dunkelberger was Postmaster. He died on
December 5th, 1904, survived by his widow and six children. While
writing about this estimable family, it occurs to me that Mary, then a
little girl, was one of the guests at my wedding.
Frank Lecouvreur, who was Surveyor of Los Angeles County from 1870
until 1873, was a native of East Prussia and like his predecessor,
George Hansen, came to California by way of the Horn. For a while, as
I have related, he was my bookkeeper. In 1877, he married Miss
Josephine Rosanna Smith who had renounced her vows as a nun. Ten years
later he suffered a paralytic stroke and was an invalid until his
death, on January 17th, 1901.
Once introduced, the telegraph gradually grew in popularity; but even
in 1870, when the Western Union company had come into the field and
was operating as far as the Coast, service was anything but
satisfactory. The poles between Los Angeles and San Francisco had
become rotten and often fell, dragging the wires with them, and
interrupting communication with the North. There were no wires, up to
that time, to Santa Bárbara or San Bernardino; and only in the spring
of that year was it decided to put a telegraph line through to San
Diego. When the Santa Bárbara line was proposed, the citizens there
speedily subscribed twenty-two hundred and forty-five dollars; it
having been the company's plan always to get some local stockholders.
As the result of real estate purchases and exchanges in the late
sixties and early seventies between Dr. J. S. Griffin, Phineas
Banning, B. D. Wilson, P. Beaudry and others, a fruit-growing colony
was planned in April, when it was proposed to take in some seventeen
hundred and fifty acres of the best part of the San Pasqual _rancho_,
including a ten-thousand-dollar ditch. A company, with a capital stock
of two hundred thousand dollars divided into four thousand shares of
fifty dollars each, was formed to grow oranges, lemons, grapes,
olives, nuts and raisins, John Archibald being President; R. M.
Widney, Vice-President; W. J. Taylor, Secretary; and the London & San
Francisco Bank, Treasurer. But although subscription books were opened
and the scheme was advertised, nothing was done with the land until D.
M. Berry and others came from Indiana and started the Indiana Colony.
A rather uncommon personality for about thirty years was Fred Dohs,
who came from Germany when he was twenty-three and engaged in trading
horses. By 1870 he was managing a barber shop near the Downey Block,
and soon after was conducting a string band. For many years, the
barber-musician furnished the music for most of the local dances and
entertainments, at the same time (or until prices began to be cut)
maintaining his shop, where he charged two bits for a shave and four
bits for a hair-cut. During his prosperity, Dohs acquired property,
principally on East First Street.
The first foot-bridge having finally succumbed to the turbulent waters
of the erratic Los Angeles River, the great flood of 1867-68 again
called the attention of our citizens to the necessity of establishing
permanent and safe communication between the two sides of the stream;
and this agitation resulted in the construction by Perry & Woodworth
of the first fairly substantial bridge at the foot of the old Aliso
Road, now Macy Street, at an outlay of some twenty thousand dollars.
Yet, notwithstanding the great necessity that had always existed for
this improvement, it is my recollection that it was not consummated
until about 1870. Like its poor little predecessor carried away by the
uncontrolled waters, the more dignified structure was broken up by a
still later flood, and the pieces of timber once so carefully put
together by a confident and satisfied people were strewn for a mile or
two along the river banks.
'Way back in the formative years of Los Angeles, there were suddenly
added to the constellation of noteworthy local characters two jovial,
witty, good-for-nothing Irishmen who from the first were pals. The two
were known as Dan Kelly and Micky Free. Micky's right name was Dan
Harrington; but I never knew Kelly to go under any other appellation.
When sober, which was not very frequent, Dan and Micky were
good-natured, jocular and free from care, and it mattered not to
either of them whether the morrow might find them well-fed and at
liberty or in the jail then known as the Hotel de Burns: "sufficient
unto the day is the evil thereof" was the only philosophy they knew.
They were boon companions when free from drink; but when saturated,
they immediately fought like demons. They were both in the toils quite
ten months of the year, while during the other two months they carried
a hod! Of the two, Micky was the most irredeemable, and in time he
became such a nuisance that the authorities finally decided to ship
him out of the country and bought him a ticket to Oregon. Micky got as
far as San Pedro, where he traded his ticket for a case of delirium
tremens; but he did something more--he broke his leg and was bundled
back to Los Angeles, renewing here the acquaintance of both the
bartender and the jailer. Some years later, he astonished the town by
giving up drink and entering the Veterans's Home. When he died, they
gave him a soldier's honors and a soldier's grave.
In 1870, F. Bonshard imported into Los Angeles County some five or six
hundred blooded Cashmere goats; and about the same time or perhaps
even earlier, J. E. Pleasants conducted at Los Nietos a similar
enterprise, at one time having four or five hundred of a superior
breed, the wool of which brought from twenty-five to thirty-five cents
a pound. The goat-fancying Pleasants also had some twelve hundred
Angoras.
On June 1st, Henry Hamilton, who two years before had resumed the
editorship of the Los Angeles _Star_, then a weekly, issued the first
number of the _Daily Star_. He had taken into partnership George W.
Barter, who three months later started the _Anaheim Gazette_. In 1872,
Barter was cowhided by a woman, and a committee formally requested the
editor to vamose the town! Barter next bought the _Daily Star_ from
Hamilton, on credit, but he was unable to carry out his contract and
within a year Hamilton was again in charge.
At the beginning of this decade, times in Arizona were really very
bad. H. Newmark & Company, who had large amounts due them from
merchants in that Territory, were not entirely easy about their
outstanding accounts, and this prompted Kaspare Cohn to visit our
customers there. I urged him to consider the dangers of the road and
to abandon his project; but he was determined to go. The story of the
trip, in the light of present methods and the comparative safety of
travel, is an interesting one, and I shall relate his experiences as
he described them to me.
He started on a Saturday, going by stage (in preference to buckboard)
from Los Angeles to San Bernardino, and from there rode, as the only
passenger, with a stage-driver named Brown, passing through Frink's
Ranch, Gilman's, White River, Agua Caliente, Indian Wells, Toros, Dos
Palmas, Chuckawalla, Mule Springs and Willow Springs. H. Newmark &
Company had forwarded, on a prairie schooner driven by Jesse Allen of
Los Angeles, a considerable amount of merchandise which it was their
intention should be sold in Arizona, and the freighting charge upon
which was to be twelve and a half cents per pound. In Chuckawalla,
familiarly called Chucky Valley, the travelers overtook Allen and the
stock of goods; and this meeting in that lonesome region was the cause
of such mutual rejoicing that Kaspare provided as abundant an
entertainment as his limited stores would permit. Resuming their
journey from Chuckawalla, the driver and his companion soon left Allen
and his cumbersome load in the rear.
It was near Granite Wash, as they were jogging along in the evening,
that they noticed some Indian fire signals. These were produced by
digging a hole in the ground, filling it with combustible material,
such as dry leaves, and setting fire to it. From the smoldering that
resulted, smoke was emitted and sparks burst forth. Observing these
ticklish warnings, the wayfarers sped away and escaped--perhaps, a
tragic fate. Arriving at Ehrenberg on a Tuesday morning, Kaspare
remained there all night. Still the only passenger, he left the next
day; and it may be imagined how cheering, after the previous
experience, was the driver's remark that, on account of the lonesome
character of the trip, and especially the danger from scalping
Apaches, he would never have departed without some company!
Somewhere between Granite Wash and Wickenberg, a peculiar rattling
revealed a near-by snake, whereupon Kaspare jumped out and shot the
reptile, securing the tail and rattles. Changing horses or resting at
Tyson's Wells, McMullen's and Cullen's Station, they arrived the next
night at Wickenberg, the location of the Vulture Mines, where Kaspare
called upon the Superintendent--a man named Peoples--to collect a
large amount they owed us. Half of the sum was paid in gold bars, at
the rate of sixteen dollars per ounce, while the other half we lost.
A niece of M. Kremer lived in Wickenberg, where her husband was in
business. She suffered a great deal from headaches, and a friend had
recommended, as a talisman, the possession of snake rattles. Kaspare,
with his accustomed gallantry, produced the specimen which he had
obtained and gave it to the lady; and it is to be hoped that she was
as permanently relieved of her pain as so many nowadays are cured of
imaginary troubles by no more substantial superstitions.
Making short stops at Wilson's Station, Antelope Station, Kirkland
Valley, Skull Valley and Mint Valley, Kaspare reached Prescott, some
four hundred and thirty miles from San Bernardino, and enquired after
Dan Hazard, the ex-Mayor's brother and one of our customers--who died
about the middle of the eighties--and learned that he was then on his
way to St. Louis with teams to haul back freight for Levi Bashford
who, in addition to being an important trader, was Government Receiver
of Public Moneys. Kaspare decided to remain in Prescott until Hazard
returned; and as Jesse Allen soon arrived with the merchandise,
Kaspare had ample time to sell it. Bashford, as a Government official,
was not permitted to handle such goods as matches and cigars, which
bore revenue stamps, but Kaspare sold him quantities of lard, beans,
coffee, sugar and other supplies. He sold the revenue-stamped articles
to Buffum & Campbell, the former of whom had once been a well-known
resident of Los Angeles. He also disposed of some goods to Henderson
Brothers, afterward prominent bankers of Tucson and Globe, Arizona. In
the meantime, Dan Hazard returned and settled his account in full.
Kaspare remained in Prescott nearly four weeks. Between the
collections that he made and the money which he received for the
consigned merchandise, he had about thirteen thousand dollars in
currency to bring back with him. With this amount of money on his
person, the return trip was more than ever fraught with danger.
Mindful of this added peril, Kaspare kept the time of his departure
from Prescott secret, no one, with the exception of Bashford, being in
his confidence. He prepared very quietly; and at the last moment, one
Saturday afternoon, he slipped into the stage and started for
California. Brown was again his companion as far as Ehrenberg. There
he met Frank Ganahl and Charles Strong, both soon to become Southern
Californians; and knowing them very well, their companionship
contributed during the rest of the trip not only pleasure but an
agreeable feeling of security. His arrival in Los Angeles afforded me
much relief, and the story of his adventures and success added more
than a touch of interest.
The first street-sprinklers in Los Angeles were owned and operated
about the middle of July by T. W. McCracken, who was allowed by the
Council to call upon residents along the route for weekly
contributions to keep the water wagon going.
I have told of the establishing of Hellman, Temple & Company as
bankers. In September, the first-named bought out his partners and
continued, until 1871, as Hellman & Company.
With the commencement of autumn, when the belief prevailed that little
or nothing could be done toward persuading the Common Council to
beautify the Plaza, a movement to lay out and embellish the five-acre
tract bounded by Hill and Olive, and Fifth and Sixth streets, met with
such favor that, by the first week in October, some eight hundred
dollars had been subscribed for the purpose. On November 19th a public
meeting was held, presided over by Prudent Beaudry, Major H. M.
Mitchell serving as Secretary; and it was suggested to call the
proposed square the Los Angeles Park, and to enclose it, at a cost of
about five hundred dollars, with a fence. Another two hundred dollars
was soon made up; and the services of L. Carpenter, who offered to
plow the land prior to sowing grass-seed, were accepted in lieu of a
subscription. Both George Lehman and Elijah Workman showed their
public spirit by planting what have since become the largest trees
there. Sometime later, the name was changed to Central Park, by which
it is still known.
The first hackney coach ever built in Los Angeles was turned out in
September by John Goller for J. J. Reynolds--about the same time that
the Oriental Stage Company brought a dozen new Concord coaches from
the East--and cost one thousand dollars. Goller was then famous for
elaborate vehicles and patented spring buggies which he shipped even
to pretentious and bustling San Francisco. Before the end of November,
however, friends of the clever and enterprising carriage-maker were
startled to hear that he had failed for the then not insignificant sum
of about forty thousand dollars.
Up to the fall of the year, no connection existed between Temple and
First Streets west of Spring; but on the first day of September, a cut
through the hill, effected by means of chain-gang labor and continuing
Fort Street north, was completed, to the satisfaction of the entire
community.
About the middle of October, a petition was presented to the Common
Council calling attention to the fact that the Los Angeles Water
Company two years before had agreed to erect a fountain on the Plaza;
and declaring that the open place was little short of a "scarecrow for
visitors." The Company immediately replied that it was ready to put up
the fountain; and in November the Council ordered the brick tank taken
away. At the beginning of August, 1871, the fountain began playing.
During the second marshalship of William C. Warren, when Joe Dye was
one of his deputy officers, there was great traffic in Chinese women,
one of whom was kidnaped and carried off to San Diego. A reward of a
hundred dollars was offered for her return, and she was brought back
on a charge of theft and tried in the Court of Justice Trafford, on
Temple Street near Spring. During the trial, on October 31st, 1870,
Warren and Dye fell into a dispute as to the reward; and the quarrel
was renewed outside the courtroom. At a spot near the corner of Spring
and Temple streets Dye shot and killed Warren; and in the scrimmage
several other persons standing near were wounded. Dye was tried, but
acquitted. Later, however, he himself was killed by a nephew, Mason
Bradfield, whose life he had frequently threatened and who fired the
deadly bullet from a window of the New Arlington Hotel, formerly the
White House, at the southeast corner of Commercial and Los Angeles
streets. Mrs. C. P. Bradfield, Bradfield's mother and a teacher, who
came in 1875, was the author of certain text-books for drawing,
published by A. S. Barnes & Company of New York.
Failures in raising and using camels in the Southwest were due, at
least partially, to ignorance of the animal's wants, a company of
Mexicans, in the early sixties, overloading some and treating them so
badly that nearly all died. Later, Frenchmen, who had had more
experience, secured the two camels left, and by 1870 there was a herd
of no less than twenty-five on a ranch near the Carson River in
Nevada, where they were used in packing salt for sixty miles or more
to the mills.
On October 31st, the first Teacher's Institute held in Los Angeles
County was opened, with an attendance of thirty-five, in the old Bath
Street schoolhouse, that center being selected because the school
building at Spring and Second streets, though much better adapted to
the purpose, was considered to be too far out of town! County
Superintendent W. M. McFadden was President; J. M. Guinn was
Vice-President; and P. C. Tonner was Secretary; while a leader in
discussions was Dr. Truman H. Rose, who there gave a strong impetus to
the founding of the first high school.
Soon after this Institute was held, the State Legislature authorized
bonds to the amount of twenty thousand dollars for the purpose of
erecting another schoolhouse; and the building was soon to be known as
the Los Angeles High School. W. H. Workman, M. Kremer and H. D.
Barrows were the building committee.
Mentioning educators, I may introduce the once well-known name of
Professor Adams, an instructor in French who lived here in the early
seventies. He was so very urbane that on one occasion, while overdoing
his polite attention to a lady, he fell off the sidewalk and badly
broke his leg!
In a previous chapter I have spoken of a Frenchman named Lachenais who
killed a fellow-countryman at a wake, the murder being one of a
succession of crimes for which he finally paid the penalty at the
hands of a Vigilance Committee in the last lynching witnessed here.
Lachenais lived near where the Westminster Hotel now stands, on the
northeast corner of Main and Fourth streets, but he also had a farm
south of the city, adjoining that of Jacob Bell who was once a partner
in sheep-raising with John Schumacher. The old man was respectable and
quiet, but Lachenais quarreled with him over water taken from the
_zanja_. Without warning, he rode up to Bell as he was working in his
field and shot him dead; but there being no witnesses to the act, this
murder remained, temporarily, a mystery. One evening, as Lachenais (to
whom suspicion had been gradually directed), was lounging about in a
drunken condition, he let slip a remark as to the folly of anyone
looking for Bell's murderer; and this indiscretion led to his arrest
and incarceration.
No sooner had the news of Lachenais's apprehension been passed along
than the whole town was in a turmoil. A meeting at Stearns's Hall was
largely attended; a Vigilance Committee was formed; Lachenais's record
was reviewed and his death at the hands of an outraged community was
decided upon. Everything being arranged, three hundred or more armed
men, under the leadership of Felix Signoret, the barber--Councilman in
1863 and proprietor of the Signoret Building opposite the Pico
House--assembled on the morning of December 17th, marched to the jail,
overcame Sheriff Burns and his assistants, took Lachenais out, dragged
him along to the corral of Tomlinson & Griffith (at the corner of
Temple and New High streets) and there summarily hanged him. Then the
mob, without further demonstration, broke up; the participants going
their several ways. The reader may have already observed that this was
not the first time that the old Tomlinson & Griffith gate had served
this same gruesome purpose.
The following January, County Judge Y. Sepúlveda charged the Grand
Jury to do its duty toward ferreting out the leaders of the mob, and
so wipe out this reproach to the city; but the Grand Jury expressed
the conviction that if the law had hitherto been faithfully executed
in Los Angeles, such scenes in broad daylight would never have taken
place. The editor of the _News_, however, ventured to assert that this
report was but another disgrace.