THE FIRST _FIESTAS_
1892-1897
Accompanied by my family, I traveled to Alaska, in 1892, going as far
as Muir Glacier and visiting, among other places, Metlakahtla (where
we met Father William Duncan, the famous missionary and _Arctander_),
Sitka, Juneau and the Treadwell Mines, near which the town of
Treadwell has since developed. To-day, the tourist starts from
Seattle; but we left Tacoma, sailing north about the seventh of July.
I found much to inspire me in that rather extreme portion of the
globe, where I was profoundly impressed with the vast forests and
colossal rivers of ice, so emblematic of Nature's law of eternal
change. Our party was especially fortunate in witnessing the rare
sight of huge masses of ice as, with sound of thunder, they broke from
the glacier and floated away, brilliantly-tinted bergs, to an
independent, if passing, existence.
Having arrived in the Bay of Sitka, our ship, the _Queen of the
Pacific_, struck a submerged rock. Instantly excitement and even
frenzy prevailed. Levi Z. Leiter, a member of the firm of Field,
Leiter & Company of Chicago, was so beside himself with fear that he
all but caused a panic, whereupon the Captain ordered the First Mate
to put the Chicagoan and his family ashore. Leiter, however, was
shamed by his daughter, Miss Mary Victoria--afterward Lady Curzon and
wife of the Viceroy of India--who admonished him not to make a scene;
and having no desire to be left for a protracted stay in Sitka, he
came to his senses and the commotion somewhat abated.
Meantime, not knowing how much damage had been done to the vessel, I
hastily proceeded to gather our party together, when I missed Marco
and only after considerable trouble found the boy in the cabin--such
is the optimism of youth--with a huge sandwich in his hand, not in the
least excited over the possible danger nor in any mood to allow a
little incident of that kind to dissipate his appetite. When it became
evident that the ship had sustained no vital damage, the Captain
announced that as soon as a higher tide would permit we should proceed
on our way.
In 1892, Abbot Kinney and F. G. Ryan, disregarding the craze for
property along the bluffs of old Santa Monica, gave practical evidence
of their faith in the future of the sand dunes hereabouts by buying an
extensive strip of land on the ocean-front, some of it being within
the town of Santa Monica but most of it stretching farther south. They
induced the Santa Fé to lay out a route to Ocean Park as the new town
was to be called; and having erected piers, a bath house and an
auditorium, they built numerous cottages. Hardly was this enterprise
well under way, however, when Ryan died and T. H. Dudley acquired his
share in the undertaking. In 1901, A. R. Fraser, G. M. Jones and H. R.
Gage purchased Dudley's half interest; and the owners began to put the
lots on the market. One improvement after another was made, involving
heavy expenditures; and in 1904, Ocean Park was incorporated as a
city.
E. L. Doheny and a partner had the good luck to strike some of the
first oil found in quantities within the city limits. They began
operations in February on West State Street, in the very residence
section of the town; and at about one hundred and sixty feet below the
surface, they found oil enough to cause general excitement. Mrs. Emma
A. Summers, who had been dealing in real estate since she came in
1881, quickly sank a well on Court Street near Temple which in a short
time produced so lavishly that Mrs. Summers became one of the largest
individual operators in crude oil. She is now known as the Oil Queen.
At the suggestion of Mrs. M. Burton Williamson, an interesting
open-air meeting of the Los Angeles Historical Society was held on the
evening of March 28th at the residence of Don António and Doña Mariana
Coronel, near the corner of Central Avenue and Seventh Street. Three
hundred guests assembled to enjoy the proverbial Spanish hospitality
of this distinguished couple, and to hear reports of the activities of
various Los Angeles societies. Don António possessed, as is well
known, valuable historical and ethnological collections; and some of
his choicest curios were that evening placed at the service of his
guests. Professor Ira More participated, presiding at a table once
used by the first Constitutional Governor, Echeandia, and I still
recall the manner in which António chuckled when he told us how he had
swapped "four gentle cows" for the piece of furniture; while, instead
of a gavel, Señora Coronel had provided a bell long used to summon the
Indians to Mission service.
As early as the height of the great Boom, Professor T. S. C. Lowe (to
whom I have referred in the story of an experiment in making gas)
advocated the construction of a railroad up the mountain later
officially designated Mt. Lowe; and almost immediately financiers
acted on the proposal and ordered the route surveyed. The collapse of
the Boom, however, then made the financing of the project impossible;
and the actual work of building the road was begun only in 1892. On
the Fourth of July of the following year, the first car carrying a
small party of invited guests successfully ascended the incline; and
on August 23d the railway was formally opened to the public, the
occasion being made a holiday. In 1894, the Mt. Lowe Astronomical
Observatory was built. At one time, the railway was owned by Valentine
Peyton, my agreeable neighbor and friend then and now residing on
Westlake Avenue.
In June, 1893, the Los Angeles Post Office was moved from its location
at Broadway near Sixth Street to the National Government Building at
the southeast corner of Main and Winston streets, which had just been
completed at a cost of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Seized with the same desire that animated many thousands who
journeyed to Chicago, I visited the World's Fair in the fall of 1893.
Everywhere I was impressed with the extraordinary progress made,
especially by Americans, since the display in Philadelphia; and I was
naturally proud of the exhibits from California in charge of my
fellow-townsman, Ben Truman.
Russell Judson Waters, a well-known banker and member of Congress from
the Sixth District between 1899 and 1903, came from Redlands in 1894
and another Southern Californian who has turned his attention to
literary endeavor: his novel, _El Estranjero_, dealing with past local
life.
Joseph Scott, who has risen to distinction in the California legal
world, alighted in Los Angeles in June, having tried without success
to obtain newspaper work in Boston, in 1887, although equipped with a
letter of introduction from John Boyle O'Reilly. In New York, with
only two dollars in his pocket, he was compelled to shoulder a hod;
but relief came: as Scott himself jovially tells the story, he was
carrying mortar and brick on a Tuesday in February, 1890, and but two
days later he faced a body of students at St. Bonaventura's College in
Allegany, New York, as instructor in rhetoric! Within ten months after
Scott came to Southern California, he was admitted to practice at the
Los Angeles Bar; and since then he has been President of the Chamber
of Commerce. He is now a member of the Board of Education, and all in
all his services to the commonwealth have been many and important.
The existence of the Merchants' Association, which was organized in
1893 with W. C. Furrey as President and William Bien (succeeded the
following year by Jacob E. Waldeck, son-in-law of Samuel Hellman) as
Secretary, was somewhat precarious until 1894. In that year, Los
Angeles was suffering a period of depression, and a meeting was called
to devise ways and means for alleviating the economic ills of the city
and also for attracting to Los Angeles some of the visitors to the
Midwinter Fair then being held in San Francisco. At that meeting, Max
Meyberg, a member of the Association's executive committee, suggested
a carnival; and the plan being enthusiastically endorsed, the coming
occasion was dubbed _La Fiesta de Los Angeles_. Meyberg was appointed
Director-General; and the following persons, among others, were
associated with him in the undertaking: Mayor T. E. Rowan, F. W. Wood,
R. W. Pridham, H. Jevne, J. O. Koepfli, Leon Loeb, H. T. Hazard,
Charles S. Walton and M. H. Newmark.
The _Fiesta_ lasted from the 10th to the 13th of April and proved a
delightful affair. The participants marched in costume to the City
Hall during a meeting of the Council, usurped the Government, elected
a Queen--Mrs. O. W. Childs, Jr.--to preside over the destinies of the
City during the _Fiesta_ and communicated to everybody a spirit of
uncontrollable enthusiasm based on a feeling of the most genuine
patriotic sentiment. The result was thoroughly successful, the
carnival bringing out the real Californian fellowship--whole-souled
and ringing true. Indeed, it is conceded by all who have seen Los
Angeles grow, that this first _Fiesta_ and the resulting strengthening
of the Association have been among the earliest and, in some respects,
the most important elements contributory to the wonderful growth and
development of our city. A few evenings after the conclusion of the
celebration, and while the streets were brilliantly illuminated with
Bengal fire, the leaders again marched in a body, this time to the
hall over Mott Market, where they not only laid plans for the second
_Fiesta_, but installed J. O. Koepfli as President of the Merchants'
Association.
So enthusiastic had the citizens of Los Angeles really become that in
the years 1895 and 1896 the _Fiesta_ was repeated and many prominent
people supported the original committee, assisting to make the second
festival almost equal to the first. Among these patrons were John
Alton, Hancock Banning, W. A. Barker, A. C. Bilicke, L. W. Blinn, W.
C. Bluett, R. W. Burnham, John M. Crawley, James Cuzner, J. H.
Dockweiler, T. A. Eisen, J. A. Foshay, John F. Francis, A. W.
Francisco, H. W. Frank, Dan Freeman, Mrs. Jessie Benton Frémont, W. M.
Garland, T. E. Gibbon, J. T. Griffith, Harley Hamilton, R. H. Howell,
Sumner P. Hunt, A. Jacoby, General E. P. Johnson, John Kahn, F. W.
King, Abbot Kinney, E. F. C. Klokke, J. Kuhrts, Dr. Carl Kurtz, J. B.
Lankershim, General C. F. A. Last, S. B. Lewis, H. Lichtenberger,
Charles F. Lummis, Simon Maier, D. C. McGarvin, John R. Mathews, James
J. Mellus, L. E. Mosher, Walter S. Newhall, J. W. A. Off, Colonel H.
Z. Osborne, Colonel H. G. Otis, Madison T. Owens, W. C. Patterson,
Niles Pease, A. Petsch, John E. Plater, R. W. Pridham, Judge E. M.
Ross, F. K. Rule, Frank Sabichi, J. T. Sheward, Colonel W. G.
Schreiber, John Schumacher, Professor P. W. Search, Edward D. Silent,
Alfredo Solano, George H. Stewart, Frank J. Thomas, D. K. Trask, Ben
C. Truman, I. N. Van Nuys, K. H. Wade, Stephen M. White, Frank
Wiggins, C. D. Willard, Dr. W. Le Moyne Wills, W. B. Wilshire, H. J.
Woollacott and W. D. Woolwine.
This second _Fiesta_ brought into the local field two men then
unknown, but each destined to play an important part in the affairs of
Los Angeles. J. O. Koepfli, President of the Merchants' Association,
and M. H. Newmark, Chairman of the Finance Committee, selected Felix
J. Zeehandelaar (a reporter for the Los Angeles _Herald_ during the
short ownership of John Bradbury) as financial and publicity agent;
with the result that more than thirty thousand dollars was collected
and valuable advertising was secured. At that time, the Finance
Committee also discovered the undeveloped talent of Lynden Ellsworth
Behymer, since so well known as the impresario, who, in managing with
wonderful success the sale of tickets for the various events, laid the
foundation for his subsequent career. Commencing with Adelina Patti,
there have been few celebrities in the musical world that Behymer's
enterprise has not succeeded in bringing to Los Angeles; his greatest
accomplishment in recent seasons being the booking of the Chicago
Grand Opera Company, in February, 1913, under a guarantee of
eighty-eight thousand dollars.
Second in chronological order among the larger societies of women, and
doubtless equal to any in the importance of its varied activities, the
Ebell Club was organized in 1894, due time providing itself with a
serviceable and ornate home, within which for years broad courses of
departmental study have been prosecuted with vigor.
After worshiping for more than fifteen years in the old Synagogue on
Fort Street, and five years more after that name was changed to
Broadway (during which period, from 1881 until I started, in 1887, on
my second European trip, it was my privilege to serve as President of
the Congregation), the reformed Jews of Los Angeles built, in 1894,
the Temple B'nai B'rith on the corner of Hope and Ninth streets. In
the meantime, following the resignation of Dr. A. W. Edelman, in 1886,
Dr. Emanuel Schreiber for two years occupied the pulpit; and then
Reverend A. Blum came from Galveston to succeed him. From the early
part of 1895, Rabbi M. G. Solomon held the office until 1899. It was
during his administration, it may be interesting to observe, and while
Herman W. Hellman was President, that the present Temple was
consecrated.
In 1894, Homer Laughlin, of Ohio, during a visit purchased from Mrs.
Mary A. Briggs the property on Broadway between Third and Fourth
streets, where she had lived. Three years later, he moved to Los
Angeles and began the erection of the Homer Laughlin fire-proof
building, adding to the same, in 1905, a reinforced concrete annex.
At midnight, on April 17th, Don António Franco Coronel died at his
home in Los Angeles, aged seventy-seven years. In less than four
months, his life-long friend, Don Pio Pico died here--on September
11th, aged ninety-three years.
The Belgian hare aberration was a spasmodic craze of the nineties and
when I remember what the little rabbit did to our judgment then, it
brings to mind the black-tulip bubble of Holland though, in point of
genuine foolishness, I should award the prize to the former. A
widely-copied newspaper article, claiming for the flesh of the timid
Belgian rodent extraordinary qualities and merit, led first hundreds,
then thousands, to rig up hare-coops for the breeding of the animal,
expecting to supply the world with its much-lauded meat. Before long,
people abandoned profitable work in order to venture into the new
field, and many were those who invested thousands of dollars in
Belgian hare companies. During the wild excitement attention was also
given to the raising of hares for exhibition, and fancy prices were
paid for the choicest specimens. At last, the bubble burst: the supply
far exceeded the now-diminishing demand and the whole enterprise
collapsed.
A lively election in 1895 was that which decided the immediate future
of a suburb of Los Angeles where, on April 27th of the same year, Don
Juan Warner, who had lived there with his daughter, Mrs. Rúbio, went
to his rest. This was University Place, in 1880 a mere hamlet, though
three years later it had a post office of its own. In 1895, an effort
was made to annex the community, with Vernon, Rosedale and Pico
Heights; but the measure was defeated, and only on June 12th, 1899 was
the college district annexed to Los Angeles. For some years, the
boundary line of the town at that point followed such a course through
house-lots that residents there, still at home, often ate in the
county and slept within the city!
The early nineties were full of the spirit of accomplishment, and
notwithstanding the failure of the Electric Homestead Tract
Association and its street car line, already described, a successful
electric railway system for Los Angeles was at length installed. In
1892, a route was laid out to Westlake Park, the company having been
encouraged by a subsidy of fifty thousand dollars pledged by owners of
property most likely to be affected by the service; and by 1895 the
electric traction system was so general that even the bob-tailed cars
on Main Street gave way to the new order of things. At this early
stage in the application of electricity to street cars, some of the
equipment was rather primitive. Wooden poles, for example, were a part
of the trolley; and as they were easily broken, conductors were fined
a dollar for any accident to the rod with which they might have to do!
Electricity--when it was forthcoming at all--was only harnessed to
impel the vehicle; but there were no devices for using the current to
warm the car, and instead of an electric light, an _oil_ lamp, hung
onto the dashboard, faintly illuminated the soft roadbed of the
irregular tracks. The most active promoters of the improvements of
1895 were the two brothers, William Spencer and Thomas J. Hook, who
operated mainly in the southwestern part of the city, developing that
rather sparsely-settled district and introducing what was the best and
most handsome rolling stock seen here up to that time.
B. F. Coulter, who from 1881 to 1884 had preached here as a clergyman
of the Christian Church, in 1895 built a place of worship at his own
expense, on Broadway near Temple Street, costing twenty thousand
dollars--no inconsiderable sum for that time.
Sometime in March appeared the first issue of the _Los Angeles
Record_, a one-cent evening paper started by E. W. Scripps as "the
poor man's advocate." It was really another one of the many
enterprising Scripps newspapers scattered throughout the country and
championing, more or less, Socialistic principles; in accordance with
which Scripps, from the outset, distributed some of the stock among
his working associates. At the present time, W. H. Porterfield is the
editor-in-chief, and W. T. Murdoch the editor.
Thomas J. Scully, a pioneer school teacher who came to Los Angeles the
same year that I did, died here in 1895. For some time Scully was the
only teacher in the county outside of the city, but owing to the
condition of the public treasury he actually divided his time between
three or four schools, giving lessons in each a part of the year.
After a while, the schoolmaster gazed longingly upon a lovely vineyard
and its no less lovely owner; and at last, by marrying the
proprietress, he appropriated both. This sudden capture of wife and
independence, however, was too much for our unsophisticated pedagogue:
Scully entered upon a campaign of intemperance and dissipation; his
spouse soon expelled him from his comfortable surroundings, and he was
again forced to earn his own living with birch and book.
Inoffensive in the extreme, yet with an aberration of mind more and
more evident during twenty years, Frederick Merrill Shaw, a
well-informed Vermonter born in 1827, shipped for California as cook
on the brig _Sea Eagle_ and arrived in San Francisco in September,
1849, where he helped to build, as he always claimed, the first
three-story structure put up there. Well-proportioned and standing
over six feet in height, Shaw presented a dignified appearance; that
is, if one closed an eye to his dress. Long ago, he established his
own pension bureau, conferring upon me the honor of a weekly
contributor; and when he calls, he keeps me well-posted on what he's
been doing. His weary brain is ever filled with the phantoms of great
inventions and billion-dollar corporations, as his pocketful of maps
and diagrams shows; one day launching an aerial navigation company to
explore the moon and the next day covering California with railroad
lines as thick as are automobiles in the streets of Los Angeles.
On September 21st, my brother, J. P. Newmark, to whom I am so
indebted, and who was the cause of my coming to California, died at
his home, in the sixty-ninth year of his age; his demise being rather
sudden. During the extended period of his illness, he was tenderly
nursed by his wife, Augusta; and I cannot pay my sister-in-law too
high a tribute for her devoted companionship and aid, and her real
self-sacrifice. Mrs. Newmark long survived her husband, dying on
January 3d, 1908 at the age of seventy-four.
The reader will permit me, I am certain, the privilege of a fraternal
eulogy: in his acceptance and fulfillment of the responsibilities of
this life, in the depth and sincerity of his feeling toward family and
friend, my brother was the peer of any; in his patient, silent
endurance of long years of intense physical suffering and in his
cheerfulness, which a manly courage and philosophical spirit inspired
him to diffuse, he was the superior of most; and it was the possession
of these qualities which has preserved his personality, to those who
knew him well, far beyond the span of natural existence.
In May, 1896, the Merchants' Association consolidated with the
Manufacturers' Association (of which R. W. Pridham was then
President), and after the change of name to the Merchants &
Manufacturers' Association, inaugurated the first local exhibit of
home products, using the Main Street store of Meyberg Brothers for the
display. On August 1st, 1897, Felix J. Zeehandelaar, later also Consul
of the Netherlands, became the stalwart, enthusiastic and now
indispensable Secretary, succeeding, I believe, William H. Knight.
This same year Major Ben. C. Truman, formerly editor of the _Star_,
together with George D. Rice & Sons established the _Graphic_, which
is still being published under the popular editorship of Samuel T.
Clover. In 1900, Truman was one of the California Commissioners to the
Paris Exposition. After his foreign sojourn, he returned to Los
Angeles and, with Harry Patton, started a weekly society paper called
the _Capitol_. Rather recently, by the advantageous sale of certain
property early acquired, Ben and his good wife have come to enjoy a
comfortable and well-merited degree of prosperity. Clover came to Los
Angeles in 1901; was editor and publisher of the _Express_ for four
years; and in 1905 started the _Evening News_, continuing the same
three years despite the panic of 1907. A year previously, he purchased
the _Graphic_, more than one feature of which, and especially his
"Browsings in an Old Book Shop," have found such favor.
W. A. Spalding, whose editorial work on Los Angeles newspapers--dating
from his association with the _Herald_ in 1874, and including service
with both the _Express_ and the _Times_--in 1896 assumed the business
management of his first love, the _Herald_. After again toiling with
the quill for four years, he was succeeded by Lieutenant Randolph H.
Miner.
The magnificent interurban electric system of Los Angeles is indebted
not a little to the brothers-in-law, General M. H. Sherman and E. P.
Clark--the former a Yankee from Vermont, and the latter a Middle
Westerner from Iowa--both of whom had settled in Arizona in the early
seventies. While in the Territory, Sherman taught school and, under
appointment by Governor Frémont as Superintendent of Instruction, laid
the foundation of the public school system there. Both came to Los
Angeles in 1889, soon after which Sherman organized the Consolidated
Electric Railway Company. In 1896, the old steam railroad--which about
the late eighties had run for a year or so between Los Angeles and the
North Beach, by way of Colegrove and South Hollywood--was equipped
with electrical motor power and again operated through the enterprise
of Eli P. Clark, President of the Los Angeles Pacific Railroad
Company. Together, Sherman and Clark built an electrical road to
Pasadena, thus connecting the mountains with the sea.
In 1896, I dissolved partnership with Kaspare Cohn, taking over the
hide business and, having fitted up a modest office under the St. Elmo
Hotel, revived with a degree of satisfaction the name of H. Newmark &
Company.
A notable career in Los Angeles is that of Arthur Letts who in 1896
arrived here with barely five hundred dollars in his pocket and, as it
would appear, in answer to a benign Providence. J. A. Williams &
Company, after a brief experience, had found the corner of Broadway
and Fourth Street too far south, and their means too limited, to
weather the storm; so that their badly-situated little department
store was soon in the hands of creditors. This was Letts' opportunity:
obtaining some financial assistance, he purchased the bankrupt stock.
His instantaneous success was reflected in the improvement of the
neighborhood, and thereafter both locality and business made rapid
progress together.
Meredith P. Snyder, who became a resident in 1880 and started business
by clerking in a furniture store, in 1896 was elected to the office of
mayor, on a municipal water-works platform.
During the presidential campaign of 1896, when the West went wild over
"16 to 1," and it looked as if W. J. Bryan would sweep aside all
opposition here, an organization known as the Sound Money League
undertook to turn the tide. George H. Stewart was elected President,
the other members of the Executive Committee being John F. Francis,
Frank A. Gibson, R. W. Burnham and M. H. Newmark. So strenuous was the
campaign, and so effective was the support by the public, that when
the sun set on that memorable Tuesday in November, Los Angeles was
found to be still strong for sound principles. Perhaps the most
remarkable outpouring in the political history of the city took place
during this period when business men, regardless of previous party
affiliations, turned out to hear Tom Reed, the "Czar" of the House of
Representatives.
It was in the Christmas season of 1896 that Colonel Griffith J.
Griffith so generously filled the stocking of Los Angeles with his
immensely important gift of Griffith Park, said to be, with its three
thousand and more diversified acres, magnificent heights and
picturesque roadways--some of which, with their dense willow growth,
remind me of the shaded lanes described in earlier chapters--the
second largest pleasure ground in the world.
On July 1st, 1897, the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad was absorbed by the
Santa Fé; Charles W. Smith, the receiver, having brought order out of
chaos after the former road in 1895 had met with disaster.
Dr. Henry S. Orme, H. W. O'Melveny, J. M. Griffith, J. W. Gillette, A.
L. Bath, J. M. Guinn, M. Teed, J. M. Elliott and W. A. Spalding on
August 2d met in the office of the _Daily Herald_, in the Bradbury
Block on Third Street, to consider the organization of an Old
Settlers' Society. At that meeting a committee, consisting of Dr. J.
S. Griffin, Henry W. O'Melveny, Benjamin S. Eaton, H. D. Barrows, J.
M. Guinn, Dr. H. S. Orme, J. W. Gillette and myself was appointed to
direct the movement. On August 10th, we selected the Los Angeles
County Pioneers of Southern California as the name of the society and
decided that eligibility should be limited to those who had resided in
the county twenty-five years. A public meeting was held at the Chamber
of Commerce on September 4th, 1897 and the twenty-five persons present
signed the roll. The first President chosen was Benjamin S. Eaton and
the first Secretary, J. M. Guinn.
Dr. William F. Edgar, who had resided here continuously for over
thirty years, died on August 23d, at the age of seventy-three; a sword
given to him by General Phil Kearney resting among the floral
tributes. The tenth of the following November witnessed the death of
George Hansen, the surveyor, whose body (in accordance with his
expressed wish) was cremated. On the same day, J. J. Ayers died.
This year, when the town was full of unemployed, hundreds of men were
set at work to improve Elysian Park, a move suggested by Judge Charles
Silent.
Frank Walker, who had been here for a while in the middle of the
eighties and had gone away again, returned to Los Angeles about 1897
and set himself up as a master builder. While contracting for certain
unique bungalows, his attention was directed to the possibility of
utilizing the power of the sun, with the result that he soon patented
a solar heater, similar to those now extensively built into Southern
California residences, and organized a company for exploiting the
invention.