Kings County
History
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California - History by Eugene L. Menefee and Fred A. Dodge - Historic Record Company - Los Angeles, California, 1913
CHAPTER XXV
RAILROADS
The building of railroads in Kings county since its birth, May 23, 1893, is a matter of much historical import because of the fact that the first competing line for the great San Joaquin Valley originated and took root through the action of Kings county citizens on July 5, 1894. On that date a group of men while gathered at the Hanford Sentinel office lamenting the lack of railroad facilities and the burdens from excessive transportation rates from the plug road already in operation, raised a somewhat plaintive cry, "Let's have an independent line," and on Thursday, July 12, 1894, "An Independent Line" constituted the headline under which the first report of an organized effort was published and from which incipient effort resulted what was first called the San Joaquin Valley Railroad Company. From the Hanford Sentinel of the above date we quote: "W. H. Worswick is the man who first sounded the key." The first committee on promotion was appointed at a meeting held in the office of D. R. Cameron, July 9, 1894, and consisted of the following representative men: W. W. Parlin, W. H. Worswick, D. R. Cameron, W. S. Porter, W. A. Long, A. V. Taylor, Archibald Yell. On the following day this committee met at the office of Archibald Yell "to consider the preliminaries of getting a start." By invitation E. Jacobs of Visalia was present and gave valuable suggestions. The discussions resulted in adding to the above committee the names of B. L. Barney, E. Jacobs, S. E. Biddle, W. P. McCord, Frank L. Dodge, W. J. Newport, the whole to constitute a board of directors for a temporary organization; Archibald Yell being made president and D. R. Cameron, secretary. A committee named to map out a route through Kings county included the following gentlemen: E. P. Irwin, F. J. Walker, W. H. Worswick, George A. Dodge, Joshua Worswick, W. P. McCord, W. W. Parlin. Numerous offers were made by farmers to give right of way and grade the road through their premises and general discussion and liberal offers of assistance were indulged in by the community at large. When the above reports had been circulated other counties took up the cry for "An Independent Line" and the next issue of the Sentinel carried the cheering headlines, "Now is the time to strike, for the iron is hot and the people know their needs. The action of Kings county meets with a hearty response from Contra Costa county." The Hanford organization was highly encouraged by letters from Antioch and San Francisco. Assurances of help by uniting with the Kings county people gave added impetus to the cause and the counties of Fresno, Tulare and Kern soon fell into line by holding public meetings and appointing committees to confer with the Kings county organization. J. S. Leeds, manager of the San Francisco Traffic Association, in an interview said :"It is a good time for San Francisco to go to work. If one county can do what these people of Kings county are doing the other counties can be relied upon to do something of the same kind. Let us join hands with them." At Antioch a mass meeting was held and C. M. Belshaw introduced a strong resolution stating that the people of Antioch "are in hearty accord and sympathy with the scheme promulgated by the citizens of Kings county." C. G. Lamberson of Visalia who had interests in Kings county enlisted as a helper. Supervisors Letcher and Foster of Fresno county came out emphatically in favor of the Kings county movement and advocated a plan to bond Fresno county in the sum of $600,000 to aid the project. Tulare county people began to awaken and Kern county also felt an impulse to join in a scheme to reduce a transportation rate, the excess of which over a fair and just rate would soon pay for a competing road. At this juncture the political campaign of 1894 came on and also a question of the government ownership of the Southern Pacific lines which had a tendency to dampen the ardor of the people toward the newly proposed railroad in the various interior counties of the San Joaquin Valley; but the Traffic Association of San Francisco about the middle of October, 1894, began an effort to raise $350,000 to start "The Valley Railroad" as it was then called. Then a company known as the "United Railroad Company," managed by a man named Hartzell at Stockton, launched a scheme to build a road from Stockton to Bakersfield. This was in November, 1894. It sought to unite with the San Francisco Traffic Association and was encouraged by P. McRae of Hanford. The original movement by Kings county people seemed for a while held up by the efforts of the above combines and the seeming reluctance of capitalists in the northern metropolis to justly aid the interests of the San Joaquin Valley people. Late in November, 1894, D. R. Cameron, secretary of the Kings county railroad promotion committee, threw a bombshell into the camp of the San Francisco business men by writing a letter to the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, setting forth a proposition whereby Los Angeles might unite in building a competing railroad into the San Joaquin Valley, thus securing a substantial interchange of trade which their present transportation rates prohibited. This valley had previously looked north to San Francisco for aid. The lethargy of that city was phenomenal. The proposition was well received by Los Angeles people and again enthusiasm went to an upper mark. A meeting was called by the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce for January 12, 1895. Delegations were sent to this meeting appointed by the Boards of Supervisors of the respective counties as follows : Kings county, S. E. Biddle, F. L. Dodge, D. R. Cameron; Fresno county, T. C. White, Fulton G. Berry, J. H. Kelley, O. J. Woodward; Kern county, W. H. Holabird ; Tulare county, E. Barris. The delegates were well received by the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and two enthusiastic sessions were held at which resolutions endorsing the Matthews bill which was then pending before the State Legislature, empowering counties to issue bonds for constructing railroads within their boundaries. A committee on Ways and Means was appointed. Said committee elected W. H. Holabird chairman, Charles Forman secretary, and J. M. Elliott of the First National Bank of Los Angeles, treasurer. The sense of the meeting was strong that a line of railway be built from Los Angeles into the San Joaquin Valley and recommended the means provided by the Matthews Bill as an incentive for the various counties to act.
The result of the Los Angeles meeting was the bomb that awakened San Francisco capitalists, for no sooner than reports reached them that Los Angeles was interested in getting the trade of this great valley did the Bay City see its danger and her prominent business men began to bestir themselves to enlist capital to come to the rescue. Word was quickly sent to the Kings county organization that a committee of twelve had been selected in San Francisco with Claus Spreckels at the head, with a subscription of $700,000; that a company was forming to be capitalized in the sum of $2,000,000 which would all be subscribed in that city in a few days to guarantee the building of the new road from San Francisco to Bakersfield. The San Francisco committee consisted of Claus Spreckels, Alexander Boyd, James D. Phelan, James F. Flood, O. D. Baldwin, David Meyer, W. F. Whittier, Albert Miller, Charles Holbrook, Thomas Magee, John T. Doyle, and E. F. Preston. This action electrified the whole city and set everybody talking about the new railroad, while the San Joaquin Valley rang with the hallelujahs of promised deliverance. Even Los Angeles took up the strain and advocated a continued line of road to that city. On January 2nd, 1895, a mass meeting was held in the Hanford Opera House. After discussion of the outlook by prominent citizens a committee was appointed to confer with the San Francisco committee, consisting of E. E. Manheim, D. R. Cameron, S. E. Biddle, P. McRae, F. L. Dodge, Louis F. Montagle, F. W. Van Sicklin, S. C. Lillis, A. Kutner, J. E. Rawlins. The San Francisco Chronicle encouraged the enterprise by giving a whole page write-up of the great resources of the various counties through which the new road would pass. In its write-up it said of Kings County:
"Kings County is known as the baby county of the state, from the fact that it was the last one to be created. It was taken from Tulare County, and includes all of Tulare Lake, a shallow basin of about 100 square miles in area. This new county of Kings is in the direct line of all railroad enterprises that expect to traverse the San Joaquin Valley. It has an assessed acreage of 427,281 acres and an assessed wealth of, in 1892, about $7,000,000. The territory of this county is irrigated by ditches having their supply from Kings and Kaweah rivers and Cross Creek, furnishing what is claimed to be the best, cheapest and most thorough irrigation system."
At this time $2,100,000 had been subscribed and articles of incorporation filed in which San Francisco and Bakersfield were named as terminal points. The capital stock of the company was placed at $6,000,000, the length of the road to be 350 miles.
But all great enterprises meet with difficulties and now came the one great question, how to get into San Francisco? Claus Spreckels found the way blocked against right of way for terminal facilities and had to go to the State Legislature to get a Bill enacted so as to be able to lease mud flats for terminal grounds.
Trouble also came to the people of Hanford and Kings county in the way of different routing of the line through the valley. Down the west side or the east side, which? While Kings county as the pioneers in the work had brought it to a probable success, her people were called upon to "put up" or lose the goose. As it was proclaimed by C. F. Preston, one of the San Francisco boosters, to be "a people's road, built with the people's money and owned by the people," the Hanford committee reported, after a canvass of the county, that 1068 days' work by men and teams, making over three years' work, had been offered, several hundred tons of hay, an amount of barley and some money; besides this three different men had promised to grade enough to make one-half the distance across the county. The city of Hanford would furnish depot grounds and right of way.
At this time 390 names were on the San Francisco subscription list, aggregating $2,388,300. Claus Spreckels said he wanted it called the "people's road" and not Spreckels' road. The San Francisco Examiner said in its praise: "The valley road will save the trade and industry of the city from the strangling grip of the Southern Pacific's policy that is now directed to give the trade of the interior to Chicago and New York."
April 29, 1895, Claus Spreckels, Robert Watt and Capt. H. H. Payson, directors of the new valley road, visited Hanford on a tour of inspection as to probable routes and to view the resources from which the new road might expect patronage. The Hanford committee gave them a ride through the surrounding country and a banquet.
The "San Francisco and San Joaquin Valley Railroad" had now become a certainty; rails had been purchased for a beginning and contracts for construction were being negotiated. Committees in the various counties were working for rights of way, it being about settled that the road from Fresno would branch to both sides of the valley. May 7th a Hanford committee, consisting of E. E. Bush, D. R. Cameron, L. S. Chittenden and Frank L. Dodge, were sent on a trip to look out the most direct route down the west side to Bakersfield.
A committee of the directors of the road again visited Hanford on a final tour of inspection on May 7th, and it was then admitted that Hanford would be on the main line. On Friday, the 22nd day of January, 1897, was transacted the very important business of signing contracts with the San Francisco and San Joaquin Valley Railroad Company by which Kings County was to get the main line, and on Monday night, January 25th, the Hanford City Council granted a franchise through the city for the building and operating of the new road. On Tuesday, January 26th, duly authorized committee, consisting of E. E. Bush, D. R. Cameron and P. McRea, as custodians of the money raised and deeds collected for rights of way, signed the contract with the railroad company which secured the prize for which Kings county had been struggling for during the past three years.
There was little left to be done by the people but to await the building of the road south from Fresno to Bakersfield, via Hanford. While Hanford people took the initiative and with commendable zeal pushed the enterprise from the start, the financial requirements were so far beyond them that the actual construction and equipment must necessarily pass to the hands of a company of capitalists, which it did and thus the matter of control by the people was wholly lost and the question of its being and remaining a competing railroad when finished was a mere guess. However, it was an improvement much needed and desired by the people and all were pleased, and encouraged to greater activity in all lines of industry that belong to this, the greatest inland empire of the Pacific Coast. The actual coming of the iron horse over the new road was celebrated in Hanford on May 23rd, 1897; just two years, eleven months and eighteen days from the date of the first meeting in Hanford to start it.
The celebration of its coming was combined with the fifth anniversary celebration of Kings county. On that date the first passenger train over the new road sounded its whistle to the largest crowd that had ever gathered at Hanford. There were parades with bands of music; floats representing horticultural and agricultural interests, as well as the city business houses, the educational and civic institutions of Kings county and many delegations of visitors from surrounding counties and towns. One thousand people came in on the first passenger train, including the directors and other officers of the new road.
After the grand parade had been reviewed by the visitors and the happy thousands of home people, exercises were held at a grand stand where eloquent speeches were made by E. E. Manheim, president Hanford Chamber of Commerce; Judge Justin Jacobs of Kings county, Vice-President Robert Watt of the road, Col. E. E. Preston, counsel for the road. It was a gala day for Kings county, then the baby county of the state, because the new road had reduced freights and fares to San Francisco about one-third and had brought such improved accommodations as to merit the praise of all.
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.