Los Angeles

County History

An Illustrated History of Southern California - The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago - 1890

BANKS.

        Banks are the thermometer alike of the trade and the wealth of the community or common­wealth in which they are situated. Measuring Los Angeles by this standard, there are few cities of its size in the United States, or even in the world, upon as substantial a financial basis; for there are none, perhaps, of equal population, which have a larger number of thoroughly solid banking institutions. The aggregate working capital of the eleven banking houses of the city runs into millions of dollars, while the combined wealth of the gentlemen officially connected with them probably exceeds $30,000,000. The first National Bank was organized in 1875 as the Commercial State Bank, with a capital stock of $177,100. The first officers were: T. F. Patrick, formerly of Chicago, president; Edward F. Spence, cashier. In October, 1880, the bank was nationalized, and it became the First National Bank of Los Angeles. It was now organized on a capital of $100,000 stock, and $50,000 surplus. J. E. Hollenbeck became president, Mr. Patrick having died some time before. On the death of Mr. Hollenbeck, Mr. E. F. Spence was elected president, and he still fills that position. J. M. Elliott being the present cashier. Saving the year 1887, the business of this bank has steadily increased ever since its opening. It does the largest exchange business in the city, drawing direct on all the principal cities of the East and Europe. It has open accounts with about 4,000 depositors. It is also a United States depository. Its present capital stock is $200,000, with a reserve fund of $50,000, and undivided profits of about $190,000. The aggregate wealth of the directors is estimated at $4,000,000. The management has always been conservative. The bank has always paid moderate dividends.

        The Los Angeles County Bank, the second oldest bank in Los Angeles, was organized under the laws of the State, opening its doors for business in July, 1874, with a capital stock of $300,000. The first four years of its existence, it did both a commercial and a savings business; but since 1878 it has been a commercial bank only, the capital stock being reduced to $100,000. The first officers were: J. S. Slauson, president; J. M. Griffith, vice-president; J. M. Elliott, cashier. The policy of this house has been conservative, and its career prosperous. It has paid large dividends and its stock is worth 100 per cent premium. The deposits now aggregate $500,000, and its capital and surplus $220,000. It does a large exchange business, drawing on all the principal cities of the United States, Europe, China and Japan. The present officers are: John E. Plater, president, and George E. Stewart, cashier.

        The Los Angeles National Bank, opened for business June 12, 1883, was organized in May of that year, having a capital stock of $100,000 paid in. The officers, who, like the board of directors, are the same as at starting, are: George H. Bonebrake, president; John Bryson, Sr., vice-president, and F. C. Howes, cashier. This bank has now $500,000 capital stock, $50,000 surplus, and it has paid about $130,000 in dividends to its stockholders. Its deposits average fully $2,000,000; it is a United States depository.

        The Southern California National Bank was organized in July, 1886, and was opened the August following. The first officers were: H. H. Boyce, president; L. N. Breed, vice-president; W. F. Bosbyshell, cashier. On January 1, 1888, an accumulated surplus of $10,000 was added to the capital; the capital stock was increased on May 1, 1888, to $200,000, the increase being readily taken. At the same time a dividend of 16 per cent was declared to the old stockholders. On December 31, 1888, after repeated increase, another dividend of 4 per cent was declared. During that month the stock sold as high as 117. This bank now has $200,000 capital stock paid in, and a surplus, undivided profits, of $22,000. Its thirty-eight stockholders represent an aggregate capital of over $7,000,000. The present officers are: L. N. Breed, president; W. F. Bosbyshell, vice- president; C. N. Flint, cashier.

        The University Bank was incorporated in March, 1887, opening its doors on April 18, with a capital stock of $100,000, to which has been added an earned surplus of $20,000, and undivided profits of $37,717.22. This bank was established originally in the interest of the University of Southern California, to provide a safe depository for and profitable employment of the increasing funds of that institution, too large to be safely handled by any other method than a regular banking system. The bank does, moreover, a regular commercial banking business, drawing directly upon Chicago and New York, and through its correspondents on the principal European cities. It has also introduced a new banking feature, in the way of first mortgage bonds, issued and for sale by it. These are secured by a first mortgage on over three times their face value on improved real estate, which bonds are issued to the bank as trustee to secure the payment of the bonds to the bearer, the mortgage security being wholly independent of the solvency of the bank, as the failure of the bank would leave the holder of the bond secured by the borrower's first mortgage on his property.

        The California Bank was incorporated August 7, 1887, and opened for business November 1, 1887. Its subscribed capital stock is $500,000; paid up, $300,000; and its surplus $20,000. There has been no material change in its management since it commenced business. H. G. Newhall is president, H. C. Witmer vice-president, and T. J. Weldon, cashier. This was the last bank to join the Los Angeles Clearing House, being No. 8.

        The East Side Bank was organized as a State Bank under the laws of California, and opened on April 1, 1887, with an authorized capital of $100,000, of which $50,000 was paid up. This bank draws exchange direct upon San Francisco and the principal Eastern cities. From the first, it has done a profitable business, and since the first six months of its existence it has paid five per cent semi annual dividends to its stockholders. Its average deposits are about $100,000. The officers are: William Vickrey, president; Thomas Merideth, vice-president; Uri Embody, cashier

        The Security Savings Bank and Trust Company of Los Angeles was organized January 11, 1889, under the State law of California, to do the business of a savings bank and trust company, with an authorized capital of $200,000. This bank lends money on real estate, and. pays interest on deposits. J. F. Sartori is its cashier.

COLONEL JAMES CLINTON ROBINSON,

a prominent business man of Los Angeles, was born at Birkenhead, on the Mersey, just opposite Liverpool, in 1848. At the age of thirteen he became an apprentice of George Francis Train, who was the pioneer of English tramway locomotion. With such a tutor, and himself possessed of an unusual amount of natural ability, he soon acquired a knowledge of the business which paved the way to his subsequent career. After serving seven years at Birkenhead young Robinson came to America, where he devoted himself so assiduously to his profession that his health failed him and he was obliged to return to his native country, arriving there in 1870. A year was spent in Liverpool gathering tramway experience, another in Dublin, and two in Cork, where he gained the reputation of being "full of invention and endless resources which he zealously applied to the interest of his chosen enterprise."

        In 1875 Mr. Robinson, at the age of twenty-seven, was elected general manager of the Bristol system of street railroads. Taking this position when the system was hardly begun, having but two miles of completed tramway, he developed it, during the seven years of his management, into one of the most successful and extensive systems in England. Upon retiring from this position to take that of a more lucrative one, he received the most complimentary and substantial testimonials from the board of directors of that company, from the citizens of Bristol and the staff.

        In 1883 he was chosen, out of more than fifty applicants, as general manager and secretary of the Edinburg Street Tramway Company. Here he found no small difficulties to overcome. Up to the time of his taking charge the line had not been a paying one. There was great dissatisfaction among the stockholders and disaffection among the officials. But by his characteristic tact and firmness he soon brought order out of chaos, and finally succeeded in placing the system in a most satisfactory condition. The directors at the last meeting of Mr. Robinson's administration of that enterprise took occasion to express in the highest terms their appreciation of his valuable services. While in Edinburg he prepared and read before the Royal Scottish Society of Arts, of which he was a member, an exhaustive paper on tramways, giving a detailed account and argument in support of the cable system.

        In May, 1883, he was elected to the position of general manager of the Cable Corporation of London. Upon taking the position as manager of the cable system in the metropolis of the world, his first work was to complete and equip the Highgate Hill Cable Tramway, " which line was opened with so much eclat by the Lord Mayor " on the 29th day of April, 1884. To James Clifton Robinson, the subject of our sketch, belongs the honor of opening the first cable road in Europe, for which he received the most complimentary testimonials from the company, the citizens of that great city, and from the press.

        After completing this line Mr. Robinson took up the profession of " consulting and organizing manager of tramways," and was frequently called upon to give evidence on new schemes before committees from both Houses of Parliament. This work and that of securing several valuable patent rights, occupied all his time until 1888, when he again visited the United States with a view to disposing of his patent rights and make a tour of the country. While in Chicago, in November, 1889, he was tendered the position of general manager of the Los Angeles Cable Railroad, which position he accepted and soon came to assume charge. Amid many discouragements he has achieved the honor of putting into successful operation one of the most perfect cable railway systems that can be found in any city in the world. Having achieved the same brilliant success here which crowned his efforts in Great Britain and Europe, Mr. Robinson may be classed among the most successful tramway men of the world.

        The final completion and successful opening of the Los Angeles Cable Railway System has inaugurated a new era of prosperity for Los Angeles. It comes almost in the form of a benefaction, and Colonel Robinson, as the active head and intellectual force which controls and regulates the ponderous enterprise, is esteemed and regarded as the practical benefactor.

        Colonel Robinson, aside from his perfect knowledge of his profession, is a man of wide information and broad views. He has been an extensive traveler, a critical observer of men and things, his keen judgment of human nature and his versatile tact in handling, and, if needs be, in controlling men, make him popular in the community, and with his numerous employes: and the high esteem in which he is held has been practically and most suitably manifested by the public banquets that have been given in his honor by the citizens of Los Angeles, and also subsequently by his employes. He is a man of the moment, genial in his manner, a fluent and eloquent public speaker, and, withal, a gentleman of whom Southern California in general and Los Angeles city in particular may be justly proud to claim as a citizen.

OTHER TOWNS.

        In 1855 Don Antonio Maria Lugo, owner of the San Antonio Rancho, of nearly 30,000 acres, lying between Los Angeles city and the San Gabriel river, finally granted to him in 1838, partitioned the same—reserving a homestead for himself—among his sons, José Maria, Felipe, Jose del Carmen, Vicente and José Antonio, and his daughters, Doña Vicenta Perez, Doña Maria Antonia Yorba, and Doña Merced Foster. In 1860 Doña Merced Foster and Don Vicente Lugo sold their respective portions to parties who immediately resorted to subdivision and sale in small lots. The first deed is from Isaac Heiman to David Ward, dated June 21, 1865; followed by other sales in 1865 and 1866. Before this, John G. Downey had begun the subdivision of the Santa Gertrudes Rancho lying along the San Gabriel river, and containing 22,000 acres. These two tracts, with their settlements, have long been known as Downey City, twelve miles southeast from Los Angeles, a town with a newspaper, business houses, and intelligent and contented farmers; and Los Nietos, which in 1836 had a settlement of 200 persons, subsequently dispersed, but which has at the present a large population of farming people of good habits and antecedents. This district, with all the river land, up to El Monte, is pre-eminently the "corn country."

        Whittier is a town twelve miles east of Los Angeles, lying at an elevation of about 1,500 feet. It was founded by a body of Quakers from Illinois and Iowa, who own a large portion of land adjacent to the settlement. All kind of fruit and grain known to Southern California can be raised here. There is in the nucleus a commodious Friends' meeting-house, a public school, a prospective college, to he under the control of Friends, and the Branch State Reform School, now in process of erection.

        Santa Fé Springs is a neat village, with a Methodist Episcopal Church, a school-house, etc. This place, under the name of Fulton Wells, became quite famous on account of its iron-sulphur wells, of which there are here half-a-dozen whose water is rich in medicinal virtues. This town is twelve miles from Los Angeles, and connected therewith by the San Diego branch of the California Central Railway.

        Norwalk, in this township, is a flourishing village, seventeen miles from Los Angeles, on the Santa Ana branch of the Southern Pacific Railway. There are here extensive fields of corn and alfalfa, and numerous artesian wells, for irrigating purposes, and thoroughbred stock is extensively and profitably raised. Near this place Dr. C. J. Sketchly in the fall of 1882 established the first ostrich farm in North America, bringing some twenty-five birds direct from the Cape of Good Hope. Since then several other such farms have been started in various districts of the State.

        San Gabriel is a very old town, clustered around the nucleus formed by the ancient mission. It lies nine miles from Los Angeles, on the Southern Pacific Railway. This place has long been noted for its salubrious climate and aged people. One mile from here is the famous " Sunny Slope" vineyard, lately sold to an English company for $750,000.

        Alhambra is a beautiful little town, having a handsome hotel, a bank, a school-house, several churches, and fine orchards of almost every variety of fruits—oranges, lemons, limes, guavas, plums, pears, nectarines, apricots, etc., etc.

        Lamanda Park has for its nucleus the station nearest to the Sierra Madre Villa, a noted hotel for tourists. Near this point is Kinneyloa, the far-famed rancho of Hon. Abbott Kinney, containing one of the largest orange orchards in California.

        Sierra Madre, often called "the model colony," is a scion of the renowned Santa Anita Rancho, belonging to " Lucky " Baldwin. In February, 1881, Mr. N. C. Carter purchased 1,100 acres of this rancho, then in its wild state, and had it at once surveyed into smaller tracts of twenty, forty, and eighty acres, for the location of self-sustaining and healthful homes. Fine water was brought from the mountains, and conveyed to the highest portion of every lot and building site, the water-right going with the realty. The next year a public school, a large hotel, and many other buildings were erected, and the district was rapidly settled up by a class of people unusually refined, intelligent, and enterprising. During the year 1886, the Santa Fé Railway was completed to this point, the town hall was built, at a cost of $5,000, and Mrs. R. E. Ross erected and donated to the town a fine library building.

ROBERT E. ROSS,

deceased, formerly a resident of Lassen County, this State, was born in Clarke County, Ohio, August 15, 1830, and came to California in 1850, locating in Nevada County, where he was largely engaged in mining enterprises until 1858. He then returned East, and the next spring came the second time to California, crossing the plains with large droves of cattle and horses. On arrival in this State with them, he located in Long valley, Lassen County, where he was for many years one of the most prominent men and leading agriculturists of that county. He was an intelligent and energetic pioneer, and his strict integrity gave him hosts of warm friends. In 1862 he married Miss Elizabeth Banon, now one of the most enterprising and public-spirited residents of Sierra Madre. She is the owner of a fine tract of land, some twenty-eight acres in extent, located on the south of Central avenue and west of Markham avenue. Mr. Ross died in Lassen County, March 31, 1884, and his widow, who moved the same year to Los Angeles County, brought his remains to Los Angeles and had them buried in Evergreen cemetery; and as a further tribute to his memory she erected in the winter of 1885—'86, at Sierra Madre, the Ross Memorial Library building, on Central avenue, one of the largest, handsomest and best equipped public library buildings in the county outside of the city of Los Angeles. She donated three-fourths of an acre of land upon which the building stands, and also contributed nearly $2,500 toward the building fund. Mrs. Ross is a native of Nova Scotia, but in early life her parents moved to the United States and located in Boston, Massachusetts, where she was reared and educated. Mr. and Mrs. Ross never had any children of their own; their adopted daughter, Margaret, is now the wife of Eugene Steinburger, of Sierra Madre. The ranch which Mrs. Ross now occupies is under a fine state of cultivation, containing 1,200 apricot trees, 150 peach, 100 orange and about 100 other trees, such as prunes, apples, figs, pears, lemons, limes, etc. Her residence is a neat, substantial cottage, and the outbuildings are trim and tastefully arranged.

        The settlers of El Monte, in 1851 were Ira, W. Thompson, Samuel M. Heath, Dr. Obed Macy, and his son, Oscar Macy, now of Los Angeles; F. W. Gibson, Nicholas Smith, J. Coburn, J. Sheldon, Chisholm, and Mrs. John Rowland, who now resides at Puente. In the years 1852—'53 came fifty-odd families, many among them being among the names best known to old-time Angelenos. Among others, was Thomas A. Garey, since become the great authority on horticulture in this county. The arrival of these immigrants gave the first decided impulse to agriculture in the county, encouraged business in the city of Los Angeles, and produced beneficial results lasting until the present time. The people at El Monte are mostly from the Southern States. They are principally engaged in raising corn, hogs and cattle. This tract lies along the San Gabriel river, twelve miles east of the city. Adjoining El Monte on the east lies La Puente Rancho, of 48,790 acres, granted July 22, 1845, to John Rowland and William Workman. Only a few miles farther eastward is the fertile valley of San Jose, Los Nogales Rnnchito, about 500 acres, granted March 13, 1840, to José de la Cruz Linares; and next, San José de Palomares, of 22,720 acres, granted in 1837 to Ricardo Vejar, Ygnacio Palomares, and Luis Arenas. This was a colony which John Rowland gathered at Taos, Albuquerque, and other pueblos of New Mexico, in 1841. It formed a connected settlement for several miles from Rowland's. A portion of these colonists, under Don Lorenzo Trujillo, planted themselves at Agua Mansa, on the Santa Ana river, six miles south of San Bernardino, the rest in this valley. Long after 1850 were to be seen the ruins of the great granaries of adobe which the padres built in front of William Workman's dwelling, to store the grain harvested on the plains of La Puente. Mildew never affected the wheat of San José. Time has made many changes since 1850, but it has well attested the productiveness of this soil, upon which stand to­day Pomona, Spadra, and other flourishing towns and settlements. The original settlement still exists, though missing many whose kindness memory cherishes—the Ybarras, Alvarados, Martinez, and others.

        Arcadia is a new town that was platted and sold by H. Unruh, from the central portion of E. J. Baldwin's Santa Anita possessions. It is the scene of considerable activity. Much of the land contiguous to the village has been sold for fruit farms. Santa Anita settlement is two miles farther westward.

        Monrovia, two miles east of Arcadia, was founded by W. N. Monroe, and it is a place of wonderful growth. It is sixteen miles from Los Angeles, lying close to the base of the Sierra Madre mountains. It has an elevation of 1,200 feet, and is especially commended as a health resort. It contains Methodist Episcopal and Baptist churches, a school-house that cost $15,000, two lines of street railways, large hotels under excellent management, two banks with large capital, large business blocks, thriving commercial enterprises, and beautiful homes surrounded by semi-tropical growth and productive orchards.

        Glendale, a pretty little town with churches, school-houses, and other evidences of an intelligent population, is about eight miles north of Los Angeles, with which it is connected by a " dummy" railway. In this village is one of the largest peach orchards in California.

        In West Glendale, adjoining the town of Glendale, is a large ostrich farm, where the young birds are hatched by incubators. There is a large number of birds at this farm, and this has proved a very profitable industry.

        Newhall, thirty miles from Los Angeles, has an elevation of 1,265 feet. The winters are cooler than in the southern part of the county, and the summers somewhat warmer. While this region is not so well known as the southern part, it is very healthful, particularly in cases of lung trouble. The atmosphere is so dry that large quantities of grapes are shipped thither by rail to be sun-dried. Grapes are also successfully grown in this section, and it bids fair to become a rich raisin-grape producing country. Not far from Newhall are extensive deposits of petroleum. The following is a sketch from a report on this industry, which affords no little information historical and practical, on this subject: " The first effort that promised success toward the development of our petroleum deposits was made by a Pennsylvania company in 1862, headed by Toni Scott. This company bored a hole on the Camulos Rancho in Ventura County, and at 800 feet secured a quantity of black oil, which they endeavored to refine in a still erected near the spot; at this time illuminating oil was worth from $2.50 to $3 per gallon in Los Angeles, and a chance for a handsome margin was excellent, but this operation failed principally for the reason of lack of knowledge of refining and the sudden drop in price of oil in Pennsylvania. From this time on until 1876 but little effort was made. What oil was produced from tunnels and shallow wells in small quantities found its way to the gas­works or was used for a lubricator. In this year the Star Oil Company commenced operations in the Pico cañon, San Fernando district, and was soon followed by R. McPherson and C. N. Felton. These operations were rewarded handsomely, and the two companies soon after consolidated under the name of the Pacific Coast Oil Company. The year 1876 also saw the organization of a company to operate in what is known as the Sespe Oil Region, about thirty miles west of San Fernando district, which was composed of citizens of this city and known as the Los Angeles Oil Company. They were successful, and their first well produced for a time 125 barrels of oil every twenty-four hours. This well was lost some years later, through ignorance, and the company ceased operations. Owing to the lack of demand, the producing of oil remained stagnant for a period of years up to 1884. From that time until the present much greater activity was displayed, and the opening up of a new district in the Puente Hills, twenty miles east of the city, still further increased the vast field for development. The immediate cause of this activity was the demand for fuel oil. The organization in March, 1885, of the Los Angeles Oil Burning and Supply Company, for the purpose of introducing this liquid fuel, both for manufacturing and domestic purposes, sold in the first year 137,000 gallons of the distilled product, which was used solely for domestic purposes, through the me­dium of their patent burners."

        San Fernando, the town, was laid out by Hon. Charles Maclay, in 1874. The village contains a neat Methodist Church, a commodious public school building, and a large three-story brick hotel. This is the location of the Maclay Theological College of the University of Southern California, whose building the Senator erected at a cost to himself of $50,000, endowing the institution moreover with $150,000. The establishment, which is under the control of Southern California Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was occupied early in 1888. In about the center of this township is the Mission of San Fernando Rey, founded in 1797, in honor of Ferdinand V., King of Aragon and Castile. The old church building is now a picturesque ruin, as are other buildings formerly connected with the Mission, while some are yet well preserved. The elevation here is 1,061 feet, the climate is delightful, and the situation beautiful. The section is watered by artesian wells and mountain streams. Wheat and barley here never need artificial watering, but fruit trees demand some irrigation. San Fernando is forty minutes by rail from Los Angeles, and there are several trains each way daily. The Southern Pacific Railway, in going from San Fernando to Newhall, passes through a tunnel one and one-third miles long, being, with two exceptions, the longest on the Western Continent. San Fernando Township was formerly a rancho of nearly 125,000 acres, belonging to General Andres Pico, who in 1846 sold it to Eulogio de Celis for $14,000; in 1853 he repurchased one-half of it for $15,000. Since 1876 this rancho has been one immense wheat-field, and although subdivided and belonging in tracts of a few thousand acres, it has still remained almost exclusively a wheat-producing territory, some of the fields comprising not less than 20,000 acres. These immense tracts are fast being subdivided into small farms of five to 160 acres, which insures a more rapid development of the county's products and a greater diversity of products.

        One of the most picturesque and prosperous mountain resorts in Southern California is Monte Vista, situated in a beautiful fertile valley, between the Verdugo and the Sierra Madre mountains, twenty miles north of Los Angeles, and four miles east of Monte Vista Station, on the Southern Pacific Railway.

        On the main transcontinental line of the Santa Fé Railway, and twenty-seven miles east of Los Angeles, lies the town of Glendora. It is built on a gentle southern slope at the foot of the Sierra Madre, 700 to 900 feet above the sea, near the head of the San Gabriel valley, where it commands a very wide view. This town was founded in 1887, by George Whitcomb, a Chicago manufacturer, who came to Southern California, like so many others, for the health of himself and his family. There is here a stock water company, with a paid up capital of $50,000, which has constructed two large tunnels and two reservoirs of nearly 2,000,000 capacity, which supply through pipes the water to the colony. Glendora's growth has been prosperous and steady. The town has seventy-two residence, business and public buildings, including a fine two-story school-house of four rooms, which cost nearly $10,500; a twenty-room hotel, which cost over $7,000; and two churches. The altitude of this town places it within the warm belt, and renders it almost entirely free from frosts, and its distance from the ocean exempts it from fogs. Thus the climate is exceptionally mild, pleasant and healthful. Extensive and costly borings for petroleum are being carried on here.

        Alosta, adjoining Glendora on the south, was founded about the same time as that town, by a corporate body known as the Alosta Land and Water Company. The town plat consists of eighty acres, traversed by the railway. A number of buildings was erected, including several hotels, one costing nearly $16,000. The contiguity of Glendora proved fatal to Alosta, and many of its enterprises have been discontinued.

        Azusa is situated on the transcontinental line of the Santa Fé Railway, twenty-two miles east of Los Angeles, and thirty miles from the Pacific, near the east end of the San Gabriel valley. The town is located on a gentle sloping plateau, at an altitude of about 800 feet, near the base of the Sierra Madre, and a mile directly south of the mouth of the cañon through which the San Gabriel river escapes from the embrace of the mountain fastnesses and hastens to the sea. Azusa was founded early in 1887 by a company of Los Angeles capitalists, who bought the site and laid out the town as an investment. The streets lie with the points of the compass, crossing each other at right angles, being from 60 to 100 feet wide; they have 1,600 feet of excellent cement sidewalks, constructed at a cost of $15,000; there are establishments representing most essential branches of business, and the town contains a school-house which cost some $10,000, a good hotel, a city hall, a public library, and three church buildings, aggregating in cost nearly $10,000. The near proximity of the San Gabriel river gives to Azusa an abundant water supply, which is piped through the town from a reservoir of 2,000,000 capacity. The principal streets of the town are sewered, and this contributes to the healthfulness promoted by the natural characteristics of the place. Citrus and deciduous fruits are here produced in large quantity. Last season fifty car loads of oranges alone were shipped hence. The potato crop is one of the staple productions, and it is shipped extensively. In the immediate vicinity of the town are grown great quantities of strawberries, which are noted for their superior quality.

        Duarte is a settlement upon the southern foothill slope of the Sierra Madre mountains, in the San Gabriel valley, eighteen miles east of Los Angeles, and 600 feet above the sea. It is so named from Andres Duarte, a Mexican military officer, who received from the Mexican government, and settled on, some time in the '40s, a grant of 4,000 acres, of which this is a part. He built a fine adobe dwelling, planted a vineyard and orchard, and dug a water ditch to the mouth of the San Gabriel cañon. He was not a successful farmer, and he became involved in debt, the Rancho Azusa de Duarte passing into the hands of other parties. About 1872, the then owners had a large portion of the rancho surveyed, selling the forty-acre lots to settlers. It was quickly demonstrated that the climate and soil here were adapted to the growth of citrus fruits, and many thousands of trees were planted on the foothill lands within the next few years. Duarte oranges and lemons now stand at the head in quality and popularity of the citrus fruits grown in the county. The area in orchard and quantity of product has been steadily increased until over 100 carloads of oranges were shipped from Duarte last season, beside those sold for local consumption. There have been serious controversies over their respective water rights between the people of Duarte and those of neighboring districts, notably Azusa; but these have all been adjusted, and the water supply and distribution of Duarte are now among the best in Southern California. Here is the usual complement of shops and stores. The school-house cost some $5,000, and the enrollment of pupils is 115. There is but one church edifice in the district. Besides the citrus fruits, considerable area is given in Duarte to the deciduous varieties, chiefly, however, the apricot and the wine-grape. The apricot crop of the district in 1889 was 7,500 tons. The Duarte is not only one of the prettiest sections, but also one of the most prosperous and fruitful in Los Angeles County.

        Lancaster, on the Southern Pacific Railway, is a flourishing little place, supported by a prosperous agricultural and horticultural community. It has especially thriven since, in 1884­'85, certain Los Angeles capitalists have given it support and attention.

        Wilson's Trail was made by B. D. Wilson up the Sierra Madre, the summit of which is Wilson's Peak. Midway up is a cabin called the Halfway House, where Wilson in pioneer times made the first shingles manufactured in the county. The scenery along this route is extremely wild and picturesque. A company has been organized to build a railroad up to the top of this peak, 6,000 feet above the sea level. It is probable that a very large sanitarium will be erected here also. In an observatory on the summit will be placed the largest telescope in the world, for the mounting of which ex-Mayor E. F. Spence, of Los Angeles, has contributed $50,000.

        Among the largest cities of Los Angeles County is Pomona, thirty-three miles east of Los Angeles, near the county boundary. The altitude of the city is 860 feet, the valley gradually rising to 2,000 feet, at the foot of the mountains, whose ranges protect the quarter equally from harsh sea winds and the unpleasant dry winds and sandstorms of the desert. This valley is believed to be one of the mildest and most healthful in Southern California. The Southern Pacific Railway runs through the heart of the city, and the Santa Fe through the northern portion, thus giving passengers their choice of routes. The soil of this valley is mostly a gravelly loam, although there are many acres of moist adobe land peculiar to it, which requires little or no irrigation. The title to the lands of Pomona is considered the best of all the present town sites in the county. It is a part of the old Rancho San José, from the portion of which allotted to Ricardo Vejar and afterward sold by him, the Pomona tract was parceled out—Vejar being one of the original grantees under the early Mexican rule. The town of Pomona was founded by the long defunct corporation, the Los Angeles Immigration and Land Co-operative Association. The first sale made on the site was that of a ten-acre lot near the depot. This is now a flourishing city of 5,000 to 6,000 inhabitants, with fine churches, school-houses, and all the institutions demanded by a refined community. The city has no debts, save a very small item in connection with the Palomares school district. The city was incorporated December 31, 1887. The water supply is provided by two water companies, which convey water from artesian wells for domestic use, and from the mountains for irrigation. San Antonio cañon, which is a favorite summer resort, is the source of the irrigation supply, and so bountiful is its yield that half of it is diverted to the Ontario region, both sections being amply supplied. Near Pomona are sixty or seventy artesian wells, with an average flow of 200,000 gallons in twenty-four hours.

        San Pedro is the principal harbor of Los Angeles County. It was often lively in 1840, as it had been in mission times, with the trading vessels engaged, with active competition, in the purchase of hides and tallow. Francis Mellus gave a list of those on this coast, on August 22 of that year, as follows: Ships—California (Captain Arthur), Alciope (Clapp), Monsoon (Vincent), Alert (Phelps); barques— Index (Scott), Clara (Walters); hermaphrodite brigs —Leonidas (Stevens), Ayaeucha (Dare); brigs‑ Juan José (Dunkin), Bolivar (Nye); schooners —Fly (Wilson), California (Cooper), Nymph, formerly Norse (Fitch), and two more expected. The first steamer that ever visited San Pedro was the Goldhunter, a side-wheeler, in 1849; she made the voyage from San Francisco to Mazatlan, touching at way ports. The next was the old Ohio. From 1844 to 1849, Temple & Alexander had the only general store at San Pedro, and they carried on all the forwarding business. The first four-wheel vehicle in this county, except an old-fashioned Spanish carriage belonging to the mission priests, was a rockaway carriage which this firm bought of Captain Kane in 1849, paying $1,000 for the carriage and two American horses. It created a sensation like that of the first Wilmington railway car on October 26, 1868. Goods were forwarded to Los Angeles, twenty-four miles, in carts, each drawn by two yoke of oxen, yoked by the horns. The regular train was often of these California carretas, which were modified by spoked and tired wheels, imported from Boston, Freight $1 per hundredweight. This style of transportation continued until after 1850. The first stage line was started by Alexanders & Banning in 1852; the next was by that man of iron, J. J. Tomlinson, whose death came too early for the public good; this particular sign of his enterprise being inaugurated June 7, 1867. In 1851 D. W. Alexander purchased at Sacramento ten heavy freight wagons that had been sent in from Salt Lake by Ben. Holladay; and in 1853 a whole train of fourteen wagons and 168 mules, that had come through from Chihuahua, for which was paid $23,000. Soon ox carts were supplanted. Such antiquated methods could not remain long after the management of trade fell into the hands of such men as Douglass & Sandford, John Goller, Don José Rubio, J. J. Tomlinson, J. M. Griffith, A. W. Timms, A. F. Hinchman, D. W. Alexander, Phineas Banning and a few other pioneers of public spirit and enterprise in the county. General Banning lived long enough to see passengers ride from the port to Los Angeles in railway cars as fine as any in the United States, where he had seen the trip undertaken perforce in carts whose construction was guiltless of iron; and he saw their number grown from fifty persons to near 3,000 per month. In 1858 old San Pedro was abandoned and Wilmington became the real port for Los Angeles' commerce. In the early days 500 tons of freight would have been a fair average for the trips both ways each month; now there is as high as 15,000 tons afloat at one time, to say naught of the enormous amount of produce which the same vessels carry away on their departure. In 1871, after several careful preliminary surveys, the United States Government commenced the work of improving Wilmington harbor; this inner harbor then consisted of nearly 1,200 acres, and a narrow entrance from the outer bay and Rattlesnake Island. From this island to the rocky pile called Dead Man's Island, one and a quarter miles, San Pedro bay was comparatively shallow, except in a narrow channel near Dead Man's Island. Timm's Point was the nearest point to this channel on the mainland. The improvements instituted comprised a training wall from Rattlesnake to Dead Man's Island, closing the old channel; and another wall from Timm's Point to Dead Man's Island, establishing the channel between the latter wall and the island. These walls form a channel 500 to 800 feet wide, connecting the outer with the inner bay, so that lumber vessels and all but two or three of the largest steamships coming to this port can reach the wharf at San Pedro at high tide. Vessels that can not reach the dock find safe anchorage about two miles outside. Further improvements at this harbor are greatly needed and some are now in progress, carried on, not by the government, but by railroad companies having important interests there. Congress has lately made an additional appropriation of $500,000 for such improvements, however.

        In the explosion of the little steamer, Ada Hancock, April 29, 1863, near Wilmington, among many people lost were, of the merchants: William T. B. Sanford, Dr. Henry R. Miles, . Loeb Schlessinger; of the steamer Senator:  Captain J. S. Bryant, Fred Kerlin, Thomas Workman; the young Albert S. Johnston, son of the general of that name, and Miss Medora Hereford, sister-in-law of B. D. Wilson, who was so severely injured as to die a few days after.  

        This harbor has several picturesque peninsulas and high points of land stretching into the sea, and Dead Man's island, the most conspicuous object in the bay. Twenty miles out is the great summer resort, Santa Catalina.

        Ever since the early settlement of California, San Pedro has been a commercial point of more or less importance. It is now second to San Francisco only; for though the town itself is small, compared with San Diego, it is the receiving and distributing point for Los Angeles and the populous, rich and growing districts thereabouts. Until 1873, the port was known as San Pedro, but in that year Congress decided that it should be called Wilmington, as nearly all the business was transacted at this town, located at the head of the inner bay. In 1882 an act of Congress established the customs district of Wilmington, with that town as the port of entry, and Hueneme, San Buenaventura and Santa Barbara as ports of delivery, neither of these three places being in the same county as Wilmington. Until the extension of the railroad to San Pedro, all the business of the port had to be transacted by means of lighters, for the conveyance of merchandise between vessels and the landing places. The construction of the railroad from here to Los Angels in 1869 gave fresh impetus to the development of agricultural resources in the county, as well as to business generally in the city. In 1870 the anchorage for vessels touching at this harbor was nearly five miles from Wilmington, in San Pedro bay, and about one mile from Dead Man's island.

        The village of Wilmington was laid out in 1858 by General Banning, and by him named in honor of his native city, Wilmington, Delaware. It flourished until the Southern Pacific Railroad was completed to San Pedro, since when it has not been able to compete with that point.

        Long Beach, on the coast southward from Wilmington, is becoming a noted resort, and at present it is especially advertised as the Methodist camping-ground. The village is located on a smooth plateau which slopes gently down to the water. From any portion of the town a charming view greets the eye. At low tide the beach is hard, smooth and level for seven or eight miles, constituting a perfect boulevard upon which twenty teams can be driven abreast, their hoofs clattering as if upon a turnpike, Long Beach has an intelligent, refined class of citizens, excellent public schools, four church societies, no saloons, enterprising business men, and a live newspaper.

        Santa Monica is one of the most charming of seaside resorts. It lies on a level plateau between which and the ocean there is a perpendicular descent of about 100 feet. At the foot of the bluff stretches a long line of beach, well adapted to surf-bathing, and it is mainly this delightful and invigorating pastime which makes Santa Monica so popular. It is estimated that during the bathing season 2,000 people a day, on an average, visit this place, and on Sundays a much larger number. The permanent population of the town is about 1,500. A branch of the Southern Pacific runs thither from Los Angeles, and also the new Los Angeles County Railroad. The Santa Fé is expected to throw a branch into the town soon. There are several large hotels here, and several large bathing houses on the beach. A wharf is shortly to be built. The surroundings are exceedingly picturesque. From almost any portion of the town may be enjoyed a most delightful view of the mountains, foothills, plain and ocean. Three miles up the coast is the famous Santa Monica cañon. This town was founded in 1875, by United States Senator John P. Jones and Colonel R. S. Baker.

        One of the great institutions of Los Angeles County is the National Soldiers' Home, located about fifteen miles from the city and four miles from Santa Monica beach, with both of which places it is in railway communication. When the management appointed by the Government to locate such an institution on the Pacific coast visited Los Angeles, they were hospitably received and entertained by the city council, board of trade and others. They had visited and inspected other counties in California, and had received from some of them tempting offers; yet it remained for Los Angeles to secure the coveted prize. A tract of 300 acres, with a sufficient water right (the water coming from the mountains) and thirty acres additional for a reservoir, were offered free; and an adjoining tract of 300 acres was set aside for sale and guaranteed to yield $100,000 in cash, to be applied to the improvement of the grounds. Congress appropriated $190,000 for the erection of buildings, and the work was speedily begun and completed. There are four barracks, each 50 x 200 feet, affording quarters for 125 men; a residence for the surgeon and other officials; an imposing building of two stories with a lofty tower, and with accommodations for 2,040 men. The arrangement of this building is unique, the kitchen being the second story, the pantries and serving-rooms on the ground floor and the sculleries in the basement, all connected by five elevators. The ground is a gentle slope toward the south, and this building crowns the eminence. Immediately in front is a large lawn, with music pavilion and flagstaff. On either hand are twenty-five barracks, so arranged as to secure the maximum of sunlight, while the porches are sheltered from the cool trade winds. In a depression of thirty-five feet below the general level of the slope are the boiler houses and laundry, from which the other houses and buildings are heated by steam, and to which the sewage is conveyed to be removed by steam pumps. A hospital in cruciform shape, 450 x 50 feet, with accommodations for about 500 patients, occupies a conspicuous position. There are also commissary and quartermaster's buildings, headquarters building, treasurer's residence, memorial building and guard-house. A side track from the railroad runs to the laundry, boiler-house and commissary buildings, and a grand boulevard from Los Angeles to Santa Monica will pass through the grounds. The reservoir among the hills constitutes a charming little artificial lake.

        Compton was laid out in 1869, and named in honor of G. D. Compton, then the sole resident. It is eleven miles south of Los Angeles, on the Wilmington branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad. The distinctive industry is the making of butter and cheese. Although it is not considered a first-class section for the production of deciduous fruits, citrus fruits and many kinds of deciduous fruits and berries are successfully raised here.

        From the evidence of the remains of aboriginal implements, etc., it is clear that the Arroyo Seco anciently flowed through a richly wooded and populous region before entering the Los Angeles river; and several Indian rancherias of importance occupied the lands now covered by Pasadena, Garvanza and Lincoln Park. The first visit of white men to this territory was on January 17, 1770, when Gaspar de Portolá, returning southward with the first landward expedition sent out from Loreto in search of Monterey, having missed the trail along the coast, entered the San Fernando valley through the Simi pass, and, crossing the Yerdugo Hills, mistook the Arroyo Seco, then a full stream being swollen by winter rains, for the Porciúncula, now the Los Angeles river. The natives were friendly, hospitable, and ready to share their primitive food-supplies with the strangers. Ere long, this territory was traversed by a well-broken trail connecting the parent missions of Monterey and San Diego, which was called Camino del Rey (the King's road), and over which were sent northward all the dispatches from Mexico and Guatemala. In consideration of her services as nurse and midwife, Eulalia Perez, of the Mission San Gabriel, was granted three and one-half leagues of the mission lands; and this grant comprised precisely the tract now in question, then known as Rancho San Pascual, according to some, from the saint to whom was sacred the day of the grant's making, but by others said to have derived that title from the name by which bad been baptized its Indian captain, at the old San Gabriel mission.

        The removal of the San Gabriel Mission to its present site greatly affected the destiny of the San Pascual Indians. It was the wooded slopes of the Arroyo Seco that furnished timber for the dwellings of Los Angeles. Here, too, were lassoed the bears that were used in the rude sports of primitive times.

        A Mexican grant carried with it the obligation to occupy and improve its territory; and, as Eulalia Perez failed to comply with this condition, it came about that presently Manuel Garfias, a gay and popular soldier, received from his friend, Governor Micheltorena, the title to the Rancho San Pascual. This grantee built among the spreading oaks of the Arroyo Seco, a house of considerable pretensions for that time, where he and his family dispensed much rural hospitality for some years. Then they suddenly departed for Mexico, and the improvements went to ruin, and nature had soon effaced almost every trace of human occupancy. In August, 1873, the California colony of Indiana sent out from Indianapolis a committee to select for the members of the society the most favorable spot on which to establish a settlement suitable for the cultivation of citrus and other fruit. After a careful survey of many locations in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Bernardino counties, the association purchased the interest of Dr. J. S. Griffin, consisting of about 4,000 acres, in the Rancho San Pascual. At a critical moment in the negotiations, Thomas Croft laid down the required amount, and, securing the property, he was for a brief period the sole owner of the whole domain. The original purchase comprehended beautiful upland plains, wooded glens and sylvan openings, as well as mountain lands upon the slopes of the Sierra Madre, arroyo lots filled with valuable timber, and a magnificent grove of live-oaks, covering 400 acres, on the road to Los Angeles, making a natural park entirely suited for outdoor resorts and diversions. John H. Baker and D. M. Berry, " the Caleb and Joshua" of the California colony of Indiana, were present on the bright winter morning of January 27, 1874, when the twenty-seven incorporators met for the selection of their individual homesteads. Many of these were wealthy, while others had brought but humble savings to secure a modest home where there should be "summer all the year round." Nearly all had a choice spot in view, and it was an anxious moment when, the lovely landscape at their feet, and the maps out­spread, the bidding began. One of the wealthiest shareholders moved that the owners of single shares be invited first to make their selections; and such was the diversity of soil, location and topography, that each of the twenty-seven stockholders obtained his chosen homestead without interfering with the choice of his neighbors. The advantages of this site were even greater than the selectors had supposed at the time of its choosing; the elevation of some 1,000 feet more than that of Los Angeles, eight miles distant, was a sufficient guaranty of exemption from malaria; soil, drainage, and an apparently inexhaustible water supply, were all most satisfactory; game and fish were abundant; the mountain barriers shut out the north winds; the view was grand, what with the perspective of mountain and valley, and the blue Pacific, with Catalina island in the distance. Los Angeles was near enough at hand for reliance; three miles eastward was the Southern Pacific Railway station at San Gabriel Mission; close by were the enormous estates of Sunny Slope and Santa Anita, with their great orange groves and vineyards; the superb orange groves of the Duarte also were near, and Riverside with its rich yields, was not so very far away. Prompt and energetic measures were instituted for the utilization and development of these manifold advantages. Homes were reared, orange groves and orchards of diverse fruits were planted, and many improvements of common interest organized. The public schools, the pride of Pasadena, were begun in 1874, in a private house, with only two pupils; in 1888 it was shown by official reports that Pasadena had " the best ventilated, the best lighted, and the handsomest school-buildings of all towns of its size in the United States." There was then an enrollment of 1,354 pupils, and an instructional force of a superintendent, four principals, three vice-principals, and seventeen teachers. The school property is valued at $200,000. There are also two private academies; here live also many professional teachers of high repute in music and the fine arts. Services of the Presbyterian Church were at first held at the bachelor quarters of Mr. Charles H. Watts; but that gentleman's marriage and the birth of a child necessitated the procuring of another place of worship. Thus, the first church edifice was erected in 1875–'76, costing, with its parsonage, some $4,200. The Woman's Home and the Foreign Missionary Society, organized in this church, have been most useful institutions. The first Methodist society was organized in 1875, and their chapel was dedicated January 7, 1887. Both these denominations have long since outgrown their primitive temples. They, with the other nine congregations of Pasadena, are provided with handsome and commodious places of worship. In March, 1880, Pasadena held her first citrus fair, the display receiving high praise from the hundreds of visitors. In 1881, at the annual fair of the Southern California Horticultural Society, Pasadena took the first premium for display and quality of citrus fruits. It is a well-known fact that young trees, growing on virgin soil, produce the very best exhibition fruit; but the San Gabriel orange belt was the earliest known in American fruit culture, and trees in the Mission garden sixty years old, are still producing fruit of excellent quality, thus attesting the superiority of the soil of this district. A single tree in Pasadena, eleven years old, yielded in one year 3,000 fair-sized, well-flavored oranges. In 1880, Pasadena was served with a tri-weekly stage and mail; now this flourishing young city of 10,000 inhabitants has a service of almost hourly trains over the Santa Fé railway, and a mail delivery by carrier. Then the people depended wholly upon Los Angeles; now the city contains two magnificent hotels, of almost world-wide fame; three banks, two daily newspapers, twenty miles of horse car lines, running in every direction; a manufacturing company which operates one of the largest planing-mills in the State, and a brick yard producing 60,000 bricks daily.

        The Indian name of this region was " Acurangna," signifying " where streams meet." Dr. Elliott suggested the present name of Pasadena,—an Algonquin word, meaning "Crown of the Valley."

THE GREAT BOOM OF 1886–'87.

        The great real-estate boom of Los Angeles in 1886–'87, is certainly the most wonderful thing of its kind in the history of the Pacific slope. Of course, nothing has excelled the great gold boom of '49 and '50, but in real-estate booms this is pre-eminent. There had been one, comparatively small, eleven years before. The years 1872–'74 witnessed a general improvement in material matters. Immigration was steady, crops and markets were good, and real estate advanced in price. Its advancement marked it as a good investment for local capital, and in the winter of 1874–'75 a genuine boom began. In 1875 also, immigration was large, and many bought land at the high figures then ruling, while others caught the fever and bought largely, paying part cash and making agreements to convey, or giving mortgages for the balance of purchase price.

        In the fall of 1875, with the failing of the bank of Temple & Workman, the bubble burst and the usual crisis followed. Men who had bought on credit suddenly found the money market stringent, and the four years that followed were full of the efforts of these luckless landholders to extricate themselves,—complete failure attending only too many of these struggles. In 1876 there was a gradual diminution in the number and value of real estate sales.

        In 1877 and 1878 it was really unusual to find a piece of property unmortaged. Then came a period in which even the leaders could see no value in real estate; new loans could not be effected; high rates of interest prevailed, and the era of foreclosures began. In 1879 there was no such thing as a market for unimproved property, and even productive real estate could not be sold for an amount on which it was actually yielding a liberal interest. During all this period of depression people worked, economized, pushed new industries, and in 1880 the output of products arrested the downward tendency. The receipts for the crops of grain, wool, wine, honey, and fruit and dairy products distributed among the producing classes an amount of capital, which was circulated with good effect, paying off mortgages, securing new loans, and making money easy.

        The following is the story of the boom of '87, as told by H. E. Brook: " Rail communication with the north was opened in 1877, but the boom did not really begin until 1881, when the Southern Pacific, which had gone on building east, met the Santa Fé at Deming. Then land began to rise, but not rapidly. People did not yet realize the value of land. They had no conception of what was coming. In 1882, when the Southern Pacific was opened to New Orleans, the population increased to about 15,000, and property began to stiffen in price. Values in Los Angeles and vicinity rose about 25 per cent that year, the previous valuation having been very low. People continued to come, and in 1883 values doubled, while the population had increased to 25,000. The progress continued through 1884 and into 1885. The Santa Fé road was on the way to Los Angeles, making another direct through road to the East. The Santa Fé reached Los Angeles in November, 1885, and after that it is difficult to follow the course of the boom, so rapid and immense was the advance. People poured in by thousands, and prices of land climbed rapidly. Everybody that could find an office went into the real-estate business, either as agents or speculators, or as operators. Tracts of land by the scores were cut up into lots. Auctions, accompanied by brass bands and free lunches, drew their crowds. At private sales lines were formed before daybreak in front of the seller's office, for fear there would not be enough lots to go around. As soon as a man sold out at a profit, in nine cases out of ten he reinvested. There was no lack of faith in the country. Some of the new towns laid out in this period outside of Los Angeles, contained in themselves and their surroundings elements of solid worth, which insured their permanent progress. Others were merely founded on the credulity of the public, and the general scramble for real estate, whatever and wherever it was. The advances in values of real estate were astonishing. The best business property in Los Angeles, a corner on Main street, could have been bought in 1860 for $300 the front foot, in 1870 for $500, in 1880 for $1,000. Now it is valued at $2,500. For a lot on Main and Sixth, that was sold in 1883 for $20 a foot, $800 a foot was offered last year. Acreage property rose in like proportion, and meanwhile population continued to pour in. As Los Angeles city property began to reach prices which were then considered near the top notch, the boom in outside property was started. Great tracts of land were bought by speculators and subdivided and sold in lots to suit purchasers. Some of the speculators were men of large capital, and some had next to none. They took their chances of coming out ahead, and nearly all of them did. New life was put in many small places previously settled, and many new enterprises were launched on land that had never been touched.     Some of the land, which only a few years before could hardly have been given away, but which has been shown, with proper cultivation, to he among the best, was bought at extremely low figures, but eligible land soon began to rise, in response to the large demand. Lands four miles outside the city limits of Los Angeles, that were sold for $1 an acre in 1868, rose to $1,000 an acre, in some cases. Some of these lands were divided and sold without improvement, the work to be done later; some were sold while improvements were going on; some were improved, and then sold. Water was the first great necessity,—the first subject to be broached by purchasers. Such streams as exist were made use of at once: ditches were dug and the water turned in with branch ditches to the various tracts. Dams were built in mountain gulches, and great bodies of water stored. In some places artesian belts were discovered and put under contribution. Some lands were bought by colonies from the Atlantic States, and were improved by them. When a tract was laid out as a town site, the first thing usually done was to build a hotel. Cement sidewalks, brick blocks, a pubic hall and a street railway soon followed. A miniature city appeared, like a scene conjured up by Aladdin's lamp, where a few months ago the jack-rabbit sported and the coyote howled. Such a scene of transformation had never before been witnessed in the world. Old settlers, who had declared that land was dear at $5 an acre, looked aghast to see people tumbling over each other to secure lots at $500 each. New arrivals were charmed with the climate and surroundings, and determined to get a share of it before the shares gave out. Most of the purchases were made on the basis of one-third cash down, the balance in installments on six and twelve months' time. Such was the state of affairs in the spring of 1887. Up to that time the course of the boom, then some three years old, had been accompanied by reasonable restrictions as to future possibilities. The buyer had generally acquired some little idea of what he was purchasing, and had exercised some judgment in making his selections.

        In the summer of that year a crowd of outside speculators settled down upon Los Angeles like flies upon a bowl of sugar. Many of these came from Kansas City, where they had been through a school of real-estate speculation. These men worked the excitement up to fever heat. They rode a willing horse to death, and crowded what would have been a good, solid advance in prices for three years into as many months. Land at a distance of thirty miles or more from Los Angeles—land which was worthless for cultivation, and possessed no surroundings to make it valuable for any other purpose—was secured by the payment of a small installment, and under the excitement of glowing advertisements, brass bands, and the promise of immense improvements, lots were sold off like hot cakes, by scores and hundreds, to persons who in many cases had not even seen them, had but a vague idea of their location, and no idea at all of doing more with them than to sell them at a high profit before their second payments became due. This was during the summer, when things are unusually quiet in Los Angeles. The buyers were mostly our own people. The great cry of the speculators was that every one should buy as much as he or she possibly could, to sell to the enormous crowd of land-hungry Easterners who would pour in that Winter—the winter of 1887—'88. As a consequence every clerk and waiter and car-driver and servant girl scrimped and saved to make a first payment of one-third on a 50 x 100 lot in "Southwest Boonville," or " East San Giacomo," or " Rosenblatt," or " Paraiso," or one of the other hundred or more paper cities which sprang up like mushrooms during the summer of 1887. Most of these town sites were not very attractive to look at, it is true, but that made small difference, for very few buyers took the trouble to visit them, and they looked remarkably pretty on the lithographic views, with those grand old mountains in the rear, and a still grander three-story hotel in the foreground. From October, 1886, to May, 1887, the monthly real-estate sales had been steadily rising from $2,215,600 to $8,163,327. In June of the latter year they amounted to $11,500,000; in July to $12,000,000; in August to $11,500,000—a total of $35,067,830 in three months, and these what had always been the dullest months of the year, with very few strangers within our gates. This was the culmination of the boom. It had been driven to death. Every one was loaded up with property and was a seller, at 33 1/3 per cent profit, or just double what he had paid. When there are nineteen sellers to one buyer, the result cannot long remain in doubt, whether the commodity be wheat or mining stock, or real estate. Natural causes produce their natural effects, in this instance, as in all others since the Creator established gravitation as the prime law of the material universe. Sales began to fall off. The brass bands ceased to exercise the same charm as of old; the free lunch was looked at askance, and the design of the (proposed) $100,000 hotel was subjected to more careful scrutiny. Some captious purchasers even went so far as to demand information about the town and its water supply, while it is on record that one or two recent arrivals excited the scornful commiseration of the real-estate agents by inquiring what was going to support the town. In September, 1887, sales had dropped nearly a couple of million dollars; in October, to $8,120,486; and in November, just when the real winter boom ought to have been commencing, they went down to $5,819,646. Moreover, the Eastern visitors did not begin to arrive in any such enormous numbers as sanguine prophets had predicted. It is probably well for them that they did not, for if one-third the number had come that some wild-eyed journalists had professed to expect, a vast army would have been forced to camp al fresco. It was also noted, with marked surprise and considerable indignation, that those who did come from the " ice-bound East " were disposed to be hypercritical in their investigation of the resources of " Rosenblatt," " Paraiso," and other coming trade centers, and were not by any means eager to exchange the proceeds of the sale of their Eastern farms for a twenty-five-foot "business lot" in the paper towns. Finally a great many became disgusted with the muddy streets (since paved), the reckless real-estate agents and the greedy lodging house keepers with which the city was at that time especially afflicted, and so left for other places. The great real-estate boom of 1887 collapsed like a balloon, but the country and its great resources and its enterprising people still remained. A majority of the purchasers made their second and third payments, or satisfactorily adjusted their accounts, except, perhaps, in a few cases where investments had been made in " wild-cat " towns. Naturally, the money market became tight, and while many individuals failed, not a bank did. There was an unusual number of cases of suicide and insanity following the collapse, but even the proportion of these was not so large as might have been expected. The boom over, and speculation past, people began to resume legitimate business. The city in 1887–'88 witnessed a remarkable building boom, about $20,000,000 being invested in business blocks and residences during that period. A number of steam-dummy roads were built into the country. Standard-gauge roads were built to Monrovia, Santa Monica, Ballona and Redondo. Direct railroad communication was opened with San Diego. The great cable-road system began operation in 1889. In the country the fields, which had been covered with town-site stakes, were re-sowed, while greater areas than ever were planted with vines and trees. Farms, vineyards, and orchards continued to yield bountiful harvests, which brought profitable prices. The oil wells increased in number. Los Angeles County holds her own, and, although losing a large and valuable slice in Orange County, she is still an imperial county.

HENRY DWIGHT BARROWS

was born February 23, 1825, in Mansfield, Tolland County, Connecticut, near the Willimantic river, which separates the town of Coventry from Mansfield. His ancestry came from England to Plymouth Colony, and afterward two brothers by the name of Barrows moved from Plymouth to Mansfield, where they settled.     From these two brothers, who seem to have been a hardy stock, sprang a great number of descendants, many of whom still remain in Mansfield. The subject of this sketch says he counted over thirty heads of families of that name in his native town in 1845. Indeed, it was the most numerous family name in the town at that time and for years afterward; besides, many married and acquired other names, and many also scattered throughout the United States. His ancestors on his mother's side were Binghams. Mr. Barrows' early years were spent on a farm, and he received a good, thorough English education in the common schools and academies of Tolland County. He also taught school several winters, commencing when only seventeen years old. Early in life he acquired a strong love for music, which he cultivated as he had opportunity, learning to play on any instrument he could get hold of. He took lessons on the organ of a Mr. Monds, an English organist in Hartford, Connecticut. He also became the leader of the local brass band of his native town when he was only eighteen years of age. He was fond of books and devoured all he could get hold of in the neighborhood, which, however, was not very rich in literature of any kind. He read through the Bible and Shakespeare and Byron, including all the prose writings of the latter. A stray copy of Dr. Dick's "Christian Philosopher" he read with delight, and he thinks to this day that it is one of the best books that can be placed in a boy's hands to enlarge his ideas of the worlds around him. He went to New York in 1849 and engaged in clerking; and while there had a touch of the California gold fever which prevailed so generally that year. However, he did not decide to go to the new El Dorado till some years later. In 1850 he went to Boston, where he lived something over two years, being employed as book-keeper in the large jobbing house of J. W. Blodgett & Co., on Pearl street. This firm sold goods in every State in the Union and in Canada, doing an immense business; and the experience and discipline acquired here were invaluable to him in after life. During his residence in Boston he of course enjoyed the lectures, music, etc., of that center of intellectual activity. He says he retains to-day a vivid recollection of Theodore Parker's preaching, the Lowell Institute lectures, the concerts of the Germanians, Jenny Lind, etc. In the spring of 1852 he finally concluded to come to California, and April 1 he left Boston for his home in Connecticut to get ready for the trip, and on the 26th of that month he sailed from New York on the steamer Illinois, with a large number of passengers. The hardships of crossing the Isthmus at that time were great, the railroad having been finished only a few miles out from Aspinwall, the balance of the way being made by row-boat up the Chagres river to Gorgona, and from thence twenty-six miles on mule-back or on foot to Panama. To a Northern man the heat of all seasons seems formidable on the Isthmus. Especially is this true at Aspinwall, where the heat becomes more oppressive on account of the excessive humidity of the atmosphere. It used to be said that it rained there all the time in the " wet season" and twenty hours a day in the "dry season." The connecting steamer of the Illinois on the Pacific was the Golden Gate, Captain Patterson, of the navy, commander. About 1,700 passengers came up on this trip. Soon after arriving in San Francisco, Mr. Barrows started for the Northern Mines above Shasta; but he worked only a short time at mining, as (it being the month of June) the dry season had set in, and he returned down the valley as far as Tehama, where, about five miles back, he went to work on Thorn's creek for Judge Hall, who had a contract to furnish Hall & Crandall, the stage contractors, some 200 tons of hay. There were great numbers of deer and antelopes roaming over the plains of the Upper Sacramento valley at that time. One day, as Mr. Barrows was walking along Thorn's creek alone, a California lion jumped out from a clump of bushes within a few feet of him and made off out of sight in a few muscular bounds. Coming down the Sacramento valley to Marysville, where he made a brief stop, he arrived in San Francisco the last day of July; and having his system full of chills and fevers, then so prevalent in the neighborhood of Tehama, and the contrast between the heat of the Sacramento valley and the cold of San Francisco being so very great, he found himself very ill with congestive chills, from which he did not entirely recover for nearly a year afterward. When he first arrived in California he knew nothing about the great differences in climate of the different sections of the State. Having suffered much, including an attack of Panama fever, in coming through the tropics, he had an aspiration for a cool climate, which he thought could be found in going 500 miles north from San Francisco; but if, instead, he had come 500 miles south and kept near this coast he would have found the blessed temperature he sought. But he had then never heard of Los Angeles. Finding that he could not get rid of the chills in San Francisco, he went in August to San José. There he staid about a year; and there he met two men who were from this same town from which he came. One of them, Captain Julian Hanks, had come out to this coast many years before, and had married at San José, Lower California, and afterward moved to San José, Upper California, where he was living with his family at this time (1852). He had a vineyard and orchard and also a flouring-mill at his home place not far from the center of the pueblo and he also had a ranch about four miles south of the town. Mr. Barrows went on to this ranch and raised a crop of wheat and barley. He says that the rains were very heavy that winter, and that the house in which he lived was for some time surrounded by water. Flour was very dear, being worth 25 cents per pound. James Lick (since the founder of the magnificent Lick Observatory) was then building very deliberately, and finishing off somewhat elaborately, a line flouring-mill just north of San José, on Alviso creek, where he lived. Citizens urged him to finish it whilst flour was so scarce and high, and grind up some of the wheat which was abundant, and thus benefit the public as well as himself; but he gruffly replied that he was building the mill for Lick and not for the public. Among other eccentricities he insisted on having mahogany railing for the stairway of his flour-mill. Mr. Barrows, in the fall of 1853, went to Jamestown in the Southern mines, where he worked at mining for awhile. Afterward he secured an engagement as teacher of music at the Collegiate Institute in Benicia, where he remained during the greater part of 1854. While there, the late William Wolfskill engaged him to teach a private school in his family in Los Angeles, whither he came in December, 1854. He has made his home in Los Angeles ever since. He taught four years, or until the latter part of 1858. During 1859 and 1860 he cultivated a vineyard that is now owned by Mr. Beaudry, on the east side of the river. In 1861 he was appointed United States Marshal for the Southern District of California, by President Lincoln, which office he held four years. In 1864 he engaged in mercantile pursuits, in which he continued about fifteen years. At present (1889) he is in no regular business. He has been thrice married and has three children living, all grown.

        Mr. Barrows has made frequent visits to the Atlantic States, once in 1857 by steamer, once in 1860 by the Butterfield stage route, and several times by rail. In 1875 he spent the summer in the East with his family. He has been a member of the city school board many terms, and was county superintendent for one term, and he has always taken a lively interest in educational matters. He has been a frequent writer for the local and other papers on economic and social questions. Besides much that he has written for the public press over his own name during his long residence in Los Angeles, he has said many things and made many arguments that have been admitted into the editorial columns of sundry journals at different periods.

        For nearly ten years, from 1856 to 1866, he was the regular paid Los Angeles correspondent of the San Francisco Evening Bulletin. He has enjoyed the respect and confidence of his neighbors among whom he has lived so many years. He has administered, first and last, several large estates, including those of William Wolfskill, Captain Alex. Bell, and others. Was appointed by the United States District Court one of the commissioners to run the boundary line between the "Providencia Rancho" and that of the "ex-mission of San Fernando." Also, by appointment of the Superior Court, he was one of the commissioners that partitioned the "San Pedro Rancho," which contained about 25,000 acres. For the year 1888 he was the president of the Historical Society of Southern California, of which he has been an active member since its organization. In the publication of the society for 1887, Mr. Barrows explains the theory of rainfall, or of aqueous precipitation generally, whether in the form of rain, hail or snow, and also explains the cause of California's wet and dry seasons. He has written brief sketches of a considerable number of the early pioneers of Los Angeles, many of whom he knew personally.

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.