Chapter thirty-six of sixty years in Southern California, 1853 to 1913, by Harris Newmark. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Kay Hand. Chapter thirty-five, The Revival of the Southland, 1877 to 1880. The late seventies were marked by an encouraging awakening of national energy and a growing desire on the part of the Angelenio, notwithstanding the excessive local dullness, to bring the outside world a pace or two nearer, as a result of which things began to simmer, while there was an unmistakable manifestation on the part of those at places more or less remote to explore the almost unknown southwest, especially that portion bordering on the Pacific. I have already noted, with varying dates, the time when patents to land were issued. These dates remind me of the long years during which some of the ranch owners had to wait before they received a clear title to their vast estates. Although, as I have said, the Land Commission was in session during the first decade of my residence here, it was a quarter of a century and more, in some cases, after the commissioners had completed their reports before the Washington authorities issued the desired patents confirming the Mexican grants, and by that time not a few of those who had owned the ranches at the beginning of the American occupancy were dead and buried. William Mulholland, who was really trained for navigation and had followed the sea for four or five years, steered for Los Angeles in 1877 and associated himself with the Los Angeles Water Company, giving his attention especially to hydraulic engineering and passing as it were in 1902 with the rest of the water plant to the city when it bought the company out. On March 22nd the Common Council changed the name of Nigger Alley, in the Adobe days known as Calle de los Negros, to that of Los Angeles Street, and thus faded away a designation of Los Angeles' early gambling district long familiar to old settlers. The same year the city marshalship, which J. J. Carrillo had held during 1875 to 76, was discontinued, and J. F. Gerkins was appointed the first chief of police. Considered the property included in the blanket mortgage given by Temple and workmen to E. J. Baldwin was Temple Block, and when this was sold at Sheriff's Sale in 1877, H. Newmark and Company decided to acquire it if they could. Dan Freeman, acting for Baldwin, was our only competitor, and after a somewhat spirited contest the property was knocked down to us. In 1909 we sold Temple Block to the city of Los Angeles. Today a large contribution of money was then made by adjoining landowners, with the understanding that the site would form the nucleus for a civic center. But thus far this solemn promise remains unfulfilled, more is the shame, especially since the obligation is precisely coincidental with the city's needs. In 1877 Colonel R. S. Baker erected the block bearing his name on the site of the historic Adobe home of Dolan Abel Stearns, the walls of which structure, when demolished, until two of the workmen. This building, the most modern of that period, immediately became the scene of much retail activity, and three wide awake merchants, Eugenie Germain, George D. Rowan, and Reverend B. F. Coulter, moved into it. Germain was the first of these to arrive in Los Angeles, coming in 1870, and soon after establishing several trading posts along the line of the Southern Pacific during its construction through Arizona. One day, while inspecting branches in this wild and woolly region, Germain ran into a party of cowboys who were out gunning, and just for a little diversion they took to peppering the vicinity of his feet, which attention persuaded him into a high step less graceful than alert. Germain came to occupy many positions of trust, being appointed in 1889, commissioner from California to the Paris Exposition, and later American consul at Zurich, Switzerland. Just among the tenants was George D. Rowan, who opened a grocery store in the Strelitz block opposite the old jail, remaining there until the completion of Baker's building, thus supplying another illustration of the tendency then predominating to gravitate toward the extreme northern end of the town. In several enterprises Rowan was a pioneer. He brought from Chicago the first faten seen on our streets, and in conjunction with Germain he inaugurated the shipping of California products in card-load lots to the eastern market. He was also one of the first to use pennies here. With drawing from the grocery trade in 1882, he busied himself with real estate until 1892 when he retired. A public-spirited man, he had the greatest confidence in the future of Los Angeles, and was instrumental in subdividing much important acreage, including the block between 6th, 7th, Hill, and Olive Streets, which he sold in 60-foot lots at prices low as $600 each. He was a prime mover in having the name of Fort Street altered to that of Broadway, certainly a change of questionable propriety considering the origin of the old name. Rowan died on September 7, 1901. His sons, R. A. and P. D. Rowan, constitute the firm of R. A. Rowan and Company. Reverend Coulter, father of Frank M. Coulter, footnote, died on October 27, 1915, and footnote. Brought his family to Los Angeles on September 17, 1877, and after a short association in the hardware firm of Harper and Coulter, he entered the dry goods field as B. F. Coulter, now the Coulter Dry Goods Company. In 1878, Coulter bought the woolen mills on Pearl Street near Fifth. Coulter was a man of genial temperament and great integrity, and I shall have occasion to speak of him again. R. F. Delvalle was born in December 1854 at the Plaza Ancestral Home, where, before the family's removal to Camulos Rancho, I frequently saw him playing when I attended the political councils at his father's home. By the by, I believe that J. L. Brent had his law office there, which may account for those gatherings. Delvalle's boyhood days were spent in and around Los Angeles. He studied law in San Francisco and returned to Los Angeles in 1877, a promising young orator and attorney. Since that period, he has been in public life practically all of the time. For some time past, he has been a member of the Water Board. He has been frequently honored by the Democratic Party, especially in 1880, when as a elector he was instructed to vote for our former fellow townsman, General W. S. Hancock. In 1890, Delvalle married Mrs. Helen Casteile, widow of Thomas Casteile, and daughter of Caleb E. White, a Pomona horticulturist and sheepman. A murder case of the late 1970s was notable on account of the tragic fate of two indirect participants. On October 10th, G. M. Waller, custodian of the land company's bath house at Santa Monica, detected Victor Funk, who had been warned to keep off the premises, in the act of erecting a private bath house on the beach, and shot him in the leg, from which wound after two days Funk died. In his defense Waller claimed that as watchman he was acting under orders from E. S. Parker, the land company's agent. Waller was found guilty of involuntary homicide and sentenced on January 25, 1878, to one year in the Penitentiary. Parker, on the other hand, was convicted of murdering the second degree, and on March 8 was sentenced to ten years imprisonment. This severe and unexpected punishment caused a mental excitement from which Parker soon died, and but a few days later his broken-hearted wife fell dead. Annual public affairs were centers of social life as late as the middle of the 70s, one being held about 1876 or 1877 in the old Alameda Street depot, which decorated with evergreens and flowers had been transformed into a veritable garden. With succeeding years these displays, for some time in Horticultural Hall on Temple Street, came to be more and more enchanting. Until later, one or more flower festivals were held in hazards pavilion on Fifth Street near Olive, that of 1889, in particular, attracting, in the phraseology of a local newspaper, one of the largest and most brilliant gatherings in the history of the city. It is indeed a pity that these charming exhibitions, requiring but the mere bringing together of some of the flowers so bountifully supplied us, have been abandoned. On February 1, 1878, twenty-three years after the odd fellows first organized here, their newly constructed hall in the Oxerart Block at 108 North Spring Street was dedicated with elaborate ceremonies. About 1878 Captain George J. Clark, who had been postmaster from 1866 to 1873, and who lived well out of town, offered me sixty feet adjoining my home on Fort Street, a site now occupied by the J. W. Robinson Company. He asked one hundred dollars a foot for the Fort Street frontage alone, but as only sixteen dollars a foot had been paid for the full depth to Hill Street of the piece I already owned, I refused to purchase, nor was I persuaded, even when he threatened to erect a livery stable next to my house. Another item respecting land values and how they impressed me. In 1878 Nadeau purchased, for twenty thousand dollars, the site of the Nadeau Hotel, whereupon I told him that he was crazy, but later events proved him to have been a better judge than I. Sometime in the late seventies Jerry Illich started a chop house on North Main Street, and prospered so well that in time he was able to open a larger and much finer establishment, which he called the Maison d'Oré. This restaurant was one of the best of the time and became the rendezvous of men about town. In 1896 Jerry moved again, this time to Third Street opposite the Bradbury block, and thither went with him his customers of former days. When Illich died in December 1902 he had the finest restaurant in the city. In April the public library was transferred to the care of the city. In the beginning, as I have stated, a fee of five dollars was charged to patrons. Somewhat later, it is my recollection, a legislative enactment permitted a small addition to the tax rate for the partial support of this worthy enterprise, and this municipal assistance enabled the directors to carry the work along even though the annual membership fee was reduced to four dollars payable quarterly. On September 25th General John C. Framont arrived in Los Angeles on his way to Arizona, of which territory he had been appointed governor, and accompanied by his wife and daughter he was driven at once to the St. Charles Hotel. There in response to a demonstration by the citizens, he referred to the great changes which had taken place here during his absence of thirty years. Two days later General Framont and family left for Yuma, the explorer traveling that route by means of the iron horse for the first time. Benjamin Franklin Taylor, the lecturer and author, visited Los Angeles in 1878 and wrote the sympathetic book, Between the Gates, full of just discrimination and hopeful views respecting the Southland. From new ordinances regulating vegetable vendors having been passed in the winter of 1878 to 79, the Chinese peddlers went on a strike and for some time refused to the inconvenience of their dependent customers to supply any truck farm products. During the post-master ship of Colonel Isaac R. Dunkelberger, the post office was moved in 1879 to the Oxford Art Block on North Spring Street near first. There it continued for eight years contributing much toward making the neighborhood an important commercial center. M. J. Newmark, having sold to his partners his interest in the firm of H. Newmark and Company, left Los Angeles in 1879 for San Francisco after building a residence on Spring Street next to the southwest corner of Spring and Seventh and adjoining the dwellings owned by Caspar Combe and M. A. Newmark. Each of these houses stood on a sixty foot lot and to protect themselves from possibly unpleasant neighbors, the holders had bought the corner of Seventh and Spring Street for $425. On his departure M. J. Newmark committed his affairs to my care, desiring to dispose of his place and I offered it to I. N. Van Wise for $7,500 which represented the cost of the house alone. Times were quite hard in Los Angeles at this period and when Van Wise said that he would give $6,500 for it, I accepted his offer and induced the owners to sell to him the corner lot for $475. This is the earlier history of the corner now occupied by the I. N. Van Wise building in which the First National Bank conducts its affairs. Long before there was any necessity for cutting 6th Street through, east of Maine, George Kirchhoff, who in 1879 had brought his family from Indiana, bought the six acres formerly belonging to the intrepid pioneer J. J. Warner and, in the midst of this pretty orchard, built the home in which he continued to reside until 1896 when he died. M. G. Kirchhoff, a son, came with his father and almost immediately engaged in the lumber business with James Cousner. An ordinary man might have found this enterprise sufficient, especially as it expanded with the building up of our Southland communities, but this was not so with the younger Kirchhoff, who in 1892 entered the ICE business, after which effort within ten years he evolved the San Gabriel Electric Company. Henry E. Huntington then associated himself with this enterprise, somewhat later buying that part of the Kirchhoff property on which the Huntington building opposite the Kirchhoff now stands, and as a result of the working together of two such mines, huge electrical enterprises culminated in the Pacific Light and Power Company. The year 1879 was tragic in my family. On the 20th of January, our son Philip, only nine years of age, died of diptheria, and a trifle more than three weeks later, on February 11th, Leo, a baby of three years, succumbed to the same treacherous disease. Barely had the grave closed on the second when a daughter became seriously ill, and after her recovery, in a fit of awful consternation, we fled the plague-infected house and the city, taking with us to San Francisco, Edward, a son of five years. But alas, hardly had we returned to town when he also died on March 17th, 1879. In May, Judge R. M. Whitney broached to the Reverend A. M. Hough, Reverend M. M. Bovard, E. F. Spence, Dr. J. P. Whitney, and G. D. Compton his project for the first Protestant institution of higher learning in Southern California, and meeting with their encouragement, certain land in West Los Angeles, consisting of 308 acres, was accepted in trust as a gift from I. W. Hellman, J. G. Downey, and O. W. Childs, forty acres being later added. In 1880, the first building was put up on Wesley Avenue, and on the 6th of October the college was opened. Most of the projectors were Methodists, and the institution, since known as the University of Southern California, became a Methodist college. The beginning of the institution has been odd. Its first department of arts was built in 1883 at Ontario, while two years later its theological school was opened at San Fernando. Recently under the energetic administration of President F. D. Bovard, the university has made much progress. A. B. Chapman, about 1879, joined C. T. Paul in opening a hardware store at 12 Commercial Street with a little tin shop opposite, and they soon introduced here the first gasoline stoves to which the insurance companies at once seriously objected. Probably the earliest Los Angeles newspaper published in French was a weekly L'Union Nové, which commenced in 1879 with P. Garnier as editor. Exceeding the limits of animated editorial debate into which the rival journalists had been drawn in the heated campaign of 1879, William A. Spalding, a reporter on The Evening Express, waited for Joseph D. Lynch, the editor of The Herald, at about 11 o'clock in the morning of August 16th, and peppered away with a bulldog pistol at his rival, as the latter, who had just left the Pico House, was crossing Spring Street from Temple Block to go to The Herald's office. Lynch dropped his cane and fumbled for his shooting iron, but by the time he could return the fire, A. DeSalis and other citizens had thrust themselves forward, making it doubly perilous to shoot at all. Spalding sent the bullet, which wounded, not his adversary, but a bystander, L. A. Major of Compton. Colonel G. Wiley Wells arrived in 1879 after a Civil War career in which his left arm was permanently crippled. He also served as United States District Attorney in Mississippi, where he prosecuted many of the Ku Klux Klan, and as United States Consul General to China, where he had a varied experience with men and affairs. With A. Brunson, he formed the law partnership of Brunson and Wells, having offices in the Baker Block. The next year, Bradner W. Lee, a nephew of Wells, who had arrived here in 1879, was added to the firm. After 15 years' practice in the local courts, during which time Wells became a noted figure, he retired to private life at Santa Monica, disposing of his extensive law library, consisting of some 6,000 volumes, to his successors, works, and Lee. Henry Milner Mitchell, to whom I have referred as assisting to run down Vasquez, reached Los Angeles by way of Nicaragua in 1868, and was successively a surveyor, a reporter, a law student, and finally, from 1878 to 1879, sheriff. In 1879, he was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of California, and in the same year, he married the eldest daughter of Andrew Glassel. Evidently, he met a very tragic death. While hunting near the scene of Vasquez's capture, he was shot by a friend who mistook him for a deer. Colonel Henry Harrison Markham, a New Yorker, pitched his tent in Los Angeles and Pasadena in 1879, and was elected to Congress from the 6th District, defeating RF Del Valle. He succeeded in getting $150,000 for a public building and appropriations for Wilmington and other harbors, and he also aided in establishing Army headquarters at Los Angeles for Arizona, New Mexico, and Southern California. Carl C. Ligman left Germany for America in 1879 and spent a year in San Francisco, after which he removed to Tucson, Arizona. And there he remained, engaged in the wholesale and retail grocery business, until on December 6th, 1885, he married my daughter, Ella, following which event he bought an interest in the firm of MA Newmark and Company. The early 80s witnessed a commercial development so marked as to remind one of the proverbial grass that could be heard to grow. During an entire century, business, centered like social life, more or less about the plaza, had crawled southward to 1st Street, a distance of but three or four blocks. And now, in five or six years, trade past 1st, extended along both Main and Spring Streets and reached almost two or just beyond 2nd. At this time the Baker Block at the corner of North Main and Arcadia Streets which contained the 1st Town Ticket Office of the Southern Pacific Railroad was still in the center of the retail trade of Los Angeles. And yet, some idea of the backwardness of the city, even then, may be obtained from the fact that in 1880, on the southwest corner of Spring and 2nd Streets where the Holland Beck Hotel was later built stood a horse corral, while the Old Adobe on the lot at the corner of 1st and Spring Streets, which was torn down later to make room for the Hotel Nadeau, was also still there. Obadiah Truax Barker settled in Los Angeles in 1880 and with Otto Mueller started a furniture and carpet business known as Barker and Mueller's at 113 North Spring Street. Strange as it seems, however, the newcomers found themselves too far from the business district and on Mueller's retiring, O.T. Barker and Son's moved to a store near the Pico House. Now, the firm is Barker Brothers. In fond recollection, the homely cheerfulness of the Old-Time Adobe recurs again and again. The 80s, however, were characterized by another form of dwelling, fashionable and popular, some examples of which half-ruined are still to be seen. This was the Frame House, large and spacious, with wide, high, curving verandas, semi-circular bay windows, towers, and cupolas. Flower-bordered lawns generally encircled these residences. There were long, narrow hallways and more spare bedrooms than the less intimate hospitality of today suggests or demands. On January 1st, 1880, the District Court of Los Angeles was abolished to give way to the County Court, on which occasion Don Ignacio Cepulveda, the last of the District Court judges, became the first county judge. The first sea-met pavement in the city was laid on Main Street North of First by a man named Floyd. Having bought Temple Block, we were thinking of surrounding it with wooden sidewalk. Floyd recommended cement, asking me at the same time to inspect a bit of pavement which he had just put down. I did so and took his advice, and from this small beginning has developed the excellent system of paving now enjoyed by Los Angeles. In 1880 there visited Southern California a man who not only had a varied and most interesting past, but who was destined to have an important future. This was Abbott Kinsey, a blood relation of Emerson Holmes and old General Harrison, and a student of law and medicine, commissioned merchant, a botanical expert, cigarette manufacturer, and a member of the United States Geological Survey. A man, too, who had traveled through and lived long in Europe, Asia, and Africa, and who, after seeing most of our own Northwest, was on his way to settle in Florida in search of health. While in San Francisco he heard of the recently formed Sierra Madre Colony, wither he made haste to go, and after a month or two there he liked it so well that he decided to remain on the gentle slope, found there a home, and lay out a farm. At that time we had a customer by the name of Seabury, who owned 160 acres along the foothills, in this land he had mortgaged to us to secure a note. When Kinsey came he bought a place adjoining Seabury's, and this led him to take over the mortgage. In due season he foreclosed and added the land to his beautiful property, which he named Quinelloa. All Kinsey's combined experience was brought to bear to make his estate pleasurable, not only to himself, but for the casual visitor and passerby. And in a short time he became well known. He also was made a special commissioner of the United States to examine into the condition of the Mission Indians of Southern California, and on this commission he served with Helen Hunt Jackson, so famous as H. H., or especially in California as the author of Ramona, visiting with her all the well-known Indian Rancherias between San Diego and Monterey, in addition to the 21 Franciscan Missions. Toward the end of April F. P. F. Temple passed away at the Merced Ranch and was buried in the family burying ground at La Puente. This recalls to mind that in early days many families owned a hallowed acre where, as summoned one by one, they were laid side by side in rest eternal. On May 16th John W. Bixby died at his Long Beach estate. About 1871 he had entered his brother Jotham's service supervising the sheep ranch and, to John Bixby's foresight, was attributed first the renting and later the purchase of the great ranch controlled through foreclosure of mortgage by Michael Reese. A year or two before Bixby's death, five thousand acres were set aside for the town of Los Alamitos, but John never saw the realization of his dream to establish their assettlement. It was on the 18th of the same month that my brother found it necessary to visit Carl's bad for the benefit of his health and the decision occasioned my removal to San Francisco to look after his affairs. What was expected to be a brief absence really lasted until September 1882 when he and his family returned to America and San Francisco and I came back to Los Angeles with which of course I had continued enclosed communication. During our absence my wife's father, Joseph Newmark, died rather suddenly on October 19th, 1881. Reference has been made to the movement in 1859 for the division of California into two states. In the spring of 1880 John G. Downey republished the original act and argued that it was still valid and Dr. J. P. Whitney contended that the geographical, topographical, climactic, and commercial laws were all working for the separation of California into two distinct civil organizations. Not long after, at a mass meeting in Los Angeles called before the improvement of Wilmington Harbor, an executive committee consisting of J. G. Downey, W. H. Perry, E. F. Spence, Dr. J. P. Whitney, A. B. Moffitt, and J. G. Estudillo was named to see what could be done and this committee appointed a legal committee consisting of Henry T. Hazard, R. M. Whitney, George H. Smith, C. E. Tom, A. Brunson, S. C. Hubble, and H. A. Barkley. The latter committee endorsed Downey's view that Congress could admit the new state and it arranged for a convention which met on September 8, 1881. There, the gist of the sentiment was that state division was a necessity but that the time was not yet ripe. In 1880 Jotham Bixby and Company sold 4,000 acres of their celebrated Cerritos Ranch to an organization known as the American Colony and in a short time Wilmore City, named after W. E. Wilmore and the origin of Long Beach was laid out and widely advertised. Wilmore, a teacher, had been fairly successful as a colonizer in Fresno County but after all his dreaming, hard work, and investments he lost all that he had, like so many others, and died broken hearted. The earliest recollection I have of a storekeeper at Long Beach was my customer, W. W. Low. At an early period in the development of Santa Monica, as we have seen, Senator Jones built a wharf there but the Los Angeles and Independence Railroad, expected to become the outlet on the Pacific Coast of a supposedly great mining district in Inyo County, never reached farther east than Los Angeles. The Southern Pacific Railroad Company, desiring to remove this competition, obtained possession of the new road, raised the warehouse, and condemned and half dismantled the wharf, and by setting up its terminus at Wilmington, it transferred there the greater part of its shipping and trade. By 1880 Santa Monica, today so prosperous, had shrunk to but 350 inhabitants. Competition compelled us, in 1880, to put traveling salesmen into the field, an innovation we introduced with reluctance, involving as it did no little additional expense. Near the end of August, a Citizens' Committee was appointed to receive and entertain President Rutherford B. Hayes, whose visit to Los Angeles, as the first president to come here, caused quite a stir. His stay was very brief. During the few hours that he was here, he and his party were driven around the neighborhood in open hacks. In the midst of his successive greenback campaigns, General Ben F. Butler so adjourned for a few days, in 1880, in Los Angeles, and was a recipient of many attentions. At the beginning of this decade, the Los Angeles and San Pedro Railway was extended to Tim's landing, the well-known old shipping point, as San Pedro then began to grow in earnest, both on the bluff and in the lowlands bordering on the bay. Wars were projected in large vessels, such as would have startled the earlier shippers, yet none too large at that made fast to the moorings. But the improvement of yesterday must make way for that of today, and even now the harbor commissioners are raising historic Tim's point. Penning again this familiar cognamen, I am reminded of what, I dare say, has been generally forgotten, that the Bay of Avalon was also once called Tim's landing or Cove, after A. W. Tim's, under officer in the United States Navy, and that the name was changed prior to the banding's purchase of Catalina. Frequent reference has been made to those who, in one way or another, sought to infuse new commercial life here and more rapidly to expand the city. But after all, George Lehmann, of whom I have already spoken, was perhaps the pioneer local boomer before that picturesque word had become incorporated into the Angelina's vocabulary. Nor were his peculiarities in this direction entirely confined to booming, for he did considerable buying as well. Lehmann's operations, however, most unfortunately for himself, were conducted at too early a period, and his optimism, together with his extensive, unimproved holdings, wrought his downfall. Besides the roundhouse and gardens, he owned real estate which would now represent enormous value, in proof of which I have only to mention a few of his possessions at that time. The southwest corner of Sixth and Spring Streets. The northeast corner of Sixth and Hill Streets. Large frontages and many other corners on Main, Spring, Fort and Hill Streets. Practically none of this property brought any income, so that when the city began to grade and improve the streets, Lehmann's assessments compelled him to give a fifteen thousand dollar blanket mortgage to Lazard Ferrer's of San Francisco. Lehmann soon found himself beyond his depth and defaulted in the payment of both principal and interest. Not only that, but with a complacency and a confidence in the future that were sublime, he refused to sell a single foot of land and Lazard Ferrer's, where they were their desire, natural to bankers, to turn a piece of paper into something more negotiable, foreclose the mortgage in 1879, and shut the gates of the Garden of Paradise forever. And a sheriff's sale was advertised for the purpose of concluding this piece of financial ledger domain. I attended the sale and still distinctly remember with much amusement some of the incidents. The vociferous auctioneer mounted the box or barrel provided for him and opened the program by requesting an offer for the corner of Hill and Second Streets, a lot one hundred and twenty by one hundred and sixty feet in size. Nor did he request in vain. One of the heroes of the occasion was Lewis Messmer, a friend of Lehmann, whose desire it was to take a talking part in the proceedings, force up the prices, and so helped the latter. Amidst the familiar going, going, going, accordingly, the bidding began, and under the incentive of Messmer's bullish activities, the figures soon reached four hundred dollars, the last bidder being Eugene Meyer, local agent for the mortgagee. At this juncture, Messmer, in his enthusiasm, doubled the bid to eight hundred dollars, expecting, of course, to induce someone to raise the price, already high for that day, still higher. But the best laid schemes of mice and men gang aft aglee. How eerily Messmer awaited the fruition of his shrewd manipulation. How he listened in hopeful anticipation to the repeated going, going, going, of the auctioneer. In vain, however he waited, in vain he listened. To his mortification and embarrassment, his astounded ear was greeted with the decisive, gone, for eight hundred dollars, sold to Lewis Messmer. Messmer had bought, for more than it was worth, a piece of property which he did not want. A catastrophe realized as well by all the others present, as it was patent to the victim himself. The crowd relished keenly the ludicrous situation in which Messmer found himself, encumbered as he was, with an investment which he had had no intention of making, and throughout the remainder of the contest he was distinguished only by his silence. Poor old George, his vision was accurate. Los Angeles was to become great, but her splendid expansion was delayed too long for him to realize his dreams. When layman died he was buried in a pauper's grave, and toward the end of the eighties the adobe roundhouse, once such a feature of George layman's garden of paradise, was raised to make way for needed improvements. I have spoken of the intolerable condition of the atmosphere in the council chamber when Charles Crocker made his memorable visit to Los Angeles to consult with the city fathers. In the eighties when the common council met in the southeast corner of the second floor of Temple Block the same objectionable use of tobacco prevailed, with the result that the worthy alderman could scarcely be distinguished twenty-five feet away from the rough benches on which sat the equally beclouded spectators. Doubtless the atmosphere of the courtroom was just as foul when the mayor, as late at least as eighteen eighty, passed judgment each morning sitting as a justice on the crop of disorderlies of the preceding night, then not infrequently some neighbor or associate of the mayor himself, caught in the police dragnet appeared among the drowsy defendants. End of chapter thirty-five. Chapter thirty-six of sixty years in southern California, eighteen fifty-three to nineteen thirteen by Harris Newmark. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Kay Hand. Chapter thirty-six. Centenary of the city. Electric light. 1881 to 1884. The year eighteen eighty-one opened with what, for Los Angeles, was a curious natural phenomenon. Snow falling in February and covering the streets and planes with a white mantle. So rare was the novelty that many residents then saw the oddly shaped flakes for the first time. It was about that time, according to my recollection, that another attempt was made to advertise Los Angeles through her fair fame to climate, an effort which had a very amusing termination. Prominent men of our city invited the California Editorial Association, of which Frank Pixley of the Argonaut was president, to meet in Los Angeles that year with the farsighted intention of having them give wider publicity to the charms and fames of our winters. During this convention a banquet was held in the dining room of the St. Elmo Hotel, then perhaps called the Cosmopolitan. After a fine repast and a flow of brilliant eloquence principally devoted to extolling our climactic wonders the participants dispersed. But what was the surprised embarrassment of the Los Angeles boomers on making their exit to find pieces of ice hanging from all points of vantage and an intense cold permeating and stiffening their bones? Thus ended amid the few icicles Los Angeles has ever known the first official attempt to extend the celebrity of our glorious and seductive climate. In February, Nathaniel C. Carter, to whom I have referred as a pioneer in arranging railroad excursions for tourists coming to California, bought from E. J. Baldwin some eleven hundred acres of the Santa Anita Ranch, comprising the northern and wilder portion which sloped down from the base of the Sierra Madre Mountains. This, he subdivided, piping water from the hills, and by wide advertising he established Sierra Madre, appropriating the name already selected by a neighboring colony. In 1881 J. M. Gwynn, who for a decade or more had been principal of the schools at Anaheim, was made superintendent of Los Angeles City Schools. A tragedy attracted unusual attention in the early 80s owing in part to the social connections of the persons involved. Francisco, or Chigo Forster, as he was popularly called, the sporting son of Don Juan Forster, had been keeping company with a Sr. Rita Abarta, a young woman of superb stature whose father was French and mother was Mexican, and having promised to marry her he betrayed her confidence. Her insistence that Forster should keep his word had its dénouement when, one day at her behest, they visited the Plaza Church. But Forster so far endeavored to postpone the ceremony that he returned to the carriage in which he had left her, declaring that no priest could be found. Then they drove around until they reached the corner of Commercial and Los Angeles Streets, half a block from H. Newmark and companies. There the young woman left the carriage, followed by Forster, and on reaching the sidewalk she said to him in Spanish, Chico, que vas a ser? What are you going to do? Forster gave some evasive answer, and Sr. Rita Abarta shot him dead. She was arrested and tried, but owing to the expert evidence in her behalf given by Dr. Joseph Kurtz, she was exonerated to the satisfaction of nearly the entire community. Among those who followed the proceedings closely with a view to publishing the dramatic story was George Butler Griffin, traveler and journalist, who having recently arrived had joined the staff of the Express, later becoming somewhat noted as a student of local history. At a meeting in Turnverine Hall on March 24th, the German Ladies Benevolent Society of Los Angeles, so long known for its commendable work, was organized. Mrs. John Milner was elected president, Mrs. D. Molstadt, vice president, Mrs. John Benner, secretary, and Mrs. Jacob Kurtz, treasurer. Savari Jay, Elias Professor Brewster, was a simple-minded freak of the freakish 80s who dropped into Los Angeles, as such characters generally do, without anyone knowing much about his origin. It was during the time that walking matches were much in vogue, and whenever one of these took place, Savari Jay was sure to participate. He was the only man in town that took Savari Jay seriously, and I assumed that he was generally entered rather to attract spectators than for any other purpose. One day the professor disappeared, and no clue to his whereabouts could be discovered, until his dead body was found far out in the desert. He had walked once too often, and too far. Fabian was a Frenchman and a jack-at-all-trades, doing odd jobs around town, whose temperament and outspoken way of expressing himself used to produce both amusements and surprise. On one occasion, when he took offence at the daughter of a prominent family for whom he was working, he sought out the lady of the house and said to her, Madam, your sons are all right, but your daughters are no good. Two other names not forgotten by householders of an earlier day in Los Angeles are John Hall and Henry Budden. The former, whose complexion was as black as his soul was white, came to Los Angeles a great many years ago. He was a white washer by trade and followed this calling for a livelihood, later giving it up to run an express wagon. And I can still see John plying about town and driving in summer between Los Angeles and Santa Monica. His wagon piled high with household effects, as our good citizens moved from one dwelling to another or went on their way to the shore of the sea. I remember also that one day some unnatural parents left a newborn, white infant, on John Hall's steps. He was never able to locate the mother of the little fellow and therefore took the foundling into his home and raised him as his son. Moses was the name John very appropriately bestowed upon the baby and the white lad grew into manhood in the midst of this negro family. Like Fabian, Budden proved himself handy in doing odd jobs of carpentering and upholstering and was in frequent demand. On September 5th, at the conclusion of the city's first century, or more strictly speaking one hundred years and a day after the founding of Los Angeles, a noteworthy celebration was undertaken. A population of about twelve thousand was all that Los Angeles then boasted, but visitors added greatly to the crowd and the town took on a true holiday appearance. Main Street was decorated with an arch bearing the inclusive figures 1781 to 1881 and the variegated procession under the grand marshalship of General George Stoneman was made up of such vehicles, costumed passengers and riders as suggested at once the motley but interesting character of our city's past. There were old creaking caritas that had seen service in Pioneer Days. There were richly decorated saddles on which rode gay and expert horsemen and there were also the more up to date infashionable carriages which with the advent of transcontinental railroading had at last reached the coast. Two Mexican Indian women one named Benjamina alternately scowling and smiling and declared to be respectively 103 and 114 years old formed a feature of the procession. Clouds of dust from the crowding auditors greeted the orators of the day who spoke not only in English and Spanish but also in French. There were festival games and sports characteristic of the olden time and the celebration concluded with the Spanish ballet at which dancing was continued until the following morning. One of the musical celebrities of her time and a native of Los Angeles of whom the city was justly proud was Ms. Mamie Perry daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William H. Perry. In 1880 she went to Italy and studied under San Giovanni and in September 1881 made her debut singing in Milan Florence Mantua and Blona the title role of Petrella's opera Contessa de Malfi. In other cities she attained further distinction. A musical career was interrupted by her marriage in 1883 to Charles W. Davis but after his untimely death in 1889 Ms. Perry Davis returned to Italy a notable musical in turn Vareen Hall being given as a farewell honor on April 22nd. Still later she returned to Los Angeles and married C. Modini Wood. When the funeral of President Garfield took place at Washington on September 27th his memory was also honored in Los Angeles. A procession started at two o'clock from Spring Street and marched to the plaza Colonel John O. Wheeler acting as Grand Marshal and George E. Guard chief of police leading the way. A catafalque draped with black star bedecked silk and green smell wax insurmounted by a shrouded eagle and a little child Laura Chauvin daughter of AC Chauvin the grocer kneeling and representing Columbia lamenting the loss of the martyred chief was drawn by six horses followed by the honorary pallbearers and by civic and official bodies. Judge Volney E. Howard as president introduced Dr. J. P. Whitney who read the resolutions of condolence after which A. Brunson delivered the eulogy. Mrs. Garfield the president's widow who first came to winter in California in 1899 finally built her own winter home in Pasadena in October 1904 S. A. and M. A. Hamburger who were engaged in business in Sacramento concluded they would do better if they secured the right opening in the Southland and having persuaded their father Asher Hamburger to join them in the new enterprise they came to Los Angeles in November 1881 and established their present business under the firm name of A. Hamburger and Sons D. A. Hamburger who had been reading law joined them in January 1883 for years until his death on December 2nd 1897 the elder Hamburger participated actively in all the affairs of the concern they first opened on Main Street near Rakina close to the popular dry good store of Dylan N. Cannelly conducted by Richard Dylan and John Cannelly what was known as the People's Store occupying a one-story building with a room containing not more than 2,500 square feet but having outgrown this location at the corner of Spring and Franklin streets was built for their use on the site of the old city and county building and the jail in 1908 the hamburgers moved their extensive building on Broadway and 8th Street Owen Brown son of the famous John Brown of Ossawotomy and long the only survival of the little party that sees the arsenal at Harper's Ferry came West late in 1881 and settled with his brother Jason already at Pasadena a horseback trail up one of the neighboring mountains still leads the traveler to speak in friendly spirit of this late pioneer who died in 1889 and is buried near the Foothills five years later Jason Brown returned to Ohio The Daily Times a Republican sheet started by Nathan Cole and James Gardner began on December 4th to be issued six days in the week both publishers within a month were succeeded by Yarnel K-Style and Mathis owners of the Mirror so successful was the paper that it soon grew to be a nine column folio in the height of the winter season of 1881 to 82 when the semi-tropical glory of southern California was most appealing Helen Hunt Jackson exploring the southwest for materials of value in the study of the Indian came to Los Angeles and met as I have already related Abbot Kinney himself a student of the Aborigines she also met Don Antonio F and Donia Mariana Coronel and finding in the ladder a highly intelligent and affable lady she passed some hours each day at the hospitable Coronel mansion driving out there from her hotel and reclining under the broad palm trees when Mrs. Jackson first came with her pencils and notebooks the retiring senora as she used to tell me having little comprehension of the eastern ladies ambitious plans looked with some suspicion on the motives of her enthusiastic visitor but fortunately this half distrust was dispelled by the warmth of the author's geniality and Donia Mariana opening both her house and heart contributed in estimably to the success of the now famous Ramona most of the rough notes for which were written at a little table on the Coronel veranda on Donia Mariana's advice Mrs. Jackson selected the Del Valle ranch house at the Camulos as the best preserved and most typical place for a background although disappointed in not finding the Del Valle's at home and consequently seeing the imagined headquarters of Ramona for about an hour or two she was compelled to rely upon her Los Angeles hostess for many of the interesting and singularly accurate details on departing from Southern California Mrs. Jackson wrote for the Century magazine a charming description of life at the old Coronel adobe whence she never departed without a carriage full of luscious fruit she also added her tribute to the attractions of the San Gabriel and San Fernando valleys now the world at large has been made more conversant with the poetical path of Los Angeles for the most part through the novel Ramona in 1882 the telephone was first introduced here H. Newmark and Company so early subscribing for the service that they were given phone number five the old river station having number one but it may amuse the reader to know that this patronage was not pledged without some misgivings lest the customary noises around the store might interview with hearing and so render the curious instrument useless on January 20th Don Juan Forster died at his Santa Margarita Rancho in San Diego County followed to the grave but a few months later by Mrs. Forster a sister of Po Pico as rugged as the climate of his native state of Maine a t career after the usual hazardous life of the pioneer on the plains and in mines proved his good judgment when in the late 60s after riding through California in search of the best place to find a home he selected a ranch close to that of the Lewis Phillips for years I had pleasant relations with career and I must confess that it was not easy to decide when two such friends as he and Billy Roland were the opposing candidates how I should vote for sheriff career was elected the Arroyo Vista later and more correctly named the Vista del Arroyo kept by Mrs. Emma C. Banks was the only hotel in the Pasadena settlement in 1882 and not infrequently passengers her journeyed there by the narrow stuffy stage running every day except Sunday found on arriving that they could not be accommodated so small in fact was the hostelry that it became necessary to advertise when all the rooms have been taken the stage left for Los Angeles at nine o'clock in the morning and returned at three and the driver who was a student of the classics from the east doled out to the passengers both crossroad data and bits of ancient lore fire having destroyed the state normal school at San Jose in 1880 then the only institution of its kind in California the legislature on March 14th 1881 provided for the establishing here of a branch and the following March George Gephardt a German who had come in 1875 raised eight thousand dollars to purchase the orange grove at Bellevue Terrace near Fifth Street and Charity for a site on August 29th 1882 the school was opened with Charles H. Allen of San Francisco as the first principal to other teachers and 61 students in 1883 Allen was succeeded by President Ira Moore and the school became an independent institution Edward T. Pierce who followed Professor Moore retired in 1904 an instructor there for 22 years was Professor Melville Dozier who made for California by way of Panama in 1868 largely through the devotion of these pioneer teachers as well as through those qualities which have marked the administration of Dr. Jesse F. Millspaw scholar and pedagogue for nearly the last decade this normal school has grown each year from a very humble beginning until it now sends out hundreds of men and women into one of the noblest of all professions a commencement here of the Los Angeles High School of particular interest to me was celebrated in June in the old turn Vereen Hall on Spring Street Superintendent James M. Gwyn presenting the Diplomas when my daughter Ella graduated among her instructors had been Mrs. Chloe P. Jones for three years principal of the school and for one year Superintendent having been the last incumbent at the same time of both offices and the late Mrs. Anna Avril a noted club woman Mrs. Jones came to California from Ohio in 1873 taught for a while in Santa Rosa and after a year of great work here began to instruct in the new high school and there after a service of nearly four decades she is still a highly esteemed member of the staff Mrs. Avril was the first woman to enter the board of education and in her honor a bell was placed on the mission road El Camino Real to celebrate her 70th birthday Colonel Harrison Gray Otis who had been a farmer's boy printer, union soldier foreman of the government printing office newspaper correspondents and editor and had first visited Los Angeles in 1874 or 1875 to familiarize himself with local conditions on August 1st, 1882 joined the firm of Yarnel K-Style and Mathis there upon assuming the management of both the times and the weekly mirror in October, 1883 Yarnel and Mathis retired a year later the Times Mirror Company was incorporated with a capital stock of $40,000 notwithstanding the failure of the evening republican in 1878-79 Nathan Cole Jr. started another afternoon daily the evening telegram on August 19th it was very neatly printed was delivered by carrier at 65 cents a month and was a pioneer here in inserting free advertisements for those desiring situations in the spring of 1882 my attention had been called to the public need of proper facilities for obtaining a drink of good water and nobody else having moved in the matter the following communication was sent during the heated summer to the city authorities Los Angeles August 25th, 1882 to the honorable the council of Los Angeles City gentlemen the undersigned hereby tender to the city a drinking fountain as per the accompanying cut to be placed on that portion of temple block fronting the junction of main and spring streets for the free use of the public and subject to the approval of your honorable body respectfully H. Newmark & Company about the same time Steven H. Mott secretary of the Los Angeles City Water Company promised enough drinking water free of charge to supply the fountain the unpretentious gift having been accepted the fountain was installed the design included an iron pedestal and column surmounted by a female figure of attractive proportions while below the water issued from the mouth of alliance head though but seven feet in height and not to be compared with more ambitious designs seen here later the fountain may have given some incentive to city service and adornment it has been shown that Remy Nadeau bought the southwest corner of spring and first streets at what I then considered a ridiculously high price on that site in 1882 he commenced building the hotel Nadeau the first four-story structure in town this fact is not likely to escape my memory since he acquired the necessary funds out of the profit he made in a barley speculation involving the sale by H. Newmark and Company of some 80,000 bags of this cereal his gain representing our loss it thus happened that I participated in the opening festivities which began with a banquet and ended with a ball to a greater extent than I dare say the average guest ever suspected for many years thereafter the Nadeau now comparatively so deserted was the center of social and business life in Los Angeles on October 11th occurred the death of Don Manuel Dominguez his wife surviving him but a few months in 1882 F. H. Howland representing the brush electric lighting company made an energetic canvas in Los Angeles for the introduction of the electric light and by the end of the third week in August 40 or more arc lamps had been ordered by business houses and private individuals he soon proposed to light the city by seven towers or spliced masts each one about 150 feet high to be erected within an area bounded by the plaza seventh charity and main streets and supplied from a powerhouse at the corner of Banning and Alameda streets the seven masts were to cost seven thousand dollars a year or somewhat more than was being paid for gas the proposition was accepted by the council popular opinion being that it was the best advertisement that Los Angeles could have and when Howland a week later offered to add three or four masts there was considerable satisfaction that Los Angeles was to be brought into the line of progress on the evening of December 31st the city was first lighted by electricity when Mayor Toberman touched the button that turned on the mysterious current Howland was opposed by the gas company and by many who advanced the most ridiculous objections electric light it was claimed attracted bugs contributed to blindness and had a bad effect on ladies complexions in 1883 Herman Flatow came to Los Angeles from Berlin and soon entered the employ of H. Newmark & Company his first duty was to bail hides in a year he was a porter in the grocery department and by another year he had advanced to a place in the billing office since then he has risen step by step until he is now a stockholder in M.A. Newmark & Company and is taken into the most confidential and important councils of that firm on the 18th of February 1888 Flatow married Miss Fanny Bernstein a lady distinguished as the first girl graduate of a Los Angeles high school to enter the state university receiving there from the Ph.B. degree Dr. Elizabeth Follensby registered in Los Angeles in February 1883 and as one of the earliest women physicians here soon secured an enviable position in the professional world being called to the chair for diseases of children in the College of Medicine of the University of Southern California J.W. Robinson in 1833 established a small dry goods shop at the corner of Temple and Spring Streets which he named the Boston Dry Goods Store Footnote May 1, 1914 the J.W. Robinson Dry Goods Company contracted to move to 7th Street between Grand Avenue and Hope Street This is one of the notable examples of Leap Frog that real estate operators have played in Los Angeles to the detriment perhaps at times of the town itself and footnote A couple of years later he moved into the Jones Block opposite to the courthouse the growth of his business having warranted such a change In 1895 the block next to Blanchard Hall was built by this firm and this he has occupied ever since In March 1896 the present manager J.M. Schneider became associated with the Boston Dry Goods Company which was incorporated in 1891 N.B. Blackstone a kinsman of Robinson once in the business with him in time with Drew and set up for himself under his own name on Broadway One of the most shocking railroad accidents in the history of California blotted the calendar for January 20th whenever 20 persons were killed and sudden grief was brought to several happy Los Angeles circles About three o'clock on a cold wintry night an express train bound south stopped at the Tehachapi Station near the summit and while the engineer and fireman on the detached locomotive and tender were busy loading water and fuel and the conductor was in the office making his report the breakman with what proved to be uncalculating gallantry was hastening to escort a young lady from the car to the railway station In his hurry he had forgotten to apply the brakes and before he could return the entire train started by a heavy gale had begun to move away at the outset slowly then dashing with ever increasing momentum down the heavy mountain grade The conductor upon leaving the depot was the first to discover that the cars had started away the disappearing lights having become so faint as to be scarcely visible The passengers too had noticed nothing unusual until too late when the train plunging along at fearful velocity leaped the track and fell in a heap to the ravine below The old fashioned lamps and stoves set fire to the debris with the result that those who were not crushed were burned The dead and wounded were brought to Los Angeles as quickly as possible but the remains of some were never identified Governor Downey who was on the train was rescued though for years he suffered from the nervous shock but among those lost was his charming wife Marshall and Henderson established themselves in 1883 in the wholesale iron and wagon supply trade whereupon we sold that branch of our business to them Shortly after we vacated the storerooms in the Arcadia block which we had continuously occupied since the establishing of H. Newmark and company in 1865 and moved to the two-story Amistoy building on Los Angeles street north of Rikina but a few paces from the corner on which I had first clerked for my brother At a meeting in the office of the Los Angeles produce exchange in the Arcadia block on Los Angeles street on March 9th presided over by C. W. Gibson when J. Mills Davies acted as secretary The board of trade of Los Angeles was organized M. Doddsworth C. W. Gibson A. Haas J. M. Davies Eugenie Germain J. J. Melis John R. Matthews Walter S. Maxwell I. N. Van Wise and myself being the incorporators Six directors Gibson Van Wise Haas Dodson Matthews and Newmark were chosen On March 14th, 1883 the board was formally incorporated for 50 years After a while the board met in the Baker block and still later it assembled in a two-story brick structure at the northwest corner of Fort and First streets In October 1906 the board of trade and the wholesalers board of trade were consolidated the new organization becoming known as the wholesalers board of trade This move was initiated by Herman Flatow The republication in the Los Angeles express of March 23rd, 1908 under the caption 25 years ago today of several paragraphs savoring of Village gossip such as the following Some very fine new goss new gits are to be seen at Dole's commercial restaurant They are meant for the silver wedding feast at Mr. Newmark's Calls to mind an event of March 21st when my wife and I celebrated our silver wedding at our home on Fort Street At half past six in the evening all of my employees sat down to dinner with us having come in a body to tender their congratulations A reunion of three generations of the Newmarks some of whom then saw one another for the first time came to a close a week or two later As the anniversary approached I prepared a surprise for my wife arranging that her brother Abraham Newmark of St. Louis should be present in Los Angeles for the occasion His visit, however, had a grievous termination while in San Francisco on his way home from Los Angeles death came to him suddenly in the home of a friend In May the Los Angeles Board of Education sold the northwest corner of Spring and Second Streets a lot 120 by 165 feet where the city in 1854 had built the first schoolhouse to the city authorities for $31,000 and the next year the council erected on the inside 60 feet the first municipal building of consequence When the boom was at its height in 1887 the city sold the balance of the lot with its frontage on Spring Street and a depth of 105 feet for $120,000 to John Bryson Sr. an arrival of 1879 and ten years later Mayor of Los Angeles and George H. Bonebrake who came a year earlier than Bryson and was in his day a prominent financier opened if my memory serves me correctly the first agency for eastern vehicles together they built the Bryson block this sale and purchase reminds me that when the lot was cleared to make way for the new city hall 10 or 12 fine black locust trees were felled much to the regret of many old timers these were the same shade trees for the preservation of which Billy McKee the early school master had risked bodily encounter with irate watermen When the Board of Education sold this lot it bought another which extended from 4th street to spring between 5th and 6th streets and had a frontage of 120 feet on each street the price paid was $12,500 this is the lot now known as mercantile place whose retention or sale has been so much debated and which with its many small stores reminds the traveler not a little of those narrow but cozy and often very prosperous European streets and alleys on both sides lined with famous shops August 22nd was the date of the city ordinance creating Elysian Park the act leading the early settler back to the Pueblo days when the land in question passed from Mexican to American control and remained a part of the city lots already described and never subdivided and sold the last companies of volunteer firemen were organized in 1883 one being in the Morris Vineyard a district between what is now main hill 15th and 16th streets and the other in East Los Angeles where a hose company was formed during September or October a party of distinguished German bankers and statesmen who had come to the United States to investigate certain branches of business visited Los Angeles the most important of this commission was Dr. Edward Lasker of the German Reichstag other eminent members being Henry Villard president of the northern Pacific Railroad and Judge Simons president of the German bank of Berlin a committee consisting of I.W. Hellman C.C. Lips M. Morris A.W. Edelman Conrad Jacoby Dr. Joseph Kurtz and myself took charge of these gentlemen as well as a number of others whose names I forget Dr. Lasker during his brief stay accepted the hospitality of my home and there received considerable honor at the hands of his German admirers a large body of enthusiasts serenading him even while with us it was evident that Dr. Lasker was an ailing man and on the 5th of the following January while riding in a carriage in Galveston he suddenly died General George H. Stoneman when he retired from the army in 1871 settled near San Gabriel and continuing more or less in public life he was elected in 1883 governor of California in December 1883 Eugene Meyer sold out to Nathan Kahn and Leon Loeb his partners in the city of Paris store and engaged in banking with Lazar Ferrer in San Francisco in which enterprise he continued until 1892 when he moved to New York and became one of the managing partners of the same institution in that city retiring from active business nearly a decade later when Meyer left he sold his home on Fort Street which had originally cost him $6,000 to Moses L. Wicks for $16,000 and his friends told him that so successful a sale proved the Meyer luck Wicks in time resold it to John D. Bicknell whose heirs still own it with the coming at Christmas in 1883 of Robert N. Bulla began a career that has made itself felt in local legal political commercial social and scientific circles in 1884 he joined the law firm of Bicknell and White nine years later he was representing his district in the state assembly in 1897 he was a state senator and his efficient activity as a director of the chamber of commerce together with his forensic talent led one to anticipate his rise to further distinction in that body as a director of the Southwest Museum Bulla performs another of his services to the community after an unsuccessful canvas made by Judge Noah Levering which resulted in the attendance of just four persons the historical society of Southern California was finally organized at meetings in Temple Block in November in December 1883 J.J. Warner was the first president H.D. Barrows, A.F. Coronel J.G. Downey and John Mansfield the vice presidents J.M. Gwynne, Treasurer and C.N. Wilson secretary for a time the society's meetings were held in the city council room after that in the county court room and later at the houses of the members on February 12, 1891 the society was incorporated Les Progrès, a seven column newspaper was started here in 1883 as the organ of the French population some rather prominent citizens of Gallic, Orange and Becoming the Stockholders Dr. Pignet Dupuis-Tren was the first editor and he was succeeded in a year or two by Georges Le Mesnager the wine grower on February 18 another flood of unusual proportions continuing until May devastated the Southland following several days of heavy rain the river rose and 50 houses and large sections of vineyards and orchards in the low lying portions of the city were carried away by the mad waters several lives being lost in that year the Santa Ana cut its new channel deviating from the old course from one to three miles but still holding to the southwest a direction apparently characteristic of rivers in this vicinity speaking of rains reminds me that in 1884 one of the difficulties in the way of solving the water problem was removed in the purchase by the city of Los Angeles for $50,000 of Colonel Griffith J. Griffiths rights to the water of the Los Angeles river a distinguished and always a picturesquely recognizable resident walked across the continent for fun and study from Cincinnati to Los Angeles by a roundabout route of 3,507 miles in 143 days in 1884 having made an arrangement with the Los Angeles Times to which he contributed breezy letters on the way the day after his arrival he became city editor of that newspaper and in the last Apache campaign in 1886 he was its war correspondent in 1887 a stroke of paralysis sent him to New Mexico and recovering he spent several years exploring and studying Spanish America from Colorado to Chile becoming acknowledged here and abroad as an authority on history and the peoples of the lands he visited in 1893 returning from Peru he edited for a dozen years the land of Sunshine magazine later out west after that founding the Landmarks Club to which we owe the preservation from utter ruin of several of the old missions this club has lately been reorganized to care for all of the 21 missions of the state later Lumis incorporated the Sequoia League which has so much better the condition of thousands of California Indians securing in particular for the evicted Warners Ranch Indians a better reservation than that from which they were driven from 1905 to 1911 he was librarian of the Los Angeles public library in 1903 he founded the Southwest Society of the Archaeological Institute of America which conducted many scientific expeditions in Arizona, New Mexico and Guatemala acquired valuable collections and maintained the first free public exhibits of science in Southern California in 1907 he and others incorporated the Southwest Museum where upon the society conveyed to it all its collections a 20 acre site and the $50,000 bequeathed by Mrs. Kerry M. Jones for the first buildings besides other and many literary activities Lumis has published over a dozen notable books on the Southwest and Spanish America footnote in 1915 in recognition of historical work the king of Spain conferred upon Lumis the dignity of a knight commander of the royal order of Isabel La Catolica and footnote clad in corduroy's from Barcelona coat and trousers with very wide wales of olive or green wearing no vest but having a shirt of heavy drawn work of the Pueblo Indians with whom he dwelt six years and a red and white faja or waistband made by the same people and a gray sombrero banded with Mexican braided horse hair Lumis roams the desert or is welcome at the most exclusive functions having already been a guest many times at the White House and the palaces of Diaz and the presidents in Spanish America I don't change my face for company he says then why my garb so long as both are clean an interesting figure at scientific meetings and on the lecture platform Lumis is equally so at home where after 20 years work with his own hands he is still building his stone castle El Alésal and as his house is a rendezvous for artists, musicians, authors and scientists his guests often find him toiling as either carpenter or smith the Alésal, by the way, is built around the huge sycamore under which Greek George camped with his camels on his first arrival in Los Angeles nearly 60 years ago in 1884 Colonel H. Z. Osborne always a foremost citizen of the town and in 1912 a most energetic president of the Chamber of Commerce and E. R. Cleveland bought the express and two years later they organized the Evening Express Company J. Mills Davies once secretary of the Board of Trade becoming business manager in 1897 Colonel Osborne was appointed United States Marshal for the Southern California District whereupon Charles Dwight Willard became general manager of the paper to be succeeded by J. M. Abel for a short time in 1900 the express fell into the hands of a group of men of whom John M. Miller acted as president and Richard Beebe served as secretary O. W. Childs opened his new theater known as Child's Opera House on Main Street South of First in what was then the center of the city on May 24th when the school for scandal was given Memozal Ray taking the leading part this the first theater of real consequence built in Los Angeles had a seating capacity of 1800 and for some time at least an entertainment was booked there for every night of the week frequently to whenever anything of moment was going to happen there Child sent me an invitation to occupy his private box another interesting personality for many years was C.P. Switzer a Virginian who came in 1853 with Colonel Hollister, W. H. Perry and others Switzer became a contractor and builder but in 1884 in search of health he moved to an eminence in the Sierras where he soon established Switzer's camp which gradually became famous as a resort generally reached on Burros a few years ago Commodore Switzer or Switzer as he was also called retired but the camp more than ever popular has been continued as Switzer's toward the middle of the 80s excitement among citrus growers throughout Southern California gave way to deep depression due to the continued ravages of the fluted scale a persistent insect whose home according to research is Australia and which had found its way on Australian plans and especially on Acacia Latifolia to South Africa New Zealand and California arriving on the Pacific Coast in 1868 this particular species known to the scientist as Isiara perchasi resisted and survived all insecticide sprayings, washes and fumigation and for a while it seemed that one of the most important and growing industries of the Southland was absolutely doomed indeed not until 1889 when the result of Albert Cobel's mission to Australia as a representative of the Department of Agriculture was made known did hope among the citrus revive in that year the tiny lady bird styled by the learned the Novius Cardinalis but more popularly spoken of as the lady bug the most effective enemy of the fluted scale was introduced here the government establishing among other stations an experimental laboratory on the Wolfskill Ranch under the charge of Professor D.W. Cochelet and so rapidly was this tiny favorite of children propagated and disseminated that the dreaded scale was exterminated and the crops were saved Wolfskill by the way though we fought hard with the assistance of his foreman Alexander Kraw to save his noted trees lacked the cooperation of his neighbors and the injury that inflicted largely influenced him to subdivide his famous citrus property with the arrival on March 1st 1887 of J.O. Kepfle a man came on the scene who during the next 25 years was to be not only one of the real forces in the development of the city but as a whole sold gentleman was to surround himself through his attractive personality with a large circle of representative and influential friends as president of the merchants association his record was such that in 1896 he was elected a director of the chamber of commerce where during 12 years he performed valiant service on all the important committees his work on behalf of the harbor and the Owens River aqueduct is especially memorable he was president of the chamber in 1905 and 1906 with such men as C.D. Willard and R.W. Burnham he founded the municipal league whose president he was for seven years his efforts were always free from the taint of personal aggrandizement and he thus had the public confidence he is a member of the well-known firm of bishop and company among the present social organizations of the city the Los Angeles athletic club takes second place in point of age it was organized in 1879 by 40 young men among whom were Fred Wood Bradner W. Lee Mark G. Jones Frank M. Coulter Frank A. Gibson John S. Thayer M.H. Newmark W.G. Kirkhoff Alfredo Solano J.B. Lancersham W.M. Caswell James C.K.'s Joseph Benford and Samuel Dewey and Arcadia building was the club's earliest headquarters J.B. Lancersham was the first president a few years later the club moved to the Downey block and there the boys had many a merry bout in the course of time the gymnasium was located on spring street between 4th and 5th now it occupies its own spacious and elaborate building on 7th street at the corner of Olive the club's headquarters being among the finest of their kind in America End of chapter 36 Chapter 37 of 60 years in Southern California 1853 to 1913 by Harris Newmark this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Kay Hand Chapter 37 Repetto and the Lawyers 1885 to 1887 10 or 12 months after the starting of the first cable railway here Los Angeles in 1885 resumed the march of progress time with an electric streetcar line poles with huge arms stretching out into the middle of the street and often spoken derisively as gallows poles and wires were strung along Los Angeles and San Pedro streets down Maple Avenue to Pico street and thence westward to what was known as the electric homestead tract just outside of the city limits a company owned much land not likely to be sold in a hurry and to exploit the same rapidly the owners built the road F. H. Haaland who introduced the electric light here was a prime mover in this project but ill fortune attended his efforts and he died a poor man on January 11th my wife and I left for a trip to the city of Mexico where we spent four or five days and were pleasantly entertained before going to the New Orleans exposition by our old friend Judge Ignacio Sepolveda and his wife previous to crossing the border we stored our trunks in El Paso and received them upon our return strapped as before some valuables however which I had hidden away in the linen were missing when I reopened the trunk and have never been recovered among other companions on this outing were Fred son of J. M. Griffith and James S. son of Jonathan S. Slossom James himself has an honorable public career having served in one of his activities as president of the Chamber of Commerce early in March I believe sewing was first introduced into the public schools of Los Angeles the Board of Education consenting to it only as an experiment two celebrities divided the honors in the spring and summer in local circles United States Senator John Sherman who visited Los Angeles on May 8th 1885 and Sir Arthur Sullivan the distinguished English composer of Pinafore and Mercado fame who tarried near the ocean in the hot days of August about 1885 a doctor sketchly who enjoyed some reputation for his work in the natural history field and had been a traveler through many remote countries brought to Los Angeles quite a collection of ostriches and opened about where Tropico lies an amusement resort known as the Ostrich Farm who provided a coach to connect with the end of Temple Street cable cars and advertised the strange peculiarities of his finely feathered animals the doctor soon did a thriving business notwithstanding the task of caring for the birds in their new environment later sketchly removed from Los Angeles to Red Bluff but there he failed and lost all that he had soon after doctor sketchly arrived here with his ostriches and three or four men and one woman from Madras now retired and living in Surrey happening while on a tour through America to glance at an article in Harper's magazine pointing out the possibilities of successfully raising ostriches returned to London secured the necessary capital and in 1887 began shipping these camel birds from South Africa to Los Angeles many of the easily affected creatures died at sea yet 40 as good luck would have it survived and with them Costin and a partner named Fox opened a second ostrich farm at Washington Gardens in time Costin transferred his establishment to La Habra associating with himself E. H. Riedel as publicity agent and in 1908 the Costin ostrich farm between Los Angeles and Pasadena was incorporated quite naturally with the advent of the settler from the east and the middle west the Zanjus in early years so serviceable both for domestic and irrigation purposes and therefore more or less venerable came to be looked upon as mere surface conveyers and public nuisances a sign in 1883 at the corner of 6th and Olive Streets warning teamsters against crossing the ditch by 1885 such opposition had developed that most of the Zanjus were condemned the one extending from Rakina Street to Adams via Figueroa being, if I am right one of the last that was buried from view for some time East Los Angeles maintained its character as a village or small town and in 1885 the east side champion started and edited by Edward A. Weed voiced the community's interests this year was marked by the demise of a number of well-known Angelenos on the 2nd of March John Schumacher a man esteemed and beloved by many died here of apoplexy in the 70th year of his age 6 days later general Phineas Banning who had been sick for several months expired at San Francisco his wife and daughters being with him and on March 12th he was buried in Rosedale Cemetery in his declining years illness often compelled general Banning to remain at home in Wilmington and when needing the services of his physician Dr. Joseph Kurtz he would send a locomotive to fetch him on June 5th Dr. Vincent Gelchich the pioneer surgeon died here at the age of 56 years in 1885 the first medical school in Los Angeles was founded in the house once occupied by Vache for Ray the winemakers on Aliso Street between Lyons and Center for years the school was conducted as a part of the University of Southern California and Dr. J.P. Whitney as Dean in the fall of 1885 Dr. M. Dorothea Loomis a graduate in medicine of the Boston University settled in Los Angeles and in time became president of the Los Angeles County homeopathic medical society distinguished in her profession Dr. Loomis became a leader in humane endeavor reorganizing here the society for the prevention of cruelty to animals and founding the society for the prevention of cruelty to children the first train of the Santa Fe railroad to enter the city of Los Angeles ran from Colton over the rails of the Southern Pacific on November 29th the two corporations having come to an agreement to use the one set of tracks until the spring 17th when the Santa Fe finished building from San Bernardino to its junction with the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley railroad the locomotive bore the name L. Severe a prominent director in the company and the father of the well known resident of Pasadena and the number 354 after 20 years association with the wholesale grocery business I withdrew on December 5th 1885 from H. Newmark and Company and on that day the business was absorbed by M. A. Newmark M. H. Newmark Max Cohn and Carl C. Ligman and continued as M. A. Newmark and Company this gave me the opportunity of renewing my association with one of my earliest partners Caspar Cohn the new firm becoming K. Cohn and Company and the change in my activities found me once again shipping hides and wool looking through the haze of years many are the recollections often vagate is true of those with whom I had business relations in the picturesque adobe days the majority of my customers were simple mannered natives such as Manuel Carizosa on South Alameda Street Jose Maria Davila in Sonoratown next door to Jose Maria Fuentes his competitor and M. G. Santa Cruz in the same district Jordan Brothers Americans kept store on Aliso Street opposite the Aliso Mill N. G. Genocchio father-in-law of James Castruccio and Macy Street near the river while Bernardino Guirardo Mrs. John G. Downey's brother and Max Schwed supplied the want of los nietos J. B. Savarot who went to South America when he sold out to J. Salaberry and Company a firm composed of two Basques Juan Salaberry and Domingo Ojarzable was in general merchandise in San Juan Capistrano Hippolyte Cajen whose widow is a member of the Lazarus veterinary company had an up-to-date general store at Anaheim and Simon Cajen son-in-law of Bernard Cohn was similarly occupied in the Ysusa district others of about the same period were Domingo Rivara who established himself on Main Street near commercial shortly to be succeeded by Vignolo and Sanguiniti in whose store known as La Esperanza and near Castruccio brothers La Mariposa Jim Moiso bought an interest two more Main Street merchants were A. C. Chauvin who conducted his El Dorado store in the Lomfranco building and his neighbor Joe Lazarafich and near them Francisco Vasayo had his little fruit stand The erratic Lucas Sissich who terminated his life as a suicide attended diligently to business on First Street near Los Angeles and not so very far away Thomas Strom was laying the foundation in his grocery trade for that popularity which caused him in the 80s to be chosen chief of the fire department Antonio Valle who built on the northeast corner of First and Los Angeles streets calling the block in honor of his five sons the five brothers for a number of years had a grocery store on Main Street near Requina and not far from the butcher's shop of Vickery and Heinz in view of the ravages of time among the ranks of these old timers it is a satisfaction to observe some of those who were active before I retired are still in the trade the first comer was George A. Ralphs who, reaching Los Angeles as a boy learned brick masonry and was known as the champion brick layer of California until, while on a hunting expedition he lost an arm footnote on June 21, 1914 Mr. Ralphs lost his life in a deplorable accident in the San Bernardino Mountains being crushed by a huge boulder although his wife escaped by springing from the rolling rock and footnote with a man named Francis he started in 1877 the Ralphs and Francis grocery on the old Georgetown corner this was the beginning of the Ralphs grocery company in February 1882 Hans Gevny a Norwegian by birth who had been associated with his brother in Chicago came to Los Angeles and a few months later he opened a small grocery store in the Strelitz block in 1938 and 1940 North Spring Street in less than no time so to speak the good housewives of the town were able to secure the rarest tidbits from all the markets of the world and not only that but Gevny, since his advent here has been identified with most important steps in the evolution of the city W. F. Ball for 30 years or more has been a tobacconist and for 30 years or somewhat less has occupied the same premises on Spring Street north of first the Williams family came from England in 1882 and George soon established his grocery business out in what was then known as the university district where he bought a block of land George has given of his time for the public wheel having been for several terms city councilman another Los Angeles merchant who has attained success is Albert Cohn and while his start in life in an independent career began a couple years after my retirement then in my employ as a clerk almost from the time of his arrival in 1882 Marius Ballou has been located on south Alameda street so long that it seems as though he must have arrived here in the year 1 so much for the merchants of the city among such tradesmen in the districts outside of Los Angeles I can recall but 3 active in my day and still active in this Alphonse Wheel a native of the sunny slopes of France grown up with the town of Bakersfield John R. Newberry opened his doors in 1882 and after moving to Los Angeles in 1893 commenced that meteoric career during which he established stores throughout Los Angeles and its suburbs George A. Edgar about 31 years ago brought a stock of groceries and crockery to Santa Anna and deposited the contents of his cases in the same location and on the same shelves from which he still caters to his neighbors but of 1886 reached its first serious state on January 19th all of Los Angeles between Wilmington street and the hills on the east side was inundated levies were carried off as if they were so much loose sand and stubble and for 2 or 3 weeks railway communication with the outside world was impossible during this inundation on January 19th Martin G. Aguier who was a deputy under Sheriff George E. Gard gave an exhibition of great courage so rapidly had the waters risen that many persons were marooned and it was only by throwing himself on the back of his favorite horse that Aguier at very great risk rescued 20 or more people from drowning the number including many children in the last attempt Aguier nearly lost his own life somewhat of a hero in November 1888 he was elected sheriff defeating Tom Rowan for that office Rebecca Lee Dorsey another of the women practitioners of medicine came to Los Angeles in January 1886 a graduate both of Eastern colleges and of a leading Vienna hospital peddling vegetables as a child later working as a servant and hiring out as a nurse while finishing her course in Europe Dr. Dorsey was of a type frequently found among the early builders of the Southwest largely to a board of commissioners consisting of Mayor E. F. Spence H. Sensible and the ever ready experts appointed in 1886 when provision was made for a paid fire department is due the honor of having successfully arranged the present excellent system in Los Angeles it was in 1886 that we bought the Rapetto Rancho under circumstances of such interest that it may be well to tell something about the owner and his connections Alessandro Rapetto was an Italian of such immense size that he was compelled when standing to shift the weight of his body he was miserly in the extreme but this was compensated for by his honesty and a brightness of character he was also far from being neat and I remember the way in which he dispensed hospitality when I visited his ranch to buy wool he would bring out some very ordinary wine and before serving it would rinse out the glasses with his fat fingers and it was courtesy alone that prompted me to partake of what he offered he lived on his ranch but when attacked by his last illness Rapetto, formerly the White House on the southeast corner of commercial and Los Angeles streets there finding him alone and neglected I advised him to go to the sister's hospital on Ann Street but the change did not save him and after a few days he died a fellow Italian named Scotty a nave of a chap who was with him in his last moments knowing that I was Rapetto's executor soon brought to my house a lot of papers which he had taken from the dead man's pockets somewhat on the misanthropic order I had difficulty in getting pallbearers for his funeral one of my applications being to James Castruccio president of the Italian benevolent society and then Italian consul who said that Rapetto had never helped anyone but that if I would give in his name $500 to charity the attendance would be supplied to this I demurred because Rapetto had made no such provision in his will and Castruccio giving me no satisfaction I went to Father Peter explained to him that Rapetto had bequeathed $6,000 to the church and stated my needs whereupon Father Peter arranged for the bearers all the provisions for the funeral having been settled I cabled to his brother and heir then living in the mountains near Genoa whose address I had obtained from Castruccio Rapetto had really hated this brother and inconsequence had very unwillingly bequeathed to him his large estate in due season the brother a hunchback appeared on deck as an intimate with Scotty and I found him to be an uncouth ignorant fellow and a man who probably had never handled a $10 gold piece or its equivalent in his life he had on shoes that an elephant might have worn a common corduroy suit a battered hat and plenty of dirt wishing to take him to Stephen M. White my lawyer I advised the purchase of new clothes but in this as in other matters I appealed in vain so miserly was he indeed that one day having purchased a few cents loaf of bread in Sonorantown he was seen to hide himself behind a building while he ate it doubtless fearful lest someone might ask him for a bite Alessandro Rapetto had lived with an Indian woman by whom he had a son and a Los Angeles attorney soon had himself appointed guardian declaring that the property belonged not to the brother but to the boy this because the woman had never left her husband was blackmail pure and simple besides Rapetto had willed the lads in San Gabriel Stephen M. White was the attorney for the estate but when this lawsuit started Scotty advised the unsophisticated brother to take other lawyers two men accordingly one named Roberts and the other Jim Howard suddenly appeared at the trial and when I asked why they were there they replied that they had been engaged by Rapetto's brother $475 settled this extortion the lawyers taking all but $25 which was paid to the mother of the boy saying a few days later either on Christmas or New Years there was a knock at my door and when the girl answered the call the sheriff was found there with interesting news that Rapetto had been arrested and that he wished me to bail him out I learned that Roberts and Howard had presented him with a bill for $3,500 for services and that since the money was not immediately forthcoming they had trumped up some sort of a charge that had had the foreigner incarcerated White advised a settlement and after much difficulty we succeeded having their bill reduced to $3,000 which we paid Rapetto's troubles now seemed at an end but just as he was ready to leave for Italy Scotty put in an appearance with a claim for benefits bestowed which the much-fleeced Italian refused to pay Scotty knowing along which road the unfortunate man would travel was early at San Gabriel with the sheriff to intercept Rapetto and return him to Limbo and the Genoese being brought back he again appealed to me to return as executor to have an interesting inning with Scotty while I was settling the estate I was made aware that Rapetto had loaned another Italian named G. Bernaro on his note some $3,000 but this document I missed and it was only by accident that I traced it to Scotty he had abstracted it from the papers found in Rapetto's pocket carried it to the borrower and sold it back to him for $400 I recovered this note and collected the balance due to the less when Scotty had Rapetto arrested I threatened the former with prosecution on the charge of stealing and selling the note with the result that Scotty did not press his suit and Rapetto was released in connection with this move by Scotty Robarts and Howard reappeared to defend Rapetto notwithstanding his previous announcements that he would have nothing more to do with them and to bolster up their claim they drew forth a paper certifying that Rapetto had engaged them to attend to any law business he might have while he was in this country Rapetto now really alarmed once more quickly settled but the crafty Robarts and Howard had another bill up their sleeves this time for $3,000 or $4,000 and poor Rapetto was obliged to pay that too Caspar Cohn, J.D. Bicknell, I.W. Hellman and S.M. White in conjunction with myself bought the Rapetto ranch from the brother before he left for Italy for $60,000 all in all the heir who survived the date of his windfall but a few years with him the snug sum of $100,000 this fine domain lying between Whittier and Los Angeles was a portion long before 1899 among the five purchasers in that year Caspar Cohn and I on the advice of William Mulholland developed water on our undivided share meeting with as great a success as had attended all of the operations of that eminent engineer after an abundance of water was secured we sold the property in five acre and smaller lots locating the town site of Newmark near the tracks of the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad and naming the entire settlement Montabello it was in the spring of 1886 that Colonel H.H. Boyce who had been business manager of the Times Mirror Company was bought out by Colonel H.G. Otis and became editor in chief and general manager of the Los Angeles Tribune conducting the paper during his short association with some figure one more reference to the Times Mirror Publishing House on April 8th the company was reorganized with Colonel H.G. Otis as president and general manager Albert McFarland as vice president and treasurer and William A. Spalding as secretary about the middle of July the company bought the corner of Fort and 1st streets and in the following May moved to its new home erected there on February 1st 1887 the Times began to appear seven days in the week after grinding away for 10 years as the sole owner of the Los Angeles Herald J.D. Lynch in 1886 took into partnership his former associate James J. Ayers and once more the alliance of these Poussaint forces made of the paper a formidable bulwark for the democracy Colonel John Franklin or plain J.F. Godfrey as he was known in those days was rather a prominent attorney in his time and I knew him very well about 1886 as chairman of a democratic committee he headed up the delegation that invited me to become a candidate for mayor of Los Angeles but a contemplated European trip compelled me to decline the honor. In the spring of 1886 a falling out between the Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe railroads brought on a great war disastrous enough to those companies but productive of great benefit to Los Angeles round trip tickets from points as far east as the Missouri river were hammered down to $15 and for a few days Charlie White who then conducted the Southern Pacific office in the Baker block and had full authority to make new fares defied the rival road by establishing a tourist rate of just $1 when normality again prevailed the fare was advanced to $50 for first class passage and $40 for second class the low rate during the fight encouraged thousands of Easterners to visit the coast and in the end many sacrificed their return coupons and settled while others returned to their eastern homes only to prepare for permanent removal west in a sense therefore this railroad war contributed to the boom of a year or two later freight as well as passenger rates were slashed during this spasmodic contest and it was then that the ridiculous charge of $1 per ton permitted me to bring in by rail from Chicago several carloads of coal which I distributed among my children such an opportunity will probably never again present itself to Los Angeles another interesting shipment was that of a carload of willow ware from New York the freight bill for which amounted to $8.35 these goods ordinarily bear a very high tariff but competition had hammered everything down to a single classification and rate I remember also that MA Newmark and Company brought from New York a train load of Liverpool salt then a staple commodity here paying a rate of 60 cents per ton stimulated perhaps through the setting aside of Elysee and Park by the city council another pleasure ground then known as East Los Angeles Park was assured to the public toward the middle of the 80s the municipal authorities at the same time spending about $5,000 to improve the plaza one of the striking features of which was a circular row of evergreens uniformly trimmed to a conical shape on October 14th H.T. Payne and Edward Records published the initial number of the Los Angeles Tribune this being the first newspaper here to appear seven days in the week the following January a company was incorporated and for years the Tribune was well maintained Charles Frederick Holder the distinguished naturalist came to California in search of health footnote died on October 10th 1915 and footnote in 1886 and settled in Pasadena where he was appointed Professor of Zoology in the Throop Institute an enthusiastic admirer of the Southland and an early explorer of its islands and mountain ranges Professor Holder has devoted much attention to Pasadena and the neighboring coast as early as 1891 he published Antiquities of Catalina later he wrote his spirited Southern California book on life and sport in the open and with his gift for popularizing probably no other scientific writer has contributed more to make known both in America and abroad this attractive portion of our state Prudent and Victor Baudry bought considerable land on the west side of New High Street probably in 1887 including the site of one of the old Calabazos and as some of the purchase was a hill he spent about $100,000 grading the property excavating 50,000 or more cubic feet of earth and building the great retaining wall finished in 1888 465 feet long and 50 feet high and containing 200,000 cubic feet of stone when he was ready Baudry began to advertise the superior merits of his land and I still have in my possession one of the flaring circulars printed in red ink including such headlines as these now is the time don't shut your eyes and turn your back and the following have a home on the hills stop paying rent in the valleys traffic the green hills and the model city best water supply drainage perfect best sunny exposures pure air and away from fogs have a home on the line of the great cable railway system mark your catalogue before the date of sale February 15, 16 and 17 at 10 o'clock each day bear in mind that this property is on the hills and on the line of the cable railway system no such opportunity has ever been offered to the people of southern California public school and young ladies seminary in the immediate vicinity four years after he had built the Nado block Remy Nado died here at the age of 68 on January 15 the same month another man of market enterprise Lou Ellen Jay brother of Reese and William Lou Ellen founded the Lou Ellen ironworks attaining a success and fame very natural considering that the Lou Ellen's father David and Uncle Reese before them had acquired a reputation as iron workers both in Wales and San Francisco in January Fred W. Bow Desart and John G. Hunsaker established the weekly directory whose title was soon changed to that of the commercial bulletin under the able editorship of Preston McKinney the bulletin is still fulfilling its mission Phineas son of JP Newmark my brother came to Los Angeles in 1887 and associated himself with M.A. Newmark and Company in July 1894 he bought out the Southern California coffee and spice mills and in the following September his younger brother Samuel M. Newmark also came to Los Angeles and joined him under the title of Newmark Brothers on December 26th 1910 the city suffered a sad loss in the untimely death of the elder brother Sam's virility has been amply shown in his career as a businessman and in his activity as a member of the municipal league directorate among the hotels of the late 80s were the Belmont and the Bellevue Terrace both frame buildings the former at the terminus of the 2nd street cable railway was known for its elevation view fresh air and agreeable environment of lawn and flower bed and the first floor was surrounded with broad verandas for a while it was conducted by Clark and Patrick who claimed for it no noise dirt or mosquitos the latter hotel on Pearl Street near 6th was four stories in height and had piazzas extending around three of them both of these ends were quite characteristic of Southern California architecture the Bellevue Terrace so full of life during the buoyant boom days still stands but alas the familiar old pile has surrendered to more modern competitors the Tiviole opera house on main street between 2nd and 3rd was opened by McLean and layman in 1887 and for a time it was one of the attractions of the city it presented a curious mixture of Egyptian East Indian and Romanesque styles and was designed by C. E. Apalloni an architect who had come to the coast in 1870 the stage was the largest except one that of the San Francisco grand opera house on the coast and there were eight proscenium boxes the theater proper stood in the rear of the lot and entrance there too was had through the building fronting on the street structures there was a pretty garden with grottoes and fountains and a promenade gallery above in february the postmaster packed the furniture and other outfit only two or three good loads and moved to the post office to the helman building at the corner of north main and republic streets but it was soon transferred to an office on fort street south of 6th a location so far from the center of the city as to give point to cards distributed by some wag and advertising rates for sleeping accommodations to the new office in that year the sum total of the receipts of the Los Angeles post office was not much over $74,000 during the 12 months of the boom mail for over 200,000 transients was handled and a familiar sight of the times the long column of inquirers reminding one of the famous lines in early San Francisco when prospectors for gold paid neat sums for someone else's place near the general delivery window I have told of some incidents in the routine of court proceedings here in which both judge and counselor played their parts now and then the juror also contributed to the diversion as was evidenced in the late 80s when a couple of jurymen in a San Gabriel Canyon water case created both excitement and merriment through a practical joke tiring of a midnight session and be thinking himself of the new invention to facilitate speaking at a distance one of the juror's telephoned police headquarters that rioters were slashing at each other at a nearby corner where upon the guardians of the peace came tearing that way to the merriment of the 12 good men and true peeking out from an upper window the police having traced the telephone message the jury was duly hauled before the judge and the latter noting the reticence of the accused imposed a fine of $25 upon each member of the box for his prank William H. Workman who had repeatedly served the city as councilman was elected mayor of Los Angeles in 1887 during Workman's administration Maine, Spring and Fort streets were paved about 1887 Benjamin S. Eaton as president took the lead in organizing a society designed to bring into closer relationship those who had come to California before her admission to the union there were a few members and in as much as the conditions imposed for eligibility precluded the possibility of securing many more this first union of pioneers soon ceased to exist Professor T.S. C. Lowe with a splendid reputation for scientific research especially in the field of aeronautics having acquired his first experience with balloons as did also Graf Ferdinand Zeppelin by participating in the union army maneuvers during our civil war took up in the late 80s the business of manufacturing gas from water which he said could be accomplished beyond any doubt for 8 cents a thousand feet C.F. Smurr the capable Los Angeles agent of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company as well as Hugh Livingston McNeil son-in-law of Jonathan S. S. Lawson the cashier of the main street savings bank became interested with Lowe and induced Kaspar Kohn and me to participate in the experiment accordingly we purchased 6 acres of land on the southeast corner of Alameda and 7th streets for $15,000 and there started the enterprise we laid pipes through many of the streets and in the course of a few months began to manufacture gas which it was our intention to sell to consumers at $1 per thousand feet the price at which gas was then being sold by the Los Angeles Gas Company was $1.50 per thousand we therefore considered our schedule reasonable everything at the outset looked so plausible that Smurr stated to his associates that he would resign his position with the railroad and assume the management of the new gasworks but to our chagrin we found that gas was costing us more than $1 per thousand and as one discouragement followed another Smurr concluded not to take so radical a step yet we remained in business in the hope that the Los Angeles Gas Company would rather buy us out than reduce their price $0.50 per thousand feet and sure enough it was not so very long before they did the large gas tank now standing at the corner of 7th and Alameda streets is the result of this transaction late in the spring Senator Stanford and a party of Southern Pacific officials visited Los Angeles with the view of locating a site for the new and magnificent railroad station long promised the city and at the same time to win some of the popular favor than being accorded the Santa Fe for many years objection had been made to the tracks on Alameda street originally laid down by banning and hoping to secure their removal Mayor Workman offered a right away along the riverfront this suggestion was not accepted at length the owners of the Wolfskill tract donated to the railroad company a strip of land 300 by 1900 feet in size fronting on Alameda between 4th and 6th streets with the provision that the company should use the same only for railroad station purposes and Stanford agreed to put up a splendid arcade somewhat similar in design to but more extensive and elaborate than the arcade depot at Sacramento soon after this the rest of that celebrated orchard tract for over 50 years in the possession of the Wolfskill family was subdivided offered at private sale and quickly disposed of the old fashioned one horse streetcar had been running on and off the tracks many a year before the city railroad organized in the middle 80s by I. W. Helman and his associates W. J. Broderick John O. Wheeler and others made its more pretentious appearance on the streets of Los Angeles this the first line to use double tracks and more modern cars with drivers and conductors followed a route then considered very long starting as it did at Washington Street and leading north on Figueroa it turned at 12th street into Olive and then zigzagging by way of 5th spring on Main, Marchesall, New High Bellevue Avenue, Buena Vista College, a Bermain and San Fernando streets it passed River Station the Southern Pacific depot on San Fernando Street and ran out Downey Avenue as far as the Pasadena railroad depot the year 1885 saw the addition of another Spanish name to the local map in the founding of Alhambra now one of the attractive and prosperous suburbs of Los Angeles sometime in the spring of 1885 or perhaps a little earlier the 2nd street Cable Railway was commenced when Isaac W. Lorde turned a spade full of earth at the corner of 2nd and spring streets and within a few months cars were running from Bryson Block West on 2nd Street over Bunker Hill along Lakeshore Avenue and then by way of 1st Street to Belmont Avenue soon bringing about many improvements on the route and if I am not mistaken considerable patronage came from the young ladies attending the boarding school known as Belmont Hall and by the way Whitmer was a moving spirit in this enterprise in course of time the Cable Railway connected with the steam dummy line landing passengers in a watermelon patch the future Hollywood unlike Sierra Madre so long retarded for want of railway facilities Monrovia founded in May 1886 by William N. Monroe at an altitude of 1200 feet and favored by both the Santa Fe and the Southern Pacific systems rapidly developed although it did not as present importance as a foothill town until it had passed through the usual depression of the late 80's due to the collapse of the boom of which I am about to speak End of Chapter 37