by Paul R. Spitzzeri
Poring through the pages of 1870s Los Angeles newspapers in the Museum’s holdings invariably leads to some unusual content and the featured example for this post, the 22 December 1874 edition of the Los Angeles Herald is yet another instance, though there are plenty of notable items from the issue of the publication part-owned by F.P.F. Temple.
Temple was president of the recently-formed Los Angeles and Independence Railroad, which was intended to run more than 200 miles to Inyo County and the silver mine boom towns of that region, including Cerro Gordo, where he had significant investments with his father-in-law, Homestead owner William Workman.
The Herald referred to a recent mass meeting held on the 12th at the County Court House (built as a commercial structure called the Market House in 1859 by Temple’s late brother, Jonathan) to promote the railroad project and it observed that a Bakersfield paper published “its ridicule and denunciation on what it is pleased to call the presumptuous claim of Los Angeles to the position of a business center” thanks to the prospects of the L.A. & I., not to mention the in-process southern extension of the Southern Pacific from the north through Bakersfield.
Sarcastically, the Angel City sheet allowed that its rival’s “business [is] to claim that Bakersfield is the hub of the universe—the very center of everything.” Addressing the San Joaquin Valley burg’s contention that it should be the destination for silver mined from Inyo County, the Herald pointed out that such a situation would still leave ore far from the coast for shipment, but “when it reaches Los Angeles it has reached the ocean or a seaport,” though this meant a short 20-mile haul to the still-rudimentary port at Wilmington/San Pedro. In any case, the L.A. & I., other that building a branch to the new seaside town of Santa Monica, never got much beyond some grading and other early work on the way to Independence.
As to the Southern Pacific project, it was noted that construction would soon be “twenty-four miles this side of Bakersfield,” though “at that point a delay of some months must occur” because of the necessity for a lengthy tunnel as the route made its way through the mountains towards Los Angeles—a requirement of Congress when it approved the S.P.’s plan to build to Yuma, Arizona. Despite the gap, the paper stated that
The two ends of the road are now so near together that a considerable amount of travel between this city and San Francisco has already turned to the overland route and thus awakened the [Southern Pacific] company to the importance of making the connection as soon as they can possibly do so.” The Herald reported that current S.P. operations in the San Joaquin Valley were doing so at a loss, but, once the Los Angeles connection was made, passenger and freight revenues would be making a handsome profit.
In the realm of education, it should be noted that it was two decades prior when public schools began operating in the Angel City and there was slow, but steady, growth in both enrollment and outcomes, as professionalism became more pronounced by the time that Los Angeles’ first development boom took place by 1868 and continued through most of 1875. Just recently, for instance, the town opened its first high school and another symbol of improvement was remarked upon by the paper as it congratulated the Board of Education and teachers for subscribing to a service with access to two-dozen educational journals and continued,
Is there another city or town in the United States in which all the teachers and Trustees exhibit such public spirit and manifest such a desire to be informed with reference to the duties of their respective positions[?] The patrons and pupils of our city schools may expect the most favorable results from the study of so many educational journals. Schools under the management of such a Board and taught by such studious and intelligent teachers cannot but be well conducted and the progress of their pupils must be rapid and satisfactory.
The organizational meeting for the Common (City) Council, which then was comprised of members serving single-year terms, was held the prior day, with eleven council members and new Mayor Prudent Beaudry present. Among the council were Lewis Wolfskill, son of the late prominent orange grower and rancher William Wolfskill and a business partner of Temple and Workman; the French-born wine merchant Joseph (José) Mascarel; pioneer brick maker Joseph Mullally; and Elijah H. Workman, nephew of William and whose brother William Henry was a frequent member of the council and a future mayor (1886-1888) and city treasurer (1901-1907.) Workman was appointed to the finance, zanjas, supplies and lands committees.
The Herald also printed verbatim the message of the new chief executive, with Beaudry (also a co-owner of the paper) reporting that the financial condition of the Angel City was “very satisfactory” with scrip no longer used and taxes reduced; schools well managed and with the student population rising from 575 to 875 in two years, more than half, though there were around 1,000 children not attending school but of age to do so and new schools needed; urging settlement of the question of whether bonds should be taken for a new library or to place it in a new city hall (which did not happen until the late Eighties); raising the need for a Board of Water Commissioners and improvements in irrigation and management of that precious resource; calling for a more professionalized police force “as we are becoming somewhat metropolitan in character” and a special detective; strongly recommending a health officer; and exhorting the Council to landscape barren city parks so they’d become “attractive resorts and pleasure grounds for the people.”
The mayor also suggested that “a book of maps correctly and clearly showing the real estate of the city is almost a necessity.” The municipality owned a considerable amount of property, yet “deeds have been loosely granted to land vaguely and imperfectly described and Beaudry asserted that proper mapping would show that plenty of lots in private hands would be found to actually be the property of the city.
He also addressed the “Rapid Growth of the City” and observed that in 1872, the population of the Angel City was around 8,000, but, in the current year, there were about 13,000, an increase of 62.5%. With most of this taking place in the preceding year, the chief executive prognosticated that “by the close of 1875 Los Angeles will number 20,000 people—making her the second city in population as she now is in commercial importance in the State.” It may be that the number of residents reached 15,000 during the ensuing year before the bust came in late summer.
In his general remarks, Beaudry proudly noted,
At no former period within the history of our beautiful city has the spirit of enterprise wielded such potent influence or general prosperity prevailed. Progress has become the watchword of the people, and advancement and improvement meets the eye on almost every street and block within the corporate limits of our city. Five years is but an atom of time in the history of a community, yet within that period Los Angeles has shaken off the lethargic sleep of a prosy semi-tropical village and placed herself at the front rank of California cities—has donned the appearance and proven herself possessed of the vitality and energy of an active and enterprising business centre.
He added that “the long rows of one story buildings have disappeared and on their sites stand handsome structures,” which he deemed “an ornament to the city.” It should be noted that Beaudry was an avid developer of much of the hilly land west of downtown, including what became Bunker Hill and, to the south, Bellevue Terrace, where the Central Public Library is now, so it was hardly a surprise that he commented on “numbers of beautiful dwellings in the more retired streets and suburban sections” of town. He also celebrated the completion of the city’s first mass transit line, the single horse-and-car Spring and 6th Street Railway, of which Temple was treasurer.
The mayor continued that it didn’t take a seer to forecast that Los Angeles would rise further in importance in “wealth, population and business activity” and he informed the Council that, “on the very threshold of this new era of progress and prosperity,” the voters elected him and his colleagues so that “when our stewardship has ended we may all deserve and receive the earnest plaudit, ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant.'” What faced city officials was “a difficult and arduous task to perform,” but Beaudry expressed the belief that “we come to our work with clean hands and an earnest resolve to labor for the best interests of the whole community.” He harbored “the hope that we may work as one harmonious whole” during the coming year.
The unusual content referred to at the beginning of this post concerned a series of lectures given at Turn-Verein Hall, built on Spring Street by a German society, Turn-Verein Germania, and where many musical and theatrical presentations and other events of note were held, by Dr. Paul Michael Brenan, advertised as “the eminent physician, surgeon and physiologist,” who came from San Francisco to deliver a quartet of talks. For the first, given the prior evening, Brenan was met with “a polite and appreciative audience” as he addressed the topic of “The Human Mind and Its Influences on the Body.”
Brenan told the crowd that “a child has no mind when first born,” which is the timeworn concept of the tabula rasa, or clean slate. As we have to learn everything from that point forward, “the mind develops as the tissues, bones and other parts of the body become perfected” and the doctor held that “the mind permeates every part of our system” and he claimed, as paraphrased by the Herald, that
The eye, hand, skin, hair and every part of the human body has its own manner of thought, but the centre of all this is in the base of the brain—medula oblongata—all parts are in perfect communication with this centre . . . There are only three special senses belonging to man instead of the five as universally claimed . . . the senses of seeing, feeling and hearing are alone directly connected with the centre of the mind—the seat of life—whereas the so called senses of smelling and tasting were thus connected indirectly . . . there is a mind within the mind, called the spirit or soul, which is as much finer than the mind in general as that mind is finer than the body . . . no case of insanity has ever been developed where the body is perfectly sound . . . the person and features once perfect, by evil thoughts and evil mind, become degraded, and the character of evil-doers are [sic] visible in their walk, expression and even in their voices.
The only way to achieve optimum health, Brenan asserted, was “to gently exercise the three systems—the social, the physical and the mental.” His evening lecture was on “The Path to Life” and the doctor noted that 20% of children died before reaching two years of age and this was a failure of care by parents and nurses. Adding that half of all persons died prior to the age of 21, the doctor told his audience that “by the laws of anatomy and physiology . . . they are intended by nature to grow as trees, or animals are intended to grow and live.”
He averred that “all diseases whether inherited or not can be cured by the application of proper remedies” and the paper recorded that “his advice in relation to eating, drinking, sleeping and habits of life were excellent.” As other news accounts did elsewhere in the country, this one observed that Brenan “is a fine specimen of well-developed manhood” at six feet tall, which put him several inches above the average for the time, “with a symmetry of proportion which is rarely seen now-a-days.” The Herald concluded that “if he practices what he preaches, as we are bound to suppose he does, we need no more convincing proof that his theories are sound.”
The problem was the “Dr.” Brenan was reported in the March 1875 issue of the Pacific Medical and Surgical Journal to be “a charlatan” who had “clipped the fleece from a number of innocent lambs” in San Francisco before heading south. When pontificating in San Bernardino, however, Brenan raised a ruckus concerning those who were “denouncing him as a quack and imposter,” while others defended him. A physician of that town telegraphed to San Francisco to learn if Brenan had proper medical bona fides and received the answer that “he was not a regular physician, but a quack.” The account continued,
The dispatch was exhibited during the day with such effect that the “doctor” disappeared early next morning and was no more seen at that place. In Los Angeles he was still more unfortunate, having been required to depart from his hotel in that city on account of an adventure of a more private character. With such lessons as this occurring continually, people still persevere in running after every itinerant quack who proclaims his skill in the cure of disease.
Nothing could be located that showed any issues concerning Brenan having problems in the Angel City “of an adventure of a more private character,” and the Herald continued to lionize him through his occasional visits, presentations and consultations through the end of February, when he headed for Santa Barbara and never returned. There was, however, at least one recorded instance of a very troubling allegation concerning the purported physician.
Brenan, a native of Ireland, was in Philadelphia as early as 1866 and was said to have studied medicine at the University of Dublin and the Jefferson Medical College in the City of Brotherly Love, while other accounts stated that he spent years learning his craft in Paris and elsewhere in Europe. In November 1868, however, while he was in New Haven, Connecticut, he was accused of drugging and raping a young woman while treating her for neuralgia. She later stated that he warned her that no one would believe her if she came forward with what happened and she then gave birth, telling the doctor attending her what took place.
Brenan, described as “magnificently built” and “in the best of cloth, with rufles [sic], diamonds and other showy garniture” was arrested on a charge of rape and made bail of $10,000, a very large sum for the time. A newspaper account reported that the doctor “anticipates an easy release, and the chances are that he will get it.” In fact, Brenan was not held answerable for the allegation, but he soon left Philadelphia and made his way west to St. Louis, where a wife died while there and where an accusation was made and then withdrawn that he stole a diamond ring. He was in Salt Lake City before heading to San Francisco, where he set up shop for several years.
In the late Seventies, Brenan moved to Portland, Oregon, where he remained in business and still widely regarded for his lectures. After suffering from health problems, he traveled to Paraiso Springs in a canyon in the Coast Range in Monterey County for relief and then went to Paso Robles, where there was another well-known hot springs resort and where he died in May 1885. Brenan left a brother, Patrick, who was his assistant in Portland, a 16-year old daughter, Catherine (Cassie) in that city and a 21-year old son, Louis, in Philadelphia. Despite the Herald and plenty of other newspapers professing admiration for Brenan and his abilities, it seems almost certain that he was among the very large fraternity of “itinerant quacks” who roamed the country during the 19th century.
Mentions of Christmas in this issue of the paper are limited to ads for Christmas trees cut from the local mountains, presents offered by some merchants, and a Grand Ball held on Christmas Eve at the school house at Gallatin, where Downey and Pico Rivera are now located and where there was to be a “substantial supper by Mrs. McKinney” and “music by Holgatt, Poland and Thompson.” While the holiday was becoming more popular in Los Angeles and in America broadly, it still paled in comparison to the celebration of New Year’s Day.
We’ll offer plenty more summaries of 1870s Los Angeles newspapers under the “Read All About It” banner, so keep an eye out for more of these posts providing notable perspectives of this important period in regional history.