by Paul R. Spitzzeri
As has been oft-noted on this blog, F.P.F. Temple, denoted by historian Remi Nadeau as a “city maker” during greater Los Angeles’ first boom, lasting from 1868 to 1875, had a wide array of business interests in the region, but also well beyond it. Much of this was speculative, meaning that large outlays of capital were expended in the anticipation that any given project, be it real estate, railroads, oil, mining or others, would become successful enough to cover the investment and, naturally, bring a healthy profit to boot.
Obviously, there is a great deal of financial risk is speculation and the frenzy and fervor of booms make this even more the case. With his own money, but also that of depositors of the bank that he ran with his father-in-law and silent partner, William Workman, owner of the Homestead, Temple was as enthusiastic a speculator as anyone in Los Angeles during the late Sixties and first half of the Seventies.
The featured artifact from the Museum’s collection for this post is a 2 January 1864 Certificate of Tax Sale from Tulare County Sheriff William C. Owen to Temple and David W. Alexander for half of the Rancho San Emigdio, situated in the mountain range of that name, roughly 95 miles northwest of Los Angeles and west of the much better-known Rancho El Tejón and “The Grapevine” route to the Angel City from the San Joaquin Valley.
Sometimes spelled as “San Emidio,” the nearly 18,000-acre ranch, spanning four square leagues as denoted in the Mexican era, was granted in 1842 by Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado to José Antonio Dominguez of Santa Barbara. Dominguez died within a couple of years and, when the Americans invaded Mexican California, John C. Frémont, a notable figure in the seizure of the department, acquired a half-interest in the ranch.
The other half ended up in the hands of San Francisco attorney Duncan W. Perley, who was best known at the time for his affairs with married women and his key role in the famous 1860 duel between California Supreme Court Chief Justice David S. Terry, who was Perley’s law partner during the Gold Rush, and David C. Broderick, after Broderick insulted Terry to Perley. The result was that Terry killed Broderick. Perley was unable to pay the taxes due on San Emigdio, so Alexander and Temple took the opportunity to pay all of $80 and change to take possession of almost 9,000 acres of the ranch.
The Temple family long had interests in this mountainous territory, due initially to their cattle business, as both Tejón and San Emigdio proved valuable for keeping herds for F.P.F., his older brother Jonathan (who had a half-interest in Tejón until he sold it to Edward F. Beale, who became identified with that famous ranch), and his father-in-law Workman. When these men sent stock to the southern gold mining regions of Tuolumne County, where F.P.F. had significant investments in grazing land, slaughterhouses and butcher shops at Springfield, Sonora and Columbia (where two buildings he owned still stand as part of the state historic park there), San Emigdio was also useful as a waystation to rest animals and those who were driving them, as well as secure water and feed.
We know that, from at least 1854, Alexander operated as an agent for Temple and Workman in this area and that, when Workman’s son Joseph came back to California after years away, he was sent to this area to assist in the management of cattle owned by his father and brother-in-law. Alexander’s partnership with Temple in acquiring the half of San Emigdio was another important part of their long-standing ties to this rugged area.
The 1860 census showed Alexander as a Tulare County landowner of over 7,000 acres with 400 horses and 3,500 cattle valued at $40,000, a very large sum for the era. His enumeration showed the 50-year old with real estate valued at $2,300, but personal property at north of $50,000. So, his tax sale purchase with Temple showed another level of investment in the region, though it came after enormous changes took place in the preceding few years, following the terrible flood of 1861-1862 and the punishing drought the followed for the next two years.
In 1866, southern Tulare County split off as the new Kern County and San Emigdio became a source of a new kind of speculation in mining. This brings in another notable figure to the story: Stephen Boushey (1813-1891.) Though many sources state that Boushey was born in New York, including a Kern County history of his daughter, Harriet Jasper, vital records clearly show that he was from French Canada. Apparently, the surname was “Boucher” and Harriet’s bio suggests that it was changed to Boushey in the late Sixties—Canadian censuses from 1851 and 1861, however, contradict that as the name was clearly recorded as Boushey.
It is known, though, that Boushey spent some years in Indiana, where he married Zoe Rahome, and where their first child, Julius, was born. He was followed by a girl, Anzoe, a son Alexander, and a daughter Harriet—all born in Canada. The Boushey family resided at Chatham in Ontario about 50 miles east of Detroit, where Stephen was a grain and lumber merchant. In 1860, he made a trip to San Francisco and, six years later, the family moved to California and resided in that northern metropolis for two years.
The prominent San Francisco capitalist James Lick acquired Santa Catalina Island in 1867 and the following year, the Bousheys moved there, presumably for Stephen to represent Lick. As part of this relocation, Boushey established a claim to silver mines on the southeast portion of the island and, as a prior “Getting the Shaft” post noted, immediately sold interests to F.P.F. Temple and William Workman. We don’t know how much money the three spent in developing the mine, Boushey having moved to Los Angeles by 1871 to start a vinegar works (using locally made white wine) on Main Street between First and Second streets, but the relationship led to other projects.
One of these was at Cerro Gordo, high in the mountains on the east side of the Owens Valley in Inyo County in eastern California. Boushey began his own work there with a water and mining company, but, by 1873, he partnered with Temple in establishing the Cerro Gordo Water and Mining Company. This firm invested heavily in building a pipeline, 11 and 1/2 miles long, to bring badly-needed water from Miller Springs, situated to the north, and a prior post here discussed the heavy investment made by Temple and Workman in this project.
By the mid-1870s, Boushey also sought opportunities to prospect for oil just west of Los Angeles, some two and a half miles from the center of town. The first project in the region was at the San Fernando field near modern Santa Clarita, where the Pioneer Oil Company formed in 1865 to drill at Pico Canyon. While that project stalled, there were renewed efforts there within several years, with F.P.F. Temple being among the most avid investors at nearby Towsley Canyon with his Los Angeles Petroleum Refining Company formed in 1873 and drilling intensively there for a couple of years.
At the start of 1874, Boushey petitioned the Los Angeles Common (City) Council for 17 acres of what was known as the “Tar Well Lot,” formerly owned by William G. Dryden, the colorful longtime county judge and an acquaintance of William Workman from the late 1830s in New Mexico. He was sold this property and added more than 100 acres to it over a short period. Local press accounts were exceedingly enthusiastic about his plans, with the Los Angeles Express of 28 January 1874 proclaiming that “the petroleum era of Los Angeles is commencing.” The Los Angeles Herald of 2 May 1875 went into great detail about the Boushey Oil Company (having mentioned Temple’s efforts at the San Fernando field), noting that the firm intended to drill as far as 2,000 feet down, if necessary, to secure that “black gold.”
Notably, it was mentioned that, even if oil was not found as anticipated, there was every expectation of abundant water, with the side note that Mayor Prudent Beaudry’s development of the adjacent Bunker Hill and Bellevue Terrace tracts because of water delivery systems implemented there, would make the tracts controlled by Boushey valuable. In fact, part of his plan was to subdivide for building lots along with the oil drilling and the sale of lots was intended to finance the prospecting project.
A prospectus was issued in early May 1875 and the oil company was incorporated in San Francisco two months later—one of the purported investors was Nevada Senator John P. Jones, who was developing the new town of Santa Monica and was president of the Los Angeles and Independence Railroad, of which Temple was the first chief executive and then treasurer. The Herald informed readers that, if water was found on the Boushey tract, lots would double in value, but, if oil was located, there would be a ten-fold increase. In an ad, Boushey noted that Dryden, the Pioneer company and one called the Philadelphia Petroleum Company had all tried primitive drilling efforts on the land and that he had experienced Pennsylvania oil engineers at the ready.
At the end of June 1875, Boushey sold a large interest in this property to Temple and Workman for $4,000, obviously indicating their belief in his prospects and following their commitment to his prior projects at Catalina Island and Cerro Gordo. Then, there was a fourth mining venture out at San Emigdio. In the Los Angeles Star of 24 September 1871, Juan José (Jonathan Trumbull) Warner, a resident of the region for some four decades and well-versed in local history, noted that he was part of a group, including noted trapper and scout Ewing Young, that, in October 1832, prospected along San Emigdio Creek. Moreover, Warner stated that a burnt brick (adobe) oven was found there “which had been used for the smelting of ores” and his party “filed our claim to all the mineral imbeded [sic] in” that area.
Regardless of Warner’s account, Boushey established a silver mining company that had its quarters in the “counting room of Temple & Workman” and established its stockholders’ meetings at F.P.F. Temple’s office. Also heavily associated with the venture was Edward J. Weston, a builder and architect who designed business buildings in downtown Los Angeles for Temple during those boom years. As early as 1872, what was touted at San Emigdio and, specifically, in the canyon with the self-named creek, was the purported presence of antimony, used mainly to create metal alloys.
A 13 December 1872 article in the San Francisco Examiner cited the Bakersfield Courier as noting that Weston was busily at work “developing his mines . . . preparatory to having them surveyed and located as mineral lands.” Not only was antimony said to be there in large quantities, something not the case elsewhere in the country, but it was claimed that enough silver could be mined “to be remunerative.” While Alexander and Temple appear to have sold off most of the ranch by then, Temple was definitely involved with Boushey and Weston in this mining effort.
The Santa Barbara Daily Press of 4 May 1875 quoted the Bakersfield Southern California of several days earlier that “the Temple Antimony mine, in San Emidio cañon, is being opened, and furnaces are soon to be erected to reduce the ore to a condition for shipment to England for further refinement.” A man named Quinn, said to have been a long-time prospector there, was reported to have “consolidated his interests with the Temple Company.”
The same paper was cited in the Santa Barbara Press of 4 April 1876 as reporting,
Messrs. Temple and Bushay [sic], of San Emidio, are putting up the machinery for working the Antimony Mine, and expect to have all in working order next month. They are preparing for a force of 150 men . . . the ore will be hauled to the [Southern Pacific’s Bakersfield] depot . . . Mr. Bushay is now in charge, and has made contracts for the season. The enterprise seems destined to create a sensation in mining circles . . .
The Herald of 20 April, however, stated that the mine was owned by Boushey and Weston and that “Forbes Bros. of San Francisco are the financial backers of the company.” This change was because Temple was already in economic ruin due to the failure of the Temple and Workman bank three months prior, though he did transfer his interest to his son, William, who poured some funds into the mine through the end of the Seventies. When the inventory of the wrecked institution was published, it showed that Temple owned over 12,000 shares of Boushey’s silver mine company, though valued at just $1,000 (along with 2,500 shares at $15,000 of Cerro Gordo Water and Mining Company stock.) Moreover, Boushey had bills payable to the bank of nearly $2,800.
The panic that burst forth at San Francisco at the end of August 1875 and included the collapse of Temple and Workman led to an economic malaise that continued through the rest of the Seventies and into the next decade. Boushey sold off his oil property in Los Angeles—this would become the Los Angeles Oil Field opened by Charles Canfield and Edward L. Doheny in the early 1890s. He retained the Catalina interests for a while, though nothing substantial came of it, while the Cerro Gordo water project was battered by the drying up of Miller Springs in spring 1875.
As to the antimony mine at San Emigdio, Boushey, along with his sons Julius (a doctor in San Francisco) and Alexander, who managed work there, continued with hopes of finding that vein that would affirm all of the expectations and promotion through the years. Reports of British capitalists investing in the venture in the late 1870s, including one that insisted “this is probably the finest mine of antimony in the world.” A fire destroyed the Boushey house in 1883, but, four years later, he still asserted that “we are opening up on the biggest antimony mines in the world.” Also, in 1887, he and his sons were sued by prominent Los Angeles figures like Edward F. Spence, John D. Bicknell, James F. Crank and Elizabeth Hollenbeck over an 1885 contract regarding the mine.
When Boushey died in 1891, the mine was put up for sale and the Kern County Land Company acquired it and San Emigdio was consolidated by E.C. Singletary, possibly on behalf of mining magnate James Ben Ali Haggin (whose middle name came from his mother’s Turkish origins). When the land company was formed in 1890, Haggin transferred the ranch to it. Eight decades later, the auto parts company Tenneco acquired San Emigdio and, nearly thirty years ago, it became part of the Wild Wolves Preserve under the stewardship of the Wildlands Conservancy.
In addition to the Certificate of Tax Sale, the Museum’s collection has the 4 November 1864 deed from Sheriff Owen to Alexander and Temple—both documents were preserved by Temple’s son, John, who was a family historian and were donated a few years ago by the estate of another descendant, Josette Temple. They demonstrate again that the Workman and Temple family had interests and activities beyond greater Los Angeles and helps the Homestead broaden its interpretation during the period of 1830 to 1930.