by Paul R. Spitzzeri
As greater Los Angeles’ first boom neared its end, the Los Angeles Herald of 12 January 1875, pulled from the Museum’s collection, provides us notable material for better understanding the state of the Angel City during that very interesting period, in which F.P.F. Temple was one of prime movers of the development of the region. In fact, he is mentioned in the second page, as the paper reported,
There will be no further contest about the prior right of way through Cajon Pass. Mr. F.P.F. TEMPLE, Treasurer of the Los Angeles and Independence Railroad Company, yesterday received a letter from Engineer [James U.] CRAWFORD, announcing that he had commenced grading in the narrowest part of the Pass. This secures the new company the first, and of course the easiest route through the Pass.
Noted in several posts in this blog, the L.A.&I.R.R. was founded in April 1874 with Temple as president and ex-Governor John G. Downey as treasurer to build a railroad to the Inyo County seat in eastern California and to tap into the silver mining boom towns of that area. Among the many such hotbeds of activity was Cerro Gordo, where Temple also was president of the Cerro Gordo Water and Mining Company, which built an 11-mile pipeline to deliver the badly needed precious fluid in the search for silver.
Regarding Cajon Pass, Temple, who switched to the treasurer position after United States Senator from Nevada and mining magnate John P. Jones took a majority of L.A.&I.R.R. stock and, thereby, assumed the presidency of the company, with Downey bowing out of the project, sent Crawford there to head off any attempt by the powerful Southern Pacific Railroad from staking a right-of-way claim. In fact, it was reported that Crawford got there just an hour-and-a-half or so before SP surveyors to claim supremacy of that vital area, which Temple’s wife, Antonia Margarita Workman and her family, including Homestead owners William Workman and Nicolasa Urioste, used in their migration to the region nearly 35 years prior.
Elsewhere, the Herald wrote of “Errors and Mistakes Corrected” with respect to railroad rivalries, addressing the SP and the people of Wilmington, formerly “New San Pedro,” and where the rudimentary harbor that became today’s mighty Port of Los Angeles was recently improved with some federal funding, with the local Los Angeles and San Pedro Railroad (built by Wilmington’s founding figure, Phineas Banning, ad others) under the control of the S.P.
Seeking to allay fears or misconceptions of the L.A.&I.R.R.’s purported threat to both, the paper, owned by a firm that included Temple as its treasurer, insisted that,
It is an error on the part of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company to assume that the journal or individual advocating the construction of another railroad thereby occupies a position antagonistic to their interests. It is also a mistake on the part of the people of Wilmington to place all in the category of enemies who favor and labor for the building of a railroad which shall leave the water at a point other than Wilmington harbor.
The S.P., by virtue of being forced by Congress in the granting of a charter to build through Los Angeles for its line running from northern California to Fort Yuma, Arizona (with future plans to head further east—eventually to New Orleans), took control of the Los Angeles and San Pedro as part of a voter-approved deal in fall 1872 that gave the company some $600,000 in subsidies and sought to maintain an iron (!) grip on local railroading as long as possible.
Not only did Temple, Jones and the other owners of the L.A.&I.R.R. see a great opportunity to capitalize on the capture of the transport of silver ore from eastern California through a wharf at Jones’ newly established seaside town of Santa Monica, but it was hardly more than an open secret that the project would chip away at what was loudly complained of as the S.P’s monopoly, as well as to move the Angel City closer to a status challenging the economic dominance of San Francisco, headquarters of that railroad.
The Herald merely asked that it be understood, based on what was known in the Eastern states, namely, “the greater number of railroads the greater the amount of railroad business.” It asserted that there were no known instances “where one railroad has been killed or even its business seriously injured by the building of another railroad.” Rather, there were plenty of examples in which “a competing railroad really creates business both for itself and the old road.”
This understood, the paper continued,
The construction of the Los Angeles and Independence Railroad so far from being an injury to the Southern Pacific Road and its valley branches [including through the San Gabriel Valley and the Workman and Rowland-owned Rancho La Puente], will in truth greatly increase its business. Railroads are the lodestone that draw people and business to a locality, and the greater our railroad development the more rapid our increase of population and business.
Whatever market was tapped by the L.A.&I.R.R. in the mining regions, the account went on, the S.P. would have ready access to “by far the greater portion.” Meanwhile, “the people of Wilmington should remember that theirs is the only point between San Francisco and San Diego at which it is possible to construct a safe and reliable harbor.” Once the S.P. extended the Los Angeles and San Pedro line to “Point San Pedro,” meaning at the base of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, which provided shelter for where the earliest shipping took place, “Wilmington will be the only harbor on our coast in which vessels may anchor during the prevalence of the kind of weather” that could elsewhere cause issues—rare as that might be.
This was also known by the Los Angeles and Pacific Railroad Company, formed by Temple, Daniel Freeman and others as part of their recently established Centinela townsite project and the Herald commented that the primacy of Wilmington/San Pedro “had much to do with the selection of the Salt Works,” this being an area where a lake fed by springs on the shore on the Rancho Sausal Redondo was used for manufacture of that vital product, “as the place at which their road will leave the water.” The L.A. and Pacific incorporated in December apparently looking to terminate at the outfall of Ballona Creek, where Marina del Rey and Playa del Rey are now, but it seems like an alternate at the salt works at Redondo was under consideration.
That said, the paper opined that “it will not prove an expensive or difficult undertaking to run a branch from this road down to San Pedro harbor,” especially when that occasional occurrence of rough weather conditions would necessitate sending shipments to the latter. Beyond that, even if “it is almost a certainty that the Los Angeles and Independence Railroad will leave the water” with a wharf “at Santa Monica,” Jones, Temple and other officials well understood that it was unlikely “steamers will be able to lay at their wharf every day in the year.” Of course, “sometimes the weather will be rough and then San Pedro harbor is the only refuge” for the shipment of cargo comprising the products of greater Los Angeles.
As for those eastern California mining regions, there was elsewhere in the issue a letter received from Panamint, southeast of Cerro Gordo, and where it was stated that Jones, his partner William M. Stewart (also a U.S. Senator from Nevada, from 1865-1875 and 1887-1905—see the post of last week about the buying of these seats by the likes of Jones and Stewart) and their Surprise Valley Company had two crushing machines in operation and another mining enterprise was at work as well. The Nevada millionaires recent bought a mine for $21,000 and aimed at another one valued at nearly six times that amount, while companies from San Francisco were readying to set up their facilities. The missive ended with the warning, “don’t believe any of the reports that the mines here will ‘peter out.'”
Of course, they did. The Jones and Stewart operation did not yield the quantity and quality of the ore they expected and a flash flood through the aptly named Surprise Canyon where Panamint was situated leveled most of the boomtown. The situation was much the same at Cerro Gordo and other local mining communities and Temple’s water project also abruptly ended as the springs supplying the water to Cerro Gordo dried up. This had a severe impact on Temple and his Temple and Workman bank, one of two commercial institutions, along with former partner Isaias W. Hellman’s bank with Downey, the Farmers’ and Merchants’.
This all occurred after a Virginia City, Nevada silver mine stock bubble burst (the nickname of “Lucky” for Elias J. Baldwin was because he sold his stock before the collapse and he took away millions as a result) caused the failure of San Francisco’s Bank of California, the largest in the Golden State. The economic downturn that followed also involved the cratering of the Temple and Workman bank, so that, even though the L.A.&I.R.R. managed to build a branch line to Santa Monica, it got little further than preliminary work at Cajon Pass and some grading on other portions of the main route.
In 1877, Jones and his associates sold the L.A.&I.R.R. to the Southern Pacific, which soon dismantled the Santa Monica wharf (though it built one to the north later) and maintained its monopoly of greater Los Angeles railroading for nearly another decade. In late 1885, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe established a direct transcontinental railroad connection to greater Los Angeles and that ushered in the great Boom of the Eighties, which peaked during William H. Workman’s mayoral term of 1887-1888.
A wharf was built during that period at Redondo, where a fine resort hotel was also erected (Temple and Workman bank cashier Henry S. Ledyard returned to the area to work in that town, but then killed himself in 1890 as the boom turned bust) and the current pier is one of the descendants of that edifice. Another Los Angeles and Pacific project, this one involving a streetcar system established and foundered during the 1880s boom and bust.
Other content in the issue included the Herald‘s castigation of “Traitors to the People” regarding the decision of the state Board of Education to change textbooks in California’s public schools to such mainstays as McGuffey’s famous “readers” as the Willson series in favor of publications issued by A.L. Bancroft and Company of San Francisco, operated by Albert L. Bancroft after his brother, Hubert H., left the firm to pursue other passions, mainly his interest in publishing California history as embodied in his multi-volume set from the 1880s.
The paper repeated assertions that the deal was about “something more persuasive than the eloquence of argument” and added that it was widely considered that the arrangement would cost taxpayers a half a million dollars, not an insignificant sum for the time. Moreover, the Herald opined that “BANCROFT, as a publisher, is a feeble imitation of HARPERS,” the major New York firm that issued popular weekly and monthly magazines as well as books” and insinuated that Albert Bancroft, in his aim to be the largest publisher on the West Coast, likely “would not hesitate to reward handsomely the majority of a Board of Education” to pawn off “his cheap and imperfect school books.” The paper, however, was careful to state that “we shall not say outright” that Bancroft did what was mentioned, but the Board was held to task for “an infamous transaction” and its members, so said the Herald, could never expect to serve in public office again.
There was one bit of good news to relate relative to the Board of Education, which was the report that the body approved a petition of eighteen men, including educator William T. Lucky, merchant Charles F. Harper (whose son, Arthur, resigned in 1909 after a disastrous turn as mayor of the Angel City), Asa Ellis of El Monte, to allow for a charter for Wilson College, a Methodist-affiliated school named after Benjamin D. Wilson, at Wilmington. While the school did briefly operate, it was, in 1880, superseded by the University of Southern California.
In local news, Juan José (Jonathan Trumbull) Warner was cited as “so well posted on the fruit and agricultural resources of Los Angeles county,” and his short synopsis on tobacco grown on the Rancho Azusa, directly north of La Puente included his view that “since 1837 he has almost every year tried samples” but without finding much of any quality—F.P.F. Temple experimented with the “noxious weed” and had an eighth of an acre planted to it that the state agricultural society inspected in 1865 with some positive comment. Warner went on to report that “he did yesterday smoke some tobacco grown and cured by Mr. W.A. Dalton [Winnall, son of the ranch’s grantee, Henry] at Azusa” and found it “superior in every good quality” to any he’d ever used, whether in cigarettes or for a pipe.
Another vice covered in the paper was alcohol, specifically “a very sensible and well considered” address given at the Temperance Hall by a Reverend Packard that was adjudged to be “as good as could be expected from a minister.” Allowing that he and other temperance advocates “are laboring in a good cause, and we wish them God speed,” the Herald asked,
But what do ministers know about the horrors of intemperance—the wild delirium that seizes the brain and haunts the mind of the drunkard, snakes, wild beasts, ghosts and demons in a thousand fantastic shapes, all driving at him, like a whirlwind. Better get some old, reformed bloat to give a lecture and tell his experience. It would make the hair stand on end . . .
The paper noted that Sheriff William R. Rowland, son of the La Puente grantee, returned from San Jose “with the intelligence that [Tiburcio] Vasquez, the notorious bandit, had been found guilty and sentenced to die on the gallows.” As has been discussed in this blog before, Vásquez, a descendant of early California families, commenced his criminal career in the early 1850s, averring that racism was a foundational cause, though his first conviction, in 1857, was for robbing a Latino named Juan Francisco.
Moreover, the bandit chieftain almost always robbed small-scale merchants, farmers and others, though there have been claims that he was a “social bandit” and was a representative of a reaction against the racism, pervasive and brutal as it was, that marked post-Mexican and American War California. In 1873, his gang committed robberies at the small town of Tres Piños (how this constituted a battle against prejudice is a key question) and three men were killed during the botched incident.
Vásquez was able, through no small amount of bravery and cunning, to evade capture for months and committed his last crime when attempting to rob Alessandro Repetto, who had a ranch in what is now Monterey Park, with the effort involving sending Repetto’s son to the Temple and Workman bank for $800 to yield to the bandit. F.P.F. Temple, noticing the agitation of the boy, sent for Rowland and a posse sent out to capture Vásquez. The wily bandit, however, rode through rough terrain in the San Gabriel Mountains above the new Indiana Colony (Pasadena) and eluded his pursuers yet again.
Shortly afterward, however, while holed up at a cabin in present-day West Hollywood, Vásquez was, at last, captured, though while recovering from gunshot wounds in the county jail, he received a great deal of media and other (including from several awe-struck women) attention. There was even a play hurriedly written about him and the capture, while portraits of the bandit were sold, purportedly to pay for his defense—it seems reasonable to consider Vásquez the first celebrity criminal in Los Angeles.
After noting his conviction, the Herald added, “the announcement made but little excitement, even among the Mexican element,” of whom it was often said there was much support and sympathy for Vásquez, “as it was generally believed that the death penalty would be the verdict against the red-handed outlaw.” Rowland informed the paper that he met with the prisoner who was “under the firm conviction that he would escape the gallows, but be sent to the penitentiary [San Quentin] for life.”
Moreover, it was asserted that, as the state made its closing arguments, the force of them as such that they were “causing the defendant to shrink and cower” before the onslaught of fact and denunciation. As to the defense, it was clear that Vásquez’ counsel were “feeling the weight of the case was against him,” though there was “an eloquent, powerful and impassioned appeal for mercy” to save the prisoner’s life “and not consign him to the fearful death of the gallows.” The jury met only briefly (this was common for the time) and returned a guilty verdict and it was observed that “Vasquez sat apparently unmoved.” While it was concluded that the decision was satisfactory to those in attendance, “it is thought the prisoner would have been dealt with,” that is, lynched, “by the people” if another result was to have occurred.
In an editorial, the paper noted,
It will be remembered that while in jail in this city the bandit stated to the editor of the HERALD [James M. Bassett, later a Southern Pacific employee], and others who visited him, that he was innocent of murder—that he had never taken the life of a human being. It was theory of his defense that though he had wounded and robbed men, he was not a murderer; that the killing had been done by others without his sanction or authority, and that he was only a genteel robber, while his associated were murderers.
It was stated that testimony was to the contrary when it came to Tres Piños and it was asserted he killed two of the three men there. The paper concluded, “it is more than probable that VASQUEZ has killed not one but half a dozen men,” though this was another broad assertion by the paper, “and it is almost certain that he will partially atone for his crimes with his life.” Vásquez was, in fact, hanged in March and a prior post here features an amazing letter in the Homestead’s holdings referring to his wake, and the Herald observed, “the world can do without VASQUEZ and will doubtless be the better for his speedy taking off.”
Finally, another of the poems of the teenage Yda Addis, who went to a life of tremendous turmoil and tribulation, was published and “The Past and Future” is another interesting composition from the young woman, whose works were frequently published in the Los Angeles press during this period.
Check back for more editions of “Read All About It” and the informative content about newspapers such as these from the 1870s, a period of great interest in greater Los Angeles history.