by Paul R. Spitzzeri
F.P.F. Temple, with his myriad business interests in banking, oil, real estate, railroads and other endeavors in Los Angeles as it underwent its first growth boom in the late 1860s and first half of the following decade, was also the treasurer in 1874 and 1875 of the Los Angeles City and County Printing and Publishing Company, which owned the Los Angeles Herald newspaper.
In the “Read All About It” series of posts on this blog, focusing on historic newspapers in the Homestead’s collection, we’ve frequently highlighting issues of the Herald, especially during the peak years of the boom during that same two-year period. This post examines the pages of the 19 January 1875 edition of the paper, which promoted its “Herald Pamphlet,” which included 22 pages of double-column content extolling greater Los Angeles.
Material included local railroads, including the Southern Pacific, recently arrived in the city but also dominant in that industry, as well as the Los Angeles and Pacific, which was intended to accompany the Centinela subdivision, of which Temple was president, and to run to the ocean and include a wharf for commercial shipping.
Also featured, aside from the rapidly growing Angel City (boasting up to around 15,000 residents), outlying areas, such as older communities like El Monte and Anaheim, which were founded in the 1850s; Compton (on land subdivided on the Rancho San Pedro) in the mid-1860s by Temple and Fielding W. Gibson of El Monte; Los Nietos, which came into its own with post-Civil War migration from elsewhere in the country; Phineas Banning’s harbor town of Wilmington, established as New San Pedro, and also developing from the 1860s onward; and Spadra, a town in what is now Pomona, and Santa Ana, also from the latter part of the decade. There were, however, newer towns and communities, including San Fernando, Centinela, Tustin, Westminster and a section on the San Gabriel Valley.
Agriculture, mining, oil and banking were economic sections, while those pertaining more to the cultural and social spheres concerned the public library, schools and churches. There wasn’t much more to leisure than a chapter on “sea bathing,” though the paper added that “besides these [so far named] there are many other articles of equal interest. Sold at 15 cents, said to be the cost of production, the publication was asserted to have “more reliable information concerning semi-tropical California than can be found in any other publication.” Benjamin C. Truman of the rival Los Angeles Star would disagree and cite his own book, 1874’s Semi-Tropical California.
Other editorial comment concerned the slowness of the Common (City) Council appointing a Board of Water Commissioners, citing Mayor Prudent Beaudry (who happened to be president of the Herald‘s publishing company) and his inaugural message exhortation to the council to move with dispatch on the selection of members. Given how essential a reliable water supply system was to the growing city, it was surprising that action was not taken sooner to get the board up and running as quickly as possible.
There was also news that steamer service on the Pacific between San Diego and San Francisco passed from the Pacific Mail Steamship Company to Goodall, Nelson and Perkins and the paper noted that “this company is well and favorably known to the people of Los Angeles” and that “they have for a long time run an opposition [line] to the Pacific Mail, and run it so well that they soon acquired a fair share of the business and broke up a monopoly that was costing our people thousands of dollars per year.” For travelers and commercial shipping, the firm announced there’d be no fare increases and plenty of craft available as needed, leading the Herald to note “the prompt dispatch and universal kindness” of the firm “is a guarantee that they will secure the approbation of their patrons in the future.”
An Independent Party sprung up in California, which was then dominated by the Republicans, and an editorial noted that the promise of the third-party upstart was not carried out and that the Independents were falling out of favor. Los Angeles resident Charles Lindley wrote a lengthy resignation letter spelling out his concerns about the degradation of the party, which was held at least partially responsible for securing the election of Governor Newton Booth. F.P.F. Temple was among those who ran under the Independent banner in the 1873 county elections when he unsuccessfully sought the county treasurer seat and, in 1875, ended up winning that office under a similar type of party affiliation, though he was also long known to be a Republican.
Another editorial page item concerned the recently published 1875 city and county directory, the first edition of which appeared three years prior. The Herald expressed its approval of “a very creditable” production, but it quoted the publishers, Oliver and Armor, about some problems in compiling information. This included irregular numbering of houses and businesses, street names unknown even to those living on them, that “some of the people did not believe we meant to do anything” and did not participate, and, finally, that “Numbers of the Spaniards [Mexicans and other Latinos] through loss of property &c., fear any one that writes and, as we now believe, gave false information.” This last statement is particularly telling about the relations between Latinos and whites as the shifts of population and power continued to evolve.
On a more humorous note, the paper reported that “the other day a member of the Orange Grove Association purchased a quiet, gentle bronco, to use in plowing among the orange trees,” but, a few days prior, the horse was witnessed running amok in town “with the side of a house attached.” The animal raced towards a group of gents sampling the wares of “old Tom” and his whiskey, gin and other cheap drinks “in front of ‘The Bank’ building,” this being the Temple Block in which the Temple and Workman bank operated. The imbibers, however, “saw him coming in time to scatter” and the last the wild animal was seen “he and the side of the house made good time in the direction of the Pacific Ocean.” The Orange Grove Association, incidentally, was the organization the developed Pasadena.
With winter well underway, the Herald noted with satisfaction and no small amount of relief the copious rainfall of recent days, taking the opportunity to spin a little critique, with Noah and his ark as a reference point, of “the little army of croakers who for the last month have done little else than prognosticate a dry season in this part of the State.” It was stated that,
All prospects for a dry season have been washed away, and we are assured of sufficient moisture to secure abundant crops. Between last Saturday evening [the 19th was a Tuesday] and yesterday noon not less than seven inches of rain fell in this valley. From all parts of the county we hear the most cheering news. The farmers are everywhere jubilant. Those having their fields already seeded have enough rain to warrant a good yield, even should we have a dry Spring. The soil that has been plowed will be immediately seeded, and with a few late showers will yield a bountiful harvest. The prospect for a prosperous year is exceedingly good.
Temple and his Rancho La Merced, of which a few hundred acres were devoted to crops and his father-in-law’s massive half-share of the nearly 49,000-acre Rancho La Puente, were among the farmers relieved to have ample precipitation come during the prior few days. There were, however, some issues from the storms, including that “the San Gabriel [River] has overflowed its banks and is impassable” while rail, including a brief break in the Southern Pacific line at La Puente and several on the line to Anaheim from Florence (South Los Angeles) at the San Gabriel River and Coyote flats, and stage service experienced lengthy delays. It was also reported that “an old adobe house, on Main street, caved in yesterday, owing to the heavy rains” and that “the adjoining photograph gallery,” not identified and presumably a wooden structure, “was laid on its side.” Another short “Local Brevities” report was that nine inches fell in two full days.
With respect to that local news section of short reports, it was recorded that the city marshal, Juan José Carrillo, one of the few Latinos in a position of civic office, was readying to sell property under delinquent taxes. A performance of a “Cantata of Esther” was postponed because of the inclement weather. A section of land, comprising 640 acres, was being prepared for subdivision in town lots at San Juan Capistrano. At Anaheim, a porter at the Planters’ Hotel, who angered a waiter at the Delmonico Restaurant by making a pass at his wife, was stabbed and killed by his adversary.
On Sunday, just after midnight, “three men made a raid on a house of ill-fame on Los Angeles street (Carrie Porter’s) and captured $185.” Police officers Ryan and Sands apprehended two of the robbers and the Herald added that “it is believed that both men are ‘hard cases’ and that this is not their first effort in crime.” Los Angeles Street, which later included its northern extension through the Calle de los Negros, where the city’s Chinatown was located and where the horrific Chinese Massacre of October 1871 took place, was long a primary “red light district” in the Angel City.
An accident on the Los Angeles and San Pedro Railroad line (completed in 1869 but controlled by the Southern Pacific as part of its being forced to build its main route to the Colorado River through town) was also covered, with the report stating that between Wilmington and [Rancho Los] Cerritos, the northbound train “struck a place that had been honey-combed with gophers, and the track gave way, suddenly doubling the engine and tender up like a knife, smashing the engine badly.” The conductor, engineer and mechanic were all bruised and scalded from the steam engine and it was feared that the latter might not survive. The SP had a crew out to build a track around the wreck to get service resumed as quickly as possible while the engine was prepared for removal.
Northeast of modern Santa Clarita at Lang’s Station on the way to the Antelope Valley, proprietor John Lang wrote the Herald on the 15th that there was a new mining district, fifty miles from Los Angeles, formed called the Blue Ledge. It was reported that “very extensive gold ledges have been found” with the promise of up to $5,000 per ton of ore and fifteen claims established, but with room for many more. Having visited the place, Lang expressed confidence in the potential there and added that, within a couple of miles, there were silver, lead and cinnabar deposits. He averred that he had “always been opposed to sensational reports and excitements,” but noted “it costs but little to examine the field” and opined “these mines are very rich and inexhaustible.”
J.J. Warner, born Jonathan Trumbull Warner in Connecticut in 1807 but, after decades of residence in Los Angeles known commonly as Juan José, was a frequent contributor to Los Angeles papers of sundry topics, including local history. In this edition, though, he wrote of “The Pruning and Transplanting of Trees,” emphasizing the beauty of the work as well as utility. He cautioned anyone engaged in the work to remember the necessary equilibrium of roots, branches and foliage and their forces and functions. He noted upward and downward flow of fluids within a tree with water predominating in the former and carbonic acid in the latter and discussed the importance of the roots and leaves in conducting and storing water and nutrients. He warned that “he who would dismember a tree without regard” to the importance of understanding the systems of trees, “should be restrained from entering a nursery or an orchard.”
There are plenty of other historic Los Angeles newspapers to highlight in the “Read All About It” series and we may well have another offering in a few days, so keep an eye out for the next installment.