Take It To The Bank: A Short History of Hellman, Temple and Company, Bankers, 1868-1871, Part One

by Paul R. Spitzzeri

On this date in 1871, the partnership once a promising prospect for prosperity for William Workman, F.P.F. Temple and Isaias W. Hellman, who owned the second bank formed in Los Angeles, came to a stark and sudden end after not quite 2 and 1/2 years of operation. Known as Hellman, Temple and Company, Bankers, and following on the heels of the enterprise launched several months prior by ex-Governor John G. Downey and James A. Hayward, the institution opened in fall 1868 and evidenced every expectation for success.

After all, Workman and his son-in-law Temple were residents of greater Los Angeles for nearly four decades and were generally highly regarded for their success as ranchers and farmers, while Temple, aiming to aggressive expand into business as the Angel City was in the early stages of its first growth boom, was particularly popular and respected. The two men also possessed substantial sums of capital to bring to the new bank.

As for Hellman, who was born in Bavaria the year after his partners came to Los Angeles and joined family members in the city when he was a teen in the late Fifties, he was only 26, but had already evinced an acumen and talent as a merchant that was obvious to all knew him. Highly respected for his upright dealings, reliability and seemingly unlimited financial acuity, Hellman had long transacted a semi-official banking business at his store and became a fixture of the City of Angels’ small but vibrant Jewish community.

In fact, the featured object from the Museum’s collection for this post is a rare bank-related artifact, but which was initiated by Hellman from that informal operation, and comprises a note made out to John Schumacher (1816-1885). Schumacher was born in Württemburg, one of the states in what later became a unified Germany and situated in the southwest near France and Switzerland. He migrated to the United States as a young man and served in the Army during the Mexican-American War as a member of Stevenson’s Regiment of New York Volunteers serving in Los Angeles just after the seizure of the town was effected. He remained in the pueblo and, when the Gold Rush burst forth, went to search for the precious metal—purportedly, he found a sizable nugget at Sutter’s Creek, southwest of Sacramento, during his mining days.

In 1853, Schumacher returned to Los Angeles and used his proceeds from gold-digging by buying property on which he opened a grocery and bar on Spring Street. This happened to be the year that Jonathan Temple sold the Rocha Adobe to the city and county of Los Angeles, which then converted the building into the courthouse, while building the jail in the yard behind it. Being fortunately situated, Schumacher, it was said, enjoyed the patronage of those who had to conduct business with the court and for civic purposes.

Called by merchant Harris Newmark a “good-hearted, honest German of the old school,” Schumacher was said by the chronicler of his many years in Los Angeles to have imported the first beer to town, as well as the first piano and a covered spring wagon, both novelties. His aptitude for languages also enabled him to assist as an interpreter for friends and neighbors. Newmark also remarked on some of his friend’s special concoctions from the bar, including the “Peach and Honey,” using a brandy made locally from the fruit.

In 1860, Schumacher narrowly averted death when he was opening a box of gunpowder in his store, but a can leaked some contents just as a patron lit a cigar and carelessly tossed the match onto the floor, causing an explosion of the one-pound can, which badly burned the proprietor’s hands and face. He acquired some nearby property within and not far outside city limits and, from 1866 to 1868, served on the Common (City) Council.

With the note, Schumacher agreed to pay Hellman $450 in four months from the 1st of February 1868 at 1 per cent per month. By the time, Schumacher paid back the loan, it looks like it was extended a half-year, as there are faint markings showing that there was $50.00 in interest paid and a Hellman, Temple and Company stamp has the year 1869 on it. Moreover, the bottom right corner, where Hellman signed the note, is cut, which indicated that the loan was paid back and the transaction concluded.

How exactly Hellman, Temple and Workman came to forge their pact as bankers is not known, but there can be no question that the two latter men were more than keenly aware of the former’s financial prowess and he, in turn, more than knowledgeable of their ample resources. With Downey and Hayward opening their bank just a half-dozen days after Hellman executed the note with Schumacher, the trio no doubt came to the conclusion that it was their turn to enter the banking field.

The 6 June 1868 edition of the Los Angeles Star made brief note of a “NEW BANK,” observing that,

We understand that Messrs. Wm. Workman, F.P.F. Temple, and Isaiah [sic] W. Hellman have associated for the purpose of carrying on a banking business in this city. They are having a building erected adjoining the Bella Union Hotel for their accommodation. Mr. Hellman, we suppose, will be the business manager, under whom the affairs of the establishment will no doubt be most ably conducted. It is expected to be in operation about the first of next month. The firm name will be Hellman, Temple & Co.

The location became known as the Pico Building and it is known that former Governor Don Pío Pico actually had it constructed and then leased to the three bankers and it was on the east side of Main, just north of Commercial, adjacent on the north to the well-known hostelry, which, after being styled the Clarendon, had the name of the St. Charles when the photo shown here was taken, likely in the early 1880s. As for the schedule, it was typically too ambitious as work on the building and bank quarters, the architect for which was not stated, but may have been Edward J. Weston, who worked on other commercial structures in the city at the time, including for Downey and Temple, dragged on for a couple of months.

Two weeks later, the Star provided an update to that effect, informing readers, “the building for the new bank of Temple, Hellman & Co. [sic], is not progressing as rapidly as was expected” and that “the worthy proprietors will celebrate the Fourth outside its walls.” On 11 July, the paper (which also noted progress on plans for an addition to the Temple Block, started by Jonathan a little more than a decade before and then owned by F.P.F.), reported,

The new bank building is assuming imposing proportions. The columns of the front, which are of iron, are in their place, and give indications of a very handsome, substantial, and roomy edifice. The vault, which is a massive structure, as far as plenty of iron and brick work can make it, is finished, and gives ample security that all valuables committed to its care will be safe from the ravages of fire and the attacks of the most skillful of burglars. The plans of the building exhibit a structure which will be highly creditable to the proprietors and ornamental to the city.

On 8 August, the institution, confident of opening soon, took out its first advertisement, stating that it would welcome patrons “on or about the first of September next, at their new office, Pico’s Building” as it would “attend to a general Banking Business on the most liberal scale.” They would draw on the London and San Francisco Bank in the latter metropolis as well as have exchanges in European cities (due to Hellman’s growing connections) like Hamburg, London and Paris, as well as New York City. The firm also stood ready to buy all kinds of financial instruments, including the usual government (city to federal) bonds and securities along with gold dust, legal tenders and government vouchers and, notably, officers’ pay rolls.

A short accompanying article in the Star described “Mr. Workman, of the [Rancho La] Puente” as “a gentleman long known in this county, one of the early [white] pioneers, possessed of extensive estates, and large accumulated cash capital besides.” As for his son-in-law, the paper observed that Temple was “also a well-known and opulent citizen of our county,” while Hellman was accounted as “a young, enterprising and intelligent merchant of this city” and would run day-to-day operations. The Star thusly concluded,

Under such auspices, and with such responsibility, depositors may be assured of safety. We are satisfied that the business will be conducted in a liberal and satisfactory manner.

As the Pico Building and its anchor tenant crept closer to completion, the edition of the paper on 5 September added a final update, letting readers know that “the workmen are now engaged in putting the finishing touches to the new banking house of Hellman, Temple & Co., which, we believe, will be opened for business on Monday”.

It was actually a day later, Tuesday the 8th, that the long-awaited grand opening took place and the next week’s edition of the Star covered the event, albeit somewhat briefly. It was noted that Hellman issued formal invitations to a good number of the residents of the City of Angels, who, the paper continued,

met in the bank parlor and quaffed generous wine, to the prosperity of the new banking institution. The building erected for the accommodation of the bank marks a new era in our architectural designs—or rather, it is the first building erected here with any regard to elegance. It is a very handsome design, neat in the finish, and without any florid ornamentation, and is highly creditable to the architect and proprietors.

This is also a testament to Pico, one of the few Californios with the financial means, along with the taste, to carry on such a project. The former chief executive, after selling half of the massive Rancho Mission ex-San Fernando, comprising almost all the valley of that name, would soon spend a great deal more and utilize more of his discrimination in style with his Pico House hotel, completed not too much more than a year later, as he hoped to keep the historic Plaza, the center of Mexican-era Los Angeles, viable as the town grew largely to the south.

Another account of the new bank was published in the 29 August edition of the short-lived and little-known Los Angeles Republican, launched in 1867 by Jesse Yarnell, later of the Los Angeles Mirror, which, in 1884, merged with the Los Angeles Times (which is why the operating firm, surviving until 2000, was the “Times-Mirror Company”). In 1871, Yarnell, his brother George, George A. Tiffany and two other printers launched the Los Angeles Express and transferred the Republican‘s operations and equipment to the new enterprise.

The Republican commented that the Pico Building was “in a style to be an ornament to the city” and added that “the standing of the members of this firm in the community as substantial men of means, is too well known to need comment or even mention.” It allowed itself, however, to do just that, insisting that “it would be hard to select the same number of men among us who would command greater credit with the public, or who are more entitled to such credit.” Hellman specifically was lauded as someone who “has earned for himself a reputation as a straightforward, reliable business man, second to one.”

Los Angeles, the first city of the Southern coast, which less than one year ago could not boast a single banking house, is now doubly blessed in that respect.

With such an auspicious beginning, how could Hellman, Temple and Company have been expected to achieve anything than unqualified success? Surely, the elder partners, of lengthy residence in greater Los Angeles and great experience in life, would defer to the brilliant business instincts and judgments of Hellman, who’d shown in his decade in the city more than his share of intelligence and integrity?

Well, there was a serious qualification that arose within just two years, and we will go into more of that, as well as the ending of the institution in part two, so please check back for that.