Read All About It in the Los Angeles Express, 31 March 1874

by Paul R. Spitzzeri

As has been oft-stated here, one of the best ways to understand what was happening in Los Angeles during its first period of major growth, occurring in the late 1860s and into the mid 1870s, is through what was reported and editorialized in the city’s newspapers. Most of the “Read All About It” series of posts features issues from the Express, Herald and Star from the years 1873-1875 when the boom, though small compared to later ones still being important as a harbinger of much to come, was at its peak.

Today, we look at the pages of the 31 March 1874 edition of the Express, which, on its second page mainly devoted to editorials, marked the close of its sixth volume (a volume was a half-year at the time. While the paper professed to pass on printing self-congratulatory items, it noted that it “has always enjoyed a full share of patronage and been very generally accepted as a faithful, earnest and truthful exponent of the interests of this city and section,” yet it demurred going further offering that it would be “a work of supererogation as well as egotism to here dilate upon its claims or merits.”

Instead, the editors chose to inform readers that,

It is only necessary here to say that the aim of the EXPRESS shall be in the future, as in the past, to use every honorable lever within the reach of journalism to advance the interests of Los Angeles and Southern California, keeping always in view the supreme mission of a conscientious newspaper—the diffusion of the truth, the defense of the right, the defeat of the wrong, and the advocacy of every measure that will tend to promote the general welfare.

To that end, the next item below concerned “The Look of the Country” and the Express indulged in a bit of purple prose to proclaim the beauty and development of a portion of the San Gabriel Valley, which unlike its western neighbor, the San Fernando, which lays claim to being “The Valley,” had a reliable supply of water for agriculture and settlement.

The piece began with the observation that “nothing can be more charming that a ride through our county at the present time” because “everywhere Nature is adorned in her most beautiful attire” while those engage in working the land “are being rewarded with promising fields of sprouting grain and blossoming trees and ripened fruit.”

It added that the presence of irrigation ditches meant “signs of extensive improvement” such as at the recently established colony of the Orange Grove Association on the Rancho San Pasqual, this community soon given the name of Pasadena. Surmounting a small hill, likely Raymond Hill where a great hotel of that name was later built, the writer commented that a reservoir was being built to store water diverted with pipes and ditches from the nearby Arroyo Seco (seco means dry in Spanish, but there frequently was copious water during wet years).

From the storage system, pipes were to be run underground “and the water conveyed to the extensive groves which the members of the Association are about to plant” and the account went on to mention that “far as the eye can reach toward the San Gabriel fruit belt, the ground has been plowed, and the sprouting grain is beginning to show its emerald head.” That “belt” embraced orange groves and farm plots around the Mission San Gabriel, though several miles eastward the Rancho La Puente of William Workman and the heirs of his late friend, John Rowland, also contained thousands of acres of wheat, barley and other field crops, as well as vineyards and orchards.

The account continued that, “just below” the vantage point (making Raymond Hill seem obvious as the locale), “the Rancho de los Flores is a sight which is as rare as it striking and beautiful.” This referred to the area of South Pasadena in which the still-standing Adobe Flores, in the midst of the Casa de General Apartments, is at the base of the southeast portion of the hill. The adobe, completed in 1845, was on the San Pascual rancho and owned by José María Flores, general of the Californio forces that defended against the American invasion during the Mexican-American War.

Indulging in a reverie, the Express marveled,

For miles the velvet green, dotted here and there with flowers of various hues, is every now and then interrupted by what appears to be a crimson lake. On nearing one of these purple [?] lakelets one is astonished and delighted to find that it is composed of an immense bed of wild poppies, lifting their red cups in the sun, and reflecting back their crimson glint as if the rays had become permeated by a stream of blood.

Hundreds of these poppy patches were descried between the reservoir and the foothills of what was then known as the Sierra Madre, or what we call the San Gabriel, range of mountains. Heading toward the mission and the valley broadly, it was concluded that “the eye is greeted with a constant panorama of fruits and flowers” and it was reiterated that “our country could not fall under the eye of a stranger at a more attractive moment.” Prosperity was afoot “and nothing would seem wanting to render man content with a situation which nature has so bountifully supplied with all that is useful and beautiful.”

To the west along the coast, another paean was published regarding a location once named, not very enticingly, as “Shoo-Fly Landing,” but which was to be the site of an “embryo metropolis” called Truxton, a name that hardly was an improvement. In any case, the Express cited at length from a newspaper that became the Bakersfield Courier in Kern County that approvingly wrote of the area including the assertion that “it had never before been our good fortune to gaze on a prospect more extensive, varied and passing through more gradations of character.”

Gazing on “an extensive half-moon shaped bay” that was “inexpressibly pleasant and soothing to look upon,” the unnamed correspondent continued “that a place like this should have so long escaped notice is strange.” It was added, though, that under two years prior, a large tract was acquired “by a gentleman, formerly resident in Kern County” with other lands purchased shortly afterward, and that, with partners from England and California,

They contemplate nothing less than the great enterprise of turning the bay and lands adjacent to the use and purposes for which nature clearly designed them. To this end connection by rail is to be made with Los Angeles, wharves are to be built, a town laid out, and the nucleus thereof established in the shape of the largest hotel on the coast, warehouses and other necessary buildings . . . Its importance as a commercial point, the great port of the southern coast, and the the real terminus of the Southern Transcontinental Railroad . . . we regard as certain to be manifest. As a watering-place, a resort for health and pleasure, nature has made it one of the most desirable in the world. To say nothing of the other advantages, the beach for bathing is unsurpassed, and to those who are able to indulge in sailing [and] yachting . . . various points on the coast offer the finest and most interesting objective points for acquatic [sic] excursions.

The Truxton site was said to be both on “a level plain” but with “a considerable inclination toward the sea,” while, concerning 40-foot tall bluffs, “it is proposed to slope them down in the form of a glacis [a gently sloping bank] to the beach.” A 500-yard long wharf would go out to a 25-foot depth in the Pacific to accommodate the craft of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, which dominated coastal shipping of goods and people and a railroad of over 12 miles to Los Angeles “is an easy and inexpensive operation” with it asserted that no bridges or even grading were required.

The unnamed owner of the land in question was Edward F. Beale and his California partner was Robert S. Baker, the second husband of Arcadia Bandini de Stearns, scion of a well-known Californio family and widow of prominent merchant and landowner Abel Stearns. Truxton, however, soon went unrealized as the area was acquired by United States Senator John P. Jones, a mining magnate from Nevada, who rechristened the project as Santa Monica, the name of the rancho on which the town was to be built.

As to the railroad, just a few weeks later, the Los Angeles and Independence Railroad was formed, with F.P.F. Temple as its president. While the road was initially intended to go from the Angel City to the Inyo County seat because of access to booming silver mines in eastern California, Jones purchased a majority interest in the stock and decided a branch line to Santa Monica was to be built first. This was achieved in fall 1875, but this was after the collapse of the California economy due to the bursting of a Virginia City, Nevada silver mine stock bubble and the lingering effects of a national depression that erupted two years prior.

The L.A.&I, which constructed a wharf not dissimilar to that mentioned above, ended up being sold to the Southern Pacific in 1877 and Santa Monica, enduring, as the region did, the moribund economy that marked the end of the Seventies and into the subsequent decade, rebounded during the much bigger Boom of the 1880s, and became a prominent coastal city. The SP hoped to get federal support to make Santa Monica the regional port over San Pedro/Wilmington, but the Free Harbor Fight of the Nineties resulted in the feds selected the latter instead.

Not all of the page two content was positive or promotional, however, as shown in the “Let Justice Be Done” article, which cited the Anaheim Californian, which asserted that “the people of the southern portion of the county will become reconciled to live along in harmony with the rest of the county if they be treated in a spirit of fairness by the Supervisors in all matters touching general public improvements.” That area of Los Angeles County was sparsely populated compared to in and around the City of Angels and much of the San Gabriel Valley, though Anaheim, founded in 1857, was growing somewhat substantially and newer communities like Orange, Santa Ana, Tustin and Westminster joined in the chorus of complaint about being ignored. Several secession efforts ultimately culminated in the 1889 creation of Orange County.

The Express offered the view that “nobody here wishes to make any unjust discrimination against that section” and was in favor of encouraging improvements there as needed. Reiterating that Angelenos possessed no “narrow prejudices,” the paper instead averred that “they wish to see every portion of the county prosperous” and the whole benefited by the success of its parts. It concluded,

Let the people of Anaheim or elsewhere who feel that they have actual grievances to remedy, present them in proper shape, and we can assure them that the cordial aid of the people of this city will not be found wanting. We have no disposition to interpose the slightest obstruction to any measure of public improvement which may be asked by any portion of our people. On the contrary we shall be found as faithfully advocating the opening of new roads leading into Anaheim as into any other town or city in the county. Let us clearly see what you want, shows that it will subserve a fair public necessity, and you will find us ready and willing to second you in your demands.

A notable news item concerned a report that “a party of [mining] prospectors composed of three Mexicans and one American, from the vicinity of Los Nietos [modern Whittier/Santa Fe Springs]” who were working some claims in Tujunga Canyon recently came upon “a party of wild Indians, a renegade band from the Piute tribe, which wanders into this and San Bernardino county at certain seasons of the year.”

It was added that when the indigenous group saw the quartet of miners “they became greatly excited, and fire a volley of [gun]shot and arrows at them.” The latter found cover “and one of their number soon picked out a leading Indian and fired” and “the red man was morally hit, and his companions at once decamped.” The concern was that the native people would seek retribution and anyone residing in the vicinity was advised “to keep a wary lookout.” The Express ended by stating “it is to be regretted that the prospectors deemed it necessary to resort to extreme measures with this errant band, for it leaves innocent parties at their mercy.”

Lastly, the second page reported on the presentation by an acting troupe headed by Samuel W. Piercy at Turnverein Hall, the Spring Street venue operated by the German Turn Verein benevolence society. The turnout was considered good and “the performance throughout was interesting and well received,” even though a woman who was to perform a scene from “Romeo and Juliet” was a late scratch from the program. It was added that “the amateurs all did splendidly,” including local musicians such as guitarist Miguel S. Arevalo, violinist and merchant Mendel Meyer, Arevalo’s music school partner pianist W. Falkenau and violinist Francisco Coronel.

The news section on the third page was rather sparse with the “Local Items” of brief notes stating that “the chain-gang” of city prisoners “has commenced operations in the Plaza,” this involving cleaning up the historic center of the city as well as the brief note that “the Fifteenth Amendment anniversary ball,” held by African-Americans celebrating the ratification in 1870 of the right for Black men to vote, was to take place in the evening at Stearns’ Hall, which sat where U.S. 101 runs through downtown today.

The Spring and Sixth Street Railway, a single horse and one car system that modestly inaugurated rapid transit in Los Angeles, announced an assessment of $10 per share to stockholders and this was “payable immediately to the Treasurer, Mr. Temple.” Construction was well underway and the company, headed by attorney, former judge and real estate promoter Robert M. Widney, opened service on the first of July.

Another interesting bit of news mentioned that poll-tax collector Mike Madigan was out of town recently gathering assessments and “was overhauled on the road by a man whom he says he recognized as the famous Tiburcio Vasquez,” the notorious bandido wanted for the 1873 murders of several persons at Tres Piños in the north. Though Vásquez was being hunted by authorities, the report added that Madigan, “not at all dismayed by the company of this renowned bandit,” rode with him for the entire day, “chatting good-humoredly all the way.” The piece ended with,

As they were about to separate, Vasquez handed Mike two dollars, saying: “Don Miguel, let is not be said that Vasquez would seek to evade a miserable poll-tax imposed by a government which has so high an appreciation of his value as to offer $15,000 for his head. Here, let my mite be contributed to maintain so good and liberal an administration!” Miguel has officially returned the poll-ax of Tiburcio Vasquez.

As always, these ventures into the pages of 1870s Los Angeles newspapers are both interesting and instructive in learning about what transpired during the region’s first boom, one in which F.P.F. Temple and his father-in-law William Workman were heavily involved, especially though their Temple and Workman bank and the many business projects they undertook.