“Your Vineyards Are Crowded With Every Variety of Vines the Wide World Affords”: Winemaking in Greater Los Angeles in 1865

by Paul R. Spitzzeri

The year 1865 is an especially interesting one when it comes to the history of greater Los Angeles. The end of the Civil War, which did include some major tensions in a region dominated by Confederate-sympathizing Southern Democrats and a major presence of Union Army troops (and Charles M. Jenkins, the only local to fight for the Union on the battlefield, returned home in late summer), was quickly followed by the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.

The previous several years, moreover, included a winter of terrible floods (an estimated 50 inches of rain fell that season of 1861-1862) followed by a crushing drought lasting the resulting two years. Beyond this, fields were decimated by an invasion of grasshoppers, while smallpox raged through the indigenous and Latino communities. An economy already impaired by the end of the Gold Rush was badly bruited about by these conditions and some residents left, including Jonathan Temple, whose departure came after near four decades as one of the most prominent denizens of the area.

Yet, within a few years, the winds of change became more favorable (and not the searing Santa Anas!) as the region embarked on its first significant and sustained boom period, which lasted from the late Sixties through the mid Seventies, including a prominent role played by F.P.F. Temple as a “city maker” along with his father-in-law William Workman. A major part of the transition centering in the mid-1860s period was that of greater Los Angeles moving from being the heart of “cow counties” relying on cattle ranching to a more diverse economy including a major rise in agriculture.

At the time, the leading article of produce from the region’s farms and ranches was the grape and, specifically, for making wine and brandy. In Thomas Pinney’s The City of Vines: A History of Wine in Los Angeles, published in 2017 by Heyday Books and winner of the California Historical Society book award, we learn of the dominance this area had in the viticulture of the Golden State during this period, though that was very soon to change because of the growing importance of Napa and Sonoma counties, and other areas in the north.

As Pinney noted, while the so-called Mission grape was brought by missionaries during the Spanish colonizing regime of the late 18th century and some missions, especially San Gabriel, were industrious in its cultivation, while the Mexican-era included an expansion of the endeavor by many locals, a major explosion in the industry came after the American seizure of California in the late 1840s and the Gold Rush period that followed. Many of the grape growers and wine manufacturers were Latinos, while a growing number of Americans and Europeans took up the business.

The author does not mention viticultural efforts by the Workman and Temple family in any great detail, though he noted that Jonathan Temple and his mercantile partner George Rice had a four-acre vineyard east of San Pedro Street and west of the Los Angeles River, where much of the pueblo’s grape-growing was conducted. Pinney also wrote of Temple’s 1839 correspondence with Monterey merchant and American consul Thomas O. Larkin concerning the sale of wine and brandy by Spanish native Eulogio de Célis.

At Rancho La Puente, he briefly recorded, “John Rowland and William Workman . . . developed a substantial winemaking business there,” while at the adjacent Rancho La Merced, given by Workman to his son-in-law, F.P.F. Temple, was mentioned as having “planted 50,000 vines.” The prominent duo of Charles Kohler and John Fröhling, natives of Germany, were observed as having gone out in 1859 to La Puente to make wine at Workman’s vineyard.

It is understandable why so little was said about the Workman and Temple family’s work in raising grapes and making wine and brandy because there were several others who were far more prominent in the field regionally. These included Jean Louis Vignes (whose name was perfect for his occupation, vignes being French for “vines”), his nephews Jean Louis and Pierre Sainsevain, Irish merchant Mathew Keller, Americans William Wolfskill and Benjamin D. Wilson (and his son-in-law, James deBarth Shorb), and German native Leonard J. Rose. Also of significance during the 1860s was the new colony of Anaheim, formed by German emigrants who mostly pursued viticulture even as the floods and droughts wreaked havoc on their early efforts.

What Pinney also emphasized was the quality of the products from greater Los Angeles vineyards. Though the Mission grape produced a red wine, it was uniformly judged to be of poor quality—he noted that, while it had a hefty 15 percent alcohol content, the lack of tartaric acid mean the wine “was grotesquely imbalanced.” Better were the lighter and sweeter white wines (the skin was removed before fermentation), while the “fortified” brandy, or aguardiente, was very popular because the addition of sugars significantly raised the alcohol content—small wonder the alcoholism was such a perennial problem at the time.

The writer covered the later 19th century, including intensive efforts to market local wines in the east coast and Europe, but, generally, with not enough success and then the disaster that came with Pierce’s disease (caused by a bacterial infestation), which started in Anaheim and rapidly spread, destroying almost all of the vineyards in the area. He examined the growing temperance movement and the onset of Prohibition, which, while a failure as a “noble experiment” to curb social ills brought about by excess drinking, significantly affected the wine industry, even after the constitutional amendment’s 1933 repeal. Finally, Pinney brought his story to recent years, observing there are small isolated vineyards still around today. It seems safe to say that The City of Vines is definitive and it is well worth a read for anyone interested in Los Angeles history, if not viticulture and wine specifically.

Circling back to 1865, the aforementioned aggressive expansion of viticulture and wine-making in Sonoma and Napa counties generally is traced to the efforts in the former of Hungarian native Agoston Haraszthy (who lived in San Diego during the Gold Rush years before going north and whose daughter Ida married Los Angeles surveyor Henry Hancock) who purchased Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo’s vineyard, renamed the Buena Vista, and made it the world’s largest in short order, and, at the latter, German Charles Krug, who established the first commercial winery there in 1861.

So, at mid-decade, Los Angeles retained its dominance in California wine production, if not quality, but it would soon be eclipsed in the first point, even as figures like Keller, Rose and Wilson increased their local production and outside marketing efforts, including in Boston, New York City and Philadelphia. With the drought ended and always being among the preeminent boosters of the Angel City, the two newspapers, the Los Angeles News and the Wilmington Journal, the latter recently formed in the ashes and using the press of the Los Angeles Star, were eager to advertise the region.

The Journal of 1 April ran a feature simply titled “California” but with an opening query of “How can its prosperity be promoted?” Aside from the Golden State’s vaunted mineral wealth, diminished as it was with the end of the late rush, there was the fertility of much of the state’s soil and the cute little adage of “tickle it with a hoe and it will laugh with a harvest.” After proclaiming the bounties of the harvesting of vegetables and fruit, the account continued,

Your vineyards are crowned with every variety of vines the wide world affords, and the juice of your grapes are eagerly sought by those who love the “sparkling wine.” Your climate is genial, seeming like a perpetual summer, where the leaves are ever green and where flowers ever bloom. Your limits are extensive; and you are constantly inviting, and securing, too, an immigration to your shores sufficient to build up a mighty empire . . . rejoice that you are placed in such a “goodly land”—a land “flowing with milk and honey;” and send forth thanksgivings instead of complaints to the world.

The next week, the paper quoted from a representative of a San Francisco paper of the same name who came to visit Los Angeles. On the approach from the rudimentary harbor at San Pedro/Wilmington, it was noticed that fences made of closely planted willows protected “fields of grain, vineyards, peach and pear trees in blossom and lots of flowers” with the Angel City discerned from four miles out because of the Market House, built by Jonathan Temple, a half-decade before and the white clocktower of which was a landmark for those nearing town.

The visitor observed that “a stranger unaccustomed to Spanish towns would not consider Los Angeles a pretty place” as the single-story adobe houses were unimpressive, though one would “find upon entering these uncouth buildings that they are . . . well furnished, and make comfortable dwellings.” Climbing atop Fort Moore Hill, the view included “the vineyards and orchards arrayed in their new Spring garb, each surrounded with a thriving willow fence.”

Shown the extensive property of William Wolfskill, it was recorded that there were 2,000 orange trees and 60,000 vines and the tract was so impressive that the unnamed journalist uttered, “how different this country would appear if each landholder would thus exert himself in developing his possessions to the utmost.” After the two-day excursion, which included seeing the Protestant Cemetery on Fort Moore Hill and the old Calvary Cemetery at the base of the Elysian Hills, the return was made to the harbor, during which was encountered “a company of our brave soldiers on their way to Arizona, who received the good wishes of all as they went marching on.”

On 18 July, the Journal‘s editor took a trip with local sheep rancher Nathaniel Narbonne (for whom the street and high school are named) to Anaheim, “noted for its vineyards and wine,” and, after a stop at the adobe headquarters of the Rancho Los Alamitos (still standing amid a hilltop residential tract near Cal State Long Beach), a difficult 24-mile journey concluded with, among “a vast forest of willows,” the passage through the “West gate” of the German colony (there were such entries at the other cardinal points, as well).

After resting at the house of prominent Anaheimian (?) August Langenberger, the visitors “visited the vineyards” of several others, with Jacob Keller showing them his vines and orchards and presenting them “a bunch of grapes of excellent flavor.” Adding “we must not forget his wine,” the paper noted that the common question on meeting someone was “come, take a drink” and it was observed “woe to the unprotected temperance man who enters the gates of Anaheim!”

With the “straight-forward, plain-spoken people” of Anaheim, it was second nature to offer wine, especially to Narbonne who “undertook the task of drinking for two Wilmingtonians; so we dubbed him the drinking editor of the JOURNAL.” Three other vineyards were visited, with Henry Bremerman showing off his cellar, “where the tasting editor slaked his thirst out of one of the favorite pipes,” or barrels. Under the house of another resident, Theodore Reiser, “our faithful companion [was] busy sipping the juice of the grape,” while it was commented that the ubiquitous willows were used to fence in and protect vineyards.

When sitting down in Reiser’s parlor, the host offered more liquid refreshment and, though Narbonne affected to declare himself full, “we noticed before his departure [that] the pitcher was empty.” Stopping off to see the town’s postmaster and invited to partake again, Narbonne begged off, insisting that “my day’s work is ended” and praised his hosts by proclaiming “that all the wine he had tried in Anaheim was of the very best quality.” Among interesting facts were that the town comprised 1,265 acres, with fifty vineyards and 64 town lots and the total of vines pegged at 600,000, with over 70% bearing. Irrigation came from the Santa Ana River and corn was also abundant.

In a piece in its 14 October edition titled “The Grape Crop,” the Journal quoted the Boston Journal and its assertion that “the culture of the grape in the United States bids fair to rival the fairest vineyards of the old world” and that wine, “if it produces no brand of great celebrity,” was better than “the doubtful compounds of the shops.” Observing that production increased nearly eight-fold during the 1850s, with a third from Ohio and its northeastern region, the Boston paper forecast that “it is probable that California will soon take the first rank among wine producing states” as “her favorable soil and wonderful climate may ripen grapes with as rare a flavor as any that grew” in famous European areas.

Another reference to the Golden State’s viticulture industry in the eastern states came from the News of 25 February, which reported that “to show the increased trade in California wines, it is announced that Perkins, Stern & Co., of New York and Boston, (sole agents of Kohler & Frohling, of San Francisco,) put up no less than 139,000 bottles for 1864.” Moreover, it was averred that “this wine, for its known purity, is fast taking the place of European wines.” For both the October and February pieces, however, it is assumed that much of the attention was on the burgeoning products of the northern part of the state.

The 1 December edition of the paper featured a shorter editorial titled “Improvements” which began with the statement that “while there are no indications of that rapidity of progress in our city that marked the early history of many of the cities and towns of this state, there is a constant improvement that is a sure sign of permanent prosperity.” One of these was that,

Vineyards are being enlarged, fine orchards planted in every direction, and farms have been, and are now being made for miles around the city, where two years ago, nothing grew but clover and wild mustard. Our vineyardists are learning that every year, their vines and trees require less water [which was applicable to field crops] . . . Our population is gradually increasing, and now that large bodies of land [ranchos] have been thrown in to market, we may reasonably expect it to grow much more rapidly, and Los Angeles at no distant day will be one of the most wealthy cities of the Pacific [coast.]

There are occasional references in the Journal and News to shipments of wine via steamers from the port (they had to anchor off-shore because of the shallows and lighters, which are steam-powered craft, carried passengers and freight from shore to the ships—in 1863, a lighter owned by “Port Admiral” Phineas Banning exploded, killing many persons, including Banning’s chief clerk, Thomas H. Workman, William’s nephew). The exports included wine from Kohler and Frohling, Keller, Wilson, Sainsevaine and others. When the state fair awarded premiums for viticulture in late September, Wilson, in partnership with his son John, took seven such prizes for red and white wine, brandy, port, Madeira, sherry, claret and an exhibit of wine from native grapes. Keller bagged three premiums for red and white wines as well as Angelica.

Advertisements can also be found from Keller, who was more colorful than most in his promotion and Andrew Boyle (also from Ireland) and his new Paredon Blanco vintage from a vineyard he acquired from the López family in 1858 where his son-in-law, William H. Workman (Thomas’ brother) founded Boyle Heights a decade later. William M. Buffum marketed his new “wine saloon” on Main Street and he was a wholesale and retail dealer in liquor and beer, along with bitters, cordials and syrups. Later in 1865, H.T. Graves of the California Wire Works in San Francisco, advertised “sieves for steaming grapes” during the winemaking process.

The 8 April edition of the News reported on a recent two-week period that was “the most disagreeable and stormy of any within the knowledge of the oldest American inhabitant,” this being notable given the terrible floods of three years prior. In any case, it was added that “in several localities the frost has cut off the grape shutes [shoots],” while ice collected on bodies of water and the mountains to the east were covered in snow as “the weather still continues boisterous.”

While August updates in the paper portended a good crop, largely because of “the excess of warm weather” considered “favorable to the fruit crop,” and an October harvest report said nothing about the winter weather causing any trouble as grapes were being picked and pressing to be in full operation, an 8 December report in the News noted that the Anaheim yield was smaller than in prior years “owing to the unusually cold weather in the spring.” A separate article on local agriculture asserted that “it is already conceded that we are far ahead of all other sections [of California] in the cultivation of the grape and the manufacture of wines and brandies.”

Also of note, the 29 August edition of the News reported from the San Francisco Call on freighting costs with facts “which may astonish readers as much as it does us.” Namely, “while it costs nine cents a gallon, in gold, to freight wine from Los Angeles to this port, it costs only six cents a gallon, in currency [paper banknotes], to freight from here to New York.” Allowing for the valuation of gold, this really meant a five-cent difference, which was concerning.

The featured artifact from the Homestead’s collection for this post, relating to freighting, is an invoice from the short-lived (1865 and 1866) firm of Turner & Marsh. The San Francisco duo were “importers and jobbers of Wines and Liquors” and the transaction with J.G. Garrison, dated 4 April 1865, was for $183.25 worth of merchandise, including brandy, port and Angelica, which, while these could have been from northern manufacturers, were more likely from greater Los Angeles because these were the best products from southern California.

As for William Workman’s viticultural operations at Rancho La Puente, prior information is of note, including the October 1856 visit of artist Henry Miller, who, in addition to providing drawings for St. Nicholas’ Chapel, built in El Campo Santo Cemetery, described the Workman property and noted “there is a fine and large vineyard and orchard in which grow 12,000 grape vines and ab abundance of fruit of all kind.” The agricultural census of 1860’s federal enumeration showed he had fifty acres and 5,000 gallons of product on hand.

The News of 12 February 1862 listed Workman as producing 6,000 gallons the prior year, tied for 12th among regional winemakers. Earlier in 1861, John Q. A. Warren visited and wrote that “about ten acres are comprised in vineyard and orchard, upon which are about 10,000 vines, which have the past season produced an extra copy” and there were “some 50,000 new vines set out and doing well.” The visitor also recorded that in the courtyard behind the Workman residence was “an arbor of trellis work, covered with grape vines running the entire distance,” something we have now at the Museum.

Tax assessments provide some detail about Workman’s properties and activities, including from 1864 to 1869 his ownership of a vineyard formerly held by Henry Hancock and lying along the Los Angeles River on Arroyo Seco Street, or North Main Street in the vicinity of Elysian Park. In 1867, Workman had 9,000 old vines and 6,000 young ones, as well as a half-dozen fermenting tubs, 45 pipes or barrels and a still along with 1,755 gallons of wine and 694 of brandy. For 1868-1869, he had the same equipment, but 22,000 vines and 3,000 gallons of wine and 200 of brandy. There is also a surviving Internal Revenue License from September 1866 for which he paid $10 for a “license for manufacturing wine from May 1st 1866 to May 1st 1867” and a distiller’s license, costing him $12.50.

Finally, the California State Agricultural Society visited the Workman portion of La Puente on 1 September 1865 and it was recorded that the committee “found a very thrifty vineyard of 10,000 vines, from which we obtained some remarkable fine bunches of the sweetest grapes we have anywhere tasted in this, or indeed, in any other country,” with only some from San Fernando being almost as good. The members did caution that “these vines, however, were not so well pruned, nor so free from weeds as they should be.”

While the Workman and Temple family viticultural enterprises did not warrant more than passing mention in Pinney’s excellent book, it is clear that they were at least part of a cadre of a few dozen or so greater Los Angeles residents engaged in what was, for a while, the center of California grape raising and winemaking and this deserves some remembrance as part of the region’s agricultural history.