Read All About It in the Los Angeles Star, 13 May 1874

by Paul R. Spitzzeri

Vastly overshadowed by the much larger Boom of the Eighties, which peaked during the administration of Los Angeles Mayor William H. Workman (nephew of Homestead founders William Workman and Nicolasa Urioste), the region’s first significant and sustained period of growth took place during the late 1860s and first half of the following decade and peaked in 1874 and 1875.

The elder Workman and his son-in-law, F.P.F. Temple, among the area’s wealthiest residents, were major participants in the boom with involvement in many enterprises in banking, mining, railroads, real estate and others. As is so often the case in the fevered times, they overextended and, along with the poor management of their Temple and Workman bank, they were financially ruined when the boom went bust in late 1875 and into the next year.

The Homestead is happy to have several hundred Los Angeles-area newspapers from this period in its collection to allows to better understand and interpret this important, yet underappreciated period. The highlighted artifact from the Museum’s holdings for this latest “Read All About It” post is the 13 May 1874 edition of the Los Angeles Star, published by Benjamin C. Truman and which has several interesting pieces of content to share.

In the second page editorial section, the paper quoted from the journal, The California Teacher, concerning a new state law, to go into effect on the 1st of July, making school attendance compulsory for all districts. It was noted that the proscriptions did not apply to children who were educated at home or in private schools, but those aged 8-14 and subject to the public school district in which they lived were to attend at least two-thirds of the year, with at least twelve weeks to be consecutive, unless otherwise excused for reasons of ill-health of the student or guardians or because of a school closing for three months within a prescribed distance.

Violation of the law constituted a misdemeanor with a first offense bringing fines up to $20, a second from that amount to $50, and all court costs to be assessed to the guilty party with the fines going to the school fund for the district involved. Another section required that all children between 6 and 21 years of age who were determined to be “deaf, dumb or blind” were to be sent to “the asylum provided by the State for the education of such unfortunates, for a period of not less than five years” unless excused as noted above.

The editorial ended with the comment that it was hoped that the law and its “persuasive efforts to induce parents and guardians to send their children” to school would have the desired effect and inculcate “a decided impetus to be onward march of universal education.” It was also observed that,

education to a certain extent is insisted upon as the prerogative of, and the right belonging to, every child; and if the ministerial and executive officers of the law to their duty, ignorance of the elementary branches of learning, at least, will hereafter be the exception, not the rule, among the youth of the land.

Another item of note on this page was a card taken out the prior day by Lucas Marasovich, a confectioner and miner from Croatia who had mining interests in the Cahuenga Pass in present Hollywood and near Warner’s Springs in San Diego County. Marasovich took exception to an article by the Los Angeles Herald titled “Woman Murder” in which he asserted that “the testimony,” presumably by the Coroner’s inquest jury, “goes to prove that I am innocent of such a crime.”

Marasovich castigated the witness, Navio Valenzuela, and claimed that his wife Rafaela Ledesma, “has been subject to the heart disease for 14 years, during which time I have lived with her and married to her for the same length of time—by the Priest, in San Francisco.” He added that he “attended to all her wants, such as medicine, food, and household matters,” but entered a room in which he was located “and fell between the wall and bed” and died. The statement ended with “Navio Valenzuela is my enemy and what he says I will investigate.”

As has been noted in a prior post here, however, Marasovich, indicted for manslaughter on the charge of beating his wife and leading indirectly to her death, was convicted of simple assault and battery and sentenced to a year in the county jail. After seven months, he was pardoned by Governor Romualdo Pacheco, and he moved to San Diego to continue his work as a candy maker and miner.

Marasovich had other legal problems, including the shooting and killing of a man, though he appears to have been exonerated of a crime and he lived in San Francisco at various times. In 1901, a relative advertised in that northern city for information about Marasovich’s whereabouts, with it stated he was last known to be in Seattle, perhaps heading for the Yukon Gold Rush.

The third page and its “Local News in Brief” section includes the report that the “Spring and Sixth Street Railroad is nearly finished to Grasshopper street,” we know this thoroughfare as Figueroa now, and “the first car will be put on in about a week or ten days.” This first “rapid” transit system, in which a single horse drew a single car on tracks through the small downtown, was led by real estate promoter, attorney and former District Court Judge Robert M. Widney, while F.P.F. Temple was its treasurer. Briefly mentioned was the second streetcar line, that of David V. Waldron to his Washington Gardens, south of town, though the line was not finished.

Another tidbit referred to the public library, of which Temple’s son Thomas was a founding trustee when it was established late in 1872, and, specifically, a question by a “lady subscriber,” of which there were 15 according to another tidbit in the edition, about whether “she is entitled to full membership upon the terms with gentlemen, including the right to vote and eligibility to trusteeship,” which was answered in the affirmative. Briefly reported on was the upcoming horse races at Agricultural (now Exposition) Park, with entries closed that evening.

A local firm, Miles and Holbrook, was credited with having “manufactured about 5 miles of Asphaltum covered water pipe, this season, three miles of which have been laid for the San Gabriel Orange Association, the remainder for Mr. Beaudry, and Messrs. Wilson and Shorb.” The first of these projects involved what was soon named Pasadena for the Association and it is interesting to note that Charles E. Miles, proprietor of the firm, was working on the pipelaying in April, when he was accosted by the famed bandit chieftain, Tiburcio Vásquez, who was fleeing the Monterey Park area after attempting to rob rancher Alessandro Repetto of $800 (withdrawn from the Temple and Workman bank) and heading towards the San Gabriel Mountains—though he took time to relieve Miles of his watch as he did so.

Prudent Beaudry, elected mayor of Los Angeles at the end of 1874, was actively developing his large landholdings in the hills west of downtown, including Bunker Hill and Bellevue Terrace, including a sophisticated water pumping and delivery system to these elevated tracts. Benjamin D. Wilson and his son-in-law James DeBarth Shorb were busy with their Lake Vineyard and Alhambra projects, the former involving Temple as treasurer. The account ended that “this important industry” of insulated water pipes “is in its mere infancy” but observed that “hundreds of miles of iron pipe will be laid in Los Angeles County in the next few years.” This was curbed, however, by the impending economic downturn.

Also briefly referred to was the criminal case against Bernard Newman, who squatted on lands owned by Workman, Temple and their compadre Juan Matias Sánchez on the Rancho Potrero Grande, south of El Monte. The Star noted that the jury deliberated for 1 1/2 hours before declaring Newman guilty of shooting and badly wounding Deputy County Sheriff J. Peter (Pete) Gabriel, earlier in the year, as the officer was preparing to serve an eviction notice. It was noted that Newman’s attorneys would appeal and, as a previous post here stated, he, having been handed a 5-year prison sentence, was acquitted after a second trial.

Temple and Workman’s sole commercial banking competitor was The Farmers’ and Merchants’ Bank of Los Angeles, formed by their former partner, Isaias W. Hellman, a brilliant merchant who went on to run Wells Fargo and Ireland native and California Governor John G. Downey. An interesting tidbit concerned the installation of “the treasure vault” in the new bank building on the west side of Main Street just completed.

The piece recorded that the vault was 72 square feet and 8 feet high with 3-foot brick walls on all six sides, in the midst of which was “a grating 3 inches by 1/2 inch[es] of iron.” Moreover, there were three heavy doors to enter, all with combination locks with 2 billion possible configurations and each of which cost $350, with the combination only “known to the person who fixes it on the inside” of each lock. The San Francisco firm which made the vault added “two lions heads [which] serve as ornaments for the front of the vault, which will be finished in imitation of Italian marble and it was concluded, “burglars never tackle their handiwork.”

Another education-related item concerned an important project for Benjamin D. Wilson, who did not have much formal schooling, but wanted a university built in greater Los Angeles. To that end, he donated ten acres at Wilmington, which his friend Phineas Banning established as “East San Pedro” and then renamed for his Delaware hometown and where the small, but growing Port of Los Angeles was developing, for what was called Wilson College.

The institution was under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and is considered the first coed college east of the Mississippi River and the Star noted that the first commencement took place today “at the College buildings, Drum Barracks.” This latter was part of the Civil War camp that Banning arranged with the Union Army, but, nearly a decade after the conclusion of that conflict, part of it was used for the school.

Citizens were encouraged to take the 10 a.m. Los Angeles and San Pedro Railroad train and return to the Angel City the next morning. It was also reported that the College’s women students launched a paper called The Bouquet. Unfortunately, the ensuing financial collapse doomed Wilson College, though the Methodists worked with such figures as Downey (a Catholic), Hellman (a Jew), Widney (who was a Methodist), Ozro W. Childs, and others to found the University of Southern California, which opened its doors in 1880.

Back in the legal realm, the paper recorded that attorney Anson Brunson joined with a new arrival, Rodney J. Hudson, “who comes to this city with more than the usual recommendations.” A rare Anglo California native, who hailed from St. Helena in Napa County and from where his father, David, was a member of the notorious Bear Flag Revolt and a volunteer for John C. Frémont during the American invasion of Mexican California, Hudson studied law in Napa and then studied at the University of Michigan and then the Cumberland University Law School in Tennessee.

It was added that “since his entering there we have noticed quite a number of favorable references to him,” including his well-received address at his alma mater for Washington’s Birthday” as he was completing his education at Cumberland. Before his graduation, Hudson was admitted to the California bar and, after just two years in partnership with Brunson, he was elected as district attorney. Ill-health, however, led him to serve just one term and return north and was a Lake County Superior Court judge for over a decade. Hudson then was a lawyer in Hanford in Tulare County and died in 1918.

Returning to Wilmington, another feature in this issue concerned The Southern California Co-operative Warehouse and Shipping Association, launched by Banning, Wilson, Downey, Shorb, Leonard J. Rose, Lewis Wolfskill and others, including F.P.F. Temple, who was its treasurer. Banning, however, only recently resigned as vice-president and a director, for reasons not stated, and Downey replaced him as the second-ranking official behind Wilson.

The Star added that the company’s officials

are pushing their new wharf at Wilmington to an early completion, so as to receive and forward the grain of the approaching harvest. They are prepared with ample grain bins in their commodious warehouse to receive grain in bulk, to be held for sale or shipment, which will result in great saving of expense in sacking, as the producer can ship by rail or haul to the warehouse in wagons either in bulk or sack . . . Should parties desire to hold grain for a better market, the Company’s warehouse receipt will pass current in this or the San Francisco money market as a first-class collateral security.

William Workman, who had some 5,000 acres on his “Wheatfield Ranch” within his massive portion of Rancho La Puente, was almost certainly among those who could ship his grain to the Company facility, especially now that the Southern Pacific Railroad line from Los Angeles to Spadra (Pomona) opened just the prior month and a transfer to the Los Angeles and San Pedro, which the SP acquired as part of its subsidy deal in fall 1872, for transport to Wilmington.

The article continued that Downey visited the operation and was satisfied with the situation, this being lauded with the firm’s policies as important as “being pregnant with solid benefits for the entire county.” Also highlighted was Downey’s views on a “strict preservation of the most harmonious feelings between Los Angeles and Wilmington” because such a close tie, which led 35 years later to the annexation of the latter by the former, meant that “whatever proves profitable to one will secure the like benefits to the other.”

As to the wharf, it was reported that piles were being driven and lumber was “lying along the bay along the line of the projected work.” This material, handled by five men, came in a 72 cents per thousand feet, a reflection in the “great reduction in the price of lumber.” The paper also noted that “no one can venture to doubt the solvency and integrity of the company while its affairs are controlled by, and its responsibilities rest with, such men” as those named above. As with Wilson College, however, the financial disaster that soon struck also brought a quick end to the firm.

As always, the advertising includes some interesting and notable examples, including for the new Brunson & Hudson firm; an Arroyo Seco picnic on the 17th hosted by a German fraternal society, with a theatre and ball in the evening at the Turnverein Hall on Spring Street; and the opening of a Los Angeles office of the State Investment Insurance Company, based in San Francisco, but with the Angel City directors and stockholders including Childs, Downey, Hellman, Temple and John Jones.

We’ll continue sharing examples of historic regional newspapers in the “Read All About It” series, including those from the 1870s boom, so keep an eye out for those.