by Paul R. Spitzzeri
With a direct transcontinental railroad link made by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe (Santa Fe for short) to greater Los Angeles at the end of 1885, the region was primed to enter a period of growth and development that dwarfed the previous boom of the late 1860s and first half of the 1870s by significant orders of magnitude. The Boom of the Eighties was truly transformative—demographically, economically, politically and socially—and it peaked during the mayoral term of William H. Workman, nephew of Homestead founders William Workman and Nicolasa Urioste, and who served in as the Angel City’s chief executive from 14 December 1886 to 10 December 1888.
It should come as no surprise as the region grew during the boom, railroad development continued to be critical and the featured artifact from the Museum’s collection for this post highlights this. The object is a letter from William B. King of the California Southern Railroad Company from its Los Angeles office to Richard Smith of New York City and is dated 16 June 1887, deep in the middle of the boom.
Smith was treasurer of the Cincinnati, Jackson and Mackinaw Railroad, a Midwest rail company headed by John M.C. Marble of Van Wert, in western Ohio, but he also had his hand in another project involving King in the Angel City. William Brayton King (1859-1905) was a native of Edinburg, Ohio, east of Akron and his father, a Civil War veteran and Union Army prisoner of war, who spent a short time at the notorious Libby prison, William L. was a farmer, but later worked as coal mine superintendent and a road-master for a railroad, this latter position meaning responsibility for the maintenance of a specific section of track.
It is small wonder that the younger King became deeply involved in both mining and railroad work and it may be that he began his career in the latter field with the Ohio railroad in which Smith and Marble were leading figures. Why he migrated to Los Angeles is not known, though a strong possibility was for health reasons, a major driver for migration to the mild climate of our region for those suffering from any number of issues, including tuberculosis.
In any case, by summer 1885, just as that transcontinental connection was being effected by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, King was employed by the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Railroad. This company was established two years earlier to build a line to the Angel City from Pasadena, which, after its founding during the previous boom and years of stagnation, was poised to become a key community in the San Gabriel Valley, including for wealthy Easterners wintering or settling in the Crown City.
After the LA&SGVRR’s first contractor went belly-up, a new one was hired earlier in the year and it may be that King came out just in time to be brought in, with the Los Angeles Times of 30 August reporting that “W.B. King, who has charge of the construction train is to be the conductor of regular trains when the road is in operation.” This happened within a few weeks and a lengthy Times feature on 13 September on the newly completed line, which terminated in East Los Angeles (now Lincoln Heights) listed King as conductor. This route is now that of the Metro Gold Line, now being extended from Azusa to Montclair with a 2028 completion date.
In October 1886, when the paper’s edition of the 12th, reported on the LA&SGVRR’s new locomotive arriving from Pittsburgh, it was added that “under the new service W.B. King will be trainmaster, and be in charge of train and telegraph employees and the movements of cars.” Notably, there was talk of extending the line to Duarte as construction actually began where San Dimas is today and headed westward, while plans were made to go east to North Pomona (Claremont.)
In late May 1887, the company was sold to the California Central Railway, a newly formed concern based in San Bernardino and which, thanks to the acquisition, now included a route to Los Angeles, but a nearly 20-mile line from Perris to San Jacinto, in what soon became Riverside County, while another branch extending from the Angel City to Port Ballona, where, in the previous boom, F.P.F. Temple and partners planned a line, but which never got past the early planning stages.
It appears that at this point, King joined another railroad firm, the California Southern Railroad Company, a subsidiary of the aforementioned Santa Fe and which was formed in 1880 to construct a line from San Diego to the desert town of Barstow. After the project reached Colton where the Southern Pacific, long dominant in California railroading, had a major station, a battle ensued about access to cross the SP line, but the California Southern won a court case and pushed northward through the Cajon Pass (Temple’s Los Angeles and Independence Railroad actually secured a right-of-way and conducted some grading and partial tunnel work in the Pass in 1875) and the finishing of the road to Barstow in December 1885 that made that transcontinental link a reality.
After about a year-and-a-half of leasing SP track, the Santa Fe completed its line through the northern San Gabriel Valley, including on the former LA&SGVRR track and the first of its trains entered Los Angeles on the last day of May 1887. While this was happening the Santa Fe worked to streamline its various southern California subsidiaries and, on 20 May, the California Central was established, though the California Southern was omitted and no longer officially served the Los Angeles route, keeping its separate identity for its lines from Colton to Barstow and from the former to San Diego.
King, then, made another move as reported by the Los Angeles Herald of 1 June, the day after that Santa Fe train completed its inaugural run to the Angel City. The California Central moved operations from the East Los Angeles station built by the LA&SGVRR and moved to a new depot along west side of the Los Angeles River between 1st and 2nd streets, with the paper mentioning a new street established between these two, this being Santa Fe Avenue, which now extends south to South Gate. The article also noted that King moved to a new headquarters at the First Street location, where today a massive Metro building is situated. The Times of the 2nd called King “one of the most promising young railroaders in the service” as he moved to the California Central as train-master.
This leads to the missive from King to Smith and the next big project. The letter, on California Southern letterhead, although the writer was now part of the California Central (both, of course, under the Santa Fe umbrella), began with the note that,
I telegraphed you on tuesday [sic] that it was important we should hear from you at once. I was prompted so to do, for the reason that we are losing ground every day we delay in securing our Los Angeles property.
Specifically, he continued, “the City is making every effort to have the track of the SP Co. removed from Alameda St. and offer them property and right of way on [the] East side of [the] Los Angeles River.” Additionally, there was talk that the Sisters of Charity School property at Alameda and Macy (now César Chávez Avenue) was on the offing, but King noted, this “is the property we want, also that on [the] East side of [the] River.” The land on the east side of the river was in the “flats” of the Boyle Heights neighborhood, founded by Mayor Workman a dozen years prior, while the Sisters of Charity school was just north of the Plaza.
Significantly, the letter went on, “the City is anxious to have the east side of the River protected before winter,” likely because of such terrible floods as in 1883-1884, and he hoped that there would be no problem in opening conversation with the SP and “in procuring [a] right of way and also [a] terminal location where we want it , if approached by the proper parties.” He reinforced that “something must be done with them very soon and, to that end, King told his correspondent,
I had a long talk with Mayor Workman this morning about the SP Co. and he said they were disposed to consider the offer favorably. If the SP should go to the east side of the River it would be serious for us, if it did not block us altogether.
Also mentioned was the expiration of a purchase option for “the Altadena road,” this being the Pasadena Railroad organized by John Woodbury (developer with a brother of Altadena—”Upper Pasadena”), Andrew McNally (the famous Chicago map-making company owner) and George G. Green (whose Hotel Green is a Pasadena landmark) earlier in 1887. Woodbury had visions of building his line east and north all the way to Utah, not that different from the Los Angeles and Independence idea of extending its line, after completed to Inyo County silver mine towns like Cerro Gordo (where Temple was heavily invested) to the transcontinental line in the Mormon Zion.
King continued, though, that “Mr. Woodbury is getting very anxious as the stock holders are urging him to proceed with their matters.” Remarkably, it was added that “a new Co. has been organized to build a road . . . to the top of Wilson’s Peak, and work is to be commenced at once. It will do a large passenger business and we should be in a position to arrange a connection with them at the foot of the mountain, if we do not the AT [Santa Fe] will run a branch to that point.” This project was something of a conceptual precursor to the Mount Lowe Railway that was completed several years later and which was a major tourist attraction for some four decades.
Another important piece of information was that Smith was informed by King that, “I called on Judge Silent yesterday for the first time since you left.” The 27 February 1887 edition of the Times briefly noted that “Col. Richard Smith, a prominent railroad contractor, whose home is at Yonkers, New York” was staying in Pasadena. The correspondent continued, “he informed me that the abstract [of title] would be ready in three weeks and also that we should do something about the Los Angeles property without further delay as it was dangerous” to wait. Charles Silent was a major figure in Angel City and was a lawyer with former member of Congress Sherman O. Houghton as well as a real estate figure with Inglewood, Redondo Beach and Redlands and owner of a large country estate in modern Glendora.
The letter ended with the note that “Mr. [L.R.] Winans [another Pasadena resident and head of a San Pedro lumber company] us away and will be for the next ten days,” so Smith was encouraged to get in contact with Woodbury or King and to “let us know from you by wire at the earliest possible moment, as we have no time to lose in getting under way.” This was because “the AT&SF are now and have been since June 1st” operating through the California Central and “we are doing business at 1st St,” as reported by the Herald, “and I have been very busy since that time.”
What King wrote to Smith about were the preliminaries, in terms of securing desired property on that east bank of the Los Angeles River, for a railroad project that would be heavily promoted in the Angel City press upon its announcement in early October 1887. We’ll move to part two of this post for that and also cover much of King’s life in subsequent years before his death less than two decades later, so be sure to check back with us for the continuation of this remarkable transportation tale of late 19th century greater Los Angeles.