by Paul R. Spitzzeri
Continuing with some history of Leonard J. Rose, following on the heels of the recent two-part post by John Marnell of the troubled migration he and his family embarked upon to get to the San Gabriel Valley, we pick up our story at the dawn of the 1870s, as greater Los Angeles was in the early stages of its first boom.
As noted in part one, Rose, his wife Amanda and their children settled, soon after their 1860 arrival, on a tract between the ranchos San Pasqual (Pasadena) and Santa Anita (Arcadia) in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains and dubbed the place “Sunny Slope.” Through the Sixties, he slowly established the citrus and nut orchard, vineyards and horse-breeding establishment that would grow by leaps and bounds in subsequent years.
An ardent Democrat, Rose served the county superintendent of schools and sought such positions as county assessor and supervisor during that decade, though the lion’s share of his attention and efforts were directed towards the improvement of Sunny Slope. After the challenging years of flood and drought during the first half of the 1860s and following the end of the Civil War, when migration came in increasingly larger numbers, Rose took part in several aspects of the boom.
One early example of his horse-breeding operation came with the advertising in the Los Angeles Star at the start of 1871 of the services of his stud Beau Clay, who “will serve a limited number of MARES at SUNNY SLOPE, at FIFTY DOLLARS the season. The horse’s pedigree from Kentucky, the center of the American breeding world, was provided, while Rose also offered “good pasture at three dollars a month,” though all liability through accident or escape was on the owner of the mares.
Rose was the founding president of the Southern District Agricultural Association, of which F.P.F. Temple was a director at the outset, and which held its first fair in November 1871 at Agricultural Park, outside city limits and now Exposition Park. Among the prominent Angelenos spotted by the Star at the event were, among the Californios, who were renowned for their skills on the horse, the brothers Andrés and Pío Pico, Enrique Avila, former sheriff Tomás Sanchez, Francisco Palomares and Manuel Dominguez.
From the American or European population, there were Assembly members-elect Asa Ellis and Thomas D. Mott (the latter a close friend of Rose), Dr. John S. Griffin, county treasurer Thomas Rowan, John Reed of Rancho La Puente, Andrew J. King, Rose’s brother-in-law, Harvey K.S. O’Melveny and former mayor John G. Nichols. Mott’s Lugo and Rose’s Beau Clay (a third horse was disqualified) competed in five heats, with the former, a local horse, besting Rose’s Kentucky pedigreed animal.
Two nights later, on the third, the Association, denoted as the Los Angeles Agricultural Association, held a grand ball and supper in Stearns’ Hall, on Arcadia and Los Angeles streets, just south of where U.S. 101 goes through downtown now. Rose was part of the reception committee with prominent figures like Mott, Fenton M. Slaughter of what is now Chino, ex-Governor John G. Downey, and stable owner William Ferguson. Attendees paid $5 each for admittance and floor managers included lawyer and future federal judge Erskine M. Ross and attorney and future mayor Henry T. Hazard.
With respect to his vineyard and winemaking, an Illinois newspaper ran a notice that a Milwaukee drug store “has the exclusive agency of L.J. Rose’s genuine California wines and brandies,” this presumably being an early indication of his tapping his Midwest connections for distribution of his products beyond the local and state markets, something others locals like Benjamin D. Wilson and Mathew Keller were doing to varying effect. The Rock Island Argus of 30 October tried a sample of angelica, brandy and port, sent to connnoisseurs, and these were “pronounced fully equal to the best French or Rhenish articles, if not exceedingly superior.”
At the end of the year, the Los Angeles News informed its readers that “our attention was called yesterday to a sample of claret manufactured at the Sunny Slope vineyard . . . this claret is pronounced by competent judges as being of superior excellence, and fills the gap which has heretofore existed in our native wine list.” The brief piece concluded with the observation that Rose “has been experimenting during the last two or three years,” though this actually marked his entire career as a wine-maker.
Broadly speaking, under the heading of “Agricultural Improvement,” the Star of 6 July provided a detailed look at the operations at Sunny Slope, with Rose praised for his horse-raising and wine-making. The paper noted the decomposed granitic soil “which makes it unsurpassed even in this favored land . . . for the raising of oranges, lemons, olives, English walnuts, grapes, and fruits generally.” The 155-acre vineyard was considered immense at the time and especially suited for fine brandy and port; in fact, it was adjudged that the conditions were such that “the grape being so sweet that no light wine can be made.”
Notably, the paper added that “Mr. Rose tells us that the great trouble he has while east, is, to convince the people of its purity” because residents elsewhere “can’t see how so luscious a wine can be made from the grape only,” and not be adulterated, this being a common practice with California products sent to other parts of the country. Rose’s output of brandy, at 19,000 gallons, was the highest in the Golden State and was “kept on sale by our druggists, our wine and liquor houses, our hotels and bar rooms, and he “stands at the top of the ladder” among his peers. Finally, the paper concluded,
Sunny Slope is as beautiful a place as can be found on earth, with its acres of vine verdure clothing its slopes, its miles of orange, olive, and Madeira nut avenues, its orange groves and fruit orchards. We want more Sunny Slopes, and men to make them.
An early reference to Rose’s frequent trips to the eastern states to advance his business comes with the 9 May 1872 edition of the Star‘s brief that “the wealthy owner of Sunny Slope” was expected to be in San Francisco several days prior after his excursion, during which “letters received from him by the firm of H[arris] Newmark & Co., indicate that he has had good success in his business transactions.”
Shortly after his return, Rose joined the select Committee of Thirty, appointed by a large assemblage in a convention called in the aftermath of the approval by Congress of a charter allowing the Southern Pacific Railroad to build a line south from the Bay Area to the Colorado River where Yuma, Arizona is located, but mandating that the powerful transportation firm build through Los Angeles.
Among the committee members from Los Angeles were O’Melveny, recent state treasurer Antonio Franco Coronel, Newmark, Downey and F.P.F. Temple, while those in outlying areas included David W. Alexander, Griffith D. Compton, Francisco Palomares, Louis Phillips, Henry Dalton, Tomás Sánchez, Andrés Pico, Francisco Machado, John Reed and, from San Gabriel, Civil War general and future governor George Stoneman, James de Barth Shorb (son-in-law of Benjamin D. Wilson) and Rose.
An interesting rumor that was published in the Star in its 10 September 1873 edition concerned “a possibility of a great real estate sale in this county—the transfer of the Santa Anita ranch, now the property of Messrs. Newmark & Co. and L.J. Rose, Esq.” It was added that the remarkable property immediately adjoining Sunny Slope on the east was purchased from Lewis Wolfskill the prior year for $85,000, what was then considered a handsome sum, while another $40,000 was spent on improvements since.
As related by Rose’s biographer and namesake son, L.J. wanted 640 acres of Santa Anita to add to Sunny Slope after returning from his eastern trip in 1872 and borrowed $30,000 from the prominent San Francisco financial firm of Lazard Fréres. Nearly 700 acres of Sunny Slope, with 360 in vines, 200 to citrus and 100 in walnuts and other fruit, along with the distillery and winery, which, “though of cheap construction, were ample and in good repair,” were put down as collateral for the loan. On the Santa Anita portion, 250 acres were cleared and planted with imported Blue Elben and Burger grapes.
As the younger Rose observed, Santa Anita was owned by Henry Dalton (before that, however, it was granted to Hugo Reid, who was married to an indigenous woman, Bartolomea Comicrabit) and then acquired by Wolfskill’s father, William, though Lewis was also Dalton’s son-in-law. Other portions of Santa Anita were acquired by William S. and Alfred B. Chapman, the latter a prominent real estate attorney with partners Andrew Glassell and the latter’s brother-in-law, George H. Smith.
The remaining 8,000 acres of what was north of 13,000, included an adobe ranch house next to a rare natural lake in the region and had beautiful natural landscapes as well as 5,000 level acres. L.J., Jr. wrote that “Father was very friendly with H. Newmark and Company . . . with whom he did all his trading” and so he convinced Harris Newmark to purchase this lion’s share of Santa Anita for a then-record $85,000.
Returning to the Star article, it asserted that General Nathan Kimball, who fought in such crucial Civil War battles as Antietam and Fredericksburg, while taking part in the campaigns of Vicksburg and Atlanta and inflicted a rare defeat on Confederate General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, offered $140,000 for Santa Anita.
This was on behalf, the paper continued, “of a colony from Indiana” comprising “a hundred or more families of the right kind,” whatever that meant, who “will at once be thrown into the country.” Kimball, it seems, was focused on San Diego County, but “came here to this delightful county by accident.” A deal for Santa Anita was not consummated, but one in the adjoining Rancho San Pasqual, owned by Wilson, Griffin and Benjamin S. Eaton (Stoneman acquired 400 acres in 1872), was purchased for the Indiana Colony, which incorporated early in 1874 and established what became Pasadena.
1874 was a very busy year during the boom and Rose continued his expansion in business opportunities, including as one of seven incorporators of the Southern California Cooperative Warehouse and Shipping Association. This enterprise, led by the “Port Admiral,” Phineas Banning of Wilmington and Wilson, who was closely allied with Banning at the harbor including San Pedro, utilized surplus military buildings from the Civil War-era Camp Drum for its business, as well as construction of a wharf. Other incorporators were Shorb, Wolfskill, Temple and Norman C. Jones.
Rose was also an original incorporator, in April, of what was referred to as the “Cerro Gordo Railroad.” Receiving a state charter to build a line to the silver mines of Inyo County in eastern California, the group, led by F.P.F. Temple and including Downey, Wilson and others. Rose did not remain with the enterprise when it was formally incorporated as the Los Angeles and Independence Railroad and which was only partially completed in 1875.
In May, Rose became a founding stockholder, along with about sixty others, in the Los Angeles Savings Bank, which was led by Jonathan S. Slauson and included Jotham Bixby of Rancho Los Cerritos, Griffin and Robert S. Baker, a partner in Santa Monica and co-owner of part of Rancho La Puente, acquired from William Workman.
Rose’s trip to Washington in the spring, as part of his relentless efforts to improve the market for his wine and brandy, led the directors of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, the precursor to the current one, to request him to “make such application to the Agricultural Department or whatever other department” for seeds for figs, raisin grapes, oaks and others.” The board agreed to furnish Rose with a letter from the Chamber to facilitate his efforts on its behalf.
Wine and brandy shipments included 50 barrels and 10 pipes sent in early March, while it was reported at the same time by the Los Angeles Express that Rose’s sales from 300 orange trees totaled $15,000. Accounting for wages of an orchard supervisor, animal feed, the pay of Chinese fruit pickers (a half-dozen men for three months at $30 monthly), boxes and incidental expenses of not far north of $3,000, the profit of 750,000 oranges at $20 per 1,000 was $11,870, a handsome sum for the period. Rose’s horse-raising activities for the year included selling a mare to his friend Mott and fall races at Agricultural Park.
A 20 August article in the paper reported that samples from “the celebrated Sunny Slope Vineyard” included wine from the Blue Elbe and Zinfandel grapes, with the last determined to be “at the head of the list of extra fine wines,” while the former was “also a favorite with many first-class judges. One local exclaimed, “how happy would I be with either was the other dear charmer away” and the Express concluded,
Such wine as Mr. Rose sends forth from his vineyard must give Southern California a reputation, which will be of great value to the whole grape growing interest.
The paper, in its 14 April edition, reprinted a letter sent to St. Louis that “while at L.J. Rose’s ranch you enter through an avenue half a mile in length, lined on each side with five rows of bearing trees,” and it was added that many agriculturists were “grubbing” out their vineyards in favor of planting oranges.
The aforementioned profit, whether true for all orchards or not, coupled with problems in finding expanded markets for local wine, as Keller and Wilson were discovering, likely explained the change. Rose, however, kept on with his expansion of wine and brandy manufacture and sales, perhaps because of his elevated quality, particularly as he early on discouraged use of the Mission grape for those imported varieties.
The Express of 13 May printed another letter, this one from Joseph Edgar “Ed” Chamberlain, a young journalist with the Chicago Times. On 14 April, he wrote, “the next lion taken by the tourist in his course,” through greater Los Angeles, “is Sunnyslope, the plantation of Mr. L.J. Rose.” Observing that the proprietor had fourteen years of experience, the correspondent noted that Rose “has developed something which has made his name familiar to many, both east and west, and brought to [Sunny Slope’s] address more letters of introduction than a quiet man like Rose might desire.”
It was added that Rose and his family resided “in good style” in what was deemed “a roomy gothic cottage” with that well-known orange tree-lined road and a second that was similarly flanked. Chamberlain added that lemon, walnut and other fruits were raised, as were 160,000 grape vines yielding over 100,000 gallons of wine and about the same in brandy—it should be added that Rose bought grapes from local growers to supplement production from his own vines. Moreover, it was commented upon that,
And yet these vines are not esteemed to be as profitable as the five or six hundred orange trees (occupying perhaps a dozen acres) which Mr. Rose has already in bearing, and from which, with almost no present expense, he realizes $10,000 in any tolerable year. When his remaining 3,500 orange trees come into full bearing, then won’t the annual income swell to a handsome figure? This consummation will the proprietor of Sunnyslope undoubtedly realize within the next four of five years.
In 1875, greater Los Angeles hit the apex of the boom. Rose’s new business ventures included being a stockholder in the publisher of the Los Angeles Herald and acquiring the livery stable of Ferguson and Metzger, situated on the west side of Main Street across from the El Palacio adobe of Abel Stearns (who died in 1871)—though the younger Rose said the purchase was made for the land value, Ferguson and Rose operated for several years afterward for reasons we’ll get into in part three.
In early April, Rose made his Eastern trip after being listed as tied for 15th at $300,000 among the “solid men” of Los Angeles County—the wealthiest citizen was F.P.F. Temple at $1.5 million, with William Workman tied for second with Downey and the Stearns estate at $1 million. In late May, a report in the Express stated that Rose was offered $300,000 for Sunny Slope, which he refused. In late August, the state economy cratered due to a Virginia City, Nevada silver mine stock bubble bursting and the Temple and Workman bank became the first large-scale business failure in Los Angeles as a result.
Meanwhile, that question of the profitability of oranges in comparison to grapes and the wine and brandy therein produced is an important one, while the timeframe of four to five years is also notable, as we press (!) on to part three tomorrow.