by Paul R. Spitzzeri
While the Boom of the 1880s is rightfully remembered as an epochal transformation of greater Los Angeles, including a direct connection to a transcontinental railroad (the Santa Fe route), the burgeoning growth of the Angel City’s population and economy, the establishment of many new towns in the suburbs and hinterlands and much else, the far more modest first boom in the region, which took place in the late 1860s and first half of the 1870s, is generally far less appreciated and understood.
Then, too, there was a significant increase in residents and business; the expansion of local railroads, though an external connection to the north came just afterward in 1876; and new communities in and outside of Los Angeles such as Artesia, Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles (Lincoln Heights), Pomona and San Fernando; the opening of Los Angeles High School and Wilson College; and other attributes.
The Museum is fortunate that its collection includes a sizeable number of newspapers, generally ranging from 1872 to 1875, that help us to better see the myriad changes underway during that inaugural growth period. The issues for this post are those of the 21-22 January 1873 editions of the Los Angeles Express, one of a pair of daily English-language papers, along with the Star, the city’s first sheet, and established in 1871 after the failure of the long-running Los Angeles News.
Published by Tiffany and Company, the evening paper kept its office in the first structure of the Temple Block, the building at the south end being erected by Jonathan Temple in 1857, while his brother, F.P.F., added three more edifices between 1868 and 1871. Subscribers could have a year’s worth of issues for $10 or $5 for a half-year and $2.50 for three months, paid in advance, while delivery set back readers a quarter a week.
While most of the first page was devoted to business cards for doctors, attorneys and others along with local business advertisements, there was some news from beyond the local area. The issue of the 21st reported on a recent attempt to crack the safe of the San Bernardino County sheriff and also relayed news from the Anaheim Southern Californian, including the discovery of a skeleton in remote reaches of the Santa Ana Mountains, the formation of a farmers’ organization, and an assertion that no land in the state could be bought on more favorable terms than in the area that, more than fifteen years later, became Orange County. The next day’s edition had dispatched from the San Bernardino Guardian, including on horse thefts, mining and a call for “a pioneer and historical association” to record recollections and “lay a foundation for authentic history of the settlement of our valley.”
The second page of the paper usually included new and recent ads; birth, marriage and death notices; telegraphed news from elsewhere in the United States and abroad; some local news; and editorials. A notable letter in the edition of the 21st from the nation’s capital from “B.C.T.,” his being Benjamin C. Truman, a San Diego newspaper publisher who later became the Star‘s publisher and author of the 1874 book, Semi-Tropical California, reported that,
From the present appearances I can assure the people of Los Angeles that their Breakwater appropriation will be about $200,000 . . . General [Phineas] Banning and your humble servant testified [to a House of Representatives appropriation committee] as to the condition of the work up to the 5th of December.
The recent early investment by the federal government at the rudimentary harbor in San Pedro/Wilmington involved dredging and the construction of the rock breakwater that significantly improved conditions at the port and paved the way (literally) for future and greater enhancements at what is now the sprawling Port of Los Angeles. On the 22nd, Truman added that there was a likelihood of a reduction of $50,000 in the appropriation, but that this “will be acceptable” and “will do for this year.” He also reported that he’d written two bills regarding postal routes from Los Angeles to San Gabriel and from Wilmington and the port to San Bernardino, via Anaheim and Riverside.
That day’s edition also discussed “Imitation Wines” and noting that makers of sparkling wine, the name given to champagne not made in France, were in Washington, to lobby for permission to manufacture the product, as an Internal Revenue Service circular banned it. It was observed that the IRS commissioner wanted “to protect the native wine grower and the importer from competition with champagne made by a quicker and cheaper process than fermentation, but that the Secretary of the Treasury felt that the move was overly restrictive and appeared to support the making of champagne in America.
The concern was that over-regulation would drive manufacturing of wine to other countries and it was remarked, lead to dangerous adulteration:
All sorts of injurious decoctions are daily sold as pure wines and liquors, and rose cheeked men smack their lips in gusto as they empty into their stomachs quantities of sugar of lead, essence of logwood, burnt sugar, fusil oil, and other ingredients that would not be compounded with wine or distilled or fermented liquors, if the health of the consumer was one of the least concern to the compounder.
For the edition of the 22nd, champagne was the topic of the main editorial, specifically what made a high quality product and highlighted was the cuvée, or blend of grapes. American winemakers did not have the experience of their French counterparts and so were warned to devote more attention to the process, with the admonition that “the greatest care must be taken to keep the mixture perfectly clear of anything that might infect the purity of the flavor and of the aroma.”
Also emphasized was the quality of the cork, with the comment that “if it is derelict, if it is damaged, if it is not firm or strong enough to hold the truculent prisoner committed to its keeping, the best of wines will quickly lose all the charms peculiar to Champagne.” To sum up, it was observed that it was essential “to have the pure taste of wine without the slightest infusion of any foreign element” and to closely follow all the necessities of a clean process, including only the top-flight corkwood properly fitted to the mouth of the bottle.
Greater Los Angeles was long the winemaking center of California, but its superior position was taken by the Napa and Sonoma counties region with its better soil, weather and other conditions, though this area still remained a prominent place, especially with lighter wines, the distillation of wine grapes into brandy, and others, until the 1880s when diseases devastated most of the region’s vineyards.
For the local news on the third page, a major topic concerned the enforcement of the “Sunday Law,” by which businesses were to be shuttered on the Sabbath and, on the 21st, Justice of the Peace John J. Trafford presided over a case involving the proprietors of the bar in the Bella Union Hotel, which had been in existence for about a quarter of a century. Because it was the lowest court in the system, only nine jurors were needed, these including Felix Signoret, Elias Laventhal, Henry Wartenberg and future marshal, Juan José Carrillo.
Sheriff William R. Rowland, whose father was the co-owner with William Workman of Rancho La Puente, testified that, on the 5th, “the Bella Union bar was kept open, and liquor sold; the front door was closed, but the side door kept open; [Rowland] purchased liquor there himself.” The officer was apparently the only prosecution witness and one of the owners of the tavern, named Matfield, told the jury,
it is necessary for the successful prosecution of his business that he should keep his bar open on Sunday, in order to pay his city, county, State and United States licenses, and for the accommodation of his patrons; his business would not pay him to continue it, if he did no keep his bar open on Sunday . . . a bar is intimately connected with his business as a hotel keeper.
In his closing argument, District Attorney Cameron E. Thom stated that “the jury simply had to pass upon the question whether the Bella Union bar was run on the Sunday in question” and asserted that the operation of the drinking establishment was separate and distinct from that of the hotel. Defense attorney Henry T. Hazard (he and Thom were future Angel City mayors) answered that the bar had to remain open on Sundays for the Bella Union to properly function, while adding that the law “is not generally observed . . . and it is folly to attempt to enforce it only in a few places.” Moreover, he seems to have claimed that the federal license superseded state law, while the Sunday law did not mandate the closing of hotels.
On the 22nd, the paper briefly reported that “the case against the Bella Union proprietors will have to be tried again” as the jury “were unable to agree, and were discharged.” Separately, it was noted that the jurors “after mature deliberation, wanted to return a verdict that the defendants were guilty, but they (the jury) didn’t think they had committed a crime,” though Trafford “couldn’t see it.” It also commented that Thom, Trafford and constable Hartlee “deserve credit for endeavoring to carry out the provision of the Sunday law” and added, “they have done their duty; if it becomes evident that public sentiment is opposed to the law, and juries will not convict, we can disregard it.”
In the “Local Jottings” column of the 21st, a tidbit sounds awfully familiar to us 152 years later, as the Express tersely observed that “the weather continues dry. We need rain badly.” As for the high school edifice, it was noted that “to accommodate all the children, another school will be opened in the new building.” With the boost in population, in fact, it was added separately that “so many children attended school yesterday that probably fifty were sent home, for want of accommodation.
Another new key institution was the recently opened public library and the paper informed readers, “the ladies and gentlemen,” presumably including trustee Thomas W. Temple, F.P.F.’s eldest child, “who are to take part in the Library Concert are preparing for the event.” The new facility, operating on the second floor of the Downey Block, was the second iteration of the institution, the first of which was launched in 1859, but soon closed.
Undoubtedly, the darkest and most devilish day in Angel City history was 24 October 1871 when a mob of hundreds of white and Latino men descended on the Chinatown centered at the Calle de los Negros, southeast of the Plaza, and lynched eighteen men and a teenage boy after an internal dispute among the Chinese included the wounding of a police officer and the killing of a civilian. While seven men, four Anglos and three Latinos, were convicted of manslaughter in the death of Dr. Gene Tong in a case in which F.P.F. Temple was jury foreperson, an appeal to the state Supreme Court led to a reversal of the rulings and this edition briefly referred to a document filed in that process. The seven men were freed when Thom declined to pursue a new trial.
In early 1873, however, the city was experiencing low crime and the edition of the 21st stated that “very few arrests of “drunks’ are being made,” though officers were quick to nab any offenders. The next day, it added that “the Marshal’s office doesn’t pan out items very well” and “the town is too quiet.” Moreover, it continued, “owing to the absence of so many lawyers, the peace of the town is good.” When it came, however, to those Sunday law proceedings, these were “getting to be amusing” as the Express remarked on “how the lawyers do chaw up each other—and then go off and get a cocktail.”
Lastly, there is reference to the fact that “the bridge over the Los Angeles river is almost completed”” and that, the paper having already given it, in its edition of the 8th, some descriptive attention previously, “it looks fine.” What can be added is that this was the first span over the watercourse, which was previously crossed at convenient fords, though levels were generally pretty low much of any given year. Moreover, as a prior post here noted, it was a very rare covered bridge in southern California.
Advertisements are always interesting and instructive to peruse in the pages of the press and new ones included the promotion of a “Grand Masquerade Ball” given by the Turnverein Germania in the Spring Street hall on the 24th, the offerings of a tailor with his newest stock of material, the new business of a wholesale and retail merchant, and an interesting card from a man named Richard, who responded to a sarcastic statement in the Star, which told readers that a new steamship was needed in town “owing to the tide on P. Richard’s sewer,” which it called “Green Scum Lake.” He rejoined,
The above item, causing an insinuation that my sewer is creating a nuisance in the public street is untrue. Occasionally, water and trash is thrown in the gutter near my place by families living adjoining, but for which I am not responsible. The above uncalled for attack on me by the Star is only accounted for by the laziness of the proprietor or to go more than fifty feet from his own door to seek local items.
We’ll look to return soon for another “Read All About It” installment, so be on the lookout for it!