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

by Paul R. Spitzzeri

Compared to the much more massive booms that exploded in greater Los Angeles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the first, taking place during the end of the 1860s and through the first half of the following decade is often overlooked or viewed as somewhat minor and marginal. True, the population increase from probably around 6,000 to near 15,000 seems somewhat insignificant, though it certainly was not on a percentage basis.

More importantly, what transpired during this initial growth spurt had implications and set patterns for what took place later. For example, the primitive port at San Pedro and Wilmington received its first federal funding for a breakwater and other small improvements, while the region’s first railroad, the Los Angeles and San Pedro, connected the harbor to the growing town and was completed in 1869, the year the transcontinental railroad was finished.

With the Southern Pacific Railroad forced by Congress to build through the area as it constructed a line from northern California to the Colorado River at Yuma, it not only worked on a main line to the Angel City through rugged mountains to the north and then east through the San Gabriel Valley (including the Rancho La Puente co-owned by William Workman), but built a branch line from Florence (South Los Angeles) to Anaheim in the future Orange County.

Among the new towns established during this period were those or or near these rail lines, including Compton (1867), San Fernando (1874) and Artesia and Pomona (1875), while the arrival of the horse-drawn streetcar in 1874 through the Spring and Sixth Street Railway, of which Workman’s son-in-law and banking partner, F.P.F. Temple, was treasurer, laid the groundwork (or rails) for how these systems could link suburban communities. A couple of early examples during the boom were East Los Angeles, now Lincoln Heights (1873) and Boyle Heights (1875).

The opening of the first banks in 1868, a public library four years later, a high school in 1873 and the formation of Agricultural Park, now Exposition Park, as the Seventies began, are among the other bellwethers of an expanding city. Moreover, modern commercial buildings were another important indicator, including the completion of the Pico House and the adjacent Merced Theater in 1870, additions to the Temple Block between 1868-1871, the Downey Block in 1871 and others.

There was undoubtedly more that could be adduced to show how this boom was an important part of the development of the region and one of the best sources we have in the Homestead’s artifact collection for understanding the changes underfoot are historic newspapers, mostly during that first half of the Seventies, with the fact that there were three English-language dailies, the Express, the Herald and the Star, able to publish as Los Angeles grew also of note.

This post featured from our newspaper holdings, the 13 June 1874 edition of the Star. In the “Local News in Brief,” we see that “Professor” Edward Cain, who drew some notice for his ruminations on human development, including that of Black people, was due to speak the next evening at the Court House (this being the Market House built by Jonathan Temple, F.P.F.’s brother, fifteen years prior). Prior posts here mentioned Cain’s presentations at the end of July and, especially, April talks from which one of his poems appeared in the Herald.

Another item noted that an asphalt sidewalk was being laid down in front of the new structure housing the Farmers’ and Merchants’ Bank, with a separate notice informing readers that the institution would open its doors there in two days. The managing cashier, the brilliant Isaias W. Hellman, one of the town’s prominent Jewish residents, was formerly a partner in banking with Temple and Workman, but dissolved the enterprise early in 1871 to join ex-Governor John G. Downey (whose own bank of Hayward and Company was the first in town) in establishing Farmers’ and Merchants’. After occupying the old Hellman, Temple and Company headquarters in Pio Pico’s building (not the hotel, however) for a few years, the new structure across Main Street was built.

The Clarendon Hotel, formerly the Bella Union and soon to be the St. Charles, was adjacent to the south of the Pico Building, and the Star observed that “the office and sitting room . . . has been thoroughly renovated, kalsomized [whitewashed] and fixed up generally,” while the carpeting was pulled up and cleaned to look like new. Perhaps more vitally, “the saloon attached has also undergone extensive repairs, and the proprietors are ready to serve the best to their customers.”

A rather innocuous statement that “workmen have commenced tearing down the old adobe walls enclosing the lot bounded by Temple, New High and Buena Vista streets” masks the fact that this property, formerly owned by Jonathan Temple, who opened his namesake street in the 1850s, was long used as a lumberyard by Phineas Banning, the brothers-in-law John J. Tomlinson and John M. Griffith and then, after Tomlinson’s death, Griffith and partner Sedgwick J. Lynch.

That last surname also applied to a particularly grisly use of the space, particularly its heavy beamed gate off Temple Street. From at least 1863, several lynchings of accused criminals took place there, including that of Charles Wilkins (1863), Michel Lachenais (1870), and several Chinese men who were hung during the horrific massacre of October 1871. The yard was reworked and the gate beam taken down to avoid repeats of that terrible use. A photo highlighted in another post here shows the western portions of the adobe enclosure about a couple of years prior to its demolition.

Frank P. Howard, a druggist of many years in Los Angeles, came back from San Francisco by steamer with “a large and well selected stock of drugs, medicines and perfumes fresh from the importers [sic] hands.” The Star added that Howard was looking to increase his wholesale business and, beyond the perfumes, offered “a superior article of port wine,” as well. The short note concluded that “Doctor Howard’s long experience as a druggist, and his well-known business reputation is a guarantee of liberal and correct dealing,” while one of the larger ads in the paper was from his establishment.

Agricultural Park, mentioned above, was also mentioned in that “the work of transplanting tobacco plants . . . still goes on” and involved 40 acres and 160,000 plants, which were from a few inches to about a foot in size, this being “abundant evidence of the congeniality of soil and climate.” We tend to forget, as much as our region has been paved over, just how fertile the soil here was and how yields of a variety of crops could often be fantastic. In any case, while some tobacco growing existed before, including that of F.P.F. Temple at his Rancho La Merced east of the city, the paper remarked, “the success of this experiment will open up a very large and profitable field of industry in Los Angeles county”—though this proved not to be the case.

Spadra was a community established in the latter Sixties at the east end of the county and the Southern Pacific line reached there about this time. In fact, a planned rail excursion was canceled, the paper noted, because of conflicts with a steamer arrival, but was to be rescheduled for the prior weekend. Meanwhile, it was also reported that “four car loads of lumber were sent to Spadra yesterday” because “people are building muchly out there.”

The town’s first Protestant church was St. Athanasius’ Episcopal, which opened in 1867 in a building on the southwest corner of Temple and New High streets and the Star commented that, “the repairs and decorations . . . are so nearly completed that services could be held in the building to-morrow.” Church leaders, however, decided to wait another week, though it was added that “the carpenter, painter and plasterer have wrought about as complete a transformation in the edifice as can well be imagined” so that “the congregation will be delighted with the beautiful place of worship into which [the church] has been converted.”

With the approaching Independence Day holiday, a group of residents met at the Probate Court room with Juan José (Jonathan Trumbull) Warner, who moved to Los Angeles in 1831, chosen as president. After some remarks and a motion that the planning be handled as was the case the previous year with respect to the order of procession and the groups involved, a committee was chosen to select those who would be responsible for the planning. This group included F.P.F. Temple, Isaias W. Hellman, Juan José Carrillo, Eulogio F. de Celis, Jr., Henry T. Hazard and, after a specific request, Elijah H. Workman, who was said to be “a representative of the veterans of the Mexican War.” This was curious in that Workman was only 11 years old when the Mexican-American War began, so it is unclear why he was so selected.

Another notable report was the County Grand Jury, which ended its work by issuing the document at the County Court room the prior day. The jury found 19 indictments, including one for murder and others down to petty larceny, but also issued its findings regarding the recent lynching of Jesús Romo, who was executed because his robbery of the store at William Workman’s mill led to the stillborn death of the child of co-owner William Turner and his wife Rebecca Humphreys.

Romo, formerly an employee on the nearby ranch of ex-Governor Pío Pico, was captured by three men, including Workman’s Rancho La Puente foreman, Frederick Lambourn and Workman’s former ward, Joseph W. Drown, along with El Monte merchant Jacob Schlessinger, and hung from a tree near the mill and the San Gabriel River. The grand jury stated,

We would also report that we examined as far as lay in our power into the matter of the late lynching of a man by the name of Jesus Romo, alias “El Gordo;” that we were unable to find any indictment in the case for want of evidence identifying any of the persons who committed the crime, and hence are compelled to leave the matter to the next Grand Jury, with recommendation to the officers to search for evidence in the meantime.

Rebecca Turner wrote in her memoir, not published until 1960, that it was common knowledge who the lynching party members were, but that there was no way anyone would say anything publicly so as to protect the trio. It was not at all surprising then that, despite the admonition of the Grand Jury, which often recommended that its successor continue looking into such matters, the issue was dropped and no one was punished for the summary execution of Romo, guilty as he may have been.

The Grand Jury also issued a statement about another of its typical duties:

We examined the county jail and find the same well conducted, cleanly, and in as good condition as the inadequate character of the building permits. We examined into the condition and conduct of the county hospital, and find the same to kept in a cleanly and well ordered matter; but would earnestly advise the Board of Supervisors to consider the advisability of establishing a proper poor farm, with hospital, in connection therewith.

The jail, with a first floor of adobe used by the city and the second level of brick maintained by the county, was about two decades old and, while there were no overt calls here for replacing it, that continued for another decade, until a new lockup was constructed. As for the hospital and poor farm, the latter eventually was established in Downey, while the former is now a large institution in Lincoln Heights, but both were a long time in the developing.

Lastly, the second page, generally used for editorials, was significantly devoted to the year-end examinations of the city’s public schools, then in operation for about twenty years. The Star discussed at some length the work done in arithmetic, geography, grammar and history by the first grade, composed of students matriculating to the high school, then completing its first year. Some students were named for their efforts in such areas as dialogs and recitations, while “the singing of the class was very good, more than usually so.”

There were two divisions, with one being not quite so advanced and many pupils were identified with respect to penmanship, drawing, sketches, more of the dialogs and recitations and more. As to the teachers, Charles H. Kimball (1842-1924) taught the second division and was accounted “a thorough teacher and has his large class not only under full control but in full sympathy with him.”

A native of New Hampshire, graduate of that state’s Waterbury College and a Union Army soldier from a Maine regiment, Kimball taught in his home state after the war. He was not long in California before he migrated south from Nevada County in California’s gold country to teach in Los Angeles and remained in the Angel City with his last years spent as a resident in the Soldiers’ Home at Sawtelle.

The instructor of the first division was Eliza Bengough (1837-1906), who was born in England and taught in Toledo, Ohio from at least 1860 to 1867 before venturing to the Golden State. In summer 1869, she left San Francisco for Los Angeles and briefly taught a private school operated by the aforementioned St. Athanasius’ pastor. She then began working at a new public school on Alameda Street near 5th Street and had a 33-year career in the Angel City. The Star commented that “Miss Bengough enjoys an enviable reputation as a teacher, and is a great favorite with both children and parents.”

In fact, she was asked in summer 1875 to be a candidate for county superintendent of schools, though she declined to run. After a brief period operating a half-day private school in the building of the Spring Street public school, she was awarded a lifetime teaching certificate in 1879. She was also one of the first lifetime women members of the Los Angeles Public Library after it was formed in 1872.

Despite the fact that, in 1890, when she was a witness in a court case and said she was a 21-year resident, corresponding to the 1869 date, an obituary stated that she came to California with her parents in 1848 and, after her parents died the following year, she migrated to Los Angeles. Moreover, it was asserted that “a few American families employer as teacher for their children, as there were no public school system in the State in those days.”

The account went on that “the young woman was the first teacher in English in Southern California” and that she began in an adobe building near Spring and Temple streets, being the instructor for members of the Hellman family as they learned English, including Herman W. Hellman, Isaias’ brother, who died just twelve hours before Bengough did. Others said to be her students were James B. Lankershim, Phineas Banning’s sons, and the late Senator Stephen M. White, though it was known that he was educated in the Bay Area, where he was born and did not come to Los Angeles until he was a 22-year old lawyer.

Bengough appears to have taught until the first years of the 20th century, but was destitute when she died at the Pomona residence of a friend. When news reached Los Angeles, the city coroner rallied support to have her buried in a plot purchased by subscription from former pupils at Evergreen Cemetery in Boyle Heights.

Once again, these historic newspapers in the Museum’s collection prove to be especially interesting and useful sources of information about this somewhat neglected, but important, period in Los Angeles history and we look forward to sharing more of them in future “Read All About It” posts.