by Paul R. Spitzzeri
When the history of the citrus industry of greater Los Angeles is discussed, it is the orange that is held up as the golden idol of how successful it was from the late 19th century through the middle of the 20th. Newspaper articles, promotional literature and photographs abound showing the fruit as literally the symbol of the industry, not to mention incessant claims of how the orange made so many growers wealthy (not enough, however, has been said about the labor, mostly people of color, used for that to happen.)
Especially along the foothills of the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountain ranges (they really were just one bisected dramatically by Cajon Pass), the orange grove was synonymous with success in town after town from Pasadena to Redlands as orchards filled up most of the landscape for miles along that corridor. Today, there are hardly any overt, visible signs of the fruit that dominated the section for so long.
There was, however, one other major citrus crop that has gotten short shrift and for somewhat obvious reasons. The poor lemon—bitter, sour and, therefore, less desirable and profitable—has hardly been given much attention compared to its sweeter and sexier cousin (is that a reasonable familial relation?). As the old saying goes, however, “when life gives you lemon, make lemonade,” so let’s try to that with this post.
A very short post here nearly a decade before briefly looked at some of the lemon industry’s history in our region, while another and more substantial one mined the pages of a citrus journal from 1927 that showed how much more prominent the orange was than the lemon in our area’s agricultural environment. This post takes us to San Dimas in the first decade of the 20th century when this section of eastern Los Angeles, poised between the San Gabriel Valley and the Inland Empire, was the lemon capital of the region.
First, though, we’ll set the scene back several decades. The name Mud Springs was applied to the area from at least the early 1860s when the earliest located mention was found for this post. The Los Angeles News of 16 September 1863, during a mining boom in nearby San Gabriel Canyon and along the Colorado River, as well, reported “we understand that a company of miners have taken up the placers at the foot of the [San Gabriel, or Sierra Madre, as the range was then usually known] mountains and to the rear of Mud Springs.” Seven years later, the 11 October 1870 edition of the paper referred to “an arroya [arroyo] now called San Dimas,” that was the oldest found reference to that name.
When settlers in that section, though, decided in 1874 to form a school district, one of a little more than 40 in the county, they elected to forego “Mud Springs” for “San Dimas,” which was the name of a creek, or wash, emerging from a canyon of the same name—a dam and reservoir here have also been the subject of a previous post here. It was another decade, much of which involved a Long Depression that kept development here to a minimum, until a community of that name began to appear in the media.
The 6 June 1883 issue of the Los Angeles Herald briefly reported that “Mr. H.C. Cushing, of the San Dimas . . . informs us that the crops in that vicinity are flourishing , including grapes, wheat, corn, deciduous, and citrus trees” and this was because “there is no frost in this locality, and good crops are absolutely assured.”
Four months later, the Pomona Times-Courier of 6 October mentioned that Solomon Gates, credited with coming up with that name based on the Roman goddess of fruit, “is at work on his place out at San Dimas, getting everything ready for putting out an immense nursery stock.” By 1886, Gates called his establishment the “San Dimas Semi-Tropical Nursery,” though it later was included within the limits of Lordsburg, now La Verne.
The 10 November edition of the Pomona Times–Courier referred to that city’s “back country” and noted that “the country on the north and northwest of town is very extensive and highly desirable as a location for a home.” Specifically, it continued:
This portion of the valley embraces the Mud Springs and San Dimas sections as well as the foot hills and several extensive and fertile mesas along the base of the mountains. All this country to which we have referred is preeminently adapted to the vine, and other fruits are at home as much as any place else in Southern California. The fact that the young and tender growths on citrus trees are never affected by frost would cause this locality to be much sought after by those who wish to cultivate semi-tropical fruits.
Within a half-dozen years or so, vineyards, which had ruled the agricultural roost in the region for decades, were blighted by a bacterial disease that wiped out virtually every vine, including those at the 75-acre Workman Homestead, except for the Ontario/Cucamonga area. Citrus, really oranges, were raised commercially since the early 1840s, when William Wolfskill’s grove south of the pueblo of Los Angeles was planted (this was the first such orchard in California), but began to become much more prevalent as the 19th century moved into its last quarter.
A huge boon to the citrus industry was the development, in the 1890s, of the refrigerated box car, which, of course, meant that fruit could be kept fresher for longer periods in shipment over further distances. This really set in motion that incredible growth in the raising of oranges and lemons that marked that first half of the 20th century.
The Times-Courier followed up with another, shorter piece, citing the Pasadena Chronicle, in its 15 December issue, in which it was remarked that,
A visit to San Dimas convinced us that at no distant day a thriving colony would be made there. The slope from the mountains off toward Pomona, and the quality of the soil is certain to bring the place into prominence. It has advantages over any other place along the foothills, being a high elevation with [a] most charming view, and soil unequaled.
The Crown City paper added that a group of residents from that city “has purchased quite a large tract of this land, and now are offering it at low prices.” The Pomona sheet added that San Dimas “embraces as fine a body of land as there is in the State” and observed that “Pomona is, and will always be, the market, trading and shipping point for the large population which is to occupy this very desirable section.”
The 1 March 1884 issue of the Times-Courier reported that “we have an orange on our table which measures 14 1/2 x 15 inches” and came from the San Dimas orchard of W.C. Martin. This led the paper to inquire of its readers, “if any one knows of a locality better adapted to the growth of the orange or any other kind of fruit, let him rise up and speak.” Otherwise, it asserted that, beyond frost, there was no known example of scale or rust, while it was also remarked that in San Dimas “we find the largest and best quality of fruit raised without irrigation.”
The “thriving colony” idea languished a bit, but, after the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad brought a direct transcontinental line to the region by finishing a route to San Bernardino at the end of 1885, with subsidiaries working on several lines, including one through the foothills towards Los Angeles, the Boom of the Eighties was launched. Several months later, reported the Los Angeles Herald of 12 August 1886, the San Dimas Land and Water Company filed its article of incorporation with Lyman Allen, one of the Pasadena syndicate mentioned above, as one of the founders.
The Los Angeles Times of the 21st cited the Pomona Progress as observing that “a reliable source” informed it that “one of the largest and most important enterprises of which our valley can boast, has its foundation permanently planted.” With camps set up, a road carved out, fuel provided “and tools of the suitable character for the work” said to be shipped during the coming week, a project, almost certainly from the new firm was taking shape. The Progress added,
It is a well-known fact that there is [sic] countless trillions of gallons of water during the winter season that flows down the San Dimas Canyon and through the center of thirteen or fourteen thousand acres of beautiful land, well situated for making happy homes, orchards and vineyards. These facts, together with the great natural advantages of storing water by means of reservoirs, have directed the association of men and money for the purposes of building several immense reservoirs, and to conduct the water to the large section of dry land.
The Los Angeles Tribune of 6 March 1887, as the boom was cresting, noted that the prior day the incorporation of the San Jose Ranch Company was carried out, with Moses L. Wicks, a prominent Los Angeles banking and real estate figure, putting in $70,000, nearly a quarter of the $300,000 in stock, while a Little Rock, Arkansas investor committed to $60,000 and Francisco Sabichi, also a Los Angeles banker, invested $15,000. John W. Wolfskill, whose father was mentioned above, took a $9,000 stake.
On the 25th, the Herald discussed “The San Dimas Boom” by commenting that “the new settlement of San Dimas is going like a rush like the town of Monrovia,” of which a recent post here dealt with some of that boomtown during the same era. The paper went on that “the settlement is about ten days old” with surveyors scurrying about and “a lumber yard is there in advance of the railway,” meaning the Los Angeles and San Bernardino subsidiary of the Santa Fe.
A two-story brick structure for a hardware store (that being an early business for obvious reasons) was also mentioned, while Wicks was erecting a store structure, another figure was constructing a two-story business edifice and a Methodist Church was in the planning stages. A school lot was in reserve “and water pipes are being laid all through the settlement,” while the first train was expected from San Bernardino in about a week. The paper concluded that, “the whole high mesa is alive with activity from Pasadena to Cucamonga,” including Lordsburg and Claremont among other local new towns.
The Times of 13 April reported that “the San Bernardino and Los Angeles Railroad was completed to San Dimas” on the prior day, while adding that “the grade of the north line of the Southern Pacific is fixed a half mile north and parallel . . . from Lordsburg [La Verne] to Ontario.” Moreover, the latter’s camp of surveyors was sent from San Dimas to Ontario, as well.
The 25 April edition of the Herald listed, among real estate sales, that Jonathan S. Slauson, another banker and namesake of the South Los Angeles thoroughfare, who owned thousands of acres from Azusa eastward, sold all of his interest in the Rancho San Jose and its addition for $150,000. Under a month later, Louis Phillips, who owned the southern half of San Jose and other property besides, sold not quite 666 acres for $16,500 to the company.
In the 14 May issue of the Herald, as part of a lengthy piece on a railroad excursion through the area, a correspondent enthused about such towns as Gladstone, which later became part of Azusa; Alosta, absorbed subsequently into Glendora; and Lordsburg, all given high (booster-infused) praise. As for San Dimas, “all the party exclaimed, ‘How beautiful!” with the paper adding, “and beautiful it was and is, and ‘as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be.”
By late August, ads rolled out for the “San Dimas Tract,” comprising 300 acres in lots of 5 to 40 acres and offered at $150 to $400 an acre. In the usual breathless tone, the marketing insisted that “the soil of this tract will grow luxuriantly all the fruits, citrus and deciduous, known to our semi-tropic clime, especially the orange.” One inch of water delivered by pipes from San Dimas Creek was guaranteed for each 10 acres purchased, while it was added that these pure mountain waters “are supplemented by living springs. The reservoir and an 800-foot tunnel to drain the creek were also promised.
Additionally, it was asserted that “the geographical situation of the tract is beautifully picturesque” and that “every acre of it commands the splendid scenery” of the nearby mountains and valleys and “frame in the varying pictures of which PASADENA, POMONA, PALOMARES [north Pomona], LORDSBURG, and SAN DIMAS are the pleasant centers.” Readers could combine the climate, scenery, soil and water supply, as well as ready railroad access “and the social, moral and educational advantages tributary to its surroundings” and see that San Dimas was “superior to any tract now on the market.”
By the end of the year, some of the San Jose Ranch Company (also known as the San Jose Land and Water Company) property was sold off to the speculators of the adjacent Glendora project, while architects Joseph and Samuel Newsom (yes, Governor Gavin Newsom is from that family) designing a hotel—just about every boom town had them—that contractor W.E. Lane built for around $20,000. The hostelry, typically, did not have a paying guest, though it was bought in 1889 by James W. Walker and remained in the family for over 80 years and the San Dimas Historical Society occupies the second floor of the restored landmark.
Inevitably, the great boom, which peaked during the administration, from 1886 to 1888, of William H. Workman as mayor of Los Angeles, went bust and San Dimas, along with many other towns founded during that period, suffered from the resulting malaise. It did, however, survive, including the growth of its citrus orchards, including lemons. So, we’ll return next with part two and take the story into the early 20th century. Check back in with us for that!