by Paul R. Spitzzeri
With the onset of summer 1874, as greater Los Angeles’ first boom was nearing its peak, we again note the increasing references to the region from visitors, who were really among the first major wave of tourists coming to the Angel City and its environs and spread news about it back to their homes through newspapers.
One such example, published in the Los Angeles Herald of Independence Day was from a member of a group that came down from Santa Barbara and who passed on his impressions to the Detroit Union. Informing his fellow Michiganders that “I have taken time to look at and around Los Angeles from every direction,” the correspondent, a Col. Hodge, cited his jaunt through the rolling hills to the west in what was called “Beaudry Terrace,” a part of which became Bellevue Terrace and remarked on the orange and lemon groves, as well as vineyards, “extending for many miles up and down the valley.”
Grand as the viewpoint from there was, however, Hodge then remarked on what the following year was established as Boyle Heights,
But the finest panoramic view, I think, is from the “Mesa” (table land) one mile east of the city and east of the Los Angeles river, near the residence of Wm. H. Workman, Esq. From the “Mesa” a view is had on a clear day, like the present, of the Sierra Macho [Madre or San Gabriel] range of mountains . . . thence looking northwest a view is had of “Cahuengu (pronounced Cowanga) Mountains,” [Santa Monica Mountains] . . . [and then] to the west of the city of Los Angeles, extending for miles north and south, engirt with beautiful groves of oranges, lemons, limes, almonds, English walnuts and other fruits, with numerous and extensive vineyards.
The same edition of the paper gave a rare instance of the reverse; in other words, a local resident promoting the region in other parts of the country, this being Nathaniel C. Carter, whose estate Cartherhia was at the base of those “Sierra Macho” mountains in what was son to be named for the range, the town of Sierra Madre.
The Herald reported that the Lowell [Massachusetts] Courier stated to its readers that Carter took east “some of the product of that fruitful land, a sight of which makes one want to emigrate thither right off.” These samples from Carterhia including “delicious raisins and English walnuts, mamoth [sic] oranges, lemons and citrons, and some of the finest honey ever eaten in Lowell,” adding that “he has some of the latter for sale very cheap,” coming from apiaries that were all the rage in greater Los Angeles at the time.
Once again, when Independence Day exercises were held on that day, the Casalinda estate of Dr. T. Jefferson White, situated near today’s Union Station, was selected for the readings, orations and other elements. The Los Angeles Express of the 6th exclaimed that “in the beautiful groves . . . a most magnificent sight presented itself. The alameda of walnut trees, with their branches meeting in the centre and overhanging the ample carriage way, formed one of the most delightful and picturesque avenues it is possible to conceive.”
In its edition of the 15th, the Herald took its readers south to Compton (founded by F.P.F. Temple and Fielding W. Gibson seven years prior) and the estate of its namesake, Griffith D. Compton. Amid the expansive profusion of grapes, orange and lemon trees, chestnuts, figs, apples, peaches, strawberries, and a nursery of 16 types of apple trees, numbering some 10,000 in all, were English walnuts. Notably, Compton pumped water from an artesian well to a level of 14 feet in which the fluid was placed in a tank.
There were two references during the summer to the subdivision of Cucamonga on the rancho of that name, both mentioning walnuts, and, because this property has been mentioned in this post on a few occasions, we’ll limit this to a statement in the Herald of 21 July that “the walnut, apple, plum, peach, pear, apricot, fig, etc., have a remarkable growth . . . bearing large quantities and fine qualities,” as well as from the Los Angeles Star of 11 August that “in a short time it will be the home of hundreds of happy people, and its broad acres will be covered with the orange, lime, lemon, fig, walnut and other profitable fruits.”
Also on the 11th and in the pages of the Express was another account by a tourist, this one from Fort Wayne, Indiana, more than halfway between Indianapolis and Toledo, Ohio, with a description of the San Gabriel Valley. The scribe told his fellows that “all over this fertile valley, when properly irrigated, the growth of trees and fruits is marvelous” and this included that comment that “the almond, fig and English walnut reach full perfection here,” while the Sunny Slope ranch of Leonard J. Rose was lionized for its oranges.
At the end of August, the Star took readers south on Main Street, between 3rd and 4th streets—now in the heart of a bustling downtown—to the estate of Cameron E. Thom, a district attorney as far back as two decades prior, but also recently in that office and soon to be mayor. The paper described the house as “embowered in a perfect wealth of flowers, shrubbery and fruit trees” and emblematic “of how much comfort and elegance in a domestic way can be had for about five thousand dollars.”
Thom was also praised for having “an eye for the beautiful as well as the useful” as “his grounds are laid out in admirable good taste.” Beyond the standard citrus trees, there were figs and, continued the paper,
Grapes, twelve varieties, Peaches, Pears, Apricots, Nectarines, Pecans, English Walnuts and half a dozen other fruits and nuts abound on the less than two acres which constitute his homestead . . . A stranger could get a pretty good idea of what this country can produce by an inspection of the Captain’s grounds [Thom left Los Angeles for his native Virginia to fight in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, earning a captain’s commission, before heading back west at war’s end] . . . It don’t do any good to catalogue the floral treasure of a place like Captain Thom’s. He has a beautiful home and we wish him many year’s placid enjoyment of its pleasant surroundings.
By mid-October shipments of newly harvested walnuts were being recorded at the Los Angeles and San Pedro Railroad (controlled by the dominant rail company in California, the Southern Pacific) depot, while a retail prices list in the Herald of the 15th showed that walnuts were fetching 12 1/2 cents per pound. One of the major shipments mentioned by the Express nine days later was from the partnership of Ozro W. Childs and Edward Huber, with the latter overseeing the transportation of 4,000 pounds of the nut to San Francisco.
Speaking of these two, the annual Southern District Agricultural Association Fair, held at Agricultural Park, now Exposition Park, in late October brought mention in the Herald of the 28th that “O.W. Childs has a complete assortment of semi-tropical fruits, arranged and presided over by Mr. E. Huber” and it added that “the collection consists of walnuts, Italian chestnuts, limes, oranges, lemons, grapes, apples, pears, figs, citrons and several varieties of almonds.” Edward Pleasants, long a foreman in what is now Orange County for William Wolfksill and then residing at Los Nietos near modern Downey, displayed baskets of apples and walnuts.
Speaking of Orange County, another recently launched subdivision was Westminster and the 3 November issue of the Express cited the Oakland Transcript as reporting that Presbyterian minister Lemuel P. Webber “conceived the idea of forming a colony, the people of which should entertain similar views regarding temperance, education, morality and religion.” Webber purchased some 7,000 acres from the Los Angeles and San Bernardino Land Company, formed out of the financially stricken estate of the late Abel Stearns and, while only a handful of families settled there at first, some 50 were there in fall 1874, which is when Webber died (his headstone at Anaheim Cemetery includes some of his biography and proclaimed that “his memory and works will endure when this stone has wasted away).
It was noted that all of the land was sold and settled, with some acquiring adjacent property, though attempts at dry farming proved problematic and irrigation was finally introduced. With some 40 artesian wells grapes and other fruits did very well, “while walnuts[,] almond and ches[t]nut trees flourish and will bear when of sufficient age” and citrus was expected to be abundant, leading to the conclusion that “it only requires time to demonstrate that [these crops] will reimburse the husbandman for his toil and patience.”
Two days later, the Herald cited the favorable comment of Joseph A. Johnson, editor of the Santa Barbara Press, who told New York audiences, as he lectured there with the title of “New Italy” and used illuminated stereoscopic photographs, that,
Enough is now known of this wonderful region to establish the fact that Southern California has a climate equal to any portion of Italy, or of the world; but it is not generally known that a half million acres of land which produces the fig, the olive, the orange, the lemon, the lime, the almond, the English walnut, the Italian chestnut, all in perfection, as well as the ordinary cereals and ordinary fruit of other States of the Union, has been put upon the market within a few months past.
The Herald remarked that Johnson’s presentations were viewed by New Yorkers as such that “the attempt to bring that far-off land to our very doors cannot fail to be attractive as well as honestly made.” Writing to his paper, Johnson observed that “Southern California is a land almost as little known to the intelligent men of New York in general as mid-Africa” and he was doing his utmost to change that ignorance.
Mention has been made here of Benjamin C. Truman, proprietor of the Star, publishing a series of travelogues promoting many areas of greater Los Angeles and, in November, he issued these in a compendium, Semi-Tropical California, one of the first books published about the region. He reproduced the introduction in his paper, including the remark that “the orange groves, the vineyards, the almond and walnut plantations, the orchards bending with their loads of fruit—all these things are to be seen only by those who find time to explore the valleys and hillsides, where as yet they flourish best.” Truman asserted that those who did so uniformly desired to settle here and lamented when “fortune does not favor them in their wishes.”
The 19 November issue of the Herald included a visit to Rancho Los Feliz, north of downtown Los Angeles, and the residence of General John M. Baldwin, whose brother Leon purchased the rancho several years prior. The paper recorded that the two-acre homestead constituted “model grounds” and that “the place is covered with nearly every kind of fruit known to semi-tropical California.”
This included walnuts and the account continued that “the General has the advantage of a fine spring, which he used for irrigation and was allowed to forego using water from the Los Angeles River and the zanjas (ditches) that tapped it. The article ended with the observation that “we have never seen a place more orderly or well arranged, and, for one only six years old, we commend it to the inspection of our Eastern visitors as an example of what may be done in our country by the use of good taste and a little care.”
The same day, in a piece headed “Commercial Review,” the Express informed its readers that,
We hear that our farmers are very generally setting out useful trees on suitable patches of their land. There is no reason why every farmer should not have a few acres of orange, lime, olive, walnut and other trees growing. They would be like so much money in [the] bank compounding interest upon which in future years he could draw greatly to his advantage.
Five days later, the Express gratifyingly reprinted an editorial from the Sacramento Record, in which that paper commented that “there is one portion of the State at least, in which the local papers appreciate their mission, and where they have been pursuing that mission with zeal and effectiveness for the last three or four years.” This, the capital city sheet added, led to the fact that immigrants were “fixed on Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Diego, or some other southern county” for new residences.
The reason was simple. Southern California publishers “have been more wide awake to their own interests and the interests of these localities” by boosting “the advantages of their climate, richness and fertility of their soil” and emphasizing “the suscessful [sic] experiments in fruit culture,” including walnut growing. The Record scolded its northern brethren which “seem to have forgotten that a like course on their part would produce like results,” while the sheets of the south “are earnestly and effective at work for their several localities, and for the general interest of that portion of the State.” This meant “the tide of immigration is steadily setting in that direction.”
In its edition of the 25th, the Herald cited reports from Henry L. Binford writing back to Jackson, Tennessee where he was a grocer. The Virginia native, however, came to Los Angeles and, not surprisingly, launched a career in real estate, though, after the bust that inevitably followed the local boom, he migrated to Missouri and resumed his work in the grocery business, but did return to the Angel City and the real estate game where he died in 1903.
In the full flush of boom fever, however, Binford enthused,
The soil is rich, productive and remunerative, when properly cultivated . . . in fact everything in the vegetable category grows well here . . . the tropical fruits, such as oranges, lemons, limes and English walnuts flourish well here, and yield a handsome profit as soon as they commence bearing; they commence to yield when from six to ten years old. Any one may feel that he has a competency if he has twenty acres of land set in these trees at a bearing age.
As the end of the year approached, another San Gabriel Valley area was briefly mentioned, this being the town of Azusa. The Star of 9 December mentioned that as new houses, improvements to the grammar school and other work was being undertaken there, “Mr. [Samuel S.] Reeves is about to plant a ten-acre orchard and nursery of orange, lemon, walnut, almond and other semi-tropical trees.”
Rancho La Puente co-owner John Rowland died in October 1873 and his estate included many thousands of acres on that large domain in the eastern San Gabriel Valley left to his heirs, but he also owned a 35-acre property in Los Angeles on Alameda Street not far from the famous Wolfskill estate. The 29 December 1874 edition of the Herald reported that the tract was sold five months earlier to Oliver H. Bliss, who paid $18,000 for it and then expended some $3,000 on remodeling “one of the most elegant residences in the city” and making other improvements. Bliss sold a partial crop of grapes, oranges and walnuts, with the citrus trees from 8-18 years old and the walnuts 22 years old, making them among the oldest in the region, and it was noted that a zanja ran through the estate, which he valued at $50,000.
Lastly, there was another subdivision that reflected a move for development west of the city and this was Centinela, which has been highlighted here previously. This subdivision was platted on part of about 25,000 acres in the ranchos Aguaje de Centinela and Sausal Redondo in areas like modern Culver City and Inglewood, with F.P.F. Temple as president of the land company formed to develop it. The 2 December issue of the Star reported that the project was modeled after a successful one at Lompoc in northern Santa Barbara County, with Ozro Childs, Daniel Freeman and Jonathan Slauson among the other investors.
The paper added that, while suitable for crops like barley, corn and wheat, with some alfalfa being raised there, and with plenty of water available,
About 400 acres of this land is already set out with bearing orange, lemon, lime, almond, fig, English walnut and olive trees, and grapevines—furnishing a most satisfactory demonstration that the soil is well adapted to these growths.
In the 11 December edition of the Herald, of which Temple was a co-owner, the paper predicted that, a decade out, there would be plenty of people who would regret not investing in prime land offered cheap when first sold and the article spoke of much agricultural potential throughout California.
It continued that, “in Southern California the walnut crop is becoming very lucrative” and raising it and other fruits and nuts did not require large tracts or a major cash investment, but “if attention is paid to the growth of light fruits, those who devote their time to making the experiment will realize a handsome income.”
We’ll look to return soon and carry this look into some of the early history of walnut raising into 1875, the last year of this first boom in greater Los Angeles, so keep an eye out for that.