“I’ll Try and Make the Best of It and Tell You About Our Xmas”: Reading Between the Lines in a Letter from Annie S. Field to Benjamin F. Field, 26 December 1886

by Paul R. Spitzzeri

In this latest “Reading Between the Lines” post on our blog, another recent acquisition to the Homestead’s collection is of note both for its Christmas holiday content as well as its associations with a family that had interesting and important ties to late 19th and early 20th century greater Los Angeles—this being a letter (one of a set mailed together nearly two months later) penned on 26 December 1886 from Annie Silliman Field to her brother Benjamin.

There are multiple points of reference to make with this missive, one being its timing, as greater Los Angeles’ second boom and much greater than its inaugural one in the late Sixties and early Seventies, was in its earliest stages. This Boom of the 1880s was largely fueled by the late 1885 completion by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway of a transcontinental railroad line to the region, with tens of thousands of home-seekers subsequently riding the rails to the region to investigate its possibilities.

In the Angel City, development spread out further from the central core, including to the then-westerly limits in such tracts as Crown Hill, with previous posts here covering some of the history of the Second Street Cable Railroad and the Los Angeles Improvement Company‘s work. This is where we find the Field family newly residing at the end of 1886 when Annie wrote to her recently departed brother, who was on his way to Europe. Before we get into the letter, however, let’s trace some of the family history.

Annie and Benjamin’s father was Daniel Webster Field (1833-1910) in East Guildford, now known as Madison, Connecticut, along the shore of Long Island Sound east of New Haven, and their mother was Jennie A. Hall. The Fields, broadly speaking, remained in the New Haven region, but, in 1858, Daniel’s brother, Frank, headed west to Minnesota, where he settled in a new town southwest of Minneapolis-St. Paul. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Frank, who learned carpentry, went to Fort Snelling, outside the Twin Cities, to enlist in the Union Army, but was rejected because of rheumatism.

Frank then returned home and joined the 15th Connecticut Infantry Regiment, which fought in many battles in Virginia and North Carolina. Just before the war’s end, in March 1865 at the Battle of Wyse Fork, in the latter, the entire regiment was captured and forced on a two-week march to Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital. They were held in the notorious Libby Prison (where Los Angeles’ only Union Army battlefield soldier, Charles M. Jenkins, was previously confined) for a few days before being paroled as the conflict neared its close. Frank mustered out from North Carolina in June and headed home, where late in 1865 he married Bessie Tillman, the couple having no children.

In 1871, evidently for health reasons due to his war service and POW imprisonment, Frank set out for California and lived and farmed at Anaheim for a year before relocating to San Luis Obispo County where he soon became the manager at the Rancho Suey, the owner of which was Henry Mayo Newhall, a Gold Rush ’49er who ran a successful auction business and invested in railroads, one of which was sold to the powerful Southern Pacific, which he then joined as a director. Between 1872 and 1875, Newhall owned more than 140,000 acres of pre-American land grant ranchos in several areas of the Golden State.

As for Daniel, he followed the path set out by his brother in terms of learning to be a carpenter, while he was with Frank in Minnesota, with his obituary claiming he was a founder of that town and that he was involved in campaigns against the Indians. The 1860 census records that he was back in Connecticut, residing with his parents, Frederick and Dency (Blatchley), and sisters Minerva and Maria, the latter a widow with the surname Hubbell.

With the outbreak of the war, Daniel enlisted in 1862 with the 27th Connecticut Infantry Regiment, which became part of the Army of the Potomac, taking place in the major battles at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville (eight of the 27th’s ten companies were captured) and Gettysburg. He was commissioned a first lieutenant in mid-September, but, during the winter and, after the Battle of Fredericksburg, he was incapacitated by illness (which claimed far more casualties than the battlefield) was returned home after a resignation in March 1863.

After married Jennie Hall, the couple welcomed Annie, their first child, followed by Frederick, Almer and Benjamin. The family resided at Wallingford, north of New Haven, where Daniel worked as a joiner, making doors, stairs and windows, and, in the 1870 census, had an estate worth about $18,000. Daniel’s obituary included the remark that, as with Frank, the sickness he contracted during the war later “sent him in search of health to California,” though it also seems likely that he received work on the Golden State from his older brother. In September 1872, Daniel arrived in San Francisco and almost certainly reunited with Frank.

At the end of February 1873, likely because his brother knew of the area from prior residence, Daniel came down to greater Los Angeles and, at Anaheim, purchased, for $2,750, 100 acres from William R. Olden, agent for the Los Angeles and San Bernardino Land Company, which managed the vast domains of the late Abel Stearns. Before he could bring his wife and children out to join him, however, Jennie died in Wallingford in late April.

Daniel kept his Anaheim property for about two years, during which time he time he served on the Los Angeles County Grand Jury (Anaheim became part of the new Orange County fifteen years later) and was a commissioner of a new water district, the Cajon, set up for distribution from the Santa Ana River for that area. In March 1875, he sold the 100-acre farm to Holman and Davis with the Los Angeles Star of the 2nd adding that “Mr. Field . . . will leave for Monterey in a short time.”

The reason for this looks to be because of another assist from Frank, who, as noted above, became manager of Newhall’s Rancho Suey in 1872. Newhall also owned a pair of large adjoining ranches in Monterey County, which he acquired in 1871 and which were near the Mission San Antonio de Padua and today’s Fort Hunter Liggett. Daniel’s operation of these ranches looks to have taken place over about four years and the Anaheim Gazette of 19 January 1878 recorded that,

Mr. D.W. Field, a former resident of this vicinity, paid a flying visit to Anaheim on Thursday, accompanied by Mr. H.M. Newhall, of San Francisco. Mr. Field, since he left here three years ago, has been superintendent of Mr. Newhall’s immense stock ranch in Monterey county, an occupation which agrees with him, judging from his robust looks, which is in marked contrast with his appearance while a resident here.

Newhall, however, had a large property north of Los Angeles comprising the Rancho San Francisco, spanning more than 46,000 acres in modern Santa Clarita and which he bought in January 1875, just as F.P.F. Temple, son-in-law of Homestead owners William Workman and Nicolasa Urioste, was prospecting for oil nearby.

Daniel was transferred to the San Francisco property and he registered to vote in April 1879 as a farmer in what was stated as Newhall. The following year’s federal census recorded that, in the “Village of Newhall,” Fields was a farmer and hotel keeper, with Annie and sons Frederick, Almer and Benjamin, his mother Dency, and sister Maria Hubbell, living with him. There were also a half-dozen boarders and more than 20 employees listed in the household, including four Chinese hotel workers and nine who were ranch laborers.

The Los Angeles Commercial of 31 March 1880 reported that “Mr. D.W. Field, the accomplished manager of the Newhall property is making an elegant park at Newhall station” which, it continued, “will be recognized as a valuable health resort on account of the purity of the water, the softness of the climate, and the curative properties of crude petrole[u]m in bronchial affections.” Despite the wild claims about what crude oil could do for the lungs, it is notable that the article concluded, “Newhall station to day is a better health resort than Saratoga [Springs, in New York state].”

In 1882, Field ran, unsuccessfully, for Los Angeles County Tax Collector and Newhall died that year, so Field soon embarked on other ventures. A major change in his fortune came after George E. Gard, a former Los Angeles police officer and chief, as well as a member of a California volunteer regiment during the Civil War years, was elected in 1884 as county sheriff. Field was a fellow Republican and so was appointed to be a deputy, serving in that position during Gard’s two year term.

When the December 1886 Los Angeles city election took place, Field secured the G.O.P. nomination for tax collector and ran against Democrat Bernard Cohn, a former City Council member (best known for his swindling of ex-Governor Pío Pico) whom the Republican Los Angeles Times called “the mountainous Macchiavelli [sic] of the Second Ward” and who “is not t be mentioned in same breath as Field” regarding Cohn’s “personal or political record, or his reliability.” Though early reports suggested Cohn won the race, later returns showed Field winning by 70 votes out of over 3,800 cast.

Meanwhile, in October, Daniel and Annie purchased for $4,500 from Edward A. Hall of the Los Angeles Investment Company, a lot at Crown Hill, in what was known as the Highland Tract. It is unclear whether the Fields occupied a house there at the time Annie wrote her brother, as the missive only is headed “Home” and there is no return address on the envelope. With respect to the writer, she was a graduate of Los Angeles High School, involved with the Presbyterian Church and a member of the Young Women’s Christian Temperance Union, fighting against the legal manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages.

Benjamin only recently left Los Angeles, with the 17 November edition of the Times briefly informing readers that “Ben Field, the handsome and plucky 17-year-old-son of Under-Sheriff D.W. Field, shipped [out] at San Pedro yesterday on the British ship Micronesia,” adding that he was to go around the Horn of South America to Queenstown (now Cobh), Ireland and then on to Hamburg, Germany. This was to be followed by three months wandering through that nation before he was to attend a school and it was concluded that “he is a brave lad and a bright one, and of the sort to profit by the many advantages such a trip will afford.”

It was small wonder then that Annie’s letter began with “what wouldn’t I give to see you, and know how you are and hear how you spent your Xmas day.  I can’t make it seem right to have you away so long.” She also lamented the long absence of their aunt, Maria Hubbell, who need an eye operation and “is so lonesome and home sick.” With both loved ones away, Annie continued, “we must all wait, and I pray that a year from yesterday [or Christmas 1887] we can all eat dinner together in good health and prosperity.”

Though she protested that writing seemed questionable “when I just have to tell things and can’t ask questions with any reasonable prospect of being answered,” Annie soldiered on and told her brother “I’ll try and make the best of it and tell you about our Xmas.” She then informed him that,

We didn’t have much of a Xmas as far as presents went, that was understood among ourselves that we couldn’t spent much money, for our furnishing the house has just about exhausted the paternal pocket book, and the boys couldn’t afford it any how.

We went down to Uncle Frank’s to dinner, they are cozily settled in their new home now, and we had them up to a Thanksgiving dinner, so they wanted to return the compliment.

Aunt Bessie gave a jolly good dinner, turkey, cranberry sauce, pumpkin and huckleberry pie and fruit cake.  Almer went off duck hunting, but Papa, Fred and I did full justice to that dinner, it came off at half past two, and nobody said anything about supper, we three sat in the parlor after we came home, there was [a] fire in the grate but we hadn’t lighted the lamps, it was very quiet, nobody said a word for a long time, finally I said, “Papa, you are very quiet, he commenced to laugh, and, said “Yes, but I am very happy, all I want to make me perfectly so is Auntie and Ben.”

Frank and Bessie Field lived nearby, as he was employed, probably because of the assistance rendered by Daniel, as superintendent of Second Street Park, located in the Arroyo de los Reyes, but removed after several years for development with the site where Glendale Boulevard meets 1st Street/Beverly Boulevard and 2nd Street, not far from the recently established Vista Hermosa Natural Park.

Returning to the holidays, Annie told her brother that,

On Friday evening [Christmas Eve], we had a Xmas entertainment for the children at the [Presbyterian] church, we had some pantomimes—shadows thrown on a sheet—some singing and speaking and then came Mr and Mrs Santa Claus and their four sons.  Mr. Booth was the old gentleman, Miss Wiswell the old days, and the two Tuthill boys, Guy Cochran and young Chichester were the four hopefuls, we had lots of fun. 

The letter then concluded that “Mrs. Sheward [wife of merchant John T. Sheward] had invited me to receive calls with her on New Years day.  Miss [Luella] Foss and Miss Victoria] Witmer [whose father Henry was a prime mover with Crown Hill and the Second Street Cable Railway] will be there also, I know we shall have a delightful time and I think it was very kind in her to ask me, when I am almost a stranger to her.”

Here the missive ends, but it apparently wasn’t mailed for nearly two months, as Annie wrote a few more letters in the last two weeks of January and then looks to have sent the group together on Valentine’s Day 1887. The envelope was addressed to Ben in care of a commercial agent at Queenstown (Cobh), though a marginal note reads “wait arrival of Ship Micronesia.”

It may be that she realized that sending a letter right after Christmas and a month-and-a-half after his departure was too premature and she had time to pen her other correspondence and send them to Ireland when they were likely to be received by her brother. In any case, we are fortunate to have these letters in our collection because of their references to 19th century Christmas celebrations and the connections to a well-known Angel City family.

What we’ll do is return the last day of January and share those letters in a post that will also provide some further history of Annie, Benjamin and Daniel Field, so be sure to check back then!