by Paul R. Spitzzeri
When Franciscan priests established the Mission San Gabriel in 1771 and then moved the institution from its original site near Montebello, after flooding from the adjacent San Gabriel River, to higher, dryer ground at its current location, one of the crops introduced was the hearty Vitis vinifera, or “Mission” grape. This inaugurated the wine industry of California, though the quality of the product was very poor (distilling it into brandy, called aguardiente, proved more palatable).
In the years after the secularization (closure) of the missions, carried out in the 1830s, the tending of vineyards and manufacturing of wine and brandy was undertaking by growing numbers of local ranchers and farmers. Naturally, Los Angeles had these activities along the river because of irrigation, while in outlying areas, such as the Rancho La Puente, creeks and rivers were tapped to water the vines.
John Rowland and William Workman, La Puente’s owners, distilled liquor in Taos, New Mexico before migrating here in the early 1840s and they very quickly established vineyards near their houses along San José Creek. The two sold grapes to winemakers, including John Frohling and Charles Kohler, natives of Germany, who went on to great success in San Francisco after starting their business in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles County was the center of wine production until northern California areas like Napa and Sonoma counties proved to have far superior conditions, but there was a period in which Spanish-speaking Californios, Americans and Europeans, including from France, Germany and Italy, very actively conducted operations in and around the Angel City. It wasn’t until the 1880s, when a devastating disease (Pierce’s or Anaheim, because of where it was said to have originated) ravaged the region’s vines, that conditions changed dramatically.
This latest “Reading Between the Lines” post featuring historic letters from the Museum’s collection explores an interesting, if short-lived, effort to carry out a corporate endeavor in wine production in Los Angeles. The short missive featured here was penned by Angel City merchant Henry J. Yarrow (ca. 1813/1816-1870), who wrote a San Francisco compatriot, Joseph F. Vorbe, on 5 March 1870.
Yarrow may have come from the Bloomsbury section of London, England, as someone with his name and age was located there. By 1840, Yarrow sailed on the very long journey to Australia, which long functioned as a British penal colony, though it does not appear that he was sent there for criminal punishment. He ran a store in Sydney, with an early advertisement in that city’s Herald listing a wide variety of goods, including guns, hardware, ink, “anti-corrosive” paint, tobacco, tools, and wine, specifically sherry.
By fall 1845, he took to calling himself a “wine merchant and commission agent,” so that, while he offered in ads bags, cigars, flour, pickles, preserved potatoes in tins, salt and soup, the first items listed included ale and porter beer, brandy, champagne, gin, liqueurs, port and sherry, this latter in one to three cases of a dozen bottles each.
It seems likely that, with the outbreak of the California Gold Rush and the news spreading rapidly throughout much of the world, including Australia, Yarrow determined, after about a decade, to relocate. The Herald of 20 March 1850 recorded that he embarked on the Balmoral and, after a stop in Hawaii, arrived in California, probably after a sailing of around 100 days or so.
The first located reference to Yarrow in Los Angeles was in 1857, where, recorded Boyle Workman (great-nephew of William of La Puente) in his 1930s book, The City That Grew, the local Spanish speakers called the merchant Cuatro Ojos, or Four Eyes, presumably because Yarrow sported spectacles. Workman added that “old man Henry G. [sic] Yarrow . . . kept everything from a toothpick to a crowbar.”
In the centennial history of Los Angeles County, published in 1876, there was a reference, by former county judge Benjamin Hayes, who composed a section dealing with that period, that Yarrow arrived and set up his store in town in 1857. There were a few references to Yarrow in the Spanish-language newspaper, El Clamor Público, in his early years in Los Angeles, including his being an agent for Bartolo Ballerino and his sale of poisons for pest control, including crows, moles and squirrels affecting crops.
Another reference of note was from the Los Angeles Star of 23 July 1859, which reported that, during an era of substantial crime and violence in town,
A bold attempt at assassination and robbery was made . . . on Mr. Yarrow, at the door of his own store. He was about entering the premises which had been closed for the evening, when he was accosted by a Mexican who wished to purchase candles. Being suspicious of the fellow, Mr. Yarrow at first refused, but afterwards unlocked his store door, and was in the act of handing the candles to him, when the ruffian made a spring upon Mr. Yarrow, and attempted to cut his throat with a knife.
The merchant fought with the intruder, who dropped his sarape and ran with Yarrow trailing behind, but losing the chase. Yarrow was enumerated in the 1860 federal census as a 44-year old merchant, native of England and possessing personal property of $3,000, though nothing was listed for real estate. Later, he acquired a lot in town on New High Street, just north of the Plaza Church.
Yarrow also became interested in mining—one wonders if he pursued digging during the Gold Rush—with the Los Angeles News of 3 August 1860 remarking that he displayed in his store an eight ounce lump of gold that was unearthed from a mine at Bear Valley, this being in an area called Holcomb Valley a short distance north of Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains northeast of Los Angeles. A Latino miner brought it to Yarrow and the prospector mentioned that nine Americans were extracting a pound to a pound-and-a-half daily there.
Later, Yarrow owned stock in the Morongo Mining Company, which operated in Holcomb Valley, and among fellow investors was F.P.F. Temple, who had mining interests as early as 1842 at Placerita Canyon near modern Santa Clarita, owned considerable property and provided beef to miners in Tuolumne County and was a prospector in the mountains of Ventura County and, with Workman, Santa Catalina Island.
The 21 November 1868 edition of the Star informed readers of a new hotspot, the Lone Pine Mining District in Inyo County in eastern California, which included “Sierra Gorda,” or Cerro Gordo, where F.P.F. Temple, who also had a longstanding involvement in mining, later became heavily invested. The paper recorded that were a quintet of main mines and Felipe Sastra, recently returned from that region with 2,000 pounds of ore, brought some, said to likely have high silver content, to Yarrow’s store, noted as being on Los Angeles Street.
The Star of 27 March 1869 reported that, from the Lone Pine district,
The mill of Wolfskill & Cervantes . . . was delivered at the mine, the Union [one of those five mentioned in its earlier piece] . . . and a contract immediately entered into to have it erected and in complete working order [by mid-June]. [In the meantime] they propose to deliver here, to the president of the company, H.J. Yarrow, fifty pounds pure silver in bars, by the 10th of the April next.
Another interest of Yarrow was in raising sheep, these animals become dominant among the ranchers of greater Los Angeles after Civil War-era floods and drought decimated the herds of cattle that long were the backbone of the regional economy. For example, in the 22 April 1870 edition of the News, Yarrow advertised for the sale of “1,500 GOOD EWES WITH LAMBS” and gave the address of his store at the corner of Los Angeles and Requena streets.
The 3 July 1870 number of the Star gave its readers a brief description of San Clemente Island, which Governor Pío Pico, in the waning days of his administration before the American seizure of Mexican California, granted to his brother, Andrés, and to Workman, though the United States government declared it (as with Alcatraz Island, which the governor granted to Workman at the same time) federal property.
There were, however, leases made by Washington, including to Yarrow and a partner named Wilson, as well as another pair, Macy and Gertson. The paper remarked that,
The Island of San Clemente is . . . about thirty miles south of the island of Santa Catalina. It is much smaller than its neighbor, and although an excellent sheep ranch, is destitute of both streams and springs. Yet the sheep fare very well on it, as the heavy fogs which almost nightly visit the island, continuing frequently throughout the day, contribute sufficient moisture for maintaining them in good health . . . [Lacking any predators for the sheep, it was added that] There is a kind of weed growing there . . . of which the sheep are fond, which supplies to them the want of running streams or springs . . . This island is visited only by those whose business requires their occasional presence.
In the 1930s, the Navy took over the island and has used it for ship-to-shore munitions firing practice and other training purposes. For more on issues related to San Clemente, check out this PBS SoCal video on conservation efforts undertaken in partnership with the Navy as balance is sought between military activities and conservation of the island’s natural resources, including endangered species.
With respect to the letter, Yarrow wrote to Vorbe:
Having had the chance of buying $250 worth of L.A.W.G. Association [stock] for $125 (half price) I did not hesitate as there will also be a divident [sic] on it when declared wh[en] we shall profit indeed should the speculation of sending the Wine to New York succeed wh[ich] I think it will our Stock will be at a premium—what do you think shall we buy more at same price should the oppty present itself[?] I could buy I know at least $2000 worth of stock at 75 cts pr Dollar perhaps less, let me hear from you on the subject. I have drawn on you for One hundred and twenty five Dollars in favor of L. Wolfskill to pay for the above stock.
Luis (also known as Louis and Lewis) Wolfskill was a son of William Wolfskill, who came to Los Angeles in 1830 on the Old Spanish Trail from New Mexico and, about a decade later, planted the first commercial orange grove in California, while also amassing large landholdings in greater Los Angeles. Luis, with his inheritance and who married to Luisa Dalton, daughter of the owner of Rancho Azusa, was a ranching partner of Temple and Workman and later served on the Common (City) Council. The mines noted earlier with Cervantes were those co-owned by Luis.
The reference here is to the Los Angeles Wine Growers’ Association, which incorporated in summer 1868 with Yarrow as its president. Other officers included Prudent Beaudry, real estate developer and future mayor, as treasurer, lawyer Charles V. Howard as secretary and Emile Vache as “superintending of the manufacturing department.” Trustees aside from these men were Vache’s brother, Theophile, Joseph Huber, Henry D. Barrows (Wolfskill’s brother-in-law) and Manuel F. Coronel, though Howard was soon replaced by lumber company owner John M. Griffith after he was killed in a saloon gun battle on Valentine’s Day 1869.
At the beginning of 1869, the Association opened a wholesale and retail store at the corner of Main and Arcadia streets, next to where U.S. 101 runs through downtown Los Angeles today, and offered “a full and complete assortment of WINES, Of their own make, and Imported, [and] BRANDIES, Of their own make, and imported.” It was boasted that
THIS association has the Largest Wine-making Establishment on the Pacific Coast and its manufactures have already acquired a reputation for good quality. Their Agent in San Francisco has facilities for the exchange of native Wines and Brandies against Imported ones, and this arrangement enables the Association to sell Imported Goods at GREAT REDUCED PRICES.
The 26 March issue of the Marysville Appeal-Democrat appealed to locals to form a similar organization and cited the San Francisco Alta California for details about the Association, such as that it purchased grapes from growers and made and sold wine,” with Vache responsible for the manufacturing, while stockholders were vineyardists who had a ready market for their crops.
The account continued that the firm had a pair of brick and stone warehouses, one more than 11,000 square feet (about the size of the Homestead’s 1920s residence, La Casa Nueva) and the other comprising a half-basement of some 3,600 square feet. Inventory comprised some 150,000 gallons of wine and 60,000 of brandy, with grapes bought at 75 cents to a dollar per pound, while employees were also shareholders. A store was maintained in San Francisco, situated on Clay Street, near Sansome Street, and where the Jay Hotel stands today, which may be how Vorbe became associated with Yarrow.
Vache (1834-1908) hailed from an island off the western coast of France and migrated to California in 1856, joining an uncle who was a rancher in Monterey County, where Emile ran a store for several years. He then lived and worked in San Francisco, with a period in the mines, before he and his brother Theophile came to Los Angeles opened a wine store on Alameda Street. The Alta stated that he came from a family of winemakers and that “his pride is in his brandy,” though he also made Angelica, Hock, Madeira, Port and Sherry.
The San Francisco Chronicle of 12 December, also providing information on the Union association in Anaheim, founded in 1857 by German vineyardists, provided further detail on the Los Angeles enterprise:
This association is a joint stock company, with a capital of $50,000. They commenced operations in Los Angeles in October, 1868, and have continued up to the present time the manufacture of wines and brandies. Last year, 200,000 gallons of wine was made, all of which was sold to consumers in this city [San Francisco, presumably]. The wines manufactured are port, angelica, red and white, besides a small quantity of brandy, which, owing to the large duty that has to be paid on it, is limited.
After noting Vache’s role and his origins in the winemaking regions of France, the account continued that “when the time to pick the grapes arrives an agent is sent into the Indian country to contract for a large number of Indians to do the picking.” It was added that 200 indigenous persons were so employed, while it was remarked that “the association also manufacture a large quantity of wine bitters, pushed as a medicinal tonic.
By early 1870, the Association was promoting its sale of wine derived from vineyards at the Rancho Cucamonga, planted first by grantee Tiburcio Tapia and expanded by later owners, including John Rains, though its current owners included banker Isaias W. Hellman, partner of Temple and Workman. Advertisements pushed “this justly CELEBRATED WINE,” sold by the gallon, and for which the company was the sole authorized agent.
The remainder of Yarrow’s missive to Vorbe was:
I was quite surprised at our sheep Account should we have a little luck with [the] Rochel flock we ought to come out free, that is the flocks we have down here would cost us nothing and I value them at the present time at Eighteen thousand Dollars if I am correct the Sheep Business is not so bad.
This likely concerned the animals that Yarrow pastured on San Clemente Island, though there is mention of a Wilson and it is unclear what was meant by “Rochel.” The valuation of $18,000 is significant, however, because just a little over four months after the letter was written, Yarrow died at about age 54.
A brief notice in the Star of 20 July stated that he was “for many years a prominent merchant of this city,” while funeral services were handled by the French Benevolent Society “of which body he was an honored member.” It may be that his wine industry connection, such as through the Association and with Vache, was at least part of how he was involved in that organization. When his estate was filed for probate, appraisers determined its value at not far under $20,000, though how much of that was tied to his sheep interests is not known.
Bernard Cohn, a prominent merchant and later notorious for his transactions with Pío Pico that were nothing short of swindling, was the estate administrator and oversaw the sale of real estate, which comprised the Los Angeles lot noted above and interests in mines belonging to the aforementioned “Wolfskill & Cervantes Mining Company.”
Vorbe, however, claimed a legal partnership with Yarrow, which was certainly referred to in this letter with respect to Association stock and the sheep, and filed suit against Cohn in August 1870 to recover some financial compensation from the sale of that real property. As was so often the case, the litigation lingered, though Vorbe won a judgment in November 1874 and, after Cohn appealed, an affirmation by the California Supreme Court at the end of 1876—how much he realized after legal fees, however, is unknown. Vorbe, who was declared insolvent in the early 1880s, died in San Francisco in 1896.
Concerning the Association, it did not long survive Yarrow. Secretary Charles C. Lips (1835-1888), a native of Stuttgart, Germany and who was a bookbinder in Philadelphia before settling in Los Angeles around 1869, took over the operations of the store with partner Norbert Des Autels in May 1871. The firm lingered until early 1873, but decided to dissolve with its properties offered as “A Rare and Very Important Opportunity,” though Yarrow’s successor, France native Juan Bernard, ended up with all the property, including the equipment, machinery and wine and brandy stock in April. Bernard advertised later as the Association’s successor (and that of Lips and Des Autels) at an Alameda Street address.
In spring 1874, a portion of the Alameda wine house formerly operated by the Association was leased to the Los Angeles Petroleum Refining Company, of which F.P.F. Temple was president and which had oil drilling operations near modern Santa Clarita and where the first regional refinery (moved to Richmond near Berkeley where it remains today) was built. Rodolfo Carreras, a Cuban who claimed he had a special refining technique, embarked on his process in that space, though he turned out to essentially be a quack and shyster.
This letter, brief and modest on its surface as it appears to be, is a remarkable document relating to early mercantile activities, the sheep industry, including on San Clemente Island, and, of course, winemaking, especially as the joint stock company that was the Los Angeles Wine Growers’ Association was a local innovation, even as its existence was only about a half-decade.