by Paul R. Spitzzeri
Having faced an enraged Pomona populace in a fall 1891 controversy involving his alleged efforts to bilk landowners on properties purportedly lacking clear title, including threats of lynching and demands that he leave town never to return, attorney Patrick C. Tonner, namesake of the canyon and road in and near Tres Hermanos Ranch in today’s Chino Hills, Diamond Bar and Brea, managed to remain a resident of the eastern Los Angeles County city.
Yet, Tonner’s remaining years were clouded by several problems, including financial struggles, which occurred during such general issues as the Depression of 1893. While there was a report in the Los Angeles Herald of 3 May 1892 that he and a brother, a priest in Iowa, were heirs to a $2 million estate through their mother and were offered $1.7 million in cash for their interests, it seems like this might have been a concoction of the Pomona attorney, whose subsequent experiences certainly don’t reflect a newly minted near-millionaire.
For example, Alfredo A. Alvarado, member of an old family from the Rancho San José among whom Tonner had longstanding relationships, filed suit in June 1892 to foreclose a mortgage of north of $6,000, a significant sum for the period, with a court finding for Alvarado a few months later.
At the start of 1894, the Security Savings and Trust Company issued its foreclosure suit for a mortgage topping $7,000 and a judgment awarded to the institution two months within two months. In this case, the properties involved included some Pomona-area tracts, as well as almost 600 acres of the Rancho Rincon de la Brea, into which Tonner Canyon, the original Brea Canyon (another canyon to the west through which runs the 57 Freeway bears that name now), terminates and which was considered highly valuable oil lands.
Tonner tried to sell to sell between 200 and 500 acres of this property at the end of 1892, informing potential buyers that “this land joins the Puente Oil Company’s lands on the east,” the reference being to the area of Rancho La Puente owned by former Los Angeles County sheriff William R. Rowland, who, with partner William Lacy (a Los Angeles pipe manufacturer) developed oil wells near the crest of the Puente Hills where La Habra Heights meets Rowland Heights.
The success of the Puente Oil Field spurred Tonner to acquire the Rincon de la Brea tract, with the “brea” or tar referring to seepages in that canyon (years before, Homestead founder William Workman and his son-in-law, F.P.F. Temple, acquired interests in the ranch, undoubtedly for its oil potential.) With the bank foreclosure, however, Tonner, who at one time was thought to be primed for millionaire status, lost his opportunity for wealth from black gold, though others soon stepped in and became rich from prospecting in that general area.
The hammer fell hard on Tonner as covered in the 24 March 1894 edition of the Los Angeles Express, which ran a headline of “WIPED OUT A FORTUNE” with a subheading of “An Object Lesson on What Mortgages Will Do.” It was noted that the Savings Bank and Trust Company secured a judgment from Superior Court Judge Walter Van Dyke, with it added that the case “possessed more interest than an ordinary foreclosure suit in that there was about $30,000 involved in the matter. The Savings Bank and Trust had a first mortgage, while the People’s Bank of Pomona held a second, while Alvarado had a deficiency judgment, as well.
The result, the Express informed readers, was that,
This foreclosure wipes out about all the property Tonner has. He came to this country about twenty years ago from Ireland. He studied for the priesthood, but not being perfectly in touch with that line of work he threw aside his holy hopes for holy orders and went to teaching school in Pomona. While there he got possession of a tract of land, upon part of which the town of Pomona now stands. All he had left, some sixteen acres in town lots, was in this mortgage, besides about 600 acres of the finest oil land in the county. It adjoins Lacy & Rowland’s best wells. In the second mortgage there was also a quantity of other property. After leaving the business of teaching school Tonner became a lawyer, and is now practicing that profession.
One enterprise noted regarding the Tonner property was in the Los Angeles Herald of 7 October 1898, which briefly reported, from a Pomona correspondent, that,
The Columbia Oil company, a newly organized company, is to operate on property it has acquired in Brea canyon, west of the city [Pomona], and known as the Tonner oil lands, having been formerly owned by P.C. Tonner of this city. W[allace] L. Hardison of Santa Paula [a founder of Union Oil Company], the chief stockholder, was in this city Wednesday.
One of the Columbia principals was Hardison’s brother-in-law, William B. Scott, who went on to lead the firm, which later merged with Rowland’s Puente Oil. An investor in the Columbia firm was Los Angeles Times vice-president Harry Chandler and so it is no surprise that the trio of Chandler, Rowland and Scott, having those ties in oil, then acquired the land that they dubbed Tres Hermanos Ranch, and on which they ran cattle and built a house which was used for their visits.
Financial problems continued through the Nineties, including other mortgage and promissory note lawsuits, such as a major one in spring 1897 filed by the People’s Bank of Pomona, which sought close to $24,000 on two notes and a sale decree for almost 370 acres of land. Tonner’s Orange Grove Street Railway, which looks to have completed part of its line and briefly operated after its founding in the Boom of the Eighties period, faced a Pomona Board of Trustees order in summer 1895 for its tracks to be torn up, when he ordered operation of cars, evidently as a demonstration that it could still work. A foreclosure suit followed in the fall, but the following spring Tonner held out hope that a revival was possible, though this proved a fleeting feeling and, in early 1897, a sheriff’s sale was held for the firm’s property and franchise.
Just after Tonner’s death, in February 1900, the Pomona Progress reported that,
What is known as the Tonner oil lands, consisting of 600 acres in Brea canyon, has been sold by the Peoples’ bank to out-of-town parties, who will, it is understood, organize a company and prospect the land for oil. A running supply of water makes the property quite valuable. The 600 acres was acquired by the late P.C. Tonner in 1873, and some time ago the bank came into possession. The deal has been going on for quite a while. As the purchasers are largely interested in oil, they may begin developing immediately.
The said firm was unnamed, but may have been Columbia, seeking to expand its holdings in the area. One liquid, however, for which Tonner frequently prospected was alcohol, at least as represented in several press accounts. The 27 June 1893 edition of the Los Angeles Times seemed to delight in telling readers that he “is furnishing lots of amusement to the residents [of Pomona, a decidedly teetotaler’s town] at present” as was hauled before a local judge on a charge of public intoxication.
The article provided Tonner’s public defense to the paper as he claimed that he was irrigating his orange grove “and as is the usual custom in such cases, took an occasional drink, just to keep off a cold.” He’d rolled up his pants legs to conduct that work, but neglected to lower them, while, as he got to town, “somewhere along the road he got hold of a ladies’ large straw hat, with bright red streamers attached thereto.”
With this costume, Tonner proceeded to “a religious service being carried on by the colored people,” where he made a dollar donation to the collection and then “invited the whole congregation to adjourn and go with them to an ice cream saloon and have all the cream they wanted at his expense.” Apparently, it was during this excursion that his unusual manner of dress attracted enough attention to warrant an arrest, followed by an indictment and trial.
Tonner requested a jury trial and motioned for a change of venue, claiming prejudice in Pomona because Fred J. Smith (future owner of the Homestead from 1899-1903), John E. Packard and another man “had caused to be circulated, some time since, reports that he had laid claim to titles to certain lands around Pomona.” The judge denied the motion and the trail was conducted, but the jury could not agree on a verdict.
In late July 1895, though, the town marshal nabbed Tonner on a new drunkenness charge, with the Times of the 26th citing a Pomona source that “he was standing at the corner of Second and Main talking to a member of the Salvation Army,” this organization often criticized for its demonstrative public activities during the era.
It was added that “quite a crowd collected in front of the First National Bank, creating a disturbance, when the Marshal took Mr. Tonner, put him in his buggy and was about to take him to jail.” A man intervened and Tonner was taken to the city recorder and released on bail pending a court appearance. Yet, Pomona’s principal police officer decided not to continue the matter “as he feels sure nothing can be done” because “Mr. Tonner was creating no disturbance, and it was highly probable the jury would clear him just the same as before.”
Nearly two years later, Tonner again found himself in more legal hot (fire?) water as the Herald of 20 April 1895 reported from a prior day’s Pomona account that,
City Attorney [J.A.] Owen and P.C. Tonner, Esq., a lawyer of this city, became involved in a wordy altercation yesterday afternoon over some phase of the recent election and it is said that Mr. Tonner slapped the recently elected city attorney in the face. Mr. Tonner appeared before Justice Finney and was fined for a misdemeanor, but that fact, seemingly, did not satisfy Mr. Owen, for that legal gentleman, it is said, has lodged a complaint against Tonner, charging drunkenness . . .
The article further noted that Tonner and Finney were of the “high license,” supporting liquor sales in town, faction while Owen and the city recorder, who was to hear the new case, were anti-saloon adherents. In fact, in early June, the county Superior Court presided over a recount of the ballots and found that Owen was bested by all of seven votes by his opponent, another of the “high license” contingent.
This time, Tonner, who initially secured yet another acquittal, being represented by his law partner and future city attorney Edward Fleming, was convicted and sentenced to 25 days or a $50 fine and, while he appealed to the Superior Court, this was unsuccessful and the conviction stood, so the fine was paid. in October, Tonner was again in the news concerning criticisms that a pastor and drug store owner, J.D.H. Browne was filling physician-issued prescriptions for whisky and beer, even to alcoholics, because of a recent Pomona ordinance closing saloons.
With the result that “old topers” were getting their fixes “through the joint agency of the local doctors and drug stores,” the prelate argued that he filled the orders against his will, even as “public sentiment . . . has run so high that two druggists in Pomona have decided to not even keep the intoxicants in stock.” The piece concluded,
P.C. Tonner, the Nestor [a king in Greek mythology known for boastfully dispensing advice that ended up humorously working against his purported wisdom] of the Pomona legal bar, says openly that no law under heaven can prevent him from getting his liquors on a prescription here at any time, and that he has been furnished at one time from Rev. Mr. Browne’s drug store a dozen bottles of beer on a perpetual prescription that he keeps with him for a time of need.
Despite the legal clouds over Tonner during the Nineties, he may have had some measure of redemption, if not tolerance, when he displayed his patriotism during the Spanish-American War of 1898. He was one of more than 40 Pomonans who organized a “home guard,” with these men expressing, in the Pomona Progress of 29 April that “there is no telling what may occur in the next few weeks along the Pacific coast,” as if Spanish warships were likely to attack, “and it is just as well to be on the safe side to avoid a surprise.”
It was added that “it would be well to have a couple of hundred able bodied men in drilling order in case it becomes necessary for the President to make another call for troops.” Consequently, the home guard founders informed their fellow residents that they established their militia “for the purpose of military drill and instruction and to prepare ourselves to efficiently respond to emergency calls upon our individual patriotism.”
No further calls for volunteers were forthcoming and the war ended quickly, but Tonner’s contribution included a pair of his poems, one lionizing Company D of the National Guard of California, comprising Pomona volunteers, and the other called “The Sinking of the Maine,” regarding the alleged Spanish destruction of an American ship that gave the pretext for the instigation of the conflict and which was set to music just prior to his death.
A few lines from this lengthy piece of verse might serve as something of a final statement from the remarkable figure, whose roughly quarter century of residence in Pomona ran a gamut in terms of impacts, positive and negative:
Ah me! that Spanish devil
Has blown a fiery breath
The Maine is lost—her sleeping crew
Are in the throes of death . . .
Their blood cries loud for vengeance
Shall we unheed the cry?
Ten thousand times ten thousand men
Demand a quick reply
From those they placed in power.
McKinley, heed the call!
Declare at once that Cuba’s free
Or answer not at all . . .
Woe, woe, to Morro castle [in Havana]!
Woe to Havana bay!
When they see in might the “Squadron White”
Advance in proud array.
I see its flashing banners,
I hear its martial drum.
Shout, shout, ye concentrados!
Deliverance has come!
And when sweet Peace shall smile once more
On fair Cipango’s [a mythical name for Cuba when Columbus though it was Japan] plain,
Let pillared monuments arise
In honor of the Maine.
Tonner continued to practice law and was something of a historical resource, such as when he offered explanations of how Pomona was formed, following his plan for a Palomares City, and how its streets were named for officials of the Los Angeles Immigration and Land Cooperative Association (which obtained funding from loans made by the Temple and Workman bank) and their wives, though the latter were mostly changed while the former almost all remain. He pointed out that, in his Palomares City conception, streets were to be numbered in an unstated direction, while those going the other way were to be named for trees and physical features (like “Hill.”)
He added that the land company wanted to honor Tonner and Cyrus Burdick and “have their cognomens attached to two highways; but they demurred.” There is actually a Burdick Drive just south of Ganesha Park, the land for which was deeded by Tonner to the city, and below Interstate 10, and Tonner Drive is a street within that park. Of course, there is also Tonner Canyon and Tonner Canyon Road, reflective of his former ownership of the aforementioned oil lands in and near Brea Canyon.
Tonner practice law with J. Vincent Hannon, who later had a long career as an attorney in Los Angeles, until illness, worsening from summer 1899, prevented him from active work. He died on 15 February 1900, with the cause attributed to tuberculosis. Notably, though perhaps unsurprisingly, the Progress made no reference to his legal travails and troubles or to the shadowy past elucidated in the Los Angeles Times during the 1891 land controversy and it remarked on his “wit, erudition and courtesy” while adding that “his name has been a household word for years.”
The Roman Catholic newspaper, The Tidings, commented that, in Tonner’s passing, “Pomona has lost one of its oldest settlers, ablest lawyers and most public-spirited citizens,” while insisting that it was to him that for its “energy, liberality and foresightedness it owes more perhaps than to any other one man.” It was added that “while his faults were known of all men, only God and the beneficiaries knew of his many acts of kindness and charity.”
Tonner was not “a practical Catholic,” but called the St. Joseph’s Church priest to administer last rites and he was interred at the Pomona Catholic (Holy Cross) Cemetery. Lastly, in discussing his versifying, the paper observed that he once wrote a poetic defense of “the Mother Church” when it was criticized by a visiting lecturer hosted by the anti-Catholic American Protestant Association.
Patrick Charles Tonner (the image featured here is from his Find-a-Grave listing) was certainly a colorful, complicated, and controversial figure in Pomona’s first quarter century and whose legacy is largely left in the names of the two streets and the canyon mentioned here. As the Tres Hermanos Ranch continues to become more available to the public, perhaps his history can be remembered as part of that process.