The city and county of San Diego : illustrated and containing biographical sketches of prominent men and pioneers

Front matter

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THE

Contents

FACE.

The Early Days 9

Progress of Farming, etc 13

Chapter I. The Early Days

HE BAY of San Diego was discovered in 1542, by Cabrillo, and named in 1602 by Vizcaino, who a survey of it at the From the survev of made tmie.

\'izcaino over a century and a half rolled over its unbroken face until the ships of Padre Junipero Serra anchored within it. It was several ) ears before the Indians were lullv subdued, but they finally succumbed to the peaceful arts of the missionaries. Soon after the establishment of other missions in Caliiornia, and the quieting and gathering in of the greater part of the Indians around the missions, settlers from Spain and Mexico began to come in, and later on a few from the United States, England, and elsewhere. Nearly all of these settlers obtained grants of large tracts of land from the Mexican Go\'ernment, which have since been the cause ot much litigation, envy, and quarreling. These grants were simply Mexican homesteads, gi\'en to settle the country just as the United States homesteads are given, for practically nothing.

Instead of selling a man, as the United States then did, all the land

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lo CITY AXD COrXTY ( ^F SAN DIFj; O.

he wanted for $1.25 an acre, the Mexican Government gave it to him by the square league. The grants were made large partly as an inducement to the settler to go into such a wild and remote country, but mainly because the raising of cattle for the hides and tallow being the only industry, a large range was absolutely necessary for profit as well as the sujiport of the band of retainers necessary for profit and safety. Instead of abusing the owner of a grant as a monopolist and a robber, the man who felt bad because he did not own a slice of it, should have remembered that he or his father or grandfather might have had it just as easily. But they preferred the luxuries of civilization to a rude life in a foreign country, both wild and remote, and which, as everyone then believed, would never be anything but a wild cattle range. The man who endured years of privation for its sake, coulci scarcely be blamed for wanting something for it. In some respects these large holdings have been an injury to California. But it is equally certain that the results have not been one-sided. Such improvements as have been made at Coronado Beach, Escondido, and many other places in Southern California, would have waited fifty years, had the land been half covered with ordinary farms. Riverside, Pasadena, and nearly all that is of much value in Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties, owes its value to the fact that the control of the water, highways, and improvements of all kinds were in one hand.

Nevertheless the first effect of these large grants was to retard settlement. The county of San Diego, in common with the rest of Southern California, was then believed to be a veritable desert of sand, cactus, and horned toads, fit only for stock range at the rate of about one hundred acres to each animal. The owners of the large ranchos, who knew better than this, stillbelieved the land fit only for stock range; and as they practically owned all the outside range, they naturally looked with jealousy upon the incoming of any farmers either to overstock the ranges or to make cultivated fields, upon which the cattle would trespass and cause trouble. Hence, it was for the interest of all these large owners to keej) up the cry that the land was of no use for anything but stock, even had they not really believed it.

Under these influences the county remained virtually an open stock range, covered with many thousands of cattle and horses, for about twenty years after the admission of California to the Union. A very few persons had come in and attempted farming, some on large and some on small scales, but made a poor headway against low prices, wild cattle and their own ignorance of the land's peculiarities. Much quarreling and bad feeling between the new settlers and the old necessarily resulted. On the one hand the ranchero claimed that his lines embraced all available Government land in his vicinity, and ate out the crops of the granger with his cattle. In this he was aided by the sheep-man,

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who had for some time bee« a ijower in the hind and who wanted all the public grazing for himself On the other hand, too many a ' ' granger ignored all lines, declared all grants frauds, denounced his Government for recognizing vested rights, scjuatted in force upon what was uncjuestionably within the grant lines, and shot the ranchero's cattle not only in his grain fields, but in the iiills. The cattle shot in the fields were left where they lay, but the beef upon which some of the new settlers kept fat came from the hills.

The "granger" increased so fast under the impetus given by the founding of New San Diego, the fact — first proved by J. S. Harbison, of Sacramento, who brought the first bees into California and into this county — that enormous quantities of fine honey could be raised here, and the fine climate, that he soon became a power in the land. The squatter, or ' ' esquatero, " as he was contemptously called by the sheep and cattle-men, finally walked off with the country, as he eventually will with the great cattle ranges of the great western basins. About 1870 he worked through the Legislature a law which broke up the old free range system which had been in use in all the new States of the West in their early days. Under this system damages for trespass by cattle could be had only upon proof that the land was protected by a fence of a certain size. The new law, or "no-fence law," as it was called, made the common law of England, by which e\'ery man mustkeep his cattle on his own land, the law of this county.

This law soon reduced the raising of cattle and horses to a minimum, because it was too expensive at that time to fence the large ranchos, and because the free range upon which cattle had heretofore run was practically destroyed. The sheep interest did not suffer, but improved in consequence of the law. Being under the care of a herder day and night, sheep could not trespass, and the amount of free range on public land was increased by the withdrawal of the cattle and horses. From this time sheep-raising, bee-keeping, and general farming became the leading industries, though on a few^ of the large ranchos, such as Santa Margarita and Santa Rosa, the cattle were retained. The ranchos remained, however, closed to settlement, as the owners did not care to admit a few small farmers, and there was then no probability of getting settlers enough to make subdivision profitable. El Cajon, San Dieguito. and La Nacion were for many years the only ranchos open to settlement, and the farmer had to seek such spots as lay around the grants or in the small valleys in the surrounding hills. Some very valuable tracts, such as Poway, Fallbrook, and San Pasqual, never were included in grants and were speedily taken up. Hundreds of other small tracts were scattered over the land in pieces of from one hundred to a thousand acres or more, and of these the s'.naller ones were gradually settled, until it became neiu'ly impossible to find forty acres of good,

CfTY AXn COrXTY OF SAX DIEGO.

aral)le ( iox-ernnifnt land west of the desert di\ide. San Jacinto was ojjened to general settlement in 1882, Escondido in 18S6, Ex-Mission / in 18.S5, Santa Maria in 1886, San Marcos in 1887, Temecula in 1883. But many of the large grants still remain closed, though it will be but a short time liefore all of them are upon the market in small tracts.

Chapter II Progress Of Farming, Etc

iF ever a country needed good plowing it was San Diego County. If ever a country failed to get it, it was this same San Diego. The long tramp, tramp, tramp, of immense bands of sheep over the ground while it was wet had packed it to the hardness of an adobe brick. Even the alfileria and burr-clo\'er, which endure more ill treatment than almost any other vegetation, failed to reach half their natural size. In many places they were nearly destro)-ed by being eaten otf while growing, and foxtail and other kinds of poverty grass and rank weeds were in their places. The desolate appearance gi\'en the land by the bands of sheep, can scarcely be imagined to-day by those who look only upon the cultivated vineyards of El Cajon, or the alfalfa fields of San Jacinto.

" Tickle the earth with a plow and it will laugh with a harvest," some well-meaning goose had written of California, in the days gone by. Unfortunately for the land this was true in many seasons. In fact, in three seasons out of ten, grain sown upon an old road or abandoned brick-yard will do about as well as anywhere. In two years more out of ten, the mildest scratching will suffice. As the great California weather prophet remembers only his predictions that turn out correct, so the new farmer remembered only his successes, and scratching in grain with a cultivator, harrow, or even a brush-drag, became the rule. Even where a gang plow was used, there was no plowing, the plows being so numerous that no team could draw them if deeply set. For )-ears the single j)low was never seen in use, except to make a road or break brushy ground. Many defended this style of farming on reasoning that appeared sound. " If it is a good year I will get a good crop anyhow, no matter how carelessly put in. If it's a bad year, I won't get a crop no matter how well it is put in. By scratching I can get in four or fi\e times as much ground as I can with good ]:)lowing, and the chances of a good season are always six out of ten."

The crops raised under this system were sometimes enormous, exceeding the heaviest yields ever known east of the Rocky Mountains, and when combined with a good price, often yielded a hea\'y return 2 (13)

over expenses. But in the lont;' run this style has been a failure. It soon made the soil foul with weeds, cheat, etc., reducing the quality and quantity of the grain, so that it became necessary to lose an occasional year by summer fallow. And in the years of light or average rainfall, the want of good plowing told too heavily. In the mountain belts, where there was always rain enough in dry years, there was too much in }'ears when there was enough along the coast. Fine crops were raised there in such severely dry years as 1877 and 1883, but the cost of hauling to market was too great.

The smaller farmers, who sowed small areas with grain, did better work and had better crops. But their work was generally a failure in the long run for another reason : The big farmers did everything by machinery and hired labor, and it was beneath the dignity of the small farmer to do otherwise. There was not a cradle, flail, or threshing floor among the Americans in the whole county; and if a man had only twenty acres of grain, he must have it cut with a header and threshed with a threshing machine, no matter how much spare time he or his boys might have. When harvest came a small army of ravenous hands and horses would descend upon him, generally on Saturday night, so as to insure rations for Sunday. Instead of cutting around the field with a cradle to make a way for the header, the ponderous machine smashed its own way around the first swath or up the center of the field. The knives, sharpened apparently but once a year, tore and stripped many a stalk instead of cutting it, and many a head of grain was so badly cut that it fell under the machine instead of in the receiver. From fifteen to twenty per cent of the crop was thus wasted, and there was no gleaning of the stubbles except with the live stock. When threshingtime came around, the same wasteful extravagance was repeated on a still greater scale. By the time the farmer had his grain sacked and hauled to market, he was often in debt and seldom much ahead.

In many other respects, San Diego County farming was about the worst in the world. Make no machinery that you can buy, and do nothing yourself that you can hire anyone else to do, seemed to be the cardinal principle. Nearly all were farming, not for something to eat or use on the farm, but for something to haul many miles to market to sell at a low price, to buy provisions at a high price, to haul all the way home again to eat. Never did it take men so long to learn anything. One man would lose a hundred chickens by wild cats and cayotes before he would learn to shut the coop at night. Another would lose his garden or young \-ines two or three years in succession before discovering that a rabbit-proof fence was the first and not the last requisite. Other farmers seemed to forget e\erything they ever knew before. Men who, in Illinois, planted corn forty inches apart in rows straight both ways and culti\ated it constantly until it was too high to drive through,

PROGRESS OF FARMING. ETC. 15

planted it here in rows but twenty inches apart, crooked both ways, and never afterward touched it. The same was done with potatoes and all kinds of produce planted in hills or rows. And though Heaven rewarded their folly as it deserved, yet year after year, as the spring came around, they went through the same old ceremony, as if trying a new experiment in a new country. The same thing may be seen to-day in too many places. Yet, in spite of all this carelessness, coupled with high rates of interest and high prices for all manner of goods and machinery, the farmers of this county generally lived better, had more spare time, more spare change, and fewer mortgage foreclosures than the farmers of any other State. The absence of rain, hail, etc., in summer and the difference in the cost of getting through the winter, more than overbalanced all else.

For several years, beginning about 1869, bee-keeping was immensely profitable, and in the warm days of winter and spring, the air above the spangled earth was a steady hum. About 1878 the price of honey began to decline, with a decided falling off in the certainty of production. The use of glucose for adulteration, in the East, has probably broken the price. The decline in production has been explained in various ways, all of which are unsatisfactory. These styles of farming continued up to about 1880, when slight changes lor the better were noticed, and from that time to the present, the inflow of new-comers, with the advance of new ideas and principles worked out in the counties north of us, has brought about a decided revolution, which is fast spreading.

Chapter III. Beginning Of Fruit And Vine Culture

OR a long time it was supposed that fruit and grapes, as well as garden-stuff, could not be grown in California without irrigation. The irrigation facilities of this county, being generally expensive, were not developed to any extent. Even in the few places where water was cheaply obtained there was no encouragement to raise anything. A wagon load of any kind of fruit would drug the Saa Diego market and shipping it farther was out of the question. Some made a few dollars by selling to their neighbors; but most of the neighbors preferred to wait until they could get it lor nothing. To raise fruit or even vegetables for one's own use was not only expensive but vexatious, on account of birds, rabbits, squirrels, etc. , which concentrate upon an isolated patch of anything green in summer; and the farmer soon concluded it was cheaper to buy from someone else, or go without, than to bother with such things. A few, however, as far back as ten years ago, had orchards and gardens not excelled to-day. At Fallbrook, the place of V. C. Reche, was a perfect oasis of the richest green ; apricots, oranges, lemons, peaches, apples, quinces, and what not of the finest quality, abounded. At Julian, Mr. Madison and others were raising deciduous fruits and berries of the finest kind. On Mesa Grande, Mr. Gedney was doing the same; others throughout the county were beginning to follow them. Around San Diego Bay, especially in and around National City and Chollas Valley, fine orchards and gardens twelve years ago had answered the sneers of those who said that the land w-as fit only for stock. A few vineyards at long intervals already foretold the coming^ land of the grape, and at the old missions a few old trees proved abundantly what the olive could do with half an opportunity.

Irrigation was confined to a few spots on the river bottoms or lowlands and was of the old-fashioned kind, a drenching of the ground every few days, with no cultivation whatever. The greater part of the water was used only by Indians, and where used by the whites was principally for corn, melons, garden produce, or grapes, which were then (16)

BEGINNING OF FRUir AND VINF CULTURE. 17

supposed to need plenty of water even on low ground. Some irrigatioii with windmills was attempted in a few places, and was as near a success as windmill irrigation pumping against a long lift can be. But the quality of the fruit, especially oranges and lemons, was inferior, because water was used as a substitute for cultivation, and the best varieties were not yet planted. In the North the plow had for years been creeping from the low-lands, which for a time were supposed to be the only lands available for culture, farther up the slopes. It had been discovered that the slopes and uplands were not only better for vines and many kinds of fruit, but would, with close and constant cultivation, retain moisture enough during the summer to raise fair crops of grapes, deciduous fruits, and other produce. This discovery spread South through the different counties, and about 1880 began to dawn as a new idea in San Diego. Some people imagined that they were the discoverers, others that this power of the soil was confined to their special locality. By 1882 the idea had become widespread, and from that time truly dates the rise of fruit culture in San Diego County, although in some favored localities good fruit had been grown without irrigation many years before.

In 1882 R. G. Clark produced in El Cajon the first raisins cured in , the county; their quality was so fine that they attracted the immediate attention of Riverside growers, who at once bought a large tract of land in El Cajon. Geo. A. Cowles and others in different sections had in the meantihie set out vineyards, and the following year sustained the reputation of the raisins so well that it has scarce been questioned since. About the same time oranges and lemons from the National Ranch and Janal began to excite wonder at the fairs of Riverside and Los Angeles. The lemons were soon conceded to be superior and the oranges puzzled the best judges. With the exception of specimen fruits raised in this way by people who could afford to play with them, little has been done until the past two or three years. The local market was too small and shipping long distances at a profit in small quantities was out of the question. Now, thousands of acres are coming into bearing, and thousands more are planting. The oil-press is at work turning out the finest of olive oil; and hundreds of tons of raisins are yearly dried. It will be but a short time before the railroad will run refrigerator cars and then the great market of the world will call fortli a pent-up energy that is now little dreamed of The cajjacity of the count}- in the way of raising fruit is immense; but until there are transportation facilities, people will not plant to any extent. This failure to plant, of course, delays the building of railroads, etc. Each one reacts for a time upon the other, but the see-saw is finally broken and the outlet is furnished. 2

Chapter IV. Rise Of San Diego City

'HE first settlement made in California was on San Diego Bay. In July, 1769, the first mission in California was built at Old San Diego, now called Old Town, some three miles west of the present city, and the old ruins on the hill above the town are the oldest relics of the first year of civilization in this State. Old Town is also the oldest municality in the State. In January, 1835, the city go\ernment was organized. Ten years afterward the city lands, to the extent of forty-seven thousand acres, were sur\'eyed and mapped and granted to it by the Government of Mexico. This grant was afterwards confirmed and patented by the United States, and hence the magnificent proportions of the present city limits.

For many years the only business done at Old Town was the shipment of hides and tallow. The population was then almost entirely Mexican, though a \'ery few Americans and other foreigners were there. When California was admitted as a State and divided into counties. Old Town became the county seat and remained so for many years. A k\v more Americans came about the same time; some of the most prosperous and respectable of the present citizens of San Diego, E. W. Morse, James McCoy, O. S. Witherby, Thomas Whaley, Joseph Mannasse, aiul others were among the first to settle there. For many years Old Tcjwn contained all the life upon San Diego Bay, and the old plaza and old adobe buildings surrounding it could tell high tales of the olden time if they could talk. Until after the establishment of New San Diego, it remained substantially a Mexican town. Spanish was the principal language spoken, and the tinkle of the guitar, the jingle of spurs, and the clink of coin on the monte blanket were the principal sounds of civilization. The country was then full of cattle, which, after the inflow of the gold-seekers in the North, brought for years a good price. Money (18)

RISE OF SAN DIEGO CITY. 19

was abundant,- coming easily antl going easily, and kept well in circulation through the active medium of cards and horse-races. The old Spanish settlers were lavish and reckless, borrowing at any rate of interest, and many of the best ranches thus passed into the stranger's hand.

As early as 1850, an attempt was made to colonize the present site of San Diego. Several houses were then built near the present Government barracks. The barracks were built about the same time for a depot of military supplies, the soldiers being then quartered at the old mission. San Diego was then the base of military supplies for Fort Tejon, Fort Yuma, andother i)oints to which wagon trains were run from S in Diego. About this time the first wharf on San Diego Bay was built at this point by William Heath Da\is, for which he received a grant of land around it from the city. This first settlement was made without any railroad expectations and solely on the strength of harbor and climate. The old Californian of that day saw the importance of these and sought even then to realize on his foresight. But he shared the common fate of foresight when not sufficiently backed with such little aids for waiting as youth and wealth. The excitement soon died out, most of the houses were moved up to Old Town, the wharf speedily fell before the teredo, and the cayote and wild cat were again left in possession. In the year 1867, foresight again appeared upon the scene in the more substantial shape of A. E. Horton. For twenty-six cents an acre he bought one hundred and sixty acres where the central part of San Diego now stands, and laid out the city. In the meantime two or three railroads had been projected, one of them as far back as 1854, but little had been done beyond organizing a company. Soon after the founding of the new city by Mr. Horton, the projected Memphis and El Paso Railro'ad began to look like a certainty and the first ' ' boom ' ' in San Diego began. Railroad meetings were the order of the day, the steamers brought many new-comers from the North, and many of the present old residents came here first upon the strength of the bright prospects. The new city grew rapidly to a town of tweh-e or fifteen hundred, when suddenly the shining bubble burst. There was then but little settlement in the back country to support a town, and but for the numerous quails and rabbits about town, there would have been more than one slim larder in the new city.

In 187 1 the Texas Pacific Railroad was organized and the luxuriant mushroom of brief hope again sprung up. A handsome subsidv was voted Colonel Scott for the road, ten miles of it were graded — much oi which may still be seen — strangers poured in, and the population rapidly grew to nearly four thousand people. During this time the Horton House, Horton's Hall, Horton's Bank, and se\eral other buildings, beside a large wharf, were built by Mr. Horton, and \arious enterprises and

20 CITY AXn COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO.

churches were aided by his Hberality. Many buildings were built which look highly respectable beside the more modern ones qf to-day. Some of these were very large for the size of the city at that time, and some on an extravagant scale, such as the building now occupied by Hamilton <S: Co. , which was built for a city market and was large enough for a city of ten times the size. In the meantime the county seat was moved from Old Town to ' ' New Town ' ' and the present Court House built. Most of the American settlers and many of the Mexican residents mo','ed down to the new city and Old Town became more of a curiosity than a town. Some of the older American residents have still clung to it, partly because of past associations and partly because it has the best climate on the bay. When the old adobes and other ancient rookeries are removed it will be very desirable residence property, but these now stand in the way of its jDrogress.

Soon after the city was begun by Mr. Horton, Frank Kimball and Warren Kimball had also a severe attack of foresight, which was quite as well founded as that of Mr. Horton. The lands of the National Ranch were better in quality and more free from gravel, gullies, etc. , than those immediately surrounding Mr. Horton' s new city. Four miles south of New San Diego was as good a water front, with as deep water, with thousands upon thousands of acres of fine land sloping gently away into lofty and fertile table-lands. The Kimballs saw that some day those slopes would be covered with fine residences, surrounded with gro\-es of orange and lemon and everything that in Southern California can be grown at all. They bought the rancho, containing some twenty-seven thousand acres, built a fine wharf and several other buildings, put the tract on the market, laid out National City, and made many sales. For a time it looked as if it would be a formidable rival of San Diego, and a foolish envy then sprung up, which for years has been an injury to both places, but which is now about dead. Many settlers came in and bought the lands, and the first attempts made by the Americans to raise anything upon the coast lands were made in Paradise Valley upon the rancho and in Chollas Valley adjoining it. In the brighter light of to-day those first experiments appear extremely crude. Nevertheless they were a sufficient answer to the laughers and sneerers, who for a time had things all their own way and declared that nothing could be grown here e\'en with water. The finest places and best orchards, vineyards, and gardens to be found upon the bay of San Diego, are to be found upon that rancho to-day; not because they cannot be equaled on the fine table-lands about San Diego, but because the lands of National City were so much lower that water was easil\ obtained b\- windmills.

Chapter V. The Long Sleep

S the best target shot with the rifle finds the estimating of distance a source of error that he can never wholly master when shooting at game, so the keenest foresight fails to master that provoking variety of distance known as time. The eye of faith is true, the atmosphere is clear, the outlines of the game can be seen. Through the mirage of heated imagination it dances entrancingly near, and the labor of the day is staked perhaps upon a single shot which falls a long way short.

What the Texas Pacific might have done for San Diego it is useless now to inquire. The financial crash of 1873, beginning with the failure of Jay Cooke, crippled the resources of Colonel Scott. He went abroad to borrow money and failed. He has been blamed by many as a swindler, but there seems every reason to believe that he was acting with the best of faith. In such a crisis the best enterprises cannot borrow, for the simple reason that capital dare not lend to any great extent no matter what the security.