Imperial County CA Archives History - Books .....Early History Of Imperial Valley, Part 1 1918 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 14, 2006, 7:30 am Book Title: History Of Imperial County California CHAPTER III EARLY HISTORY OF IMPERIAL COUNTY BY C. R. ROCKWOOD (WRITTEN IN 1909) EARLY in 1892, while located at North Yakima, Washington, I received a letter from one John C. Beatty, writing from Denver, sending to me a prospectus and plans of what was called the Arizona & Sonora Land & Irrigation Company. They proposed to take water from the Colorado River and carry it on to a tract of a million and a half acres in Sonora, which they claimed to own. The board of directors of the company consisted of several of the leading financial men of Colorado, and Mr. Beatty's desire was that I should make them a proposition whereby I would become the chief engineer of that project and undertake the construction of its proposed canals. After a correspondence extending over a period of four or five months, I finally met Mr. Beatty at Denver in August, 1892, and entered there into an agreement with this company, and in September of that year came to Yuma in order to outline and take charge of the project of their company. In Denver I met Mr. Samuel Ferguson, who afterward became connected with me in the promotion of the California Development Company and who was at that time the general manager of the Kern County Land Company. Mr. Ferguson had written to me previously, asking me to become the chief engineer of the Kern County Land Company, situated at Bakersfield, California, and he met me in Denver in order to outline their project to me before I might close with Mr. Beatty. As the Kern County canal system was partially completed, I decided to undertake the new project rather than the rebuilding of an old house, with the result that I came to Yuma in September of the year 1892 and undertook surveys to determine the feasibility of the Arizona & Sonora Land & Irrigation Company's proposition. After projecting these surveys I decided that the irrigation of the Sonora land at the time was entirely unfeasible and reported to my people that, in my opinion, they would lose any money they might spend on the project. In the meantime, however, while these surveys were in progress I had taken a team and made a trip into that portion of the Colorado Desert which is now known as the Imperial Valley. We knew that during the flood of the Colorado River in the year 1891 the overflow had found its way into this territory. Mr. Hawgood, at the time the resident engineer of the Southern Pacific Company at Los Angeles, had for his company made a study of this overflow and from the data at his command had compiled a map of the territory. This map, as well as the government surveys of 1854 and 1856, showed that not only was there in all probability a large area of fertile land in the valley, but that these lands lay below the Colorado River and could be irrigated from it. Many years before this, Dr. Wozencraft of San Bernardino had attempted to get the government to bring water into the Colorado Desert, and I believe that General Fremont also attempted to get the government to turn the water into what is known now as Salton Sea, not for the purpose of irrigation, but for the purpose of creating a large inland lake in the hope that it would ameliorate the severe climatic conditions that obtained in this territory. The result of my investigations at this time was such as to lead me to believe that, without doubt, one of the most meritorious irrigation projects in the country would be bringing together the land of the Colorado Desert and the water of the Colorado River. In the preliminary report made to the Denver corporation early in the year 1893, I urged them to undertake the surveys which might be necessary in order to prove or disprove my belief, and I was authorized to run preliminary lines in order to determine the levels, the possible acreage of available lands and, approximately, the cost of construction. They were so well assured from the nature of my preliminary report that the Colorado Desert project was a meritorious one that they immediately took steps to change the name of their company from the Arizona & Sonora Land & Irrigation Company to that of the Colorado River Irrigation Company, and assured me that if my report, after making the necessary surveys, was sufficiently favorable, they had back of them a fund of two million dollars to carry out the project. I undertook then during the winter of 1892-1893 very careful surveys, starting from a proposed heading about twelve miles above Yuma, at a point called the Pot Holes, situated about one mile below the Laguna dam of the reclamation service; the surveys extended from this point into the Colorado Desert and around to the Southern Pacific Railroad in the neighborhood of Flowing Well. It was necessary for the canal to enter Mexico. All of the lands in Mexico were owned by General Guillermo Andrade, although the Blythe estate claimed to own one-half of the Andrade lands. Beatty, unfortunately for him, consulted his personal friend, General W. H. H. Hart, who was at that time attorney general for the State of California, as well as attorney for the Blythes. Hart showed so little faith in Andrade's ability to deliver title that Beatty, instead of attempting to placate Andrade and obtain his co-operation, succeeded in antagonizing him and was afterward unable to enter into any agreement that would permit his company to build in Mexico. In the panic of 1893 most of the directors of the Colorado River Irrigation Company were so crippled financially that they were unable to carry out this project, notwithstanding the fact that my surveys and reports developed a much more favorable proposition than my preliminary report even had anticipated. Unfortunately, Mr. Beatty, who was the promoter and manager of this enterprise, was of the Colonel Sellers type of man and his ideas were not always practical. Beatty, however, not discouraged, went to New York in that year and attempted to secure the funds required for construction. He eliminated from his board of directors the Denver people, substituting very strong New York men. Among his original New York board was John Straitton, the multimillionaire president of the Straitton & Storm Cigar Company, manufacturers of the Owl cigar; F. K. Hains, superintendent of the Manhattan Elevated Railway Companies; Thomas L. James, postmaster general under Cleveland's administration, and several other men of equal prominence, but whose names I forget. Those men were mostly dummy directors, receiving in addition to the stock bonus for use of their names, so much for every time they attended a directors' meeting, and Beatty succeeded in obtaining very little aid financially from them. He had interested, though, a cousin, James H. Beatty, of Canada, from whom he obtained a great deal of financial assistance. James H. Beatty, I believe, put in over fifty thousand dollars at this time, but in the next year, 1894, he not only withdrew his support, but entered suit against John C. Beatty in order to prevent him from selling any more stock in the Colorado River Irrigation Company. As an illustration of the character of John C. Beatty, in March, 1894, he came from New York to Los Angeles. At that time I had not been paid for my services to the company; on the contrary, while a sufficient amount of money had usually been forthcoming to pay the monthly bills, when I disbanded the engineering forces in June, 1893, I was obliged to pay part of the men from my own funds, and at the time of Mr. Beatty's visit to Los Angeles in 1894, I had not succeeded in getting a refund of this money. Consequently, I told Mr. Beatty that as other creditors had not been paid that I proposed to bring suit quietly in order to gain legal possession of all the surveys and engineering equipment in order that it might not be scattered among various creditors and its value rendered largely nil. I told Beatty it would be useless for him to defend it and that I would give them six months if I obtained possession of the property in which to redeem it. He agreed to this and left Los Angeles for the City of Mexico to obtain, as he said, the! right from the Mexican government to carry his proposed canal through Lower California in spite of the opposition of General Andrade. Mr. Beatty, at this time, was practically broke, as I judged from the fact that notwithstanding he had on a new suit and looked as if he had come from a tailor's shop. I unfortunately accompanied him as far as Yuma on this trip, and when, after getting his supper at the station, he put his foot on the car step, he turned to me and said: "By the way, Rockwood, I believe I am a little short of cash. I will get plenty in El Paso. Let me have ten dollars until I get there when I will return it." I did this and I have never seen the ten dollars since, although Mr. Beatty did succeed in raising $100 in El Paso by getting a stranger to cash a sight draft on the Colorado River Irrigation Company of New York for that amount. At that time, the Colorado Irrigation Company did not have a dollar in its treasury, nor did it have a treasurer. After Beatty got his hundred dollars he went to Mexico. There, notwithstanding the fact that he spoke the language fluently, and had many acquaintances in the city, he fell into financial depths to such an extent that he was unable to pull himself out and get away from the country until his son Herbert, a young man then in his twenty-first year, sent him $250 from Providence, Rhode Island, and told his father to get back to Providence as soon as possible as they could raise all the money they required there. The $250 which Herbert sent to his father in Mexico was half of $500 which he succeeded in borrowing from a man by the name of Green, living in Providence, Rhode Island. This man Green, Beatty had met at Chicago during the worlds fair the previous year, and having at that time discussed the possibilities of the Colorado River project with him, had gone to Providence to see if he could obtain any funds from him. Beatty returned from Mexico to Providence in July, 1894. I went east from California in the same month, and having interested myself with General Andrade and believing that it would be impossible for Beatty to carry out any scheme of irrigation, I went to Scotland in September of that year in order to see a syndicate of Glasgow and Edinburgh men who held an option from Andrade on all of his lands in Lower California. My desire was to see if I could not induce these men to raise the necessary capital to carry out the project and to join the Lower California lands with those north of the line and finance the whole thing as a complete project, but very much to my disgust I found that these Scotch people were all interested in the coal trade; that coal had taken a tremendous slump in a few months previous, and that these men were so financially stricken that they could do nothing; they would not, however, agree to give up their option except at a very high figure. Consequently, I was obliged to wait until the expiration of this option, which was to take place on the 15th day of May, 1905. I returned from Europe in October, 1894, and found a letter waiting me at my hotel in New York from John C. Beatty urging me to visit him in Providence, Rhode Island, before I returned to California. I decided to do so and went to Providence. Mr. Beatty, who, you will remember, was broke in Mexico City in July of the same year, met me at the train and insisted that I should go to his house instead of a hotel, and I accepted his invitation. He took me to one of the suburbs of Providence, the old village of Pawtuxet, and to a beautiful old colonial house situated in ten acres of ground sloping down to Naragansett Bay. The property, which I can readily believe had originally cost over $50,000, had been repainted, replumbed, green houses rebuilt, solid marble washstands with silver trimmings put in every bedroom, and two new bathrooms had been built. I looked at Beatty in astonishment. The only explanation he would give me was that he had come to the conclusion that in order to raise money in Providence it was necessary to be one of the people and not a carpet-bagger, and for that reason he had purchased this place from the noted evangelist. Rev. B. Fay Mills. I discovered afterward that the only money that the Rev. B. Fay Mills had received from Mr. Beatty was the sum of $500, payable on account of purchase, the remainder to be paid after Mr. Beatty had examined the records, but unfortunately Mr. Mills had given Beatty possession. The $500 which he paid Mills had been borrowed from this same Nathaniel Green. Of all the bills, plumbers', carpenters', painters', bills for furniture and dishes, I was told that not one had been paid, and that Beatty had succeeded in paying the workmen in notes so it was impossible for them to get a lien on any of the property. Beatty had a thousand dollar piano in the house on which he had paid nothing. One of his daughters, who was a fine musician, played for me in the evening. I noticed that she had but a few sheets of music and I afterwards discovered that all of her music was in her trunks and that the trunks of the entire family were then being held in the Murray Hill Hotel in New York for non-payment of bills. When I landed in Providence in October, 1894, at Beatty's request, he first took me out to his house where I remained over night and the next morning he took me to his offices down town. His offices were, at that time, in the finest building in the town ;'he took me to the top floor of the building, where I found he had a suite of six magnificent rooms most beautifully furnished; he had four stenographers employed and, wonderful to say, he had his showcases and tables filled with oranges, lemons, bananas, figs, apricots, all products of the Colorado Desert, which, at that time, was producing nothing but a few horned toads and once in a while a coyote. He also had in Providence six agents at work who were rapidly bringing in the coin, because it was afterward discovered in a suit brought against Beatty and his company that he had obtained from the people of Providence between his coming there in the latter end of July and this time, which was about the middle of October, something over $35,000, in cash; notwithstanding the fact that his cousin, James H. Beatty, had succeeded in getting an injunction preventing him from selling any of the stock of the Colorado River Irrigation Company. Beatty had obeyed this injunction, but, under a technicality, had immediately turned around and sold his own private stock in the company; consequently, the money, instead of being property of the company, was his own property and was evidently devoted to his personal uses. Beatty desired me to remain in Providence in order to help him finance his scheme. He assured me that he had men in tow who, if everything could be shown up to them to be all right, would put up all of the money that was necessary to carry the enterprise through, but I refused to join Beatty in his proposition unless he would put the enterprise in what I considered an honest business shape, which was to throw out his entire basis of capitalization. His Colorado River Irrigation Company was capitalized for seven and a half millions, which was based at $5.00 an acre upon one and a half million acres of land wholly in Sonora, which lands were not worth two cents an acre and never could be made worth any more, and which had no more connection with the enterprise of the Colorado Irrigation Company than if they had been situated in Alaska; but if Beatty were to abandon these lands as a basis of his capitalization, he would have no reason or excuse for holding the control of the stock of the company—consequently he refused absolutely to consider the reorganization and a decrease in the capitalization of the company. I declined then to have anything whatever to do with him and came to California. After I had notified Mr. Beatty in March, 1894, that I should bring suit to secure myself against other creditors, as well as to secure the company, I brought suit both in Los Angeles and in Yuma, Arizona, as the property was at that time partially in Arizona and partially in Los Angeles, and succeeded by means of the suit, in obtaining legal possession of all the personal properties. Later, I believe it was in the winter of 1895, Mr. Beatty, who had not yet given up his attempts and his hopes to carry out the Colorado River enterprise, attempted to buy back from me the properties which I had acquired under the judgment and offered me water rights in the Colorado Desert on the basis of $10 an acre for the entire amount of my judgment. When I pointed out to him that I already owned water rights covering at least 600,000 acres, that all that was necessary for me to do to make these rights good was to construct canals and take water to the land, Mr. Beatty became generous and offered to reduce his price of $10 for water rights to $5, but this offer I declined. Coming to California in October, I went to Bakersfield to call upon Mr. Ferguson, who, as I have stated, was the manager of the Kern County Land Company, and who had carried through large projects. He had been connected with the Southern Pacific Railway Company in various land enterprises, and has spent much time in Europe in connection with the enterprise of the Kern County Land Company, and I believed him to be best constituted by his experience and ability to assist me in the work of raising funds for the development of the Colorado Desert enterprise should the time arrive when I could take that work up. I believed that that time would come as soon as the option held by the Glasgow people had expired on the Andrade lands. I had, at this time, very little faith in my own ability as a financier or promoter. All of the years of my life up to this time had been spent in the interest of the two or three corporations by whom I had been employed in technical engineering work. I had not come in contact with the business world nor with business men and I felt that it was necessary for me to join with myself some man who had, in experience, that which I lacked. I succeeded in interesting Mr. Ferguson so that when the Glasgow option expired on the Andrade lands on the 15th of May, 1895, I immediately secured from General Andrade on the payment of $5000 another option for myself and associates covering the lands or a portion of the lands in Lower California. Mr. Ferguson then severed his connection with the Kern County Land Company and joined me in the promotion of the new enterprise. The five thousand dollars mentioned which I paid Andrade at this time was furnished by my friend, Dr. W. T. Heffernan, who had told me some time previous during the Beatty regime, that he believed in the enterprise and would like to invest money in it. I told the doctor, without explaining fully my ideas of John C. Beatty, to keep his money in his pocket until I told him to bring it forth, which he did. At this time I had decided that as the Denver corporation with its promised millions was not back of me, and that the proposition would require very much less money and consequently would be easier to finance if the water, instead of being taken out at the Pot Holes, should be taken from the Colorado River on the property of Hall Hanlon, immediately above the international line between Mexico and the United States. After acquiring the Andrade option, negotiations were opened with Hanlon for the purchase of his 318 acres of sand hills and rocks; but very much to our chagrin we found that Mr. Hanlon realized fully that he held the key to the situation and that instead of being able to purchase his property for possibly two thousand dollars, which was far in excess of its value for agricultural purposes, that he had fixed the price at $20,000, and to this price we finally had to accede and paid him $2000 on account. This $2000 was also furnished by Dr. W. T. Heffernan, without whose financial assistance at this time, and for several years afterward, it would have been utterly impossible for me to have carried on the work of promotion. To Dr. Heffernan, his steadfast friendship for me personally, and to his faith in the ultimate outcome of the enterprise, I believe is largely due the success which afterwards accompanied our efforts, and to him is very largely due the credit of bringing the water into Imperial Valley. I presumed, of course, that Mr. Ferguson would be able to secure all the funds that would be required in very short time. In fact, he told me so, and I presume, like many others, I am inclined to take a man at the estimate which he puts upon himself until something proves different. I had made of him an equal partner, he putting in nothing, although I had put in some two years' labor and considerable money, together with all the engineering surveys and equipment, etc., representing the expenditure of over $35,000. Unfortunately, he failed in his efforts to secure funds, and I soon found that while personally to me he was a very delightful friend and companion, that his connections with me were a source of weakness instead of strength. As, for instance, in the summer of 1894, I had several long talks with Mr. A. G. Hubbard of Redlands regarding the enterprise. Mr. Hubbard became greatly interested and promised me that as soon as the weather cooled in the latter part of September or October, he would make a trip with me over the desert, together with an engineer of his own selection, and that if the estimate of his engineer did not more than twice exceed my estimate, as to the amount of money that would be required, that he would finance the enterprise. At the time he told me that there would be but one reason that might prevent him from doing so, and that was he might be obliged to take up the Bear Valley enterprise; that while his investment in the Bear Valley enterprise was not of such a magnitude but what he might lose it without crippling himself, that his pride was wrapped up in its success. Afterward, I think in August of that year, Mr. Hubbard met me in Los Angeles and said that he had decided to take up the Bear Valley proposition and would be obliged to drop the Colorado Desert project. Had Mr. Hubbard at that time been entirely frank with me, the history of the enterprise would in all probability be a very different one from what it is today, for while he did take up the Bear Valley enterprise, a year later he confided to one of my associates, Mr. H. W. Blaisdell, and afterward to myself, that the real reason for his dropping the enterprise was less on account of his connection with the Bear Valley proposition than for the reason that I had associated myself with Mr. S. W. Ferguson and had made him the manager, and from his knowledge of Mr. Ferguson's management of the Kern County Land Company, he decided that he did not care to be connected with him. In answer to my question as to why he did not tell me this at the time in order to allow me to remove Mr. Ferguson, he said that his only reason was that he had plenty of money himself and he did not see why he should get mixed up in a quarrel. In June, 1895, Mr. Ferguson went to New York to see some financial men there regarding the project, but succeeded in accomplishing nothing and returned to California in July or August. It was about this time that Mr. A. H. Heber, who was the Chicago agent of the Kern County Land Company, under Mr. Ferguson, came to California and Mr. Ferguson introduced him to me as a man who might be able to materially assist us in securing funds to carry on this work as well as in handling the land and obtaining colonists in the future, but no connection was made with him then. Afterward, in November, 1895, both Mr. Ferguson and I went to Chicago, and after remaining there for a few days, Mr. Ferguson went to New York, while I remained in Chicago to get out the first prospectus maps which were being printed for us by Rand-MacNally. While in Chicago on this trip, I made Mr. Heber's office my headquarters, and becoming better acquainted with him and his business methods, he impressed me more favorably than in my first interview with him in the spring, and after I went on to New York in December and found that Mr. Ferguson was not succeeding as I had hoped in securing funds, we decided to have Mr. Heber join us. Heber's connection then with the enterprise dates from the time that he came to New York to join Ferguson and myself in the month of December, 1895. We made our office in New York with Herbert Van Valkenburg, who was one of the old stockholders and directors of John C. Beatty's Colorado River Irrigation Company, and a scion of a very wealthy and prominent New York family of bankers and merchants. We employed as our attorney in New York Mr. E. S. Rapallo, a brother-in-law of Mr. Van Valkenburg, and who was at that time, and is now (1909) attorney for the Manhattan Life Insurance Company, one of the attorneys for the United States Trust Company, and one of the attorneys for the Manhattan Elevated Railway Company. To Mr. Rapallo we submitted all our papers, even our advertising matter, in order that we might be assured that we were proceeding on strictly legal lines. Neither Mr. Ferguson nor Mr. Heber succeeded in securing funds or assurances as rapidly as we had hoped. We decided, nevertheless, to proceed with the organization of the company and that its name should be the California Development Company. We perfected the organization of the company on the 26th day of April, 1896. At the time of the organization of the company, I was not in New York. I had been obliged to return to California and from California I had gone to the City of Mexico to obtain from the Mexican government certain concessions which were necessary, and the company was organized during my absence, Mr. Heber being made president. Neither Mr. Ferguson nor Mr. James H. Beatty, who at that time was an equal partner with Ferguson and myself, was made a director of the company, nor was I, for the reason that all the properties which we had acquired were in the possession of the three of us, and these properties were afterward sold to the company, we taking out in payment therefor a portion of its capital stock, which stock was afterward sold or divided among our associates. After this transaction had taken place both Mr. Ferguson and myself went upon the board of directors, I becoming its vice-president, which position in the company I held until the year 1899, when I became the president of the company, until the contract with George Chaffey was entered into in the year 1900 whereby he became president of the company, and I its vice-president again, but that I will speak of again in the future. While I was in the City of Mexico in April, 1896, I received word from Mr. Heber that he had succeeded in interesting the Mennonite Church of Kansas in the project, and that he would arrange to meet me with a committee of the Mennonites to go over the lands on my return from Mexico. I came from Mexico on my return trip in May, 1896, and at Yuma met Mr. Heber and three members of the church headed by the Rev. David Goerz of Newton, Kansas. These gentlemen I took for a trip from Yuma through Lower California, then returning to Yuma shipped a team from there to Flowing Well, from which point we drove out across the Alamo to very near the present site of the town of Imperial. These men were very greatly impressed with the country and we hoped for material aid from them, but succeeded in obtaining, I think, not exceeding $2000, and the colonists we expected to get from that source were not forthcoming, very much to our disappointment. Mr. Heber and I returned east to Chicago in the month of July. Previous to my going east this time I had some talk with Mr. H. W. Blaisdell of Yuma, Arizona, who had been a successful mining man and at that time was largely interested in development work in and around Yuma and who had, as well, an influential connection in Boston. The result of my talk with Mr. Blaisdell was an agreement whereby he was to undertake to secure funds for us in Boston during the summer. He met me in New York and my agreement with him was confirmed by my associates there and Mr. Blaisdell went on to Boston. Neither Mr. Ferguson nor Mr. Heber nor I succeeded in raising any considerable amount of money during the summer. Mr. Blaisdell had gotten in touch in Boston with capital and I knew from my talks with him that he could put in if necessary a few thousand of ready cash to keep the machinery moving, but at this time Mr. Ferguson not only had not raised any money whatever, but had succeeded by his expense account in largely depleting our treasury, and neither Mr. Heber nor I were willing to see at that time any more money go into the treasury until a different arrangement could be made with him. He, however, had his interest in the stock of the company and it was necessary to find some purchaser for his interest before he could be successfully eliminated. I found this purchaser in Mr. Blaisdell, who succeeded in raising the funds necessary to buy out Mr. Ferguson's interest under a proposal which I made to Ferguson. This was done in September, 1896, after which we put Mr. Heber in as the general manager as well as president of the company, and Mr. Blaisdell came upon the board of directors. Mr. Blaisdell was at this time negotiating with Mr. H. W. Forbes, who had been for several years the president of the Bell Telephone Company, and was reputed to be worth fifteen millions. Mr. Forbes was very much enthused over the project as outlined, but he was a man well along in years and desired the enterprise not so much for himself as for his two sons who had just left college and desired to come west. The result of the negotiations with Mr. Forbes was that he agreed to put up the required capital for the development of the enterprise, providing that the report of the engineer he should send to make an examination was entirely satisfactory. The specific agreement at that time was that if the report of his engineer disputed any of the material statements in our prospectus, which had been written by myself, that we would pay the cost of the report; otherwise Mr. Forbes was to pay for the report. When these negotiations were concluded, I was in California, where I had been obliged to come in order to make a new contract, if possible, with General Andrade, for the reason that we were unable to make the payment to the general in accordance with the old contract, and I desired to make a new contract before the old one should become void by the expiration of the time limit. This I finally, after some trouble, succeeded in doing. The general was loath to enter into another agreement as a year and a half had now elapsed since the time that he had given me the first option and he was beginning to doubt the success of my efforts. I, however, did succeed finally in making a contract which reduced our option from 350,000 acres of land to the 100,000 acres afterward purchased by the company. While in California, I received a telegram from Mr. Blaisdell that Mr. George W. Anderson of Denver, the engineer selected by Mr. Forbes to examine the project, would meet me at Yuma on a certain date. I met Mr. Anderson at Yuma, in October, 1896, and went with him over the territory and over all our plans and profiles. He then returned to Denver while I proceeded to the City of Mexico to put up a few fences there that were somewhat broken down, and returned from the City of Mexico direct to New York in November, 1896, expecting, of course, as I knew the enthusiasm of Mr. Anderson over the project, that all that I would have to do would be to go to Boston, perfect the arrangements with Mr. Forbes, and then return to active construction work on the desert. When I reached Boston Mr. Anderson's report was there and was all that could have been hoped for; in fact, his report was more glowing than the statements made in our prospectus; but while Mr. Forbes paid for the report in accordance with the contract and afterward turned it over to us to be used as we might see fit, he did not take up the enterprise ; the reason that he gave was the state of his health, while I knew that the real reason of his desiring to go into the enterprise in the first place was for the benefit of his sons. I doubted somewhat this statement, but never received proof that the statement given by him was not entirely correct until his death four months afterward, when I was told by one of his most intimate friends that the real reason why Forbes did not take up the enterprise was that at the time he sent Mr. Anderson to make his examination he also wrote a letter to a close personal friend of his in San Diego regarding the possibilities of development in the Colorado Desert, and received word in reply that the project was wild and utterly unfeasible; that the country was so hot that no white man could possibly live in it; that the lands were absolutely barren, consisting of nothing but sand and alkali; and that any man who was foolish enough to put a dollar into that enterprise would surely lose it. I attempted to find out the name of Mr. Forbes' San Diego correspondent. I have been trying all these years to find out the name of that man, but so far have failed. I still have hopes to meet him. We were all, of course, very greatly disappointed by this failure. Mr. Blaisdell remained there during the winter, but had to leave in order to take up his Yuma work in the spring. I remained most of that time in Boston, Mr. Heber being in New York; in fact I remained in Boston until August of the year 1897. During the summer of that year I spent the months of June and July in one of the Boston hospitals with the typhoid fever, but on my recovery I decided to make a trip to Europe in order to see if I could interest capital there. On the trip I had letters of introduction to various financial men of London, Scotland and Switzerland. I particularly desired to interest a firm of brokers in Glasgow who had been instrumental in furnishing funds for two irrigation enterprises in the northwest, but in as much as these enterprises had failed from the point of view of the foreign investor, I found that to interview them on the subject was like shaking a red flag before a bull and that nothing could be accomplished. I then visited the home of a banker in the interior of Scotland, to whom I had personal letters from Mr. D. I. Russell, but on leaving the train at his town and inquiring for his residence, was shocked to learn that he had been found dead that morning, drowned in a little stream that flowed behind his house. I then returned to London expecting to leave at once for Basle, Switzerland, to take up negotiations with a gentleman there who had succeeded in financing two American enterprises of a similar nature, and from whom I have received letters previously that led me to hope that the money necessary for the development of our enterprises could be found there. In reply to a telegram to ascertain if he could meet me on a certain date, I received word that he had died two weeks previously. I had in London met a firm of brokers who had years previously been somewhat connected with Mr. Heber in some of his operations in Kansas, and to whom Mr. Heber had given me letters of introduction. These gentlemen became so much interested in the proposition that, although I decided for several reasons to return to America, I left them working on it. Afterwards we received communications from them that led both Mr. Heber and myself to believe that the money could be secured through this source, but in the meantime I had opened negotiations for the funds required with Silas B. Dutcher, president of the Hamilton Trust Company, of Brooklyn, N. Y. Mr. Dutcher made a very careful examination of the enterprise extending over several weeks. It was passed upon by his attorneys and engineers and finally, on the 14th of February, 1898, Mr. Dutcher said to me: "Everything is all right, Mr. Rockwood. I have talked the matter over since obtaining the reports of our attorneys and engineers with the controlling directors of the trust company, who agree with me that it will be advisable for us to advance you the money, and, under the agreement outlined between us, we will put up the funds. It will be necessary, however, that our board shall formally agree to this, and this final formality will be gone through at our board meeting on Friday." At this time our treasury was empty, both Mr. Heber and myself had exhausted our private funds and we were exceedingly economical in our table, but I was so rejoiced at the decision of Dutcher, and, believing without doubt that our financial troubles were over for the present, that I went back to New York and invited Heber out to a square meal, on which I think I spent at least one dollar. The next morning, however, we were confronted by glaring headlines that the Maine had been sunk the night previous in Havana harbor. I went over immediately to see Mr. Dutcher in order to ascertain what effect this might have upon our negotiations and found, as supposed, that the deal was off. On account of the period of depression which then followed it was absolutely impossible to interest any large financial men in the enterprise, and it was with exceeding difficulty that we got together sufficient funds to keep up our payment to Gen. Andrade and to keep our office doors open. We did, however, succeed in doing this, and later, in the summer of this year, we found it had again become necessary to make a new contract with Gen. Andrade for the reason that the old one was about to expire, and, as usual, I was deputized to obtain the new agreement, but before getting this agreement, it was deemed necessary for me to make a trip to the City of Mexico, and I left New York immediately before the beginning of war with Spain on the steamer Yucatan for Vera Cruz by way of Havana. As we were expecting war to be declared every day, people were loath to leave New York for Havana, and I remember there were only two other passengers on the steamer from New York, one of whom was interested in Havana, the other was going to the City of Mexico. We reached and left Havana, however, without mishap, although when we arrived there we were forbidden to land. All the Americans had left with the exception of Consul Gen. Lee, who, I believe, left the city three days afterward. It was on this trip to the City of Mexico that I found it necessary to organize the Sociedad de Terrenos y Irrigacion de la Baja California, now generally known to the people of the Imperial Valley as the Mexican company. The prevailing idea among the people is that this Mexican company was organized by the California Development Company as an inner ring for some ulterior purposes that might make the legal position of the California Development Company stronger as against any actions in the courts of the United States. As a matter of fact, this company was organized for the purpose of holding title to the lands in Lower California which had been purchased from Gen. Andrade by those interested in the California Development Company. I had attempted for two years with the help of Gen. Andrade and our attorneys in Mexico to obtain the right from the Mexican government for the California Development Company to hold these titles, but the decision of the Mexican officials and courts were finally against us, and it was on the advice of our attorneys in the City of Mexico that it would be absolutely necessary to hold title to these lands in a Mexican company that the Mexican company was formed. After perfecting this organization, I went from the City of Mexico to Los Angeles in order to take up with Gen. Andrade the question of a new contract, but found that I was up against a stone wall; the general positively refused not only to grant my extension on the old contract, but refused as well to enter into a new one unless I should advance to him a sum of money which was absolutely beyond my power to produce. I attempted to argue with the general that he was working against his own interests, but it seemed he had lost entire confidence in the ability of myself and associates to carry through the enterprise and seemed to be absolutely fixed in his determination to grant no further concessions. As I knew, however, that our ability to carry through the enterprise depended upon my ability to obtain possession of the Mexican lands and through them the right of way, I insisted that Gen. Andrade should make a new deal with me, and it became largely a question of will power, as the general remained fixed in his determination to grant no further concessions. I believe it took me about ninety days to obtain the new contract that meant the continuation of the life of the enterprise, during which time I went to Gen. Andrade's office or to his hotel every day, until I verily believe he was forced to give me what I asked in order to get rid of me; at any rate he has so stated since, but was gracious enough long before his death to tell me that it was exceedingly fortunate for him that I was so persistent. Having made the new arrangement with Andrade, I returned to New York, and, the correspondence from Tyndall & Monk, of London, the brokers to whom Ipreviously referred, being of a nature which led Mr. Heber and myself to believe that these gentlemen were going to be able to furnish us with the funds, I immediately took steamer for London. This, I believe, was in September, 1898. After seeing the brokers in London and being assured by them that they would be able to furnish the money under certain conditions, I wired Mr. Heber to come on to London, and on his arrival we proceeded to draw up the form of bond and trust deed which, under the English procedure, required a very long time and was also exceedingly expensive. Having, however, gotten the work well under way, Mr. Heber returned to New York in November of that year and I followed in December in order to perfect certain details in California that were necessary for the assurance of the proposed English investors. We supposed that everything was assured, but for some reason that I have never as yet been able to ascertain, that deal fell through, and in such a manner that we knew it was utterly useless to attempt to obtain any further assistance from the firm of Tyndall & Monk; consequently our efforts were again devoted toward the obtaining of funds in America. We were now in the spring of 1899, our funds were exhausted and we hardly knew which way to turn. I was born in Michigan and had several wealthy and influential acquaintances in Detroit and its neighborhood, and Heber and I thought it best that I should visit Detroit and see what might he done there toward obtaining funds, but at this time we had no money with which to pay my traveling expenses until Mr. Heber solved the problem by raising $125 on his personal jewelry and gave me $100 of it with which to make the trip. In the troubles that arose between Mr. Heber and myself afterward this act has never been forgotten, and one of the greatest regrets of my life is that the ties of friendship with one capable of such self-sacrificing generosity should be strained and broken. In Detroit I succeeded in obtaining funds to the amount of a few hundred only, sufficient only to keep up our living expenses and to keep our office rent in New York paid. Mr. Heber, at this time, met in New York a friend from Chicago who had advanced him some money, and had succeeded in inducing Heber to return with him to Chicago on the belief that money might be obtained there to carry out the enterprise; so Heber left New York for Chicago in the month of June, 1899, calling upon me in Detroit on his way through. His Chicago efforts, however, were not immediately successful, and just at this time I received a telegram from Ford & Company, bankers of Boston, asking me if I would go to Porto Rico to report upon a sugar proposition which they owned there. They had decided to build a system of irrigation for their plantations and desired my report upon the feasibility of the plans of their engineer. They wired me that if I would go they would wire me money to come on to Boston and talk the matter over with them. As I was practically broke at the time, I immediately agreed to go, and received in reply sufficient funds to make the trip from Detroit to Boston. I proceeded immediately to Boston and made my financial arrangements with Ford & Company, wrho advanced me, in addition to my steamer transportation, a check for $250. I was loath to accept the check in lieu of cash (although I didn't say so to them) as it was after banking hours in Boston and I could not get the check cashed until I had reached New York, at which point I was to take steamer, and I doubted very much whether I would have sufficient money to pay my expenses through. I did, however, succeed in reaching New York that night, but was obliged to wait my breakfast the next morning until I could get Ford & Company's check cashed. I left this same day for Porto Rico by steamer, and after spending a couple of weeks on the plantation of Ford & Company, who, by the way, were the financial agents for the United States Government in the island, I left the plantations, which were on the southern side of the island, for the city of San Juan on the northern side in order to take the steamer again for New York. On my way across the island I decided to remain a couple of days in the town of Cayay to examine into a water proposition in that neighborhood that might be of interest to my Boston clients. It was there, on the night of August 7, 1899, that I experienced my first and only West Indian hurricane, which probably many people of this country still remember. In the small hotel where I was stopping my sleeping room was immediately off of the main living room. I was awakened about three o'clock in the morning by the rocking of the house and by the sound of weeping women and children in the outer room. Hurriedly dressing, I went to the outer room, and upon making inquiries as to the cause of the trouble, I found that I was in the beginning of what afterward proved to be the most disastrous hurricane that had visited the islands for a period of over two hundred years. The wind lasted from about three in the morning until two in the afternoon, at the end of which time the mountains surrounding the town, which the day previous had been a scene of beauty, covered with the vegetation and flowers of the tropics, were as brown as our California hills in summer, and in Cayay, a town of 1200 inhabitants, but six buildings were left standing and but 800 people were left alive. On the island during the storm over 6000 were killed, the bodies of about half of whom were never recovered, having been swept out to sea or buried in the debris brought down by the mountain torrents. I was not injured by the storm, but during my efforts two days afterwards to reach San Juan, my clothing was practically destroyed, so that I reached New York looking more like a tramp than a prosperous promoter of an irrigation enterprise. On my arrival in New York, I found that Mr. Heber was still in Chicago and that our New York office was being used by Mr. S. W. Ferguson, who had come to New York again on interests not connected with the California Development Company, but it seems that he had been discussing the possibilities of our enterprise with a New York man to whom he introduced me. This scheme looked so favorable that I made another arrangement with Mr. Ferguson whereby he again became associated with the enterprise, although merely as an agent and not in a manner that allowed him in any way to control its future. Nothing came of the Ferguson negotiations in New York, but having received a communication from Mr. Heber that he was in close touch with capital in Chicago and advising me to come on to Chicago to help him with his negotiations there, I suggested that Mr. Ferguson instead of myself should go on to Chicago, as I believed that Ferguson could possibly render Heber equally as good assistance as I, and Ferguson desired to return West to California anyway, while at the time I had opened negotiations with another financial concern in New York and the outlook was such that I deemed it inadvisable to leave. Mr. Ferguson then went to Chicago, but nothing came of these negotiations, and he proceeded to California. It was soon after this that Mr. Heber gave up his work with us, resigning as president of the California Development Company, to which position I was then elected. In the meantime I received a letter from Mr. Ferguson, who was then in San Francisco, telling me that he had had a long conversation with Mr. L. M. Holt and that Holt believed that George Chaffey might be interested in the California Development Company. Mr. Ferguson desired to go to Los Angeles and see Mr. Chaff ey, and also requested me to draft a proposition that he might make to Chaffey. About a year previous, in conversation with Mr. N. W. Stowell, of Los Angeles, he informed me that the Chaffeys (whom many people of the State had known in connection with irrigation development around Ontario, and who had been for several years in similar work in Australia), were about to return to California, and that if I could interest the Chaffeys in the Colorado Desert enterprise they would be able to swing the financial end of the affair, even though they might not have sufficient ready coin themselves. On a succeeding trip to California after this conversation with Mr. Stowell, I believe it was in the month of May, 1899, I met Mr. George Chaffey and discussed very carefully with him the plans of the enterprise, but didn't approach him for financial assistance, as at that time we believed that we were going to obtain all the funds necessary through the agency of Tyndall & Monk, of London. Having then already discussed the project with Mr. Chaffey, I believed that it would be advisable for Mr. Ferguson to see him, and so wrote. He went to Los Angeles and as a result of his interview wrote me at New York, stating that negotiations were progressing very favorably and that on certain conditions Chaffey had agreed to come in, but refused to go any farther until he had talked over matters with me. On receipt of this letter I decided to come to California, and did so in December, 1899, and accompanied Mr. Chaffey on a trip to the Hanlon Heading, below Yuma, and over a portion of the Lower California end of the enterprise, but during the trip could see very plainly that Mr. Chaffey was not at all satisfied with the possibilities of the enterprise, due to the apparent belief in his mind that it would be exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to get settlers with sufficient rapidity to make the concern a financial success. The only promise that I could obtain from Chaffey was that if we could devise a scheme whereby he could receive the assurance that 50,000 acres of the desert land would be taken by bona fide settlers, that he would furnish the money necessary to carry the water from the Colorado River to these lands. I returned to San Francisco and discussed with Mr. Ferguson and San Francisco attorneys the plan which was afterward carried out, namely, the formation of a colonization company which should undertake to find settlers to take up the desired acreage under the Desert Land Act. At my solicitation Mr. Ferguson returned to Los Angeles to work out the details of this plan with Mr. L. M. Holt and Chaffey, while I returned to New York to resume again my negotiations there with the financial concern with which I had been dealing for some time. I left with a promise to Ferguson and other associates that I would return to California whenever the plans which were outlined gave reasonable assurance of success. In March, 1900, I received a wire jointly by Ferguson, Blaisdell and HefTernan, requesting me to return at once to California, and stating that George Chaffey was now sufficiently assured so that he was willing to take up the work. Upon receiving this wire, as I had again about lost hope in my New York negotiations, I arranged at once to close our New York office and return to California. Upon reaching Los Angeles, I found that Chaffey had drawn a contract that he was willing to enter into, exceedingly short, promising but little, and one that would tie me and the company to him. I was loath to enter into this contract but I was at the end of my rope; all negotiations had failed elsewhere; all of my own funds as well as that of several of my personal friends were tied up in the enterprise; I had not sufficient money in sight to keep up the fight elsewhere, and as a forlorn hope and in the belief that it would at least start something moving whether I ever got anything out of it for myself or not, I agreed to the Chaffey contract and signed it as president of the California Development Company in April, 1900. In March of this year the Imperial Land Company had been formed for the purpose of undertaking the colonization of the lands. It was necessary to handle the colonization end of the enterprise either as a department of the California Development Company or through a new organization to be formed for that purpose. Four-fifths of the stock of the California Development Company had been used for various purposes, the other one-fifth of the stock, together with a portion of the stock that had already passed to the then present stockholders, was necessarily to be tied up in the contract with the Chaffey's; consequently there was no stock in the California Development Company with which to satisfy Mr. Ferguson and the new blood that would be required to handle the land and colonization end of the enterprise. Mr. Chaffey at that time desired to have nothing to do with the land and colonization end, consequently it seemed best, in order to provide means and capital for the handling of the land, to organize an entirely separate company. The Imperial Land Company was then organized and afterward entered into a contract with the California Development Company whereby it was to make all the necessary land surveys, do all of the advertising, incur all of the expenses of colonization, and was to receive in remuneration a certain percentage of the gross sales to be derived from the sale of all water stock in the United States or lands in Mexico. It was agreed between the two companies that the Imperial Land Company shoukT also be allowed to acquire and own the townsites in the Valley, and that the work of the California Development Company should then be confined to furnishing water. We decided, at that time, after mature deliberation and consultation with our attorneys, upon the plan which we afterward followed, namely, that of the organization of mutual water companies to which the California Development Company would wholesale water at a given price. We believed that for any one company to undertake to distribute water to the individual users over such an area would be unfeasible. In the first inception of the scheme it was proposed to divide the entire country into water districts, although the final plan of the mutual water companies was not worked out until the spring of 1900. After the signing of the Chaffey contract in April, 1900, we were then ready to begin the field operations, but it was necessary for me to return to New York in May of that year to hold the annual meeting of the California Development Company. Previous to this trip, however, I engaged the services of Mr. C. N. Perry, who had been with me on my work in the Yakima country in 1890, and who had accompanied me to Yuma when I came there in September, 1892, and who had been with me and had been largely instrumental in developing the surveys and plans during the years of 1892 and 1893, after which time Mr. Perry had remained in Los Angeles in the office of the county surveyor and city engineer, but at my solicitation left that employ in order to take up again the work in the Colorado Desert, which name we had decided to change to Imperial Valley. Mr. Perry began his work at Flowing Well in the middle of April, 1900, running a line from that point south with the hope of finding sufficient government corners of the survey of 1854-1856 to allow him to retrace the old government lines. He was unable at this time to find any authentic corners north of the fourth parallel, but found nearly all of the corners of what is called the Brunt Survey, south of the fourth parallel, which survey was made in the year 1880. Brunt, in his notes, showed certain connections made with the surveys of 1856 on the fourth parallel, and upon the reasonable assumption that the sworn statement of Brunt was true, Mr. Perry projected the lines to the north of the fourth parallel, using as a basis the field notes for the townships north together with the Brunt stakes found on the south. He soon discovered, however, that something was wrong, just what he was unable to tell. I, in the meantime, was in New York, but Mr. Ferguson being on the ground authorized and ordered him to proceed with the survey as then outlined, with the assurance that if anything was wrong that a Congressional Act would afterward be obtained to make it right. On my return from New York in June I had no time to devote to attempting to straighten out the surveys of the Valley, as it was necessary for someone to proceed at once to the City of Mexico to obtain concessions that would allow us to commence construction in Mexico. As I was the only one connected with the company that had any acquaintance in Mexico, and so far had handled the Mexican business, I was the one naturally deputized to undertake that work, and proceeded at once to the City of Mexico, returning to California in October of that year, and in the following month, November, came to the Valley, camping at Cameron Lake, and commenced the engineering surveys upon which the present system of distribution is based, and also began in December, 1900, with Mr. Thomas Beach, as superintendent, the great work of construction of the Imperial Canal system. The only water in the Valley at that time was at Blue Lake, Cameron Lake and at the Calf Holes in New River, northwest of the townsite of Imperial. The few teams we had were camped at Cameron Lake and, for a while, they went from Cameron Lake, a distance of three miles, to their work; afterward we had to haul water to the outfits in the field, until finally the waters at Cameron Lake became so low and so thick with fish and mud that it was impossible for stock or man to use it. Fortunately, however, some depressions and holes, farther south, in Mexico, had been filled up by rains, and we were able to obtain sufficient water for stock uses from these holes. Under the agreement entered into with Mr. George Chaffey, he personally was under no obligation to build the canals in the State of California. Under his contract he was only to bring water from the Colorado River through to the International Line, at a point east of Calexico. Imperial Water Company Number i had been formed, settlers were coming in in large numbers, and the Imperial Land Company, under Mr. Ferguson's management, in connection with the Mutual Water Company, was to find all of the funds necessary for the construction of the distributary system. Outside funds, however, were not forthcoming. The process of lifting ourselves by our bootstraps was not entirely successful. We were selling water stock on the basis of $8.75 a share, payable $1.00 down, the remainder $1.00 per year, and this $1.00 had to go to the Imperial Land Company to pay for its actual expenses in advertising and the expenses it was necessarily put to in bringing the people into the Valley, consequently there was nothing left for construction. Mr. Chaffey had, however, advanced some money for this purpose and, at my earnest solicitation, a new agreement was entered into whereby the responsibilities for the construction of the distributary system was taken from the Imperial Land Company and placed upon the California Development Company. The work that we were doing at that time in colonization was very large. I doubt if it has ever been equaled under any irrigation project, but with insufficient funds for construction in sight, every share of water stock sold increased our financial difficulties, as it necessitated the placing of water upon lands within a given period of time, and with no money in sight to do the work. This condition of affairs obtained through the first four years of struggle of the California Development Company. Every means possible was tried, from time to time, to bring in funds. Water stocks were sold at a ridiculously low figure in wholesale lots to those who made large profits therefrom. The majority of people believe that these profits went to the California Development Company, but to my own knowledge no stockholder in the California Development Company has ever received one dollar in dividends, and every dollar received by the California Development Company from the sale of water stocks has gone directly into the construction of the canal system, and yet, due to the fact that we were improperly financed and were obliged continuously to make tremendous sacrifices in order to obtain funds, the funds obtained were never sufficient to carry on the work and to keep up with the contracts entered into for the delivery of water. I had, in the month of May, 1900, just previous to my trip to New York, gained information the truth of which I could not doubt, that led me to believe that friction was sure to arise between Mr. Ferguson and myself, and also led me to doubt as to whether the management of the affairs of the Imperial Land Company under him could be successful, and if unsuccessful, I knew that the California Development Company could not succeed. At my solicitation then, Mr. Heber met me in Chicago on my way East and I attempted to induce him to give up his work in Wyoming with Mr. Emerson and again join us in the work of development of what we had now named the Imperial Valley. This, however, Mr. Heber declined to do at the time, stating that he was making money with Emerson, and that he would lose financially by making a change. Later in the year, however, in November, 1900, Mr. Heber made a visit to the coast, and as his affairs in Wyoming were then in a condition so that he could leave them, he decided to again become actively interested in the development of the Valley, but didn't at that time become connected with the management. He, however, succeeded in bringing some Eastern money in, which materially assisted us, and, in the spring of 1901 he joined us actively and permanently in the work, becoming a little later the second vice-president of the California Development Company and the general manager of the Imperial Land Company in place of Mr. Ferguson. In June, 1901, the Chaffeys obtained possession of 2500 shares of the stock of the California Development Company, and as soon as they obtained possession of this stock they refused to go ahead with the work under the old contract and demanded that a new contract should be made that would give to them the control of the company's stock. We refused to accede to this and they then outlined a scheme of a holding company into which the control of the stock should be placed. This we also refused, but demanded that they go ahead under their original contract. These negotiations extended over several months of time, in fact during the entire summer of 1901. In September of that year, my personal relations with the Chaffeys having become somewhat strained, I broke off negotiations with them and left for the State of Washington to look after certain property interests I had there, returning to Los Angeles in the latter end of October. When I left I had given my power of attorney to Mr. E. A. Meserve of Los Angeles granting to him the power to sign my name to any document or contract that might be entered into with the Chaffeys, providing only that Messrs. Heber, Blaisdell and Heffernan should be a unit in their desire that such a contract should be made. On my return, to my consternation and chagrin I found that the Delta Investment Company had been formed; that under the contract entered into between the Delta Investment Company and the California Development Company, the Delta Investment Company had been appointed the financial agent of the California Development Company, with power to buy its bonds at 50 cents on the dollar, with power to buy in all of its mortgages at 50 cents on the dollar; that the assets of the Delta Investment Company consisted solely and only of stock in the California Development Company contributed by the Chaffeys and Heber, and the stock of the Imperial Land Company, that through these holdings the Delta Investment Company controlled the California Development Company, and that the Chaffeys, controlling the Delta Investment Company, absolutely controlled the California Development Company; that the Delta Investment Company had also succeeded in my absence, by simply exchanging stocks, in buying up practically all of the stock of the Imperial Land Company. As soon as I looked over the contract, I called together Messrs. Heber, Blaisdell and Heffernan to find out why such a contract had been entered into, and ascertained that neither Blaisdell nor Heffernan had paid any particular attention to a study of the contract; they hadn't seen where it would land them; they had not been very actively interested in the business end of the California Development Company, but had left their interests largely in the hands of Mr. Heber and myself, and that in my absence they had acceded to Mr. Heber's request that they should sign this agreement; they had believed it was for the best interest of the company. Mr. Heber so believed, and stated to me at the time that he had drawn the plan of the Delta Investment Company and that he believed that it would work out all right. I wasn't satisfied, however, and as the after history, which was very rapidly enacted, showed, my predictions in regard to the Delta Investment Company were correct. My feelings toward the Chaffeys. was at this time of a nature that would hardly permit me to return to the Valley in active charge of the construction even had Mr. Chaffey so desired, which evidently he did not, as he himself took the title of chief engineer and made his headquarters at Calexico during the winter of 1901 and 1902, and assumed direct charge of construction. Money was immediately forthcoming for construction purposes, but money through the Delta Investment Company cost the California Development Company $2.00 for every dollar that it obtained, and I soon saw the end unless something was done. I did not enter into negotiations with the Chaffeys at that time, but, using Mr. Heber as an intermediary, I notified the Chaffeys that unless things were put in a different shape immediately that the whole matter would be thrown into the courts, although I foresaw that this would necessarily stop the work of development in the Valley. But I had not only the interest of the settlers of the Valley to look out for, but I considered even as a prior and superior lien upon my efforts the interest of the stockholders who had invested their money in the California Development Company through me. The final result of this action was that negotiations were opened with the Chaffeys for the purchase of their interests in the company, resulting in the elimination of the Chaffeys from the management of the company in February, 1902. Before this purchase was consummated, however, and the management of affairs turned back to its original owners, the Chaffeys, who were in control of the California Development Company and in control of the board of the Delta Investment Company, passed certain resolutions and made certain transfers that took from the California Development Company all of its bonds and a very large portion of its notes and mortgages, and in order to carry through the purchase we not only paid over to the Chaffeys, in addition to all of the securities of the company which they had taken, the sum of $25,000 in cash, raised not by the company but by individual stockholders in the company, and in addition we gave them our note for $100,000, secured by a majority of stock in the California Development Company. We started out then, about the first of March, 1902, with our bonds all gone, our mortgages largely depleted, not a dollar in the treasury, and invidually so deeply in debt to the Chaffeys that it was exceedingly doubtful whether we would ever be able to pull out. We, however, took over the management of the enterprise and in order to provide funds for construction we succeeded in borrowing $25,000 from the First National Bank of Los Angeles, and I again took charge of construction. In the deal made with the Chaffeys and the Delta Investment Company, at this time, their personal interest in the stock of the California Development Company and of the Imperial Land Company was purchased by Heber, Blaisdell, HefFernan and Rockwood, of the old guard, and by Messrs. F. C. Paulin, J. W. Oakley and H. C. Oakley, who had been very active as outside agents under the Imperial Land Company, and who at this time became directly interested with us as owners of one-half of the stock of the Imperial Land Company, and of a smaller percentage of the stock of the California Development Company. Mr. Paulin became the manager of the Imperial Land Company, Mr. Heber being its president as well as president of the California Development Company. As I said in a previous paragraph, under the agreement entered into by the Imperial Land Company and the California Development Company, the Imperial Land Company was to have the townsites in the Valley, the California Development Company restricting its activities to furnishing water to the lands. It may be of interest to know something regarding the townsites and why they came to be placed in the locations which they now occupy. On my return from the City of Mexico in October, 1900, I found that the then manager of the Imperial Land Company, Mr. S. W. Ferguson, had selected for the site of what we intended to be the central town of the Valley, the lands now occupied by the town of Imperial. It had been decided before that this town, when laid out, should be given the name of Imperial, corresponding to the name that we had given to the Valley. Personally, I objected very seriously to the location that had been selected for two reasons, first, that the character of the soil was of such nature that it would be difficult to produce the flowers and shrubbery which residents of the Valley would naturally desire to put about their homes; second, I knew that any branch road reaching Imperial from the main line of the Southern Pacific track would necessarily pass for several miles north of the town through a country that for years would remain undeveloped. I refer here especially to the rough and salt lands between Imperial and Brawley. I knew that in as much as all strangers coming into the Valley would pass over this land that the impression must be a bad one, and for these two reasons I urged that as not more than twenty lots had been sold at that time in the proposed new townsite, that it should be moved to a location which would have placed it one and a half miles north of what is now the town of El Centre Had this been done at the time the opportunity would never have existed for a competitive town in the neighborhood of Imperial. The railroad would have been thrown farther to the east, coming through the highly cultivated area in the Mesquite Bottom, and the factional strifes and difficulties which have arisen through the establishment of El Centro would never have existed, and instead of two fighting communities in the center of the Valley today, we would probably have a town of between three and four thousand people that would now be recognized by the outside world as one of the coming cities of California, and the bitterness engendered by the establishment of El Centro would have been obviated. The town of Silsbee was selected on account of its location on the shore of Blue Lake, which previous to the overflow of the Colorado River gave the opportunity for the establishment of a very beautiful town and resort in the Valley. The town was given its name from the original owner of the lands, Thomas Silsbee. Calexico, which derives its name from a combination of California and Mexico, simply happened. The engineering headquarters of the company were first established at Cameron Lake, but I decided for permanent quarters to erect the company buildings at the international line on the east bank of the New River. When the buildings were established at this point we knew that we would build a town on the line, but its exact location was not fully determined upon. Mr. Chaffey laid off the town of Calexico at the point where it is now established in the fall of 1901, and placed the property on the market, but it was soon withdrawn from sale for the reason that the Southern Pacific Railroad, in building the branch through the Valley, desired to run straight south from Imperial to a point near the international line, from which point they would swing eastward toward Yuma. The railroad would have been so built and the town of Calexico would then have been located to the west of New River and about two miles west of its present location but for the fact that it would have thrown a portion of the town-site on a school section which was held by a lady living in Los Angeles who refused to listen to what we believed to be a fair offer for her property, and as we were unable to obtain the lands necessary for our uses we got the Southern Pacific to run the road from Imperial straight to the present location of Calexico. The townsite of Brawley was not, in the first place, controlled by the Imperial Land Company. The Imperial Water Company No. 4 had been organized and the major portion of its stock sold in a block to J. H. Braly, a banker of Los Angeles, who had undertaken the colonization of this tract of land. In the agreement with him he was to have the right to locate a townsite within the tract. Afterward, before the town was started, the properties owned by Mr. Braly were re-purchased by the Imperial Land Company and the Oakley-Paulin Company, and the town was laid out on its present location. Mr. Heber desired to name the town Braly in honor of Mr. J. H. Braly, but as the latter refused to have his name used in connection with the town, it was named Brawley, in honor of a friend of Mr. Heber's in Chicago. The townsite of Holtville was selected by Mr. W. F. Holt and laid out by him under an agreement between himself and the Imperial Land Company. The history of El Centro is so recent in the minds of the people that it is not necessary to refer to it here except to say that these lands were originally selected as a townsite by Mr. W. F. Holt, and he gave at that time to the town the name of Carbarker. The Imperial Land Company, realizing that the establishment of a town at this point would not only injure its property in Imperial, but would also injure the investment of the many people who had already purchased property at that point, made a contract with Mr. Holt whereby it agreed to buy from him the lands on which Carbarker was located, and the townsite of Holtville as well. The Imperial Land Company, after paying many thousands of dollars on this contract, found that it was unable to carry out its contract on account of the depression due to the agitations in the year 1904-05, and it made a new contract with Mr. Holt whereby it agreed to turn back to him the townsite of Holtville and the lands on which Carbarker had been located on condition that the establishing of a town at the latter point should be abandoned. The townsite of Heber was named in honor of Mr. A. H. Heber. Water was turned into the No. 1 main canal for irrigation in March, 1902, and we succeeded in obtaining some funds so that the work on construction continued actively during that season, but, confronted as we were with the tremendous load of the Chaffeys, the fact that our bonds had been removed without sufficient consideration being placed in the treasury to allow rapid construction, we were very greatly hampered through all of the years 1902 and 1903, and it was impossible to obtain sufficient money to keep up the work of construction rapidly enough to meet the demands for water, notwithstanding the fact that we were willing to, and did, sacrifice our securities and our water stock in order to obtain funds to meet the pressing needs. We had a great deal of trouble with the wooden head gate which had been built by Mr. Chaffey at Hanlon's, the floor of which, unfortunately, had been left several feet above the bottom grade line of the canal as originally planned by me. When this gate was built by Mr. Chaffey, it wasn't considered as a permanent gate but as a temporary expedient placed there to control the entrance of water into the canal during the summer of 1901, and it was Mr. Chaffey's intention to replace this by a permanent structure as soon as time and finances would permit. This gate was well and substantially built, and had its floor been placed five feet lower, the probabilities are that it could be used safely today for the control of all water at present required in the Valley. Due to the fact that the floor was left above grade, we found it necessary, in the falls of 1902, 1903 and 1904, to cut a by-pass around the gate to the river, and it was through this by-pass then, during these three years, that water was obtained at low water for the irrigation of the Valley. It was our desire at all times, after taking over the enterprise from the Chaffeys, to construct a permanent gate on the site where it was afterward built in the winter of 1905-1906, but we were unable to obtain the large amount required and were forced, through lack of funds, to the expedient of leaving this open channel around the gate to be closed on the approach of the summer flood. The channel was successfully closed against the approaching summer flood in the summers of 1902, 1903 and 1904. In the winter of 1903-1904 there was a very serious shortage of water in the Valley, due to the fact that the main canal, built by Mr. Chaffey, had not been constructed to its required depth, and with the machinery and funds at hand we were unable to increase the water supply fast enough to keep up with the demands of the Valley, and the water in the river fell exceedingly low in the spring of 1904, and made it impossible for us to obtain sufficient water through the main canal for the uses of the people, with the result that considerable damage was done. The actual amount of damage, however, was but a very small proportion of the damage claims, as is evidenced by the fact that while these claims, amounting to over $500,000, were settled every one of them out of court in the year 1905 by a payment of less than $35,000, paid entirely in water and water stocks, and I believe that every claim was fairly settled. These claims, however, had been very greatly exaggerated, due possibly to the natural antagonism of any people living under a large water system toward the company controlling their source of supply; due, also, to the fact that since the passage of the Reclamation Act in June, 1902, and the starting of the Yuma project later by the reclamation service, the people of the Valley had gotten into their heads the belief that if the California Development Company could be removed, that the reclamation service could be gotten to take up the work; that the entire enterprise would then be backed by the government with unlimited funds at its command and that the people would be obliged to pay to the government but a small portion of the moneys that they were obliged to pay to the California Development Company, and that they would eventually through that means achieve the very laudable desire of owning their own system. Undoubtedly the engineers of the reclamation service, who had made several trips, individually and as a body, into the Valley, desired to foment this belief, as it had been their intention from the formation of the reclamation service to bring water into the Imperial Valley. It was necessary for the reclamation service, in order to obtain absolute control of the waters of the Colorado River, to do away with this great prior appropriator, the California Development Company, whose work, if carried through to success, would cover, in one body, more than half of the irrigable land on the Colorado watershed. That it was the intention of the reclamation service to bring water into the Valley as early as December, 1902, is evidenced by the sworn testimony of Mr. J. B. Lippincott, supervising engineer, U. S. R. S., given in the case of the Colorado Delta Canal Company vs. the United States Government, which is a matter of court record. Additional Comments: Extracted from: THE HISTORY OF IMPERIAL COUNTY CALIFORNIA EDITED BY F. C. FARR IN ONE VOLUME ILLUSTRATED Published by ELMS AND FRANKS BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA 1918 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/imperial/history/1918/historyo/earlyhis234nms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/cafiles/ File size: 82.1 Kb