Kern County CA Archives History - Books .....Bakersfield Is Born 1934
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Book Title: Where Rolls The Kern

CHAPTER IX. 
Bakersfield is Born.

   THE dawn of the year 1869 saw three buildings occupying the present site of
the great and important city of Bakersfield—today the metropolis of the entire
South San Joaquin Valley. The same year witnessed the birth of the new city; but
let no uninformed reader imagine for one moment that it traveled the road to
fame and fortune with any great speed, or without encountering and hurdling the
most discouraging barriers.

   The town of Bakersfield has been known as "a good town," far and wide, almost
from the day of its inception until now; and so it has been, but it has suffered
the most discouraging set-backs, and recovered from them almost as if by miracle.

   It was born of necessity, or so its founders felt, and time has served to
justify their judgment. Before proceeding with the story of the new city's early
years, it is advisable to retrace our steps backward a little to present the
causes that led to its founding.

   It will be recalled by the reader that back in 1857 the State had granted
reclamation rights to swamp and overflow lands to a company of individuals who
had passed them on to others, and in turn they had been acquired by Colonel
Thomas Baker and his associate, Hervey S. Brown. It will also be recalled that
one of the first official acts of the Board of Supervisors of the new county was
to enter into a contract with Baker for the building of irrigation ditches for
the reclamation of the lands on the Lower Kern River, for which he was to be
paid in lands.

   Baker, energetic and aggressive, lost no time in preparing to accomplish the
task before him, and in order to be near the scene of his labors had built for
himself a quite pretentious home. This was one of the three houses that stood on
the present site of Bakersfield when it was concluded to build a town there. It
stood in the heart of the young city until 1889, when a disastrous fire consumed
practically the entire town.

   Through his dealings with the State and the County, Baker eventually obtained
patent to 89,120 acres of fine land. The patent was later annulled by the
District Court, but new patents were issued to those who had bought lands from
Baker, after the formalities of reclaiming them had been gone through with; but
this is getting ahead of the story.

   At the time of the founding of the town Baker was a real figure in the
County, and, as a matter of fact, continued to be. However, he was a promoter,
whether he was so titled in that day or not, and like promoters of this day, he
had difficulty in obtaining sufficient finances to carry out his ambitious
plans; and due to this difficulty, it became necessary for him to relinquish
leadership to others of greater financial strength; but that, too, is getting
ahead of the story. It might be well, however, at this point to state that the
building of the expensive toll road to Havilah, to which reference has already
been made, and the reclamation and subsequent irrigation and development of the
valley lands did not include all the constructive thoughts of this energetic
pioneer.

   He at one time had a plan on foot for the construction of a shipping canal
from the South end of the valley to Stockton, a gigantic undertaking for which
he had been promised State aid in the form of State land grants, similar to the
Federal land grants made to the railroads. His inability to finance this latter
project was all, apparently, that prevented him from tackling this gigantic task.

   There are later day commentators who are inclined to view this proposed
project of Baker's as a most fantastic dream; but when it is remembered that
this was before the days when there was any definite assurance of railroads, and
when great and expensive canals were being successfully and profitably operated
in the Eastern States, one has at least some reason to think that Baker's plan
may not have been entirely visionary. Too, it must be remembered that he had
unbounded faith in the productive qualities of the Kern River Delta soil and
climate, and time has fully vindicated his judgment along this line.

   This latter plan of Baker's has no direct bearing on the founding of the town
bearing his name, but nevertheless it offers another interesting sidelight on
the career of the great pioneer constructionist.

   Despite the fact that Baker, by his activities had shown himself to be
possessed of a promotional type of mind, the town of Bakersfield was not platted
as a promotion. In fact, he was not the sole founder of it. It was merely named
in his honor, he undoubtedly being the most active developer in the County at
that time. As has been before stated, the town was born of necessity.

   For years the cattle industry of the County had been growing, and many of the
herds were grazing on the lower levels. The attempt to reclaim the delta lands
was commencing to bring in settlers, few at first to be sure, but nevertheless
they were coming, and serious plans were on foot for a railroad through the
valley, plans that were to materialize at no far distant date. The plans for a
town originated in the minds of the settlers themselves.

   That a town was needed appeared to be the general concensus [sic] of opinion,
but as to the location, the settlers do not appear to have been of one mind. In
fact, we are told on what appears to be reliable authority that there were
several minds about it—one favoring one site and one another. The final choice
is credited to General Palmer, the head of a survey party who had been in the
valley for several months surveying for the best route through the mountains for
the projected Atlantic and Pacific Railroad.

   When General Palmer was appealed to to express his judgment in the matter, he
confirmed the arguments of those who favored the present site. Their arguments
were that the site stood at the gateway of the irrigation projects then being
worked out; that railroads, when they came through the mountains, would
naturally gravitate toward it as the spokes toward the hub of a wheel, and that
no matter where a town might start, eventually nature would demand that one be
built there.

In any event, the proponents of that particular site won the day; and, in the
light of succeeding events, it must be admitted that the selection of the
location was not an unwise one.

   Thus, in 1869 Bakersfield came into existence, on the county records at
least, but some little time was to elapse before it was to have any considerable
commercial recognition.

   On a State map published in 1871 the site is not even marked. The only places
shown in Kern County were Havilah, Dutch Bar, Keysville, Petersburgh, Ta hee
chay ah pah, town and pass, Gordon's Ferry, Ft. Tejon, Beale's Ranch. However,
Bakersfield need not have felt too badly slighted, for Kernville, which still
had some claim to fame, was also overlooked. This interesting old map was drawn
by Leonard Ransom, and published by W. Holt, 411 Kearney Street, San Francisco.
A copy of it reposes in the Henry E. Huntington Library at San Marino.

   Bakersfield's future prospects must have appeared brilliant to the eye of A,
D. Jones, editor of the Havilah Courier, for on December 22, 1869, within a few
months of the platting of the town, we find him deserting the county seat and
moving, bag and baggage, to the new town, and changing the name of his paper to
the Kern County Courier. While there appears to be no direct evidence to support
the surmise, it is more than likely that the persuasive powers of Colonel Baker
had something to do with the newspaper move. In any event, Editor Jones must be
credited with having possessed both courage and keen foresight to desert a
county seat town then still flourishing to a degree at least, and cast his lot
with an embryo city where recognized medical authorities of the day openly
declared that a white man could not live. Time has fully vindicated Editor
Jones' judgment, for the County's leading newspaper today, the Bakersfield Daily
Californian is the direct outgrowth of the Kern County Courier located at
Bakersfield in the year of the town's birth— a record that has been seldom
duplicated in California newspaper annals.

   In 1872 there is a record of Havilah having another newspaper. The Miner, but
little is known of it, and in all probability its career was brief.

   In the edition of January 18, 1870, about four months after the platting of
the town, The Courier published a description of Bakersfield, in which it is
stated that the young city contained the stores of Livermore & Chester and
Caswell & Ellis, one telegraph office, a printing office (The Courier), the
blacksmith and carriage shop of Fred Hacking, a harness shop belonging to Philip
Reinstein, John B. Tungate's saloon, a carpenter shop, a school house with fifty
pupils, and two boarding houses. The professions were represented by Dr. L. S.
Rogers and Attorney C. H. Veeder. A hotel and grist mill were in contemplation.
The Baker toll road was in operation between Bakersfield and the county seat;
there were "good" wagon roads to Visalia and Los Angeles, and a grade up the
mountains to Tehachapi was in the progress of building.

   The town was protected from flood by a levee built by Colonel Baker, and the
whole country was supplied with fuel for a long time to come by the logs washed
down by the flood of 1867-68. The editor cheerfully assures the world that the
action of the elements is such as to warrant that other floods would wash down
more driftwood before the then present supply ran out.

   Of the lands on Lower Kern River 129,625.34 acres had been entered under the
State laws, and 40,000 acres had been patented for reclamation purposes by
individuals. No reclamation districts had been formed under the new law, which
provided for the appropriation of $1 per acre for the reclamation of swamp
lands. This would make a fund of $129,625.34 available for the reclamation of
lands in Kern County, an amount believed to be sufficient to accomplish the task
and make nearly 200,000 acres of fine land available for cultivation. There were
still some 275,000 acres of Government land open to homestead and pre-emption,
besides some 50,000 acres of railroad land in the Kern Delta which was offered
to settlers at Government prices.

   All this land was considered among the potential assets of Bakersfield. The
town was just recovering from an epidemic of fever during the summer previous,
and the cause of the fever having been ascribed to drinking water from shallow
wells and irrigation ditches, an agitation for deeper wells was under way.
Residents of the new town were looking forward to the building of the projetced
[sic] railroad up the valley and were worrying about how they were going to feed
the great number of people who would come with the laying of the tracks. They
even went the length of organizing the Kern County Agricultural Society for the
promotion of agriculture, so that plenty of food would be assured newcomers.

   In March of 1870 the town was resurveyed, and it was announced that shade
trees were to be planted at each lot corner. Colonel Baker was building his saw
mill, a saw mill at San Emidio had just put in new planing machinery, and
Livermore & Chester's saw mill in Tecuya Valley was about to resume work.

   In the County there were five postoffices, the following being the
postmasters: Bakersfield, George B. Chester; Havilah, H. H. Denker; Kernville,
G. Martell; Linn's Valley, John C Reid; Tehachapi, P. D. Green.

   The Surveyor General's report for 1867, published in 1870, showed that Kern
County on the former date had 5,000 acres of land fenced, 2398 acres under
cultivation, 550 acres in wheat which produced 16,500 bushels, 906 acres in
barley which produced 27,-180 bushels, and 4,000 grape vines. The value of real
estate was placed at $440,000; improvements, $40,000; personal property,
$886,500; total, $1,346,500. The estimated population was 1400, and the number
of registered voters 766.

   The Buena Vista Petroleum Company was working hopefully, but not profitably,
at McKittrick—known in the early days as Asphalto—almost due West of Bakersfield
at the end of the Santa Maria Valley.

   Cash revenue, according to The Courier, came from several sources, travelers
bringing in some—a forerunner of the present day "tourist money"—a few horses
and mules were sold; sheep, wool and beef cattle were marketable products, and
the gold from the mines helped materially in swelling the grand total.

   A story of the infant days of Bakersfield would be incomplete without at
least a brief biographical sketch of that interesting pioneer after whom the
city was named—Colonel Thomas Baker—so it is here given, the data being obtained
from what are regarded as reliable sources:

   Thomas Baker was born in Muskington [sic] County, Ohio, November 5, 1810.
Before he was twenty-one years of age he had been commissioned a colonel in the
Ohio State Militia. On attaining his majority he was admitted to the Ohio bar.
Shortly thereafter he heard the call of the West and moved to Illinois. After a
brief sojourn there, he moved to Iowa, where he was honored by being appointed
United States Attorney for the Territory of Iowa. When Iowa gained statehood, he
was elected to the State Senate for several terms, being chosen president of the
Senate, which made him ex officio Lieutenant-Governor.

   In 1850 he continued his journey toward the setting Sun, and arrived in
Benicia, California, in the Fall of that year. After a few months there he
journeyed on down to Stockton. In 1852 he arrived in Tulare County, where he
aided in founding the town of Visalia. In 1855 he was chosen Assemblyman from
Tulare County. In the Fall of 1856 he was named Receiver of the United States
Land Office, holding that post during the administration of President Buchanan.
In 1861 he was elected State Senator from Tulare and Fresno Counties, and served
in the sessions of 1861-62.

   September 20, 1863, he arrived at Kern Island, with his family, to begin his
reclamation work, and from then to the present day the Baker name is linked
inseparably with Kern County. September 12, 1857, he had married Miss E. M.
Alverson, daughter of Dr. L. Alverson of Visalia, and three daughters and a son
were born to the union. The surviving daughter and the son, Mrs. Charlotte E.
Jameson and Judge Thomas A. Baker, are still numbered among the prominent
residents of the Kern County metropolis.

   He was noted for his exceptional good nature and his liberality. He knew
better how to make a fortune than to keep one, having made and lost several
during his many years of activity. His chief motto was "Time will justify a man
who means to do right" It surely has in his case.

   At 1 P.M., Sunday November 24, 1872, Colonel Baker died of typhoid-pneumonia.
His funeral was held from the Town Hall, the following Tuesday, the entire
population attending. The services were conducted by the Masons, and the funeral
oration was delivered by A. R. Jackson. His body was buried in Union Cemetery,
the ground for which had been selected by Colonel Baker about a year before.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Where Rolls the Kern

A History of Kern County, California
By Herbert G. Comfort

MOORPARK, CALIFORNIA:
The ENTERPRISE Press
1934

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