Kern County CA Archives History - Books .....The Big Fire 1934
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Book Title: Where Rolls The Kern

CHAPTER XV. 
The Big Fire.

   THE Federal census of 1870 gave Kern County a total population of 2,727; the
census of 1880 showed 5,601, and the census of 1890 revealed 9,808 as the total
number of inhabitants of the County. The census of 1890 credited Bakersfield
with a population of 3,563.

   These comparative figures are given at this point in order that the reader
may see that while the comparative growth from decade to decade had not been
totally discouraging, there was nothing that would resemble density of
population during the '80's, the period with which this chapter is to deal.

   A few other statistics of the '80's may prove interesting to the reader. The
total acreage assessed in 1882 was 1,117,421 acres, at an average assessed value
of $1.16 an acre. Irrigation ditches were assessed at $74,681, and mining claims
at $5,410.

   In the same year there were 29,880 head of cattle valued at $298,800; 3,448
head of calves, valued at $10,635; 122 thoroughbred cows, valued at $3,800, and
1,599 grade cows valued at $31,980, making a total of 35,099 head, with a total
valuation of $347,455.

   There were 17 thoroughbred horses, valued at $5,100; 3,146 grade horses,
valued at $80,135; 396 American horses, valued at $25,070; 1,223 colts, valued
at $18,893; 131 jacks and jennies, valued at $2,356, and 488 mules, valued at
$4,443, showing a total of 5,401, with a total valuation of $135,997.

   The preceding chapter has revealed that the water fights consumed the time
and attention of a majority of the population of the county during the early and
middle '80's—in fact, up to the middle of 1888. With these fights under way
there was comparatively little colonization going on, to which fact the census
figures attest. So in 1889 when the formal announcement was made that the lands
of the J. B. Haggin Estate were to be placed on the market at prices and terms
within the means of the average settler, the announcement was hailed with
delight, locally.

   With the water battles settled, and with at least one of the County's major
land holdings to be broken up and offered to settlers who who had been flocking
into Southern California in droves for the past year or two, the future of both
the County and of Bakersfield appeared exceedingly bright; but the hand of Fate
was to deal another severe blow to the County's metropolis.

   About noon, Sunday, July 7, 1889, fire of undetermined origin broke out close
to the center of the business district, and before the flames had been
extinguished by volunteer fire fighters, practically the entire business
section, and no small part of the residential district, of the city was totally
in ruins.

   Had the residents of the city been less courageous, this disaster might
easily have spelled the end of the town's struggle for existence, for the rival
town of Sumner on the railroad, was gaining in importance, and had
Bakers-field's residents hesitated over their plans for rebuilding, its seems
quite likely that Sumner would have taken the lead.

   However, Bakersfield had conquered in the face of floods, drouths, a county
seat fight, innumerable water fights; and a fire, disastrous though it was, was
not going to stop its march of progress. Hardly had the embers cooled before the
enterprising property owners were rebuilding; and the new buildings to replace
those destroyed by the fire were more modern .and substantial than those that
had been destroyed. In fact, it appears that the fire may have been a blessing
in disguise, although it certainly did not appear so at the moment.

   In 1891, less than two years after the fire, Myron Angell tells us that "the
business men of Bakersfield have their plans all laid on the basis of a city of
10,000 or 15,000 inhabitants within the next five or six years—an anticipation
which the most conservative must concede to be well founded." Time has proven
that their anticipation was more than well founded, even if they may have been a
little off on the time estimate.

   Angell further informs us that at that time there were two splendid hotels;
two banks, a large number of business houses, and four newspapers—The
California?!, The Echo, The Gazette and The Democrat. Angell concludes his
description of the Bakersfield of that day (1891) with the remark that "although
she has no regular police force, yet there is perhaps less disturbance than in
many larger places."

   In 1889, the year of the fire, the town acquired its first public lighting
system. The Bakersfield Gas and Electric Light Company was chartered in the
Spring of 1888, but apparently its name was more ambitious than its policies,
for it failed to function until 1889 when an attempt was made to light the town
with naptha. This attempt proved a failure.

   This failure resulted in the purchase of the concern by Blodgett & Jastro,
who after the fire put in a coal gas-making plant, and on November 15, 1889,
began lighting the town with gas. In the Spring of 1890 they put in an electric
light plant, after incorporating a company with an authorized capital of
$100,000, and to which was subscribed $50,000 in cash. The stock was all owned
by the officers of the company: H. A, Jastro, President; H. A. Blodgett,
Secretary, and L. P. St. Clair, Treasurer.


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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