Riverside County CA Archives History - Books .....The Dawning Of A New Era 1912
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Book Title: History Of Riverside County California

CHAPTER III.
THE DAWNING OF A NEW ERA 
By E. W. Holmes

   With the purchase by the Evans-Sayward syndicate of the Southern California
Colony Association lands and water system, thus consolidating under a single
management all the various tracts in the valley, and with ample means at their
command to provide for the valley's development, there dawned a new era. So
widely advertised had been the charms of climate and other attractions by the
boomers of the various Southern California towns that a deep interest had
developed all through the northern states, and stimulated a desire everywhere to
undertake new ventures in a land where life could be spent so agreeably, and
where so much was promised in a business way to the intelligent and industrious
pioneer. A railroad had been completed in the fall of 1874 from Wilmington
through Los Angeles to Spadra on the east and San Fernando on the north, and
only a little over a hundred miles remained uncompleted over the lofty and
rugged Tehachapi mountains to give the south railway connections with San
Francisco and the East. The certainty that the easterly extension of the
Southern Pacific would shortly be completed overland through the San Gorgonio
Pass removed forever the doubt which had delayed the extensive orchard planting
which the climatic conditions and the result of experimental work had so clearly
demonstrated to be the true line of the section's growth. Excepting when the
winter floods made the bridgeless Santa Ana unfordable Robinson's stage line
afforded the only accommodations for public travel into Riverside, and the
products of the valley were hauled by team to Spadra, or Los Angeles, sixty
miles away.

   During 1875 there was quite an influx of newcomers, enthusiastic and
energetic, followed in 1876 by a still larger immigration, made easier by the
completion in the latter year of the railroad to Colton, on its way overland. So
many of the men and women who came in these years were conspicuous in the work
of creating the Riverside of today—with the planting of its orchards, the study
of varieties and methods of cultivation, the inauguration of the systematic
street-tree planting, which has given the city its most attractive
characteristic, and the cultivation of a generous sentiment regarding church and
school interests-that the more prominent among them, at least, deserve to be
mentioned at this point in our record. Some are dead; some have moved to other
sections; but many have left children and grandchildren who are proud of their
city and as ready as were their parents to strive for its advancement.

   Among the fifty or more heads of families who came to Riverside during the
two years following 1874, were S. C. Evans, W. T. Sayward, D. W. McLeod, H. J.
Rudisill, E. W. Holmes, Oscar Ford, M. B. Van Fleet, Dr. S. R. Magee, S. S.
Patton, George Miller, B. D. Burt, Frank Burt, H. A. Westbrook, George Crawford,
John B. Crawford, R. F. Cunningham, George D. Cunningham, Seneca La Rue, H. A.
Puis, Ira C. Haight, A. D. Haight, R. P. Cundiff, T. R. Cundiff, James
Publicover, J. A. Simms, E. F. Kingman, William Finch, Albert S. White, Dr. C.
J. Gill, H. P. Keyes, Aberdien Keith, H. M. Streeter, Edwin Caldwell, A. B.
Derby, Dr. C. W. Packard, A. McCrary, Dr. W. H. Ball, A. P. Combs, John Downs,
J. W. Hamilton, W. R. Russell, P. M. Califf, W. O. Price, J. M. Alkire, Mrs. G.
M. Cunningham and family, L. Randall, and others.

   The new company, upon taking charge in the early part of 1875, pushed canal
construction vigorously, as well as all other departments of their work. Lands
were rapidly disposed of at from $25 to $60 an acre, and the sanguine and
energetic settlers, who this season located on what became known as Brockton
Square (because many of them came from the Massachusetts city of that name), did
not wait for the winter rains to fit their land for ploughing, but flooded and
leveled it, and by midsummer had many trees and annual crops planted and growing.

   The year 1876 saw a transformation in the valley's appearance for it was in
this year that Magnolia avenue was laid out and planted with the shade trees
which have made it so attractive. The country between Indiana and California
avenues was located upon and planted for miles, and cottages and -mansions
appeared where a year before there was a bare expanse of uncultivated plain. The
laying out and building of such a grand avenue by Mr. Evans and his associates
was a stroke of good business, for nothing so much attracted the attention of
the homeseeker as this well-advertised feature of Riverside. It is undoubtedly a
fact that this work had its inception in the minds of H. J. Rudisill, a
brother-in-law of Mr. Evans, a gentleman of culture and taste, who was at the
time secretary of the company, and of Albert S. White, who was intimately
associated with him at the time, and who purchased forty acres on the avenue,
and planted along its front that first long row of the native palms, never
before so used in the state, and which use has since been so extensively
imitated in the younger towns throughout Southern California.

   Not even in the prosperous years of our later history has there been a larger
percentage of growth than in this, and the excellence of the work done was a
factor of importance in attracting the wealthy and refined. They were an
optimistic people, and if the years did not always bring the financial results
of which they had dreamed, they lived most happy lives under the cloudless
skies, and largely drew their inspiration and pleasure from "joy's anticipated
hour."

   In the succeeding winter there were found upon the orange trees first planted
a half dozen or more of perfect seedling oranges. This was an event of immense
importance to those who had waited for years for the maturing of their trees. It
was a small beginning for a crop which now fills annually over 6,000 cars. The
quality of these first specimens proved gratifyingly superior, even when sampled
in comparison with the best grown elsewhere, and this first evidence of the
fitness of both soil and climate gave great encouragement. The orange production
of the entire state at that time did not amount to three hundred cars. It was
estimated that there were then planted in Riverside some 400,000 grape vines,
75,000 orange trees, 20,000 lemons, 5,000 each of the walnut, almond, apple and
pear. This estimate suggests by the varieties planted how uncertain the settlers
still were as to what crop would prove the most successful. It was anticipated
that there would be five hundred orange trees in bearing the coming winter. It
was encouraging to find that the snow and the hail, which had covered the ground
to the hilltops in the preceding January, had not done the harm that was feared
at the time. If some of the winters were cooler than was anticipated, the
summers were warm enough, and ice was a luxury, and cost three cents a pound.
Hundreds of tons were stored in the San Bernardino mountains and hauled down for
use in the heated term.

   Up to this year the Riverside hotel, located about where the library building
now stands on Seventh street, had been the only public house in the place. Built
in 1871 by Dr. William Craig and managed by him the first year, it was
transferred first to the care of A. R. Smith, and in 1872 to T. J. Wood, and in
1873 Henry Fox became the landlord, resigning it, in 1877, into the hands of Dr.
Craig, who kept it until destroyed by fire in 1888. But the needs of better
hotel accommodations were evident, and the company erected a two-story brick
hotel on Main street, extending the second story over the Burt Brothers' store,
which it adjoined. The lower story was fitted for stores and the upper for the
guests. R. F. Cunningham was the first landlord, and was succeeded by W. B.
Wood. This building was sold, in 1888, to John Boyd, who called it the St.
George hotel. It is still used as a rooming-house.

   Sunnyside school district was organized out of the territory south of Jurupa
avenue in 1875. A. J. Twogood, T. W. Cover and M. F. Bixler were the first
trustees. They erected a school building at a cost of some $700 on Central
avenue. Rev. M. V. Wright was the first teacher. A few years later the increase
in population made larger quarters necessary, and this building was sold to the
Swedenborgian denomination, who used it as a church for many years. The name of
the district was changed to Arlington and a larger school building built, under
the supervision of Trustee A. S. White, on the corner of Palm avenue and Sierra
street. In recent years this property was disposed of, and, under George N.
Reynolds' trusteeship, fine new buildings were located for the school's use on a
site near the line of the new Magnolia avenue.

   Meanwhile, the growth of the original Riverside school had compelled, first,
the building of a second house like the original building; and very soon both
these were so overcrowded as to make necessary the construction of a four-room
schoolhouse in their place on the Sixth street grounds, and this has since been
enlarged to a modern eight-room building. One of the original buildings was
moved to where the Southern Pacific station now stands on Market street, where
for a time it was used as a church by the Universalist people, and the other was
moved to the southeast corner of Eighth and Orange streets and used for years as
a blacksmith shop, until wrecked to give place to the beautiful business block
which now occupies that corner.

   The conditions have indeed changed since '76, when the chronicles mention the
fact that a herd of antelope were one day seen from town upon the foothills
near, and that on another occasion a band of some fifty mounted Indians had one
day gone trooping through the village. In those days there were no cemented
irrigating canals, and often the irrigator found his water supply cut off
because the gophers had undermined the main canal banks and let floods of water
out upon the streets, instead of allowing it to flow for use in the orchard
furrows provided.

   It was in this year that the second church was erected—a little brick chapel
built on Sixth street for the use of the Methodists. Some of the labor upon it,
as well as the funds, were contributed by citizens who were not members of that
denomination.

   This being the Nation's centennial year, the citizens felt that patriotism
demanded that they should have a Fourth of July celebration, and the desire
resulted in quite a grand affair for those primitive times. Fifty carriages and
wagons formed in procession to take the company to the cottonwood grove in the
river bottom, where H. J. Rudisill acted as president of the day, Rev. C. Day
Noble delivered the oration, E. O. Brown read the Declaration of Independence
and Judge North, R. W. Daniels, and others, responded to toasts. In the evening
there were fireworks and a dance in town.

   The population of the village was now about 1,000, and that of the county
(San Bernardino) about 16,000. Up to this time Riverside had had only a
tri-weekly mail, but in response to a petition forwarded, the government gave
the people a daily mail which was brought over from Colton each evening on the
stage.

   An unsuccessful attempt was made by the San Bernardino people to get the
Southern Pacific railroad to remove the line from Colton to the county seat, the
expense to be met by taxation of the entire county, of which this section was
then a part. A bill was introduced in the legislature to legalize such action.
This attempt aroused the indignation of the Riverside people, and a large
meeting was held and strong resolutions passed protesting against such a
proposition, and the attempt failed.

   The year 1877 opened dry and dusty. The winds were especially trying, and
only about three inches of rain fell during the entire season. It is usually the
case in such a winter that frost is heavy, but no other winter in the history of
Riverside has been so free from injurious frosts. The dry, warm air seemed to
have a strange effect upon all the deciduous trees, for peaches, apples and
apricots failed to leaf out, only starting a stunted foliage in many cases by
July, and setting little or no fruit. The summer was extremely hot and dry, the
mercury going to 112° at times, and many mountain streams dried up. Many
citizens sunk wells to provide themselves with better domestic water, finding it
at a depth of from fifty-five to eighty feet, and generally containing traces of
alkali. Most of the water previously used had been taken from, the canals, and
after being purified of its most objectionable qualities by cutting into it
cactus leaves, for the purpose of clearing it, it was kept in ollas after the
Indian method, the process furnishing a cool, if not healthful drink. Another
source of water was Spring brook, from which a citizen regularly supplied
customers, until the time came when piped artesian water was introduced. Up to
this time there had been many cases of fever prevalent, especially during the
hot season, but since the introduction of pure artesian water these epidemics
have ceased.

   The local merchants still found it difficult to compete against the larger
stocks carried by the San Bernardino establishments, but trade was gradually
improving as the population increased. Magnolia avenue was already a fine drive,
and as far down as the Crawford's corner was practically all improved. The
magnolias on the street corners were small, but the pepper and eucalyptus trees
were growing fast, and the palms and grevilleas were ornamental even then.

   The year 1878 opened with plenty of rain, and the hillsides were green and
flower-decked, the great masses of the California poppy being especially
beautiful. Orchards first planted were now coming into bearing, and the prices
for oranges were as high as three or four cents apiece. George North, whose ten
acres was planted to a variety of fruit, contracted to sell his crop for three
years for $2,000, and everybody looked forward hopefully in consequence.

   It was during this season that the Odd Fellows' building was erected. It was
originally a two-story brick building, and only about one-half its present
length. The lower floor was used as a public hall, and furnished a place for
public fairs and gatherings until other and larger buildings were built
exclusively for such use.

   Among the arrivals this season were many who became conspicuous later. The
Chaffey Brothers, Dr. Joseph Jarvis, and others, from Canada, settled west of
Arlington, between Magnolia and California avenues. The Chaffeys, after
apprenticeship at orcharding in Riverside for several years, became convinced of
the possibilities everywhere offered where a water supply could be developed,
organized the successful fruit-growing colony of Etiwanda, and the magnificent
settlement, which has developed into the cities now known as Ontario and
Uplands. Dr. Jarvis and brother, John T. Jarvis, have remained prominent
citizens of Riverside.

   Two wealthy New York families located soon after on "the avenue," J. H.
Benedict building the first expensive residence in the city, the one now owned
by Mrs. Gillilan, and Mrs. Le Grand Lockwood the fine ranch house known as Casa
Blanca. It was the husband of Mrs. Lockwood who fitted out the Hall polar
expedition.

   The government surveyors this year finished the survey of the government
lands around Riverside, and titles were at last obtained by those who had so
long waited. Those who had occupied railroad lands were compelled to pay the
Southern Pacific company for the increased value their own improvements had
created. Mr. Roe made a list of the business and professional men in Riverside
this year, who numbered thirty-five in all, including in this class nurserymen
and tree-budders. Of these there are now but three still living in Riverside,
these being L. C. Waite, John A. Simms and W. W. Carr.

   It was during this season that an end was put to the long delay in providing
a bridge across the Santa Ana river. The San Bernardino officials seemed to
think that since there never had been a bridge across that uncertain stream
there was no need for it, even though the population had grown so rapidly, and
had repeatedly refused to provide one. There were very heavy rains in April, and
the water ran deep and swiftly. One day a party consisting of Mr. and Mrs. L. C.
Tibbetts and Mrs. Tibbetts' little granddaughter, Daisy Summons, were returning
from Colton, when, in attempting to ford the river, the heavy farm wagon in
which they were riding began to sink in the quicksand, and, overturning, covered
the child under the wagon body. When the Mexican horsemen, who came to the
rescue, succeeded in righting the vehicle the girl was dead. This sad accident
furnished an argument which even conservative San Bernardino supervisors could
not withstand, and before another winter the first bridge across the Santa Ana
was constructed.

   It is interesting to note that at this time there existed down the river a
school district with over thirty children, where now there is none, and that its
teacher, then gaining his first experience as a pedagogue, was Edward Hyatt, now
filling his second four-year term as superintendent of public instruction for
the state of California. In many of the intervening years he had successful
charge of the San Jacinto schools in this county.

   Dovenook School was the name of a private academy established this season
near the corner of Central and Streeter avenues by Rev. and Mrs. C. Day Noble,
where for a few years the higher branches, as well as the lower grades, were
taught.

   An effort was made in November, 1875, to establish a weekly newspaper in
Riverside. It was called the Riverside News, and the proprietors were two young
men from San Bernardino—Robert Davis and Jesse Buck. It was printed weekly until
the following July, when it died for want of support. Another abortive newspaper
effort was made in the fall, but Mr. Satterfield, the owner, unable to meet his
bills, attempted to commit suicide, and when he left town the printing material
came into the hands of Henry Rudisill, son of the company's manager. A. S. White
and J. H. Roe were contributors to this paper, which was printed in a little
adobe, standing on the site of the First National Bank building.

   On the 28th of June, 1878, there was issued the first number of the Riverside
Press. Its first editor and owner was James H. Roe, and it has continued its
existence as a weekly and daily, under different owners, ever since, and
steadily maintained a character which has given it an influence for good in
public affairs. Telling of the starting of this first successful newspaper
enterprise, Mr. Roe says: "President Evans, who desired a newspaper established
here, offered to subscribe one-third of any amount raised to start the
undertaking. Without this help a successful beginning could not have been made.
To illustrate the interest generally felt in the undertaking I will mention that
John Wilbur, Sr., moved the press and material from San Bernardino and would
accept no payment for his service but a thank you. Robert Honbeck was the
printer in charge, but Dr. John Hall and E. W. Holmes, two veteran printers,
laid the cases and set type on the first number. We worked the paper off on an
old Washington hand press, I inking the forms with a roller. The building
occupied was a 12x16 board shanty, standing back from Main street about where
Rouse's store now stands."

   In the fall of 1878 six thousand boxes of fine raisins were sold at $1.75 a
box, and the results of grape growing were so satisfactory as to lead to more
extensive planting of the raisin grape. This season H. M. Beers netted $350 an
acre from his raisins, and Capt. B. B. Handy reported his net profits at $280 an
acre, and many other citizens were nearly as successful.

   There was organized about this time a choral society, of which the officers
were: E. W. Holmes, president; James H. Roe, vice-president; C. W. Packard,
secretary; B. W. Handy, treasurer; George Leach, librarian; and Prof. J. F.
Deitze, musical director. An orchestra was also formed as an auxiliary, composed
of Dr. C. W. Packard, George Leach, John Bonham, Edward North, D. S. Strong, W.
E. Keith, J. H. Roe and E. W. Holmes. In the fall, under the musical direction
of Professor Deitze, a former member of the Germania Orchestra of Boston and of
prominent German bands, these organizations gave concerts of a high character,
the most prominent features of which were Mr. Deitze's violin solos, with Miss
Eastman as accompanist, and several fine choral numbers with orchestral
accompaniment arranged by Mr. Leach. These organizations assisted in many a
public entertainment during several years, and went out of existence with the
loss of Messrs. Deitze and Leach.

   The older citizens will remember when the back portion of the block, where
the Reynolds department store now stands, was largely occupied by the Chinese,
mostly used as grape pickers in those days, and how rough and filthy a quarter
this shanty section was in consequence. This nuisance was only abated after
considerable effort, and a Chinatown created in the Arroyo, where their habits
would be less offensive. Owing to the substitution of the orange and lemon for
the apricot and grape as a principal crop, and the use of a different class of
laborers to handle it, the Chinese are no longer largely employed in Riverside,
notwithstanding that they are preferred by many to those who have been substituted.

   The Citrus Fair had its origin in Riverside, where it was a popular and
attractive feature long before its value was fully appreciated elsewhere.
Originally instituted for the purpose of comparing and studying varieties and
methods of cultivation, packing and marketing, it had such attractions, from an
esthetic standpoint, as to make these annual exhibits of fruit and flowers
popular with all classes, and the interest in them drew a large attendance from
all portions of the state. The first of these fairs was held in the Odd Fellows'
building, in February, 1879, the fruit exhibit being placed in the hall on the
ground floor and the lodge-room above was used as a convention hall. The
committee in charge consisted of S. C. Evans, G. D. Carlton, Albert S. White, H.
J. Rudisill, L. C. Waite, P. S. Russell, E. J. Davis, D. C. Twogood, Thomas W.
Cover, James Bettner and E. W. Holmes. Many men prominent in public affairs, as
well as those personally interested in the horticultural development of the
state, were in attendance and participated in the discussions. Among these were
General Stoneman (afterwards governor), Hon. J. De Barth Shorb, Gen. J. H.
Shields, General Vallejo, Hon. Elwood Cooper, Dr. Conger of Pasadena, Hon. J. F.
Crank, L. M. Holt, Mr. Chapman, and others. The participation of so many
distinguished citizens from distant portions of the state indicated appreciation
of the work Riverside was doing even in these early days. The exhibit was a most
beautiful and novel one. It included fruit from every southern county, and the
affair proved so attractive and valuable that it insured the holding of these
annual fairs through a long series of years, and the ultimate building of a
large pavilion in Riverside better adapted for such exhibitions.

   Riverside was now becoming prosperous and attracting a larger proportion of
the well-to-do, and it was laughingly said of her by envious neighbors that it
was "a place where everybody had a piano and a top-buggy," which comment
certainly could not have been suggested by the conditions existing a half dozen
years previous. That there were some grounds for anticipating prosperity is
shown by the results chronicled regarding the returns obtained this season from
some of the first seedling trees planted. One orange tree, planted by Dr.
Shugart in a sheltered position near the house on Ninth street, now owned by
Mrs. Maynard, had, when nine years old, produced sixty oranges, the following
year five hundred, and in 1879 it produced two thousand seedling oranges, which
sold for $37 a thousand. This tree, therefore, brought the owner $74 from a
single crop. Is it any wonder that the orchardist who thus saw common seedling
oranges sell at $10 net per box, and remembered that he had a hundred trees on
each acre, got a little over-sanguine over the prospects, and for a time forgot
the possibility of an over-supplied market? Raisin grapes were also paying
splendidly. Shugart & Waite picked twelve tons of muscat grapes from an acre and
a quarter vineyard, and A. P. Combs and R. H. Henderson netted a profit of over
$350 an acre from their raisins, the twenty-pound boxes bringing $2 each. To
insure the maintaining of a high-grade pack of raisins a Fruit Growers'
Association was organized with G. W. Garcelon as president, and H. A. Westbrook
was appointed inspector to see that all packers complied with the rules adopted.
The production of raisins increased until the output exceeded 200,000 boxes
annually, but when the industry developed in the Fresno section, over-production
brought down prices, so that Riverside vineyards were nearly all transformed
either into orange orchards or alfalfa fields. Apricots were paying handsomely
at this time, but the extravagant expectations regarding the profits of citrus
fruit-growing unfortunately led to the neglect of this fruit.

   On January 1, 1880, L. M. Holt of Los Angeles, who had had considerable
successful experience as the publisher of a horticultural magazine, purchased
the "Riverside Press" from Mr. Roe, enlarged the paper, and changed its name to
the "Press and Horticulturist." Mr. Holt was a boomer by temperament and
training. He believed in the future of horticulture in Southern California, and
gavo effective and energetic work in advertising it, and the growing town in
which for several years he made his home. He did not "hide his light under a
bushel," but Riverside shared in the illumination, and gained recognition abroad
largely through his efforts. This paper later became a semi-weekly, and finally
a daily, and in 1888 was purchased by Messrs. E. W. Holmes, James H. Roe and
Reverdy J. Pierson. Messrs. Roe & Pierson had purchased a weekly paper known as
the Valley Echo, of which J. A. Studebaker was the first owner, and this, with
several other papers that had vainly tried to exist in the limited field, were
merged in the Daily Press, with Mr. Holmes as managing editor.

   Among those who became residents of Riverside during this year, and have had
a large part in the affairs of the valley, was Hon. B. F. White of Weymouth,
Mass. He was a man of ability and public spirit, and served later as a school
trustee and member of the city board. He was killed in a runaway accident while
engaged in public business. The senior John Allen came this season from Presque
Isle, Me., to visit his son, B. F. Allen, and later another son, John A. Allen,
joined his relatives here and purchased a thirty-acre orange grove on Colton
avenue, all becoming permanent residents. P. S. Dinsmore and family located here
in June and Edward Treat and family later in the year. In July, O. T. Dyer, an
Illinois banker, arrived and began the construction of a small bank building on
the corner of Main and Ninth streets. This first Riverside bank was opened for
business on the 6th of December. The firm was composed of William H. Dyer of
Troy, N. Y., Otis T. Dyer of Wyoming, Ill., and Miss E. C. Dyer was cashier.
About the same time there arrived many people from Galesburg, Ill., among whom
were Orson Johnson and wife, parents of A. P. and O. T. Johnson; John Aberdeen
and family, Rev. Charles Button and wife. Martin Hoover and wife (from
Leavenworth, Kan.), Dr. C. W. Craven, and his parents, Mr. and Mrs. C. V.
Craven, and S. H. Ferris and family, and others. C. W. Filkins, who later
succeeded Dr. Greves as postmaster, located in November, and opened a store on
Main street. George R. Thayer and wife, from Weymouth, Mass., arrived the same
month, and in December, D. M. Bradford and family, from Cornell, Iowa, and Miss
E. C. Dyer became residents. James Chalmers and family also came this season,
and built a home on the block where the courthouse now stands.

   On the 22nd of April a reception and banquet was given Hon. H. M. Streeter,
who had been chosen the fall before to represent the county in the lower branch
of the state legislature. It was given to testify the citizens' appreciation of
his services as assemblyman, especially with reference to his success in
securing the adoption of a law by which a town council or board of county
supervisors were empowered to 1ix water rates each year, instead of allowing
corporations to fix such rates arbitrarily, as they had previously been free to do.

   A floral fair, successful artistically as well as financially, was held by
the ladies, May 22, under the management of Mrs. James Bettner and others, and a
handsome sum realized for the benefit of the library association, that
institution not having become the property of the city.

   Evergreen Cemetery Association was incorporated this season, with E. Conway,
L. M. Holt, Capt. B. B. Handy, L. C. Waite and J. B. Camp as directors.

   During the summer the California Southern railroad was incorporated, and a
survey made by Fred T. Perris, from San Bernardino to San Diego, through the Box
Springs and Temecula canyons

   All these matters we are recording indicate a rapid growth of the valley, but
nothing shows this more clearly than the result of the presidential election,
when the Democratic majority of the county seat was for the first time overcome
by the majority which Riverside gave some of the Republican candidates.

   In November the supreme court handed down a decision in the long-fought water
litigation between W. 0. Price vs. the Riverside Land and Irrigation company.
The result was a curious one, showing the absurdity of the law's delay. Mr.
Price, who represented the land owners, discouraged over the failure to get a
decision, had sold his place on the corner of Arlington and Riverside avenues,
to A. P. Johnson and returned east. Mr. Johnson had settled the contested point
by purchasing water stock of the company, as had most of the other parties who
had undertaken the contest so many years before.

   The year 1881 brought an increasing number of those who were to be
conspicuous in Riverside affairs. Among these were Matthew Gage, from Kingston,
Canada; H. B. Everest, from Denver; Rev. Dr. George H. Deere, from Minnesota; T.
H. B. Chamblin, George Frost, Charles G. Hurd, Orin and W. H. Backus, A. M.
Denig, Bradford Morse, George M. Skinner, George H. Fullerton, W. A. and C. P.
Hayt, W. P. Lett, C. A. Crosby, Dr. Clark Whittier, W. H. Fessenden, Peter
Klinefelter, George M. Morse, J. W. Bryant, Thomas and Kenneth Hendry, J. K.
Woodward, J. H. Fountain, A. L. Whitney, B. F. Locke, Harry Kearne J. E. Hill,
H. D. Noland and H. Saunders.

   Notwithstanding the fact that her orchards and vineyards have offered, when
properly worked, reasonable assurance of wealth, the people of the valley have
shared with other sections of the state an occasional mining epidemic, and these
have usually resulted in financial loss to those who have yielded to temptation
in this direction and invested their hard-earned capital in mining ventures. In
the early '80s the finding of gold indications near where now stands the
Victoria club house, on the banks of the big arroyo, and elsewhere in the
neighborhood, led to search being made everywhere for the precious metal. Claims
were staked out, and it was asserted that nobody dug a well who did not "pan
out" the gravel found at the water level. But, while gold was found in many
places about the valley, it was generally in too small a quantity to warrant
looking for. On the further side of the Temescal range silver was found and a
mining town laid out. Tin for a time was mined by an English company, in the
hills between Riverside and Corona. Abram Hoag successfully worked the Gavilan
gold mine, and it was claimed took out $500 a week for a while. The Mexicans had
found considerable gold in the hills between Perris and Elsinore, making wages
with their crude methods, and here clearly defined veins have been quite
extensively worked by Americans in recent years— the Good Hope, the Santa Rosa
and other claims giving promise of rich returns. Of these the Good Hope has thus
far alone justified the expense incurred in developing it.

   It was during this season that the Arlington Presbyterian church edifice was
completed. Its original cost was upwards of $3,500. It was dedicated on Sunday,
April 24, 1881. The pastor was Rev. A. G. Lane, and he was assisted by Rev. J.
W. Ellis of Los Angeles, who preached the dedicatory sermon, and by Rev. Charles
Button of the local Baptist church, and Rev. W. H. Cross, Congregationalist. The
music was furnished by C. W. Packard, organist; Mrs. S. B. Bliss, soprano; Mrs.
J. H. Benedict, contralto; J. H. Roe, tenor, and O. T. Dyer, bass.

   In the winter of 1881 the first Universalist sermon was preached in Riverside
by Rev. J. H. Tuttle, a distinguished clergyman of that denomination. On the
20th of July following, Rev. George H. Deere and wife came from Minnesota to
make this city their permanent home. Mr. Deere was not only a man of scholarship
and ability, but was one who, by reason of his sincere and kindly nature, won
the respect and regard of all. Besides his faithful work as a pastor he gave a
splendid service during many years as chairman of the school and library boards
of the city. At the close of the first service, held on the Sabbath following
his arrival, a meeting was held, over which William Finch presided, at which a
committee was chosen, consisting of Dr. Deere, Dr. Shugart, L. M. Holt, P. S.
Russell, Ira C. Haight, A. B. Derby and George M. Skinner, through whose efforts
a church organization was effected. One of the original school buildings, for
which a larger one was to be substituted, was purchased and moved to the spot
now occupied by the Southern Pacific passenger station on Market street, where
services were held until the growth of the society enabled it to build the
beautiful stone church which this society now occupies on Lemon street.

   There appears, in the minutes of Mr. Roe regarding this season, an item
concerning an orchard product and the method of its shipment, which will have
interest to those familiar with present Riverside products and prices. He
reports that Dr. Jarvis and his brother John T., ran a steam fruit dryer near
Arlington, where were then extensive apricot orchards, and that they cured,
packed and shipped the most valuable load of apricots ever sent out of
Riverside. There were over 4,800 pounds of first quality, which sold at 27 cents
per pound, and 600 pounds at 22 cents. W. C. Johnson hauled them to Newport in a
six-horse team, from which point they were shipped by water to San Francisco.

   It was the proud boast of the Riverside orchardist in the pioneer days, as it
is today in the newly-planted sections of California, that we had no insect
pests to endanger the health and productiveness of our trees. The red scale
(aspidiotus aurantii) was, before any means had been discovered of effectively
fighting this pest, ruining the San Gabriel groves, and when Dr. Whittier was
found to have imported a lot of nursery trees from the infected section, in
entire ignorance of the danger incurred, a mass meeting was called to prevent
their planting. There being no law then in existence preventing the spread of
dangerous pests, the citizens raised the necessary fund and purchased and burned
the entire shipment. A few years later a few specimens were found where the pest
had evidently been introduced by visitors who had brought San Gabriel oranges
along with their lunches, and had thrown the rind about as they partook of them.
In spite of the fact that such appropriation of public funds was not
specifically permitted in the law under which the city was then organized, the
city trustees paid the owners in certain blocks the sum of $1,800 to cut off the
entire tops of their trees and give the stumps a thorough coat of whitewash.
This served for a while, but ultimately infections appeared which made necessary
the securing of legislation to enable the valley to organize protective action,
but in spite of all the effort and expense incurred it has not been possible to
eradicate, but only measurably control the spread of such orchard pests. Such
control, however, has prevented the ruin of our orchards.

   The published statements regarding affairs in Riverside, at the close of
1881, furnish a few items of interest. During the year land had been sold to the
extent of $392,404, and over $140,000 worth of new buildings had been erected.
Miss M. C. Call and Lillian Putnam and Miss M. H. Harris were the only teachers
in the city district schools. Congratulations were in order over the fact that
money could now be borrowed on good security at from 10 to 12, instead of 18 per
cent, as had' often heretofore been demanded. Matthew Gage, whose grand work in
developing the great system which bears his name, and has made possible the
growth of an orange acreage larger than the original settlement, had but just
arrived with his family, and was following his trade of jeweler in a portion of
Roe's drug store.

   The fame of Riverside's beauty and success as a fruit-growing town was
becoming national, and was already prompting the undertaking of similar ventures
in other favored sections. Most conspicuous among the successful imitators of
Riverside was that undertaken by Judson & Brown, where what is now Redlands. The
name of this new colony was suggested by the fact that it was in the red soil of
Riverside that the finest oranges were grown—a quality of soil conspicuously
found in Redlands. In the advertisements first printed by a local promoter this
new tract to be put upon the market was advertised as "an extension of East
Riverside," in order to use the prestige of the older colony. Corona also
utilized us in calling herself South Riverside, until the time came when she had
demonstrated the possession of advantages of her own to excuse her preferring an
independent and more euphonious name. Even East Riverside finally dropped that
name to call herself Highgrove, because high groves are supposed to be less
injured by frost—though the powers which control temperatures do not seem to be
greatly influenced by the names which mortals attach to a section.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORY OF
Riverside County
CALIFORNIA
WITH
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
OF
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been
Identified With Its Growth and Development From
the Early Days to the Present
HISTORY BY
ELMER WALLACE HOLMES
AND OTHER WELL KNOWN WRITERS
ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME

HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 
1912


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