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


CHAPTER V.
THE DAWNING OF A NEW ERA
(CONCLUDED) By E. W. Holmes

   The early '80s saw a wonderful advance in all business and horticultural
activities, Riverside sharing in the common growth of the country, though never
experiencing a merely speculative growth, such as led to a reaction in some
sections. Her wealth was produced by her own orchards, and less than in most
other towns were the improvements due to the use of outside capital. It was
during these years that all the towns which are now included in Riverside county
were laid out. Elsinore, with which William Collier of this city had most to do
at its inception; San Jacinto, Perris, Beaumont and Banning, and lastly of those
which were laid out at this stage of our growth, South Riverside, now known as
Corona, which is rapidly becoming prominent among the best of the younger
Southern California cities. In these times Riverside's thickly settled sections
were enlarged by numerous subdivisions, among the first of these being that laid
out on the East Side by White, Hayt and Sylvester. It was to make this and other
tracts accessible that the various street car lines were projected.

   Riverside has been a prolific field for newspaper enterprise. Though many
have been deserving only two survive—the Press and the Enterprise. The first
named has been successful throughout the thirty-seven years, both financially
and in a journalistic way. The pioneer publisher was J. H. Roe, and the next
owner was L. M. Holt, who made it conspicuous as an authority in horticulture as
well as an excellent local weekly. Then M. V. Sweesey and Robert Hornbeck, each
had possession of the establishment for a short time. But it was not until 1888
that it came to have the character and influence it has ever since maintained
among the prominent journals of the state. J. A. and William Studebaker had, in
1883, started a weekly paper which was called the Valley Echo. This was
consolidated with the Riverside Independent in 1884, and purchased in 1886 by J.
H. Roe, who later associated with himself in its management E. H. Pierson, an
excellent printer and business man. In 1888 these gentlemen invited E. W. Holmes
to enter into a partnership with them in the purchase of the Daily Press and,
after consolidating the papers, gave the editorial management to Mr. Holmes.
Later they purchased the Globe and other temporary publications. The following
year Mr. Roe sold his interest to his partners, who conducted the business most
successfully for some seven years. Upon the death of Mr. Pierson, his interest
was purchased by E. P. Clark of Ontario, who in the following year bought out
Mr. Holmes and organized the Press Printing Company, composed of himself, H. H.
Monroe, J. P. Baumgartner, Arthur F. Clark and A. A. Piddington. The Reflex, a
weekly society and local journal, published for two or three years by Mr.
Baumgartner, was absorbed, and the new corporation has built up a business fully
in keeping with the growth of the city and county. Later it acquired the Daily
Enterprise establishment, which was finally sold to C. W. Barton and others.
Messrs. Monroe and Baumgartner finally sold their interests, and their places
were filled by H. A. Hammond and Mrs. E. P. Clark. The Daily Enterprise, now the
property of J. E. Gabbert, has been both a morning and evening journal. It was
started in 1885 by David Sarber, but suspended publication for several years
with the collapse of the boom. In 1890, Mark E. Plaisted and Mrs. Sadie Plaisted
revived it as a Democratic daily, and it has continued its existence ever since,
with varied financial and political experience. Among its managers have been H.
H. Monroe, C. W. Barton and others. A very creditable monthly magazine was
published by David A. Correll for some three years, James H. Roe acting as editor.

   Riverside has reason for pride in the character and strength of her present
banking institutions. But a true record of the financial history of the city
must necessarily include reference to those which, by reason of the conduct of
their incompetent or dishonest officials, brought disgrace upon the managers and
serious losses to the depositors and stockholders who trusted them. In the
pioneer days, Burt Bros, did a successful banking business in connection with
their store, as an accommodation to their patrons, and carried what for those
times were considerable deposits. Reference has elsewhere been made to the
opening of the first regular bank by the Dyers. At a time when interest rates
ran from 10 to 18 per cent, and gold was at a premium, there was profit in the
business, which ultimately led to the reorganization of this bank as the
Riverside Banking Company, with a paid up capital of $429,000. Aberdien Keith
was made the president, but the management was in the hands of O. T. Dyer, with
Miss E. C. Dyer as cashier. It carried heavy deposits, and the temptation to
assist risky speculative investments for the sake of the interest they were able
to demand, resulted finally in a financial smash that brought ruin to the
institution and to many of those who had trusted their funds to its keeping.  
This bank was closed in 1893.

   Four other banks were instituted as the city grew, which no longer have
existence. Thomas Bakewell started a small bank, which was compelled to suspend
as the result of a general panic and a frost which damaged the crop of the
valley. It was an honest failure, and nobody lost excepting the man most
prominent in the undertaking, and whose death was hastened by the disaster.
Messrs. Klineschmidt, Klinefelter and Newberry organized a bank in 1883 and did
business for a short time at the southwest corner of Eighth and Orange streets.
S. C. Evans, Jr., organized the Riverside National bank, with a capital of
$100,000, locating it in the Evans block, where he conducted it until he gave up
the business in the early '90s. One of the most promising of the early ventures
in banking, but which resulted unfortunately, was the organization, in 1891, of
the Orange Growers' bank, by a large number of our own citizens. It was for
years a popular and prosperous institution. M. J. Daniels was made its president
and H. T. Hays its cashier and manager. It finally became a National bank, with
a capital and surplus of $120,000. Mr. Hays was a man of exceptional ability,
and by reason of the thorough confidence of the directors was allowed almost
unlimited charge of its affairs. Dissipation and extravagance gradually
undermined the character of this unusually capable and popular man, and he was
finally found to have misappropriated between $90,000 and $100,000 of the bank's
funds. He escaped the penalty for his crime on technicalities in the court, but
the disgrace he had brought upon himself was unquestionably the cause of his
death only a few years later. The only loss by reason of the suspension of the
bank, in 1904, fell upon the stockholders, who promptly paid off every depositor
in full, with interest.

   The first bank among those which now have existence was the First National
Bank, which now occupies its own fine four-story "Class A" building on the
corner of Main and Eighth streets. It was organized June 3, 1885, and was first
located north of Seventh on Main street. Its first officers were: I. V. Gilbert,
president; A. H. Naftzger, cashier; and A. Haeberlin, assistant cashier. It
started with a small capital, but by a steadily conservative management has
grown until it ranks among the soundest of the banks of the state. Its present
stock and surplus amounts to $375,000, and it carries deposits amounting to
fully $1,500,000. Its present officers are: E. S. Moulton, president; J. A.
Simms, vice-president; Stanley J. Castleman, cashier; and M. M. Milice, Theodore
D. Hurd and D. F. Velsey, assistant cashiers. Besides the presidents above
named, J. J. Hewitt, L. C. Waite and George Frost have served in that position.
An auxiliary of this bank is the Riverside Savings Bank and Trust Company,
having a capital and surplus of $130,000, and deposits amounting to over
$1,250,000. Its president is J. A. Simms; vice-president, S. J. Castleman;
cashier, C. O. Evans, and assistant cashier, Charles E. Waite.

   The Citizens National Bank was organized in 1903, and has rapidly gained a
high position. It was first located in the Reynolds Building, at the corner of
Ninth and Main streets, but upon the closing of the Orange Growers' Bank in 1904
it not only acquired a large share of the business of that bank, but secured the
rooms which that corporation occupied in the Evans block, which have since been
enlarged and beautified to provide for its growing needs. Its present capital
and surplus amounts to some $300,000, and its deposits to fully $1,500,000. Its
officers are: S. H. Herrick, president; Charles H. Low, vice-president; W. B.
Clancy, cashier; and C. W. Derby and M. J. Twogood, assistant cashiers. The
Security Savings Bank, an auxiliary organization, organized June 5, 1907, is
officered by directors of the Citizens' Bank, William T. Dinsmore being
assistant cashier and secretary in charge. It is located on the corner of Main
and Seventh streets. It has a capital and surplus of $72,000, and deposits of
nearly $700,000.

   The youngest of Riverside's financial institutions is The National Bank of
Riverside. It commenced business November 27, 1906, with a capital of $100,000,
and now has a handsome surplus, and carries deposits of over $700,000. Its
finely appointed quarters are at the corner of Eighth and Main streets. The
officers are: A. Aird Adair, president; H. A. Westbrook, vice-president; W. W.
Phelps, cashier; and J. B. Reel and A. H. Brouse, assistant cashiers. From the
foregoing it will be seen that the wealth of the city has grown immensely since
the time when a little bank with $25,000 capital stock served its needs, for the
total capital and surplus of the banks foots up almost a million dollars, and
the deposits in 1912 amount to over $5,650,000.

   The strange disappearance of one of the most prominent of the original
settlers, Thomas W. Cover, in October, 1884, stirred the people deeply. "Tom,"
as he was familiarly called by everybody, had spent a large part of his life on
the desert as a mining prospector, and he found irksome the prolonged quiet of a
life upon the splendid grove he had grown on Jurupa avenue. Four times had he
made a search for the lost "Peg-leg mine," which was described as a wonderfully
rich body of ore, and it was thought he at last had a clue to its location. He
started on the 16th of September for a final hunt for the mine, accompanied by
Wilson B. Russell. They left the railroad, going south through the Bresa creek
canyon, and out upon the desert, where the drifting sands speedily obliterated
all tracks of men or wagons. The men finally decided to separate, Russell to
take the team and Cover taking a short cut on foot to the agreed place of
meeting. Cover was never seen again. He was not at the rendezvous, and Russell,
after leaving food, water and a note, pushed on to Indian Frank's twenty-five
miles further, and started him in search of Cover, he being compelled to go
sixteen miles further, to El Toro, for horse feed. He then hastened back, but no
Cover appeared. Once he thought he heard a call across the solitudes and shouted
many times in reply, but no answer came, and reluctantly he returned to
Riverside to organize a search party. This party traced Cover's track to within
half a mile of the wagon, and there lost it. Many stories, most of them very
improbable, have been told, accounting for his disappearance, but the one that
has some grounds of probability is that which suggested that he had been
murdered by desperadoes in revenge for his conspicuous action years before in
Nevada, when he was one of a company of "vigilantes" who captured and punished a
gang of desperate criminals who had infested that state. But no trace has ever
been discovered that could give a hint as to the manner of his death.

   Before the organization of the city there was no legal method by which the
settlers could shut out the liquor saloon, and one or more of these undesirable
loafing places had existed from the start in spite of a public sentiment opposed
to such resorts. A temperance organization, known as the Good Templars, was
formed in the early days, of which Rev. W. H. Cross was the chief, which labored
to stimulate and keep alive opposition to the liquor evil. Reference has been
made to the fact that the first petition presented to the city trustees upon
their organization as a board, was one offered by the women of the city asking
that liquor saloons should be taxed, which request was promptly granted. On the
23rd of February, 1883, a Woman's Christian Temperance Union was formed, of
which Mrs. S. H. Ferris was made president. Each of the then existing churches
furnished vice-presidents, as follows: Congregational, Mrs. M. Emery; Methodist,
Mrs. Hattie E. Chamblin; Baptist, Mrs. N. P. J. Button; Episcopal, Mrs. P. M.
Olney; Presbyterian, Mrs. W. W. Smith; Universalist, Mrs. Dr. John Hall. Mrs.
David Meacham was made secretary and Mrs. W. B. Wood, treasurer. This
organization has maintained a healthy existence ever since, and has persistently
fought the saloon evil. A temperance agitation resulted, a year or two later, in
the enactment by the city trustees of a very radical prohibition ordinance. Its
enforcement met with much opposition, and few juries would convict under it. The
saloon issue became the prominent one in municipal contests, and at the next
election a majority of the trustees were chosen favorable to high license. An
ordinance was enacted fixing the saloon license at $2000 a year, and two liquor
saloons were opened. The authors of the measure were men who sincerely believed
in this method of controlling the sale of liquor, and by a rigid enforcement of
their statute endeavored to prove the correctness of their theory. But
experience demonstrated the unwisdom of the open-saloon policy, and when the
matter was again submitted to the voters it was overwhelmingly defeated. This
fortunate, result was secured by concessions made to the conservative element,
which saw no serious evil in permitting, under proper restrictions, the use of
wine by guests at the regular hotel tables, but were as strongly opposed to the
open saloon as were the more radical temperance people. The result has made
Riverside a saloonless city, and a generation has grown up which finds no use
for such demoralizing resorts. This policy has so demonstrated its wisdom as to
insure its permanence, and has set an example which other communities are glad
to follow.

   As the surviving pioneer recalls the days that are gone and remembers the men
and women whose faith and hope and labor have helped so greatly in transforming
the barren hills and plains of the valley into what they are today, but whose
names do not appear on the list of those who have been conspicuous in official
life, there comes to him the memory of many a generous action performed by those
whose unselfishly given "mite" has been no small factor in making up the
aggregate giving which made possible our material success. The names of many of
these are forgotten, for some are dead and their offspring no longer make
Riverside their home. Some have lost in the struggle for a competency and have
sought other fields of labor. Some have carried away the wealth gained here to
invest elsewhere. The children of all of these we have educated, and as the city
of their nativity has furnished but a limited field for usefulness, through its
lack of manufacturing and other industries, they are scattered everywhere, and
the only reward we have is the just pride we take in those among them who have
won deserved fame in the life work they have chosen elsewhere, and the further
knowledge that wherever they go throughout the world they carry ever with them a
sincere love for the place that gave them birth.

   No feature which the city possesses today more strongly attracts the stranger
than the unique and attractive Glenwood Mission Inn and the civic center of
beautiful buildings of which it is a part. It is a sufficient monument to those
who have established it. But few remember E. J. Davis, no member of whose family
now resides here, who erected the first large hotel building on Main street, now
a part of the Reynolds hotel. It was H. B. Everest, a prominent participant in
public affairs for many years, whose family no longer have representatives here,
who built the Arlington Block on Eighth street. And Hon. A. P. Johnson, former
senator, supervisor and man of affairs who helped materially in our many "water
wars" and in the Fruit Exchange struggle against evils which so seriously
threatened our leading industry. He is at present, with his brother, O. T.
Johnson, at one time acting mayor of Riverside, a prominent capitalist of Los
Angeles. And among those who have sought a larger field of usefulness is A. H.
Naftzger and many others who were once among our most useful citizens. But there
are those among our present residents whose services as citizens deserve more
extended reference than the limits of these pages permit, such men for instance
as George Frost, whose long experience as director and president of the
Riverside Water Company has qualified him in recent years to aid in the effort
being made to combine all of the domestic water systems of the valley in a
municipal system which shall transform the heights about the city into a larger
and finer section. His usefulness as a city official and his methods as a banker
and business man have earned him the respect and regard of his fellow-citizens.
Joseph Jarvis, John G. North and Francis Cuttle each in turn held the position
of president of the Riverside Water Company, as well as other public positions,
and had an important part in the development of the city.

   Another citizen who has not sought notoriety but whose quiet, business-like
methods have resulted in the development of new water systems and the planting
of thousands of the finest of the orange and lemon groves of Riverside and
Corona, is Ethan A. Chase. The properties which he and his sons have brought
into existence rival even the larger area planted under the management of
Matthew Gage, W. G. Fraser, James Mills and others. And we should not forget the
debt we owe that public-spirited citizen, J. H. Reed, who gratuitously gave so
many years of his life to the beautifying of our streets, the foresting of our
hills, and in securing the locating in this city of the Citrus Experiment
Station of the University of California, where a scientific study of
horticultural problems promises great good to the community. Of the class of
citizens, none too large, who have reinvested at home the profits made in
business here no one stands more conspicuous than the late George N. Reynolds,
and for this reason his name is singled out for special mention. But with these
few words of reference to the unnamed many and the conspicuous few our story of
Riverside's past is ended.


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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