Elusive Eden: A New History of California, fourth edition

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: CALIFORNIA’S RAILWAY ERA:ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

AND SOCIAL UNREST

URBAN GROWTH• Railroads encouraged economic growth --Reduced transportation costs--Opened interior, resources--Opened new markets --Improved land values--Created wealth for many

• Rapid urbanization in Oakland --1850s steamboat port --Under consideration as Central RR terminus--Horace Carpentier deeded shoreline land to

Oakland Waterfront Company--Carpentier, Leland Stanford principal owners--Central RR chose Oakland for terminus

• Economic, population boom--2,000 residents 1868 --10,500 in 1870--35,000 in 1880

• Oakland modernized--Oak trees cut down for businesses, homes--Water, sewer, and gas utilities expanded--1878 telephone service available--1880 electricity--Public transit: horse car lines, cable cars,

ferries

• 1872 deal with Southern Pacific transformed Los Angeles

--Agreed to pay subsidy for trunk line--Population, commerce expanded in anticipation--Line completed September 1876 --Population tripled from 5,700 January 1870 to

17,000 September 1870--Boom collapsed in 1873 depression --1880s Santa Fe rate wars brought another boom

• San Diego lost trunk line competition--3,000 residents through 1870s• Populations in Central Valley, southern San

Joaquin Valley grew • Central Pacific founded market towns along

routes--Built housing, warehouses for workers,

businesses

--hotels and restaurants for tourists--advertising, excursion trains brought buyers--successes: Modesto, Merced, Fresno, Tulare,

Hanford, Bakersfield, Niles, Livermore

SAN FRANCISCO: FROM INSTANT CITY TO PACIFIC METROPOLIS

• Residents expected city to be Central Pacific terminus

--Investors snapped up possible waterfront locations

--Too expensive to build around Bay--Lost out to Oakland, Sacramento, Los Angeles--Became Central Pacific enemies

• City continued to prosper--1873 Central Pacific chose SF for West Coast

headquarters --Central port of Pacific--1860 15th largest US city--1880 9th largest US city

INDUSTRIALIZATION• Little manufacturing in SF --Coal, iron ore scarce--Borrowing expensive--Mining drew away workers--Exports logs, hides

• Manufacturing increased 1860s, early 1870s--Hydraulic, hard-rock mining corporations

demanded machinery--Nevada's Comstock silver mines, shafts, tunnels

required equipment• Made fortunes of Union Iron Works--1849 Peter Donahue arrived from Ireland--Produced shovels from scrap iron--Switched to heavy machinery1860 --1870 employed 600 workers

• Demand for housing, mining flumes, tunneling stimulated milling equipment

--Stimulated building materials, furniture • Wheat, fruit crops stimulated farm

equipment, machinery for canning, processing foods

• Cattle industry promoted tanneries, boot- and shoe-making, leather processing

• Sheep ranching expanded textile processors--1878 Pioneer, Mission Woolen Mills merged

• ##s of breweries, wineries, distilleries, canneries expanded

• Manufacturers needed capital --1864 William C. Ralston founded first West

Coast bank, Bank of California • SF businessmen lent profits from land, mining

speculation--John W. Mackay, Adolph Sutro, Claus

Spreckels, James Phelan, others invested in manufacturing

• Manufacturing required large workforce--1869 completion of rr released Chinese

workers--Flocked to SF--1880 Chinese 15 % of SF workforce (100,000)--Dominated cigar making, textile and clothing

manufacture, shoe production, other light industries

--By 1880 half of SF workers in manufacturing

RAILROADS AND THE BONANZA WHEAT ERA• Farming uneven 1850s, 1860s--Climate, soils unfamiliar• Central Pacific less help than expected--Freight charges high--Fruits spoiled over great distances--Chicago shippers experimented with

refrigerated cars 1860s, 1870s

• Wheat boomed late 1860s, 1870s--Trunk around San Francisco Bay, Sacramento

Valley, San Joaquin, Salinas valleys helped--Non-perishable, easy to grow, no irrigation

required--Small wheat farmers with rr access prospered

• Most wheat grown on leased land--Growers hired work gang, harvesters, steam

tractors--Hugh J. Glenn in Colusa County farmed 66,000 acres

with 1,000 laborers--Investing $300,000 in machinery, draft animals--By 1880 produced 1M bushels wheat / year--Loaded onto boxcars, transferred to ships, then

China, Australia, England--1870s, 1880s, bonanza wheat state's #1 export--Peaked 1880s 41M bushels/year

• Overproduction killed bonanza wheat --Production expanded Great Plains, Europe,

Asia, Australia--Borrowed California techniques--Wheat prices fell--Yields fell

FRUIT AND SPECIALTY-CROP FARMING• 1870s citrus fruit, deciduous fruit, winter

vegetables, melons, rice, cotton expanded slowly

• Awaited large-scale water development, experience

• Farmers organized professional associations--1854 formed California State Agricultural

Society--Lobbied state for subsidies--Organized state and local fairs, published

research papers--Livestock raisers, growers of wine grapes,

fruits, and nuts own groups

• When prices fell in 1880s, farmers organized marketing cooperatives

--First, most successful California Fruit Growers' Exchange ("Sunkist")

--Organized 1893--Limited production, set prices, built packing

houses--Lobbied state for protective laws

• Aided by federal agencies --Army Signal Corps (later the U.S. Weather

Bureau) gathered, tabulated, and distributed statistics on climate

--U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists tested crops

--1873 introduced suggested Washington navel orange, Brazil export

• State agricultural agencies helped--State Board of Agriculture (1863)--Board of Viticulture (1880)--Horticultural Commission (1883)--Board of Silk Culture (1883)--Dairy Bureau (1895)--State Veterinarian (1899)

• State agencies underfunded, mismanaged--Sponsored research, published reports--Held conventions of growers--Advertised new farm products--Lobbied for state regulation• 1919 consolidated as State Department of

Agriculture

• Land speculators promoted agriculture indirectly

--1870s William S. Chapman promoted farming in Fresno

--Lent money to farmers

• Settlers organized joint-stock companies to pay for irrigation systems

--Mussel Slough in Tulare Basin--Mormon colony in San Bernardino --Germans settlement at Anaheim --Grape/raisin farms in Riverside, Pasadena,

Fresno --Pooled money, water rights, machinery,

information

• 1870s Southern Pacific primary land promoter--Low-interest mortgages to farmers--Promoted state agencies, experimental crops,

research--Grants to University of California ag school--1908 educational excursion trains to farmers in

rural areas • 1883 Southern Pacific opened "Sunset" route --Brought Midwestern passengers to California

• 1885 Santa Fe opened competing line to Chicago

--Opened Midwestern, eastern markets to California farmers

• 1883 Southern Pacific refrigerator cars carried perishable crops to market

--Ice plants--Cooling plants--Lowered freight rates to compete w/ Santa Fe

• Advertised California crops in Midwest, East--oranges, prunes, apricots, raisins• immigrants introduced new crops, methods--Agoston Haraszthy brought European grape

cuttings--Pichetti Brothers opened winery in Santa Clara

Valley

• Chinese experienced in arid, semitropical agriculture

--Operated truck farms near mining camps, towns

--Introduced strawberries, potatoes, wine grapes, raisins, apples, pears, cherries

• Chinese paid laborers cleared land, filled wetlands, built levees, irrigation systems

--Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta --Central Valley--Santa Clara Valley• Followed by Japanese, Korean, Filipino farm

workers after 1882• 1870 to 1900 fruit, specialty-crops most

important exports

• 1900 irrigation, homesteaders opened Colorado Desert

--Introduced carrots, lettuces, melons, tomatoes, dates

• 1900 72,500 farms in California worth $708 million

• 1925, 136,400 farms, $3 billion

• Leading producer of wine, table grapes, raisins, winter vegetables, lemons, almonds, walnuts, tomatoes, sugar beets, plums, prunes, apricots

• Made state's urban, industrial growth possible

WATER RESOURCES• Mines, farms, cities, factories required large-

scale water development• Private water companies drilled wells,

diverted rivers, built reservoirs --1870s Spring Valley Water Company brought

water to SF• Early state law based on "riparian" doctrine--Water rights belonged to land owners--Discouraged settlement, agriculture

• 1850s legislature adopted Hispanic "prior appropriation" doctrine

--allowed miners to divert water on public lands --preempted later uses• resulted in conflicts between early, later

arrivals• By 1889, 1M million acres under irrigation--About 26 % of cultivated land• Most private water companies

• Lux v. Haggin (1886) settled conflict between riparian, prior use

--Lux, Haggin two large landowners fighting over Kern River

--Haggin dammed, diverted upstream; Lux sued--State supreme court sided downstream

landowners--Jeopardized irrigation projects

• Farm associations, landowners pressured state for protection

• 1887 Wright Irrigation Act authorized local irrigation districts

--Gave districts right of eminent domain--Could condemn private water rights for public benefit--Districts could taxes, sell bonds to build reservoirs,

canals--Farmers, riparian owners tied up in lawsuits--1910 total of 9 water districts watering 600,000 acres

• Law amended 1911, 1913, 1917 --Supported irrigation districts--1909 to 1920, 60 new districts formed--Irrigated acreage doubled• Acreage, production, profits for fruit, specialty

crops increased • Aided by 1902 National Reclamation Act--Provided federal funds for water development

projects

THE ASSAULT ON NATURE AND THE BEGINNING OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERN

• Mining, water development transformed landscape

• Farmers eradicated pests, market hunters supplied meat to cities

--shorebirds, waterfowl, eagles, condor, deer, elk, pronghorn, mountain lion, wolf almost wiped out

--farmer shot last grizzly 1922

• herds of cattle, sheep, horses destroyed grasslands

• forests clear-cut for housing, mining• w/i 10 years bonanza wheat farming depleted

soils• 1870s erosion, hydraulic mining flooded San

Joaquin, Central Valleys

• By 1900, 1,000 miles of levees built in San Joaquin/Sacramento River Delta

--Created agricultural "islands"--Disrupted marshlands, reservoir functions of

delta--Dikes leaked, caved in--Threatened farms, towns

• Same process in Mussel Slough country--Tulare River basin subdivided, settled, fenced,

plowed --Marshes, channels drained, filled, diverted for

irrigation--Farmers graded, deep plowed farmland• Native plants, inspects, birds disappeared--Most settlers saw as positive changes --John Muir, one or two others objected to

assault on nature

• Competing business interests usual source of opposition

--Battle between upriver hydraulickers, downriver farms best example

--1870s powerful water cannon destroying Sierra hillsides

--Sand, gravel diverted back into rivers--Buried downstream farms, towns in mud--Permanently raised San Joaquin/Sacramento

Delta channels 15 + ft

• 1870s, 1880s Southern Pacific, farmers organized anti-debris lobbies

--Mining companies fought in legislature, courts--1880 law required hydraulic miners to build

debris dams --first California law to protect environment--miners ignored --State supreme court invalidated

• January 1884 farmers won in federal court--permanent injunction against hydraulic mining--some miners evaded• set precedent of government responsibility

for protecting environment• little support for protecting plants, animals

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CONFLICT• 1850s rapid population turnover in SF• Great social, economic mobility, esp. for

whites• By 1870s, turnover slowed• Growing numbers of permanent residents,

families• Social mobility less tractable, class differences

more obvious

• Wealth, transportation systems stratified population

--1873 Andrew Halladie introduced cable cars--Mansions erected on hills--Working class left on flatlands--Boarding houses next to machine shops,

breweries, canneries, slaughterhouses

• Same pattern Oakland, Sacramento, Los Angeles

• Residential segregation for Chinese, Mexican, African American, immigrant groups

• Occupational, educational segregation restricted minority opportunities

--1852 state legislature segregated public schools

• African American men found work on Southern Pacific rr

--Pullman porters, dining car attendants --Also small business owners, newspaper

editors, teachers--1860s small black middle class in SF, Oakland,

Los Angeles

• 4,086 blacks in state, -1% of pop--Most black men in service, industrial jobs; black

women domestic servants--Ladies Pacific Accumulating and Benevolent

Society provided nurses, burial services--Raised funds for Franchise League, Colored

Citizens Conventions--Schoolteachers Priscilla Stewart, Lucinda Blue,

Annie E. Vincent led state campaign to desegregate public schools

--1880 state endorsed separate but equal schools

• Anti-Chinese discrimination intensified after May 1869

--60,000 Chinese in US in 1870, most male --¾ in California--Violence in rural, urban areas--SF legally segregated in Chinatown--Merchants dominated US communities, allowed to

bring wives, children--1872, 722 children in Chinatown--1875 Page Act limited immigration by women from

China, Japan

• Mexican Californians aided, hindered by state's Hispanic past

--8 Californios at constitutional convention--Gwin Land Act left many landless--Residentially segregated in barrios in Los

Angeles, Santa Barbara--American businesses preferred English-

speaking employees

--Occupational, educational segregation followed

--Native-born, immigrant communities formed mutualistas

--Provided social welfare services, social events, celebrated Mexican holidays

• Urbanization, industrialization intensified conflict between urban, rural areas

--Large landholders drove smaller farms out of business

--Couldn't afford irrigation systems, mechanization for specialty crops

--Severe droughts in 1870s, early 1880s ruined many

--High freight rates consumed profits

• Farmers, growers continued mission model--Indian population falling, relocated--Turned to other disenfranchised groups:

Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, Mexicans--Specialty crops needed temporary workers--migratory labor system emerged

• High cost of land, irrigation, equipment, railroad domination meant unusually large farms

--27,000 farms in 1872--122 persons held six million acres--California farms about 2x larger than national

average

• National farm movements appealed to California farmers

--1870s demanded regulation of railroads, favorable monetary policies

--1873 state branch of Patrons of Husbandry (Grange) organized

--1874 13,500 farmers belonged to 231 Grange locals

EARLY LABOR MOVEMENTS AND THE "INDISPENSABLE ENEMY"

• 1850s high times for skilled men in California• San Francisco typesetters, brewers, building

tradesmen, musicians organized unions--High turnover undermined success• 1860s laborers focused on 8-hour day--Succeeded in 1868 --Unenforceable, esp. in hard times

• 1870s disastrous for workers--Transcontinental train increased labor supply, drove

down wages--Rr released workers, flooded urban job markets--Included 20,000 Chinese--Miners returned when Comstock boom ended

• National Panic of 1873 brought unemployed to California

--Churches, charities overwhelmed with demands for relief

• White working men blamed Chinese, rrs--Unions, "anti-coolie" clubs demanded expulsion, exclusion--1871 Los Angeles mob lynched + 20 Chinese--July 23, 1877, union meeting turned into anti-Chinese

mob--Four days of attacks on Chinatown, businesses with

Chinese workers--Gov. William Irwin called out state militia--Hardware store owner William T. Coleman, others

organized Committee of Public Safety, armed followers with pick axe handles

THE WORKINGMEN'S PARTY OF CALIFORNIA• SF laborers organized Workingmen's Party of

California September 1877--Irish immigrant Denis Kearney blamed

depression on Central Pacific, corrupt capitalists who dominated political system

--Demanded expulsion of Chinese 1877 10,000 marched through SF Thanksgiving

Day parade

• WPC spread to Oakland, Los Angeles• 1878 WPC member elected to state senate

and assembly, SF mayor, board of supervisors• Elected 1/3 of representatives to 1878-1879

Constitutional Convention • WPC-dominated governments in San

Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles passed laws harassing Chinese

• WPC collapsed after 1882

ANTI-RAILROAD POLITICS• Discontented Californians focused on Central

Pacific• Dominated land, transportation, commerce,

politics• Army of lawyers with unlimited resources

influenced judges, state and federal leaders

• 1876 legislature created weak advisory railway commission to set uniform rates

--Unsuccessful--Abolished 1879

THE CONSTITUTION OF 1879• 1878 WPC, Grange convinced legislature to

call constitutional convention • As many WPC as Grangers and "nonpartisans" • Democrats and Republicans agreed to

cooperate against WPC, Grange• Met 157 days at Sacramento • Most of time discussed railroad regulation

• New constitution had powers to regulate railroads

--Formed railroad commission with three elected members

--Authorized to fix maximum rates --Prohibited special pricing--Taxed corporate profits, franchises, etc.--Raised rates on tangible assets (roads, real estate)--Ultimately powerless--Member decisions favored railroads, approved rate

hikes

• Set up board of equalization to control revenues

--Stabilized tax rates across counties--Transferred cost of mortgage tax from

borrowers to lenders--New bank regulations• Other provisions affected judiciary, school

funding

• 8 hour days for public works employees --Forbade state hiring Chinese for public works--Forbade corporations hiring Chinese• Endorsed residential segregation for Chinese• Reformers, business interests deadlocked on

other questions--Land redistribution meant dispossessing

current owners• Rejected woman suffrage amendment

• Regulations, taxes offended corporations• Failure to redistribute wealth irritated workers• Narrowly ratified May 1879• Outcomes good and bad--Improved tax revenues to state--Established principle of state regulation of

corporations--Redistributed tax burdens more evenly

between landowners, mining interests

--Lower transportation costs anyway with opening of Santa Fe, other roads

--Corporations delayed implementation of taxes, equalization provisions through courts

--Banks passed higher costs of mortgage taxes to consumers

CHINESE EXCLUSION• Most successful labor movement Chinese

exclusion• Exploited wide-based racism of most

Californians• State policies conflicted with federal politics--1870s U.S. Supreme Court overturned

discriminatory state, local laws as violations of U.S. Constitution, Burlingame Treaty, 1870 Civil Rights Act

--Struck down anti-Chinese provisions of new

state constitution

•Republicans bowed to California demands--1880 President Rutherford B. Hayes negotiated new immigration treaty with China --1882 Congress passed Chinese Exclusion Act--Suspended Chinese immigration, naturalization for 10 years

• Californians dissatisfied--Act did not deport Chinese immigrants --Labor organizers boycotted Chinese-made

goods, pressed for expulsion--Frequent assaults on Chinese communities

• 1888 Californians pressed Congress to expand 1882 Act

--Prohibited Chinese reentry --1892 Act renewed 10 more years--1904 made permanent

CULTURE IN THE RAILROAD ERA• Most Californians showed success by

mimicking eastern styles--Middle-class elite suburbs borrowed Victorian

architectural styles--Gothic Revival, Italianate, French Second

Empire, Queen Anne

• Visitors produced best of 1870s, 1880s literature

--Mark Twain, Bret Harte--Harte took over as editor of Overland Monthly --Twain stayed 3 years--"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras

County" launched his career--Both returned east

• Poet Ina Coolbrith joined Harte at Overland Monthly

--1915 state named poet laureate• Beauty of landscape provided themes--photographers Carleton E. Watkins, Eadweard

Muybridge --painters Thomas Hill, Albert Bierstadt, William

Keith

• Henry George explored political themes --1871 Our Land and Land Policy, National and

State --condemned railroad land monopoly --1879 Progress and Poverty advocated the

single-tax --Returned East, ran for mayor of NYC• Journalist, short-story writer Ambrose Bierce

poked fun at elite pretensions

• George Frederick Keller political cartoons illustrated The Wasp

• Homer Davenport, James Swinnerton did same for SF Examiner

• 1901 Frank Norris published classic The Octopus based on battle at Mussell Slough

• María Amparo Ruiz de Burton criticized Anglo society

--1872 Who Would Have Thought It? lampooned white racism

--1885 The Squatter and the Don described Gwin Land Act from Californio perspective

• Historians began publishing state histories in 1860s

--1866 Franklin Tuthill published History of California

--1884 Charles H. Shinn, Mining Camps: A Study in American Frontier Government

--1886 Josiah Royce, California, From the Conquest in 1846 to the Second Vigilance Committee in San Francisco: A Study of American Character

--1870s Hubert Howe Bancroft began collecting Californiana: newspapers, books, pamphlets, documents, manuscripts, testimonios

--Hired 100s of writers to publish multivolume history of Pacific Coast

--1905 Bancroft sold collection to University of California

--Moved 65,000 volumes, 100,000 manuscripts to Berkeley just before 1906 earthquake and fire

Depot at TruckeeOn the east slopes of Donner Pass, the High Sierra town of Truckee resembled many communities springing up along rail lines throughout the state. Hitherto a tiny turnpike way station, Truckee became the gateway to California when the Central Pacific located yards and maintenance facilities there in 1868. Within a few years, the town’s population had soared and it had become a major rail operations center as well as one of the leading manufacturers and shippers of ice and lumber in the American West. After the turn of the century, Truckee became California’s first winter sports capital and the location for many early outdoor motion pictures. This photograph was taken by Alfred Hart in the late 1860s. This item is reproduced by permission of The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

The University of California, 1874Carleton E. Watkins photographed the isolated, rural Berkeley campus of the University of California the year after it opened. The mansard roof and dormers of South (left) and North (right) halls illustrate the influence of the French Second Empire style, a popular Victorian style of the 1870s. Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

John Muir, circa 1912This photo-graph of Muir was taken by W. E. Dasson-ville. Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Nob Hill MansionsIn 1878 Eadweard Muybridge photographed Collis P. Huntington’s elegant home (foreground) and Charles Crocker’s darker one behind it. The wall looming at the rear of the Crocker mansion is the famous “spite fence,” built by the railroad king to isolate a stubborn neighbor who refused to sell his property. Courtesy Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries.

Anti-Chinese CartoonThis cartoon by George Frederick Keller appeared in The Wasp on December 8, 1877. Courtesy of the California History Room, California State Library, Sacramento, California.

H. H. Bancroft, “Boss Historian”Hubert Howe Bancroft was widely criticized in the late nineteenth century, not only for his questionable sales techniques and the high price of his histories, but also for his use of ghost writers. George Frederick Keller elevated Bancroft to his “gallery of cranks” in this cartoon, published in The Wasp on April 18, 1885. Courtesy of the California History Room, California State Library, Sacramento, California.