Los Angeles herald., 1890-12-03
The Ambition of the Town of
the Goddess.
She Wants Part of Los Angeles
and San BernardinO.
The New County as Large as the State
of Rhode Island.
The Area, Boundary Lines, Population
and Other Statistics as Proposed by
the Promoters of the Scheme.

In the recent state election the assem-
blyman for the district embracing the
city of Pomona and her environs and the
county of Orange, favored the erection of
new county to be known as Pomona.
On this issue II. B. Westerman,
a Democrat, came very near be-
ing elected being beaten by
only two votes In a district very
Republican. Had not his Republican
opponent declared that he too would be
for the new county, the lacking two
votes would have been found for Wester-
man.
The new county as proposed by the
people of Pomona begins away up to-
wards the headwaters Of the San Gabriel
river, follows that stream to about the
gap at the Old Mission, thence running
easterly along the Puente hills until it
comes to the point where the Orange
county boundary line stops going
North. The proposed county, be-
sides this slice of Los Ange-
les county, contemplates taking
in smaller piece of San Bernardino
county. The line would run about five
miles east of Ontario, and going south
erly would include the Chino ranch. A
bill for the formation of such county
will be introduced next month upon the
meeting of the state legislature. Here
is the way the Pomona Progress states
the case
In area it is proposed that the new
county will contain between 800 and 900
square miles. This is nearly double the
size of the average county in the east,
and is nearly as large as the state of
Rhode Island-10S5 square miles-with
five counties and 100000 population.
For the sake of comparison, the area of
some of the other small counties of Cali
fornia are given, as follows: Orange,
750; Napa, S2S; Alameda, $50; Solano,
800; Lake, 700; Sutter, $50; Yuba 600;
Marin, 500; Santa Cruz, 1872; San Mateo,
800.
Some objection has been made that
the proposed county will not have enc ugh
population. The Ontario Record esIl-
mates the population, from the recent
vote polled, at 9000 The Records figures
are not, however, as reliable as usually
Taking its figures for the precincts of
San Bernardino county, but leaving off
the precincts of South Riverside, New
berry, Cajalco and Temescal (Which
Pomona has been too modest even to
think of asking for) but adding Azusa,
Glendora, Covina and Rowland, would
give total vote cast of 2,147. This
would indicate a population of nearly
II 900. Considering, however, that
many registered voters did not vote and
that many had not resided in the state
long enough to be voters, we think it
safe to estimate the population OF the
proposed county at nearer 12,000 AS
matter of fact, not county in California
at the time it was organized had so large
a population, with but three exceptions.
More than thirty counties had less
than 1000 population when organized.
In 1860, forty-three counties then in the
state had less population than Pomona
county would have. Six counties were
formed between 1860 and 1870, each with
less than 1000 population. From 1870
to 1880, three new counties, Modoc, San
Benito and Ventura, were separated
from other counties, and each had less
than 1000 population. By the census
of 1880, thirty-fve of the fifty-two
counties in the state had a population
less than Pomona county would have.
Even by the census of 1890, it appears
there are yet twenty-five counties, near
ly half, with less than $1,000 population,
as shown by the following table from