The herald., 1893-07-10
a RsrRospssr.

; vicinity will be greatly impressed BY tn
evidences OF progress on every hand. II
will see beautiful homes In every direc
+, tion. luxuriant orchards. fruitful vine
yards, rich farms and everywhere ths
soil brought up to its highest possible
state od cultivation. Pomona itself he
will find large and thrifty city. with
costly and substantial buildings and all
the marks OF commercial progressiveness
and urban prosperity. Not only will be
find Pomona city of business note, bu,
he will find it the focal center of several
towns OF rising importance-th shire
city, 30 to speak, of q vast agricultural
region, which includes the Chino ranch
where the sugar beet industry gives
profitable employment to thousands OF
farmers, and where one OF the iargesI
suear-beet factories in the United States
is in successful operation. .e
When one contemplates the plendid
development of this Pomona region and
sees the wonderful progress it has made,
he would find it hard to believe that
less than 20 years ago the whole coun-
try thereabouts was given up to the
cattle herder and the shepherd, with
the exception that here and there, at
wide distances, few hundred acres OF
carefully selected land were cultivated
to grain.
We recollect we'll when the Southern
Pacific railroad tracks first reached the
site of the future Pomona. It was in
1874. The road had been built to
Spadra. and the general idea pre- vailed
at that time that an important town
would be built up around Uncle Billy
Rubottom's popular hostlery. But
when the track had been pushed on to
Pomona the current of opinion ran in
favor of that location as the coming CEN
ter. The site OF the town had been
mapped off, and a great excursion was
got up to attend the first sale OF lots.
With the exception of a large frame
building that had been hurriedly
erected as hotel, there was nothing in
the shape of habitation to be seen ex-
cepting the old adobe Palomares home.
We have before US very handsomely
printed and bound volume of 2O4 pages,
published in 1874. entitled "Semi-Trop.
ical California" The little work was
got out by Major Ben G. Truman, and in
glancing over it we became greatly in.
terested in the Majors description of
the very locality we are now writing
about. Our readers will doubtless
Fhouk re fov Tho rotposoack,va .r~s.
tions we shall make from the little book.
He says:
IA body of land more admirably situ-
ated for agricultural and genealogical
purposes it would be hard to conceive of.
Beautifully diversified by hill and vale
and dotted here and there with natural
forest growth, it needs only to be dis.
tributed into farms of moderate extent
among an industrious aud energetic
population to become garden spot in
deed. The lands are not in the market
at present, but the completion of the
railroad to Spadra, and its inevitable
extension beyond. must in the very ma
ture OF things, laad to the subdivision
and sale of the entire tract"
The majors prophetic eye was pretty
clear, but he conld not bring within tn
horoscope of his provision half the
beauties nor tithe OF the wealth that
have been developed in that locality.
Looking out upon the very site where
now Pomona rises in splendid actuality,
and in still greater fullness OF promise,
he says: For myself l believe that
every one of these rolling bills, except
in occasionally dry seasons, will pro-
duce bountiful crops of as good wheat
as can be grown" He now more par
ticularly alludes to the vicinity Of
Phillips residence towards Spadra.
But he says that "the fruit trees and
vines en- Messra. Phillips and Rutbot-
TOMS places, and those of other neigh
boring residents, furnish abundant evil
dence that everything that can add to
the beauty or comfort of faKmer's
home, can be grown anywhere on the
ranches"
1t must seem droll to the present
dweller in Pomona that there could
have been a possible eff" at any time,
that the richest growths of all kinds
temperate and sub-tropical-wo
flourish anywhere in that splendid
vicinity.
This retrospect, however, is not
merely written for the bsneft of the
locality mentioned. 1t would apply as
we'll to dozens of other localities in this
great valley. And twenty years from
now some writer will come along
to make mention of the magnificent
development of many other localities
that are now in as embryotic a state
of repose as Pomona and its vicinity
were when Major Truman wrote his
little volume. As to the truth OF this
prophecy, we appeal to Crescenta, to
Cahuenga, to Ell Puente, to Covina, to
Fulton Wells and to hundreds OF un-
named places twenty years hence.
nNte OUARA NTTNE 4EPVTCR