Los Angeles herald., 1905-07-09


the wonderful, to have recourse to
such perfervld works of fiction as
Monte Cristo or the Arabian Nights
The story of Los Angeles during the
past generation affords plenty Of en-
tertainment for the most exacting im-
asination.
Going back that length Of time we
find the city had Q population Of some
5000. The Herald carries at Its edi-
torial head the announcement that our
present figure is upward Of 100000, or
an increase of 1000 per cent In that
time.
When the Southern Pacific railway
company came to an agreement with
our people to give them a Southern
terminus OF the road in the Angelic
City we agreed to give the corpora
tion fifteen per cent on five millions of
dollars, which was then the valuation
of this county which also then In
cluded Orange county. The assessors
of the two counties last week an
nounced their assessments respectively
as S235 100000 and $1S 100000. AS fully
SIS, 100000 was held out Of these assess
ments for national banks and other
items, we have gain in valuations of
over 500 per cent, or about ITO per cent
year.
No Angeleno who does not make q
special trip all over his city every three
or four months can have any idea of
how it is growing. Bearings have to
be taken pretty often, as landmark
after landmark disappears.
A Generation Ago
A generation ago the spot where the
Arcade depot now stands was part of
the once largest orange grove in Cali
fornia, that of William Wolfskill, who
came here, I believe, from Missouri;
the family probably being originally
from Switzerland. There are Wolf
skills all over California, and all of
them whom I know are rich. Ex-
State Senator John w. Wolfskill of
Los Angeles, and his brother, ex-State
Senator Joe WolfslSill of Solano, are,
believe, nephews of the stalwart old
William Wolfskill. To show that 1t
was always the fashion to discuss
water problems in Los Angeles, 1t may
be stated that this daddy of the orange
growers is on record, years and years
ago, as having petitioned the city
council to shut off the granting of
any more water rights from the Los
Angeles river, on the ground that he
was afraid there was not more than
enough for his large orchard.
John w. Wolfskill came here from
San Diego county about twenty-five
or thirty years ago and was lucky
enough to purchase the Buenos Ayres
ranch, which ahuts on Sawtelle and
the Soldiers Home, at the ridiculously
low figures which then prevailed, that
is to say, for next to nothing. During
the boom of 1SS6-87 he sold several
thousand acres of it to lot Of specu-
lators who paid down $160,OO0 on ac-
count, giving a mortgage for the ball
ance. They started In to build an Inn
mense hotel upon it-part of some big
improvement scheme-when the pre-
mature and artificial boom of those
years collapsed. To put the grand
lzibosh on the unlucky venture great
norther came up at that time and blew
the unfinished building down. The
two calamities together so discouraged
the tenderfeet that they pulled up
| stakes and hied them back to the east,
leaving Wolfskill no recourse but to
foreclose his mortgage. He farms his
| magnificent ranch and tells me he has
| made a great success with beans. 1t
has, of course, enormously increased
| in value in the nearly twenty years
which have elapsed since his trade
with his eastern friends.
Not Due to Padres
Writing of wolfskiil and his orange
orchard it is a mistake to suppose that
Southern California owes her orange
groves to the early mission fathers.
| This is true as to the olive and vine;
but the culture of the orange was due
to the arrival of a schooner at Will
mington loaded with oranges, which
were rotting at that place. and which
led Wolfskill and Wilson and others Of
the San Gabriel valley to experiment
with them.
Another of the early orange groves of
Los Angeles was that Of old man Dali
ton. 1t was said as matter of fact
that once upon a time $500 worth OF
oranges was sold from a quarter of an
acre of specially fine and mature trees
in this grove. Such figures seem In
credible and, of course, are unusual,