Los Angeles herald., 1905-10-29

-HE activity which has been wit
messed on the seaboard of Los
4 Angeles county for some years
past surpasses anything of the kind
which has ever been noted anywhere.
1t embraces Long Beach, Santa Monica,
ocean Park, Venice, Playa del Rey,
Redondo, San Pedro and other resorts,
reaching down to Newport, which were
never. heard of a few years ago.
Going back thirty years or so, Will
mington was the only place Of any
note on the water front of Los Angeles,
Fortunately that place in its early days
secured as one of its citizens Gen.
Phineas Banning, a gentleman who
came to Southern California from Will
mington. Del. This creator of the town
named it after his birthplace building
himself an elegant mansion which, until
his death. about twenty years ago, was
the scene of the most boundless hospi-
taIity ever known in this end of the
state. He was a man of electric activity
and sagacity. Entering the stage and
TRANSFORMATION business. his stages be-
came famous for their dash and speed.
In those days there was a steamer
about once a month between Winning
ton or San Pedro and San Francisco.
1t was Gen Banning who saw in what
his enemies called Wilmington slough
the possibility of great things in the
future. 1t was he that enerSized 1t II
he did not altogether originate the plan
of ners11ading the authorities at Wash
ington to enlist in the Improvement of
Wilmington harbor. 1t was he who, in
of yrarin1IG times with Cen.
Alexander. Col. Mendall and Gen.
Boschke pushed forward the work.
The latter gentleman was for years
superintendent of the undertaking. He
afterward went to Galveston and as
sisted in the erection Of harbor at
that place. He did good service here.
Making a Harbor
When work was begun on the
"slough" the depth of water on the bar
at low tide was eighteen inches. When
they had completed their work it was
eighteen feet, and the Orizaba had
been able 10 tie up at the wharf at
Wilmington harbor. On this portion
of the work the government of the
United States had spent nearly mil
lion dollars when the larger project OF
the outer harbor of San Pedro was put
under way with the appropriation of
three million dollars, whose eXpendl-
ture will, in two years at the outside,
give Los Angeles one of the most SER
Yiceable harbors on the Pacific coast.
The harbor of Cherbourg, begun un
der the first Napoleon in 1905 and COM
pleted under Napoleon III in 1857, cost
France sixty millions of dollars. The
harbor of San Pedro, just as good, will
have cost the United States one-tif
teenth part of that sum.
Gen. Banning not only worked for
the harbor with might and main, but
he was a leading promoter of the Los
Angeles & Wilmington railway, which
was the first of the great public enter
prises which have given Los Angeles q
high rank among the progressive cities
of the continent. 1t was this road
which formed part of the subsidy which
induced the Southern Pacific TO build
to this city in 1876, and afterward to
extend the Sunset road to New Or
leans, giving US our first transcontinen-
tai railway.
Until his death, twenty years ago he
was a great center Of every influence
which made for the dpbuilding of this
section. His value to the community
was well understood. He was as genial
as he was indefatigable. No one ever
loved a joke better than he--that is to
say when he was the funmaker him
self. In this respect the Judge is
the son who most resembles him.
AS owner of the lighters which served
the port of Wilmington and the water
supply which served the vessels that
called there. he was often cursed up
hill and down dale by the shippers who
did business with him. He was
never known to undervalue his SER
vices or to throw a dollar off of what
he looked upon as his just demands,
But it often happened that a captain
who had been swearing a blue streak
at what he looked upon as exorbitant
charges and who had gone up to the
generals hospitable mansion to clamor
for their reduction would return to
his vessel smiling all over
Great Hospitality
The Banning hospitality always
proved too much for the recalcitrants.
His position as monarch of all he sur
veyed on the seacoast was not only
assured by the old generals own mas
terful ways. but by the firm and cor
dial alliance which existed between
him and the magnates of the Southern
Pacific railway, particularly with Gov
ernor Stanford, with whom his rela-
tions were of the David and Jonathan
type. 1t is a great pity that this fine
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