Imperial (194 page)

There was also a man named L. M. Holt, who happened to be W. F. Holt’s brother, or else was no relation, depending on whom you read (everyone gets Leroy the banker and Luther the editor mixed up). He was not W. F. Holt’s brother, as a matter of fact. He labored with the good proto-Imperialites of Pasadena, Santa Ana, etc., to organize a big citrus fair in Chicago for the year 1876. After some reverses, the event took place in 1886 and helped start the next southern California boom.—Oh, yes, the verb “to boom” was already in evidence! This Leroy Holt, “the benevolent banker,” arrives in Imperial in November of 1900 and establishes the first bank in November 1901. Its name, of course, is the First National Bank of Imperial! Next come his First National Banks of Holtville and El Centro, then the First State Bank of Calexico. In due course the First National Bank of El Centro will become the Bank of Italy, then Bank of America. “Leroy Holt continued as the head officer at the bank’s request, until he retired in 1933.”—Harris, p. 25.

George Chaffey’s fountain—Wagner, p. 126.

Credit to L. M. Holt for naming of Mexicali and Calexio—Hunt, p. 457.

Credit to Colonel Augustín Sangínez for naming of Mexicali and Calexio—Mexicali yellow pages (2002-2003), p. 6.

Description of Holt—After a 1902 photograph in Patterson, p. 87.

“Mr. Holt was a boomer by temperament and training . . .”—Holmes et al., p. 58.

38. Continued from Page A1 (2003)

Epigraph: “To them, the Romantic Hero was no longer the knight . . .”—Lewis, p. 616
(Babbitt).

All text—From the
San Diego Union-Tribune
, Thursday, May 29, 2003, p. A12 (“From the Front Page” section).

39. Los Angeles (1900)

Epigraph: “As you grow bolder . . .”—Snyder, p. 26 (“The Place, the Region, and the Commons”).

Urban percentage of U.S. population in 1900—Mott and Roemer, pp. 6-7.

A visitor from the East: The lawns of L.A. and “I have not seen a city so honeycombed . . .”—G. Harold Powell, pp. 18-19 (letter of 25 January 1904, to Gertrude Powell).

Birth of new towns in Los Angeles County—Based on the maps in Berlo, “Population History Maps.”

1900 populations of Los Angeles (102,000) and San Francisco (343,000)—Kerig, p. 63.

Tale of C. H. Newcombe—
California Cultivator
, vol. XXIII, no. 6 (August 5, 1904), p. 124 (“A Profitable Lemon Grove”).

“The Los Angeles River was the greatest attraction.”—William Leslie Davis, p. 258.

Old Mission Brand orange label—McClelland and Last, p. 12.

“Ten thousand people from the east . . .”
—California Cultivator
, vol. XXIII, no. 14 (August 19, 1904), p. 347 (“News Notes of the Pacific Coast”).

Los Angeles “has secured options on the Owens river water”—
California Cultivator
, vol. XXV, no. 5 (August 4, 1905), p. 107 (“News of Country Life in the Golden West”).

Growth of Los Angeles, Imperial and San Diego counties 1900-1910—
Britannica Year-Book 1913
, p. 774 (entry on California).

“Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties are leaders in the honey industry”—
California Cultivator
, vol. XXV, no. 5 (August 4, 1905), p. 107 (“News of Country Life in the Golden West”).

Description of the Los Angeles Market—After photos and text in the
California Cultivator
, vol. XXIII, no. 4 (July 22, 1904), p. 75.

Tomatoscapes of West Hollywood—Kurutz, p. 76 (photo by C. C. Pierce,
ca.
I900).

“Onions are still as good as gold mines . . .”—
California Cultivator
, vol. XXIV, no. 14 (April 7, 1905), p. 334 (“The Produce Markets”).

Description of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce visit to El Centro—ICHSPM photograph, cat. #P92.31 (H. P. Bailey photo, “Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce excursion in El Centro, Cal., Feb. 29th 1908”).

Circular from 1913: “Brawley, more than other towns, is possessed of the ‘Los Angeles Idea’ . . .”—UC Davis, Special Collections, California Local History coll., California Land and Water Co., brochure, “20,000 in 1920,” 1913, unnumbered page.

40. The Imperial Idea (1901 -20 04)

Epigraph: “I am not against packing holidays . . .”—California State Archives, Department of Food and Agriculture, Bureau of Marketing, marketing-order files, 1941-1971, Box 1 (State of California. California Department of Agriculture. Public Hearings—May 2, 1967. Location: Coachella, California. Joan E. Smith, certified shorthand reporter [Rialto, California], p. 66).

A Hetzel image from 1920—ICHSPM photograph, cat. #P85.721 (credit: Hetzel).

Footnote: The Los Angeles booster on schools and the American idea: McGroarty, vol. 1, pp. 287, 289.

Leonard Knight: “I love people . . .”—Op. cit., page facing Plate 37 (words abridged; the ellipsis would fall right before “But when I get too close . . .”).

41. Wilber Clark ’s Homestead (1901 -2005)

Epigraph: “For an hour or more Barbara, at the piano, sang for them the simple songs they loved . . .”—Wright, p. 172.

Mr. Frank B. Moson: “The wonderful advantage of the Imperial Valley as a fattening center.”—Samuel T. Black, vol. 1, p. 182.

Otis B. Tout: “Before Imperial was laid out . . .”—Tout,
The First Thirty Years
, p. 163.

Imperial Press and Farmer
: “More ducks and other water fowl . . .”—Ibid., p. 164.

Imperial townsite’s population in March 1901: “Less than a dozen souls”—Howe and Hall, p. 49.

Arrivals of George W. Donley and L. E. Cooley—Tout,
The First Thirty Years,
p. 61. In the anecdote about Mr. Cooley, the subordinate clause actually comes first.

Wilber Clark’s automobile—Farr has him “driving down from Los Angeles” (op. cit., p. 464). As I remark, this could well have been by stagecoach.

Photograph of the headgates of the Imperial Canal on 15 May 1901—ICHSPM photograph, cat. #P92.43.

The marriage of Frank Oscar Clark—California State Archives. Microfilmed Imperial County records, 1851-1919. Roll #1433101. Index to Marriages, Men, v. 1-2; 1903-1923.

Dangerous accident involving the two married couples who “tried to drive to the mountains by way of Calexico . . .” —Tout,
The First Thirty Years
, p. 178.

Interview at Motor Transport Museum—With Carl Calvert, October 2003. Terrie Petree was present.

Secondo Guasti’s new young realm of grapevines—Wagner and Blackstock, p. 13.

Although 1901 was not a great year for oranges and lemons in Riverside—Information from Riverside Municipal Museum, p. 31 (“Citrus Chronology, 1900-1922”).

Photo of the newlywed Pattersons—ICHSPM photograph, cat. #P93.9.

Victor V. Vesey’s neighbor: “Drive around the road until you find a crop that looks good . . .”—Vesey, oral history, p. 49.

Voter-registration information on Wilber Clark for 1890—
The California 1890 Great Register of Voters Index
, vol. 1, p. 16.

Hollywood has grown into a handful of houses in empty grey desert.—After Kurutz, double foldout before p. 56 (“Los Angeles, looking toward Hollywood from roof of Belmont Hotel, c. 1889, William Fletcher”).

Census information on John L. Clark—California census index (1870)
California 1870 Census Index
, Volume I, A-K, Tule River Two, roll 92, pp. 263, 286.

Date of John Clark’s judgeship—
History of the Counties of Fresno, Tulare and Kern
, p. 195.

The narrow escape and rapid marriage of Mrs. Mary A. Clark,
née
Graves, and “Tell the girls . . .”—Stewart, pp. 144, 280.

Miscellaneous information on Wilber Clark and his relatives—Zollinger-Peterson genealogical reports.

Remarks of “a certain Indian Commissioner”: “The divine angel of discontent,” etc.—Merrill E. Gates, quoted in Pike, p. 175.

Railroad price war of 1887—Dumke, pp. 24-25.

Los Angeles County subdivisions, etc. 1886-88—Ibid., p. 42.

Official closing of American frontier in 1890—Pike, p. 155.

Percentage of San Diego and Los Angeles counties which are irrigated farmland—Dumke, p. 242.

L. M. Holt on “Tropical California”—Lech, pp. 696-97 (Appendix K).

Price of first Imperial Valley cantaloupe of 1919—Imperial Valley Directory (1920), p. xi.

“There is plenty of good land to be had but all Government land worth taking is about gone.”—Elliott,
History of San Bernardino and San Diego Counties
, p. 154.

Location of the town of Imperial within Water District No. 1—
Imperial Press and Farmer
, vol. II, no. 38 (Imperial, California, Saturday, January 3, 1903), p. 5 (“To Make the Desert Blossom . . .”).

San Diego County as “larger than the State of Masachusetts . . .”—San Diego City and County Directory, p. 7.

Raymond Chandler: “This is the ultimate end of the fog belt . . .”—
Later Novels and Other Writings
, p. 180 (
The Lady in the Lake
, 1943).

Difficulty of the Palm Springs-to-Indio route in 1909—Laflin,
A Century of Change
, unnumbered page, entry for 1909.

View of Brawley road, remarks on dust clouds and the 1921 Studebaker—State of California Department of Transportation. Transportation Library, Sacramento. Imperial folder. Unattributed photocopy of magazine clipping, “Desert Driving Was Tough.”

Mention of the Apostle Palm Oasis—Ibid., p. 20.

Photo of Howard Gard—Laflin,
Coachella Valley
, p. 45.

Photo of mesquite loaders—Ibid., p. 50.

Descriptions of Arabia and Mecca—Ibid., pp. 60-61.

Description of Salton—Lech, pp. 300-304.

News of the wagon road to Old Beach
—Los Angeles Times
, dated 28 November 1901, p. 9. Filed from Imperial on November 25 “From The Times’ Resident Correspondent.”

Los Angeles Times
item mentioning Wilber Clark—Loc. cit.

Description of the residence of Joseph Becker—ICHSPM photograph, cat. #P91.42.8.

Correspondence between Imperial Canal and Alamo River—Kerig, p. 45.

Lunar parallel, with melting oxygen—Wells,
The First Men in the Moon
, pp. 53-77.

Footnote: A Coachella company which “proposes to furnish the people of that valley with liquid air”—
California Cultivator
, vol. XXIII, no. 6 (August 5, 1904), p. 142 (“The Produce Market”).

Photo of Miss Clark—ICHSPM photograph, cat. #P93.9.

Description of the Browns’ hardware store—ICHSPM photograph, cat. #P92.55

W. W. Master’s work, the harness store and drugstore—Same
Los Angeles Times
article of 28 November 1901.

“There were enough tents to house a circus now . . .”—DeBuys and Myers, p. 209.

Erection of 4 brick buildings in 1902, including Clark’s hardware store—Tout,
The First Thirty Years,
p. 167.

“Water was in the ditches . . .”—Howe and Hall, p. 57.

Clark’s ad—
Imperial Valley Press and Farmer
, vol. II, no. 21, Saturday, September 6, 1902, p. 6.

1902 roster of the Farmers’ Institute—Howe and Hall, pp 119-20. 1902 is one of the best years ever for hop-growing in California history; there is a substantial crop of sugar beets, a weak honey crop, an average wool crop; these are the highlights of
Appletons’ Annual Cyclopaedia
, 1902, p. 701 (entry for United States of America [California]), so it would seem that despite the claims of the boosters and boomers, Imperial has not yet broken out of its own dreams, for I’m sad to say that these items are associated only peripherally with Imperial.

Clark’s hunting trip—
Imperial Valley Press and Farmer
, vol. II, no. 25, October 4, 1902, p. 5.

Tale of the Edgar brothers: “They soon founded a farm implement and heavy hardware business in Imperial . . .” —Harris, p. 23.

1903 mention of hardware store in the newspaper—From information in Tout,
The First Thirty Years,
p. 168.

Wilber Clark’s acreage in 1903—
Imperial Valley Press and Farmer
, vol. II, no. 38, Saturday, January 3, 1903, p. 11 (“Land Owners Under Imperial System”).

Imperial Valley crop acreage increase in 1903—Nadeau, p. 145.

Clark’s ads in 1903—
Imperial Valley Press and Farmer
, vol. II, no. 44, Saturday, February 14, 1903, p. 5; no. 51, Saturday, April 11, 1903, p. 3.

“Our popular businessman, Wilber Clark.”—Michael Banta,
Conquest of a Continent: Nine Generations on the American Frontier
, no publication information since forwarded to me by a researcher (his report is a restricted file in my papers at Ohio State University), p. 384. This must have been an article in the
Imperial Valley Press and Farmer
.

Officially registered land transactions of the Clarks as grantors—California State Archives. Microfilmed Imperial County records, 1851-1919. Roll #1433101. Index to Grantors, 1851-1907. On March 10, 1903, and March 20, 1904, Margaret Clark is the grantor and the County of San Diego is the grantee in two transactions recorded in Book 14, pp. 59 and 60. This same Margaret S. Clark, although the County Recorder’s index adds to her surname “(or Prest),” so we know that she has married, is the grantor and the Imperial Land Company is the grantee in another transaction recorded in Book 18, p. 210. On September 11, 1903, Wilber Clark is the grantor and the County of San Diego is the grantee in a transaction recorded in Book 14, p. 35. On March 15, 1906, Wilber Clark is the grantor and G. W. McCollum is the grantee in a transaction recorded in Book 18, page 386. (Sale of hardware store to A. L. Hill, September 1904: This is not recorded in the county index; or if it is, the county clerk and I failed to find it. I have already cited Farr for this.)

Depiction of 1904 auction of lots in Imperial—ICHSPM photograph, cat. #P94.16.10.

California Development Company as controller of water rights—Kerig, p. 44.

Constant economic losses caused by the irregular water supply through 1903-4 season—
National Geographic
magazine, 1906 (?), vol. XVIII, no. 1, Arthur P. Davis, Assistant Chief Engineer, “The New Inland Sea (An Account of the Colorado River Break),” p. 38.