Images from this article
One hundred years ago the first train left San Diego bound
for the East coast. After years of defeat at the hands of the Southern Pacific,
San Diego had become the terminus of a transcontinental line. This is a brief
history of the growth of San Diego from a sleepy mission village to a major
agricultural and shipping center. Credit for this transformation goes to two
men, Alonzo Horton and Frank Kimball, and an unheralded railroad, the California
Southern. The construction of this railroad poured millions of dollars into San
Diego and led to a vast population expansion as men came to work on the line.
National City, just south of San Diego, experienced immediate growth as terminal
of the line and home of the railroad yard, shipping wharf and machine shops. The
California Southern proved a pivotal pawn in the breakup of the Southern Pacific
monopoly in California by the Atchison Topeka Santa Fe railroad.
The subsequent rate war between the two giants led to a
tremendous real estate and population boom in Southern California in the 1880s.
The California Southern, with its link to a transnational railroad, proved
crucial to the transformation of San Diego from a farming community to a small
city of emerging industry and mercantile expansion. Unfortunately the hopes of
the citizens of San Diego to create a port to rival San Francisco were not
realized. Los Angeles grew even more quickly, and San Diego never reached the
prominence for which it dreamed.
The following article, together with Part II in the next
issue of the Journal, encompasses an entrepreneurial study of the California
Southern and the parallel growth of San Diego. Unfortunately much of the
information on the railroad's workforce is limited to city directories, personal
letters and newspaper accounts. These limited sources make it difficult to give
an exact social analysis of the workforce, but nevertheless reveal a
fascinating, if limited, picture of labor conditions, housing and employee
relations on the railroad. The quest for a railroad, accounts of railroad
working conditions, and subsequent real estate boom present a vivid picture of
San Diego's growth in the 1880s.
Early Beginnings
IN 1860 San Diego proper was centered around the remains of
the Spanish presidio on Presidio Hill. The population of the village and
neighboring farms totalled 727 persons. Of these 459 were white settlers and 268
Indians.1 San Diego county, which then included Imperial and Riverside
counties, had an enumerated population of less than 5,000 persons in 1870.
The first person to change the progress of the city, Alonzo
Horton, arrived in San Diego in 1867. Born in Union, Connecticut in 1814, Horton
had migrated with his family to upstate New York. There he had minor jobs as
grocery clerk, cooper and owner of a small vessel in the wheat trade with
Canada. Horton made a small fortune in land speculation and the purchase of land
warrants at below face value from Mexican war veterans. He moved to San
Francisco at the outbreak of the Civil War, where his good fortune continued in
the furniture trade. In 1867, at the age of 53, Horton visited San Diego. It is
not clear whether he went either for his health — he suffered from occasional
bouts of consumption — or on the basis of a real estate tip on the magnificence of
the harbor.2
Horton arrived to view an aging wharf and acres of flat land
containing nothing but sagebrush. He waited an hour for the wagon to take him to
what is now called Old Town. Soon thereafter Horton convinced the city trustees
to hold a land auction. At this sale Horton purchased 1,000 acres of bay area
real estate at an average cost of $0.26 per acre. The next year he built a wharf
into the harbor at a cost of $45,000.3 Horton began to offer land and lots to those who were willing to stay and build houses in his fledgling community:
Nobody here had any money to hire men but me, I employed in
building, surveying, working on the wharf, and so on, about a hundred men . .
. Property was rising in value and I was taking in money fast. After a steamer
came in, I would take in, for lots and blocks, in a single day, $5,000,
$10,000 . . . and even $20,000.4
In 1870 the first major hotel in San Diego was constructed.
Horton House contained ninety-six rooms and stood three stories tall. Horton's
next major move was to go see Colonel Thomas Scott, President of the
Pennsylvania railroad, to discuss the completion of a route to San Diego.5
A parallel story of birth and early development occurred to
National City, San Diego's sister city on the bay. Originally El Rancho de la
National, the area was a major ranch with vast farming potential. In 1868 the
26,000 acre property was purchased by the Kimball brothers of San Francisco for
$30,000. Frank Kimball helped establish the San Diego Union and in 1868
advertised his willingness to sell land to farmers.6 Later that year Kimball
returned to San Francisco to order bricks, lumber, shingles and nails to be sent
to his ranch.
In 1873 Kimball, Horton and other powerful San Diego
landowners urged Scott, now President of the Texas & Pacific railroad, to use
San Diego as its western terminus. For the next eight years the attempt to gain
an entrance into the growing national rail link encompassed much of the energy
of the controlling members of San Diego society.
The Quest for a Railroad
San Diego had experienced two early flirtations with a railroad. The San Diego and Gila railway, planned to connect San Diego with
Fort Yuma, was a casualty of the Civil War. In 1868 town hopes rose with the
anticipation of the Memphis, El Paso and Pacific railroad built to San Diego.
This endeavor ended in bankruptcy when the railroad failed to procure a
government land grant.7
In 1871 the Texas & Pacific railroad was chartered by
Congress to build from Marshall, Texas along the 32nd parallel to the Colorado
River and then on to San Diego.8 Frank Kimball offered one-half of his ranch,
not already sold, a new wharf, and 200 acres of bay land, if the terminal of the
railroad were located in National City.9 The residents of San Diego added an
additional 9,000 acres to convince Scott to build to the Bay area.10
Intimation of a battle between the mighty Central Pacific and
the fledgling Texas & Pacific occurred in August, 1871. Frank Kimball approached
Charles Crocker of the Central Pacific to build a through line to San Diego.
When Kimball refused to sell six miles of prime bay real estate to the Central
Pacific, Crocker responded that Kimball would never live to see a railroad built
to San Diego. Never would a competitor of the Central Pacific be allowed to
interfere.11
The panic and consequent depression of 1873 resulted in a
severe shortage of funds for the Texas & Pacific. Colonel Scott went to Congress
to get the government to guarantee interest on his company's bonds. At the same
time, the Central Pacific convinced Congress to allow the Southern Pacific (it was not until 1880 that the different railroad holdings of the Big Four—Leland Stanford, Colis P. Huntington, Charles Crocker and Mark Hopkins—were consolidated under the name of the Southern Pacific Railroad) to
connect with Scott's line at the Colorado River. Jay Gould, who at this time
controlled the Union Pacific, was Scott's ally. The Big Four feared that if the
Texas & Pacific were allowed to reach the coast it would damage the monopoly of
west coast lines by the Central Pacific.12 The Big Four hoped to beat Scott to
Arizona, build through that state and then convince the government to give them
the land grants and right of way of the Texas and Pacific. They realized that
Scott would never be able to get government funding for a duplicate road. The
Big Four were half right. Congress revoked the Texas & Pacific charter, but kept
the lands. However, the Southern Pacific had completed a line from San Francisco
via Los Angeles, Yuma, Tucson, El Paso through to New Orleans and the Gulf of
Mexico.13 Scott had been beaten and San Diego was again left without a rail link
to the interior. Stockton, San Bernardino, Visalia and Bakersfield, like San
Diego, all failed to make sufficient grants of land and money to the Southern
Pacific, and were also bypassed.14
The tremendous wealth bestowed on the railroads by the
government gave extraordinary power to the men who controlled these lines. The
Northern Pacific, Southern Pacific and Santa Fe railroads all received land
grants up to 20 square miles for every mile of track laid. The battles between
these giants for government rights of way and land grants were fierce. The fight
for control of the Atlantic & Pacific by Huntington of the Southern Pacific and
Strong of the Santa Fe was not only for a right of way into California. The Atlantic & Pacific line came with 42,000,000 acres of land!15
San Diego business leaders realized that they would have to
gain a powerful ally to counter the tremendous power of the Central Pacific.
Frank Kimball next approached Jay Gould to help San Diego obtain a railroad. In
the age of 'Robber Barons', Jay Gould may have been the master. He dealt
shrewdly in the securities market with manipulation of industries to make their
paper values fall below their real values. He would then buy up more stock.
Through the purchase of defunct railroads and soon to be lost land grants,
Gould's empire came to include the Union Pacific, Wabash, Missouri Pacific and
Texas Pacific railroads, Western Union, the New York World and, along
with Huntington, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company.16 Gould replied to
Kimball's inquiry: "I don't build railroads: I buy them."17
Undaunted, Kimball went to Boston to negotiate with the
Directors of the Santa Fe in 1879. They agreed, after sufficient promise of
money and land, to make San Diego the western terminus of their line. Thomas
Nickerson, President of the Santa Fe, promised to send representatives to San
Diego to look over the proposed roadway. Kimball wrote to Nickerson, "For God's
sake send men who can't be bought by Stanford."18
E.W. Morse was a powerful San Diego leader in this period.
Born in Amesbury, Massachusetts in 1823, he sailed to San Francisco with the
gold rush of 1849. Settling in San Diego in 1851, Morse befriended Horton on the
latter's arrival and shared his dreams for San Diego. In letters written in
1880, Morse revealed the fear of the Central Pacific held in San Diego. Morse
wrote that the Central Pacific would go to any length to prevent the entry of a
rival line into California:
It seems to be uncertain whether Gould is against us or
not — we know Huntington of the Southern-Central Pacific is desperately against
us. The oferring (sic) of our harbor to a transcontinental road is death sure
and certain to his Southern Pacific. And herein lies our greatest danger.
Huntington and his fortunes will pour out money like water to defeat us or the
ATSF.
Morse was a shrewd and insightful man. In 1882 amid
speculation of a potential buyout of the California Southern by the Southern
Pacific, Morse wrote that this would never happen. He outlined the eventual duel
between the Santa Fe and the Southern Pacific. He wrote that the Santa Fe needed
a harbor outlet to maintain their leverage in California. Therefore they would
have to support the California Southern and its eventual connection with the
Atlantic & Pacific.19
Late in 1879 the Santa Fe railroad purchased a one-half
interest in the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad, and thereby became owners
of the Atlantic and Pacific Company. This purchase gave the Santa Fe access to
the Atlantic & Pacific land grart in California. The Santa Fe changed its
expansion plans and decided to build to Needles, and then to consider where to
continue in California. Kimball returned to Boston and renewed his offer to
ensure the completion of the earlier planned route to San Diego. Kimball promised to give the railroad 10,000 acres of land, create a
Land Company in San Diego to manage the railroad land sales, and offered an
additional 6,000 acres to start that company. An agreement was reached that the
Boston directors would form a new company to build from the bay of San Diego to
a connection with the Atlantic & Pacific road. On October 12, 1880 the
California Southern Railroad was chartered. The Directors of the Santa Fe also
sat on the Board of California Southern. Thomas Nickerson was president of both
lines. Frank Kimball sat on the Board of Directors for the California Southern.20
In 1880 San Diego was still a small community. It had grown
only slightly in the census years between 1870 and 1880. The population rose
from 2300 to 2600. National City was listed as having an enumerated population
of 250 persons. Yet from the moment that the California Southern was chartered
the call went out for labor and the population and price of real estate began to
rise.
Most of the stock in the railroad was held by Eastern
capitalists. The capital stock was started at $4.4 million with stocks sold at
$100 each. In December of 1882 there were only three stockholders in California
out of 235. At the end of 1880 Eastern money had raised over three million
dollars to build in National City and San Diego.21
Bids for grading of the railroad began in December, 1880.22
On December 4, 1880 the first camp left San Diego to work on the grading of the
roadbed:
The engineer's camp on D Street presented a busy appearance
this morning. All hands were arranging their equipment for a winter campaign.
Blankets, stoves, provisions, and a huge tent are some of the articles . . .
the expedition will halt about 16 miles from San Diego, and then pursue a
northerly course toward San Bernardino.23
By February, 1881 seven firms had contracted to grade thirty
sections of the railroad.24 Advertisements appeared daily in the San Diego
Union for sturdy laborers to work on grading the roadbed. Pay was $1.75 per
day. By May the Union estimated that between 1500 and 2000 men were at
work grading different sections of the rail.25
The planned route of the California Southern was north from
National City to Oceanside, east through the treacherous Temecula canyon and
then in a northerly direction toward San Bernardino, 211 miles distant. Along
the coast there were many natural barriers of swamps, bogs and streams. The
completion of the line needed the construction of 241 wooden bridges totaling
23,715 feet.26 Fourteen railroad bridges were needed just to build from National
City to the crossing of the San Diego river. The longest was 700 feet in length.
Sixty men were engaged in bridge building.27
On July 7, 1881 the first ship arrived with iron rails.28 The
rails were purchased in Europe and shipped round the Horn, so as not to be
interfered with by the Southern Pacific. In March 1882 most of the building of
the line through to Colton had been completed. The needs of the company had
changed from construction to operation and a large number of workers began to be
laid off.29
From November of 1882 until March 1884, the railroad and San
Diego enjoyed a joint growth. The California Southern telegraph lines opened in
1882 with offices in National City, San Diego and Fallbrook. A railroad hotel
was under construction, a saw mill was completed, and mail cars were built in
the machine shops.
In early 1884, disaster struck in the form of tremendous rain
storms. That February the California Southern announced that it would no longer
accept freight for shipment. Bridges and road beds had been washed out up and
down the line. On March 19, nearly all employees of the railroad were laid off.
For the next eleven months San Diego was without a link to the interior. In July
the California Southern defaulted on interest payments of their first mortgage
bonds. At this point the fate of the California Southern became intricately
involved with the battle between the Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe
railroads.30
The Atlantic & Pacific railroad was chartered by Congress in
1866 to build from St. Louis, through Albuquerque, to the Colorado river on the
35th parallel. There it would connect with the Southern Pacific at a point near
the boundary of California. The Atlantic & Pacific went into receivership as a
result of the 1873 Panic. In 1875 the railroad was purchased by the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway Company. The Santa Fe negotiated
with this line to build from Wichita to Albuquerque and they also acquired a
one-half interest in the Atlantic & Pacific.31
Fearful of the competition of the Santa Fe through the
Atlantic & Pacific line, Huntington and new found ally Gould, purchased fifty
percent of the St. Louis and San Francisco line which put them on the
directorship of the Atlantic & Pacific. In this way they would counter any and
all moves made by President Strong of the Santa Fe in his intended entrance to
California.32 The Atlantic & Pacific was temporarily held at Needles, and the
Santa Fe agreed to the completion of a connecting link from Mojave to Needles to
be constructed by the Southern Pacific.
These moves temporarily kept the Santa Fe out of California.
The Southern Pacific soon began to divert traffic marked for the Santa Fe east
either through Ogden or El Paso in order to prevent the Atlantic & Pacific from
making a profit. Similarly the Southern Pacific refused to transfer goods to the
California Southern at Colton. Instead it carried freight to San Pedro and
shipped the material to San Diego by steamer.33
In the 1885 Annual Report of the Santa Fe, President Strong
explained this state of affairs to the stockholders. He reported that three
available options existed. The main line of the Santa Fe could continue to pay
for the losses of the Atlantic & Pacific in order to maintain control of the
latter's land grants. They could completely give up on the Atlantic & Pacific,
lose any hope of a Pacific access, and watch the rail be absorbed by the Southern
Pacific. Strong promised that this was never considered, for this act would
allow the internal routes of the Santa Fe to come under competition. The Santa
Fe had its eastern and western linkages on independent rail lines. This left
them in a potentially vulnerable position in regards to competitors' rental and
access fees.34 The third possibility was to build a parallel line to San
Francisco. The adopted course was to force the Southern Pacific to sell their
Mojave and Needles line to the Santa Fe, and then give them rental rights on the
route to San Francisco.35
It is not clear why the Southern Pacific backed down. The
Santa Fe had two options which may have caused the Southern Pacific to
negotiate. The Santa Fe could have built north from their Sonoma, Mexican
railroad to San Diego and have broken the Southern Pacific monopoly.36 Or they
could have paralleled their competitor's tracks from Needles to San Bernardino
to meet the California Southern.37 The result was that Hungtington and Gould
sold out their San Francisco and St. Louis stocks. This left full control of
this road and the Atlantic & Pacific with the Santa Fe. The Southern Pacific
monopoly in California was broken.
The victory for the Santa Fe breathed new life into the
California Southern. The default on bonds caused by the floods and washout of
1884 was covered by the Santa Fe. The railroad also agreed to the extension of
the California Southern from San Bernardino to the Atlantic & Pacific at Barstow. The Santa Fe bailed out the California Southern
through a purchase and transfer of bond issues. This left the Santa Fe in the
position of controlling or having access to the best weather routes to the
Pacific. The land division grants of the Atlantic & Pacific were maintained.38
That November the Santa Fe announced that it had added the
California Southern to its family and that the railroad would commence the
extension north to San Bernardino.39 On November 17, 1885 the last spike was
laid joining the two railroads. At last San Diego was the western terminus of a
national line. There was tremendous celebration that now after years of
disappointment, broken hopes and Southern Pacific treachery, the city finally
had a railroad. An editorial in the San Diego Union clearly expresses the
spirit of optimism and progress:
San Diego is out in the highway of [he world's activity
today, and needs to make haste to take her position in the onward march. It is
an era of new ideas, new methods, new enterprises and new men. It is the day
of the nimble dime rather than of [he slow dollar. Old fogyism must go to the
rear. If we are going to have a live town, it must be run by live men . . .40
The Southern California Boom
The completion of the railroad in 1885 ushered in a period of
explosive growth in San Diego. All of southern California experienced an
accelerated rise in population and real estate sales. The start of the boom may
have been the rate war between the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific. Normal rates
from the Mississippi river to the West were $125 in 1885, yet for the next few
years the fares remained below $25 to the East. For a short time fares, with
rebates, fell to $1.00 between Los Angeles and Kansas.41 The freight war between
the Southern Pacific and the California Southern may have caused a drop in
prices of at least $12.00 per ton. The Southern Pacific rate from San Francisco
to Colton was $1.30 per hundred pounds of goods. The California Southern charged
$0.40 per hundred pounds from San Diego to Colton and Pacific steamships charged
$0.30 to transport goods from San Francisco to San Diego. The savings on 100
pounds of goods would amount to 60 cents.42
Railroads were great land advertisers. They hoped to sell
their granted lands, and increase rail usage by spurring population growth.43 As
part of the offer to attract the Santa Fe to San Diego, Frank Kimball donated
6,000 acres of land to create the Land and Town Company. This concern was the
real estate headquarters for the Santa Fe. The Land and Town Company published
and distributed maps and pamphlets explaining the virtues and wonders of San
Diego. To improve the sale ability of its back country holdings, the company
helped to construct the National City and Otay railway and the Sweetwater dam in
1888. The Sweetwater dam was the largest masonry dam in the United States. It
stood 896 feet long at the top, seventy-six feet at the base, was ninety feet
high and stored over seven billion gallons of water in a lake three miles long.44
In 1887 suburban land in San Diego was selling for $500 per
acre. Coronado was platted, laid out, heavily advertised and sold quickly in
this period. The famous Hotel del Coronado was completed in 1888. From 1886 to
1888 nearly two million dollars worth of land was sold on Coronado.45 In 1868 San Diego county realty assessments were $600,000. By 1886 land values
had risen to $14 million. Two years later the city and county assessments
approached $40 million.46
In 1880 San Diego county was assessed at half the value of
Santa Barbara county and equal to the values of San Bernardino and Ventura
counties. In 1890 San Diego land values were five times as great as Ventura,
twice as great as Santa Barbara and twenty-five percent more than the assessed
land value of San Bernardino. The success of the Boom was instrumental to the
growth of the city. The population of San Diego had grown from 2600 in 1880 to
16,000 in 1890. Unofficial estimates claim over 30,000 people lived there during
the height of the boom.47 The commencement of the Boom may have been singularly
due to the railroad:
The Southern California boom was a city-platting craze resulting from
railway competition, and there are few similar flurries with identical
environmental factors.48
Freight shipments on the California Southern mirror the growth of San Diego. In 1883 passenger service totalled $27,216; in 1887
and 1888, the figures had risen to $732,892 and $697,299 respectively. Freight
traffic rose similarly. In those three years total income from the freight
department was $23,962, $765,333 and $753,514.49' A list of farm and produce
production in the census years 1870 through 1890 presents further indication of
the Boom in the growth of San Diego county:
|
1870 |
1880 |
1890 |
| Improved acres |
$11,000 |
$70,000 |
$239,000 |
| Cash value farms |
$783,000 |
$2,880,000 |
$18,500,000 |
| Value of all livestock |
$545,000 |
$686,000 |
$1,660,000 |
| Wheat (bushels) |
33,000 |
61,000 |
160,000 |
| Honey (pounds) |
818 |
91,000 |
908,000 |
| Corn (bushels) |
9,000 |
8,000 |
70,000 |
The largest change occurred in the 1880s.50
The boom in San Diego led to the growth of additional local
railroads. In 1887 the National City and Otay Railway was organized to connect
San Diego and National City with the eastern and southern farming districts of
the county. The San Diego, Pacific Beach and La Jolla line lasted from 1886,
until its abandonment in 1917. In 1888 a steam railroad connected National City
with Coronado by winding around the Bay.
Industries and public utilities became firmly established in San Diego as a result of the boom. In 1889 National City could boast a
Carriage Manufacturing Company, olive oil and lumber mills, a reduction works
and a match company. San Diego established an electric company in 1887. The next
year the new sewer system was installed. Electric lights appeared in the city
streets as did new intercity cable cars. Three schools were built and a public
library was erected.51
The growth of San Diego did not lead to the success of the
California Southern as the directors of the Santa Fe had hoped. The indebtedness
and bond issues used to cover the extension of the line, and to rebuild after
the 1884 washout could not be covered by operational profits. The line only
recorded a profit in 1882 and 1887. Despite the tremendous growth in passenger
and freight receipts the maintenance, operational, interest and mortgage
expenses of the line absorbed these increased profits. The washout in 1884 left
the railroad with a net deficit of $245,000.52 With increased usage due to the
Boom in 1887, the California Southern showed a profit of $41,000. However the
next year a deficit of $66,000 appeared. The growth of San Diego was not as
large as the directors of the railroad had hoped or planned.
The growth of Los Angeles far outpaced that of San Diego. In
the Boom years the population of Los Angeles rose from 50,000 to 100,000. In
shipping Los Angeles far outdistanced its nearby rival. 1100 vessels docked at
San Pedro and delivered 332,000 tons of freight in 1888. That year only 256
ships with 132,000 tons of goods stopped at San Diego. The directors of the
Santa Fe realized that Los Angeles would have to be their major west coast port.53
In 1886 the Santa Fe extended a line from San Bernardino to
Los Angeles. They planned to use Los Angeles as their major freight and
passenger terminal. In 1886 the Santa Fe announced that it would move the
central office and the machine shops of the California Southern to San
Bernardino.54 The next two years led to arguments and counter-arguments
concerning the proposed move. In the end some subterfuge by the Santa Fe
resulted in the removal of the machine shops and a general depression in
National City.
By 1886 National City was booming. On the average twenty car
loads of freight left daily for points north and east. Land sales and population
had grown rapidly. Just as suddenly dark clouds loomed on the horizon. On May 1
the Santa Fe announced that division headquarters, car shops and road houses
would be moved to San Bernardino.55 Santa Fe reached an agreement with that city
that all buildings would be completed in two years at a cost of $200,000. That
October the Headquarters of the Superintendent, Chief Engineer, Trainmaster,
Train dispatcher and Supt. of Telegraph were ordered to San Bernardino.
Meanwhile the shops in National City continued to work overtime. The employed
force was 300 men, and they had been working alternate nights and on Sundays to
relieve a heavy amount of business. This same month the auditor's office, and
all accounts and records of the line had also been moved north.56
The citizens of National City complained that their original
pledge of land to the Santa Fe had been violated by the removal of the machine
shops. General Manager McCool issued a letter which presented the
reasons for the removal of the rail offices to Los Angeles. Los Angeles was the
competitive railroad center to the Southern Pacific. The offices of the Santa Fe
lines would be consolidated in Los Angeles to better organize against the
Southern Pacific. The machine shops would remain in San Diego and the wharf
would be used to compete with the San Pedro docks. While National City was over
100 miles distant from San Pedro, here ships could unload directly onto rail
cars. At San Pedro lighters — small freight vessels — were needed to transport goods
to the docks. McCool predicted a doubling of the freight train business out of
San Diego in the next few years.57
In April 1889 two carloads of machinery were shipped to San
Bernardino from National City. The payroll of the machine shops fell from
$20,000 to $4,000 monthly. The workforce was down to 68 men.58 General
Superintendent Sanborn toured the shops, and claimed that little machinery had
been removed, but business was at a temporary lull. The next week the foundry
and creosoting plants shut down for an indefinite period.59
The removal of the shops left several hundred homes deserted:
In National City in the months after the withdrawal of the Santa Fe it was not
an uncommon sight to see a house on rollers making its way to San Diego.60
Frank Kimball sought legal redress from the Santa Fe. He claimed the removal of
the shops was a violation of the original articles of agreement which stipulated
that shops and workhouses were to be built in National City. As the Santa Fe had
violated the agreement, their land was in jeopardy. The Santa Fe countered that
they had agreed to build the railroad shops, not to maintain them.61 In 1888 a
short line was built from Los Angeles to Fallbrook Junction to connect with the
California Southern. This shortened the traveling distance between the two
cities and foreshadowed the abandonment of the interior line. The California
Southern was officially made a Santa Fe branch line in 1889. That year it was
combined with the California Central Railroad and the Redondo Beach railroad to
form the Southern California Railway Company. In 1892 storms again seriously
damaged the Temecula line.62 It was abandoned in favor of the coastal route.
Thus ends the brief story of the inland California Southern. Its legacy: a
bustling city ready for a new century.
Coming in the next issue: Life on the railroad. Brief
glimpses of the foreign and native born immigrants who built the California
Southern and worked in its yards.
NOTES
1. 9th Census of the United States, Abstract, 1870, Government printing office, Washington, D.C.
2. William E. Smythe, History of San Diego: 1542-1907(SanDiego: The History Company, 1907), p. 325.
3. Ibid., p. 338.
4. Ibid., p. 340.
5. Ibid., p. 342-344.
6. Irene Phillips, National City Pioneer Town (National City: South Bay Press, 1960), p. 4.
7. Franklin Hoyt, "San Diego's First Railroad: The California Southern," in Pacific Historical Review, vol. 23, 1954, p. 133.
8. Ibid., p. 133; Irene Phillips, The Railroad Story of San Diego County (National City: South Bay Press, 1956), p. 11.
9. Phillips, National City, p. 4.
10. Phillips, Railroad Story, p. 9.
11. Ibid., p. 12-13.
12. Ward McAfee, California Railroad Era: 1850-1911 (San Marino: Golden West Books, 1973), p. 151.
13. Lewis B. Lesley, The Struggle of San Diego for a Southern Transcontinental Railroad Connection, 1854-1891, 1933 Doctoral
Dissertation, Berkeley, p. 59-60.
14. McAfee, Railroad Era, p. 115-146.
15. Samuel Eliot Morison, The Oxford History of the American People (New York: Mentor Books, Vol. 3, 1972), p. 51; R.V. Dodge
and R.P. Middlebrook, "The California Southern Railroad," in Railway and
Locomotive Historical Society, #80, 1950, p. 35-40.
16. Matthew Josephson, The Robber Barons (New York: Harvest Books, New York, c. 1934), 1964 edition, p. 194-195.
17. Hoyt, "First Railroad," p. 134.
18. Lesley, The Struggle, p. 263.
19. Morse Letterbooks, San Diego Historical Society Research Archives, letters of January 7, 1882, January 8, 1882, June 30, 1882.
20. Lesley, The Struggle, p. 278; Hoyt, p. 135-137.
21. Ibid., p. 277-279.
22. San Diego Union, December 2, 1880.
23. San Diego Union, December 4, 1880.
24. San Diego Union, February 25, 1881.
25. San Diego Union, May 13, 1881.
26. California Railroad Commission, 8th Annual Report, 1888, p. 140.
27. San Diego Union, August 7, 1881.
28. San Diego Union, July 3, 1881.
29. San Diego Union, March 28, 1882.
30. San Diego Union, March 31, May 10, November 3, December 16, 1882; December 14, 1883; February 19, March 19, 1884.
31. L.L. Waters, Steel Trails to Santa Fe (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1959), p. 64-65.
32. Ibid., p. 36.
33. Hoyt, "First Railroad," p. 42.
34. Lesley, The Struggle, p. 259.
35. Atchison Topeka Santa Fe Railroad, Annual Report, 1885, Boston, p. 29-33.
36. McAfee, Railroad Era, chapter 13.
37. Waters, Steel Rails, p. 130.
38. Santa Fe, 4th Annual Report, p. 35.
39. San Diego Union, November 6, 1884.
40. San Diego Union, October 16, 1885.
41. Glen S. Dumke, Boom of the Eighties (San Marino: Huntington Library, 4th printing 1966, c. 1944), p. 9, 24.
42. San Diego Union, August 29, 1882.
43. Dumke, Boom, p. 33.
44. Smythe, History of San Diego, 448; San Diego Union, January 5, 1890.
45. Smythe, History of San Diego, p. 430.
46. Dumke, Boom, p. 140.
47. Ibid., p. 274-278.
48. Ibid., p. 274.
49. California Railroad Commission, Annual Reports, 1883, 1888, 1889, State printing office, Sacramento.
50. 9th, lOth,11th censuses of the U.S., Abstract, 1870, 1880, 1890.
51. R.P. Middlebrook and G.M. Best, "The San Diego and Arizona Eastern Ry. Co., "in The Railway and Locomotive Historical 5ociety, Bulletin #71, 1947, p. 7-24; San Diego Business Directory, 1889;
Smythe, History of San Diego, p. 438.
52. California Railroad Commission Report, 1885.
53. Dodge and Middlebrook, "The California Southern
Railroad," in Railway and Locomotive Historical Society, #80, 1959, p.
35-40.
54. Hoyt, "First Railroad," p. 145.
55. San Diego Union, May 11, 1886.
56. San Diego Union, May 7, 1886; October 6 & 25, 1887; October 3, 1886.
57. San Diego Union, May 24, 1888.
58. San Diego Union, April 12, 1889; June 14, 1889.
59. San Diego Union, June 1, 1889.
60. Francis X. King, "Frank A. Kimball: Pioneer of National City," M.A. Thesis, 1950, San Diego State University, p. 239.
61. Phillips, The Railroad Story, p. 65.
62. Hoyt, "First Railroad," p. 46.
