Southern Californian 28 (3) Fall 2016
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Historical Society of Southern California Volume 28, Issue 3 Fall 2016 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIAN HSSC Board of Directors Officers ESSAGE ROM THE Kenneth Marcus M F President HSSC PRESIDENT Linda Mollno First Vice President Donna Schuele Second Vice President If you haven’t already done so, please II and the Home Front in Southern Cal- add two major events to your calendar: ifornia” promises a rich roster of Jeremiah Axelrod the George A.V. Dunning 2016 Lec- speakers and events. Keynote speaker Secretary ture, which will feature Professor Vicki Sherrie Tucker (University of Kansas), Lara Godbille Ruiz (UC Irvine) on Saturday, Novem- author of Dance Floor Democracy and Treasurer ber 5, from 2-4 pm, and the HSSC other books, will speak on “Jim Crow Conference on “World War II and the Away from Home: Dance Floor De- Directors mocracy at Three California USO's Paul Bryan Gray Home Front in Southern California,” David Hayes-Bautista which will take place on Saturday, Jan- during World War II.” Six panels, with Andrew Krastins uary 21, 2017 from 8:30 am-6 pm at a total of 12 speakers, will address Eileen Wallis the University of La Verne. such diverse topics as military hospi- Professor Ruiz will speak on “Why tals, ethnic tensions and conflict, the Latino History Matters to U.S. Histo- Japanese American Internment, and ry” at the Humanities Gateway lecture war preparations in the Inland Empire hall on the UC Irvine campus. She is and Long Beach. An awards ceremony The Southern Californian is Distinguished Professor of History and will take place during lunch, in which published quarterly by the Chicano/Latino Studies as well as Chair we will celebrate authors of books and HSSC, a California non-profit articles on the history of California and 501(c)3 organization. of Chicano/Latino Studies at UC Irvine. Recent awards include the National Hu- the West. Please join us and register manities Medal (2014); UCI Lauds and for this important event on our website, Laurels Outstanding Faculty Achieve- and look for a series of tours and events ment Award (2015); and Honoree for related to the conference theme in 2017. Executive Director National Women’s History Month We were happy to have a presence in a Amy Essington (2015). George Dunning was a former major annual event for local history: Email: executivedirector board member, president, and major the Archives Bazaar at the Doheny @thehssc.org philanthropist of the HSSC and made Library at USC on Saturday, October this annual lecture possible for a prom- 15. There is simply no event quite like inent scholar on California and the this one in the southland: a gathering American West to speak on an issue of of many of the most important archival his or her choice. Professor Ruiz will collections in southern California, as be the 18th Dunning Speaker. Direc- well as quite a few you may never have tions and further information are on heard of before but may like to ex- our website, thehssc.org plore. Representatives were on hand to (Continued on page 11) The HSSC Conference on “World War Page 2 Volume 28, Issue 3 LOOK WHAT’S IN STORE: ANOTHER UNEARTHED HSSC TREASURE! Wadhams, Timothy Fos- ter and David R. Douglass. The parcel in question was at the north- east corner of Main and Commercial streets, a prominent location in the town’s small business area. The deed specified that the property, bordered on the “northeast” by the Bella Union, was sold for $6,000 and that it was already occupied by the mercantile firm owned by Wadhams and Foster, who clearly leased the space from Wilson. The document was signed by Wilson in the presence of Los Angeles township justice of the peace Kim- #1, page 438, by the son spent $6,000, proba- Sorting through a great ball H. Dimmick, who town’s recorder, John W. bly the proceeds from this deal of Society material in went on to be a federal Shore, who later was sale, to acquire land from storage in summer 2015 district judge. The deed county clerk when the Victoria Reid near the brought to light another was entered at 5:45 p.m. recorder position was Mission San Gabriel, interesting historical arti- that day into Deed Book eliminated. which became Wilson’s fact, long hidden away Wilson, who came to Los Lake Vineyard ranch. from view. This was a Angeles from New Mexi- The site today is Lacy “warranty co late in 1841 with what Park in the city of San deed” (indicating clear is commonly known as Marino. title was held by the sell- the Rowland and Work- Wadhams, a native of er, who certified owner- man Expedition, had re- Connecticut, lived for ship and the right to trans- cently concluded a stint as years in Wisconsin before fer the property) for a lot the town’s second mayor migrating to California in Los Angeles, dated 25 and went on to be a prom- and settling in Los Ange- November 1853. The inent rancher and viticul- les by 1850. In the census seller was Benjamin D. turist in the San Gabriel taken early the next year, Wilson (1811-1878), one Valley, a state senator, a he was working as a of the town’s most promi- federal Indian agent, and farmer next to William nent citizens and the pur- much more. Soon after (Continued on page 3) chasers were Collins selling this property, Wil- On this page, three images of the deed, including the main page, signature page, and “front cover”. Photos for this article from the“The Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum Collection.” thehssc.org Southern Californian Page 3 ANOTHER UNEARTHED HSSC TREASURE! CONTINUED (Continued from page 2) birth home and home served as Pio Pico’s head- In his well-known mem- state was living in Michi- quarters during his term oir, Sixty Years in South- Wolfskill’s orange grove gan in 1870 and was as Mexican California’s ern California, Los Ange- southeast of town. Wad- listed as a retired dry last governor. It then be- les merchant Harris New- hams served on the Com- goods merchant. came one of Los Angeles’ mark wrote, “Collins mon {City] Council in Douglass, also born in first hostelries and which Wadhams had a general 1853-55, but soon left for New York, migrated to was also the county court- store on the northeast cor- San Francisco, where he Chihuahua, Mexico in the house for a time. A sec- ner of Main and Commer- was a “manufacturer of late 1840s, where he mar- ond floor was added to cial streets . at another wooden ware” in the 1860 ried and had his first the building in 1851 and it time, Wadhams & Foster census. By 1867, he re- child. By 1850, he was in became a three-story were general merchants turned to Los Angeles and Los Angeles, working as structure nearly two dec- who, succeeding to the worked again as a farmer a “trader” perhaps bring- ades later. It was also business of Foster and and, while living in town, ing goods from Mexico known between 1873 and McDougal, were soon took out a federal patent and living with Foster, 1875 as the Clarendon followed by Douglass, in 1872 for a grape crush- though his wife and son and, after 1875, the St. Foster and Wadhams.” er and stemmer. Howev- were evidently left be- Charles. The building Newmark noted that one er, in 1874, he was back hind, because they were was razed in 1940. of the store’s employees in the north, residing in not present. Like Wad- The 1876 centennial his- was William W. Jenkins, Contra Costa County. He hams, Douglass left Los tory of Los Angeles in- whose brother Charles’ died at the end of 1875 in Angeles by 1860 and cluded mention that Civil War diary was also San Francisco. lived with his family and Douglass entered into a found at the same time as Quite a bit less is known worked as a merchant in mercantile partnership the deed and has been about his two partners in Visalia in central Califor- with W.T.B. Sanford in transcribed and published buying the Los Angeles nia into the 1870s and 1852, while about the in the Southern California lot. Foster, who was from died during that decade. same time Wadhams Quarterly. New York, came to Los The lot sold by Wilson to joined Ozro W. Childs Douglass, Foster and Angeles by 1850 and was the trio of Wadhams, Fos- (late famed as a nursery- Wadhams was somewhat a merchant in the census ter and Douglas was adja- man) and John D. Hicks short lived, but a May taken early the following cent to the Bella Union (a longtime tinsmith) in a 1854 advertisement in the year. In 1853-55, he Hotel, built in 1835 as a business. The book went weekly newspaper, the served as Los Angeles one-story adobe for Isaac on to list Douglass, Foster Los Angeles Star, stated County treasurer. His Williams, later owner of & Wadhams as partners that the firm sold whereabouts are not the Chino ranch in San in the mercantile trade in “groceries, provisions and known after that, though a Bernardino County. It 1853. (Continued on page 11) man by that name, year of This circa 1880s view from the Temple Block at Spring, Main and Temple streets looking north toward the Plaza shows the three-story Ducommun building at the far right, where the projecting awning reads “Bright’s Cheap Store.” thehssc.org Page 4 Volume 28, Issue 3 Southern California Quarterly Endowment Campaign The Southern California Quarterly, the flagship publication of the Historical Society of Southern California, has been the premier vehicle for historical studies and scholarship about Southern California since the Society's first annual publication in 1884 and it continues in that role today.