The Journal of San Diego History
SAN DIEGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY QUARTERLY
Fall 1985, Volume 31, Number 4
Thomas L. Scharf, Editor
by Douglas L. Lowell
Graduate Student, University of California at Los Angeles
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.
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.
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 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.
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 History Center 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.
