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Neil Galloway - "The Old Timer"
The following series of articles was written by Alpine pioneer Neil Galloway (1888-1963) who arrived in Alpine in July 1909, and were published between February 15, 1962 and May 3, 1962, by the Alpine Echo newspaper. Writing under the heading ECHOES OF THE PAST, The Old Timer, Neil wrote about his 53 years in Alpine. The articles were typed exactly as they were originally printed—including typographical, grammatical and spelling errors. The Alpine Echo collection of newspapers form part of the Alpine Historical Society’s newspaper collection.
James W. Hinds
Archivist
September, 2004
Galloway ValleyHarbison Canyon NorthwardArnold Way Westward Galloway Valley RentersGlen Oaks SubdivisionSouth Grade Road and Alpine
Heights RoadSouth Grade Road and Tavern RoadMidway Drive, Arnold Way, Alpine TerraceWinery, Alpine School, Town HallAlpine Stores and Eastward along Highway 80Viejas Valley and The WillowsLog Cabin Café, Road Repair, Viejas Valley
In July 1909, at 25 years of age, I came to San Diego looking for U. S. Government land to homestead, and found it was all on top a mountain. Hearing of the land now called Galloway Valley, I made arrangements to buy it, with high hopes of paying for it from crops I could raise.
To my great disappointment, the soil had been so impoverished, I did well to get one-half ton to the acre. Homesteaders before me raised wheat and burned the straw. This wheat was hauled to San Diego by teams of horses and sometimes loaded on boats in the harbor there. On the road of that time, three-quarters of a ton was a big load for two horses going East or West.
When their worn-out soil would not raise wheat any more, the old timers turned to barley. Next they raised oats and sold the hay. The land had been mortgaged and lost several times and I came near to being the next victim and realized I must rebuild the soil or quit. Then began the long process of reclamation. This was done by years of hard work and good soil practices as known at the time. Coming from a citrus district in Western San Bernardino County, I knew much of what had to be done. Galloway Valley is now a productive piece of land which will probably be covered with houses.
One of the old time families that homesteaded before I came was named Hancock. They came from Austrlia to Oregon. The father was so madly crippled with rheumatism that they drove to San Diego in a covered wagon seeking a drier climate. He died before I came to Alpine, leaving three daughters and a niece, none married. They were not young, except for the niece. Mary did the cooking and housekeeping; Elizabeth did the farming; Anna did a little bit of everything, and worked out some, too. They always had a few heads of cattle which Minnie, the niece, herded on the mountains. They were herding them in the valley here when I came. It had been lost to the bank for mortgage. The bank failed and Melicaton Barnett got it for his part of the bank assets that were left. Now, I needed someone to help plow part of my land. I asked Liz, as Elizabeth was called, if she knew of anyone. She said, “What’s the matter with me?” She was then about 60 years old. So she followed a walking plow several days for me from daylight till dark. These were hardy pioneers that made our early day’s history.
Liz could sling a wicked black-snake whip. If one of the horses got balky, she sure could dress him down. They always raised a pig or two. Many times I was asked to get the life out of a pig, but from there on they did not need anybody’s help. They raised a few chickens and a good garden most of the year. They had a spring on the south end of their property, between them and Harbison Canyon, that always ran. The water was carried from the spring in a pail. In later years they had goats instead of cattle. The brush had encroached on the land, and other settlers moved in, so there was not much feed for cattle anymore.
Mr. Hancock had a very complete set of blacksmith tools all, or nearly all, handmade. He even made drills to drill iron. I expect he did a lot of smithy work for the early settlers.
For all that Liz’ hands were badly malformed by arthritis, she did some beautiful needlework, and when she was 70 years old, I’ve seen her mount to horseback from the ground many times.
The Hancocks worked for me quite a bit. I had 27 acres of nice raisin muscat grapes. They picked them for me. I got $10 a ton, paid them $6. Freight from Lakeside to San Diego was $2. This got $2 for me and team all day hauling to the Cuyamaca and Eastern railroad that then ran as far as Foster where Joe Foster, the supervisor, lived and ran a stagecoach from Lakeside to Julian with mail and passengers. The old timers did not drive or ride a horse every day to the store. There was a store in Dehesa and a church, and a store and Town Hall at Alpine, the Woman’s Clubhouse, still standing.
The Hancocks used to drive a wagon to El Cajon, maybe once or twice a month. I did the same. It took all day to make the 25-mile round trip. There was not much there, either. W. D. Hall company was just getting started. There was a general store—Stell Burgess, two blacksmith shops, a barber shop, a butcher—Bascombe, two hotels, a drug store—Bower’s, a harness and shoe repair shop, a few groceries kept by Mrs. Stanisfield in her front room across the street from where Weinstock’s radio store is now. That building held the first El Cajon bank, and later the telephone exchange.
The present generation don’t know what hardship is. They see too much, hear too much, and want too much, are never satisfied.
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This week I will start in Harbison Canyon and work north. I don’t know what year Harbison came to the Canyon. It is said he came around the Horn in the days of ’49 and that he brought with him some bees, and sold the honey to miners here for one dollar a pound. A good strong swarm of bees can gather a 100 pounds of honey or more in a good year, so you see he had a small gold mine. More about bees in a later agriculture article.
Mr. Harbison filed water right on a spring I told about last week in the Hancock story. This spring used to flow a small amount of water year round. Harbison built a reservoir in a small gulch to store the water. Pioneers’ children told me about swimming in it. It was also stocked with fish and deer used to come there. Many a one was shot at that spot. The water from this reservoir was used to irrigate a family orchard and garden.
The Harbison family had all left the canyon before I came, and the homestead burned down. The Sidel family bought in the canyon in 1911 and moved there in 1913. They were a large family. One girl, Elsie, is still a registered nurse at Paradise Valley Hospital. The brothers took care of the Harbison apiary for some time, but the land was useless for agriculture. It was east of Nokes Street.
After the Sidels left, there was an old bachelor named Rassmussen, from Denmark, I think, took over the Harbison bees. Then Shreeves bought Harbison Canyon and started to sub-divide. They had all the whoopla that goes with it, lots of advertising and free lunch every Sunday. A few lots were sold and the first house was built by Marguriete White’s husband, an electrician. I think it was the second house on the right bank going into the canyon. Another early one was Mrs. Stines, who just lately passed on at over 80 years. There have so many moved in I can’t keep tract of them. Must be over 200 homes there now and an awful lot of children come out of there every morning on school busses. Must be all of six busses twice a day.
About one-fourth mile east of the Harbison road is the beginning of the Roslin A. Pennyoer place. Another party started the original homestead and sold his right to Pennoyer who proved up on it and got title to it. I knew Pennoyer and his wife, Lula well. He was a carpenter who helped build several houses in Alpine. He had two boys, Harry and Will. Will got killed in an elevator accident in San Diego before I came. Harry was also a carpenter and they were all talented musicians. Roselin, he was always called Rose, played violin; Lula, piano, and Harry could play most any kind of a musical instrument. The family used to play for the early day dances in the community hall at Alpine and sometimes elsewhere. Harry later played in the Sciots’ band. He was a Mason, quite high up, probably 32 degree. He had a family of three boys and two girls. One of the girls did live off of Highway 94, I don’t know where the rest are.
Rose Pennoyer built the house where Senator Wheeler lived on Tavern Road, Rancho del Sequan. Clayburn La Force lived there when it burned down about 10 years ago in the early hours of the morning. They saved nothing. The house was very large and had a wide porch all the way around it. Rose and Harry, they built it.
Now Rose Pennoyer had a brother, Shear. I think he also homsteaded. He had 120 acres where Calyburn La Force now lives, but the house was west of where Mrs. Key lives off South Grade Road.
The Rose Pennoyer place changed hands so many times I’ve lost track of how many owners and who they were. The Shrugers own it now. One of the early day owners was Mattie Monroe. She was a well-known character around San Diego. She was married at least twice. She had a son, Dr. Thomas Wier, and a son, Major Wier. Mattie was a great-big-hearted lady that loved horses and dogs and that was her main reason for moving to the country. I knew her very well.
Continued next week. We move on north with Niel through early days.
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Palmer took up a 120-acre homestead partly in section 30. He, like a lot of others, worked some for me. The Palmers split up and she got the 120 acres and married T. M. Bullard which many of you knew. She was a lot older than Tom. A. L. McNett’s second wife was one of Mrs. Bullard’s daughters. She was married before to Littman. Both Mr. Bullard and Mrs. Littman are buried in the McNett plot in Alpine cemetery. Tom Bullard did odd jobs, some building and digging wells. He also used to drive team and do general farm work for me. He was always well-liked. He was buried in Alpine about two years ago at 79.
Now we come near to Arnold Way. Up against the hill to the west of the valley, there are some old eucalyptus trees; that was the Decorsey homestead. Two boys, Billie, a bantamweight prize fighter, and Philip. He was suffering from a stroke when I knew him. The Decorsey house had been carried away piece by piece. There was none of it left. McNinch now has a poultry ranch there, but before him there was Landino, an Italian. He worked for McKie Construction Company (L. A. McKie). Landino came down here weekends, built a nice home. His wife was not well. She died and Landino got killed by a bulldozer running over him. He had three children; two married and one boy six years old. Everyone that knew him liked him; he was too good-hearted for his own good. He made money but someone was always borrowing it and never paying back. So all he had was the land when he passed on and that was not clear.
Next, we go north on Arnold Way to where that clump of eucalyptus stand on a slight knole. That is the old Baily homestead. He was called Doc Bailey. He was a spiritualist; claimed he could cure your sickness by laying on his hands, but of course you were supposed to have a few dollars in your hand to complete the cure. Anyway, the old lady was crippled. She used a crutch to get around. I think they got some support from the Spiritualist Society and perhaps some relative. Bailey had worked as a clock and watch repair man. After they both died, I a little more each time to pay the mortgage before, until he finally found a bow drill. This drill was run by sawing a bow back and forth. It is now in a collection in Julian. When the old lady died, my mother laid her out. There were no undertakers in those times. Yo ueither made a casket or bought one ready made. Old Bailey was a kind of cantankerous old cuss, but the neighbors brought him what he needed, after she died. He finished his days in a home someplace. They willed the place to the Spiritualist Society, but a lawyer named Davis got it and still owns it to the best of my knowledge.
I am going to wander a little farther north where Arnold Way joins Highway 80. Looking off to the right down below the highway, there is a new house. That piece of property was homsteaded by Lanwer, a very well educated man. Lanwer had a family, but they did not live together. He made what he called a parbolic curve device to gather the heat from the sun to cook and bake what he ate. His trouble was alcohol. He made it himself, had a small home-made still. He did not sell it. It killed him, and he was found after he had been dead several days.
A couple named Wiley got the place. He was a brick and stone mason. They had two boys, and a girl who is now Mrs. Martha Radcliff and still lives there. One of the boys is a plumber in El Cajon. I don’t know where the other one is. Old man Wiley took up more land under the grazing act, although he never grazed anything.
Next the now-known Galloway Valley. In the early days this was known by the old-timers as Mormon Johnson Valley. I will get to Mormon Johnson later. I have what is called an abstract of title. It tells every mortgage and divorce suit; in fact everything that was ever recorded in San Diego Court House. It is a 9x13 inches and about five-eight inch thick. The first 160 acres was proved up by Henry M. Johnson, Sept. 17, 1881 and was signed by James A. Garfield, President of the United States. In October 1881, Johnson borrowed the first $1,700, the record says. This was sold to several people before it was paid off. In fact, Johnson just kept borrowing lost it June 2, 1883, he obtained another 160 acres from the government. About that time Blanch P. Johnson filed suit for divorce. It was not granted, as she had no marriage certificate, although she had two children. She was given some money, and filed a separation Nov. 10, 1883, Johnson borrowed $2,200 from Levi Chase July 2, 1885, Emily S. Johnson filed a suit for divorce. She had some children; doesn’t say how many, but he agreed to pay her $1,500. The next mortgage was for $3,000 to D. C. Hermann. There are a lot more mortgages; you will get tired reading about them. These mortgages changed a lot of hands.
Finally, the High Brothers, William and John High, got it. They foreclosed on Johnson and became owners of the Valley, but apparently they also mortgaged it and lost it to the bank in San Diego. This bank failed and Melacton Barnett must have had stock in it for he got the mortgage as his share of bank assets. I bought the valley from his son, Melcaton Barnett, Jr. in July 1909.
Now during the time between Johnson and Barnett there were quite a few renters. Some I knew well. There was George Benton who had children I remember. Laura Benton, a school teacher, never married. Another daughter, whose name I forgot, married and had a family. Frank Benton was the oldest. He was a dairyman in Santee. He had a family by two marriages. The first wife died. He finally built a home on Tavern Road and died there. Jake Benton worked for W. D. Hall Company in El Cajon for many years, is now retired and lives in El Cajon. He had one son who works for the Hall Company repairing automotive equipment.
Elmer Benton still manages the Quamadero Ranch in Descanso owned by Whiteney and other businessmen of San Diego. Then there were the twins, Lawrence and Clarence Benton. Lawrence worked for the Forest Service and Clarence is in Northern California. So George Benton had a lot of help. I know all of them personally. He had a brother Robert, who was a big cattle rancher. I will get to him in some future article.
George Benton was a very interesting man to talk to. He lived to be nearly 90. Through a lot of his life he was interested in cattle. He told me he used to go into Mexico buying cattle. Now these cattle were a grand mixture, mostly longhorn, same as the early Texas cattle, long-legged and it took a good horse to catch one.
You never tried to walk among them; if you did the chances are you would be charged and riding on some of them horns. They were very spooky. It didn’t take much to stampede them. George Benton told me about the early days driving those wild cattle across the desert to the mountains in San Diego County. He got $15 a day; the common bowboy got $1.50 per day and board. It seems George Benton knew all the water holes in the desert, and kept shovels buried near them. When they got some place near the water holes some of them rode ahead and shoveled out the water so the cattle could drink. George said he thought some of them shovels are still buried there.
George’s wife passed on several years before he did. He died in La Mesa. The daughters still live there.
Continued next week
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Ambrose Castro was another renter of Galloway Valley. Castro as every one called him, was a Portugese from Portugal. A sailor, he came to San Diego on a sailing ship and jumped ship in San Diego. There was a large ranch in Bostonia called the Boston ranch. It was a kind of stock company owned by Bostonians. At one time El Cajon was the raisin center of the world. It employed quite a lot of people the year round and Castro was one of them. He had a wife and three children in Portugal. He got $1.50 a day and saved up his money to send for his family.
When he had nearly enough another Portugese borrowed it and Castro had to do it all over again. Somewhere along the line he took up a homestead. I think either 40 or 80 acres over the hill south of Alpine Heights. He planted it to fruit, olives and some grapes. Somewhere along the years he saved enough to send for that family, Charlie, Mary, and Delio. It was said, I can’t prove this, that when they came to New York they knew no one or any English and were put in a box car with some household equipment and sent to California.
After they arrived, there was borne four more children. John, a pair of twins (Joe and Jack) both dead. The war was not kind to these two. And a girl Julia. Castro was a naturalized citizen. He was very fair. His wife very dark with kinkey hair. They worked very hard and saved some money. They used to sit up half of the night cutting and drying fruit by lantern light. Somehow they took to liking me and when he had a letter to write, he came to me although I was a newcomer at the time. When they got quite old he, like a lot of old people, wanted to go back to Portugal.
He still owned a piece of land he inherited there being the oldest son of his family. His oldest son, Charles worked for the Llewelin Iron Works in Los Angeles, saved his money; went back to Portugal, married and lived on the Castro property. He finially inherited it. When Castro got ready to go to Portugal, he drew over $2,000 from the bank and carried it in a money belt. When he got to France, he went to get some papers, so he could leave for Portugal and fell or someone bumped him off. Anyway, he was killed and the money belt removed.
The police claimed he had nothing on him. That left the old lady stranded in France. She could only talk Portrugese, however, they sent for the son, Charles, in Cape Verde Islands to come and get her. She did not want to leave here in the first place. She had three children still living here. The day they left she clung to my hand and said, “Neels, O Neels!” She did not want to go.
Well, Castro made a Power of Attorney naming A. L. McNett, a deputy sheriff of Alpine, and myself. He said you not being very well you do the head work and let McNett do the foot work, but it did not read that way. Our Power of Attorney ceased when Castro died. He had made a Will naming A. L. McNett and myself. It was signed by a butcher from Lakeside and a neighbor. They did not sign it in the presence of each other, so it was no good. The Castros had a son, John, neither one wanted John to have anything to do with it. However, he got appointed and got away with part of the funds before he was gotten out.
It took months to get papers to Portugal and back, then they were no good because legal papers in Portugal are signed on the back, not legal in U.S.A. Finally the American Counsel got it signed right and McNett was appointed. He died some time later and I had to take over. I did not want it but I wanted this old lady to have some money while she was living, and I sent it each month until World War II came then the only way I could send it was by radio telegram that cost $8 each time. So I sent it twice a year until she did. I received $25 from the estate. I wanted nothing. I hope this does not bore you.
After her death I wanted nothing to do with it. Now these old pioneers worked from before daylight to way after dark. There was nothing like relief money them days only the poor house after they were worn out if they had no money. They worked for a few cents a day or nothing at all, when crops failed, which they sometimes did.
Next there was a colored man named Coonie. He ran a kind of a wayside eating house and did some farming. The old timers from the mountains used to stay here overnight. It was too far from their homes to and from San Diego in one day. They told me Coonie was an excellent cook. I never met him. I believe the cattle drivers stopped there also.
Next was Nick Anderson. He was related to the Foss family in some way. He farmed the valley for awhile. Perhaps Coonie came after Anderson. I am not sure which way it was. Nick Anderson ran a thrasher and thrashed all over El Cajon Valley. Some of the Fosses traveled with him. He moved from here to Ramona and died there. I bought his old thrasher before he died. That sure was an awful old piece of equipment, part of it still lays up in the field west of the station. Rege Small broke it up for junk. Nick Anderson also freighted with horses. Like several others, he
Then Barnett quit renting it,
Then Barnett quit renting it, the renters stopped the sales. That was where I came in. I told you some of my rials and tribulations in articles before. I soon saw I had to build up this land so I turned to live stock which made it rough. You don’t cash in on live stock for a year or so. I ran a small dairy, sold sour cream, sent it to Lakeside on the stage, then by express on the San Diego Cuyamaca and Eastern Railroad. I tried hogs and made no money, no green pasture, a good part of the year.
During World War I the government wanted farmers to raise sheep to furnish wool for the soldiers. I had, in 1925, 200 sheep. When the war was over, the U. S. Government dumped their wool on the market and forced the price of wool from 40¢ a pound to 6¢. I put mine in storage in Boston and a couple years later sold it for 35¢.
The sheep did more to build up this land than any other form of livestock as they distributed the fertilizer more evenly over the ground and the droppings took several years before they entirely disintegrated—sheep made me more real money than any kind of livestock.
In 1925 I met up with a bad accident and had to sell the sheep. That was when I built the gas station. I was told I never could work again. After two or three years the State Highway 80 moved to the north. It seems we have traveling highways as well as highways to travel on.
Now, I am going back to the early days. I have always had daily mail. McCain (I think Arnold started it) ran a stage each way six days a week from Lakeside to Descanso and Cuyamaca with four horses. I had two canvas sacks, one home and one in Lakeside. The stage took one sack and left me one each day. This place was well-known in the early days as many people stopped here. Part of the time, it was a sort of hostelry for man and beast.
The well was a sure attraction for the horses and later the autos got water here. They were just a boiling and a foaming by the time they got up the grade this far. When I came and for a couple years later, the water was drawn up with two buckets and a rope, a bucket on each end. The buckets were pointed on the bottom so they would dip nd fill each time. After a while I got enough money for a hand pump; later on a windmill, second hand $15 and put three whiskey barrels in the tower for tank storage, cost $3.
A few years later a gas engine and a pump jack and a 2,000 gallon tank. Now a jet and pressure tank. I did what I could with the finances available after paying off the mortgage. I never went aborrowing again. He who goes aborrowing goes asorrowing. Also bonds are only a mortgage also. I am getting tired—my arm is worn out. Probably too gaffey for my own good. Next time I will take up the cattle drives out of the mountains and some of the characters that made up the drives. The Jaurnolistic Jackass.
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Well, we had a glorious rain. To date I have 16.40 in. which is some above our normal average. This reminds me of 1916 when we had a normal rain year and got 16 inches in just a few days. The soil on the mountain got so wet it slipped off; rocks and big oaks over 100 years old came sliding down. The Hancock homestead then was in the narrows of the canyon where the Harbison Canyon water tanks now stand. Big rocks rolled off of the mountain east of the road and just stopped before they crushed the house. The mud and water ran right through the house. The four women went and slept in the barn. I saw them the next morning after the storm. Their hair was full of hay. The barn was on high ground. The neighbors was going to help move the house to higher ground; they helped one day and my brother and I put in nearly a week getting it the rest of the way a few feet at a time. We had no house moving equipment. Mrs. Bishop lives in the house now.
Next I am going to talk about the 120-acre Jewet homestead. When I came here the home on South Grade Road where Mrs. Ballenger lives was the C. O. Andersons. It was one of the show places of Alpine. It had a beautiful cypress hedge and a deciduous orchard around it. C. O. Anderson married a Jewet daughter. They had both been married before and had grown children. C. O. Anderson and his brother Oscar came from Sweden. They were both shoemakers; made shoes by hand. Oscar continued making shoes by hand until he died.
Spreckles had a club foot and Oscar hand made his boots, and for others too. Charlie had charge of Marston’s shoe department for several years. He finally got a job as salesman for Utes and Doon. They made women’s and children’s shoes. He made good money and built that big white house. The lumber was furnished by the W. D. Hall Co. in El Cajon and all hauled by horses.
Charlie Anderson always had some kind of hired help; Joe and Bertha Foss worked there shortly after they were married. They lived in the old homestead house which set on the corner of Petra way and South Glen Oaks Drive North. There was no drive at that time. It was a ranch. Charlie built a dam up the canyon east and irigated some bottom land to raise alfalfa for some dairy cows.
I don’t think Charlie could milk a cow but he had help. He went to some of the lakes in the county and caught some bass and put them in the lake. They kept disappearing; he did not like it; he thought someone was poaching. I told him it was coon. A coon is a good fisherman. Well, in 1916 that dam was plum filled with mud clear to the top. There was only a six-inch pipe to let the water out. Later Kelso made a two-foot square opening to sluce some of the mud out. The dam was rock and cement.
The old homestead house set on the corner Edwin and Edith Daily now have and was moved across the creek by W. A. Kelso and is the house Roy Porter now lives in. Charlie and Blanch P. Anderson traded the ranch for an apartment house on 25th and I or J Street in San Diego. Charlie loaned his money to a shoe store in Los Angeles. He finally had to take the store. When he did he found the shelves full of empty boxes. His collateral had vanished, so they both finished their days at 25th Street in San Diego renting apartments.
They traded with Walter Buck. The Bucks had some kind of a building material place in San Diego. They had a lot of cement. Spreckels did not like their price, so he got a boat load from Belgium and sold at cost. That broke the Bucks and Walter laid a lot of sidewalks in San Diego to use up that cement. The Bucks were not there too long but Andersons had a $3500 mortgage on the place that was boot in the trade. I forget who got it next, but it was a widow woman.
Then came De Ruse, a Jew—he talked the Warners from Chicago into buying it and subdividing it. The money, most of it, belonged to Mrs. Warner, the mother. The Jew talked the daughters into this. The Warner girls had diamonds when they came, but De Ruse got them.
When the Warners got it they had it surveyed or the Jew did, into lots and on the side where the Anderson home was, he had a seven or eight-hole golf course built. DeRuse did a lot of strutting around. Big man that did not know what it was all about. The Anderson home was turned into a clubhouse and a membership in the clubhouse was given with the purchase of each lot, but it said nothing about the clubhouse building.
The purchasers were sure they owned part of the clubhouse but found out different. De Ruse did some advertising and had a lot of Woopala also, same time Harbison Canyon was going on. He had several men working all the time—the Warners footing the bill, and the black bottle traveled around quite freely. The late John Demott of Alpine was one of the salesmen. He sold a few lots, too.
The subdivision was called Glen Oaks. A man by the name of Fred Bogglan was among the first to build. He built where Johnnie Jutilla now lives. The Bogglan house is torn down now. Bogglan ran a private night watchman service in Coronado. His son still does.
The imitation log house on South Glen Oaks Drive was the real estate office! that set where Norm and Hazel Foster now live on Arnold Way and South Grade Road. John J. Howley bought it and had it moved where it is now. Hawley had one son and three daughters. He dropped dead going from his house to the car a couple of years ago in Glen Oaks. He was 78.
Dr. R. J. McBride was one of the real early ones. He built the house just east of Dallys on South Glen Oaks Drive, spent week-ends there, where Jim Radford now lives. The Edmon and Edith Dally home was the Warner’s place. They built it there for a winter home. They came from Chicago. Across the street from the Radfords lived the Wanamakers. He was a barber in Alpine for a long time, boarded the men and the two Kelso boys by the first marriage and worked on the subdivision.
Kelso received a lot where Roy Porter lives and the old Jewet homestead house. He moved these as part of his pay. Robert Kelso worked for the U. S. Government on a surveying gang in the desert and purchased some other property in the subdivision. Later on the Kelsos sold the corner where Roy Porter now lives, to Edwards and moved into a chicken house. It caught fire and they lost everything.
The Gene Hallet home was built on part of the subdivision. They moved to Hope, Idaho last week. Up in the toe of the horse’s shoe live Walter and Doris Parrish. It is a big rock pile. For energy these people are hard to beat. They move them rocks around, make terraces, carry up dirt to put in the terraces; that is sure getting land to plant the hard way. They came from Chicago. They have many kinds of plants and trees. Walter is a died-in-the-wool organic gardener and has a big compost pile, raises worms also. He will not use an insecticide on a plant for anything.
Now for years Glen Oaks subdivision really went to the dogs. There were several of the houses sold for the taxes. I have seen this happen twice in my life time and it can happen again, in fact the part of Glen Oaks that was not sold in lots was bought for $500 for the mortgage on it. Mrs. Anderson signed off her rights and the purchaser paid the back taxes. Some of the other houses was obtained by tax title and this can happen again.
When the Bucks sold they kept the part across Arnold Way, a little over 40 acres. A young Swede, Olaf Anderson, got it; started a subdivision, sold three lots, sold the rest to Nellie Woolf. She built down in the canyon and it was finally sold to M. E. Anderson, the present owner. Where Frank and Gladis Walden live is part of the same property, also where the pumping station is, also Smithie’s place.
That 40 acres sold for $1200. De Witt finally got it and built the Waldon place and Smithies. That was called Twin Brooks. So don’t be too sure you are going to sell for a lot of money just because you have Colorado River water.
There is an awful lot of land between San Diego city limits and Alpine to build on. Anytime you think you are going to get State and Government money for nothing you are fooling yourself. You have to give them $2 or $3 to get one back. The State and Government have nothing. All bonds are nothing, but another mortgage on your home, regardless of what they are for. I mean mortgage.
I nearly forgot the final chapter of Glen Oaks. Mrs. Warner had two sons in Chicago. They began to think something was bad wrong. They came out to see about it and came to me. I told them the story and they soon booted the Jew out, but by that time he had all the money and diamonds. His wife, Petra De Ruse had them. The mortgage was never paid, and Mrs. Anderson did not have the money to foreclose it, so it went default, as I said, for taxes.
Mrs. Ballenger’s son-in-law by the name of Ringer got it for $500 and the taxes.
Bea La Force did a beautiful job on the Foss article, stole part of my thunder, however, I can add a lot to it later.
Neil R. Galloway
P. S.
I am very glad to read in a back number of the Echo that the Women’s Club decide dto keep the old Historical building. It was the first building where gatherings and entertainment was held. I had many an enjoyable time in that building in years past.
I may write about some of it later in Echoes of the Past.
The present generation are all too fast to cast off the old for the new. It should be preserved. I had some stock in it, 10 shares once. Sold ti to Flegal. The men in the community put on a new roof when it was needed and also painted it.
To my friends in Alpine--you can make this a grand country newspaper if you all help out. I am sure the Editor will be glad to have your help and suggestions. Phone or write in your news items and don't wait for someone to come after them.
Here we go again. I have a neighbor in Glen Oaks that has some horses and Shetland ponies, also a couple of animals mentioned in the Bible. The prospectors called them Desert Canaries, also Mountain Canaries. They have loud melodious voices. They need no television or radio to carry this music for long distances. Some people object to their melody.
We will now start Southeast on South Grade Road. There is a fire and sometimes a lot of smoke that is Forrest and Hazel Hohhanshelt clearing off a mountain to build their new castle on. Hazel has been an Alpine school teacher for many years. Across the road is Ray and Dorothy Knox. When he was building it I kidded him about building Knox’s hotel, however I never got to board there. Coming up South Grade Road is the W. W. Whitson homestead. There was a vinyard on it. The house burned several years ago. I think there were two houses, one on each side of the road. The Whitsons had left before I came. I think they ran a lumber yard in San Diego. The property then belonged to Wolf and Davidsons as a summer home. The Whitsons filed a Water-Right on the Foss property as there was a permanent spring there. They sold 40 acres over on Arnold Way to C. H. Schulte. He also got water from the spring. As the spring started to dry up, the Davidsons tried to shut off the water. That couldn’t be done as the water was filed for the Whitson homestead. There were two brothers of the Davidsons. Wolf was a half-brother, the oldest. He never knew how old he really was. His mother kept him hid to keep him out of the Russian Army. They were Jews, all dead now. Wolf and one of the Davidsons ran the Chicago Shoe Store for years in San Diego. The other Davidson ran the People’s Clothing Store on Fifth Street below G Street. They leased the place to Castro on shares. I bought some hay from them when I first came. Wolf’s first name was Hyman. I forgot the other’s. He died a couple of years ago. He was ageless looking, no whiskers at all, never grew. I don’t know how they got to the U. S. A.
Next the Foss family. I will cover some of my personal contact with them. Their father died in debt. I don’t know how much, but they were paying 12 per cent interest. The father, and perhaps the boys also, there were five of them, hauled lumber for the flume that took water from Cuyamaca dam clear to San Diego. It was all Redwood. It must have been a private water company. I was led to believe the late Ed Fletcher company bought it for $40,000 and sold it to La Mesa-El Cajon Water Company for over a million dollars. They are probably still paying on those bonds.
Getting back to the Fosses. The boys used to work in El Cajon Vineyards. It was a real struggle to get that mortgage off their property. I never heard any of them speak o ftheir father. I heard he died under an oak tree snapping green beans—hearsay. They told me many times all they had to eat was bread, milk and honey. There was nothing else in the winter months. They raised garden and beans to dry. There was no irrigation in them days, in El Cajon either. They used to talk to me often. I brought a different method of farming with me. They had a threshing machine, a little one. It did very good work but was quite slow, but we all had more time than money in those days. We bought a self-binder to gather and a grain drill. There never was any friction and is not now. Charlie used to work in El Cajon but later years he just raised bees. When he was well along in his 60’s he fell out of a tree and broke his neck. The original Foss homestead, I think, was 200 acres. Each one had 40 acres. I think Malcolm Huey owns Charlie’s 40 acres now. Joe worked in Japatul. That is where he met his wife Bertha. I mentioned they worked for C. O. Anderson. Robert went to Davis Agricultural School and took up dairying and cheese and butter making. He had a creamery of his own in Escondido for years, finally sold it. He also worked with bees. Joe went to Visalia, I think for a while, but finally came back to the old homestead. Still lives there. Percy and Pearl never left it. Harry got married and moved to Pasadena. After his wife died he also moved back to the old homestead. There is still Joe and Robert left living. No Foss children at all.
George Campbell bought Percy and Pearl’s and Joe’s part of the homestead. George Campbell was one of the partners of the Campbell Boat Works in San Diego. They build tuna boats. I used to kid George, “Well, George, when you want to go fishing, all you have to do is get on one of them boats; you probably have interest in most of them.” He said, “No can do, the ocean makes me sick.” I am sure the Foss family is one of the oldest left living in Alpine. Bea had the history.
My next contact is Alpine Heights. The most of it ws owned by Bozza, Wm. Stephenson Doc Ponties and Snow. I may get tangled up some here. I knew Bozza slightly. I think he owned on the west side of the road—Stephenson lived in an old house a little farther to Southeast. It belonged to some of his relatives. He also had a homestead there. I know part of it is where Alec Adams’ turkey ranch is. Their son George built them a house on it some place. After Mr. Stephenson died, they sold it and moved to Washington Street in El Cajon. The mother died there. She was 100, or nearly so. Mr. Stephenson used to take care of the stage horses in Alpine. The barn was near Isabel’s Hobby Shop on Highway 80. They changed horses both ways. Stephenson had two boys, Hugh and George and one daughter, now Mrs. Williams, she had two boys, lost one in the second World War. The other is iving. So is she. Now the Stephensons, like a lot of the rest of us, raised a vineyard, and made raisins. This part of California was the raisin center of the world at one time. We used to get from $1.50 to $3.00 per hundred for the finest raisins at that time. They sold for 12 ½ cents per pound in the retail stores. It cost $3.00 to raise them. The Stephensons were always very highly respected and very religious. Getting back to the Stephenson boys, Hugh went to Palo Alto to college and there got some infection in his nose. I had a phone at that time. They telegraphed his father at El Cajon. They phoned me, I took the message to them, and the father went up there; I took him to San Diego to the train. Hugh only lived a couple of days. Those boys, Hugh and George, used to ride their bicycles to Bostonia to High School everyday. They had to walk a lot of the way to get home—to steep to ride. The High School was behind Pernicano’s restaurant, just off 80 on Broadway. They had an old mule, slower than molasses on a cold day. The boys got part of an old telephone magnets, attached it to the mule’s tail, and turned the crank. The mule ran away—both of them couldn’t stop her. Next they tied it on the pig. Mr. Stephenson always raised a pig. The pig jumped out of the pen and they had a merry time to get it back in before Dad found out about it. Mr. Freeland’s place was part of the Stephenson homestead.
Mr. Quiggins came to Alpine quite a few years ago. He rented the Pete Armstrong place. Mrs. Armstrong was from one of the old time families. Emerys Quiggins cleaned it all up nice and they sold it. Next he went to Johnstown, rented from the Wentworth brothers, fixed that place all up nice and they sold it. He was looking for another place to rent. I told him to buy something. He had very little money to buy with. I told him to see Mr. Stephenson. He had charge of the Dr. Ponties place. They made a deal and he cleaned one more place, his own, and died there. Mrs. Quiggins moved to San Diego where her daughter lived. The Quiggins told me when they were married in the east he was making the magnificent sum of $15 a month, got a house, a garden plot, and milk and egs thrown in. I was intimely acquainted with them. Commander McDonald’s and Oeser’s places are part of the Ponties place, also the part Claude and Bonnie Clark own. Adjoining the Clerks on the west was the Snow homestead. Old man McKee had it when I came, later sold to the Talbots. I don’t know who the owner now is. On the west end of the road Barnie Snepp and Traver purchased 20 acres of the Snow place. They divided it up, each taking 10 acres. Barnie Snepp was a Spanish-American War veteran. There was a family in there by the name of Barnett. I don’t know who all live in that valley now. How many young boys would ride a bicycle to Bostonia to get an education this day and age?
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Another glorious rain and it is all going in. Today I am going east again on South Grade Road. First, the old Robinson place. I don’t know who before that. The Eatons lived there then. I think Mrs. Eaton was a widow, before that I believe they lived in Viejas Valley. I am told Robinsons was a relative. She had one daughter, Willa. She married Burnham McNett. I will get to the McNett family after a while. They had two children, but later separated. I think next was Indian Wright. He was a Cherokee Indian from Oklahoma. He lived there quite a long time, if I am correct. Next was the present owner, T. A. Smith. Part of that place was sold, the portion on the north side. When I came here a cripple by the name of Blank lived there. He had a one cylinder auto. It went charging along, but I don’t think it ever exceeded the speed limit. The axles were made of hickory wood. The Stephenson boys used to drive it for him.
Next on the Southeast corner of South Grade and Tavern Road was John Leave. He had cottages to rent and raised a little hay for his horses also. I heard John Leave, F. B. Walker and Ed Snow remark one day when I first came; they thought I was tubercular because I was so skinny. Well, I out-lived them all by many years. Even in those days quite a lot of people came to Alpine for their health and several brought their children that were suffering from asthma and most of them outgrew it and got well. Some got well, some got impatient and went to Arizona, later came back, but did not live too long afterwards. I don’t mean to say all got well, but some did. I don’t think I ever had it. I was always a long, lean, skinny race horse but have slowed to the speed of a turtle.
On the Northeast corner of South Grade and Tavern Road was a man and his grown daughter by the name of Mix. He had a large olive orchard. I forgot who before that. Mix cured olives and made olive oil. Carl McCall has it now and runs a private school for boys or boards them, I don’t know which. John Leave also had a large olive orchard.
Now I am going north a ways on Tavern Road—there is an old house on the west side of the street. Cabe (?) Hoagland lived there; he had a homestead back of the Wheeler place, but it had no water on it. He died a long time ago. A. L. McNet was a deputy sheriff in this district. McNett held an auction sale of Hoagland’s personal property. An elderly man by the name of Young bought the Hoagland house and lived there until he died. He sheared sheep for me. He was not used to shearing such heavy sheep as I had.
About that time Winterstine bought the John Leave place. He had a son and lived there quite a long time. At the sale, Winterstine and Castro, two old men, got to bidding on an old Walter A. Wood mowing machine. Neither one would give in. The result was Castro got it and paid more than a new one cost. Some people do have hard heads. I got a Spike Harrow 8 feet wide for $3.00. The house stands right close to Malcolm Huey’s driveway. Huey’s property was part of the Fosses; it belonged to Charlie Foss. When he died he left it to the church. Still going north is Tom Hills driveway. Tom also bought some of the Foss homestead. I think it was Robert’s part. Tom came from the Imperial Valley and ran a garage in Alpine for a while. Later he did electrical and pump work until he retired. He still lives there. He had two children, a boy and a girl, has several grandchildren. Tom Junior does heavy tractor work, has a large bulldozer.
On the east side of the street was 80 acres. I knew it as the Hildreth’s. The house has disappeared but there was a barn that was purchased by Bob Wilcox quite a long time ago. He was a telephone man from Chicago. He was out here visiting and bought it to retire on. I did not cost him much. In those days Castro used to pasture stock on it also; the Garbanis had it leased. When Wilcox moved out here to live, he built three houses on it and sold them and moved to a trailer court East of Alpine. Some of his children still live there.
Now I am going back to Tavern Road and South Grade. On the Southeast corner lived Mrs. Achehorn, a widow lady. She had 40 acres. She had a son, H. C. Miethe, he lived there several years. There were other owners before Mrs. Achehorn but I didn’t know them. Joining Mrs. Achehorn was part of the Styles place. Mrs. Batie lived them when I came. She died and A. Gleastro (?) bought it and owned it until he died in France on his way to his old home in the Cape Verde Islands, Portugal. Across the street was the Fields place. The part of the family I knew was the children, then in their late thirties. Bud Fields was found dead in the home. Lakeside butcher found him. The butcher used to come up here a couple times a week with meat and vegetables and used to bring Bud Fields bread and other groceries. He died peacefully in his sleep with his hands folded over his chest. I was there shortly after they found him. Bud had two daughters, both old maid school teachers, retired on pension, lived in El Cajon. I don’t know if they are still living.
A little further east was Rancho Be Dam, Henry Styles lived there. Henry was quite a character. He always drove a horse and cart. Henry had the asthma bad. I used to see him headed for San Diego occasionally. “Henry, where are you going?” I’d ask. “I’m going to San Diego and back if I don’t choke to death before I get there,” he’d answer. He took the train that run to Lakeside them days and came back same day. The way his ranch got its name was when he left something always went wrong before he got home. He used to raise a few cattle on that rocky mesa that Sid Wright owned, when he died. Sid and his wife died fairly close together. They willed their property to a church someplace else beside Alpine. Sidney Wright was here before I was, lived with his mother in the two-story house corner of Arnold Way and Tavern Road. I think they came here for their health.
I got to get back to South Grade Road again. The next place was an Emony. The Emony’s apparently were real oldtimers. I don’t remember was the deal was, but in the last issue, I wrote about Walter Guiggins. He rented it and fixed it all up. Pete wasn’t too ambitious and it was sold to Julian Elting or Dalton. He was a woman impersonator on stage.
The Armstrong place had quite a lot of olive trees on it. The late John De Mott bought the part with the olive trees on it. John was married twice. His first wife was a minister’s daughter. She got tired of his drinking and divorced him. I forgot what happened to the last one. Anyway, John passed on.
Just before you get ot Highway 80 on South Grade Road is what was called Mount Olive. I understand a family by the name of White lived there in the early days. They planted the olive trees there and carried water up from the creek in pails to water them for the first year. Guy and Angelina Little lived on the place for a while and later lived in Burnham McNett’s cottage and finally moved to Japatul. Now back to Mount Olive. Daughterty owned it later on. Daughterty started life as a butcher boy on the R. R. Santa Fe, I think. He owned an awful lot of property in downtown San Diego. I talked with Daugherty many times. He gave Mount Olive to his daughter…he also had a son. He owned a Franklin automobile and did a lot of prospecting on the desert. A lot of the property he had was not paid for but the rent took care of the payments. He got too greedy; the ’29 crash caught him and busted him. All he had left was Mount Olive and some of his mining claims. He sold enough claims to manage to keep living until he died. Gordon Wilson owns the property now, the Alpine storekeeper.
When times are good it is awful easy to over-extend yourself. Play this old world safe. Even if you don’t get so much finances. Vote to keep your taxes down, they also can bust you.
I will start up Midway Drive next week.
Neil Galloway
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When I came here we had a 4-horse stage. I have been told that Joe Foster started it. I knew he owned the one that ran from Foster, the place that was the end of the San Diego Cuyamaca and Eastern railroad. The stage from Foster to Julian was a Concord stage. It was hung on leather straps and rocked around a lot. The 1916 flood of the San Diego river took out most of the railroad tracks from Santee and they were never put in again. I don’t know just how many different people owned the line from Lakeside to to the Stanewall mine in Cuyamaca. Greenleaf was one of the owners; his son, Albert Greenleaf used to be one of the drivers. He is now in his eighties and lives in Japatul Valley. The owner, when I came, was James McCain. He did not have a Concord stage, but a three seater spring wagon. He hauled some express besides passengers. I, along with other people, shipped cream to Lakeside on it, thence by express on the train to San Diego.
Angie Smith, Jimmie Ames and Paul Shuts were some of the drivers. This stage also carried the mail from Lakeside to Alpine and Descanso. It was a Star Route. The people that lived along the way on the road that the stage took, each had two good stout canvas sacks. We fastened them to a post with an arm out with the wire spring clothes pins. Sometimes a strong wind blew them down, but not often. We had one sack home and one sack in the Post Office. They stopped and watered the horses at Flinn Springs and again at my place here. They had to draw the water up with a bucket and rope. I drew thousands of gallons that way before I got money enough to buy a hand pump. In the early days they did not have pumps, but later on they got windmills. I had one but there never was much wind in the valley. There were days when it wouldn’t run at all. Later I got a gasoline engine and a 2000-gallon tank.
There is a little bridge about a thousand feet east of here. Right after you pass it, the road turned to the left and went right up on the ridge. It was steep and many a team balked at it. I helped many an old timer up to the top of that ridge. You can still see the old road if you look. Jim Ames, one of the drivers, still lives in Lakeside. The others are all dead except Greenleaf.
A few years later on Jim McCain got a couple of Steamer automobiles. That was the last of the real old time transportation. They changed horses at Alpine both ways. The stage barn was about where Isabella hobby shop is now. There were two or three roads going up the side of the mountain from Viejas Valley to Hulburt Grove. You can still se them. In fact, one is still in use.
When I came the Descanso hotel, at Descanso, was the terminal. A man by the name of Berkey ran it. I think one of the Berkey boys was on the stage, I am not sure, if it was horses or the Steamers. The original Descanso hotel burned down and a new one was built since I came in 1909. I am not sure whether the stage went to Cuyamaca at that time or not. Old man Berkey was quite a character. When I was up there one time he said to me, “I owe you for a bale of hay I got when you was not at home.” The old timers I found honest. It took them quite a while sometimes but if they owed you, they paid, if they didn’t die first.
Now, going up that ridge into Midway Drive lived the Wilbur family. The old man and his wife lived there. They had a grown son, Lawrence. He was librarian once. He was well read on most any subject, not too ambitious about work. He could work the hardest to keep out of work of any man I ever knew, but he was very congenial. The old man said, “Well, I guess we spoiled him.” Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur were both Ann Arbor College graduates. She was a little mite, perhaps 100 pounds; he probably weighed 180 or better. They raised sheep in Colorado at one time. Mr. Wilbur Sr. was a most interesting person to talk to. He was a Socialist. They formed a Socialist colony in Sinola, Mexico. They did fine; raised so much as 100 tons of sugar cane to the acre. They also had citrus trees. They purchased land from the Mexican government; he described the climate there as perfect. They dug a canal with slip scrapers and oxen, some places as much as 15 feet deep. They kept the oxen on the top of the canal and had poles attached to the scraper and pulled them up with the oxen, a long slow process, but they got the water to their crops.
The American Sugar Company wanted the land, so bribed the Mexican government to take the canal away from them. The result: the Sugar Company got their land for practically nothing. Wilbur went to Mexico with $5000 or more, and came out with $600. He was a Civil War veteran and lived on his pension until he died. She went first. After she went he just willed himself to die. I don’t know who Wilbur bought his place from. I don’t remember how many acres, but the Jerneys own part of it now. The Wilburs were pioneers most of their lives. I believe that was the Tart place.
Right east of Wilburs was a family by the name of Collins; they had two boys. I did not know much about them. Clark McKee bought that place; the original house burned down. There are now several owners of the Wilbur and Collins places. There are several building there, but that was the road to Alpine when I came, also the stage road.
It took a good team of horses to get 1,500 pounds up that road, with many rest periods. I did it many times. The road at present is in the same place through the little valley. Clark McKee built a new house on the south side of the road part way up the hill. McKee also owned the Alpine Tavern.
This brings us out at Arnold Way near the site of the old Alpine Tavern. Going west a little way, were some eucalyptus trees and two stone pillars that mark the junction of Foss Road and Arnold Way. That was the Athern homestead, sometimes called the Campbell place. Mr. Athern was Mrs. Foss’ brother. I never met him. There are several houses on the north side of the road; that is still the Athern place.
Then we come to the Alpine Terrace and I think that was also part of the Athern’s. Dr. Ghering built that adobe house, one of the first in there. He was a very brilliant man, studied in the USA and Europe also. He came from Hollywood where he owned a store building which he sold to Safeway Stores for $50,000. Some good operator sold him Bolivian 8 per cent bonds for $1008 each. He died in Edgmoor Farm. He sold them bonds for $8.00 each. That is right: Eight dollars. I doubt if Bolivia ever paid for them bonds. Even governments can go broke when they over-extend themselves. However, if I had not met Dr. Ghering, I would have one hand no good to me. He fixed it for me. I knew him very well. Mike Liebert was up in there also.
Now we get to the Alpine Tavern. Arnold built it for a Mrs. Campbell. There was a Rogers owned it. Clark McKee owned it when I came. He sold it to Milner. Milner died there. I don’t know who owns it now. The hotel burned down quite recently.
The two-story house on the southeast corner of Arnold Way and Tavern Road was the parsonage, built by Arnold. On the other corner, Mrs. Fisher lived. She was a widow with three or four children. Mrs. Will Kuhner of Lakeside was one of her daughters. One son shot his wife and then committed suicide with a revolver. He evidently played a game of solitaire before he shot himself, I am not sure, but I think the old Alpine school is on part of the Fisher place.
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Now I am going to start where I left off last week. Mrs. Fisher had a home near the old school house. It burned down. Sidney Wright lived in the parsonage on the southeast corner of Arnold Way and Tavern Road. There was also a family by the name of Rose lived there. They had one grown son. Mr. Rose came from Colorado. He was a jeweler and a topnotch watch maker. He repaired watches for blind people that would strike the hours, half hours, and quarter hours. Most jewelers would not touch one. I think he died there. He was well along in years when he came to Alpine.
Montague Brabazon said his grandfather owned most of the land west of the Alpine store clear to the Tavern; 320 acres and it was in grapes. His father ran it for his grandfather. There were five boys and one girl in the Brabazon family. The father had a winery, but none of the boys liked the wine business so after Mr. Brabazon died they sold the winery to Mr. Felgal. Most of the family, including the mother, moved to San Diego, where the mother died. Monty kept on living in Alpine on a fruit ranch in the south part of Viejas Valley on the Brawley place. I don’t know who all owned that place.
Beauford Brabazon built a home on Highway 80 near his brother’s place. He passed on quite recently. Cecil worked for the San Diego post office until he retired. Beau was a carpenter and builder. I don’t remember what the occupations of the other boys were. I saw them at the old-timers’ picnic near Escondido last year. Constance, the only girl, moved to San Diego with the mother. She was badly crippled and in a wheel chair for a long time, but was walking when I last saw her. I danced with her when she was about 15.
Right north of the lumber yard (Hinkle’s) is a narrow road going south. That right-of-way goes back quite a long time. There was a man named Smitt lived there; he built a good many of the fireplaces in early day houses, and they all worked. I think he built one in the old Town Hall, and many others in houses that burned down long ago. There are very few of the old houses left standing. Kate Peck, a retired school teacher lived back in there. When they passed a law that school teachers, after 30 years’ work, drew a pension; she went back to teaching for awhile, and if there is such a thing as teaching children anything, she sure knew how to do it. Kate and Mrs. Clark, both single ladies lived back there. Kate always drove a wheeled cart. She bought a Hamilton colt from A. L. McNett. The colt was too much for her. She asked me to take him and tame him down; I had him a long time, but when I turned him back, he was still too much for an elderly woman, so she sold him. I sold Kate Peck many tons of hay for her stock. She moved to Bostonia where she died. Mrs. Clark died first.
Hazel Hohanshelt also taught at the old Alpine school. She is a niece of the Stephensons, and always well thought of. Parents say, “When my kids get to Hazel’s room, she’ll teach them something.” She retires this year. Her husband has had a lot of bad health; too much for one man.
Joining the Brabazon place was Eugene Howe. He did a little farming and worked out some. He sold the place to S. M. and May Marshall. The late Sidney Wright also lived back in there. The Marshalls sold to Ed and Marie Clark. She is now Mrs. Lars Carlson, and still lives on part of that place. Jimmy Ansell and his wife lived at Clark’s a long time. She still lives there.
The town hall was built by Arnold. He sold part of the stock in it to the Alpine people for less than it cost him. My brother and I had 10 shares which we sold to the Flegals.
We sure had some grand times at that old hall. The school plays were held there, and graduation exercises for many years. About once a month, in the summer, they held a dance. Cost of the dance was hall, $3; about $1 for the gasoline lights, coffee, milk, sugar, etc. The ladies brought cake and sandwiches. We divided the cost by the men present and that was it. The music was local talent—Monty and Edwina Brabazon. Also Edmina’s sister, Gussie Foster, Clarence’s wife. They were both Smith at that time. Everyone young attended. They brought the children and parked them in the library on the floor. When one started to cry, someone went in and quieted them.
Now I am going to try and remember as many as I can and I am sure to forget some of the young people and some middle-aged at that time. The Walkers, Fred Douglas, Niene, Lucille, and Dorothy. There were two other boys. Bevin died, and Ralph married and moved away. He has a mattress factory on the way to Ramona, still works at 78 years.
The Brabazons, Montague, Cecil, Ted, Beauford, Louie, and Constance. Gussie and Edwina Smith, the two Row girls, also the brother. The McNetts, Burnie, Mable, Josephine and Leha; the Snow girls, Leotta and Jessie. Ed Snow ran the store at that time. The S. M. Marshalls, Lawrence Wilbur, May Gouch, schoolmarm; the Ed Clarks, the Howes, and usually some from Descanso and the guests at the Alpine Tavern. Sidney Wrights, the Darnells, Isabell and her sister, Walford, the two Lord girls and the two Galloways.
At midnight we had sandwiches, coffee, cake and paid the cost. It was not commercialized at all.
I will never forget one cold winter night after the dance. I started home horse back. I had a fiddle under one arm and sheet music under the other. I had a spirited horse; he jumped and shied at something near the Alpine Tavern. I pulled up on the reins; the bit broke in two, and from there on home I had the wildest ride I ever had down what is now called Midway Drive. It was Wilbur Road those days. I was afraid my horse would run all the way in the barn and dash my brains out before I could get off him. I was cold and stiff. Well, he stopped at the door. I never did find part of that music scattered along the road.
There used to be quite a lot of horses hitched to the hitching rail and the eucalyptus trees around the Hall. Every one knew every one and all had a good time.
When the Lords first came, the girls were pretty citified. One hot night the boys took off their coats and those girls wouldn’t dance with them because they were only partly dressed. Those girls were wall flowers that night.
At least once during the summer we had a picnic under the oaks just east of what is now called Peacock Ranch. They were grand get-togethers, including the church people who never went to the dances.
After the automobile began to get popular, we had some riff-raff from the city. They made a lot of trouble for everybody. A. L. McNett was deputy sheriff. He lived near the Willows. He and his family were always at the dances. He called some of the square dances. The Kuhners from Lakeside were most always there, and people from Japatul also. I think we all enjoyed those un-commericalized gatherings more than the young people of today do. The cost was never more than 50 cents and sometimes only 25 cents.
I many times wonder where we all are now after these many years. I know many of them are dead. I should have been in bed an hour ago; it’s past curfew for young kinds like me. Goodnight.
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I am told that a man by the name of Whitney built the first Alpine store and it was somewhere near where Louie Landt’s store now is. The next one Arnold built; the first storekeeper I knew any thing about was Charlie Emery. The Emerys were real old timers. The Post Office was in the store. Emery used to keep a little whiskey there. Not to sell, but to use as medicine. That was against the postal regulations. Some one complained on him and a U. S. postal inspector came out with a team of livery horses from El Cajon to check on it. When he got here to my ranch, Nick Anderson, a relative of the Fosses lived on the ranch at that time; he asked Nick how to get to Alpine and said he was a postal inspector. Now Nick Anderson was quite religious, but he knew about the jug of medical whiskey. So he sent the inspector up South Grade Road the long way round and he got on a horse and went the short way and told Charlie Emery of the coming of the inspector. So, of course, when the inspector got there there was no whiskey around.
Ed Snow was the storekeeper when I came. He came to Alpine for his health; some kind of respiratory trouble. He got well and moved to San Diego and ran a store there for several years. He had three girls, Lotta, Jessie, and Helen.
I think C. V. Hilton was storekeeper next. They had one daughter. He had been a traveling salesman before they came to Alpine. Then there was Flegal, or perhaps it was the other way around. However, Flegan ran it for awile. They had one boy. They also bought the Brabazon winery. There was another one in there before Hilton. The old store burned down, and Hilton built the two-story building that the Alpine Store is in now, and you all know of the Wilsons. They had quite a family.
The Snows used to live in a two-story house east of the Peacock Ranch. As I got it, Arnold built his home where the Peacock Ranch is. After his death, W. W. Putman bought it. Putman invented a machine to make barbed wire. Also a machine to make safety pins. Anyway, he was apparently wealthy. Roslin Pennoyer was a caretaker there for several years. The road curved off south at Honey Hill. Stuyvesant built his home there. Stuyvesant was a Seventh Day Adventist Missionary from Guatamala. Came to Alpine to recuperate his health. He had three children, two girls, one boy. The boy was also a missionary in the south; still is. The girls, May and Esther, both became registered nurses. One married a doctor. Stuyvesant moved to Half Moon Bay, California. He was still alive last Christmas. He was over 90 years old. He came to see me two or three years ago. He regained his health here. She was very sick at one time with a bad heart, but she lived up to her eighties. Very nice people, very much respected by everyone.
On the same road, a little south of the present Highway 80 was one Fred Schepel, a German. Dutch Fred, as he was called, was an old timer. Some of the newcomers that thought they could raise some cattle on a mountain asked Fred about it. Fred’s advice was, first you get your feed, then your cattle. Of course, most of the land was too poor to raise any amount of feed on. Dutch Fred also had a vineyard and made some wine. One of the old winos got a jug there and met up with a bad Indian off the reservation, the Canajos, got the Indian drunk also. The Indian went back to Fred for more wine. Fred refused him and the Indian shot and killed Fred, then got drunk and went to sleep under the bridge. A. L. McNett was deputy sheriff. I don’t know who found Dutch Fred, however McNett took the Indian to jail. All the other Indians used to say he was a very bad Indian. All the evidence was circumstantial, so he got out in a few years. I don’t know what finally came of him. However, he (Dutch Fred) willed his ranch to Mrs. Fisher.
Mrs. Fisher sold the ranch to the Russels. They had one daughter, Lotta. She married a nephew of McNett’s, Lloyd Baker. They split up and she shot herself a couple years ago. Her father was night watchman at Cudahy’s Packing Plant for several years. He fell down an elevator shaft one night. That crippled him. Lotta Russel used to be to all the old time dances.
Next we come to the McNett place. He built a large adobe house which still stands. Dr. Hubbard had her office there for a long time. The McNetts had one boy and three girls: Burnham, Lea, Josephine and Mable. Mable married a man by the name of Brooks. I spoke of Burnham before: he married Willeta Eaton. They separated. Josephine is the only one left. She married Carl Strough. They had several children. The McNetts always had a houseful of company on Sundays. I knew all of them very well. A. L. McNett always had a lot of little deals going here and there. Burnham said he had no record of any of them when he died. McNett also used to butcher a beef about once a week and pedal it around the neighborhood.
F. B. Walker was next at the Willows. Walker also used to be the local butcher before McNett. The Willows got to be a very popular summer resort. They also served meals. They had seven children: Ralph, Lucille, Fred, Neine, Dorothy, Douglas and Beven. He died young. All the rest of the family are living. The Willows was a very well known resort in the days of the old horse stage, as well as the auto traffic. They had a excellent reputation for serving very fine meals. All the Walker children used to be at all the old time dances. I knew them all. They probably will be at the Old Timer’s Picnic in June at Felecitas Park, near Escondido. There are very few real old timers left. They passed on a long time ago. The most of the Walkers were born at the Willows.
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I am now going to write about one of the cattle drives I promised you. First, I forgot about two of the Alpine storekeepers. One was John Wilkinson, the other was Simmons. So you see over the years there were quite a lot of storekeepers. There was a grocery store where the Alpine Cleaners are. That building was built by S. M. Marshall. Coleman was one of the keepers of that store. He passed on, then there was Caldwell. He ran the Empire Market, and there is now Blankenship.
Now, above the Willows where I left off last week. Mr. and Mrs. Hardy Simpson lived north of the Willows. They lived there many years. They both passed on not too long ago. Then we come to the Darnells. They came here in 1922. They had three children, Balford, Isobel and Margery. Balford was in with Butler for several years drilling wells. Since that he has been interested in mines all over South America. One daughter, Isabel, lives in Alpine and runs a hobby shop. I think it would be a very good idea to prod Balfour and get him to write about his experiences in South America. It should be most interesting. (The Echo invited him to do this some time ago. Editor).
The father, Rex Darnell, built several cottages to rent. They sold this property not too long ago. Mrs. Darnell is still a spry young thing of 81 summers. She is fortunate in having most of her children living near her.
Next is the Poplars. It was owned by the Anderson brothers who owned and operated the San Diego Steam Laundry in San Diego for many years. One of them had a son, we always called Dutch. He was an alcoholic. Too bad. These people should not be condemned. When it gets them, very few can abstain from it. I have known a few that had will power enough to completely abstain from it. They should be commended for that. The Anderson family all died some time ago.
A little further on, this is on the old Viejas grade road in the Viejas Valley, was the Viejas school, where the Walkers and McNetts went to school. When it was consolidated with Alpine was when the school troubles began. From then on we had school buses. There was a civil engineer who engineered the present Alpine. He had a crippled girl he wanted hauled to school. So he talked up the consolidated school to get that bus service. When the road was finished, he left. He was near retirement anyway. No taxpayer has ever got out of that deal, since it keeps rolling like a snowball down hill getting bigger all the time. There are now several houses near where the Viejas school stood. S. M. Marshall bought the old schoolhouse and tore it down for the lumber.
Next I come to what I called the Campbell place. It was the first house on the left after you passed the school. My memory is vague on Campbell. There was another family after them. They had a shepherd dog that used to go to the road every day when the mail stage came through, pick up the mail sack and when it was heavy, toss it across her shoulder and carry it on her back. Those people were the Gregorys. Some gypsies came along one day and Gregory traded them the dog for a sack of rolled barley. I tried to buy her from Gregory, but couldn’t make a deal.
Before the 1916 flood, the field where the road makes the sharp turn north used to be in alfalfa. That valley had a lot of damp land before the flood made that deep hole and drained most of the valley. It never was the same after that. There had been quite a few owners. I will mention the few I knew. Gregory, Campbell, Havermail, Wellington, Brawley, Letterman, Erner Allen. Roscoe Porter owned the Golden West Ranch, seems to me. Roscoe Porter was a very prominent man in San Diego; he passed on a long time ago. Montague Brabazon owns what I knew as the Brawley ranch. When I came here Douglas Ogden owned most of it. He bought several ranches in there and consolidated them all into one large cattle ranch. Douglas was always a good friend of mine clear up until he died. He was a queer individual. If he liked you, he liked you, if not you sure knew it. When he was young he used to do a lot of wild things. Among them was lassoing the smoke stacks of the San Diego Cuyamaca and Eastern railroad locomotives at Lakeside, or perhaps it was El Cajon.
He lived at the entrance to the Los Canajos Indian Reservation. The Indians could borrow some farm machinery from him; the whites couldn’t. I asked him, how come. He said, “If an Indian breaks it, he tells me, and just as soon as he gets the money he fixes it. The whites bring it back broken and say nothing.” During World War II, I bought 50 sheep to raise wool for the soldiers. They were old sheep with bad teeth. After they raised some lambs, I tried to fatten them. I had fed them for about 60 days. Douglas came along as he often did; he asked me if they were getting fat. I said no. He wanted to know why. No teeth, I said. He grinned and said, “You know, I bought one of them hammer mills that will grind hay so they will not have to chew it.” He still had it at the Implement Dealers, brand new. He told me to go get it. Well, I did. I got them all fat, but three and it cost me $1.75 apiece more to fatten them then they sold for. During the war the wool was worth 40 cents a pound. After the war was over the Government dumped their wool and it went down to 6 cents and broke all the sheep men in the United States.
I better get back to my cattle. At that time Ogden had the general run of longhorn cattle. They were long-legged and as I have said before, it took a good horse to outrun one. The Viejas valley was only seven or eight miles from here so they only stopped for a short rest. They used to drive them all the way to Charlie Hardy’s packing house in Old Town, San Diego. Hardy sent out men to meet them the night before they got to the packing house to see they did not fill them up with water just before they was weighed.
I will continue this Viejas Valley writing next time. There is too much for one time. See you all next week.
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I am going to start this early A. M. before I get tired. Now Bea La Force mentioned that well in front of the log cabin. A family by the name of Sherman started that place. He moved there from Japatul. He was a Spanish-American War veteran. They had three children, two boys and a girl. The girl Lucy married Rush Duncan. Sherman moved one of San Diego’s old open street cars onto that corner and sold pop and ice cream on weekends and holidays. Artie liked pop, so on the sly drank some pop and filled the bottles with water and put the cap back on. When Pop Sherman found it out, Artie took his meals standing for awhile. Lucy moved to Washington. I don’t know where the two boys are. One of the incidents I remember about that well-which was a dug well and had boards around it about three feet high to which there was a pulley and rope and bucket to draw the water up, an Alpine visitor was leaning over to look into that well and his gold watch fell in. He was told that A. L. McNett could probably get it—McNett came down with a horse and large bucket, hitched the horse to it and bailed that well out, so retrieved the watch. After that there was a pump installed. I think it was Fosters that put it there. Fosters came there from Peutz Valley and built onto that old street car and started the Log Cabin Café. He died quite a long time ago. His wife, Emma, passed on quite recently. She was 90 years old or better.
After Mr. Foster died, Clarence took over until they sold it. The Fosters had three children, two boys and a girl. It was a well known eating place and always served excellent meals.
In 1909 the people of San Diego county voted something over one million dolalrs to improve the roads of San Diego county.
Before that they were mostly narrow trails in the back country and the county got around once a year to grade them with horse equipment. Now these roads were all put in with mules after the bonds passed so they had to select the easiest places to build them. I can’t remember who all the road commissioners were but Ed Fletcher, Scripps and Spreckels and two more prominent people were the commissioners then. They built roads to their places first and as the roads advanced Eastward, the money got less and less so the roads got narrower and narrower. However, that was the start of good roads. The present Highway 80 was part of it. This was all dirt roads maintained by horses. As horses couldn’t get on all the roads soon enough after a rain some of the roads got pretty rough. In 1915 I purchased my first auto, a 1913 four cylinder Buick from D. H. Ogden. He advanced to a 6 cylinder Buick, then 2 Stutz, a Steamer and later a Lincoln. Some of us got together to improve that road. We made some split log drags out of the butts of old telephone poles and after each rain all winter smoothed out this road. I started at the El Capitan School three miles west of here and went part way up the Alpine grade, now Arnold Way. Mr. Frazee, a caretaker of the old Arnold home, picked it up there and carried it above the Willows; D. H. Ogden took it from there to the foot of the Viejas grade; Marshall and Palmer of the Hulbert Grove graded it clear to their place. There was an article in the San Diego Union stating that was the finest piece of road in San Diego County. This work was all donated. We were not so burdened with taxes as we are now. We maintained that road until the first pavement was put in in 1921, or perhaps the County had some mechanized equipment before that, I don’t remember. I think Palmer, Fred Walker, my brother and I are all that is left of that team.
Now I am going to get back to the Viejas valley again. Ogden went into the pure-bred registered Herford cattle. He would never tell what he paid for a bull by the name of Repeater. After Baron Long got the ranch, he traded the bull to Ben Garboni for a few tons of hay. However, it was $5,000 or more Ogden paid and you could pick out his ancestors in Garboni’s herd for several generations. Ogden had George Benton working there when he sold. As I told you earlier George Benton working there when he sold. As I told you earlier George Benton took part in many cattle drives across the Imperial desert in the very early days, when there was no settlers there at all. George had several sons and two daughters. I think they are all living except Frank. He lived on Tavern Road when he died. Jake lives in El Cajon, Lawrence in Ramona, Clarence in the north, Elmer is superintendent of Corta Madera ranch. The two girls live in La Mesa. I will write about the Corta Madera and Robert Benton later. He was George’s brother. He raised a lot of cattle in Mexico and had them confiscated by the Mexican government.
After Ogden sold the Viejas to Baron Long, he moved to San Diego and then Bonita where he died. He was a heavy drinker when I first knew him. He had two boys from his first marriage. I guess the drinking was too much for his first wife. One of his first boys worked for the county for years, in fact, just recently retired. He had one son after his second marriage. This son worked in the assessor’s office for Crowell D. Eddy, the county assessor, for years before Crowell put his own son in. There was some irregularities there and Eddies’ son resigned. Ogden got to seeing snakes and pink elephants. After that he never drank again but played at politics in San Diego and made life miserable for a lot of them office holding politicians. He believed in honesty in office and I think he was instrumental in forcing some out of office, some of the incompetent office holders.
Douglas Ogden was always a very good friend of mine clear up until he died, from a heart attack. He had a bad heart for several years. His wife knew nothing about it until the night he died. She was one of the Emorys.
Douglas and some more of us once tred to change ths form of taxation. We proposed to have a transaction tax of 2 per cent. No taxes on real estate until you sold it. Every time you got a dollar you paid 2 cents. That would of paid for everything and none of this deferred taxation by bonded indebtedness. It would give our aged citizens $100 the first of each month less any other income they may have. They had to spend it each month on themselves, if not they got that much less the next month. You would of got a tax bill on the county and city bonds. You voted but that 2 per cent would have paid for all the state bonds and run the government. We thought the man that got the most money was the most able to pay the tax. That sales tax was one of our temporary taxes to take care of the schools. It is still temporary and took away from the schools like all taxes. They are never repealed. The right to tax is the right to confiscate your property. I have known of several that lost everything.
During the ’29 depression Ogden got some gold and put it in his safe deposit box, quite a lot of it. When he went to get some; it was gone and he had a deposit slip on the bank for it. That was one of Roosevelt’s. Up to that time Ogden was a good Democrat. That cured him. We better get our government back to the people instead of turning it over to the Bureaucrats. It takes two or more government dollars to get one back, a very poor percentage.
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Created 11/2006; Revised 11/2006
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