E. L. Doheny and a partner had the good luck to strike some of the first oil found in quantities within the city limits. They began operations in February on West State Street, in the very residence section of the town; and at about one hundred and sixty feet below the surface, they found oil enough to cause general excitement. Mrs. Emma A. Summers, who had been dealing in real estate since she came in 1881, quickly sank a well on Court Street near Temple which in a short time produced so lavishly that Mrs. Summers became one of the largest individual operators in crude oil. She is now known as the Oil Queen.
At the suggestion of Mrs. M. Burton Williamson, an interesting open-air meeting of the Los Angeles Historical Society was held on the evening of March 28th at the residence of Don António and Doña Mariana Coronel, near the corner of Central Avenue and Seventh Street. Three hundred guests assembled to enjoy the proverbial Spanish hospitality of this distinguished couple, and to hear reports of the activities of various Los Angeles societies. Don António possessed, as is well known, valuable historical and ethnological collections; and some of his choicest curios were that evening placed at the service of his guests. Professor Ira More participated, presiding at a table once used by the first Constitutional Governor, Echeandia, and I still recall the manner in which António chuckled when he told us how he had swapped "four gentle cows" for the piece of furniture; while, instead of a gavel, Señora Coronel had provided a bell long used to summon the Indians to Mission service.
As early as the height of the great Boom, Professor T. S. C. Lowe (to whom I have referred in the story of an experiment in making gas) advocated the construction of a railroad up the mountain later officially designated Mt. Lowe; and almost immediately financiers acted on the proposal and ordered the route surveyed. The collapse of the Boom, however, then made the financing of the project impossible; and the actual work of building the road was begun only in 1892. On the Fourth of July of the following year, the first car carrying a small party of invited guests successfully ascended the incline; and on August 23d the railway was formally opened to the public, the occasion being made a holiday. In 1894, the Mt. Lowe Astronomical Observatory was built. At one time, the railway was owned by Valentine Peyton, my agreeable neighbor and friend then and now residing on Westlake Avenue.
In June, 1893, the Los Angeles Post Office was moved from its location at Broadway near Sixth Street to the National Government Building at the southeast corner of Main and Winston streets, which had just been completed at a cost of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Seized with the same desire that animated many thousands who journeyed to Chicago, I visited the World's Fair in the fall of 1893. Everywhere I was impressed with the extraordinary progress made, especially by Americans, since the display in Philadelphia; and I was naturally proud of the exhibits from California in charge of my fellow-townsman, Ben Truman.
Russell Judson Waters, a well-known banker and member of Congress from the Sixth District between 1899 and 1903, came from Redlands in 1894 and another Southern Californian who has turned his attention to literary endeavor: his novel, El Estranjero, dealing with past local life.
Joseph Scott, who has risen to distinction in the California legal world, alighted in Los Angeles in June, having tried without success to obtain newspaper work in Boston, in 1887, although equipped with a letter of introduction from John Boyle O'Reilly. In New York, with only two dollars in his pocket, he was compelled to shoulder a hod; but relief came: as Scott himself jovially tells the story, he was carrying mortar and brick on a Tuesday in February, 1890, and but two days later he faced a body of students at St. Bonaventura's College in Allegany, New York, as instructor in rhetoric! Within ten months after Scott came to Southern California, he was admitted to practice at the Los Angeles Bar; and since then he has been President of the Chamber of Commerce. He is now a member of the Board of Education, and all in all his services to the commonwealth have been many and important.
The existence of the Merchants' Association, which was organized in 1893 with W. C. Furrey as President and William Bien (succeeded the following year by Jacob E. Waldeck, son-in-law of Samuel Hellman) as Secretary, was somewhat precarious until 1894. In that year, Los Angeles was suffering a period of depression, and a meeting was called to devise ways and means for alleviating the economic ills of the city and also for attracting to Los Angeles some of the visitors to the Midwinter Fair then being held in San Francisco. At that meeting, Max Meyberg, a member of the Association's executive committee, suggested a carnival; and the plan being enthusiastically endorsed, the coming occasion was dubbed La Fiesta de Los Angeles. Meyberg was appointed Director-General; and the following persons, among others, were associated with him in the undertaking: Mayor T. E. Rowan, F. W. Wood, R. W. Pridham, H. Jevne, J. O. Koepfli, Leon Loeb, H. T. Hazard, Charles S. Walton and M. H. Newmark.
The Fiesta lasted from the 10th to the 13th of April and proved a delightful affair. The participants marched in costume to the City Hall during a meeting of the Council, usurped the Government, elected a Queen—Mrs. O. W. Childs, Jr.—to preside over the destinies of the City during the Fiesta and communicated to everybody a spirit of uncontrollable enthusiasm based on a feeling of the most genuine patriotic sentiment. The result was thoroughly successful, the carnival bringing out the real Californian fellowship—whole-souled and ringing true. Indeed, it is conceded by all who have seen Los Angeles grow, that this first Fiesta and the resulting strengthening of the Association have been among the earliest and, in some respects, the most important elements contributory to the wonderful growth and development of our city. A few evenings after the conclusion of the celebration, and while the streets were brilliantly illuminated with Bengal fire, the leaders again marched in a body, this time to the hall over Mott Market, where they not only laid plans for the second Fiesta, but installed J. O. Koepfli as President of the Merchants' Association.
So enthusiastic had the citizens of Los Angeles really become that in the years 1895 and 1896 the Fiesta was repeated and many prominent people supported the original committee, assisting to make the second festival almost equal to the first. Among these patrons were John Alton, Hancock Banning, W. A. Barker, A. C. Bilicke, L. W. Blinn, W. C. Bluett, R. W. Burnham, John M. Crawley, James Cuzner, J. H. Dockweiler, T. A. Eisen, J. A. Foshay, John F. Francis, A. W. Francisco, H. W. Frank, Dan Freeman, Mrs. Jessie Benton Frémont, W. M. Garland, T. E. Gibbon, J. T. Griffith, Harley Hamilton, R. H. Howell, Sumner P. Hunt, A. Jacoby, General E. P. Johnson, John Kahn, F. W. King, Abbot Kinney, E. F. C. Klokke, J. Kuhrts, Dr. Carl Kurtz, J. B. Lankershim, General C. F. A. Last, S. B. Lewis, H. Lichtenberger, Charles F. Lummis, Simon Maier, D. C. McGarvin, John R. Mathews, James J. Mellus, L. E. Mosher, Walter S. Newhall, J. W. A. Off, Colonel H. Z. Osborne, Colonel H. G. Otis, Madison T. Owens, W. C. Patterson, Niles Pease, A. Petsch, John E. Plater, R. W. Pridham, Judge E. M. Ross, F. K. Rule, Frank Sabichi, J. T. Sheward, Colonel W. G. Schreiber, John Schumacher, Professor P. W. Search, Edward D. Silent, Alfredo Solano, George H. Stewart, Frank J. Thomas, D. K. Trask, Ben C. Truman, I. N. Van Nuys, K. H. Wade, Stephen M. White, Frank Wiggins, C. D. Willard, Dr. W. Le Moyne Wills, W. B. Wilshire, H. J. Woollacott and W. D. Woolwine.