Image provided by: Crook County Historical Society/Bowman Museum; Prineville, OR
About Crook County journal. (Prineville, Or.) 189?-1921 | View Entire Issue (March 3, 1921)
TIM KSD.U , M A IK II SI, l1C.it. Tage 2 IMsOK COIXTY JOIR.VAI PIUNr,VU.l.K C1TV RULWAY Tune TaMe X. Effective 12:01 A. M. Munday, Feb ruary 8, 1080 Wm! Round Motor Motor Utions Mixed No. 1 A.M. :U 1:41 4:04 4:14 Motor No. P. M :4t 1:10 :ls I 46 1:41 No. S P M. No. t P. M. 4:41 t:0t :H 6:15 t:4i Lf. Prineville Lt. Wilton 7:40 7:5S Lf. KcCallMer 1:1 Lt O'Nell :20 It. Prtnevle Jet S: 36 KaM Bound tattone Mixed Motor No. t A. M 8:35 :i No. 4 P. M. :6S t:40 :15 :1S 4:00 At. Prineville at. Wilton Ar. McCalllster 7: OS at. O'Nell L. Prlnevl Jet CROOK COUNTY JOURNAL GUY LAFOLLETTE, Editor and Publisher Enttrrd lit the potoffir t PrilMrflla. Orrgon aa awnd-daat Mattrr. f-itm S2.00 per rar. parable tricllr in mkw. In of change of aJJreaa pleaa Mlfr u at one, giving both old an a" clrraa. . - ..iKSCAN PBK3S ASSOCIATION. One of the most exciting episodes of the early days of San Francisco Is rehearsed by Mr. Lockley. He has been moved to do this through meet ing in Portland a descendant of Jamea King of William, who was a chief character in the dramatic scenes here described. W. F. King, who for 15 years has been one of the leading hardware merchants of Prineville, as well as one of Crook county's most enthus iastic road boosters, was a recent guest at the Hotel Imperial. "My grandfather was a writer, but I drif ted away from the art preservative." said Mr. King. "My grandfather, James King of William, was editor of the Evening Bulletin at San Fran cisco. He was assassinated May 14, 1856. by a corrupt politician named. James Casey, whose prison record he bad exposed in the Bulletin. They lynched Casey as my grandfather's funeral procession passed by." Mr. King, without knowing it, has furnished me a theme for my story j today. His statement requires some explanation to those unacquainted with conditions at San Francisco in the early '50s. With the rush of Argonauts to the California gold fields in 1849 a large number of criminals from Sydney. Australia, hastened to share the rich pickings to be had there. They formed a close corporation for mutual protec tion, which they called The Hounds'. By 1851 they had become so bold that men were openly slugged and robbed. On February 19. 1851, a! merchant C. J. Jensen, was beaten j and robbed. An unorganized body; of men seized'the thugs and tried) them for the assault, but were un-I able to prove their guilt, and releas-j ed them. The Hounds became bold- j er after this fiasco. j On June 9, 1851, a vigilance cm ! mittee was formed. Sara Brannan j was president of the executive com- i mittee. The members of the com-1 mittee were summoned by a secret ! code tapped out on the fire bell. Two days after organization the commit j tee was called by the summons of the fire bell, and tried and hanged j John Jenkins, who had been caught i f-t'-aling a safe in which was a large quantity of gold dust from the mines. While they were about it they decided to make a cleanup, so they tried and hanged James Stuart, Sam Whittaker and Robert McKen zie. A large number of undesir ables crooks, strongarm men and grafters were notified to leave. They were told they would be hang ed if found in the ciry after 24 hours, so they departed. Tempor arily, San Francisco was purged of its most lawless elements. The vig ilance committee dissolved after two months of activity. By 1855 conditions had become very bad again. Most of the steal ing was done, however, under cover of law. The city officials spent in 1851 $2,646,190 of the people's money. No check was made on their power of taxation. Taxes rose to jjerly 4 percent. James King of "WiXHa,!P' editor of the San Francisco - Bulletin, stwrted a civic cleanup and Announced he' wto ing to put the grafting officials behTn jUhe bars He made good on his threat of el posing .political corruption, and th'f city wag n B ferment OYer his expoa VfJ of crookedness in high places. James Casey, a prominent politician and an ex-convict, assassinated him in revenge for his "pernicious activ ity." For five years the vigilance committee had been quiescent. Old tima members were electrified hear the old-time signal tapped out on the city fire bell. ' They gathered and within 24 hours 1500 members had been signed up. A committee of 40 was selected, with William T. Coleman as president. Within a lew days a fund of $75,000 was rais ed to carry on the work of cleaning up the town. Before the week was cut there wore more than S00u members of the vigilance committee. On Sunday, M.iy IS, Casey, v. ho had asked to bo placed in Jail, where his friends could protect hini, was surrendered to the vigilance com mittee, as well as another murderer named Cora. The law and Order party, which was protecting the po litical grafters, demanded protec tion. Governor Johnson declared San Francisco In a state of Insurrec tion and railed for I'nited States troops. The troops, under instruc tions from their officers, marched o slowly that they failed to arrive in time to prevent the vigilance com mittee from acting. Casey and Cora were tried and condemned to death for wanton murder. The commute.) requested all business houses t o close during the funeral of the mar tyred editor, James King of William. The funeral procession was two miles long. As the hearse passed the place where the two murderers were confined they were hanged. Mr. King's widow was given $30. 000 which had been subscribed by the vigilance committee. Philand er Bruce was tried for political cor ruption and for diverting . public funds to his personal use, and was hanged. Joseph Hethrlngton, a not ed gambler, was tried for crooked gambling and also for murder, and was hanged. 25 men were banished and over 800 wanted to leave or they would be dealt with. They left In three months the city was cleaned up as had been outlined by the martyred editor. The taxes, which had been over $2,500,000 In 1851, dropped to $856,120 in 185t. and were but $353,292 in 1857. James King of William was dead, but .his patriotic purpose was car ried out and San Francisco could once more hold up Its head and look the world in the face without shame for its political corruption. Jour nal. MARVEL OF IRRIGATION (Continued from page 1) with a population of 5,000, while small settlements of a few hundred people are scattered through the dis trict. Typical are the hamlets of Reyes, Ceres, Denair, Hickman, and Hughson. Brief History of the District. Turlock voted for the district In 1887, overcame its troubles of fi nancing and litigation, and got suf ficient construction under way so that water was first available in 1901, 3,700 acres being irrigated. Three years later, 20,000 acres were under Irrigation, while in January, 1920. 101,419 acres were actually Ir rigated or about 5" percent of the entire area, by means of 245 mile3 of canals and laterals and 1,000 miles of community ditches and sub laterals. Of the 176,200 acre3 16, 000 are taken up by roads, canals, laterals, highways, district build ings, etc., leaving 160,200 suscepti ble of being irrigated. Construc tion is well done. 90 percent of the flume crossings are of concrete, many ditches are cement-lined to re duce losses in transit, and 57 mil-s of drainage canals have been put in. As an outcome of the district bond ing itself, there are now 5,518 as sessment payers, of which 1,518 are in the town of Turlock, paying as sessments for the irrigation i m-nrov-ements amounting to $3.19 per acre per year for an average of ten years, with a rate of $3.40 per aero in 1319. In 1919, total assessments brought In $410,906.73, while, with the beginning of 1920 the total bonded indebtedness amounts to $2, 662,000. Present plans designed to increase the bonded debt to an am ount of $4,108,000 (recommenda tion of the State Bonding Commit sion, January 12, 1920) for the con struction of the Don Pedro Reser voir in connection with the Modesto District, if favorably passed will in crease the total per acre Indebted ness to: (This has been passed.) Total Per acre I'resent $2,662,000 $15.10 Proposed 4.108,000 23.39 Total $6,770,000 $38.49 Change Wrought By Irrigation The Turlock District Is a second example of the extensive and almoct unbelievable changes in Its agricul ture, population, farm output, and town prosperity, due to the putting or. of water, the first example hav ing beefl already chronicled under ; the Modesto District account. It anything, Turlock possesses a larger! I proportion of poorer soil types, es : penally blowy sands, so that the transition is perhaps mare striking. As In treating I lie Modesto Dis trict, three periods may be consider ed for the Turlock District, these be ing: (a) The pre-irrlgation period. (b) The construction period. (c) The post-Irrigation period. The Initial resort to irrigation, the evolution, and the final result fol low almost exactly the Modesto transition with some difference lit types of agriculture and the various figures. The history, as outlined for Modesto, will also suffice for Tur lock. As for Modesto, for purpos es of comparison, the pre-irrigution period is averaged over the years IS 90 to 1900, inclusive, and the post-irrigation period for the years from 1914 to 1920. j The town of Turlock has changed i from its pre-irngation status of a heterogeneous collection of raui ! shackle buildings consisting of one general store, one small grocery store, one so-called hotel, two black smith shops, live saloons, and ono district school with an enrollment j averaging about 45 pupils; sandy 'streets, dusty in summer and mud dy In winter, and a general lack of civic pride, to a rapidly growing, flourishing town of pleasant homes, durable business houses, paved and shaded streets, and all that goes to show the pride and thrift of a peo ple in their community. Today, in addition to the assets listed else where, the town possesses 9 church es, a high school (365 students now enrolled), two grammar schools (1021 pupils), two banks, ten mer cantile concerns, two hotels and two theatres. All the banks In the district have been organized since 1905, and have resources as follows: 1st National of Turlock $1,530,000 Commercial Bank of Turlock (allied with 1st National) 713.000 Hilmar Branch, 1st Natl' 194.00 Denair Branch. 1st Nat'l 100,000 People's State Bank of Turlock 654,306 Savings Dep't, People's State Bank of Turlock 324.714 Bank of Hughson 425.000 Bank of Ceres 410.000 Total for eight banks $4,351,020 Change in Agriculture Prior to the coming of irrigation to the Turlock District, grain grow ing of barley, wheat and some rye had been persisted in for several years although decreasing yields were forcing farmers out. In fact, the farmed acreage had become re duced to only about 25 percent of the available acreage yields amount ing to but eight sacks of wheat and ten sacks of barley on land planted once in two years. Irrigation water to the Turlock region has meant: (1st) a rehabili tation of its agriculture; (2nd) an extension of the farmed area of th3 pre-irrigation days, and (3rd) a re markable increase In the variety of crops grown, so that for the post-Irrigation period the list covers alfal fa, beans, cantaloupes, ensuhas. wat er melons, nonsaccharine sorghums, garden truck, tomatoes, sweet pota toes, barley, wheat, oats, dairy prod ucts, some hogs, honey, deciduous fruits of peaches, figs, apricots, ber ries, poultry products, wine table, and raisin grapes. Change in Xumlxtr and Average Size of Holdings Under the dry farming methodl of the pre-irrigation period there struggled for existence a total of 140 ranches of an average of 1,250 acrej. With the on-coming of Irrigation water, the district now supports 4, 000 farms having an average size of close to 40 acres. Rural Districts: In the pre-irrigation period, the rural population was about 800 which, following Irriga tion possibilities of Intensive farm ing to support Increased numbers, has jumped to 10,000. Town of Turlock: The population of Turlock shows an increase, con servatively estimated, at from 150 of pre-irrigation times to 5,000 for post-Irrigation period. Totals: The totals stand: pre-irrigation period, 950, post-irrigation, 15,000, and this in view of a drop from an estimated figure of five per sons rural family of the earlier per iod to four of the present day. ( limine in Land Values Market values of the land for pre irrigation times, averaged but $25. per acre, thus giving the district a total gross value of land without equipment of $4,403,000. Market values of the land for the post-Irrigation period where water was available for growing crops commanded an average per acre fig-' ure of $200.00, while lands, not un der ditch but enjoying the added prosperity of the section and thus Indirectly benefiting from the devel opment of water, are now worth about $100.00 per acre, thus giving a conservative total of: Total acre age, 176,200; Out for district used 16.000; Net for funning ltiO.200. Irrigated. 101.419 acres at $200.00 120,28.1.800; not yet Irrigated, 68, 791 acres at $100.00 $5,878,100, Total, $26,161,900. (Appraised by California State Bond Commission at $30,000,000. Change In Equipment Equipment needs and values for both pre-irrigation and post-irrigation times duplicate the figures giv en for Modesto ou a per farm value, for buildings and Implement, but are reduced somewhat for stock. To tals amount to, respectively, as fol lows: Before After Buildings ....$770,000, $12,000,000 Motive power 420.000 3. 800,000 Livestock 0 2.163,000 Implements 466.200 4.084.000 Totals $1,656,200 $22,047,000 Change In Production of Wealth An estimate of the annual gross value of farm products for the pro irrlgittion decade gles returns to the farmers of the district of not to exceed $345,00(1, which certainly I not a good showing for 176,200 ac res. The average annual value of the .1-year post-Irrigation area figures about $9,000,100, of which, In order of importance are (1st) Fluid crops beau, swuot po tatoes, corn, barley, wheat, oals, and alfalfa hay. (2nd) Cantaloupes and other mel ons, i (3rd! Fruit. (4th) Dairy products. (5th) Poultry and poultry products. I 6th) Miscellaneous. Change In (irons Profits Of the $345,000 gross returns ob tained ou an average for the pro-Irrigation decade between $115,000 and $172,500, was required tor op erating expenses, of seed, sacks, ex tra labor, taxes, and similar cost de tails of (or about $143,000. This left an average balance of $202,000 for profit, family living, replacing of equipment, discharge of obligations, and Institution of Improvements Suffice to say, the sum was not enough, as shown by the failure of the farming operations. Averaged for the post-Irrigation period, the cost of production re quired over one-halt of the gross In come, or $4,500,000, leaving a like sum available for other uses. Increase of Allied Industries The effect of Irrigation upon the agriculture of the Turlock District, and the resulting change from dwin dling grain crops to the conducting of a varied number of enterprises MICHEL GROCERY COMPANY (TIT WE specialize in the standard brands of groceries, the things you need mosl. Our prices are right. Phone orders will be given prompt attention. Call 111: Prineville's only exclusive grocery Store. MICHEL GROCERY CO. hits li rm glil with It suKUini'utatlon of industries which depend fur their existence on a continuous and sulll cleni supply of raw furm products Thus the new town of Turlock shows Increased business activities .directly dependent upon farming, having rn Investment of $660,000 giving an imal employment to the equivalent of 300 people, while the total pay roll runs lo shout $200,000. Such businesses Include: O. W. Hume Co., I large cannery); liutit-Jewetl-llous Co. (cured sweet potato factory l; Turlock Merchants ft Growers, Inc., us the nuine applies. Is a mutual co operative marketing, financing, and storing concern, run principally In the Interest of the farmers. CulifOriilt I'eiieh li rowers Associa tion a brunch packing house, while shipping facilities are niiilntslned by many other concerns dealing In the product of the district. Change In llefiiulting In (he pru-ii riKiitloii decade fully one-half of the ranches were mort gaged, of which -." percent hail to lie foreclosed. , In the post-irrigation period, the number stood ul ,K uj percent of the district at a prevail ing lulu of 7 percent. Foreclosures in this period tor the past leu yen is have averaged four percent, and sulus under trust Uouds c.kui per year, no! withstanding the gr. ut In crease In population of the present period, I.e., 4.000 farms against 140. Summary of Dm Turlock District Number of furms. 140, 4.000; Aver age sine of farms, acres, 1,250, 40; Population, rural, 800, 10,000; (own of Turlock 150, 6.000; lot al. WT.u, 15,000; Land values, average per acre, $25., $200.; For district total, $4,403,000, $26,061,900; Value of Improvements and equipment, $1, 666,200, $22,047,000; Total value of farm property. $6,069,200, $4 3. 108,900; Average annual gross val ue of furm output, $345,000, $9,000, 100; Cost of production, $143,000; $4,600,000; Available for family liv ing, depreciation, profits, discharge or obligations, and replacement and Institution of Improvements. $202,- Cornett Stage Co. Stages leave Prineville and Paulina Daily except Sunday Office with Ochoco Creamery 000, $4,500,000. I'liinlaiiK'iiliils of Huccess There were early failures In at tempting the formation or the finan cing or the developing or (ho carry ing out of Irrigation districts. Mo desto and Turlock are two of the successes. A study of (heir history emphasises the Importance In any district of: (a) A topogruphy which can be esonomlcally put In simps for the conveyance and distribution of Irri gation water. (b) A sullU'lent water supply eco nomically developed and all lauds to be leveled. (ci Lands of a character adapted to Irrigation funning This usually means a change to Intensive front extensive operations nud the produc tion of a variety ot crops, stock, and stock products. (dl A fair Initial land value. (e) An it iik ii nun t ul h u on thi supply of farmers fur Ihn district. tti A knowledge of nuikets and melius of marketing the products from Irrigation farming. ( K ) A knowledge on (ho part of the producers of Irrigation farming methods. (h) Intelligent, ecolinmlcul, and experienced bundling of the details of construction and subsequent op erations of Ihn water system. And lust but not least: til A murket for the bonds or other flnsiiclul bucking to Insure the completion of the work. Full realisation of the prosperity progresslvsnes and possibilities of both the Modesto and Turlock Irri gation Districts cannot be gained short of a personal trip through tho many communities that go lo make up the area. Photographs and writ ten description are entirely Inade quate for portraying tho real situa tion. A day spent touring these dis tricts unfolds a succession of real homes, a vista of fields, vineyards, and orchards, and an Intermingling ot dairy, hog, and poultry farming. Verily, It Is a country of "Water, Wealth. Contentment. Health."
