Eternity Street

by John Mack Faragher

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  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  THE RESEARCH AND WRITING of this book benefited from the support and assistance of many individuals and institutions. Yale University provided sabbatical leave and research funds. The Department of History and the Program in American Studies offered the opportunity to test my ideas in the classroom. I thank the many students who participated in several iterations of my freshman seminar, “Violence and Justice in America.” I relied on the holdings and services of Yale’s excellent libraries. Gregory Eow, former Kaplanoff Librarian for American History at Sterling Memorial Library, helped me gain access to many sources, including a large number of nineteenth-century newspapers on microfilm.

  During the decade I worked on this project the Howard R. Lamar Center for the Study of Frontiers and Borders at Yale served as my primary intellectual home. Special thanks go to my dear friends associated with the Center, including Howard R. Lamar, Jay Gitlin, and George Miles. The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library generously supported a succession of visiting Senior Research Fellows in Western Americana, including Martha A. Sandweiss, David M. Wrobel, Clyde A. Milner II, Carol A. O’Connor, the late David J. Weber, Virginia Scharff, and William F. Deverell. I also want to thank the graduate students with whom I worked during that period: Gerry Cadava, Benjamin Madley, Barry Muchnick, Rebecca McKenna, Katherine Unterman, Ryan Brasseaux, Katherine Gin, Catherine McNeur, Taylor Spence, Christine DeLucia, Jayne Ptolemy, Ashley Riley Sousa, Todd Holmes, Allison Milo Gorsuch, Andrew Offenburger, Mary Greenfield, Ryan Shaw, Ryan Hall, Isaiah Wilner, Sarah Koenig, Arielle Gorin, Allyson Brantley, and Alyssa Zucher Reichardt.

  I conducted much of the research for this history at the Huntington Library and the Seaver Center for Western History Research at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. I benefited from the assistance of Roy Ritchie, Bill Frank, and Peter Blodgett at the Huntington, John M. Cahoon and Betty L. Uyeda at the Seaver Center. Paul R. Spitzzeri of the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum provided important source material and expert advice. Scott Zesch generously shared sources and notes. I benefited from the research assistance of Monica Pelayo, Christian Paiz, Daniel Lynch, David Tamayo, and Jeremiah Sladeck.

  The ideas behind this book were greatly stimulated by my collaboration with Stephen A. Aron, professor of history at the University of California, Los Angeles, and founding Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of the American West at the Autry National Center, who enlisted me in the Autry’s public project on the topic “Violence and Justice in the West.”

  At W. W. Norton my editor Maria Guarnaschelli again provided encouragement delivered at precisely the right moments. Her former assistant Melanie Tortoroli, now an editor at Viking/Penguin, helped me to see the forest as well as the trees. Sophie Duvernoy helped with the technical details. Otto Sonntag provided excellent copyediting. Adrian Kitzinger drew the maps. Gerard McCauley, my literary agent, again made it all possible.

  Danny Faragher, Jimmy Faragher, Tommy Faragher, and David Armstrong read early versions of several chapters, and their enthusiasm for the project kept me going. Elliott West and Michael Magliari, two distinguished western historians, generously took the time to read the entire manuscript and offered constructive criticism.

  Every historical project is an expedition to another time and place. Michele Hoffnung, my wife, life partner, and best friend, was by my side through virtually every step of this long, fascinating journey. We visited many historic sites in Los Angeles and southern California and took pleasure in introducing our west coast friends to the unexpected historical treasures of the region. We spent hours discussing the trials and travails of nineteenth-century Angelenos. She listened as I read every chapter aloud and gave me excellent advice on storytelling. This book could not have been written without her support, and I dedicate it to her.

  PERMISSIONS

  The publisher and author make grateful acknowledgment for permission to reproduce the following illustrations.

  FIRST INSERT

  Charles Koppel, Los Angeles, from Reports of Explorations and Surveys to Ascertain the Most Practicable and Economical Route for a Railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean (1856), 12 vols.
, 5:35.

  William M. Godfrey, Plaza view from Fort Hill, Huntington Library.

  Los Angeles Plaza from Fort Moore Hill, Charles C. Pierce Collection, Huntington Library.

  Ferdinand Deppe, Mission San Gabriel, reproduced courtesy the Laguna Art Museum.

  Emancipated Indian, from Alexander Forbes, California: A History of Upper and Lower California from Their First Discovery to the Present Time (1839):6.

  Old Indian women of San Fernando Mission, Charles C. Pierce Collection, Huntington Library.

  Los Angeles Mission and Plaza before 1869, Charles C. Pierce Collection, Huntington Library.

  William M. Godfrey, Hill Street looking north, Seaver Center for Western History Research, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.

  Old town grocery store, Charles C. Pierce Collection, Huntington Library.

  Lugo Family, Seaver Center for Western History Research, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.

  Execution Scene, Special Collections, Charles E. Young Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

  William M. Godfrey, witnessing a vigilante hanging, Seaver Center for Western History Research, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.

  William M. Godfrey, hanging of Lachenais, Huntington Library.

  Samuel Calvert Foy Saddlery, Huntington Library.

  Chinatown, Marchessault and Los Angeles Streets, Seaver Center for Western History Research, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.

  Chinese massacre victims, Security Pacific National Bank Collection, Los Angeles Public Library.

  William M. Godfrey, scene of the Chinese riot, Huntington Library.

  S. Lazard & Co. dry goods store, Seaver Center for Western History Research, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.

  Kuchel & Dressel’s California Views, Los Angeles, California, Huntington Library.

  SECOND INSERT

  Pío Pico with wife and two nieces, Seaver Center for Western History Research, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.

  General Andrés Pico, Charles C. Pierce Collection, Huntington Library.

  Benjamin Ignatius Hayes, the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

  Henri Penelon [?], Emily Chauncey Hayes and son Chauncey, author’s collection.

  Andrew Jackson King, author’s collection.

  Stephen Clark Foster, Seaver Center for Western History Research, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.

  James S. Waite, the San Bernardino Public Library.

  Francisco P. Ramírez, Huntington Library.

  John O. Wheeler from Harris Newmark, Sixty Years in Southern California, 1853–1913 (1916).

  Juan Bautista Alvarado from The Century Monthly Illustrated Magazine 41 (1891):523.

  José Castro, the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

  Raphaela Cota de Temple, Jonathan Temple, and Gregorio de Ajuria, Seaver Center for Western History Research, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.

  Manuel Requena, California Historical Society Collection, University of Southern California.

  José Antonio Carrillo, from Luther A. Ingersoll, Ingersoll’s Century History, Santa Monica Bay Cities (1908):54.

  Antonio F. Coronel, from James M. Guinn, Historical and Biographical Record of Los Angeles and Vicinity (1901):953.

  Abel Stearns, Huntington Library.

  Jean Louis Vignes, Special Collections, Charles E. Young Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

  Edward Hereford, Margaret Hereford Wilson, Benjamin D. Wilson, and Thomas Hereford, Huntington Library.

  David Alexander and William Workman, Security Pacific National Bank Collection, Los Angeles Public Library.

  John Rowland, Alberta Rowland, and child, California Historical Society Collection, University of Southern California.

  John C. Frémont from C. Edwards Lester, Gallery of Illustrious Americans (1850):40.

  Robert F. Stockton, Seaver Center for Western History Research, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.

  Stephen Watts Kearny from Graham’s American Monthly Magazine 35 (1849).

  John Strother Griffin, Seaver Center for Western History Research, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.

  Jonathan Drake Stevenson, courtesy William Schultz.

  Richard Barnes Mason, U.S. Army Signal Corps.

  Henri Penelon, Antonio María Lugo, Seaver Center for Western History Research, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.

  Francisco de Paula Menito Lugo, Seaver Center for Western History Research, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.

  Joseph Lancaster Brent, Huntington Library.

  Major Horace Bell, Seaver Center for Western History Research, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.

  James Alexander Watson, author’s collection.

  William “Uncle Billy” Rubottom, courtesy Pomona Public Library, Pomona, CA.

  Henry D. Barrows, California Historical Society Collection, University of Southern California.

  Henry Hamilton and William McKee, Huntington Library.

  Ina Coolbrith, the Oakland Public Library, Oakland, CA.

  Melvina Prater, author’s collection.

  Tomás Sánchez and John Wilson, Huntington Library.

  Edward John Cage Kewen from Winfield J. Davis, An Illustrated History of Sacramento County (1890):369.

  Phineas Banning, Huntington Library.

  Charles Wilkins, courtesy William Secrest.

  María Merced Williams, Margarita Chata Bandini, Francisca Williams, Seaver Center for Western History Research, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.

  John Rains, Luther A. Ingersoll Collection, Los Angeles Public Library.

  Robert Carlisle, Seaver Center for Western History Research, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.

  José Ramón Carrillo, Autry National Center, Los Angeles.

  Juan Largo and Jonathan Trumbull Warner with a group of Indians, California Historical Society Collection, University of Southern California.

  Manuel Olegario, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

  Henry T. Hazard, James Francis Burns, Robert M. Widney, and Ygnacio Sepúlveda from Harris Newmark, Sixty Years in Southern California, 1853–1913 (1916).

  ILLUSTRATIONS

  Three views of the Plaza, looking east from Fort Moore Hill,in 1852, ca. 1865, and ca. 1871.

  Mission San Gabriel, depicted by the German artist Ferdinand Deppe in 1832, showing a dome-shaped native dwelling in the right foreground.

  An emancipado, or emancipated mission Indian, 1839.

  Two elderly Indian women near Mission San Fernando, ca. 1890.

  The church and the Plaza, ca. 1865.

  Looking north across Sonoratown toward the cemetery and the Stone Quarry Hills (today’s Elysian Park), ca. 1870.

  Angelenos pose before an adobe near the Plaza, ca. 1870.

  The Lugo family at the Vicente Lugo residence, ca. 1890.

  A contemporary sketch depicting the lynching of the five men taken from the Los Angeles jail in November 1863.

  A crowd assembles on Poundcake Hill to witness the lynching of Josef Lachenais in 1870.

  Lachenais hangs from the beam above the gate.

  Samuel C. Foy (with the white beard), a leading vigilante, stands before his harness shop.

  Residents of Chinatown, ca. 1875.

  The bodies of seventeen murdered Chinese lie on the ground of the jail yard the morning following the riot, October 25, 1871.

  The head of Los Angeles Street, Coronel building in the center distance,Negro Alley to the right, site of the Chinese massacre of 1871.

  Corner of Main and Commercial Streets, hardscrabble center of the Los Angeles business district, ca. 1870.

  Bird’s-eye view of Los Angeles, 1857, looking north from about First Street, surrounded by illustrations of local businesses and residences.

  Pío Pico with his wife and t
wo nieces, ca. 1850.

  Andrés Pico, ca. 1860.

  Benjamin Hayes, 1849.

  Emily Chauncey Hayes and son Chauncey, ca. 1857.

  Andrew Jackson King, ca. 1865.

  Stephen Clark Foster, ca. 1890.

  James S. Waite, ca. 1860.

  Francisco P. Ramírez, 1855.

  John O. Wheeler, ca. 1860.

  Juan Bautista Alvarado, ca. 1850.

  José Castro, ca. 1845.

  Raphaela Cota de Temple, Jonathan Temple, and their son-in-law Gregorio de Ajuria, ca. 1860.

  Manuel Requena, ca. 1855.

  José Antonio Carrillo, ca. 1850.

  Antonio F. Coronel, ca. 1880.

  Abel Stearns, ca. 1860.

  Jean Louis Vignes, ca. 1860.

  Benjamin D. Wilson (third from left) with his second wife, the widow Margaret Hereford Wilson, and her two sons, ca. 1855.

  David Alexander and William Workman, ca. 1860.

  John Rowland, Alberta Rowland, and child, ca. 1860.

  John C. Frémont, 1850.

  Robert F. Stockton, 1839.

  Stephen Watts Kearny, ca. 1845.

  John Strother Griffin, ca. 1870.

  Jonathan Drake Stevenson, ca. 1847.

  Richard Barnes Mason, ca. 1850.

  Antonio María Lugo, ca. 1855.

  Francisco de Paula “Menito” Lugo, ca. 1855.

  Joseph Lancaster Brent, ca. 1860.

  Horace Bell, ca. 1865.