Santa Barbara County History Transcribed by Peggy Hooper This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor, OR the legal representative of the submitter. All persons donating to this site retain the rights to their own work. Source: A Memorial and Biographical History of the Counties of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura, California by Yda Addis Storke Published in 1891 in Chicago by the Lewis Publishing Co. LOMPOC. The Lompoc Colony Lands embrace all the territory of the Lompoc and Mission Vieja de la Purisima ranches; the title is by United States patent. These lands border for seven miles on the Pacific Ocean, and extend back from the coast about twelve miles. The original Lompoc rancho, containing 38,335.78 acres of land, was granted by the Mexican Government to Jose Antonio Carrillo, April 15, 1837, and the Mission Vieja to Joaquin and Jose Antonio Carrillo, November 26, 1845, this containing 4,440 acres. Carrillo sold the Lompoc to the More Brothers, they to Hollisters, Dibblees and Cooper, who sold to a joint stock company 46,499.04 acres, of which about 24,000 acres are plain land The main valley contains 16,000 acres. The Santa Ynez River runs westerly through these ranches, and for some twelve miles forms their northern boundary. The name Lompoc is from the Indian for lagoon or little lake, probably at first two words � Lum Poc. This was modified by the Spanish to Lompoco, whence the present name. The history of Lompoc colony proper begins only as far back as 1874, when a company of California farmers and business men organized a joint-stock company, under the auspices of the California Immigrant Union of San Francisco, and bought from Hollister & Dibblee the Lompoc and Mission Vieja ranches, giving $500,000, payable in ten annual installments. The capital stock was divided into 100 shares of $5,000 each. In the deed was placed a clause of an iron-clad nature, providing against the manufacture or sale, upon the lands to be acquired in the colony, of any intoxicating beverages. The lands were now surveyed, and divided into tracts of five, ten, twenty, forty and eighty acres. For a townsite was reserved a tract one mile square, nine miles from the coast, and near the center of the valley. The water supply was sufficient for a population of 25,000. On November 9 were held the sales of lots, amounting to more than $700,000 for city and farm tracts, leaving unsold about 35,000 acres, for which the company were offered $370,000 by the former owners. Building and farm operations were immediately begun, and within two months eighty families were occupying their new homes. A new county road was now built, connecting Lompoc with La Graciosa. Lompoc put forward a claim to be made the county-seat of a proposed new county, to be formed from a portion each of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara. By 1875 the town was flourishing. It supported a newspaper � The Record, started April 10 � a physician, a justice of the peace, and a notary public. There was a Sunday school of 100 members. Communication with the outside world was had by means of a tri-weekly stage. About this time it transpired that one Green, a druggist, was retail- ing liquor contrary to the terms of the land sales, and some 200 of the most reputable men and women assembled, and, first searching but vainly, for liquor in the other business houses, they proceeded to Green's drug store, and prepared to destroy his stock of liquors. Green resisted, and threatened violence, but submitted when it was intimated that the besieging party might proceed to a lynching settlement. The matrons then broke up the barrels, casks, etc., spilling the liquor, and then withdrew to their homes. This affair caused a great sensation, of more than local discussion. The first marriage in Lompoc was that of Jesse I. Hobson and Miss Lyndia Spencer, July 25, 1875. During this year Father McNally agitated the question of building a Roman Catholic Church at Lompoc; and so successful were his efforts that Protestants and Catholics alike gave liberally, especially the old ranches. Thus the church was soon built; it was christened �La Purisima," and in its tower was placed one of the bells from the old neighboring mission of La Purisima. The first school in Lompoc was opened on May 3 by Rev. J. W. Webb, who was Grand Secretary of the order of Good Templars in Southern California. The census of this year found 225 children in Lompoc school district. On October 16 the town voted an appropriation of $3,000 to the school-house fund. On the first anniversary of its found- ing, the colony contained 200 families, and good church and school facilities, although the school-house, whose fund was raised by the sale of bonds, was not built until 1876. In June, 1876, Lompoc was visited by the severest storm ever known in that section. The Lompoc Record stated that the waves ran twenty feet above the wharf. At Point Sal a $20,000 vessel was driven ashore and totally wrecked. The Lompoc wharf at Point Purisima, thirteen miles up the coast from Lompoc, was completed this year. (In the summer of 1884 this wharf was extended sixty feet, the rest of it -was repaired, and a new warehouse, 50 x 100 feet, was built.) Not one name of a property owner in this district was in the delinquent tax list this year. The events of 1878 were: the building of a $600 bridge across the Santa Ynez at Lom- poc, completed February 4; and a revival of the question of county division. Although nothing came of it, there was much discussion over this subject, as the section found it very detrimental to do business with so distant a center as Santa Barbara. By this time certain unfavorable conditions had produced a state of depression in the affairs of this section. To assist in tiding over the juncture, the original owners volunteered to remit cer- tain portions of the moneys still due them from the purchasers; Colonel Hollister, hold- ing five-twelfths, and Albert Dibblee and Thomas Dibblee each holding two-twelfths of the company's indebtedness, remitted all of the accrued interest for three years and two and one-half months, from the time of purchase, October 15, 1874, to date, January 1, 1878; also Mrs. Sherman, P. Stow, and Mr. and Mrs. Jack, each holding one-half of the indebtedness, remitted one year's interest, the whole rebate amounting to $130,000, lifting a heavy burden from the colonists. In 1880 Lompoc contained 200 inhabitants. There were Methodist, Roman Catholic, Christian, Cumberland Presbyterian, and South Methodist church organizations, the three first named owning church structures. There was a good school-house, a public hall 30x60 feet, a public library, three hotels, a Good Templars' library, a fifty-horse-power steam flouring-mill, and about thirty business establishments. There were societies of Odd Fellows, Good Templars, Knights of Pythias, and Patrons of Husbandry, also a literary and musical society and a uniformed brass band; two justices of the peace, two constables, two doctors, one lawyer and one notary public, a daily mail, and express and telegraph offices. The population of the colony lands was now 1,400. The territory was divided into six school districts, each having an ample school building. Moreover, a public park of five acres had been set apart for the general use. Regarding the entire acreage this year planted as 100, the percentage of the various principal crops was as follows: wheat, .36, barley, .36; mustard, .10; beans, .7; corn, .6; hay, 4.; flax, 1/2; potatoes, 1/2. In 1881 the liquor question once more came to the surface, producing the usual effect of strong waters � uneasiness and disorder. In April there was an explosion in the Lompoc Hotel, caused by the loading with gun-powder of wood to be consumed in the store. This had once before happened while the hotel was under the management of a man who sold liquors, but who, after the explosion, closed out his business and left the town. Against the traffic the local paper inveighed most bitterly, like all the citizens, and public meetings were held, numerously attended and full of enthusiasm. At last, toward midnight on May 20, a large bomb was thrown into George Walker's saloon, it being known that no one was in the building at the time. So large was the bomb, and so violent the concussion, that Mr. Walker discontinued the business in Lompoc; the sides were thrown out, the second floor and the roof crushed in, and in fact the building was quite demolished. Lompoc was very proud of two celebrations held this year. The first, on May 9, was the eighteenth anniversary of the Knights of Pythias of San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Lompoc, on which occasion there were processions, literary exercises, picnics, a bar- becue and a grand ball. The Fourth of July was also celebrated in an attractive manner. Lompoc now has a daily mail, a bank, express and telegraph offices, six organized churches with fine congregations, and the usual number of business houses warranted by a population of 2,000. The schools of this colony are considered among the best in the State. They employ twelve teachers. The town school is especially well conducted, and will soon be raised to a high-school grade. The town is laid out in rectangular blocks 800 x 500 feet, the streets being eighty and 100 feet wide. The blocks are bisected by an alley twenty feet wide, and the lots are 25x125 and 25x140 feet. The business houses are substantial, and the dwelling houses are mostly of the latest design. Plans have been submitted and bids advertised for a new public hall, 50 x 130 feet, which will cost some $6,000, and will be the finest hall in the county. An election has been called to vote bonds for a $10,000 school-house. The present year will witness building in the town and valley to the amount of $150,000. The town is incorporated, and it owns its own water supply. There is a project, too, of putting in an electric light plant. Lompoc now contains five general merchandise establishments, aggregating about $50,000; two hardware, of SIO.O'OO and $20,000; one shoe store, $1,000; one furniture, $5,000; two drug stores, $4,000 each; one jeweler, $7,000; two lumber-yards and plan- ing mills of $25,000 and $20,000; two hotels; two tailor shops; two fruit stores; two saloons; two large livery stables; two harness-shops; two barber shops; four large blacksmith shops; two butcher-shops; two physicians; one dentist; two lawyers; and four real-estate dealers. The grazing lands are excellent, and there is a large business done in live-stock. At present this valley has no railroad facilities. To the shipment of the section's products, there have been built three wharves � one at Lompoc Landing, Point Purisima, thirteen miles away, and at Point Arguello, fourteen miles distant, and one at Gaviota twenty- four miles distant. Passenger travel is by stage via Gaviota or Los Alamos. The census for 1885 showed Lompoc to have 195 boys, and 232 girls, or 427 children, of school age. The wheat crop of Lompoc and Santa Maria Valley for 1885 was about 100,000 centals. The average yield was the best in the county � about five sacks per acre. Santa Maria Valley yielded about three sacks per acre. In 1886 Lompoc reported a grand aggregate of domestic exports from that region to the value of $337,000. This was produced by 400 families, thus giving each $815, be- sides the products consumed at home. Of the crops raised, English mustard yielded 1,250 tons, of $75,000 gross value; beans 40,000 sacks, worth $50,000; wheat, $40,000; barley, $78,000; cheese and butter, $25,000; eggs and poultry, $15,000; beef cattle, $20,000; hogs, $15,000; horses sold, $12,000; 100 tons honey, $7,000. An unusually industrious and intelligent class of people has been attracted to Lompoc by the fame of the colony's high moral character. This causes this district to be regarded with particular favor for family settlement. Adjacent to this colony are many large ranches which will be subdivided and placed on the market in homestead tracts at an early future date. Lands of the greatest fertility in this valley can be bought for $125 per acre. Grazing lands sell for $10 to $40 per acre. The land of Lompoc Valley is a rich alluvial soil, and it is very productive. Artesian wells supply water for irrigation where necessary. Thus the country tributary to the town is adapted to agricultural and grazing purposes. Here 3,700 pounds of beans have been raised upon a single acre, and barley has been known to yield 100 bushels to the acre, eighty bushels being not uncommon. The English yellow mustard is an important product. It is sowed in May, and harvested in July, yielding 1,800 to 2,200 pounds to the acre, worth 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cents per pound. The wild mustard grows so large and in such profusion that men have earned $2.50 per day cutting it for market. Wheat, corn, rye, potatoes, flax, and fruits are also grown, and the output is simply enormous. Bee-keeping also yields a considerable revenue to augment the sum total. The apples from Lompoc were awarded at the New Orleans Exposition the first silver medal over all the other sections of the Pacific States and Territories.