Here’s a delightful article from the Imperial Press and Farmer newspaper, December 21, 1901. Sent with best wishes for happy holidays and a happy new year!

“A Magnificent Exhibit From the Back Country” was the title of an article in The San Diego Union on October 6, 1892. The article was about an exhibit of produce mounted in the offices of the San Diego County Chamber of Commerce.

Described as “the best ever seen in the city,” the exhibit included hundreds of pounds and multiple varieties of fruits, vegetables, grain and flowers from all parts of the county, with the names and locations of the various growers who contributed to the exhibit.

There were individual pieces of produce notable for their size. W. C. Kimball of National City contributed three oranges, but as described in the article, they were whoppers: “total weight 72 ounces, the largest weighing 26 ounces and measuring 15 inches in circumference…”

T. W. Graham, of San Diego city, brought “two Hubbard squashes, 106 and 99 pounds.”

Then there were larger displays of bounty, like “400 pounds of grapes of different varieties” displayed by D. S. Sheldon of Dehesa, or the multiple boxes of apples of multiple varieties supplied by folks like D. B. Rockwood of San Pasqual, Maurice Reidy of Escondido and James Bonsall of, guess where? Bonsall!

Corn, barley, almonds, wheat, all manner of nature’s bounty was listed. What also stands out now are the names of the “back country” communities supplying this bounty. Some of them will be familiar to today’s readers, like Bonsall, Dehesa, and Julian. Others no longer exist, like Nellie, a name readers of this blog may recall from an earlier post.

Others might not strike today’s readers as being all that far back in the “back country.” Apples grapes and oranges came from Poway and Escondido, for example. Flowers and oranges were displayed from Nestor and Chollas Valley, two communities which are today neighborhoods within the San Diego city limits.

The Union article concluded that the three-day exhibit “was crowded….by admiring visitors to whom San Diego county’s ‘back country’ was a revelation.”

Get Updates Automatically-Become A Follower of the San Diego History Seeker

You can get updates of San Diego History Seeker automatically in your email by clicking on the “Follow” button in the lower right corner of the blog page. You’ll then get an email asking you to confirm. Once you confirm you’ll be an active follower.

Some readers may recall a past post about the steamer “Orizaba” which brought many new residents to San Diego from points north in the late 19th century. One of the more interesting passengers on that steamer in November 1869 was John Harbison, who came with his business partner R. G. Clark. It was notable because among the possessions these two gentlemen brought with them were 110 colonies of honeybees.

Harbison already had a national reputation as an apiarist. He’d patented what came to be called the “Harbison Hive Box” in 1859 and authored a groundbreaking textbook on the subject in 1861. He had flourishing hives and honey businesses in his home state of Pennsylvania and in northern California when he turned his attention to San Diego.

He met with the same success here. Within a couple of years he was shipping honey from his San Diego County operation across the country. He was selling colonies and hive boxes to other apiarists as well, encouraging a burgeoning industry in the county and the state.

“In 1874 beekeeping became a major industry in the county,” according to a 1969 article in The Journal of San Diego History. “ Two sawmills were kept busy a good part of the year turning out beehives, frames, section boxes and shipping cases. Honey production for that year was nearly one-half million pounds.”

Harbison had surely earned his nickname, “King of the Beekeepers.”

Honey production isn’t as dominant in these parts today as it was then. Still, San Diego County today ranks third among all other counties in the nation in honey production, according to the county farm bureau’s website. So John Harbison’s name and contributions live on in today’s local apiarists and in the Harbison hive box design many of them use. His name lives on as well in the place near the Sweetwater River that was home to his local hives, Harbison Canyon.

Sources for this post included historic San Diego newspapers, the article, “John S. Harbison: Pioneer San Diego Beekeeper,” by Lee H. Watkins, which appeared in The Journal of San Diego History in its Fall 1969 issue, and the 1888 book, The City and County of San Diego Illustrated and Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men and Pioneers.

Get Updates Automatically-Become A Follower of the San Diego History Seeker

You can get updates of San Diego History Seeker automatically in your email by clicking on the “Follow” button in the lower right corner of the blog page. You’ll then get an email asking you to confirm. Once you confirm you’ll be an active follower.

The presidential election of 1892 fell on November 8, just like this year’s. On November 10, 1892, The San Diego Union reported that James Weaver, presidential candidate of the People’s Party (also known as the Populist Party) had carried at least three county communities: Fallbrook, Bear Valley (today’s Valley Center), and San Marcos. The Populist ticket came in second in Poway, losing to Republican incumbent President Benjamin Harrison, but beating Democrat Grover Cleveland.

Cleveland was the ultimate winner nationwide, garnering 5.5 million votes nationally to Harrison’s 5.1 million. Weaver drew a bit over a million votes nationwide. But while the Populists were the losers in that election, it’s worth noting some of the planks in their 1892 platform, which included, among other things, a graduated income tax, the direct election of United States Senators, and election reforms to insure “a free and fair ballot in all elections…”

This would not be the last time that a so-called “third party” would pioneer reforms that would ultimately become law.

The Populists then were also known for fighting for the voting rights and civil rights of black farmers in the former Confederacy, literally riding to their defense in some cases against attempts by the KKK to suppress the black vote.

Within the first decades of the twentieth century, however, the People’s Party would be torn by racism and wind up supporting efforts to suppress the people it had fought to defend and embrace. That would ultimately lead to the party’s collapse and disappearance. Its followers would be absorbed into the Republican or Democratic parties, whom the People’s Party had originally challenged for their dominance.

That wouldn’t be the last time that would happen either.

Sources for this post included historic San Diego newspapers and the book, The Right To Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States, by Alexander Keyssar.

Get Updates Automatically-Become A Follower of the San Diego History Seeker

You can get updates of San Diego History Seeker automatically in your email by clicking on the “Follow” button in the lower right corner of the blog page. You’ll then get an email asking you to confirm. Once you confirm you’ll be an active follower.

Charles Wetmore portrait from City and County of San Diego Illustrated, 1888

Most San Diegans today probably haven’t heard of Charles Wetmore. But he was a busy guy for most of his life. Born in Maine in 1847, he came to California at the age of nine with his mother, joining his father who was a pioneer developer in northern California who’d built wharves and invested in mines and railroads.

At the age of 12, Charles became co-editor of Young California, considered “the first juvenile paper on the coast,” according to a biographical sketch in the 1888 book, The City and County of San Diego Illustrated. As a young journalist and activist, he was involved in causes ranging from organizing carpenters to helping establish the University of California.

He came to San Diego fresh out of college in 1868. The biographical sketch said he “had a strong taste for journalism and intended to publish a newspaper, but changed his mind and established a real estate agency, the first one in the new city.” Not long after opening that office, Wetmore, in partnership with another individual, “negotiated his first sale—the San Bernardo Ranch.”

Actually, he bought a portion of the then-17,000 acre rancho from James McCoy. But that was the beginning of substantial property and other business and political dealings for Charles Wetmore.

The city of San Diego in 1868 was concentrated primarily in Old Town. There was not yet a wharf or a railroad. But Wetmore and others would play a role in changing that.

Get Updates Automatically-Become A Follower of the San Diego History Seeker

You can get updates of San Diego History Seeker automatically in your email by clicking on the “Follow” button in the lower right corner of the blog page. You’ll then get an email asking you to confirm. Once you confirm you’ll be an active follower.