 The Romance of the Ranchos Los Angeles, 1854 First stage crosses San Fernando Pass Wilmington, 1858 New seaport founded on Dominguez Ranch Wilmington, 1862 Explosion of both kills travelers The title insurance and trust company of Los Angeles presents the Romance of the Ranchos A weekly dramatization of the highlights of history which make the colorful background for our Southern California of today Each week our wandering Vicaro Frank Graham returns to tell another true story of the days of the dawns Tonight's program is the first of the Romance of the Ranchos broadcast at this our new time If you have friends who have been listeners at our old time, 6 o'clock Wednesday evenings Or friends who you think would enjoy these programs, whether previously listeners or not You may do both them and the sponsors a favor by reminding them of this new hour for Romance of the Ranchos And you will do a service to the nation by reminding everyone to buy defense bonds and stamps And by making this investment in victory yourself as frequently and systematically as you can And now here to tell us the story as our wandering Vicaro Frank Graham Buenas noches, señoras y señores Tonight our story is concerned with a man who stands out as one of the great pioneers of Southern California A man whose work helped to make possible the fast and early growth of the Southland Into a great modern center of commerce and industry He might be called the father of early transportation here And he was the founder of the great port of Wilmington Let's listen to the story of Phineas Banning A story rich in the Romance of the Ranchos Phineas Banning was born on a Delaware farm in 1830 Son of a family who were among the earliest English settlers of Delaware Although his father was one of the early graduates of Princeton University Phineas had a limited education when at the age of 14 he decided to plunge into the world of affairs So he left the farm to work in his brother's law office in Philadelphia But he soon tired of the musty law files and sought a job as a clerk in a mercantile store Already the youngster had grown up ideas and a lot of self-respect So young fellow, you want a job in my store, huh? Think you can sell merchandise? Well, of course, Mr. Plumber Well, I'll give you a try You're saying your name is Banning, huh? Yes, sir, Phineas Banning That's a mighty big name for such a young fellow What do they call you, Phineas? No, sir, I'm Phineas Banning and that's what I'm called Do they call you birdie? What? Why, of course not No, they call you Elbert because you're more respectful Well, that's why I'm called Phineas I may be young, but I'm able to make my way like any man And what's more, I'm going to become somebody, do big things Someday Phineas Banning will be a big name And that's me, Phineas Banning Well, once so young, Phineas prospered at his new job And it was some years later when he was entrusted with a job for an important customer How's that, Mr. Claiborne? Fine, fine, Mr. Banning They'll do quite well for that box Now we'll start on this other big one This is pretty valuable crockery, isn't it, sir? I hate to think of how much money is represented here That's why we have to be so careful Oh, I don't think we have to worry about this stuff now I don't either You're doing a fine job of packing In fact, Mr. Banning, you've handled this whole thing very well Very well indeed Well, thank you, sir, but we're very glad to be of service You know I've been thinking I could use a young fellow like you And besides, I need someone to come along with me And look after the shipment Would you be interested? Well, it's kind of you, but I'm pretty well satisfied right here Where are you taking this to, uh, New York? No, sir, not by a long ways 3,000 miles in the other direction That's another reason why it has to be so carefully packed This crockery is going overseas Across the Isthmus of Panama and out to California Holy suffering, catfish You mean all the way out to the Pacific Coast? That's right It'll make a right nice trip And there's plenty of interesting work And good living to be had out there If you'd want to stay Oh, say, that's different California, huh? Oh, gosh Would you like to go? All you have to do is say the word Yes, would I, Mr. Claybourne? Why, any young fellow, jump at a chance like that When do we leave? And so in 1851 Phineas Banning found himself on a ship bound For the promised land of California Enroute, his companion and employer, died Leaving this 21-year-old boy To deliver his valuable goods at San Pedro And also, leaving him stranded 3,000 miles from home without a job There was only one thing to do And young Phineas was not a man to waste time Quickly, he obtained a position with the commission agents He met on the beach at San Pedro Within a short time, he was working With the firm of Temple and Alexander Who handled much of the shipping Which passed through the natural harbor at San Pedro His integrity, his initiative and drive Soon won him the admiration of his employers And when a decision was about to be made It was called in Yes, come in, come in You sent for me, Mr. Alexander? Yes, Phineas, I did I wanted to tell you that There are going to be some changes around here You don't mean that my work hasn't been satisfactory? Oh, goodness, no I didn't mean to imply anything of that kind No, your work has been excellent And both John and myself are convinced That you're an up-and-coming youngster Well, thank you, sir I'm glad you feel that way The changes I spoke of are these First, John, that is Mr. Temple Has decided to give up his share of the business So, since I don't want to carry on alone There'll be a new partner in the firm A new manager Oh, well, that's fine But why'd you tell me, sir? Because you're it, Phineas That is, if you want to be What? You mean that... Oh, Mr. Alexander, do I? All right, son But if we're going to be partners There'll be no more of this Mr. Alexander business From now on, it's David And together, you and I Are going to do all right Phineas Banning took over John Temple's interest in the company And so started a partnership Which was the last long To bring profit to both men Where this is a start, Phineas Banning Grew to become one of the most important men In the Southern California of his day And the name of Phineas Banning Was spread throughout the whole Of the growing Southland By the stage lines he established Stage lines which carried passengers From the ships at San Pedro Up to Los Angeles In hair-raising races Against those of his rivals Banning was a visionary Always looking for new fields To conquer When Fort Tahone was established High in the mountains North of the San Fernando Valley Banning and Alexander Decided to try a stage line To the fort Even though there was no road Over the steep slopes And it was Banning himself Who took the first stage up Who said we couldn't make the summit Of San Fernando Pass Oh Phineas, let's turn around And go back We'll never make it to Tahone What are you talking about, David? Of course we will But this is too tough No road, just an old Mexican pack Trail Difficult enough for a pack mule Or any pack mule can go Banning and Alexander's stages will go David, I'm surprised You wanted to give up At Phineas It's only good common sense People were right Everybody said This was an impossibility You couldn't even find a driver Who'd try and have to do it yourself They were all just scared That's all They've got some sense, you mean David, they all said We couldn't get this far To the top of San Fernando Pass But we did it We're here After a trip I'll never forget Why we aren't dead I don't know But from here on The going is even tougher Now look Just look At where the trail leads now Have you taken a look At that cliff You're supposed to go down Yeah It's quite a drop, isn't it? Quite a drop Why, ma'am It's almost impossible To keep your footing on it Let alone take a concrete stage And six horses down I'll make it No, you won't I own a part of this And I forbid you to risk my property We're turning around here Now, David, calm down Think what this will mean To our business We've got to keep up At Phineas It's our lives That we're taking chances with You can never get this stage Down that gate Without killing yourself And us Oh, yes, I can I'll take care of myself And as for you and the passengers You're not going with me You can walk down And I'll meet you at the bottom Uh, Phineas Here we go I'll meet you at the bottom, David Get up Phineas Smokes, look at that He's going down Look, look He's skinning all over the trail Whether the stage is ahead Of the horses half the time Oh, Phineas, you He'll never make it Look, look He's out of control He's going to crash Uh, sure Sure, I'm all right You see, David What do you mean you see? I got her down Maybe not all in one piece But she's down the grade We took a stage over San Fernando Pass Phineas Banning was a man Who knew no obstacles And in spite of a bad wreck On the first run Soon, Banning's stages Were making the trip To the home regularly And the fame of Phineas Banning grew He had big ideas In 1858 He was talking about Something entirely new I'm going to found A new town, David Yes, sir New San Pedro But why Phineas? There's already San Pedro I know, but you've got to look ahead This section is going to grow And grow fast, David Already plenty of people Are coming here from the east Lots of new towns are going to go up And we can get on the ground floor But why here? People want farming land Not this low beach land But don't you understand Los Angeles is going to be A big city There's going to be trade And lots of it The ships of the world will stop here This is going to be a big harbor Yeah, maybe But it looks to me Like San Pedro's already the port They can handle all the shipping There is now Gosh, man This harbor hasn't even begun to develop yet Later on You're going to see this whole harbor Dredged and rebuilt And as for San Pedro My new San Pedro Is going to back it off the map even now Now look You see this inlet here Well, that's going to be the new port Phineas is not deep enough To float a ship No, of course not The ship will anchor Out in the bay Just as they do now But the small boats Will bring the goods here Instead of two San Pedro Why? Well, don't you see Because this shortens the trip To Los Angeles by six miles Our wagons and stages Will take at least one hour Off the time into town Well, I see That's right Let it give us a real advantage Well, now you see what I mean Yes, yes, of course Wait then As far as I'm concerned The town of new San Pedro Is only a matter of time On September 25th, 1858 Great-in-patenters were landed For the first time At San Pedro Newtown Vanning's team tugged Toed the loaded barges up the inlet And a new port was born Blocks were laid out Various prominent citizens Of the Southland bought sections Including Benjamin D. Wilson John G. Downey Manuel Dominguez Then the town got a new name Well, sir, it's this way We figured we sort of needed A new name, distinctive Different from San Pedro Everybody seemed to think I should have my choice in names Because the town was my idea, I guess So I decided on the name Of the town near where I was born In Delaware Wilmington And that's it Yes, that was it The town was rechristened Wilmington And its growth continued For a while it shared the business With San Pedro But in 1859, with the establishment Of Camp Drum and the Drum Barracks At Wilmington The new port forged ahead During the Civil War All the army supplies were handled Through Vanning's landings And prosperity hit In addition, Vanning and Alexander Had a profitable trade with the Mormons Of Salt Lake And a teaming lumber business In Los Anglos Those were lush days And Vinious Vanning built a beautiful Three-story mansion For his family in Wilmington It may still be seen there Standing in a public park But he was not satisfied With his already great achievements He still had ideas far beyond What was dreamed for the Southland In those days He was still interested Chiefly in transportation And in 1860, when he heard About the new steam wagon Yes, sir Dave It's a wagon without horses It runs on steam It sounds crazy to me Crazy or not Over in Leeds, England Where they made it They found that it will pull 85 tons What? That's unbelievable But think, man What that'll mean to our business Think how much more freight We can haul at one time Yeah, that's right Well, what do you plan to do? Well, it's on its way Over to San Francisco now Our copper company has bought it And I'm going to buy it from them But Vinious It'll cost a lot of money Sure it will But whatever Los Anglos Is going to be the first city On the coast To have a steam wagon When news of Banning's purchase Reached Los Anglos Excitement ran high The population waited impatiently For their first glimpse Of the marvelous invention When word came that it arrived In San Pedro Crowds waited for its appearance But they were doomed to disappointment No, it's no use, David It just won't work Well, it does seem to run I know, what good's that? Won't haul any freight None, I guess Except as a curiosity Except as an example Of Banning's folly, you mean? Well, it's not sure for I know, and I'm not worried I'll keep right on Looking for a way To bring new ideas to Los Anglos Someday This is going to be a great country, David And I'd like to help make it Vinious in spite of anything The rest of us can do about it, you will You'll bring us progress Whether we want it or not And more power to you Most people Never question the value Of life insurance Or insurance against damage Or theft of a car But many people When buying a home Do not recognize That title insurance Is just as important As a protection Against the loss of that home Some disregard the possibility Of a defect in their title Which could mean that their home Might be taken away from them Without any payment whatsoever Others, suppose that they With little or no legal knowledge Can examine the records themselves And establish the validity Of their title In spite of the fact That this would require weeks And months To go through the files Of over 50 public offices But the wise homeowner knows That for a relatively small cost He can obtain protection By taking out a policy of title insurance From the title insurance And trust company of Los Angeles Trained title examiners Will go over the record Of his property All the way back To the earliest days They will check the possibilities Of forgeries And many more hidden defects Which might jeopardize His ownership of the land And once they've decided That he has a good title to the land And issued their policy Of title insurance He will be paid the full amount Of any loss he suffers Up to the face amount Of the policy In case some defect Covered by the policy Should later be found Then he can be secure In the knowledge That his investment Is protected Phineas Banning's Business dealings prosper For the most part Of an occasional reverse Such as the steam wagon deal But in 1862 He suffered a serious loss He was aboard his beautiful little steamer The Ada Hancock Which carried passengers from the wharf At Wilmington To the ships waiting in the bay Standing at the rail He was talking to a friend Well Mr. Banning The bay looks rough today It is Part of wind chopping it up When we leave the inlet And hit the open water We'll know it all right On the last trip That first wave Gave us part of thumb Well I hope I don't get seasick No, it's not far out to the senator And that ship's big enough To weather this easelift Just these little boats That make you sick Well we've certainly got good company Many of the most important people Was anglicer aboard Yeah, have a full load all right See, make a good grip on the rail Here we come into the open water And it's going to be a bad one Why doesn't he head her around more? Hey Joe, Joe, head her in We're going to hit broadsash Hey, those waves are big Look out, here it comes Phineas, Phineas We're tipping over We'll come back up There's water pouring over the sand That cold water gets to the boilers Just give me your hand up I'll pull you up That's it There you are Good Lord Good Lord, what happened Phineas? I ain't quite blessed to get myself The boilers blew up Where's the boats? Loan the bits down to the water line Come on, there's still some people in the water We've got to help them Yes, but what about all the others? They're gone They're past health Come on Grim tragedy hit banning As the explosion of the Ada Hancock Claimed the lives of at least 26 persons But he escaped miraculously uninjured As time went on Phineas returned To his old dream of furnishing a new method Of transportation for the Southland Only this time he proposed a railroad From Wilmington to Los Angeles And he ran into objections A railroad from Los Angeles To San Pedro in Wilmington? Ha, you're crazy There wouldn't be enough freight For two trains a month We'll fill more than two a day And this town hasn't even started to grow yet In a few years it'll be 50 a day You're dreaming Phineas And I don't mind you're dreaming Just so you don't ask the county to foot the bill Here you want us tax payers To put up the bonds for this road That we don't need It'll bankrupt the county It'll do nothing of the kind It'll be the biggest boost this section has ever known It'll make Los Angeles and its harbor one It'll bring an inland city right down to the water Well, if you expect my support For such a crazy scheme You'll have another think coming I value my pocketbook And that of my fellow tax payers too much We'll stop it I don't think so, sir Because I'm a good fighter when it gets started And believe me, I'm started The Los Angeles and San Pedro railroad Is only a matter of time Once more Phineas Banning made that prediction And once more he was right He even got himself elected to the California legislature To fight his fight on its floors Slowly our position was overcome The legislature was won But the people had to be converted to the idea Of putting up the necessary money In March of 1868 an election was held Banning received the news Phineas, Phineas, they've done it They've done it You mean they've voted for the railroad It was close, but they did it 704, 672 against Oh, thank goodness Now we can go ahead We'll get started laying the tracks right away A year later the first trains Ran from Wilmington to Los Angeles And within a few years Phineas Banning's boast came true And 50 trains a day Were hauling the freight of the port But for Banning there was little triumph In the completion of the railroad Soon after Phineas, you don't mean to tell me That you're going to sell everything You're interested in the railroad The wharves, everything I have to, Dave I've sunk so much money in this mining business Down in Sonora I've taken a terrific loss But that doesn't mean you have to sell Just hang on and you'll be all right No, I have to have money That's the only way I can raise it But why, your credit's good If you need money No, Dave, you don't understand My friend Titian put his money into the mines too On my say so Now that our money's gone I'm not going to let him stand a lot I'm going to pay him back every cent he lost But Phineas, that's crazy He knew the risk He took a legitimate business chance He came in on my say so That's enough for me I'm going to pay him back every cent And so Banning lost most of his holdings But it didn't discourage him He still came up with plans and ideas And one of them took him to Washington In 1871, there he talked to a senator So Mr. Banning, you've come all the way from California To get us to improve your little harbor of San Pedro It's not a little harbor, Senator It's one of the world's best harbors Could be And it's the port of what will one day Be one of America's greatest cities Los Angeles Well, you may be right But that looks a long way off Perhaps it will be If you gentlemen don't help us improve it Come, come now You mean this little breakwater you want Will do all this? No, but it's a start It will mean that a channel will be created Deep enough for some pretty good sized ships To come right up to the walls Instead of anchoring out in the bays They do now And why may I ask Are you so anxious to see this done? Are you in business there? I have been It might be again This naturally would help my business And all my friends' business But more than that I want to see that wonderful country grow As it should I want to live to see it The most progressive section of our nation And I think I will Well, I admire your enthusiasm, sir Well, maybe we can help you At least from now on I'll be on your side Thank you, Zennedy Thank you And with his boundless enthusiasm And good sense Phineas Banning won federal support For improvement of the harbor Of San Pedro in Wilmington On a trip across the country Paying his own expenses For his great contributions To the growth of the Southland He was honored in 1872 By appointment as a brigadier general Of militia But although he never served in combat Banning was proud of his title Now he saw a chance To get back into business in Wilmington As the Southern Pacific Took over the Los Angeles to San Pedro Railroad From them, Banning bought some small boats And warehouses with borrowed money And soon he was once more The thriving businessman But he was aging now More and more he left the business In the hands of his sons It was one day in 1885 On a visit to San Francisco So this is one of those Cable cars I've heard about, eh? Yes, General Banning It's remarkable how she climbs right up These steep hills, isn't it? Yeah, it's mighty fine I've always been interested In transportation myself, you know But this is something I never thought of Well, this is about the end of our ride We'll get off to the next street All right Step down, General Here, let me give you a hand Oh, now since I'm doing all right Look out, General You're stepping right in front of that wagon Yeah, what did you say? General, look out! Injured by a heavy wagon Which knocked him down The great six foot, two-frame Of Phineas Banning Was stretched out upon a hospital bed Never to rise again And on March the 5th, 1885 General Phineas Banning died The Southland mourned One of its most public-spirited citizens One of its most progressive leaders In creative minds He's been called the father Of Los Angeles Harbor Improvement And the father of the Southland's transportation systems And, of course, he was the father Of the great port of Wilmington Which is today grown into even greater stature Than he had vision for This success story of the youngster From the Delaware farm Is typical of the chapters From the progress of Southern California Rich in the romance of the ranchers Title insurance service Is not the kind of commodity Which can be bought and sold over a counter With price as the primary consideration The protection which prompt Accurate title insurance service gives To those who deal in real property Is worth far more than the cost Which is attached to it However, it is well worth knowing That the insurance which the title insurance And trust company of Los Angeles gives To its customers is available at rates That are substantially lower Than the average cost of such service elsewhere Title insurance is something Which you may purchase only once Or twice in a lifetime It means peace of mind and security Of your investment in real property The title insurance and trust company Of Los Angeles through the years Of business integrity has established A reputation which will bear Your most rigid scrutiny What's the story for next week? Next Sunday we take you to the land Around El Monte, land which once was The great ranchers in Francisco And bring you the story of the battles Over its ownership. It's a story That's interesting and exciting. So don't miss it. Until next Sunday night Then this is your Wondering Vaquero Frank Graham Saying, hasta la vista, señoras y señores The Romance of the Ranchos A presentation of the title insurance And trust company of Los Angeles Featuring Frank Graham as the Wondering Vaquero Is dramatized by John Donkel And produced by Ted Bliss With special music arranged by Gaylord Carter Bob LeMond speaking and saying good night This is the Columbia Broadcasting System