Page 13 - eternalvalley1969

"A new town has been laid out by the Southern Pacific Railroad as "Superintendent of the St. John Sub-division of Rancho San Francisco" in
near the mouth of Soledad Canyon. The town is situated at the 1889. Needham had served as mayor of Arcadia, Kansas, but he was probably
head of the Santa Clara River and the object of its projectors is best known to the St. John group as author of the Kansas "Dry" law. Very
to tap the trade of our oil region and send it down the Santa active in Prohibitionist circles, he established contacts with the movement
Clara Valley to an ocean outlet." immediately upon .his arrival in the West.
With the completion of the railroad tunnel the discharge of the 1500- Needham opened a lumber yard and hardware store and his local activi-
man work force left an unfillable gap in the economy of the community. Many ties included charter membership in the Newhall Church. A candidate for
of the men drifted into nearby oil fields. President of the United States on the Prohibitionist ticket in California in
Intermittent stage coach hold-ups, the introduction of "iron safes" on the 1920, Needham stood steadfastly behind all educational, ethical and cultural
stages with two locks manufactured in such a way that "powder will not improvements. For over two decades this powerful, dignified man was the
explode them," the organization of the Newhall School district and the open- f outstanding personality in the community.
ing of a boarding house and a small saloon were events that characterized
the year 1877.
HENRY CLAY NEEDHAM,
The Railroad's new townsite did not prosper however, and in 1878 it was
moved three miles south. Along with all the buildings, the name, too, moved. OWNER OF
It became "Newhall" officially on February 5, 1878. Near the town, Sanford
Lyon was farming 200 acres and John Mitchell had 600 colonies of bees in 1;.TERNAL VALLEY SITE
Soledad Canyon. Most of the small local ranchers in the foothills and canyons
nearby stuck to dry farming, grazing, livestock and bees. FOR
In 1886, the Railroad started its long-discussed branch line down the
Santa Clara Valley to Ventura and Santa Barbara from a point "just north of MORE THAN
the cattle pens" at Newhall. At that time there was an old adobe residence
close to the right-of-way and it was feared that vibration from the trains on 50 YEARS
the branch line might disintegrate the adobe bricks if the tracks were located
too close to the building. To avoid this, the railroad junction point was placed
down by the original townsite - today's Saugus - near the mouth of the
Soledad Canyon. The branch line was opened to traffic, reaching Ventura on
May 18, Carpinteria, July 1st and Santa Barbara on August 19, 1887. The
adobe hacienda, responsible for the re-routing of the branch line, eventually
collapsed into dust.

Henry Clay Needham End of the Boom

and the St. John's Subdivision Only a few five- or ten-acre parcels in the St. John tract were sold - the

boom of the eighties had busted. At Newhall things were worse. The Railroad
During the great boom of the Eighties, three men joined together for the had started a competitive town three miles away. The Southern Hotel had
purchase and sub-division of 10,000 acres of Rancho San Francisco for promo- gone up in flames. Shortly afterward the grammar school burned down.
tion and settlement as a Prohibitionist colony. The men were ex-Governor Beale's Cut, now a County road, was a very tough pull, even for mules,
John St. John of Kansas, the National Prohibitionist leader; J~sse Yarnell, a and train schedules were not set up for the convenience of the little mining
successful land operator in Los Angeles and San Fernando and an ardent camps in the surrounding canyons.
Prohibitionist; and George B. Kartzenstein, a capitalist from Sacramento. Oil interests had moved to other parts of California; the gold fever had
To assure success of the project, St. John sent Henry Clay Needham west run its course and the traffic barriers imposed by the Santa Clara Mountain

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