I hope this isnt too much. It just talks about why and how E.J.Lucky Baldwin became such a big part of the San Gabriel Valley. In 1851, shortly after foreclosing on Casilda Soto de Lobo on a loan that used the Rancho La Merced as collateral, William Workman, owner of half of the massive Rancho La Puente east of Old Mission, executed a deed that transferred the ranch to his son-in-law, F. P. F. Temple and to Juan Matias Sánchez, who had been Workmans foreman at La Puente. To fund much of his projects, Temple and his father-in-law Workman got involved in banking. They had a partner, the brilliant Los Angeles merchant, Isaias W. Hellman, and the firm of Hellman, Temple and Company opened, in 1868, the second bank in Los Angeles. The enterprise was short-lived, though, because Temple and Hellman differed on loaning policy and other management questions. While Hellman went on to found Farmers and Merchants Bank, run Wells Fargo and other San Francisco banks, and became the wealthiest man on the west coast, Temple and Workman opened their own bank in 1871, known simply as Temple and Workman. The bank was popular, but often for the wrong reasons. A genial and highly-popular man, Temple too easily loaned money to people who lacked the ability to repay and did not have proper collateral to collect on loans that were delinquent. In addition, Temple was so busy with his many business projects and political ambitions (he ran for county supervisor in 1871 and county treasurer in 1873 and 1875, winning the last one), that he left day-to-day management of the bank to a cashier who did not properly administer its affairs. When the overheated California economy, heavily dependent on silver mine stocks in Nevada, collapsed in late August 1875, the Temple and Workman bank faced a run by depositors and could not pay out due to low cash reserves. It suspended business on the day of the county elections (at which Temple, ironically, was elected county treasurer) and remained closed for over three months. Desperate for funds to reopen and save the bank, Temple finally secured a loan from Elias J. Lucky Baldwin, a San Francisco capitalist, who was acquiring Los Angeles-area real estate and saw that Temple and Workman, the two biggest local landowners, were in dire straits. The loan was set up to be impossible to repay, but determined to avoid bankruptcy and shame, Temple signed on anyway, telling his father-in-law in a surviving letter that the loan was on hard terms but that everything would work out. The opposite proved true. After a grand reopening celebration in early December, depositors quietly closed their accounts and withdrew the borrowed funds. Baldwin added $130,000 more dollars and then turned off the spigot. In mid-January 1876, the doors of Temple and Workman closed for good and assignment proceedings began to sort our assets and liabilities. If the partners had declared bankruptcy when the bank first closed, they could have sold much of their assets to pay creditors and still been left with enough to live comfortably. Their gamble with Baldwins loan, however, proved to be a disaster. Mismanagement was starkly revealed in the inventory of the books and it was quickly realized that with Baldwin holding a mortgage on most of the assets held by Temple and Workman, depositors would get almost nothing. Remarkably, Temple was not asked to resign his office as county treasurer and served his two-year term without incident, although a deputy was assigned to conduct day-to-day work. Having declared bankruptcy, six months after the banks failure, Temple had the dubious distinction of being the countys only bankrupt financial manager while in office. He was also beset by tremendous stress, suffering a series of strokes from within months after the banks failure and continuing until his death in April 1880 at age 58. Though some sources claimed he died in a sheepherders hut on a corner of the ranch, this was not the case. He still retained possession of his 1851 adobe house and a substantial brick French Second Empire home built around 1870. Just before Temples death, Baldwin, having waited over three years to allow interest to accumulate, foreclosed on his mortgage in 1879, with the required sheriffs sale held early the next year. Baldwin did allow Temples widow to purchase the familys houses and 50 acres surrounding them and Antonia Margarita Workman de Temple remained the owner of what was called the Temple Homestead for over a decade afterward.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 18:59:09 +0000
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