[p. 107] Chapter IV. Transportation and Commerce.
Trading vessels had entered the port of San Pedro from the earliest history of California, and the port had been a busy place in the forties. In August, 1840, according to Henry Mellus, thirteen vessels touched at this port. In 1849 the first steamer, the Goldhunter, entered the port. The first steamer to make regular trips was the Ohio, which carried passengers to San Francisco, charging "$55 for cabin passage, the bill of fare consisting of salt beef, hard bread, potatoes and coffee, without milk or sugar." Freight was $25 per ton. In 1872 the Pacific Mail Steamship Company put on its service, with passenger fare at $15 and freight $5 per ton. Before the building of the railroad in 1869 freight was hauled to the city by carts or wagons at the rate of $1.00 per hundredweight in the fifties. In 1852 Alexander & Banning put on the first stage, fare to the city $10; in 1867 J.J. Tomlinson established a rival stage line and Benjamin Hayes writes: "I vividly remember standing in front of the United States Hotel in 1868, one night of a steamer's arrival, and hearing the rival stages of Banning and Tomlinson come up Main street, racing to get in first, the horses on the gallop and in the darkness a man on each stage blowing a horn to warn people in the street to clear the track."
[p. 107 Gen. Phineas Banning, 1908e]
In 1855 fifty-nine vessels landed at San Pedro; in 1865 101 vessels touched at the port and in 1875 426 vessels entered; in 1906 1700 vessels arrived bringing imports to the value of $15,000,000. In 1858 the port was changed from San Pedro to Wilmington, through the action of Col. Phineas Banning in building up that town. In 1871 the government, after several preliminary surveys, made [p. 108] an appropriation and began improving the harbor. From that date to the present work has continued more or less intermittently, and a very large sum has been expended in carrying out the extensive plans for the improvement of the inner harbor and the construction of an outer harbor.
We have seen the Californians galloping from San Diego to Monterey on their tough little horses, the best saddle horses in the world, all early visitors agree. Enroute they stopped at missions or ranchos and received entertainment and found fresh horses furnished them at every stopping place. Or, if a party were traveling, it might be accompanied by two or three Indian servants, driving a band of horses which supplied fresh mounts each day. Their women and their baggage or freight, were transported in carretas, the framework made of poles and hides and mounted on wooden wheels. The earliest mails were delivered more or less regularly by post riders. Even after the American occupation Los Angeles had no regular mails and no stages for several years.