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Description

Fine example of the original subdivision promotional map for Anapauma, California, a short-lived real estate development in Southern California promoted by David Hewes, who is perhaps most famous for having been the creator of the "Golden Spike."

Anapauma was located just south of El Modena, between Orange and Tustin, California, in the heart of Orange County. Formed only a few years earlier in 1889, Orange County was in the midst of its first significant real estate boom. While the map is interesting as an early development and promotional map for land in Orange County, the map is of perhaps even greater historical interest as one of the last business ventures of California businessman David Hewes, whose many accomplishments include participation in the creation of the University of California, the grading and filling of large sections of San Francisco Bay and Mission Bay and the invention of the "Golden Spike" as a commemoration of the joining of the eastern and western parts of the first transcontinental railroad.

The map shows the lots planted (by Hewes himself) in blue and the lots ready to plant in orange. Several major Orange County streets are already named, including Newport Avenue, Esplande Avenue, Chapman Avenue and Hewes Avenue. The Tustin Branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad and depot location are shown, along with proposed hotel and other sites. On the verso is a marvelous promotional tract, describing the advantages of the development.

Unlike most speculative real estate ventures in Southern California, David Hewes' Anapauma was in part a labor of love. Hewes had earned his fortune in San Francisco in the 1850s and 1860s. He was a prominent, well-connected Californian who relocated to Tustin in 1881 with his wife, where he began life anew on his 800 acre ranch which is the subject of this subdivision.

David Hewes was the fifth and youngest surviving son of Col. Caleb Hewes of Massachusetts. At age 14, David was "bound out" to his brother-in-law, Benjamin Cox Jr., where he remained until he was 17, continuing his studies and working for the family. He next worked as a clerk for Allen Rowe in Stoneham for four years. He entered the Phillips Academy at Andover in 1844 and graduated in 1847, thereafter enrolling at Yale.

During his time at Yale, Hewes became interested in California and by 1849, he had made his first investment in a California related venture, shipping materials for the construction of "iron buildings" in San Francisco and Sacramento. He traveled to California in December 1849 aboard the steamship Crescent City. Upon arriving in Sacramento, he commenced selling his iron buildings and also began a mercantile and trading business with a partner.

After a fire and flood in Sacramento in 1852 and some other legal issues with squatters in his buildings, he sold his possessions and relocated to San Francisco, although Hewes noted that:

"my first intention . . . had been to go to Southern California where extensive ranches could be leased of the Spanish possessors of leagues of land, at a small rental, with option of buying later at a nominal figure. [Abel] Stearn and others did this."

Hewes started a small grading business in San Francisco, which he continued until 1858, when he bought a larger business from a Mr. Cunningham, when Cunningham ran into problems with the City Council. Through this acquisiton, Hewes obtained contract work grading and filling in areas along San Francisco Bay and later leveling "sand hills" around the city. Hewes completed his contract to fill in parts of San Francisco Bay and Mission Bay in 1873.

It was during his time as a grader that he began laying track and purchasing steam engines, including Oregon's first locomotive (the Oregon Pony), which he later gifted to the state in 1873.

In the 1850s and 1860s, Hewes also participated in the founding of the University of California and its predecessor entities, along wth Herny Durant and others.

After finishing the grading contracts, Hewes sold business to Henry Villard & Company, who were then building the Northern Pacific Railroad.

During his early years in San Francisco, Hewes became friends and business associates with the major players in the Central Pacific Railroad, including Stanford, Hopkins, Huntington and the Crockers, who solicited him to participate in the project, which he declined. However, he was an unwavering booster, and as he notes in his autobiography:

On the completion of the railroad, seeing that there was no proper sentiment being expressed by the people of the Pacific Coast . . . it came to be my thought that the Central Pacific and Union Pacific should not be united except by a connecting link of silver rails. . . I thought that it would naturally create some sentiment among the rich men of the Comstock . . . I felt hurt and mortified that there was no recognition being made of such a great event . . . At the last moment, I said, "There was one last thing to be done, a last tie and a last spike to be furnished before the great work can be finished." As an individual, I presented a golden spike and polished laurel tie, with a silver shield [with commemorative inscription] . . .

Hewes presented the gold spike to then Governor Leland Stanford and later, after Stanford returned the spike to Hewes, Hewes donated it to the Stanford Museum, along with his art collection.

Hewes next became involved in the founding of the Seattle Coal Company in 1874. He married Matilda in 1875 and after a tour of Europe, settled in Oakland. In June 1881, Hewes and his wife and physician traveled to Southern California, hoping to find a better climate for his wife. They settled in Tustin, California, where Matilda lived for another 6 years, before dying in 1887.

During his first visit to Tustin in 1881, Hewes purchased an 800 acre ranch, which would become the Anapauma subdivision, 2.5 miles northeast of Tustin and 2 miles east of Orange. He planted grape vines in 1882 and later subdivided into the community shown on this map. Hewes married his second wife, Anna Lathrop (sister of Leland Stanford) in 1887. Hewes would go on to be active in the business community in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, until his death in 1915.

Condition Description
Pencil annotations, reportedly in the hand of the original foreman of the project.