By james art A curious man named Sherlock Holmes first appeared on the literary scene in 1887, creating a role he called “consulting detective”.
And within a few months of Holmes’ introduction in A Study in Scarlet, a similar character appeared on the streets of San Bernardino. The man, Harry Taylor, was probably the city’s first private investigator.
On February 27, 1888, he really made his mark when he went to Los Angeles and tracked down Christian Merkel, who had broken into the safe of Charles H. Lindner, owner of the Pearl Restaurant in San Bernardino. Merkel was brought back to the city and quickly sent to San Quentin for three years.
As you might expect, Taylor became an instant celebrity, even without Dr. Watson to chronicle his successes. A few days later, Taylor was called to Santa Barbara in hopes of tracking down another prisoner there. On March 6, he took the Oceanside police to Joe Krum, who had escaped from prison a few days earlier.
But this Holmes went a little too far in his “investigations.” On March 31, Taylor falsely accused a woman of stealing $150. And instead of calling the San Bernardino Police Department’s version of Inspector Lasttrade, Taylor demanded that she pay him “bail money” to keep her out of jail, which she did.
Local police uncover his extortion scheme and arrest Taylor.
“Artful Harry went a little further in his detective ambition,” wrote the San Bernardino Daily Courier on April 5. It was also discovered that Taylor had defrauded more than one person in the same way.
“He is a dashing scoundrel, this would-be detective, an ex-crook, and a generally worthless character,” concluded the Courier on 14 April.
And it’s a bit elementary to predict what happened next – Taylor, out on bail, fled town and was never seen again, leaving his servant with $300.
Free lawn mowing
Mowing lawns and cutting tall weeds has never been a popular summer activity in Needles, or perhaps ever.
Living along the Colorado River years ago required some creativity when summer temperatures in the triple digits lingered for many days even as the sun hid behind the hills. Pushing a lawnmower or spinning a lawnmower was never part of the homeowners’ plans.
The San Bernardino Evening Index of July 19, 1906, reported that Needles residents did make good use of the resources at their disposal to get the job done. The only equipment needed was a lasso.
Their solution? “They catch a stray keg, of which there are many around town at the moment, and lock him up in their yard,” the newspaper reported.
“Since it’s work or starve the animals, the lawn soon gets rid of the long grass.” The well-guarded burro was then released and began looking for another free meal.
Our first UFO?
Pomona and Ontario were briefly shaken when a mysterious flame seemed to hover in the sky above the towns for several nights, the Pomona Bulletin reported on March 18, 1926.
He gave some interesting explanations:
“Planes are spying on the country!”
“No, I think they’re air smugglers.”
“I think you see fireflies.”
It turns out that George Blakey, a 14-year-old boy from Ontario, actually flies his kite at night. He and friends attached a safety lantern to their kite to get everyone excited about one of our first UFO sightings.
Cleaning
A thief broke into the Riverside Steam Laundry on Dec. 3, 1918, but didn’t get away with any money, the Riverside Daily Press reported two days later.
The thieves got away with nothing but bundles of linen, freshly laundered pillowcases, tablecloths and napkins. The money in the cash register has not been touched.
“Looks like somebody’s going to start a lodging house somewhere here,” concluded Laundry Superintendent FE Brown.
Tours derailed
Volunteers from the Pomona Valley Historical Society continue to clean up and assess the damage from the recent fire that burned the east side of their Pomona Museum at the Ebell Historical Club.
And after this disaster, there is more bad news. They will not be holding one of their most popular events this year, the Halloween Night Tours of Historic Spadra Cemetery.
The cemetery, 2850 Pomona Blvd., can only be entered or exited by crossing train tracks at its entrance. Recently, long kilometers of trains on the three tracks there have stopped and blocked access to the cemetery, sometimes for long periods of time. Since the historical society has no way of knowing when this will happen, it does not feel comfortable scheduling tours and potentially trapping visitors in the cemetery.
Years ago, the cemetery was vandalized on Halloween by visitors who wanted to relive that scary night in a cemetery. The historical society posted a guard at the entrance to keep vandals at bay. He then realized that if the members had to be there anyway, why not organize tours and fundraisers. This Halloween the society will be there guarding the cemetery just like before, but without the tours.
The historical society is also looking for volunteers who can present various aspects of historic life at the Palomares Adobe to fourth graders. Such skills to perform or explain are brick making, blacksmithing, lasso throwing, the adobe garden or its historical review. Tours are available throughout November from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m
If you can volunteer, call 909-623-2198 or go to [email protected].
The society also conducts Sunday tours of historic sites: Nov. 3 – Palomares Adobe; November 17 – Phillips Mansion and Currier House; Nov. 24, Barbara Greenwood Kindergarten.
Go to www.pomonahistorical.org for hours, costs and to make reservations.
Joe Blackstock writes for In Empire history. You can find him at [email protected] or on Twitter @JoeBlackstock. Check out some of our past columns on Inland Empire Stories on Facebook at www.facebook.com/IEHistory.