Sixty Years in Southern California

By Harris Newmark

This is a book of reminiscences of the author, an immigrant to Los Angeles from Germany immediately after California gained statehood.  The book covers the period from 1853 to 1913, encompassing the bulk of the period which the Homestead Museum interprets (1830 to 1930).  Harris Newmark encounters many characters and observes many events, which are also touched upon by the Homestead Museum.

Harris Newmark is one of many distinguished immigrants from Germany, who helped develop Los Angeles.  Included in this group is I. W. Hellman, the great banker, entrepreneur and philanthropist, who partnered with F.P.F. Temple in the banking business.  Newmark owned a commercial establishment in what is now downtown Los Angeles, where he also resided.

The author speaks in detail about many early settlers of Los Angeles and provides insights in the Los Angeles’ transition from a Mexican pueblo into a full-fledged American city.  He remembers the people, the places and the institutions that made Los Angeles a significant, though not the leading, pueblo in Mexican California.  Among the people were William Workman and John Rowland and their respective families.  He mentions the importance of La Placita, the Catholic church that remains today at the center of Mexican culture in Los Angeles as well as the old Jewish cemetery that saw many of his fellow immigrants laid to rest.  

Of great interest to the Homestead Museum docent is the transition of Los Angeles into an American city, especially with the arrival of train service.  The train connected Los angeles with the rest of the United States, allowing the exportation of citrus fruits and the importation of more immigrants.  In the latter half of the nineteenth century, Newmark saw the first high school, the first roller skating rink and the introduction of baseball.  Los Angeles was on the road to becoming a quintessential American city.