Articles by Richard Crawford

The city awoke this morning in a climate apparently transplanted. Shivers ran where shivers had not run before and the weather bureau was bombarded from early morn with telephone calls to know the reason why. Lightly constructed “Southern California” houses shrank with the cold and fairly trembled with the quivering of their occupants. –San Diego Tribune, January 6, 1913.

A century ago San Diego got a cold taste of winter weather. The story of the Big Freeze.

San Diego Union, January 7, 1913.

Children await the opening of a new toy library. National Archives.

Christmas day every day in San Diego. Toys every day for children to whom the real Christmas has never meant a thing. That is the purpose of San Diego toy loan libraries. –San Diego Union, August 13, 1939.

A federal government success story: toy libraries for children during the Great Depression. The Toy Loan Libraries.

The Thanksgiving Day menu from the Horton House Hotel.

In 1872, the dour secretary of San Diego founder Alonzo Horton would complain in his diary: Thanksgiving Day has not been very well observed. Too tired to work and too forgetful of comforts enjoyed . . . May our ingratitude be forgiven.  –Jesse Aland Shepherd.

But in future years San Diegans would invest a bit more in the national holiday. Here’s a look at how we celebrated in the 1870s: Thanksgiving in Early San Diego.

It was a crime that incensed San Diegans: the “murder” of a young sailor from a US. warship by a deputized marshal. For one summer and fall, San Diegans would eagerly follow the case of a “posse” gone wild and accused of brutalizing American sailors.

The story of a riot in the Stingaree and The People versus Breedlove.

The crew of the USS Charleston.

He has been called the greatest benefactor in San Ysidro history–a mining engineer turned rancher who donated land for churches and schools, and funded the community’s first public library. Dimly remembered today as the namesake of streets and schools, Frank B. Beyer is less known as the “gambler from the owner’s side of the table,”a man with a colorful career below the border, who spent his last years giving back his wealth to his adopted community.

The story Frank “Booze” Beyer and Tijuana.

This month, a century ago, the students at San Diego High decided to end their school year early. Here’s the story of The Student Strike.

Nearly the entire student body skipped class to march. Courtesy Special Collections, UCSD.

“You can’t parade. Our orders are to prevent it.” In a moment there was a seething, screaming mass around the policemen. Staves and sticks began to fly.
–San Diego Sun, May 31, 1933

The story of a student demonstration that turned into a riot: The Young Communists.

The riot in Pantoja Park.

San Diego Evening Tribune, June 6, 1913.

The city awoke this morning in a climate apparently transplanted. Shivers ran where shivers had not run before and the weather bureau was bombarded from early morn with telephone calls to know the reason why. Lightly constructed “Southern California” houses shrank with the cold and fairly trembled with the quivering of their occupants.  –San Diego Evening Tribune, January 6, 1913.

The story of the 1913 Big Freeze.

Mission Gorge in the 1920s.

One of the biggest hassles we had was trying to keep some of these idiots from building a dam in Mission Gorge . . . A lot of land would have been flooded . . . Santee, Lakeside, and about a third of El Cajon Valley would have been a shallow lake.
–Fred A. Heilbron, San Diego city councilman

When San Diego seem intent on Damming Mission Gorge.

Mayor John L. Sehon

Captain John L. Sehon returned yesterday from his vacation, taken to avoid service of subpoena . . . with such a record of avoiding the processes of the law some may question his sincerity when a few weeks ago he took the oath of office to uphold the law. –San Diego Union, May 1, 1905.

The story of The Renegade Republican.