Santiago Jacob Duckworth (June 13, 1865 – June 28, 1930), known locally as S. J. Duckworth, served in the California State Assembly for the 61st district from 1893 to 1895.[1] He was as an early Monterey pioneer businessman, real estate developer, and visionary of the short-lived Carmel City. In 1889, he wanted to build a Catholic summer resort, bought the rights to develop the area, filed a subdivision map, and started selling lots.[2] After an unsuccessful undertaking, he sold the property to James Franklin Devendorf in 1902, who went on to found the Carmel Development Company and Carmel-by-the-Sea, and the Carmel Highlands in California, United States. Duckworth helped shape the early development of Carmel, bringing the first major developers and builders, and attracting some of the first residents.[3]
Early life
Duckworth was born on June 13, 1865, in Monterey, California.[4] His Californio mother, Josefa Romero,[5] was the daughter of José Figueroa[6] the Mexican Governor of Alta California from 1833 to 1835.[7] His father was Lorenzo Santiago Duckworth (1831-1871). Lorenzo's mother was Antonia Armenta, whose father, José María Armenta, held the land grant to Rancho Point Pinos.[8] He lost his father at the age of six. With his two older brothers, they were sent to Watsonville Orphan Asylum in Watsonville, California where they were educated by Fransican Fathers. At the age of eleven Duckworth he left to support his widowed mother.[4]
On November 29, 1892, Duckworth married his first wife, widow Flora Manuel (1852-1903), daughter of Carmen Amesti McKinley (1824–1901) and James McKinley, at the St. Mary's Catholic Cathedral in San Francisco. Carmen Amesti was the daughter of Jose Amesti, who owned Rancho Los Corralitos a Mexican Land Grant.[9] She died at a hospital in Watsonville, California, at 45 years of age, on October 19, 1903.[10] He married Eloisa Maria Pinto on June 23, 1908, at the home of the bride's parents in Watsonville.[11]
Professional background
Politician
In July 1890, he made an unsuccessful run for the Republican Party's nomination to the California State Assembly from Monterey County.
and was nominated by Judge R. B. Carpenter for Monterey and was elected as a
In April 1890, Duckworth accepted the position as Deputy City Clerk of Monterey, which he held until 1892. In the fall of 1892 he was elected to the California State Assembly as a member of the California State Assembly for the California's 61st State Assembly district from January 2, 1893, to January 7, 1895. He ran on the Republican ticket and was a Republican for most of his life.[4][12][1][13][14]
On March 19, 1898, Duckworth was appointed deputy collector of customs under Harry Chenoweth at Nogales, Arizona.[15]
Carmel City
Duckworth Brothers (1887).S. J. Duckworth pauses to look upon what he hopes will become a booming “Carmel City", ca. 1890.
In 1887, he and his brother, Belisario Duckworth, set up a real estate and insurance company, named Duckworth Brothers on Alvarado Street in Monterey.[16][2][17][18][4]
On January 9, 1888, the Pacific Improvement Company wanted to extend the railroad from Monterey to the Carmel River. Duckworth wanted to use this railway to establish a Catholic retreat near the Carmel Mission, in Carmel. The Catholic retreat would be like the Methodist colony already in Pacific Grove, California and would be called "Carmel City." This tract of land was known as Rancho Las Manzanitas.[19]
In 1888, Duckworth approached French businessman and Monterey businessman Honoré Escolle, with his plan of building the Catholic Community.[19][20]
On February 18, 1888, Escolle signed an agreement to sell 324 acres (131 ha) to Duckworth and his brother with the intention of dividing it into town lots. The land began at the top of the Carmel Hill and ran past Hatton Ranch, down through Ocean Avenue to Junipero Avenue.[21][17][22][19]: p4
In 1888, Carpenter Delos Goldsmith built Duckworth a one-story Vernacular-style side-gabled redwood residence, now known as the Santiago Duckworth House. The house is located on Carpenter Street southwest of 2nd Avenue. It was one of the first homes constructed in Carmel City. Goldsmith was the first builder in the new community.[23][24][25]
Carmel City Map by W. C. Little (1888).
In March 1888, Duckworth authorized W. C. Little, of Monterey, to survey the Carmel property and write down a subdivision map of the townsite with 135 blocks divided into four tracks. On May 1, 1888, the map was registered with the County Recorder of Monterey County. Corner lots were twenty-five dollars and inside lots twenty dollars and business lots solf for fifty dollars. In July 1888, the sale of lots began.[2][3]: p15
Carmel City Catholic Summer Resort advertisement.
In 1889, Chinese workers began make the ground level at the end of the railway line. In April 1889, Duckworth placed an announcement in the local newspapers for the sale of Carmel lots, highlighting the advantages of the lots, access to the Southern Pacific railroad.[2] Chinese and Hispanic laborers cleared shrubs and marked off the lots. Cottages were built and business were started.[3]: p15
Duckworth hired Abbie Jane Hunter as a sales agent for Carmel City, who had founded the Women's Real Investment Company in San Francisco.[17]: p27 In 1892, she sent out postcards promoting Carmel City as Carmel-by-the-Sea. References to Carmel City as a Catholic resort were never used again. She created a bath house at the foot of Ocean Avenue in 1889. It had a cupola and windows across the front to view the ocean. It was torn down in 1929.[26]
In Panic of 1893 the United States went into a five-year depression that began in 1893 and ended in 1897. Sales were stagnant and the Carmel project was losing money. Hunter's agents, Dummage and Goldsmith, managed to sell three hundred more lots in Carmel. By 1895, the business of selling lots got did not improve. By 1900, Ms. Hunter's Carmel enterprise was almost bankrupt.[19]: p5
In 1902, real estate developer James Franklin Devendorf purchased all the unsold land in Carmel from Duckworth with financial backing of San Francisco attorney Frank Hubbard Powers who became his partner. They formed the Carmel Development Company on November 25, 1902, and established the artists and writers' colony that became Carmel-by-the-Sea, in 1903.[3][19]: p8
In 1903, Duckworth moved from Monterey County to Watsonville and had a 178 acres (72 ha) ranch near Pinto Lake in the Pajaro valley, about three miles northeast of Watsonville. He kept the reach until March 1915, when it was foreclosed for half its value.[27] In August 1915, he was elected secretary of the Watsonville Chamber of Commerce.[28]
Duckworth returned to Arizona in early 1930 to manage the campaign of Senator Andrew Jackson Bettwy for the Democratic nomination for governor of Arizona. He was also an editor of the Arizona Democrat, a political paper.[12]
Death
Duckworth died of typhoid fever in Tucson Arizona on June 28, 1930, at the age of 68, at the St. Mary's hospital.[29][12]
^"Duckworth's New Job". Arizona Republic. Phoenix, Arizona. 20 Mar 1898. p. 1. Retrieved 2022-03-09.
^"NOTICIAS del PUERTO de MONTEREY"(PDF). The Monterey History and Art Association. 11 (2). Monterey, California: 10–11. June 1967. Retrieved 2024-01-10.
