This is Portia and Henry Gosting shortly before going to Los Angeles. Portia is holding their child Brooks. On the right is Portia’s cousin, Edith Hitz.
This is Los Angeles in 1906, population 300,000. Today the population of Los Angeles County is 9,800,000.
Portia’s sister, Connie (Anna Constance Brooks), age 29, had taken a job as a bookkeeper in Los Angeles.
This is Connie at work in 1906. Through Connie’s bookkeeping job and Samantha’s pension as the widow of a Civil War veteran, they were able to have a house and live comfortably.
This is Connie on the left and Samantha on the right in Los Angeles. Their family friend from St Louis, Mayme Skinner, in the center, shows up in many of their pictures and may have moved out to Los Angeles as well.
Travel was expensive in those days, and it had been a long time since Portia had seen her mother and sister, so she stayed in Los Angeles for about 3 months. Portia and 10 month old Brooks made the long trip by train from St Louis to Los Angeles by themselves. This probably took 3-4 days. In 1906, it often took 7 days to cross from the east coast to the west coast by train. The fastest train to California in 1906 took 56 hours on a Pullman train from Omaha, Nebraska to San Francisco. They were going farther than that on both ends.
Henry stayed in St Louis to work and came out 2 ½ months later. The first pictures from the Los Angeles trip are dated July 1, 1906. Henry did not arrive there until September 16.
This picture, dated Sunday, July 1, 1906 and taken in South Pasadena, shows Connie and possibly their friend, Mayme Skinner, riding a donkey.
Next they put Brooks on the donkey, with his grandmother, Samantha, holding him up.
Samantha doesn't look very comfortable with her 10 month old grandson on the donkey.
On Sunday, July 15, 1906, they decided to go to Long Beach for the afternoon.
This is the Long Beach bathhouse in 1906. Notice that the people sitting on the beach are wearing suits and ties along with full length dresses and fancy hats.
This is Brooks with Portia (age 33) at Long Beach. Brooks is wearing a bonnet in the days before there was sunscreen.
This is Portia’s sister, Connie, age 29, showing off her “bathing suit.”
At Long Beach, Samantha George Brooks, age 55, is on the left, Brooks is in the middle, and Portia is on the right. Notice that Samantha is holding an umbrella for protection from the sun.
This is the pier at Long Beach looking away from the bath house. Neither the pier nor the bath house is still there today.
This is another picture of the pier at Long Beach. This was taken from Connie’s collection of photographs and shows the type of bathing suits that were worn in 1906. Connie is the third from the left.
This is Portia’s sister Connie on the porch of one of her friends’ house in 1906.
This is the same house viewed from the street at 1007 Olive Street. This beautiful old house is no longer there and is a vacant lot in a commercial district.
Samantha and Connie appear to have had a very active social life.
This is Connie sitting in the car with her friends putting chains on the back tires. This looks like it may be a 1906 Lambert, price $1200.
Obviously, the standards for automobile safety were different in 1906.
This brings to mind a family story that in the 1920’s, Brooks had a job delivering telegrams for Western Union. He bought a car called a “Whippet” which he used to deliver telegrams. Portia would ride along with him on his deliveries some days. One time, he went around a corner too fast and Portia rolled out of the car. Somehow, she did not get hurt at all by the fall.
In those days, they would dress up and go on outings to the park with friends. This is Connie on the stairs at East Lake Park in Los Angeles. Today, it is called Lincoln Park. We do not know who their friends are at the top of the stairs.
Palm trees were something new to Portia in 1906, so she had to take a picture. This is also at East Lake Park with Connie in front of the palm tree.
They made a trip to see the Santa Barbara Mission. This is Portia’s mother, Samantha, in the middle and on the left is Mayme Skinner.
While they were there, they saw a parade.
They also visited the oldest church in Los Angeles.
This was a funicular built to carry pedestrians up this steep hill in Los Angeles. It was called “Angel’s Flight” and was advertised as the shortest railroad in the country.
This was taken of Brooks on July 29, 1906 and was sent as a postcard back to Portia’s sister, Mabel, in St Louis.
The back of it says, “15 minutes for refreshments.”
While they were there, Brooks learned to walk, so of course, Portia had to take a picture of it. This is Brooks, age 11 months on August 18, 1906.
This is another picture of Brooks, playing in the backyard of Samantha and Connie’s house in Los Angeles. The girl in the picture is apparently a friend, because there were no relatives in California of this age in 1906.
This was taken on an overlook in Los Angeles in 1906. Standing, second from the right, is Connie. Sitting in front, third from the left, is Portia holding Brooks.
This is Connie in another of her fancy outfits. The person with her is not known. Since they made almost all their dresses and then had to iron them before they wore them, keeping themselves dressed in style took a lot of time.
This postcard was sent by Henry, in St Louis, to Portia, in Los Angeles.
St Louis July 20
Portia Dear
You have moved and are now living at 5282 McPherson Ave - what?
Been so busy couldn’t find time to write. Will try and do so tonight. Got along fine. Em (Henry’s sister) and whole family helped. We all like the flat fine.
Love and kisses to yourself and baby Henry (Henry Brooks Gosting later went by “Brooks”)
While Portia and Brooks were in Los Angeles, her sister Connie took a camping trip with several of her friends. Copies of some of the pictures from Connie’s trip ended up in Portia and Henry’s photo album. This is August 1906 north of Los Angeles.
This is the ladies tent. Connie wrote that they slept next to the creek at Matilija near Ventura, California.
This is Connie on the left. Connie wrote that her friend, Mayme, rolled off a rock into the water and got her clothes all wet.
It was 1906, so the men wore suits on this camping trip.
Connie seemed to have no lack of boyfriends, but never married.
This is Connie on the left with one of her friends.
Connie and her friends on their trip.
This is one of Connie’s boyfriends during the summer of 1906.
August 19, 1906, the remnants of a tropical cyclone poured a very unusual 5 inches of rain on Los Angeles.
Around September 10, 1906, Henry Gosting left by train to join Portia in California, taking pictures along the way. He had never been west of Missouri, and he saw many things that he had never seen before. He took the southern route on the way out to California. They would take the northern route on the way back. He could not take a train directly to Los Angeles, but had to travel on at least two different railroads, and the trip would have taken a few days to complete.
He sent this telegram from Williams, Arizona to Portia in Los Angeles while en route to the Grand Canyon on Thursday, September 13, 1906:
Off to the canyon – arrive Los Angeles Santa Fe (Railroad) Sunday morning (September 16) 8:25AM.
Henry Gosting 2:45 PM
He decided to break up the trip and see the Grand Canyon in Arizona Territory on the way out. The train took him directly to this upscale hotel - El Tovar - built the year before by the railroad company to encourage tourism on their trains. In an unusual move, the government had given the Santa Fe Railroad a 20 acre parcel of land at the canyon’s edge. This was described as one of the finest and grandest hotels in the West. President Theodore Roosevelt stayed at El Tovar in 1906 as well.
El Tovar is still in operation today.
He sent this postcard to Portia the following day:
Pokey going down this AM. Wish you (were) with me - Elegant
HG September 14, 1906
Henry sliced these two pictures together to get a panoramic view.
Another view of the Grand Canyon.
On arrival in Los Angeles 2 ½ months after he last saw his wife and son, the biggest surprise for Henry was that Brooks has gotten much bigger. And he was now walking.
This was not in this photo album, but the story that I heard was that this picture was taken on the front porch of a relative when they were on a trip to California. Since this is the only trip to California around this time, it may be that this was taken in Los Angeles in 1906 on this trip.
My sister remembers it differently. She thought that it was taken at the time of their honeymoon in 1903. Perhaps some of you will remember when this was taken. Nonetheless, it is a good picture.
Henry and Portia took this picture in downtown Los Angeles in 1906. There weren’t any traffic jams in those days.
When they saw this mansion, they couldn’t resist taking a picture of it.
In the days before buses carried tour groups around, electric trolleys were used in Los Angeles.
Henry and Portia bought the group picture taken on this tour in front of the San Gabriel Mission.
On a close up view, you can see Portia and Henry in back.
Another tour they went on was the Mount Lowe Railroad, which went to the crest of the San Gabriel Mountains north of Los Angeles. It was the only scenic mountain overhead electric trolley railroad ever built in the US and operated from 1893-1938,
Portia and Henry bought this postcard on their excursion to the top. Their advertisement read,
“From sea level to Alpine, a mile high, 5 through cars daily, from 6th and Main Street, Los Angeles.”
This is another postcard they brought back with them.
Below is a picture they took on the mountain.
Portia, Henry, Brooks, and Portia’s mother, Samantha, took a boat to Catalina Island, 23 miles from Los Angeles.
Henry took these pictures from the boat as they were leaving.
There were still sailboats used for shipping and fishing in 1906. Henry spliced these two pictures together to try to get a panoramic view.
There were coal powered ships in use at that time as well.
This is Henry, Portia, and Brooks on board the boat to Catalina Island.
This is Samantha George Brooks with her grandson, Brooks Gosting, age 12 months.
This was a postcard they bought on Catalina Island showing Avalon Bay.
They took this photograph of the bay while there.
This is another view of Avalon Bay. To the right would be where the Catalina Island Casino was later built.
In those days, there were fishermen based on Catalina Island. This is Henry Guerin Gosting, age 33, and Samantha George Brooks, age 56, posing with the tuna.
These are the fishermen mending their nets.
Although hard to see, Henry is picking of the tail of one of the tuna.
Henry and his son, Brooks, at Catalina Island.
At the end of September, they traveled back to St Louis. This trip would take at least 3-4 days by train. They went on the Southern Pacific Railroad north from Los Angeles to San Francisco.
This picture from the photo album was a mystery until cousins Jeri Anne and Buzz Gosting were able to identify it as the long ago destroyed Cliff House in San Francisco. Portia and Henry passed through San Francisco on their way home. This was taken just five months after the April 18, 1906 earthquake destroyed most of the buildings in San Francisco. This building survived the earthquake. It did not survive the fire that destroyed it a year later.
About 60 years ago, Uncle George (George Guerin Gosting 1908-1992) told the story about our relatives who lived in San Francisco during the 1906 earthquake. These were Henry Gosting’s Aunt David Ella Guerin and her five children. This was the family of William Fitz Guerin, a well known photographer, who had died in 1903. He was Henry’s mother’s brother. Uncle George said that they were well to do, had a beautiful house, and owned an automobile (a Cadillac). Portia and Henry reported that their house was completely destroyed by the earthquake.
This is Henry and Portia posing with a tour group in front of an “Observation Trolley” near the “Golden Gate,” the entrance to the San Francisco Harbor.
Henry and Portia are just to the left of the trolley car. Portia is holding Brooks, who appears to be asleep.
Although not in their photo album, this is what San Francisco looked like in 1906 shortly after the earthquake.
After the earthquake, a fire started fueled by broken gas lines. Since the water lines were broken too, there was no way to put it out, and it destroyed much of the city.
After leaving San Francisco, they then headed east across Nevada, and into Utah on the Ogden Route. They bought four postcards on their return trip. This was very rugged terrain, but it had beautiful scenery.
In 1903, a 12 mile long trestle had been built on pilings across the Great Salt Lake, which they crossed just before getting to Ogden and Salt Lake City.
This postcard they brought back with them shows Salt Lake City in 1906. It is possible that they stopped here to rest over night before continuing their journey.
At Salt Lake City, they had to change to the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad for the 400 mile trip to Denver. This was a narrow gage railroad that reached a maximum elevation of 10,845 ft.
If you look closely at their postcard, you can see that a third rail has been added to accommodate the wider rail cars that were also in use.
The terrain between Salt Lake City and Denver was very different that what they were used to in Missouri. At Denver, they would change trains again for the 900 mile trip to St Louis.
This trip was indeed quite an adventure for this young couple with their one year old child in 1906.
