(SIX)

Aerial View
Modern Day Palm Springs
Tahquitz Canyon on left
Most of land on  right
in John Guthrie's Inventory
including present day airport

4

  The inventory of John Guthrie’s estate took longer than Harry imagined.  It wasn’t completed until September 7, 1897, seven months after John Guthrie’s death.  In spite of Harry’s determination to make a go of it, his urgency faded once he and Emily were in Palm Springs.  The failure of the land was inescapable.  It had reverted almost to dust.  He was right.  They couldn’t have sold any of it that year if they wanted to, not for any kind of profit.  The only parcel worth anything was the sixty to eighty acres of the McCallum Ranch.  Because of the mountain.  And because some day—maybe some day there’d be a city here; maybe not a farming commu­nity as his father envisioned, but a city nonetheless.

  Emily returned to Chicago.

  In Palm Springs Harry not only had the burden of getting feed to the livestock, stocking the general store, caring for the horses and farm equipment, but had to compete for appointment as Post Master.  This meant writing lengthy letters to Washington outlining his qualifications (he relied heavily on his father’s reputa­tion) and trying to convince the local people—especially Welwood Murray—not to oppose him.  But there was opposition.  He couldn’t’ seem to convince the few year-round settlers to believe he could handle the job in spite of his young age.  He was now twenty-six.

  In June he won the position, and with Murray’s backing.  In August in Western Springs, Illinois, May gave birth to a girl, her second child, naming her Katherine.  May wouldn’t be able to make the trip to the Coast before the end of the year.  In Los Angeles, Harry continued to see Louise.  She’d found a job on Spring Street as secretary to an attorney.

  At last, toward the end of summer, Harry had scrawled out the details of the “Estate of John G. McCallum.”

  In cash on deposit, proceeds from sales of lots and “full re-payment” of a Water Company assessment against O.C. Miller”; store accounts and stock of goods in the “General Merchandise Store at Palm Springs; furniture etc. in Hillside House.  . . . in Ranch House [the Adobe]; Tools, materials, livestock, etc. of McCallum Ranch; contracts to sell land and a “Certificate of Proof of Claims against Pacific Bank of San Francisco . . .” all this totaled about four thousand dollars.

  The Bear Valley Irrigation Preferred Stock was worthless.

  “Property in the possession of the decedent when he died:  1 watch and chain $50, 1 diamond stud $25, 1 pr. Cuff buttons $5 . . .”

  Completing the Inventory of Personal Property was Palm Valley Water Company stock, J.G. McCallum owning six hundred and twenty-two shares valued at $83,215.

  “Real Estate owned outright by J.G. McCallum at appraised value of $24,400, as follows:

  Eighty acres in Section 11.

  The McCallum Ranch in Section 15 . . . “consisting of about 60 acres, clear of mountain . . . and all land planted to trees, vines, and forage crops.”

  “Four hundred and ninety acres in Section 19.

  “Possessory Claim” to almost one-half of “Section 36 . . . and improvements thereon.”

  Thus, J.G. McCallum at the time of his death owned, in recorded deeds, six hundred and thirty acres in Palm Springs.  He also owned another five hundred and fifty acres of “Syndicate” land in more than one-quarter interest, or 2748 / 10,000 shares.  The Syndicate land was still undivided; and so owners of specific parcels, undeter­mined.  John Guthrie’s share of five hundred and fifty acres had an appraised value of $4,249.09.

  Completing the Inventory of Real Estate was one hundred and fifty-six acres in Siskiyou County, and “Lot 63 in the Myers Tract in Los Angeles . . . and improvements,” and Lots 5 and 11 . . . Fort Hill tract in Los Angeles . . . ” overlooking the Civic Center.

  All of the estate was designated “Community Property,” and the total appraised value, $120,498.40,” Judge W.H. Clark consenting.

  Then, on January 25, 1898, the Court awarded undivided interests in the estate to John Guthrie’s successors, one-half to Emily; one-sixth to each of the surviving children.  Harry’s anticipation of this distribution had been correct, and if the family were to defend the McCallum Ranch against credi­tors, certain legal steps would have to be taken.  May now had a son and daughter and planned to have more children.  McCallum successors were a reality, not a fancy.

  “Of course,” Harry wrote May, “we have joint ownership in everything father left us—it sounds ridiculous even to mention it—but we’ll have to parcel the land to each other to protect ourselves from eventual, though not certain, calamity.”

  On February 3, 1898, Emily, Harry, May and Pearl met in person in Los Angeles to divide their shares of John Guthrie’s legacy.  This meeting is proof beyond doubt the intention of McCallum heirs to join together to establish a family trust in perpetuity.