The 10 Hours of Christmas 1899 Bring Disaster to the Inland Empire – The Daily Bulletin

The beginning of Christmas in 1899 was nothing but joy for the Inland Valley.

Within 10 hours, the area was hit by a very strong earthquake and a train derailed. It is striking that amidst these disasters there was at least one man who suffered from both and somehow escaped without a scratch.

Walter Korn was the lucky, or perhaps unlucky, man to be shaken, shaken, and unharmed by the events of December 24 and 25, 1899.

Little is known about Korn, who was uninjured in the fatal Christmas Eve railroad derailment in Pomona. A few hours later at his home in San Jacinto, he was awakened by one of the region's strongest earthquakes, narrowly escaping serious injury early Christmas morning.

For these two communities, and Korn, those ten hours were not memorable holiday experiences.

Our only word about Korn's adventures comes from an Anaheim newspaper article in which his uncle F. A. Korn recounted his nephew's near-death encounters to a reporter.

Walter Korn and other passengers were on an eastbound Southern Pacific train from Los Angeles to San Bernardino, which was about 10 minutes late on Christmas Eve, he said. The train attempted to negotiate a curve near Cypress Street in Pomona at too high a speed, and the engine and several passenger cars derailed. At least four passengers and the engineer died in the 6:57 p.m. wreck and more than 20 others were injured.

The wreckage of a commercial building was typical of the damage in downtown San Jacinto, part of the devastation caused by a powerful earthquake that struck before dawn on Christmas Day in 1899. It was one of two catastrophic events to occur in the Inland Empire within a 10-hour period. (Southern California Earthquake Data Center)

The number of injured people among the broken train cars was made worse because Pomona did not have a hospital at that time. The best rescuers could do was set up a temporary aid station at the fire hall with some seriously injured having to return to Los Angeles by train for treatment. The lack of a hospital that day led to the move to build what is known today as Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center.

Korn told his uncle that he had returned to the last car on the train just before the accident. Fortunately, that was the only car left on the track.

What's a little unclear is how Korn was able to return to his home in San Jacinto so quickly after the wreck. However, his uncle said he had just fallen asleep when an earthquake estimated at 6.5 to 6.7 (the Richter scale had not yet been designed) struck Hemet Valley before sunrise on Christmas.

The quake flattened downtown San Jacinto and caused nearly identical damage in Hemet. Every brick building or chimney in that area was leveled, although the number injured or killed was remarkably low owing to the early hour of the holiday. The quake was felt as far away as Needles.

The Los Angeles Record said on December 26 of San Jacinto: “Main Street is choked with falling debris.” It is said that all destroyed structures will be rebuilt.

Six women died in the nearby Soboba Reserve when a mudbrick building collapsed on them. A Christmas Eve dance was held there, and “the old women slept on the floor, intending to get up early and cook for the Christmas feast,” the newspaper reported. The women “made baskets, and were almost the last members of their tribe.”

With no television news in those days, many in the area were eager to see the devastation they had read about in the newspapers – today we call these tourists “loose-eyed lookers.” Special trains on December 27 brought tourists from San Bernardino for a two-hour visit to Hemet and San Jacinto. Some even carried early photographic equipment.

“Kodak has been actively used,” reported The Sun, December 28, “and every point of interest will be shown to friends as soon as the photographs are developed.”

Los Angeles newspapers reported the sudden appearance of two sulfur geysers south of Hemet after the quake, while several artesian wells in the vicinity strangely stopped flowing.

Reports also came from the direction of Taquitz Peak in the San Jacinto Mountains to the east that “mysterious sounds and hums had been heard underground near the summit for several days,” the Record wrote.

As for Korn, he got lucky again.

An Anaheim Weekly Gazette article about Korn said he ran downstairs after the quake woke him up. “When I was on the stairs, the front wall fell into the street,” the newspaper wrote. “If he had fallen, he would have been killed. The building eventually collapsed.”

This Christmas earthquake was the strongest earthquake in recorded history in the San Jacinto area until a slightly larger earthquake in the same area on April 21, 1918, was estimated at a magnitude of 6.8.

Return tours

Tours of one of Pomona's most iconic buildings will resume Sunday at the Phillips Mansion, built in 1875 by Louis Phillips, then one of Los Angeles County's wealthiest residents.

Tours of the mansion, 2640 Pomona Blvd., Pomona, are offered by the Pomona Valley Historical Society, from 2 to 4:30 p.m. and cost $15.

Also on site is the Korir House, which was saved from destruction years ago when it was moved from the City of Industry. Completing its rehabilitation is the goal of the historical society.

Tickets for the Phillips Mansion tour must be purchased in advance at www.PomonaHistorical.org

Joe Blackstock writes about the history of the Inland Empire. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @JoeBlackstock. Check out some of our past Inland Empire Stories columns on Facebook at www.facebook.com/IEHistory.

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