Moses Sherman

Moses Sherman was born in West Rupert, Vermont, on December 3, 1853. He obtained a teaching certificate at the Oswego Normal School (now SUNY Oswego) in Oswego, New York. He began as a teacher in Salem, New York and Wisconsin, after which he moved to Arizona.

In 1874, he moved to Prescott, Arizona, a small mining town where he continued teaching for two more years.[1] In Prescott, he acquired his capital brokering mines and ranches while a teacher. John C. Fremont, then Governor of Arizona, appointed Sherman State Superintendent of Public Instruction. He earned the title, "General" after his appointment as Adjutant-General of the Territory of Arizona, in which position he served two terms. He would use the title "General" for the rest of his life. In 1884, he helped found the Valley Bank of Phoenix, acting as President while simultaneously building the Phoenix Railway and some canal and water services.[1]

With associate M. E. Collins, he donated ten acres of land for the capitol in Phoenix when the town became capital of the territory in 1889. He moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1890 to speculate in land and use the new electric railway, or trolley system, to promote his real estate ventures. He made millions and sold control of his Los Angeles Pacific lines to E.H. Harriman in 1906 for a reported additional six million dollars.[2]

Los Angeles Pacific Railroad- Balloon Route map, 1905

Los Angeles Pacific - Balloon Route car, 1905

He started the Los Angeles Consolidated Electric Railway,[3] and made his brother-in-law, Eli P. Clark, Vice President and General Manager.[4]

The Los Angeles Pacific Railroad was started in 1899 by Sherman and Clark, and at its peak had 180 miles of track in the western portions of Los Angeles County, from Pasadena, California to Santa Monica, running down the coast to Redondo Beach.[5] The rapid interurban transit of the Los Angeles Pacific Railroad, and the Pacific Electric system, the Big Red Cars, enticed many new residents to Los Angeles. It also helped Los Angeles get out the economic slump of the 1890s.[6] It encouraged new investments in manufacturing.[7] On June 16, 1903, Los Angeles Pacific Railroad merged with the Los Angeles-Santa Monica Railroad Company and the Los Angeles, Hermosa Beach and Redondo Railway Company. The new name after this merger was Los Angeles Pacific Railroad of California, but everyone continued to call it the Los Angeles Pacific Railroad. In March, 1906, an agreement was reached to sell control of the Los Angeles Pacific to E.H. Harriman’s Southern Pacific Railroad for a reported $6 million.[2]

Sherman was one of the incorporators of the Hueneme, Malibu and Port Los Angeles Railway, which was founded by Frederick Hastings Rindge and built, after he died, by his wife, May K. Rindge, in Malibu, California.

At the junction of his streetcar lines west of Hollywood, he built car barns and created a town called "Sherman". The town would evolve to become the city of West Hollywood.[8]

In the late-19th century, Moye C. Wicks and Louis Mesmer thought of turning the Playa del Rey estuary into a commercial port. They formed the Ballona Development Company in 1888 to develop the area, but three years later the company went bankrupt.

Sherman purchased 1,000 acres of land around the Ballona lagoon and Port Ballona in 1902 under the name the Beach Land Company. Sherman and Clark renamed the land "Del Rey". Port Ballona was then renamed Playa Del Rey. The port was serviced by the California Central Railway opened in September 1887, this line later became the Santa Fe Railway, that later became the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad. The rail line ran from the port to Redondo junction. A street car tram line was built to the port by the Redondo and Hermosa Beach Railroad company, which had been incorporated on February 21, 1901. This company was part of the Los Angeles Pacific Railroad owned by Sherman and Clark. The tram line opened December 1902, departing from downtown at 4th & Broadway.[9][10]

1920 Sherman Way in downtown Owensmouth, with Los Angeles Pacific Railroad line

In 1904, in his role on the Board of Water Commissioners, he received advanced notice of purchases of water rights in the Owens Valley—Owens River for the proposed Los Angeles aqueduct, planned by William Mulholland and Fred Eaton. The additional water to Los Angeles, with the aqueduct's terminus in the San Fernando Valley, triggered a rush by land speculators to buy Valley real estate.[11] The formation of a land speculation syndicate, the Los Angeles Suburban Homes Company, included Moses Sherman and partners Hobart Johnstone Whitley, Isaac Newton Van Nuys, James Boon Lankershim, and Harry Chandler, manager of the Los Angeles Times, as directors. The syndicate purchased the 47,500-acre (192 km²) parcel from the Los Angeles Farming and Milling Company, owned by Van Nuys and son-in-law Lankershim, in 1909. It comprised nearly the entire south half of the San Fernando Valley (south of present-day Roscoe Blvd.). The price was $2,500,000, or just under $53 an acre.

As part of his speculation in the syndicate purchase, General Sherman (as he was called) retained property in what later became the neighborhood of Sherman Oaks, named for him.

The income Sherman received from real estate development made up for flagging railroad profits.

In 1911 Sherman directed the construction of the new San Fernando Line, a 20 miles (32 km) long extension of the Pacific Electric railway system, to serve the Los Angeles Suburban Homes Company developments. Starting at the terminus of an existing line over Cahuenga Pass from Hollywood to Lankershim (present-day North Hollywood), the line went west through the townsite of Van Nuys in 1911, the mid-valley townsite of Marion (present-day Reseda), to its terminus in the townsite of Owensmouth (present-day Canoga Park) in 1912.

The streetcar line, with tracks along the "$500,000 boulevard" named Sherman Way, was the key to the development. By 1912, 45-minute streetcar service from Van Nuys to downtown and the "no speed limit" paved road (if you could get your "Model T" to do 30 mph) were key selling points.

The entire grand road's length was originally named "Sherman Way" in his recognition. The name remains on the westernmost original segment from Canoga Park and West Hills to Sherman Circle at Van Nuys Boulevard, and now also extends to Burbank. The easternmost original segment, with its electric railway right of way now a landscaped median/Orange Line route, survives as present-day Chandler Boulevard. The north/south original segment, as present-day Van Nuys Boulevard in Van Nuys, connects Chandler Boulevard to Sherman Circle. Hazeltine Avenue, which runs north/south from Sherman Oaks to Panorama City, was named after his daughter Hazeltine.

The Pacific Electric's San Fernando Line was closed in 1952.[12] In the 2000s the MTA Orange Line restored a dedicated route for cross-valley public transportation. An exclusive busway, it uses the former San Fernando Line and Southern Pacific Railroad right of ways, from North Hollywood to Chatsworth. Sherman Way is currently served by local Metro bus routes 162/163.

He died on September 9, 1932.