Tehachapi’s Founding Fathers

Tehachapi’s Founding Fathers. and Incorporation in 1909. An 1897 Bakersfield newspaper reported 642 inhabitants in Tehachapi and that the town was prosperous. Among the 50 or more businesses listed were 2 general stores, 3 blacksmiths, a grocery and a butcher shop, 2 barber shops, livery stables and feed lots, a hotel and boarding houses, a drug store, opera house, bank, school, post office, 3 restaurants, one flour mill and 10 saloons!, A 1904 news items in The Tehachapi Tomahawk began, “The question has often been asked lately, ‘what advantages are to be derived by a town from incorporation?’ The principal advantage to my mind is that of self-government.” The town was under the control of the County Government. Those not wanting to change and fearing excessive taxation spoke louder than those wanting incorporation., In June 1907 The Tehachapi Tomahawk again encouraged incorporation and the advantages became more apparent. On July 24, 1909 sixty-eight people cast their votes at the polls. 36 had voted for incorporation and 23 against. On August 13, 1909 the State of California signed the document declaring Tehachapi an incorporated town. The town government was to be administered by a five member Board of Trustees: T.P. Sullivan, a former road master for the Southern Pacific Railroad; J.M. Jackley, owner of a harness and shoe shop; L.E. Kessing, and innkeeper; John Hicky, farmer, teacher and preacher; and Phil Marx, cashier at the bank., On August 17, 1909 the Trustees held their first meeting at the Bank of Tehachapi and Phil Marx was elected President of the Board. The title “Mayor” was not used until 1930. The first major legislation was an ordinance regulating the straying of “domestic animals” and a tax on dogs. , In 1946 the Town of Tehachapi became a city when an act of the Legislature changed the town’s official name to “City of Tehachapi.”