Isaac Williams of Rancho Santa Ana del Chino and More of His Early History

Recently, Carol Van Deest of the Johnstown Historical Society, located in Ohio northeast of Columbus, reached out concerning Isaac Williams, the son-in-law of Rancho Santa Ana de Chino grantee Antonio María Lugo and owner of the ranch for nearly fifteen years until his death in September 1856.

For about as long, however, Williams, who was born in 1799 in northeastern Pennsylvania not far from Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, lived in Johnstown and these years included much of his formative ages of 10-26.  Carol's detailed research has provided a great deal of information about his life in Ohio prior to his heading west through Missouri to New Mexico and then to Los Angeles, where he arrived in spring 1832.

After close to a decade as a merchant in the Mexican pueblo, Williams married María de Jesús, daughter of Lugo, and, just after his father-in-law received the grant to the Chino rancho, he and his wife relocated there.  While much of this history is recounted in this blog and elsewhere, Carol has provided some very valuable history regarding Williams' life before coming to California.

Check out the webpage and enjoy! 

Heirs Apparently Presentation on Merced and Francisca Williams in Ontario

Well, it rained pretty hard not long before tonight's "Heirs Apparently: The Tumultuous Lives of Francisca and Merced Williams" talk at Ontario's Ovitt Family Community Library, but about 40 people came out to hear the presentation.

With a very nice flyer created by library staff to promote the event, the first in a series on local history that the institution is hosting, and attendance from representatives of historical societies and museums in La Verne, Ontario, Pomona, Rancho Cucamonga (the Rains House), and Brea (Olinda Oil Museum), we had a very interested crowd who had lots of questions afterward.

The details of the stories of the Williams sisters, who as teens inherited over 35,000 acres comprising the Rancho Santa Ana del Chino, which extended well into Carbon Canyon, and their domineering husbands, John Rains and Robert Carlisle, have been covered pretty extensively on this blog.

Rains took his wife's half-share of Chino and sold it quickly to the Carlisles to buy Rancho Cucamonga and then poured large sums to improve and develop it, including the building of the house that is a historic site today.  He also invested in other real estate in San Diego County and Los Angeles, though the economic conditions of the region were in a downward turn.

Desperate to save the situation, he borrowed large amounts of money and was heading to Los Angeles for more when he was killed in what is now San Dimas.  Carlisle then secured power of attorney for Merced Rains and was accused of mismanagement and fraud and was removed from that position.

Embittered, he attacked Andrew Jackson King, the new attorney-in-fact, at the Los Angeles hotel Rains once owned and then was involved in a shootout the next day with King's brothers that left one of the latter and Carlisle dead in an epic gunbattle long remembered in the city.  Left behind after both killings were the young widows, whose fortunes diverged wildly afterward.

The 1850 federal census, taken in early 1851 because of California's admission to the Union in September 1850, and showing the Isaac Williams household at Rancho Santa Ana del Chino, including his daughters Maria [Merced[ and Francisca.

Merced Rains was forced to leave Cucamonga when it was foreclosed upon, with little or nothing left of her inheritance, married twice more, and spent much of her later years with a daughter from Rains and her husband, Henry Gage, who went on to be governor of California.  She died in 1907.

Francisca Carlisle, who also remarried twice, the second time to a much-younger man which scandalized her family, kept the Chino ranch for another fifteen years, married a wealthy doctor and Los Angeles mayor, and retained a substantial fortune for the rest of her long life, which ended in the late 1920s.

It's pretty hard to find much information about women in the 19th century generally, much less Latinas in greater Los Angeles.  The stories of Merced and Francisca Williams are a rare exception and it was a lot of fun to share them tonight with an appreciative and engaged audience.

Ontario Library Talk on Williams Sisters of Chino Rancho Next Tuesday

Next Tuesday, the 5th of March at 6:30, a reprise of the presentation Heirs Apparently: The Tumultuous Lives of Francisca and Merced Williams will be given at the Ovitt Family Community Library in Ontario.

The talk, presented in the past for the Chino Hills Historical Society, centers on Merced and Francisca Williams, the granddaughters of Rancho Santa Ana del Chino grantee Antonio María Lugo and daughters of ranch owner Isaac Williams.

When the latter died in 1856, the teenage siblings married Southerners John Rains and Robert Carlisle, both of whom were strong-willed, domineering, ambitious figures who died violent deaths within a few years of each other in the early to mid 1860s.

The paths of the sisters, already fraught with tragedy, diverged widely after that point, with Merced losing the Rancho Cucamonga that her husband purchased by selling her share of Chino and living a life of economic uncertainty, while Francisca kept Chino, sold it for a handsome sum, and lived the rest of our life in financial comfort.

The story of women, especially Latinas, in our region tends to be little-known and under-documented, so the story of Merced and Francisca Williams is an unusual example to the contrary.

To hear more of these remarkable women and their tumultuous lives, come out to the Ovitt Community Library at 215 E. C St., just east of Euclid Avenue and north of Holt Boulevard next Tuesday the 5th at 6:30 p.m.

Hope to see you there!

Summary of a Talk on the Williams Sisters of Rancho Santa Ana del Chino

Last night's presentation, sponsored by the Chino Hills Historical Society and attended by about 70 people, on the sisters Merced and Francisca Williams of Rancho Santa Ana del Chino looked to put a little different perspective on a story that may be familiar to those interested in this region in the late 1850s and early 1860s.

The violent ends of their husbands, John Rains (who was murdered in November 1862), and Robert S. Carlisle (who was killed in a Los Angeles gunbattle in July 1865) have been given a fair amount of coverage over the years.  This is generally because history is usually the story of men, while the lives of women typically get very little coverage in comparison.

As noted in the talk, Merced was only 17 and Francisca 15 when their father, Isaac Williams, owner of the Chino ranch since the early 1840s, died on 16 September 1856.  Their mother, Maria de Jesús Lugo died fourteen years earlier.  Isaac Williams' death left the two teen sisters as sole legal heirs to the 37,000-acre ranch and there was no likelihood that they could run their ranch on their own.

Three days after Isaac's passing, Merced married John Rains, who'd been employed by Isaac for a couple of years.  A native of Alabama who'd lived in Texas and engaged in cattle and sheep driving in northern Mexico and the American Southwest for a few years in the early 1850s (interspersed with a short stay in Los Angeles in 1851-52), Rains was ambitious and his marriage brought him access to wealth not otherwise possible for him.

Merced Williams Rains (1839-1907).

Several months later, in May 1857, another Chino ranch employee, Robert Carlisle, wedded Francisca, and he was also eager to take a controlling interest in the ranch.  Carlisle was from Kentucky, though nothing is known about him until he showed up in northern California during the Gold Rush period and then migrated south and found work with Isaac Williams.

These brothers-in-law, both from the South and equally driven to utilize their wives' substantial inheritance and equally quick to lose their tempers in conflict, quickly decided, once the Williams estate was settled in early 1858, to make a deal.  Rains sold Merced's interest in the ranch to her sister (well, Carlisle) for $25,000 and used the proceeds to buy Rancho Cucamonga.

Over the next four years, he plowed considerable sums to add vineyards to the existing ones there, built a fine brick house (which still stands and can be visited as a county historic site), took interests in a pair of San Diego County ranches, bought the Bella Union Hotel in Los Angeles (which he'd co-owned in 1851), and so on.  Carlisle also expanded his development at Chino, though it is uncertain if his spending was anywhere near as pronounced as that of Rains.

The timing could not have been worse for ranchers generally in greater Los Angeles.  The Gold Rush ended by the mid-Fifities.  A national depression broke out in 1857.  Floods ravaged the region in the winter of 1861-62.   That was followed the next couple of years by the decimation by drought of the local cattle economy.  So, as Rains, especially, spent exorbitantly, debts were amassed.

Merced Williams Rains living with her second husband, Jose Clemente Carrillo, and children by Rains and Carrillo, in the 1870 census at Cucamonga (Chino Township.)  Note, though, that her hsuband claimed the assets of $100,000 in real property and $10,000 in personal property, when most of that was hers by inheritance.  Rancho Cucamonga, though, was soon lost to foreclosure so those assets largely vanished.

By late 1862, Rains and Carlisle were sued by local authorities for taxes owed.  Rains borrowed heavily and mortgaged Cucamonga in the process.  In November, he rode from his home towards Los Angeles to transact more business and vanished.  Carlisle took a lead in searching for his brother-in-law, but it was eleven days before Rains' mangled body was found near the road in what was called Mud Springs (now San Dimas.)

Over the next couple of years, several suspects were accused of involvement in the murder.  One, Ramon Carrillo, was a close friend of Merced Rains, and was twice questioned and released.  He was then ambushed and shot to death after leaving the Rains house. Another, Manuel Cerradel, allegedly confessed and then recanted, but was convicted on an unrelated matter and sentenced to San Quentin.  On ship ready to be transported, Cerradel was seized by masked men and lynched from the craft and his body dumped in the water.  Edward Newman, out in early 1864 to inspect his new property, the ranch that became Pomona, was ambushed and killed with a rumor that he was thought to be someone else involved in the Rains murder.  Santiago Sanchez, executed for another crime, claimed he was being hung because he was accused in the Rains matter, but pointedly said the killer was an American and that he did not know Carlisle.

Carlisle confronted Merced with several friends and associated and badgered her into giving him her power of attorney, which she yielded.  After accusations of mismanagement and fraud, a court revoked Carlisle's power of attorney and handed it over to Los Angeles County Under-Sheriff Andrew Jackson King, who'd also been in charge of investigating Rains' murder, which went unsolved.

Enraged by the turn of events, Carlisle saw King at the Bella Union Hotel in Los Angeles during a wedding celebration and attacked him with a knife, inflicting a serious wound.  King was laid up, but this two brothers, Frank and [Samuel] Houston, showed up the next morning.  Experienced at revenge, including a decade before in El Monte when the three King brothers avenged their father's slaying by killing the murderer, Frank and Houston spotted Carlisle at the hotel bar and confronted him, guns drawn.

By contrast to her sister, Francisca Williams Carlisle, married in 1868 to Dr. Frederick MacDougall (who had his own decent-sized fortune) had her assets from Rancho Santa del Chino not only listed for her at $50,000 and $20,000, but divided portions to her four (three on this sheet) children at $15,000 and $3,000 each.  She sold Chino to Arizona mining magnate Richard Gird in 1881.

In the aftermath of the battle, Frank King was killed by Carlisle and Houston, after firing all his rounds at a remarkably durable Carlisle, pummeled his adversary with the gun until the handle broke.  Carlisle used his last remaining strength after taking several bullets to shoot and severely wound Houston, who, however, survived.  Placed on a pool table, Carlisle lived several hours before dying in writhing agony.

All exciting stuff, but nearly forgotten was what happened to the sisters and widows.   Merced, whose life was documented in a fine book by Esther Boulton Black, lost Cucamonga to foreclosure and sold one of the San Diego County ranches to pay legal fees, leaving her with very little of her once-substantial fortune.  She married Jose Clemente Carrillo, who may have been related to Ramon Carrillo, rumored beau of Merced before his murder.  Carrillo, however, left her or died after several years.  She lived 45 years after her husband's death, dying in 1907 at the home of her daughter, Fanny, who was married to former California governor Henry T. Gage.

Francisca, however, was able to retain ownership of Chino.  She hired an able manager, Joseph Bridger, and moved with her children to Los Angeles.  In 1868, she married Dr. Frederick MacDougall, who was mayor of Los Angeles when he died in office a decade later.  Francisca soon sold Chino to Arizona mining magnate Richard Gird and expanded her wealth.  In her mid-forties she married Edward Jesurun, who was nearly twenty years younger, to a good deal of gossip and a failed attempt to derail the marriage by one of her sons.  The marriage lasted, however, and Francisca continued to live with ample means until she died in 1926, a half-century after Carlisle's grisly end.

Francisca MacDougall shocked "society circles" and her family by, at age 46, marrying 27-year old Edward Jesurun in an elopement at San Francisco in 1887.  The couple remained together, however, until she died in 1926, a wealthy woman.

The situation for the two sisters was similar after their father's death and completely different after the husbands were killed.  Their story is a remarkable one that has, too often, been underappreciated while more focus has been placed on the actions of Rains and Carlisle.  The fact that women could inherit and own real property in California (and other former Spanish and Mexican domains), when most American women could not, is also little-known.  But, the lives and activities of women generally at the time has been underrepresented, so it was good to give more attention to Merced and Francisca and their remarkable and often tumultuous lives.

Rancho Santa Ana del Chino Talk Tomorrow Night

Continuing with a series of presentations starting with the granting of Rancho Santa Ana del Chino, the western border of which extends into Carbon Canyon to just east of Sleepy Hollow, to Antonio María Lugo and then its ownership by Lugo's son-in-law, Isaac Williams, there will be a talk, sponsored by the Chino Hills Historical Society, tomorrow night on Williams' daughters, Merced and Francisca, when they inherited the 37,000 acre ranch after his death in September 1856.

The talk discusses the turbulent life of the sisters, who married Southern-born employees of their father and died violent deaths in the first half of the 1860s, and what happened to the Chino ranch during a decade of economic depression, floods, drought and personal turmoil.

Merced Williams Rains (1839-1907)

 Illustrated with photographs, maps, newspaper articles and other items, the presentation revolves around these teenaged girls, whose inheritance meant valuable property in their name, but the reality was that their husbands took control of the estate and it led to a strange tale that left the sisters in distinctly different circumstances later in life.

The talk, "Heirs Apparently: The Tumultuous Lives of Merced and Francisca Williams of Rancho Santa Ana del Chino," is at 7 p.m. at the Chino Hills Community Center, 14250 Peyton Drive (across from Ayala High School.)

Chino Hills Historical Society Talk on Isaac Williams and the Chino Ranch on the 26th

Chino Hills Historical Society Presents:

“A Look Back at Isaac Williams and the Rancho Santa Ana del Chino”

Monday, March 26^th

The Chino Hills Historical Society will host a presentation by Chino Hills resident and historian Paul R. Spitzzeri at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, March 26^th at the Chino Hills Community Center, 14259 Peyton Drive.  Spitzzeri will share the history of Isaac Williams and the Rancho Santa Ana del Chino. 

According to Spitzzeri, Isaac Williams married one of Antonio María Lugo’s daughters and, in the early 1840s, inherited the Chino Ranch, which he owned until his death in 1856.  This happened during the transformation of the area with the Mexican-American War and the Gold Rush.  Chino was a key location during the war through the Battle of Chino and was a rest stop for migrants during the heyday of gold seeking.

“We welcome Paul back to continue where he left off with his last presentation about Antonio María Lugo and the Early Years of the Rancho Santa Ana del Chino,” said Chino Hills Historical Society President Denise Cattern.

Mr. Spitzzeri has lived in Chino Hills for 21 years.  He is the Museum Director at the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum in the City of Industry, where he has worked since 1988. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree and Master of Arts degree in history from California State University, Fullerton and has published on local, regional and state history in many journals and anthologies.  His book, The Workman and Temple Families of Southern California, won a 2009 Award of Merit from the American Association for State and Local History.  Since 2008, Paul has maintained the blog www.carboncanyonchronicle.blogspot.com.  He also writes a monthly column about local history for Champion Newspapers.

The Chino Hills Historical Society is a non-profit organization funded through memberships and donations.  For additional information, please call (909) 597-6449 or send an email to chhistory@aol.com. 

Tonight's Chino Hills Historical Society Presentation on Don Antonio María Lugo

Thanks to great publicity, including two articles in the Chino/Chino Hills Champion, a good crowd of nearly 150 people came out tonight for a presentation for the Chino Hills Historical Society on Don Antonio María Lugo, grantee in 1841 of Rancho Santa Ana del Chino, previously a ranch under the auspices of Mission San Gabriel, and the western border of which extended into Carbon Canyon just east of Sleepy Hollow.

Approximately 150 people turned out tonight at the Chino Hills Community Center to hear the story of Don Antonio María Lugo, grantee in 1841 of Rancho Santa Ana del Chino, which extended west to near Sleepy Hollow within Carbon Canyon.

The talk covered the Lugo family's migration from the state of Sinaloa in Mexico to Baja California and then to Alta California, where Don Antonio was born in 1778.

From his birth at Mission San Antonio (hence his name?), the story followed his military career, settlement on Rancho San Antonio (that name again!) southeast of Los Angeles, political involvement in the puebelo, acquisition of other ranchos, including Chino, and more.

A lively crowd included descendants of the Lugo, Rowland, Workman and Temple families, as well as local residents interested in the history of the area.

Lugo, an unusually tall man at 6 feet and known as el viejo Lugo, because he lived a longer-than-typical life of 81 years, died the last day of January 1860, and impressed a great many people with his stature, bearing and personality.

A post on this blog from 2010 about Don Antonio can be accessed here, but there is also some other information that will be posted here in upcoming days, so check back for those.

18 September Talk on Antonio Maria Lugo and Rancho Santa Ana del Chino

Chino Hills Historical Society Presents:

“A Look Back at Antonio María Lugo and the 

Early Years of the Rancho Santa Ana del Chino”

Monday, September 18th 

The Chino Hills Historical Society will host a presentation by Chino Hills resident and historian Paul R. Spitzzeri at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, September 18th at the Chino Hills Community Center, 14259 Peyton Drive.  Spitzzeri will share the history of Antonio María Lugo and the early years of the Rancho Santa Ana del Chino.

According to Spitzzeri, Antonio María Lugo (1775-1860), born near Monterey, Mexico just six years after the Spanish first settled California, was one of the most prominent and remarkable persons in greater Los Angeles during his lifetime.  A soldier in the Spanish Army during his younger years, Lugo was granted the Rancho San Antonio, encompassing nearly 30,000 acres southeast of Los Angeles.  Later, he and his family acquired the Rancho San Bernardino and Rancho Santa Ana del Chino, the latter including today’s cities of Chino and Chino Hills.

“Lugo was torn by the loss of California to the Americans during a war that included the Battle of Chino, which was fought on what is now Boys Republic,” said Mr. Spitzzeri, “He was known for his forthright personality, hospitality, and strength of character.”

Mr. Spitzzeri has lived in Chino Hills for 20 years.  He is the Museum Director at the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum in the City of Industry, where he has worked since 1988. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree and Master of Arts degree in history from California State University, Fullerton and has published on local, regional and state history in many journals and anthologies.  His book, The Workman and Temple Families of Southern California, won a 2009 Award of Merit from the American Association for State and Local History.  Since 2008, Paul has maintained the blog www.carboncanyonchronicle.blogspot.com.

“Paul really captivates the audience as he paints a picture of the history of the area,” said Chino Hills Historical Society President Denise Cattern.  “We are so happy that he has returned to share the story of Antonio María Lugo!”

The Chino Hills Historical Society is a non-profit organization funded through memberships and donations.  For additional information, please call (909) 597-6449 or send an email to chhistory@aol.com.

Carbon Canyon Historic Artifact #53: Los Serranos Country Club Scorecard

As noted here before, even though Los Serranos Country Club is outside of Carbon Canyon, their histories are intertwined.

Though created in the mid-1910s as a shortcut from the Inland Empire to coastal regions, Carbon Canyon Road was unpaved and not well-built when it opened to the public.

In 1924, Long Beach investors purchased a portion of Rancho Santa Ana del Chino, known as the "Home Ranch" where Joseph Bridger's 1870s adobe still stood, for a subdivision, lake, and golf course, all given the name of Los Serranos.

Almost immediately, the country club's promoters worked to have Carbon Canyon Road substantially improved so that there would be a time-saving alternate route to their facility from Los Angeles.  At the time, the main route was to come out on Valley Boulevard through the San Gabriel Valley, then on Pomona Boulevard into Pomona and down the route of the old Butterfield Stage road to the club.

A vastly improved and fully paved Carbon Canyon Road, however, would significantly shave distance and time to get to Los Serranos.  By the end of the 1920s that work was done and by 1934, the road had been added to the newly created state highway system, though the assignment of a commonly used number (142) didn't take place for some thirty years.

So, with the fates of the two tied together, here is a score card from Los Serranos Country Club that appears to date from the 1960s, not long after the facility was purchased by tennis legend Jack Kramer, whose family still owns and operates it.

The rear cover has a map of what was then a single course, it now has two, as well as four rules for water hazards, lost balls, fences and holes and mounds.  Inside the card has the back and medium tee distances for each hole by gender, the par for men and women, including handicaps, and the total par for the course, which was rated at 70, and listed at 72 for men and 73 for women.

The front cover, which lists a 714 area code in those days when there were enough numbers for wide areas, is most notable for its unfortunate use of a Latino figure taking a siesta next to images of crossed clubs and a ball and a flag.

For the club to mention that the 300-acre facility was on a remnant of the Rancho Santa Ana del Chino granted in the Mexican era (1841) to Antonio María Lugo is one thing, but the napping figure in the big sombrero?  Whoa.

The Battle of Chino as told by José del Carmen Lugo

One of the sons of Antonio María Lugo, the original grantee of Rancho Santa Ana del Chino in 1841, José del Carmen Lugo was a co-owner of the Rancho San Bernardino, where the present county seat is located.  José del Carmen was born in Los Angeles in 1813 and was raised there, remaining in the pueblo until about 1839 when he moved to San Bernardino.

José del Carmen, in fall 1877, conducted an interview with Thomas Savage, who with a few others, traveled throughout California on behalf of historian Hubert Howe Bancroft, collecting material from Spanish-speaking Californios and Americans and Europeans with the express purpose of recording the history of California before and up through the American conquest of 1846-47.  Many of these interviews, which were recast in narrative form by Bancroft's associates, were published.  Lugo's was not, however, until the San Bernardino County Museum Association reprinted it in 1961.

Rancho San Bernardino was formally transferred on 21 June 1842 by Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado to his granduncle, Antonio María Lugo, who acquired the 35,000-acre property for his three sons, José María, Vicente and José del Carmen, and for his nephew, Diego Sepulveda.  All built or remodeled adobe houses on the property--José del María in what is now Redlands, Vicente in today's San Bernardino, and Sepulveda in Yucaipa, where his home still stands as a state historic landmark.

As for José del Carmen, he took possession of structures built by the Mission San Gabriel as its furthest eastern outpost, or estancia, for cattle grazing, but which had been abandoned when the missions were secularized in the mid-1830s.  Remodeling the buildings, he established his home at what has been erroneously called the "Asistencia".   A 1930s re-creation of the property was built about a mile from the originals and is located in Redlands.

In 1846, when American forces invaded and seized Los Angeles, a garrison of troops were left behind and its young commander, Archibald Gillespie, imposed curfews, ordered arrests and otherwise alienated many Spanish-speaking Californios, though, notably, José del Carmen indicated that Gillespie "was a good friend of my father."

In any case, a revolt was instigated by Californios chafing at Gillespie's ham-fisted control and, though Lugo stated that "in truth, thee were only a few youths, practically unarmed", the word of the uprising was brought to him at San Bernardino.  Similarly, Benjamin D. Wilson, a prominent American who came to Los Angeles in late 1841 with a group often known as the Rowland-Workman Expedition, was summoned from the San Bernardino Mountains, where he was on a trip, to assist in the defense of the newly-conquered area.

Lugo recalled that Wilson sent a messenger to "advise me to enlist what force I could, because he was coming to my home to take me prisoner," which came as a surprise, Lugo said, because"I had done no harm to anyone, directly or indirectly."  He also said that one of his brothers told him "he was uneasy over the threat Señor Wilson had made toward me."  In his reply to Wilson, Lugo stated "it would be best for him to come alone to take me and not compromise others" and that he would not be "calling anyone to my assistance."

Wilson replied that he and others were on their way to Lugo's house, to which Lugo began gathering some twenty one men and weaponry to meet Wilson at his ranch at Jurupa near modern Riverside.  When arriving, however, Lugo found that Wilson had gone to the home of Isaac Williams at Chino, this being on what is now the grounds of Boys Republic here in Chino Hills, and he followed.

A scouting party of sorts sent ahead and approaching the Williams home at Chino met a man named Evan Callahan, who tried to fire upon them, but his pistol jammed, and Diego Sepulveda, Lugo's cousin and owner of the Yucaipa adobe mentioned above, knocked Callahan down with a blow to the head, but the American managed to make it to the house.  Two Latinos with Callahan were seized and both swore to assist Lugo.

Lugo then said that "an officer came to me ordering me to the Commanding General, Don José María Flores, in Los Angeles to join him with the force I had."  With this, Lugo sent a request to Flores for aid, being told that Wilson was joined by some fifty men at the Chino adobe, though he and his men surrounded the house and were positioned "on the road to Los Angeles," which was almost certainly what is now the 71 Freeway now runs north to south just east of Boys Republic.

When one of his young sons went to retrieve a hat blown towards the house by a strong wind, gunfire erupted, but Lugo stated that he waited overnight for help from Flores, which came in the form of thirty men led by Serbulo Varela and Ramon Carrillo.   A mixup over how to deal with a messenger who hurried from the house led to a movement of Lugo's men towards the structure, which had some kind of moat around it.  As a group of men attempted to breach the moat, one, Carlos Ballesteros, fell from his hourse and, upon climbing back on his horse, "was struck in the right temple by a bullet and fell dead."

At this, as some of his men gathered some grass in the area, Lugo "ordered the grass thrown on the roof of the house and set on fire."  Notably, his men went to "an Indian village near at hand, and they had a fire outside it."  He went on to say that

I went at full speed amid the bullets that were coming from all directions.  I rode hugging the sides of the hourse and crouching low to keep a bullet from hitting me.  During this onrush of the horse, stretched alongside as I was, I reached down and seized a blazing stick with which I returned at full speed to the house.  I set fire to a corner of it and ordered that the same be done to the others.  I then went at full gallop to make the circuit of the house and enter it by the main door.

While this was transpiring, Lugo reported that he heard the cries of three of his nieces and nephews, children of his deceased sister and Williams, crying for him, so he had his men rescue them and two female servants.  Diego Sepulveda entered the home from a back entranc and the Americans and Europeans surrendered, including Williams, Wilson, John Rowland of Rancho La Puente, and many others.

Lugo stated that he had his men extinguish the flames, searched the home and found some men hiding, and then had the three children delivered over to Williams, telling his brother-in-law, "he should thanks me for saving his children, but neither he nor they gave any sign of thanks afterward."
Interestingly, while the boy died shortly after, "the girls are still living and care nothing about their uncle."  These were Francisca, who later married Robert Carlisle and owned Chino, and Merced, who was the wife of John Rains and owned Rancho Cucamonga.  Carlisle and Rains were Southerners who had grisly ends, as has been discussed here before.

After the fire was put out and the home's contents, which had been removed, returned, Lugo started for Los Angeles, but stopped at La Puente to allow the prisoners to rest at the adobe home of William Workman, which still stands at the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum in the City of Industry.   There Lugo was loaned a horse by Workman, who said "that Ramon Carrillo and Serbulo Varela were not willing that John Rowland should be permitted to talk there with his wife."  So,

Don Julian and I betook ourselves to where the prisoners were and called Mr. Rowland out so that he could talk with his wife.  He conversed as long as he wished, and we then continued the journey to Los Angeles.

At a place called Paredon Blanco (White Bluffs), where Flores maintained a camp--this now the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, where the bluffs overlook the Los Angeles River.  Lugo stated that "in the affair at Chino we took forty or fifty prisoners and a great many firearms with ammunition."

Later, after providing services to Flores in Indian areas from Temecula to San Diego, Lugo stated that he was ordered to "take charge of the foreign prisoners who had been left under guard and take them to the Rancho Chino, guarding them until further orders,"  These included Williams, Rowland and a few others, though, apparently, not Wilson.  Lugo then said that "my father, shortly afterward, asumed responsibility for a part of them and these were given their liberty on their word of honor to engage in no acts unfavorable to the country while the war was in progress."

Lugo then observed that "I continued in charge of the prisoners until January 8, 1847, when I was ordered to set them free and remain there with all the men of the country I could enlist, since Flores and his forces would come to Chino within a few days."  Lugo then had about forty men under his command.  According to Wilson, Workman and Ygnacio Palomares of Rancho San José, now the Pomona area, secured the freedom of the prisoners.  The following day, an American force, which had marched from San Diego, engaged the Californios in a battle along the San Gabriel River and, taking the field, went into Los Angeles.

When Flores, who had retreated east to Rancho Cucamonga and then headed to Chino on his way to Mexico, suggested Lugo join him, this was rejected.  Lugo disbanded his small force as the war was essentially over.  He assisted John C. Fremont, who commanded a volunteer force of Americans and then assumed a contested role as military governor in California, by recovering some of the horses left behind by Flores in his hurried flight.  In 1849, Lugo served as the alcalde (basically, mayor) of Los Angeles, as well as justice of the peace.

Two years later, Rancho San Bernardino was sold to Mormon colonists sent by Brigham Young to establish a community in the region.  The Mormons came very near to buying the Rancho Santa Ana del Chino from Isaac Williams, but a deal fell through, and the Lugos and Diego Sepulveda were able to complete a sale.

As to Lugo, he ended his 1877 interview by stating "up to the year 1853 I was in good circumstances . . . [but] I had the misfortune to loan my signature as bondsman for other persons in whom I had confidence . . . and I had to sacrifice my property and even the house in which I lived to meet these obligations."  His days as a prosperous member of Californio society were over.

Although some sources list his death as 1868, 1870, or after 1880, Lugo was still residing in Los Angeles in the 1880 census and his property in "Sonoratown" between the Plaza and the Elysian Hills was referred to in newspaper ads in 1882.  His wife, Rafaela Castro died in 1883, but Lugo's death date has not been established.

Carbon Canyon Historic Artifact #51: Joseph Bridger Adobe at Los Serranos Country Club

In 1865, when Robert Carlisle, the hot-headed husband of Francisca Williams, who inherited Rancho Santa Ana del Chino from her father, Isaac Williams, upon his death in 1856, was killed in a famous shootout at the Bella Union Hotel in Los Angeles, the ranch became supervised by trustees, principally Los Angeles banker Isaias W. Hellman (as recently covered here in this blog) on behalf of Francisca and her children with Carlisle.

Hired to manage the ranch was Joseph Bridger, born in Tenneessee in 1830, and who married one of Isaac Williams' daughters from an Indan wife, the daughter of Chief Pablo Apis of Temecula.  While some sources state that Bridger bought the Chino Ranch from Francisca Williams Carlisle, that is not the case.

For example, journalist Benjamin C. Truman's 1874 book Semi-Tropical California, states very clearly that

The property of the heirs of Robert Carlisle deceased it is managed and supervised by Mr Joseph Bridger and it was from his hospitable residence that I sallied out upon the several tours which I made through its broad acres

Francisca Carlisle married Frederick A. MacDougall, a mayor of Los Angeles in the late 1870s, and moved to Los Angeles with her children, leaving Chino in the very capable hands of her half brother-in-law Bridger.

A real photo postcard, dated 1 February 1927, of the "Home Ranch" adobe house on the Rancho Santa Ana del Chino, built by Joseph Bridger after 1865, used by Richard Gird after 1881 and then, from 1924, serving as the clubhouse for Los Serranos Country Club, until it was razed.  The site is now the current clubhouse, opened in 1995.  

Note that Truman stated that he toured the massive ranch with Bridger "from his hospitable residence."  Eventually, this became known as the "Home Ranch" and another confusion about the history of the Rancho Santa Ana del Chino is that this was also the original ranch home of Antonio María Lugo, grantee of the ranch in 1841, as well as Isaac Williams, who was given control of the domain.

Yet, in 1938, Bridger's son Andrew and the Carlisle's two surviving daughters, Mary and Laura, provided a statement clarifying the situation, observing that the original Chino ranch house was:

upon the site of the former main building (pink house, as its color designated) at what is now known as the George Junior Republic dairy—an adobe, the headquarters of Mr. H. J. Stewart, 1874—since then destroyed, we understand, by fire and demolition.

This "former main building" of the "George Junior Republic dairy" is the site of today's Boys Republic facility in Chino Hills, a couple of miles north of the "Home Ranch" adobe house Bridger built after 1865.  It should be noted that a California State Historic Landmark plaque commemorating the 1846 Battle of Chino, which took place at the original adobe of Lugo and Williams, stands at the Chino Valley Independent Fire District training building (a former fire station) just outside the Boys Republic complex on Eucalyptus Avenue, just northwest of the intersection of Pipeline Avenue.

Traveling south on Pipeline today gets you to the western boundary of Los Serranos Country Club.  After Joseph Bridger's sudden death on 23 September 1880, it was decided to sell the Rancho Santa Ana del Chino, the buyer being Tombstone, Arizona mining magnate Richard Gird.

Gird moved into the Bridger adobe and significantly added and improved it, turning the structure into a showplace for his magnificent domain.  After Gird lost control of the ranch and it moved through several owners, eventually falling into the hands of oilman E.J. Marshall, the adobe stayed intact.

Finally, in 1924, the Campbell-Joralmon real estate firm, working with the Marshall Estate, sold the Bridger-Gird "Home Ranch" adobe and surrounding land to a syndicate of Long Beach investors who established the Los Serranos Country Club and Los Serranos subdivision.

The connection to Carbon Canyon is that the owners of the new country club actively promoted improvements to Carbon Canyon Road, because it provided a shorter route to the facility from Los Angeles.  A complete paving of the road was completed by the end of 1920s, a few years before it became part of the California state highway system.

The real photo postcard shown here is of the adobe and is titled "Los Serranos C. Club / Club House."  On the back of the unused card, is a pencil inscription with the date 1 February 1927, less than two years after the golf club opened to the public.

The image shows much of the two-story structure, with a broad balcony along its length, largely obscured by palm and other trees, as well as tall hedges.  In the foreground is a large open lawn with wood chairs scattered about it.

The old adobe and clubhouse are long gone now and the site is the location of the current clubhouse, which opened in 1995.

How Telegraph Canyon Got Its Name

The last post talked briefly about and included photographs of what appears to be the remains of telegraph poles and wires which run in a northeasterly direction through Chino Hills State Park, including a few examples running across the South Ridge Trail on the Yorba Linda side and then others that are on the north side of Telegraph Canyon climbing up to the North Ridge Trail paralleling Soquel Canyon and Chino Hills.

Speculation in that post was that the lines were installed in the late 1880s to connect the new towns of Chino and Carlton, the latter being on the Olinda Ranch where Yorba Linda and Brea meet today, near the intersections of Imperial Highway and Valencia Avenue.  This was related to the fact that Richard Gird, proprietor of the Rancho Santa Ana del Chino and creator of the town of Chino, planned, with the founders of Carlton, to build a railroad linking the two towns and extending beyond to the Pacific Ocean by running the line through Soquel Canyon.

On this day, 3 April 1935, the Santa Ana Register ran a feature on the story by Marah Adams behind how Telegraph Canyon got its name.  It started by observing that it was on 3 April 1861 that the Pony Express began service from St. Louis to Sacramento and that the technological innovation that doomed the mail service by horseback was the creation of the telegraph.

This is the text of a Santa Ana Register article, dated 3 April 1935, by Marah Adams on the history of Telegraph Canyon.

The article also noted that the first telegraph line to reach greater Los Angeles came down from San Francisco in fall 1860.  This was followed by a line built from Los Angeles to San Diego--the piece didn't give a date, but it was in 1870.

The information given was misleading, though, as it seemed to indicate that the lines crossing Telegraph Canyon were built in 1870 and the opening paragraph claimed that "the first telegrams sent in Southern California went humming along the wires of this road."  It also stated that the messages transmitted along the line "mystified the Indians who watched for visible messages and who regarded the armed poles as crosses to ward off evil spirits."

These statements are also not factual.  The telegraph line followed the flat valley floor from Los Angeles through what became, in 1889, Orange County, and then followed the coast down to San Diego.  In addition, the reference to native Indians is problematic because their numbers were severely depleted by 1870, but there were almost certainly no native villages or habitation in the vicinity at that time.

Besides, the article then went on to conclude that "while a part of the San Diego and Los Angeles system, the line through Telegraph canyon connected La Habra to San Bernardino, it is said."  The italics are added, because the use of the words "it is said" is a sure indication that the author didn't find any proof of the statement's accuracy, but only got it from hearsay.

La Habra wasn't founded until 1896, yet the piece had this to say:

Andrew J. Friend, who has lived in Telegraph canyon for the past 40 years, remembers well when the line ran near his little home nestled under the shadow of the hills which seem to meet and end in a summit at the end of the deep valley.  He still has under his control 3000 acres of grazing land, where hundreds of cattle roam on property which was once owned by Richard Gird, an early settler of southern California whose heldings [holdings] are said by Friend to have extended from Orange county beyond Corona.

If Friend settled in the canyon in the mid-1890s and the telegraph line was already there, it couldn't have been built to link San Bernardino with a La Habra that didn't exist yet.  Instead, it is more likely that the line went to the new town of Carlton, laid out in the late 1880s land boom, and then went to Chino, where it certainly could have been extended to San Bernardino.

The Register article included this great photo of Andrew J. Friend, a rancher who lived in Telegraph Canyon and first began running cattle there in the mid-1890s, standing by the rough wood gate to his ranch.  Friend's family still grazes livestock in the Chino Hills.

The other factual problem dealt with Gird, who came to southern California in 1881, hardly making him an "early settler," but, more relevant, his landholdings on the Rancho Santa Ana del Chino did not go beyond Corona, though they did touch the future Orange County border in regions that include Telegraph Canyon and today's Chino Hills State Park.

What is interesting, though, is the article carried a photo of Friend standing behind the rough wooden gate to his property on Telegraph Canyon Road.  Somewhere along the trail within the state park is that exact location.

In addition, cattle is still being grazed in the area by the widow of Friend's late grandson, William, who died a few years ago, meaning that the Friend family has been maintaining its ranching presence in the Chino Hills for at least 120 years!

Another interesting little tidbit in the Register piece is the mention of the fact that Orange County fire authorities had just received permission from Friend to build an access road up to one of the summits, perhaps San Juan Hill or another one along the South Ridge Trail, as a route for fire-fighting vehicles during wildfires.

As interesting as the 1935 Register article is, its accuracy about how Telegraph Canyon got its name is questionable.  Maybe someday more definitive information will be found.

The Rancho Santa Ana del Chino in the 1870s

The Rancho Santa Ana del Chino covering today's cities of Chino and Chino Hills and extending almost to Sleepy Hollow in Carbon Canyon, was granted in 1841 to Antonio María Lugo, who had his son-in-law, Pennsylvania-native Isaac Williams assume the management of the ranch and then assigned the property to him.  In 1856, Williams died and ownership passed to one of his daughters, whose husband, Robert Carlisle, took control.  Carlisle was killed in 1865 in one of the most famous gun battles in early Los Angeles and Jim Bridger became the manager of the Chino Ranch.

At the time, southern California was just emerging from a punishing drought, which following calamitous floods in 1861-62, had decimated the economic backbone of the region: the cattle industry.  But, as rainfall increased, so did the population as post-Civil War western migration brought thousands of new residents to the greater Los Angeles.

With the growth in people came new businesses, an expanding agricultural foundation for the economy, and a rise in land values for small farms and townsites.  Among these latter was Compton (established 1867) and then a spate of others by the mid-1870s, including Artesia, Pomona, Santa Ana, Orange and San Fernando.

With climbing real estate prices, investors were looking for remaining regional ranches to purchase with an eye for subdivision and sale at great profits.  One such enterpreneur was Isaias W. Hellman (1842-1920).  Born to a Jewish family in what later became Germany, Hellman migrated to America in the late 1850s as a teenager to join relatives in Los Angeles and worked in a cousin's store.

Los Angeles Herald, 9 April 1875.

By the middle Sixties, as the area emerged from the drought and was poised for growth, Hellman went on his own, opening his own store and quickly becoming a success.  He even began to transact an informal banking business (banking was actually illegal for a number of years in California) at the back of his store as a sideline and earned the business of many residents of the Los Angeles region.

In 1868, Hellman formalized his enterprise, taking on two partners in longtime San Gabriel Valley ranchers, William Workman (half-owner of Rancho La Puente) and Workman's son-in-law, F.P.F. Temple (co-owner of Rancho La Merced).  Hellman, Temple and Company was the second bank opened in Los Angeles, following ex-governor John Downey's Hayward and Company by a few months.

While business grew along with the regional economy, fundamental differences in management of the institution arose between Hellman and Temple, and Hellman dissolved the partnership in early 1871.  Downey closed up his bank, joined ranks with Hellman and the pair opened Farmers and Merchants Bank, which became a dominant financial institution in Los Angeles for decades to come.  Temple and Workman formed their own private bank of that name and the two institutions had something of a friendly rivalry as the only commercial banks in the growing city.

It was in 1875, as the local growth boom spiked, that Hellman expanded his growing portfolio of real estate holdings.  Four years before, he and partners bought Rancho Cucamonga, which had been owned by John Rains, another Isaac Williams son-in-law, and, after Rains' murder in 1862, managed for his widow, Merced.  Cucamonga was widely-known for its vineyards and wine and brandy production, which Hellman continued.

Los Angeles Herald, 5 May 1875.

In 1874, he partnered with John Lazzarovitch and William H. Workman (nephew of his former banking partner) in subdividing the Paredon Blanco (White Bluffs) property Workman's wife, Maria, inherited from her father, Andrew Boyle, naming the new subdivision on the east side of the Los Angeles River from downtown Los Angeles Boyle Heights.  Ironically, it was at Paredon Blanco that Americans who had been taken prisoner by Californios at Isaac Williams's house at Chino were kept under lock and key during the last stage of the American invasion and conquest in 1846-47.

On 9 April 1875, the Los Angeles Herald newspaper published a small article titled "The Chino Ranch" in which it was reported

The solid foundation of real estate in Los Angeles county is well demonstrated by the late purchase of a half interest in the above named ranch by Mr. I.W. Hellman . . . [who] on the eve of his departure for Europe he saw no better investment for $150,000 of his surplus capital than to put it in solid ground . . .

Hellman, who had become quite wealthy due to his business acumen, was preparing for his first trip to his homeland since he had left nearly twenty years before.  The Herald continued that

The entire ranch contains some 35,000 acres, beautifully situated in the Spadra valley, six miles East of Spadra and within three-quarters of a mile of the railroad.  Ten thousand acres of Mr. Hellman's purchase is moist land and capable of producing anything that grows in semi-tropical California.  The whole tract is well-watered by streams from the adjacent mountains and foot-hills, and besides has numberless springs flowing the year round.   Heretofore it has been devoted to pasturage, but it is capable of much better things, and we expect some day to see it divided into small farms and under the best state of cultivation.

The paper's geographical knowledge was a bit skewed.  The Southern Pacific railroad line, completed to Spadra in 1874 and to Colton a year or so later, was about five miles north.  Spadra was a community established by the excellently-named William W. Rubottom on a corner of Rancho San Jose and named for Rubottom's Arkansas hometown.  Later in 1875, the new town of Pomona was created on that same ranch and Spadra is now an almost-forgotten remnant of an industrial section of the city along Pomona Boulevard between the 71 and 57 freeways.  The Chino ranch is actually southeast of Spadra and constitutes its own Chino Valley.

Praising Hellman's wisdom in acquiring the Chino ranch, the paper claimed "we doubt not that it is well worth a half million dollars."  Well, at the time, the real estate boom in the Los Angeles area was such that the assigned value by the Herald might have seemed realistic.

Los Angeles Herald, 13 June 1875.

A month after the purchase announcement, photographer S.P. Smith of the short-lived Cottage Gallery in Los Angeles took a "photographic tour", covered by the Herald, of points east from the growing city, including San Gabriel, El Monte, Spadra, San Jose (what became Pomona) and the Chino Ranch.  There, Smith and his party met a Mr. Stewart, a native of Great Britain, who was leasing the ranch for sheep-raising, these animals having replaced cattle in many of the region's ranches.

Smith observed it was the last day of sheep shearing (say that ten times fast) and then took photographs of the ranch and the stock of animals for Stewart (it would be great if prints of these views were still around).  After spending the night at Chino, Smith and his party finished taking more photos, enjoyed "a bountiful breakfast," packed up and headed back for Los Angeles.  The article ended with the statement that

Should you ever visit the Chino Ranch you will find a pleasant place, a social and entertaining host, and have a good time generally.  Them's our sentiments.

By mid-June, however, a short notice appeared in the paper noting that

We learn from parties who profess to know that the Chino ranch will be cut up into small farms, and that a town will be laid off.  The surveying will be commenced this coming week.  This movement serves to confirm the report of the change of route of the Los Angeles and Independence R.R., published in the [San Bernardino] Argus a few days ago.

The Los Angeles and Independence Railroad, a project led by F.P.F. Temple and intended to tap the transportation of silver from mines near the Inyo county town of Independence, was in the process of construction, starting with a branch line from Los Angeles to the new resort town of Santa Monica.  The line opened later in 1875, but only lasted a little over a year before being absorbed by the Southern Pacific.

At around the same time, the Centinela ranch (near today's Los Angeles International Airport) and Lake Vineyard (modern Alhambra and San Marino) had been or were soon to be subdivided for sale, so Hellman and his unnamed partners were looking to cash in on the action while the real estate market was white hot.

A little over two months later, though, a deep chill descended on the economy--speaking metaphorically, as it was the dog days of a very warm August.  Silver mining speculation gone haywire in Virginia City, Nevada collapsed, sending shockwaves to San Francisco, which was the financial center of the silver frenzy.  The Bank of California, the state's largest, went belly up and the telegraph ticked the news southward to Los Angeles, where a panic erupted.  Both of the commercial banks, Temple and Workman and Farmers and Merchants, suspended business for a month to try to allay depositors' fears.

Los Angeles Herald, 4 November 1875.

Hellman was in Europe, but furiously cut short his trip when he learned what Downey had done when Temple and Workman asked for assistance in ordering the suspension of business.  Notably, that took place on 1 September 1875, the day of the county elections and F.P.F. Temple, president of his namesake bank, was elected Los Angeles County treasurer.  Rushing back home in what might have been a record time, Hellman borrowed money in New York from his financial connections there and, upon arrival in Los Angeles, reopened his bank with the new-found cash, thereby saving his bank.

As for Temple and Workman, there was no such luck.  Their reputation for loose management (which Hellman had experienced first hand when they were all partners) kept them from obtaining a loan, especially as the well-heeled in San Francisco sat on their surpluses.

But, another investor in southern California real estate, Elias J. "Lucky" Baldwin, who bought the Rancho Santa Anita (modern Arcadia and nearby areas) in spring 1875, loaned Temple and Workman money, but at a devil's bargain, most revealed in the satanic details of the mortgages issued to cover the loan.  Temple and Workman's gamble failed and the bank collapsed in January 1876.  The boom was over and a bust was on.

Still, in early November 1875, the Herald published another long piece on the Chino Ranch, observing that

The largest tract of moist land in Southern California and unquestionably the finest body of farming land on the Pacific Coast, is comparatively uninhabited.  We refer to the Chino Ranch . . .

Describing the property as a "savanna . . . entire covered with waving grass," the paper went on to note that "a splendid road free from dust (owing to the moisture of the land) passes across the center of the ranch", this describing the Butterfield Stage road, now roughly the route of the 71 Freeway.

Then, the piece continued, "on either side as far as the eye can reach are seen vast herds of cattle feeding upon the rich grasses," with an estimate of some 10,000 cattle and horses given.  The animals were said to be kept hydrated by abundant cienegas (springs) found throughout the ranch.  In fact, this blogger's first Chino Hills home included access to one such spring--when a backyard plant died and was pulled out of the heavy clay soil, just below the hills adjoining Chino Hills State Park, water rose to the surface and did not stop for seven years afterward.

Los Angeles Herald, 10 November 1875.

Going on to describe the "sandy loam" of the soil and the abundant water, the article claimed that the little agriculture practiced at Chino yielded "fifty to sixty bushels of barley, seventy-five to one hundred bushels of corn, and fifteen to eighteen tons of alfalfa" and some forty to sixty bushels of wheat.

The platitudes just kept coming:

As a place of residence no part of California is superior to this valley, the climate being superb and the scenery excellent . . . the immigrants arriving now are directing their attention to the East of Los Angeles. and this large ranch, capable of supporting three or four thousand people, will soon be thickly settled.  Lovely villas will ere long dot the beautiful plain, and the hum of industry be heard on all sides.

If the estimate of four thousand people sounds ridiculously low, the Herald must have realized it, because a brief note in the paper on 10 November, stated that Chino "is capable of supporting a half million of people" but at the time "is now only a wild expanse on which graze sheep and cattle."  As for those villas, Payne Ranch, Oak Tree Downs and Vellano might be the closest examples today.  The "hum" is more likely our growing street traffic and the rumble of trucks in south Chino!

The article ended with the note that investors with Hellman in the Chino Ranch included his banking partner Downey, San Francisco capitalist Alexander Weill and Louis Phillips, owner of the southern portion of Rancho San Jose, namesake of the Phillips Ranch community of Pomona and whose home, the 1875 Phillips Mansion, is a Pomona historic landmark.

Sacramento Record-Union, 31 December 1880.

The 1875-76 economic disaster proved to be a decade-long depression locally.  Any plans to develop the Rancho Santa Ana del Chino were shelved.  The plans of Hellman and his partners for quick, immense profits vanished, but another investor showed up at the end of 1880.  Flush with cash from the sale of mines at Tombstone, Arizona, Richard Gird made a deal with Hellman and associates, as briefly reported in the Sacramento Record-Union of 31 December 1880:

I.W. Hellman, the banker, is said to have sold to Dick Gird, an Arizona millionaire, the Chino Ranch for $225,000.

Hellman's half share cost him $150,000, so there was something of a loss, but it didn't hurt the financier in the long run.  He went on to run the Nevada Bank and Wells Fargo and was one of the wealthiest people in western America until his death in 1920.

As for Gird, he was buying at a good time, when prices were still low.  Within five years, a transcontinental railroad built by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe reached Los Angeles and ushered in a new population and land boom exponentially greater by far than that of the late 1860s and early 1870s.  Like Hellman, though, Gird did not do well on his investment in the Chino Ranch--no one would until E.J. Marshall, Texas oil tycoon, bought the largely-intact ranch and took advantage of good market conditions after 1907 to finally make a good profit on speculation in the Chino Valley.

An 1856 Visit to Rancho Santa Ana del Chino

In late July 1856, Captain Edward O.C. Ord of the Army's Third U.S. Artillery, arrived in the Los Angeles region to scout potential locations for a fort and portions of his diary were published by the Huntington Library in 1978 as the book, The City of the Angels and the City of the Saints or A Trip to Los Angeles and San Bernardino in 1856.  After a brief visit to the small town of Los Angeles, then embroiled in some tension involving the homicide of a local Mexican-American by a deputy constable over a $50 debt and writ of attachment to satisfy that debt, Ord ventured east.

After a visit to "Quicomongo," otherwise known as the Rancho Cucamonga (where Ord noted the owner was building an addition to his adobe house, using Indian labor, and that "these sundried bricks called adobes, pronounced dobys, are pretty good for a lazy people, but great encouragers of dirt & fleas"), the captain wrote, "I left the road here to get information from a wealthy ranchero, Col. W., an old acquaintance at "El Chino," a large cattle estate."

It was common in diaries and travelogues to use shorthand for people, like "Col. W.," who was Isaac Williams, owner of the Rancho Santa Ana del Chino.  A footnote observed that, "Ord had been there in October 1849" to make a survey.  In fact, Ord, who was later a somewhat prominent figure in the Union Army during the Civil War, is best known locally for the survey of Los Angeles he completed in 1849 that was the first "true" (or professional) survey of that community and which established the pattern for the development of the town in subsequent years.

It turned out that, when Ord arrived at the ranch headquarters, located where Boys Republic operates in Chino Hills, "we found the Col. absent from his house, which like all the other houses, is a flat roofed, one-story adobe near a spring or stream, which after spreading fertility over several acres, dries up." Ord went on to record that, "The Cols. Mayor domo [foreman] gave us a welcome and a hearty meal of beef stewed with young pumpkins, maise &c."

The following day, however. "The Col. arrived from the playa [coastal area at the Pacific Ocean] next day, told me all I wanted to know [about potential fort locations near Cajon Pass, where Mormons had, in 1851, established the town of San Bernardino], and gave me an interesting exhibition of how the Indians of this country are managed."

This view, taken on 24 February from a hilltop location east of Peyton Drive and south of Chino Hills Parkway, looks north towards the briefly snowcapped Mount Baldy and the adjacent Ontario and Cucamonga peaks.  At the far left are trees and farm and pasture land on the Boys Republic property, which is where the Williams Adobe stood as the headquarters of the Rancho Santa Ana del Chino, which Captain Edward O.C. Ord visited in late July 1856.  Click on the image to see it in an enlarged view in a separate window.

Williams was, in fact, well-known for his intensive use of native American labor at his ranch, as well as for the fact that he fathered several children from a few native women after his own wife, Maria Lugo died several years before.  Ord went on to state that, "he [Williams] having the principal chief of the nearest band as his head cattle driver, some dozen or two as work hands or vaqueros.  This Indian chief waited at the door after sunset with his hat in hand to report the state of the cattle drive to a distance, for, from little rain, the grazing this year is very thin on this estate."

The band referred to may be the local group of Gabrieleño Indians, whose village ancestrally was at or near the location of the ranch's headquarters, or to Pablo Apis of a tribe from the Temecula area, who was a longtime employee of Williams and whose daughters bore some of Williams' children.  As to the drought problem (which we are experiencing all too well these days, though, obviously, under strikingly different circumstances and conditions), the problem in 1856 would pale in comparison to the mega-drought of 1863-64, which all but finished off the cattle industry in the region.

Ord also commented on the California state government's "singular absurdity" on its Indian policies that effectively meant that natives were "held in bondage by the owners of large estates [like Williams], as the slaves are in the south." He then claimed that slaves were of more value as productive in being "saleable chattle [chattel, or property]" whereas local Indians were "only saleable or buyable for debts due," Ord concluded that this meant that ranchers, having no use for Indians after immediate work was done, "ceases to credit him, drives him off, & he [the Indian] may die . . ."

Ord's views, however, were not sympathetic to natives, as he noted that Indian agents "soon discover that such miserable, servile wretches, who can be made to work, have no business to be fed in idleness."  That is, Indians were convinced by Indian agents to go to government reservations so that they didn't need to work for ranchers as "peons," but could receive food, shelter and other amenities, such as they were, as an entitlement [doesn't this sound familiar today?]

After his lengthy digression about Indian policy, Ord wrote, "but to return to the Rancho del Chino and the peonage system, it works very well at least for the cattle owners & vine growers."  Strikingly, Ord observed that "the institution of labor was established as a punishment [his italics[, and as the whites in California are not fond of being punished, the punishment of labor is inflicted on the stupid Indians, and the law of peonage established by northern men in this free(?) state is not likely to be rescinded for a while."  He continued that, "besides, the Indians are better fed on the ranchos than on government reservations & they prefer to stay there."  His final statement was, "so we might as well let the poor wretches have the choice of masters."

With this somewhat ambivalent indictment of nearly everyone from the state and federal governments, to the Indians, and the ranchers, like Williams, Ord moved on to San Bernardino to finish his inspection tour for a fort location that never materialized.  His description of his stay at the Williams Adobe on Rancho Santa Ana del Chino, however, is an interesting addition to the information about the property and its singular owner from 1841 until his death on 13 September 1856, just under two months after he hosted Ord for the second and final time.

A 1914 Map Showing the Olinda Oil Field and Surrounding Areas

In 1914, the California State Mining Bureau issued Bulletin 69, titled "Petroleum Industry in California," as well as a Map Folio set to accompany the work.  Part of the state government's effort to identify and report on the growing importance of the natural resource, the bulletin and folio are excellent sources about the early years of the oil industry in California.

The Map Folio includes sixteen plates with depictions of fossils found in oil fields, geologic maps of field areas, more standard maps showing oil well locations, plans for oil rigs and reservoirs, and a map of pipelines.  One of the geologic maps is Plate II covering portions of Los Angeles and Orange counties.  On this is the area in and around the Olinda field.

This detail from Plate II, a geologic map of part of Los Angeles and Orange counties from the Map Folio of the California State Mining Bureau's "Petroleum Industry in California" (1914) shows the area in and around the Fullerton-Olinda Oil Field.  The image is courtesy of the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum, City of Industry.

At this date, the field was approaching two decades in operation and there were many companies working leases or owned sites.  While the Los Angeles basin had yet to see the great discoveries of Santa Fe Springs, Signal Hill and Huntington Beach, among others, the Fullerton-Olinda field (once known only as Fullerton), was one of the major ones.

At the top of the first detail above is the area that later became the cities of Walnut, Diamond Bar and the City of Industry.  Note that at the upper left is the name and boundary of Rancho Rincon de la Brea (rincon meaning corner and brea denoting tar.)  Crossing that vertical line at about the center is the boundary line between Los Angeles and Orange counties running horizontally.  At the right side, the jagged boundary separating Los Angeles from San Bernardino counties comes in from the upper right and disappears just below the center.

A light brown area running left to right is the geologic section constituting at the west end the Brea Canyon Oil Field and, at the center, the Fullerton-Olinda field.  It moves through much of what is now Chino Hills State Park before terminating at some dark lines at the bottom right corner showing where Santa Ana Canyon is located.

Note that under this, the place names of Placentia and Olinda are placed and there are thick black lines throughout that denote roads.  In the further detail below, we can pick up on more specifics within the Olinda and Catbon Canyon areas.

Another detail from Plate II showing the geologic formation area for the Fullerton-Olinda Oil Field and other local aspects.

From where the word "Placentia" is, there is a road leading up to the "Fullerton-Olinda Oil Field" phrase and then this road makes an abrupt turn right, or east.  This would seem to be Valencia Avenue transitioning in that quick change of direction to Carbon Canyon Road.

Significantly, the road goes into Carbon Canyon, enters into a three-fingered geologic area marked by the letters "Tm" and then crosses the county line.  This, of course, marks where Sleepy Hollow would be developed just under a decade later.  It is quite clear, however, that the road simply ends not far over the county line, perhaps at the actual geological back of Carbon Canyon where the Western Hills Country Club more or less is and just below the Carriage Hills subdivision.

Early on in this blog, an excerpt from an oral history of former Olinda oil field residents conducted in the 1970s by Cal State Fullerton personnel included one by a man who remembered working on the building of Carbon Canyon Road at just about this time (that is, 1914.)  At that time, though, the road not only stopped where this map indicates, but it also wasn't paved.  Whether it was all-dirt or had some composite or oiled surface remains to be discovered.

Getting a little more "zoomed in," the dark line moving from center left to upper right is that of Carbon Canyon Road, abruptly turning east from Valencia Avenue and terminating not far into San Bernardino County (the county line is the one running at an angle at the upper right), probably at the true geological end of Carbon Canyon just below the Carriage Hills tract and near Western Hills Country Club.

Note, too, what is, in the further detail just above, the denoted "Fault Line" running from the upper center left to the lower center right.  It may very well be that this is the fault which, over the last five years, has yielded some fair-sized seismic activity, a few of which have been chronicled in this blog, that have been identified as taking place in the southern end of Chino Hills State Park and are usually noted as "Yorba Linda" quakes.

 

Meantime, the map does extend east over towards Chino and the detail shown below takes in the town of Chino and its straight lines of streets at the upper right.  It also, however, indicates existing roadways, all probably within private ranches with the Rancho Santa Ana del Chino (the name of whicjh is emblazoned across the center of this detail) in what is now Chino Hills. 

 

Moving east and north, this detail from Plate II shows the Chino/Chino Hills area, with the town of Chino at the upper right and the undeveloped ranching area which became Chino Hills at the center and bottom.  The road moving toward the lower left corner and ending abruptly is undoubtedly the east end of what became Carbon Canyon Road later.

 It seems pretty obvious that the road curling down towards the bottom left corner and then ending is what would later become Carbon Canyon Road and linked, in the mid 1920s, to the portion of that road noted above from the Orange County side. 

 

Among other notable elements is the roadway that runs from to the right of the top left corner to above the bottom right corner.  This is the old Colorado Road from Los Angeles to Yuma, named from at least 1851, and then, after 1858, denoted as the Butterfield Stage road for that famed, if short lived, line that ran from St. Louis to San Francisco and also became part of the more well-known (and also limited run) Pony Express route.  In later years, it was known as the Pomona-Rincon Road, Rincon being a community that was dismantled when the Prado Dam project was created decades ago and portions of that road still exist in Chino and Chino Hills today.

 

In the not-too-distant future, there will be a post on another map from this folio showing oil wells and landowners in the Olinda Oil Field area--an interesting precursor to the 1924 map detailed in this blog last year.

 

The images shown here come from a copy of the Map Folio in the collection of the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum, City of Industry.