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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..05010ff --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #53500 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/53500) diff --git a/old/53500-0.txt b/old/53500-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 1546409..0000000 --- a/old/53500-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1645 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's The Romance of the Ranchos, by E. Palmer Conner - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: The Romance of the Ranchos - -Author: E. Palmer Conner - -Release Date: November 11, 2016 [EBook #53500] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROMANCE OF THE RANCHOS *** - - - - -Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, MFR and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - _The - Romance of the - Ranchos_ - - - _by_ - E. PALMER CONNER - _Chief Title Searcher_ - - - Title Insurance and Trust Company - 433 South Spring Street - Los Angeles - - _Reprinted by permission from the Los Angeles Times_ - Fifth Edition - - [Illustration: _Old Plaza Church_ - “_Where Los Angeles began_”] - - - - - Ranchos of California - - -Picture a map of California cut up into Ranchos like a crazy quilt, -dotted with twenty-one Missions and a handful of Pueblos. Picture a -people browned by the sun, happy, prosperous and carefree. Picture a -white-walled hacienda on each of the ranchos, every one open with a -never failing hospitality and welcome. That was California when the -Americans took it. - -With the advent of American ownership the tide of population turned to -California in a never ending stream. By sail, steamboat, covered wagon -and finally by train came a new people. The great Spanish ranchos soon -passed to new owners and took on a new character. There is a record of -Spanish ranchos traded for nearly every commodity and necessity. Ranchos -like the Malibu and the Centinela exchanged for wines and groceries, the -Los Alamitos bought with hides and tallow, the La Canada deeded for an -attorney’s fee, ranchos for horses, for vines, for surveyor’s fees and -many ranchos for mortgages. - -It was a period of rare honor. Don Abel Stearns refused to take -advantage of a technicality in his favor and lost a 29,000 acre rancho. -Juan Matias Sanchez to help his friends, William Workman and F. P. F. -Temple, signed their mortgage to “Lucky” Baldwin and lost his own rancho -in the San Gabriel Valley, wholly without consideration. - -With progress and development the ranchos gave way to the towns and -farming communities. Many of these towns, now grown to cities, were -named for the ranchos on which they were built. In Los Angeles County, -Ranchos Santa Monica, San Fernando, Azusa, La Canada, Puente and Tujunga -all gave their names to the towns founded within their borders. Santa -Ana and La Habra in Orange County likewise took their names from their -ranchos. Santa Barbara was an original Spanish Pueblo but still farther -north in San Luis Obispo County, Arroyo Grande, Pismo, Santa Margarita, -Atascadero and Paso Robles all correspond with the rancho of the same -name. - -Many names of roads and highways all over California can be traced -directly to the rancho over which they pass. Many others were named for -an illustrious owner, who perhaps in bright velvet and astride a silver -saddle, rode down the same road when California was a land of great -ranchos in the days of the Dons. - - - - - Rancho Topanga Malibu Sequit - - -Among the ranchos of Los Angeles County Rancho Topanga Malibu Sequit, -more commonly known as the Malibu Ranch, is outstanding. Not that it was -the first of the grants, although in fact it was one of the first, or -because it was the largest, although its acreage of 13,315 was exceeded -by few, but the historic rancho has in its almost intact state outlived -all others and today it stands as “The Last of the Ranchos.” - -The Malibu was first granted in 1804 to Jose Bartolome Tapia by Jose -Joaquin de Arrillaga, Military Governor of the Californias, acting for -the King of Spain. It bordered the Pacific for miles and extended back -into the mountains,—a princely domain unexcelled for beauty. - -The heirs of Tapia held the property until January 24, 1848, when they -granted the great rancho to Leon Victor Prudhomme of the Pueblo of Los -Angeles for the sum of $400, $200 to be paid in cash and $200 in -groceries and wines. As the heirs were uncertain as to the true name of -the rancho they gave four names under which it had been known and -concluded by reciting that it was bounded on the north by the high -mountains, on the south by the Pacific Ocean, on the east by the Rancho -Santa Monica and on the west by the mouth of the River of San -Buenaventura. The recital that the rancho was bounded on the south by -the Pacific Ocean is correct as the rancho faces the ocean more -southerly than westerly. - -Prudhomme also had a famous vineyard near Cucamonga and in order to -devote all of his time to the vineyard he sold the Rancho Topanga Malibu -in 1857 to Matthew Keller, known in Spanish days as Don Mateo Keller, -for $1400. Mateo Street in Los Angeles is named for Mr. Keller. - -In 1872 an agreement was entered into between Matthew Keller and Mrs. -Carrie S. Lewis for conveyance of the rancho to Mrs. Lewis for $35,000, -a little less than $3.00 an acre, but the buyer failed to complete the -deal and Matthew Keller remained the sole owner until his death in 1881. - -In 1892 in two conveyances H. W. Keller, son of Don Mateo Keller and -assignee of the other heirs, sold the property to May K. Rindge and -Frederick H. Rindge for approximately $10 per acre. Mrs. Rindge is now -President of the Marblehead Land Company, owner of the property, and it -is now being developed into a seaside residential district. - -From Tapia to Prudhomme, Prudhomme to Keller, Keller to Rindge—surely a -very brief history of a great rancho—yet today its value is figured in -tens of millions of dollars—surely a great advance from the days when it -was traded for the wines and groceries. - - [Illustration: _Twenty-Mile Shore Line of the Rancho Topanga Malibu - Sequit_] - - - - - Ranchos Los Cerritos and Los Alamitos - - -The lives of two persons seldom parallel themselves more strangely than -did the lives of two great California ranchos, the Rancho Los Cerritos -and the Rancho Los Alamitos. Both were part of the Manuel Nieto grant -made in 1784 by the King of Spain, each was partitioned to a Nieto heir, -each became the property of a New Englander and each owner naturalized -as a citizen of Mexico. They rivaled each other for the honor of the -finest sheep, the fattest cattle, the fastest horses. Together they -became the property of the Bixbys, jointly they shared the growth of -Long Beach and finally they divided the honor of Signal Hill—Los -Cerritos the northwesterly slopes, Los Alamitos the southeasterly -slopes. - -Juan Temple was one of the New Englanders who early settled in Los -Angeles when California was a part of Mexico. At one time Temple ran the -mint for the government of Mexico. Later he opened the first general -merchandise store in Los Angeles, advanced the City of Los Angeles funds -for Ord’s Survey, built the first theater, the County’s first Court -House and the Temple Block, recently wrecked to make way for Los -Angeles’ new City Hall. Temple Street is named for him. - -Not only did Temple naturalize as a citizen of Mexico, but he married a -Spanish girl of a prominent family. Dona Rafaela Cota became his bride -and by this marriage Temple acquired one-twelfth of the Rancho Los -Cerritos, then owned by Rafaela and her eleven brothers and sisters, -heirs of Manuela Nieto de Cota. The remaining eleven-twelfths was not so -easily acquired and it cost Don Juan “$3025 in silver coin and an equal -amount in merchandise at market prices” to complete his ownership of the -27,000 acre rancho. - -In 1844 the large hacienda, yet standing on the Virginia Country Club -grounds, was built and occupied by the new owners. Until a short time -before his death Juan Temple divided his time between his big Rancho and -his many interests in the Pueblo of Los Angeles. In 1866 he sold the -hacienda, the cattle, the sheep, the horses and the 27,000 acres for -$20,000 and removed to San Francisco where he died. Benjamin and Thomas -Flint and Llewellyn Bixby were the fortunate purchasers. - -Meanwhile, adjoining Los Cerritos on the East, Rancho Los Alamitos had -had a similar career. Another heir of Manuel Nieto to whom this 28,000 -acre Rancho was partitioned, sold it in 1834 for $500 to -Brigadier-General Jose Figueroa for whom Figueroa Street in Los Angeles -is named, and at one time Governor of California under Mexico. - -In 1840 the Estate of Figueroa sold the Rancho, composed of “six sites -of grown up cattle” to Don Abel Stearns for $5500 to be paid in hides -and tallow to be laid down at San Pedro or at Mazatlan. Don Abel Stearns -was the other New Englander who became famous as a Mexican citizen. Like -Temple he, too, married into a Spanish family and was equally prominent -in affairs of the Pueblo of Los Angeles. - -The same drought that caused a terrific loss of stock and forced Juan -Temple to sell Los Cerritos for $20,000 proved fatal to Don Abel’s -ownership of the Los Alamitos and eight months after the Flints and -Bixby bought Los Cerritos the Sheriff sold Los Alamitos to Michael Reese -for $31,000, approximately $1.10 an acre. In 1881 the Estate of Michael -Reese sold the rancho to John W. Bixby, who in turn conveyed a one-third -interest each to I. W. Hellman and Jotham Bixby. Under the Bixbys both -ranchos flourished. - -When the Bixbys purchased Rancho Los Cerritos and later Rancho Los -Alamitos nothing was farther from their thoughts than that they were -purchasing the site of the future City of Long Beach but they had the -good judgment to hold their land and California, oil and Iowa did the -rest. - -Four thousand acres of Los Cerritos were sold in 1880 by Jotham Bixby -Company to W. E. Willmore, who platted Willmore City, surrounded by the -American Colony Tract, composed of farm lots. Tremendous effort was put -forth by Mr. Willmore to make his city successful. He advertised all -over the country and even ran a special excursion from Chicago with -prospective Willmoreans. But the plan was premature and not enough -purchasers could be found to buy the city lots at $25.00 to $100.00 each -or the farm lots at $15.00 an acre to enable Willmore to meet his -agreement with the Bixbys and several years later he abandoned the land -to them. - -But Willmore had planned well—his streets were wide, 80 and 100 feet -being usual, and one, American Avenue, being 124 feet wide, and the -natural beauty of the land and ocean frontage made it attractive to -others. Soon a syndicate under the name of Long Beach Land & Water -Company took up the sale of the lots and Willmore City took the name of -Long Beach. - -Now the two families of the Bixbys, one from their hacienda, the former -home of Don Juan Temple on the Los Cerritos, the other from their -hacienda, the former home of Don Abel Stearns on the Los Alamitos, -watched Long Beach grow from a subdivision to a city. The Alamitos Tract -and the Townsite of Alamitos Bay were platted. - -In 1897, William A. Clark, Montana Copper King and builder of the San -Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad, purchased 8,139 acres of Rancho -Los Cerritos for $405,000. This vast tract, known as the Montana Ranch, -has been held practically intact to the present day. Early development, -however, is planned for this property by the Janss Investment Company, -Los Angeles Realtors, who have announced that they will build a model -city on the ranch. - -In 1921 the secret of Signal Hill was discovered and an added impetus -given the development of the two ranchos. Soon the hill bristled with -oil derricks. There being then many owners there soon were many -millionaires. Oil flowed so fast from the hill that on several occasions -it streamed uncontrolled over lawns and flowers on the slopes of Signal -Hill. Daily the value of the oil taken from the hill equalled twice the -price the Bixbys paid for both ranchos. - -Slowly the oil fields have been extended—northwesterly toward the -hacienda of Don Juan Temple and southeasterly toward the hacienda of Don -Abel Stearns. - - - - - Rancho Aguaje de La Centinela - - -Traded with two barrels of wine for a small adobe house in the Pueblo of -Los Angeles, then in turn owned by a noble Spaniard, an ignoble -Frenchman, a famous Confederate General and a Scotch Baronet, then the -scene of one of the most spectacular boom subdivisions in the Land Boom -of 1886-1888 and finally the site of a prosperous and successful -city—such is the history of the Rancho Centinela. - -The rancho was granted in 1844 by the “Department of California,” -Government of Mexico, to Ignacio Machado by a grant which described the -land as “half a league more or less of grazing land.” Machado did not -prize his grazing land very highly and the following year traded the -property to Bruno Abila for a small adobe house “with vineyard fenced” -in the suburbs of the Pueblo of Los Angeles. But in the eyes of these -two traders, the small adobe was worth more than the great Rancho -Centinela and the deed provided that in addition to the rancho Machado -was to give as an added consideration two barrels of aguardiente (wine). - -Bruno Abila held the rancho until 1857 at which time he carelessly—or -desperately—borrowed $900 with interest at six per cent per month, or -seventy-two per cent per year, and, giving his rancho as security, -promptly lost it under the hammer. Hilliard P. Dorsey bought the -property at Sheriff’s Sale for $2000, or about $1 an acre. - -But Hilliard P. Dorsey paid too much for the land and two years later -Civility R. Dorsey, his widow, sold it out of his Estate for $930, or -thirty-five cents an acre. However, the deed to Francis I. Carpenter, -the purchaser, provided that he, Carpenter, was obligated as part of the -consideration to run off and dispossess of his own effort one Fernando, -a Frenchman and son-in-law of Bruno Abila, a former owner, who had -refused to surrender peaceable possession of the rancho. - -The next owner of the rancho was Joseph Lancaster Brent, a Southerner by -birth, but for many years a prominent citizen of Los Angeles. In 1860, -just before the Civil War started, Brent sold his rancho and at the -outbreak of the war hastened to make his way south and join the -Confederate Army. He was later made a Brigadier-General and was with the -last Confederate General to lay down his sword. The conveyance by Brent -was made for a consideration of $3,000 to Sir Robert Burnett, a Baronet -of Scotland, who on a visit to California had fallen in love with the -natural charm of the Rancho Centinela and purchased both it and its -neighbor, the Rancho Sausal Redondo. - -From this time on the value of the rancho grew rapidly and in 1885 Sir -Robert Burnett and Lady Matilda Josephine Burnett, both of Crathes -Castle in the Kingdom of Great Britain, sold the two ranchos for -$140,000 to Daniel Freeman, the founder of Inglewood. - -Then came the great Land Boom, the town of Inglewood was platted and -thrown on the market. Beautiful parks and plazas were planned and -dedicated and Mr. Freeman, with an insight into the future that now -seems uncanny, platted streets of unheard of width. - -Used as cattle land by the Spanish, sheep land by the Baronet and a Boom -Subdivision by Daniel Freeman, the Rancho Centinela has attained its -greatest period of usefulness and success today as the site of the -thriving City of Inglewood. - - [Illustration: _Ranch Home on the Rancho Aguaje de La Centinela_] - - - - - Rancho San Pascual - - -The Rancho San Pascual has always been a famous ranch. Its owners have -always been prominent in the affairs of California and in the Pueblo of -Los Angeles. It has always been famed for beauty and today within its -far-flung boundaries are the world famous cities of Altadena, Pasadena, -South Pasadena and parts of San Marino. - -The rancho was granted in 1843 by the then Mexican Governor, Manuel -Micheltorena, to Manuel Garfias and comprised 13,693 acres of land. -Manuel Garfias later became Los Angeles County’s first Treasurer. At the -time he was campaigning for the office of Treasurer he sold a portion of -his rancho for approximately $3.00 an acre for funds with which to -finance his ambitious plans. - -Manuel Garfias was a member of one of the finest Spanish families and -married Luisa Abila, whose family owned the Abila hacienda facing the -Plaza in the Pueblo of Los Angeles and where Commodore Stockton resided -while stationed in Los Angeles. History records that Manuel Garfias was -an excellent County Treasurer but as a ranchero he was very poor and bit -by bit he sold off parts of the rancho until in 1857, heavily involved -in financial obligations, he sold the remainder of the rancho to B. D. -Wilson, the famous Don Benito. Wilson Avenue in Pasadena, South Pasadena -and Alhambra, Wilson Lake and Mt. Wilson are all named for B. D. Wilson. -Under his care and under the guidance of Dr. John S. Griffin, who -purchased an undivided one-half interest from Mr. Wilson, the Rancho -progressed and the price of the land gradually increased. - -The early conveyances of parts of the Rancho in addition to the usual -indefinite ties of an oak tree, a little rock set on a big one or a pile -of bones or brush, tied in one of its courses “to a point on the side of -a hill North of the prickly pears.” Many of the descriptions tied to the -walled garden of Benjamin D. Wilson, called “Huerta de Quati.” - -Later the Rancho was settled by the Indiana Colony, Pasadena was -founded, then South Pasadena and San Marino and today within its -boundaries are many thousands of magnificent homes, carrying on the fame -of the famous Rancho San Pascual. - - - - - Rancho Santa Gertrudes - - -Seventeen thousand six hundred and two acres of California’s most -fertile land, bordered by a large river, divided by two smaller ones and -with a billion dollar oil pool beneath—the Rancho Santa Gertrudes sold -under the hammer for $3.40 an acre. - -The rancho was a part of the great Manuel Nieto grant made by the King -of Spain through the Spanish Governor, Pedro Fages. The Nieto grant was -divided among his heirs and Antonio Maria Nieto received the part -designated as the Rancho Santa Gertrudes and in 1834 the Mexican -Governor, Jose Figueroa, confirmed the title to Dona Josefa Cota, widow -of Antonio Maria Nieto. - -Later the rancho was conveyed to Lemuel Carpenter, born a Missourian, -but for many years a resident of California when it was a part of -Mexico. For awhile Carpenter and his beautiful wife, Maria de Los -Angeles Dominguez de Carpenter, lived happily on the rancho. They -prospered under Mexico but failed under the United States and on -November 14, 1859, the rancho was sold by the Sheriff. One week before -the day of the sale Carpenter committed suicide. - -John G. Downey and James P. McFarland, doing business as Downey, -McFarland & Company, were the purchasers at the sale, paying $60,000 for -the entire rancho. Both of these men were famous characters in -California history. Downey became the Civil War Governor of the State -and McFarland a leading State Senator. Together they opened the first -drug store in Los Angeles, and Downey, with Alvinza Hayward, organized -the first bank. - -In 1865 the rancho was leased for twenty-five years to the Los Angeles -Pioneer Oil Company for exploration and development of oil. But, -although the oil company diligently explored, no oil could be found and -the lease was finally abandoned. - -The Town of Downey was started in 1873 with a boom and predictions were -freely given that the new city would soon outdistance its sleepy -neighbor, Los Angeles. - -Toward the east boundary of the rancho the Town of Fulton Sulphur -Springs and Health Resort was platted. But few lots were sold until 1886 -when the Santa Fe Railway built its line through the town, bought up all -the lots and replatted them into smaller ones, planned a big hotel and -renamed the town Santa Fe Springs. How foolish the silver-tongued land -auctioneers made the purchasers appear when they bought lots, then at -$200 apiece. How foolish would the same auctioneers look today if they -could see their town of Santa Fe Springs—a city of derricks—a bonanza of -“Black Gold.” - - [Illustration: _Night at Santa Fe Springs on the Rancho Santa - Gertrudes_] - - - - - Rancho San Antonio - - -No horses so fast, no cattle so fine, no land so fertile, no rancho more -famous than the Rancho San Antonio. No family more prominent, no -hospitality more welcome or as freely partaken, no hacienda more lovely, -happy or prosperous than that of the Lugos. - -Antonio Maria Lugo received the grant of the rancho from the King of -Spain in 1810 and for fifty years thereafter this old Spanish Don and -his sons were the sole owners of its 29,514 acres, adjoining the -original pueblo grant of the City of Los Angeles on the southeast. - -The Lugos saw the rise of the Mission chain to the height of its glory, -then the passing of Spanish control and the rise of Mexico, the breaking -up of the Mission chain, the fall of Mexico and the coming of the Stars -and Stripes. Wars and governments came and passed and the Lugo family -stood them all and kept their rancho intact. They built a wonderful -adobe in the pueblo of Los Angeles facing the Plaza directly opposite -the church and there the social life of the city centered. - -But American ways and American prosperity they could not stand and as -the County grew, bit by bit they lost their vast rancho by sale, -foreclosure and litigation. - -In 1865 the Sheriff sold the home place of Vicente Lugo, one of the -sons, for a consideration of less than $1.00 an acre. With the -conveyance went a large wooden house constructed by the younger Lugo, -one of the first wooden houses in the County. In 1883 Jonathan S. -Slauson, founder of Azusa and for whom Slauson Avenue is named, -purchased the land constituting what had been the home place for $200 an -acre. In 1910 the heirs of Slauson sold the land for $500 an acre. - -In 1927 part of this land was sold for a consideration of $7,000 an acre -for the site of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company’s plant. Only the -cluster of trees now shows where the great wooden house once stood while -hundreds of workmen pass daily over the paths and gardens of the noble -Don Vicente. - -On other parts of the rancho have been built Huntington Park, Vernon, -Walnut Park, South Gate and Lynwood, all prosperous communities. The -original adobe house of Antonio Maria Lugo is yet standing on Baker -Avenue opposite the Southern California Edison Company’s Power Station -and near the Union Plant of the Consolidated Steel Corporation. - -The Lugos builded well and both the hacienda and the city home on the -plaza are still in good condition. Both should be landmarked and -properly preserved—testimony to the finest in life and honor in the days -of the Dons. - - [Illustration: _No Hacienda More Lovely Than That of the Lugos on - the Rancho San Antonio_] - - - - - Rancho Los Felis - - -North of the Pueblo of Los Angeles and adjoining the Los Angeles River -on the west is the Rancho Los Felis, 6,647 acres. - -The rancho was granted in 1843 to Maria Ygnacia Verdugo but it is -evident that she had been occupying the land for some time previous to -that date as on February 17th, 1841, the City of Los Angeles, by the -President of its Common Council, granted to her the “right to use the -water from the river of Our Lady of Angels for cultivating the lands of -Los Felis.” At that time there was so much water in the Los Angeles -River in excess of what the pueblo inhabitants could use that the city -felt free to dispose of part of it in this manner. - -In 1853 Dona Verdugo, signing by mark, granted to her daughters parts of -the rancho. These deeds recited that they were made for “the welfare and -progress of my daughters.” But the daughters failed to progress and soon -sold their respective parts for $1 per acre. - -Antonio F. Coronel, famous pioneer of Los Angeles, purchased the rancho -and subsequently he deeded it to James Lick, equally famous pioneer of -San Francisco, by this “more or less” definite description: “Commencing -at a point on Los Angeles River; thence Southerly 3,150 varas, more or -less; thence Westerly 6,200 varas, more or less, to a napalera (prickly -pear patch); thence Northerly 5,000 varas, more or less, to a calera -(lime kiln) and thence Easterly following along the right bank of the -Los Angeles River to the place of beginning 7,100 varas, more or less, -containing more or less one and a half square leagues of land.” - -In 1882, 4,071 acres were purchased by Colonel Griffith Jenkins Griffith -and in 1884 Colonel Griffith sold back to the City of Los Angeles for -$25,000 the valuable water rights donated 43 years previously. - -In the western and southern parts of the rancho development followed -rapidly. The Lick Tract, now part of Hollywood, was platted, then -Ivanhoe and the Edendale district. But most of the mountain and slope -land of the Los Felis Rancho was undeveloped except by hand of nature -until 1898 when Colonel Griffith deeded 3,015 acres of unsurpassed land -to the City of Los Angeles, one of the finest gifts ever presented to a -city—Griffith Park. - - - - - Rancho San Pedro - - -Within the boundaries of Rancho San Pedro was Nigger Slough, Rattlesnake -Island and the Salt Flats, and its own name was none too beautiful. But -the Rancho San Pedro overcame all such handicaps and developed into a -favorite child in the family of the Spanish Ranchos. - -This rancho, containing 43,119 acres, was one of the tremendously big -Spanish grants made by a Spanish King, who believed the limit of -population which Southern California could ever care for was represented -in the ten Missions, four Pueblos (San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara -and San Luis Obispo) and the comparatively few Ranchos. - -The grant was made to Juan Jose Dominguez of an illustrious family quite -different from the average Spanish family living in California in its -early days. The Dominguez heirs have each in succession adapted -themselves to every change and kept a large part of their rancho intact -to the present day. But much of the land was so strategically located on -the sea, around the harbor and on main lines of boulevards and railroads -between Los Angeles and San Pedro, that it was inevitable that intensive -development should take place on these parts. - -On December 22, 1854, the Dominguez heirs sold 2,400 acres at the harbor -to Phineas Banning, B. D. Wilson, John G. Downey and associates for -$20,000, or nearly $10.00 an acre, and on this and adjoining land -Banning founded the town of Wilmington, originally called New San Pedro. -During the Civil War Phineas Banning and B. D. Wilson in a burst of -patriotic enthusiasm donated a large parcel of land in their new town to -the United States government for Drum Barracks, and as such it served a -useful and vital purpose, not only as a supply station and barracks, -but, as well, to hold down anti-Union sentiment. It was easy to donate -the land but it took eight years and a special act of Congress for -Banning and Wilson to get the land back after the close of the War. - -Nine miles north of Wilmington but within the same rancho was platted -Comptonville, now Compton, originally planned as a temperance colony. -Ten miles westerly and also in the same rancho, Redondo Reach, platted -in 1889, became a famous pleasure resort. Between these far distant -points have been laid out the towns of Gardena, Moneta, and Torrance. In -addition to these there are now many hundreds of small farms, and -probably the world’s largest aggregation of oil tank farms, two or three -airports, an excellent and productive oil field, and there is plenty of -land left in the rancho. - -Such is the story of a gift from a King—a Rancho of success. - - [Illustration: _Patio of the Dominguez Home—Rancho San Pedro_] - - - - - Rancho Santa Anita - - -The Rancho Santa Anita, covered with oaks and on gentle, sloping ground, -was situated between Pasadena and Monrovia, and includes within its -13,319 acres the cities of Sierra Madre and Arcadia. Its title was -founded on a grant to Hugo Reid made in 1841, confirmed by Mexico in -1845 and by the United States in 1857. - -For 20 cents an acre Hugo Reid conveyed the rancho to Henry Dalton, an -Englishman who had for 25 years lived in South America. Subsequently it -passed to William Wolfskill, whose home in the Pueblo of Los Angeles -stood on the present site of the Southern Pacific station. Wolfskill -left the rancho to his son, Lewis, and the younger Wolfskill sold it in -1872 for $85,000 to H. Newmark & Co. Both Harris Newmark of that firm -and Hugo Reid, the first owner of the rancho, have perpetuated their -names in history by their writings of early Los Angeles. Mr. Newmark’s -book, “Sixty Years in Southern California,” has had a wide circulation. - -Three years later for nearly three times the amount paid by H. Newmark -and Co. the rancho was purchased by E. J. Baldwin. Lucky at the mines, -lucky in the markets, lucky with horses and luckiest of all with -land,—no wonder they called him “Lucky” Baldwin. - -Baldwin at this time was a San Franciscan and had made millions in the -Ophir mines of Nevada. He built the “fireproof” Baldwin Hotel, the -largest in San Francisco, later destroyed by fire. But the charm of -Rancho Santa Anita soon took Baldwin from his northern home and he moved -into the large ranch house, devoting the balance of his life to the -development of this rancho and the acquiring of others. Upon his death -in 1909, his daughters, Anita M. Baldwin and Clara Baldwin Stocker, -succeeded him in the ownership of Rancho Santa Anita. - -Baldwin’s greatest love was for horses and he developed a breed of -racing stock which became world-famous. Next to his love for horses he -loved trees and he bordered every road within his rancho with trees and -jealously fostered and guarded them. The towering lines of Eucalyptus -trees along Huntington Drive and Santa Anita Avenue through the Rancho -Santa Anita stand as evidence of the hand of “Lucky” Baldwin—those are -his monuments. - - - - - Rancho La Brea - - -For the inhabitants of the pueblo, later the City of Los Angeles, the -Rancho La Brea has always been one of the most useful of the ranchos. -The rancho derived its name from the La Brea Pits where the brea, or -crude oil, oozed to the surface to catch prehistoric animals and -preserve them for many thousands of years and to catch a few stray -cattle in the Spanish days, and also to furnish excellent roofing for -the adobes in the Pueblo of Los Angeles. - -The rancho was first granted January 6, 1828, by Jose Antonio Carrillo, -Alcalde of the Pueblo of Los Angeles, to Antonio Jose Rocha, and -comprised one square league of land. Early conveyances, however, -provided that the owners of the rancho, while they were to have complete -title, nevertheless were to allow the inhabitants of the pueblo -unmolested right to take such brea as they might need for the roofs of -their adobes. - -Antonio Jose Rocha built an excellent adobe in the Pueblo of Los Angeles -as his pueblo home and this adobe, later known as the Rocha House, was -purchased in 1855 by the Board of Supervisors and the City of Los -Angeles and used jointly as the Jail, the Sheriff’s Office, the Court -House and the City Hall. - -In 1860 the Rocha heirs sold the Rancho to John Hancock by a deed which -described the property as being a rancho “some 4 or 8 miles West of the -Pueblo of Los Angeles.” Cornelius Cole, then United States Senator from -California, received 500 acres of land in this rancho as an attorney fee -for services rendered the Hancock family and on these acres platted -Colegrove, now a part of Hollywood. However, much of the rancho was held -intact by Mr. Hancock and Major Henry Hancock, and later G. Allan -Hancock, and for many years the land with its springs, flowing streams -and gentle ravines provided excellent hunting ground for the people of -the town of Los Angeles. As late as 1892 there appears a conveyance, -executed by Mrs. Hancock, conveying 20 acres of land and reserving for -fifteen years the right to hunt for game. The subsequent platting of the -land following the completion of the Los Angeles-Pacific Interurban -lines soon ruined the land for hunting purposes. - -For years the Hancock heirs took immense quantities of oil from the -productive oil field and, as the oil decreased, the development and -growth of the city changed the character of the land and the black sump -holes gave way to green lawns and the tall, ugly (but profitable) -derricks to fine homes, as the Wilshire District, one of the world’s -finest residential sections, was built on the Rancho La Brea. - - [Illustration: _Famous La Brea Pits and Ranch House, Now in Hancock - Park_] - - - - - Rancho Cienega o’Paso de La Tijera - - -How differently the Spanish and the Americans viewed their ranches is -quite apparent from the names they gave them. The Americans dubbed their -ranches the “Diamond Bar,” the “3 X,” the “109,” or some other rather -picturesque but meaningless title. - -The Spaniards blessed their ranchos by dedicating them to Santa Anita, -San Rafael, Santa Gertrudes, or San Geronimo. They saw the many little -streams of water flowing from the springs on what is now Beverly Hills -and named that Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas—the gathering of the waters. -They loved the big oaks of the district along Ventura Boulevard between -North Hollywood and Girard and named it Rancho El Encino—the oaks. What -the Americans call the Baldwin Hills—they saw naturally formed a pass -resembling scissors and thus was named Rancho Cienega o’Paso de La -Tijera. - -In 1843 Governor Manuel Micheltorena granted Rancho Cienega o’Paso de La -Tijera to Vicente Sanchez, friend of the Mexican government, valiant -soldier and good citizen. But he did not live long to enjoy his rancho -and at about the time California became a state his heirs partitioned -his land holdings. Tomas A. Sanchez acquired the rancho—his sisters -taking property on Nigger Alley in the Pueblo of Los Angeles as their -share. - -Tomas Sanchez also had a well deserved reputation for extraordinary -bravery and was Sheriff of Los Angeles County from 1860 to 1867, a -period in which crime waves were permanent and the accepted order of the -day. - -Gradually the Rancho increased in value. In 1875 Sanchez sold a half -interest for $60,000, later he sold a fourth and finally another Sheriff -sold the remainder. E. J. (Lucky) Baldwin became the owner. Baldwin -found this rancho something of a white elephant. Sheep ranching became -unprofitable and the land was not adapted to orange groves and he knew -nothing of the oil beneath it. But he held the property and when he died -in 1909 his estate listed Rancho Cienega o’Paso de La Tijera as one of -its most valuable possessions. The Baldwin heirs sold large parts of the -rancho, and the Los Angeles Investment Company subdivided tract after -tract within its bounds. - -Seemingly no matter how fast this old rancho has been subdivided (and -the growth of Angelus Mesa has been phenomenal) the remaining -unsubdivided part grows in value by leaps and bounds directly contrary -to its diminishing size. Like the estate of “Lucky” Baldwin the estate -of his daughter, Clara Baldwin Stocker, recently deceased, lists as its -most valued possession the remainder of the Rancho Cienega o’Paso de La -Tijera. - - [Illustration: _Hacienda of the Rancho Cienega o’Paso de La - Tijera—now a Golf Club_] - - - - - Rancho Ex-Mission de San Fernando - - -The remark is often heard, “I knew the San Fernando Valley when it was a -wheat field.” Thousands of Angelenos recall the founding of Van Nuys and -Owensmouth and the platting of Tract 1000, the largest subdivision in -Los Angeles County. And even the newcomers have seen almost unbelievable -development. But what of the valley before Tract 1000; what before the -wheat? - -When the Fathers of the Mission of San Fernando completed their Mission -and looked out through its arches their vision could not include land -not theirs. The grant to the Mission described 121,000 acres extending -from mountains to mountains on all sides of the valley, and named the -rancho Mission de San Fernando, and as such it prospered. - -Spain encouraged and protected the Missions of California and granted to -them great tracts of land—Mexico plundered and destroyed the Missions -and seized their lands. Among these Mission lands seized by the Mexican -government was the prize of them all, the Mission de San Fernando. For -years chaos reigned at the Mission. The government drove off many of the -Indians, others left and the herds of cattle became legitimate prey -alike for “Gentlemen of Mexico” and Mexican bandits not claiming the -distinction. - -In 1846 armed invasion of California was commenced by the Americans. -Governor Pio Pico in a blaze of oratory declared that at any cost the -“Department of California” must be retained as property of Mexico -forever and asked for authority to sell Rancho Mission de San Fernando, -then known as Rancho Ex-Mission, for funds with which to equip an army. -In this emergency the San Fernando Valley was sold as a land bargain -never again equaled, $14,000 for the entire rancho—approximately eleven -cents an acre. Eulogio de Celis purchased the rancho at that figure and -not only did he get a Mexican land bargain but he at once stocked his -big rancho and before the war was over sold horses and cattle to both -sides. - -In 1854 General Andres Pico, brother of the Ex-Governor, purchased a -half interest in the rancho for $15,000 and in 1862 this interest passed -to Pio Pico himself. The land holdings of the last Mexican Governor were -equal to an empire. At one time he owned Rancho Paso de Bartolo, his -interest in Rancho San Fernando, his home place called Ranchito, near -Whittier in this County, and Ranchos Las Flores and Santa Margarita, -both tremendous ranches in San Diego County. In addition to his ranchos -he owned a home on the plaza in the Pueblo of Los Angeles and -considerable additional pueblo land in Los Angeles and San Diego. He -built the celebrated Pico House, yet standing, facing the plaza in Los -Angeles. His life was crowned with success at every turn. Under Mexico -he was California’s leading citizen. Under the United States the ranchos -he owned and the honors he had held gave him a prestige accorded few -men. - -For $2.00 an acre the Rancho Ex-Mission de San Fernando was sold by Pico -and the son of de Celis to Isaac Lankershim, Charles Maclay, I. N. Van -Nuys and B. F. Porter. Under the ownership of these four men Rancho San -Fernando became a great wheat field and four great fortunes were made -for its owners. - -While Pio Pico, who once counted his acres in hundreds of thousands, -spent his last days in abject poverty—his ranchos, his city property, -his hotel and his home all sold for a mortgage—nothing was left—nothing -but his medals of honor and his memories of the past. - - [Illustration: _Mission de San Fernando_] - - - - - Rancho Tajauta - - -Rancho Tajauta, sometimes called Rancho Los Cuervos, was like a dwarf -among giants. It could have fitted into one corner of its neighbor, the -Rancho San Pedro, or been lost in the San Fernando, and yet it was no -small plot of ground. It extended from what is now Manchester Avenue on -the north to the north boundary of the Rancho San Pedro on the south and -between Central Avenue on the west and the Los Angeles River and Rancho -San Antonio on the east. - -At the height of the cattle days there was only one house on the Rancho -Tajauta, a two-room adobe. Today it is estimated over 20,000 people live -within its boundaries, which include most of Watts and adjoining area in -the southerly part of Los Angeles—and a fourth of the rancho is yet to -be subdivided. The size of the rancho, however, was no criterion to the -number of its owners and changes in its title. Before California became -a state, its original owner, Anastacio Abila, died and left so many -heirs that it was necessary to divide the estate into seventieth parts -to properly partition it. These small interests in the rancho were then -traded in like second-hand Fords are today. - -Phineas Banning, passing the rancho in his stage-coach and eyeing it -carefully for bandits, noticed the soil was excellent, visioned the -railroads that would cross it and bought many small interests. O. W. -Childs, famous for the water ditch which he constructed and for which he -received most of downtown Los Angeles in payment, likewise bought a few -interests. So did Don Mateo Keller, who owned the Rancho Malibu and -Francis Mellus of Mellus Row. And among the owners was the entire legal -fraternity of that day—A. B. Chapman, Andrew Glassell, A. Brunson and R. -M. Widney, all famous names in Southern California history. A $50 gold -slug, the common medium for exchange in those days when small change was -unknown, often bought an interest. Enrique Abila, one of the heirs of -Anastacio Abila, in addition to his own holdings, gradually acquired -many of the interests of the other heirs. He made his home on the rancho -and lived to see the city reach and surround him. - -A little rancho was Rancho Tajauta, but a very active one. - - - - - Rancho Repetto - - -Rancho Repetto, as such, was not an original Spanish or Mexican rancho, -yet in character and size it was just as a Spanish or Mexican rancho -would be. Its history, although covering a period much shorter than the -life of the Spanish grant, is full of the romance of the ranchos of the -Dons. - -The rancho derived its name from Alessandro Repetto, later known as -Alexander Repetto, who purchased its five thousand acres shortly after -the Civil War. Some of the land had been found by the United States Land -Commission to belong to the Rancho San Antonio and this Repetto -purchased from the Lugos. Some of the land he obtained from the -government and forty acres came through state patent. - -Toward its west boundary ran a road recently widened and paved by the -County of Los Angeles. One of the deeds to Repetto refers to this as -“the Road used by the horsemen coming from the rancho of Juan Matias -Sanchez” (originally Mission land of San Gabriel). Later the road was -called Portesuelo de la Rosa de Castella, and still later it was -officially changed to Monterey Pass. It is commonly called Coyote Pass. - -In 1885 Alexander Repetto died leaving as his heir Antonio Repetto, a -brother who lived in Italy. The heir preferred Italy to California and -came here only long enough to collect his inheritance, sell the rancho -and return home. Harris Newmark, John D. Bicknell, Kaspare Cohn, who -founded the Union Bank & Trust Co., Stephen M. White, once United States -Senator from California, and whose figure in bronze stands in front of -the Los Angeles County Court House, and I. W. Hellman purchased the -rancho for $60,000—about $12.00 an acre. - -Out of the Harris Newmark and Kaspare Cohn holdings in Rancho Repetto -was platted Montebello, originally called the Town of Newmark. I. W. -Hellman, whose interest in the rancho equalled 1,500 acres, chose his -land in the northwestern part of the rancho and with that foresight -which made him the foremost banker in Los Angeles when he lived here and -the foremost banker of San Francisco when he removed there he held the -land for the future. This remainder of Rancho Repetto though closer to -Broadway than Hollywood has almost to this day remained just as it was -when it was the property of Alessandro Repetto, while to the south was a -view of intensive development, as Los Angeles industrially spread -eastward, and to the north was another view of intensive development as -Pasadena and Alhambra became cities. - -Recently the last of Rancho Repetto has given up its aloofness. Atlantic -Boulevard has been cut through from north to south and Beverly Boulevard -is to cross it from west to east. The Hellman heirs have conveyed a -large part of it and the J. B. Ransom Corporation has announced an -immediate subdivision program. The final chapter in the history of -Rancho Repetto is being written. - - [Illustration: _Early Ranch House—American Period_] - - - - - Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica - - -Most of the development on the ranchos of Southern California has just -happened—they, like Topsy, just grew. But not so the Rancho San Vicente -y Santa Monica. A careful plan, expenditure of great wealth and a -determination of purpose unequaled all sought to make a great seaport of -Santa Monica—and no city could have grown more contrary to the efforts -to guide it than has Santa Monica. - -The rancho was granted December 20th, 1839, by Governor Juan B. Alvarado -to Francisco Sepulveda, officer of the Mexican army, and comprised -31,000 acres of mountain, mesa and ocean shore land. In the following -thirty-three years many changes came over California. The rule of the -United States supplanted the ruin of Mexico, California became a state -and Los Angeles a city. The wool of the lazy sheep became more -profitable than the hides of cattle. - -In 1872 the heirs of Sepulveda, anxious to divide their inheritance and -believing that Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica had reached the peak of -its value, sold the same for less than $2.00 an acre to Colonel Robert -S. Baker, prominent wool grower of Kern County. Colonel Baker stocked -the rancho with herds of sheep and shortly thereafter sold an undivided -three-fourths interest in his property to Senator John P. Jones of -Nevada. Jones and Baker then conceived the plan of a great harbor at -Santa Monica and a harbor city on the rancho; the fortunes of both these -men were thrown into the project and Santa Monica was platted. - -The Los Angeles & Independence Railroad with its terminus at the new -city and running to Los Angeles was built and operated. It had been -planned to extend the railroad into the mining district of Inyo County -and part of its name was derived from Independence, the county seat of -Inyo County. However, the line was never built beyond Los Angeles. In -connection with the railroad a large warehouse was built in Los Angeles, -and a long wharf at Santa Monica. Every preparation was made for giant -ships of the sea—ships which were never to come. - -In 1886 the land boom which descended on Los Angeles and vicinity found -Santa Monica well prepared to receive it. Colonel Baker and Senator -Jones had hundreds of unsold lots and those previously sold when the -harbor city was budding were ready for resale. The Arcadia Hotel, a -handsome tourist resort located on the bluff, was built by Colonel Baker -and named for his wife, Arcadia Bandini de Baker, who formerly had been -Mrs. Abel Stearns. Mrs. de Baker, child of an illustrious Spanish -family, was famed for her beauty, and, as wife of Don Abel Stearns, -commanded an outstanding social position in Los Angeles. Upon Don Abel’s -death she inherited all of his ranchos. Shortly after the boom the -Estate of Colonel Baker, Senator Jones and the Santa Monica Land & Water -Company conveyed 300 acres of land along the east boundary of the rancho -to the United States and on this and adjoining land the Soldiers’ Home -was built. - -Then another effort was made to create a harbor at Santa Monica—this -time led by Collis P. Huntington with the wealth of the Southern Pacific -Railroad behind him. This last great attempt was given up only when -threshed out on the floor of the United States Senate and the United -States had decided that the Harbor should be at San Pedro. Perhaps it -was the guiding hand of destiny that kept Santa Monica unspoiled as a -residence city. - - [Illustration: “_The wool of the lazy sheep became more profitable - than the hides of cattle_”] - - - - - Rancho Los Palos Verdes - - -Rancho Los Palos Verdes has been the scene of some of the earliest as -well as the latest development in Los Angeles County. For more than -thirty years before Willmore platted Willmore City, later called Long -Beach, and before Jones and Baker laid out their harbor city of Santa -Monica there had been a thriving settlement at the port of San Pedro in -the Rancho Los Palos Verdes. - -The town of San Pedro, later city of San Pedro, and now part of the city -of Los Angeles, was built around that port settlement and almost the -entire district was carved not out of the Rancho San Pedro, as is -generally understood, but out of the Rancho Los Palos Verdes. - -The rancho was granted June 3rd, 1846, by Governor Pio Pico to Jose -Loreto Sepulveda and Juan Sepulveda, brothers, this grant being a -ratification of a previous one made in 1827. It extended from Redondo to -Wilmington and bounded on the north and northeast by Rancho San Pedro -and on the southeast, south and west by the Pacific Ocean, comprising -31,629 acres. Pico, however, reserved a plat of land along the beach, -500 varas square, for the use of the “Superior Government of the Mexican -Nation.” - -With the death of the original grantees and the passing of the ranch -title to their many heirs, Rancho Los Palos Verdes passed into a period -of extensive litigation and had it not been of such tremendous size and -of such constantly increasing value in all probability it would soon -have belonged to the attorneys. From 1865 to 1880, seventy-eight -lawsuits were instituted involving the rancho. The ranch title itself -was not confirmed until 1880. All of the heirs and their successors in -interest held undivided parts of the rancho and six partition suits were -filed before the property was divided according to the respective -ownerships. There were also a dozen suits to eject squatters, several -divorces among the owners, three condemnation suits by the United States -government for land for the lighthouse at Point Firmin, an action to fix -the boundaries of Timms Landing at the port, two foreclosure actions and -several complaints for possession. - -The commissioners in one of the partition suits platted the town of San -Pedro, composed of ninety-eight blocks and this plat filled the two-fold -purpose of making an easy method of dividing the property among the -partitioners and of providing for the growth of the settlement at the -harbor. - -In the years that followed the east part of the rancho progressed -rapidly while thousands of acres in the hills from Point Firmin to -Redondo were retained in a few ownerships and the land used only for -farming. Few people ever saw the rugged coast of Palos Verdes, although -Malaga Cove, Rocky Point, Point Vicente, Long Point, Portuguese Point -and Portuguese Bend were all known to fishermen. - -In 1913 for a consideration of nearly $2,000,000 the western part of the -rancho was conveyed to Jay Lawler and Frank A. Vanderlip, then of New -York. Palos Verdes Estates was conceived in 1922 to develop this part of -the property and to make a world-famous community of homes. The rancho -of the Sepulvedas is a perfect setting for this effort. - - [Illustration: _Verdugo Ranch House, Rancho San Rafael—the First of - the Grants_] - - - - - Mission San Gabriel Arcangel - - -In all California no land has been the scene of such triumphs and -defeats, such prosperity and poverty, such alternating fair fortune and -dire misfortune as the lands of the Mission San Gabriel Arcangel. - -The Mission San Gabriel was founded September 4th, 1771, by Father -Junipero Serra and land set apart for the Mission included nearly the -entire San Gabriel Valley. There was the usual struggle to establish the -Mission and convert the Indians. The first Mission buildings were -destroyed and the old mill—yet standing—built at a great expenditure of -toil and thought was a total failure. But within a few short years after -the founding Mission San Gabriel took its place as the Queen of the -Missions and the most prosperous of all. - -The title of the Mission Fathers to the lands had not been confirmed by -written grant from Carlos III, King of Spain, and the governors of -California under Mexico took advantage of this to grant ranchos within -the valley borders. In the northwest part Rancho San Pascual was granted -to become the princely estate of Don Manuel Garfias and later the sites -of Pasadena and South Pasadena. Farther east Rancho Santa Anita was -created and eventually became the property of E. J. (Lucky) Baldwin. -Beyond that rancho were Ranchos San Francisquito and La Puente. Along -the south hills of the valley Ranchos La Merced, Potrero Grande and -Potrero Chico were granted. By the severing of such large tracts of land -the property of the Mission San Gabriel diminished from tens of -thousands of acres to thousands of acres and then to hundreds. - -In 1846 Governor Pico asked permission of his government to lease the -remaining land of the Mission San Gabriel “to prevent the total ruin of -the Mission.” No lessee could be found to take the land under this act -and on June 18th, 1846, Pio Pico made the final grant of all the -remaining Mission lands to Julian Workman and Hugo Reid. The United -States government, however, refused to confirm this last minute disposal -of the Mission land and declared the property public land of the United -States, first setting aside to Bishop Alemany 190 acres surrounding the -Mission buildings. - -The public land was quickly taken up by many settlers, who were eager to -acquire homesteads in a country almost exclusively made up of giant -ranchos. Subsequently B. D. Wilson and J. De Barth Shorb acquired much -of this land and platted the present prosperous and beautiful city of -Alhambra. San Gabriel and Monterey Park also have been built on land -originally within the Mission boundaries. - -The 190 acres set aside for the Mission Church was the largest parcel of -land received by any one Mission out of the land it had formerly held. -At the height of the Mission glory in all a million and a half acres -were under the control of the Padres. When California became the -property of the United States twenty missions other than San Gabriel -held from four to seventy-six acres each—a total for all the chain of -less than 800 acres. Eight hundred acres out of the original million and -a half. - - [Illustration: _Mission San Gabriel Arcangel_] - - - - - Rancho San Jose de Buenos Ayres - - -Rancho San Jose de Buenos Ayres was not in South America, as its name -might indicate, but was an important rancho of Southern California. The -rancho was granted by Manuel Micheltorena, Governor of the Californias, -February 24, 1843, to Maximo Alanis and comprised 4,438 acres. Don -Alanis died shortly after he received the grant and his heirs conveyed -the rancho to Dr. Wilson W. Jones and Wm. T. B. Sanford, the former, one -of Los Angeles’ first doctors and the latter, an early Los Angeles -postmaster. - -But the doctor knew little about ranching and in 1852 he was glad to -sell his half interest in the rancho to Don Benito Wilson for $662.75, -or at the rate of 35 cents an acre. Don Benito’s interests were -extensive and widely separated. Jointly with Dr. Griffin he operated -Rancho San Pascual northeast of the Pueblo of Los Angeles. Jointly with -Phineas Banning he founded and developed the city of Wilmington at the -port of San Pedro, and west of the pueblo, halfway to the ocean, with -Sanford, the Postmaster, he raised cattle on Rancho San Jose de Buenos -Ayres. Between supervising trips to his ranchos and to the harbor he -found time to maintain a home in the Pueblo of Los Angeles—so large that -after he moved it was used for an orphan asylum—buy much city property, -ship wine to San Francisco and foster the development of the orange. - -In 1858 B. D. Wilson bought the interest of Sanford in this and other -property for $16,000 and subsequently sold the rancho. In 1884 John -Wolfskill of the prominent family of that name purchased the rancho for -$40,000. The purchase by Wolfskill was very timely as the completion of -the Santa Fe Railroad two years later sent land prices skyrocketing and -in 1887 he entered into an agreement to dispose of the rancho for -$438,700, or more than ten times what he had paid for the land in 1884. - -The Los Angeles and Santa Monica Land and Water Company was organized to -take over the land at that figure. This company built a railroad through -the property and platted the town of Sunset. But few lots were sold, -however, and in 1891 the Los Angeles and Santa Monica Land and Water -Company quitclaimed the land back to Wolfskill and the townsite was -restored to acreage. Then for many years the rancho was used only for -farming, although its neighbor on the east, the Rancho Rodeo de Las -Aguas, was subdivided into Beverly Hills, and on the west Santa Monica -grew into a thriving city. - -In 1919 Arthur Letts, Sr., Merchant Prince of Los Angeles, founder of -the Broadway Department Store, bought the rancho for an investment. -Since that time Westwood, Holmby Hills (named after Holmby, England, Mr. -Letts’ birthplace) and Westwood Village have all been platted on parts -of the rancho. The moving-picture industry has expanded into the -property and several of the largest studios are located there. Now the -University of California at Los Angeles is being built on the rancho, -and already opened as one of the greatest institutions of learning. - -B. D. Wilson, John Wolfskill and Arthur Letts all profited by their -farsightedness, but none had the vision and none could foresee Rancho -San Jose de Buenos Ayres as it is today. - - - - - _CONCLUSION_ - - -The priceless, romantic history of early California is everywhere being -more and more appreciated. It evidences itself in the names of our -cities, in our landmarks which are at last being preserved and even in -our architecture. - -If “The Romance of the Ranchos” can add its bit to perpetuating this -glorious chapter in California history the writer will feel the time and -effort well worthwhile. - - [Illustration: _Title Insurance Building_ _Spring Street between - Fourth and Fifth_] - - - - - Title Insurance and Trust Company - - - California’s Largest Title Insurance Company - -Title Insurance and Trust Company is the oldest and largest Title -Insurance Company west of Chicago. It is the oldest Trust Company in the -Pacific Southwest. It has been serving the people of Los Angeles County -for thirty-eight years. - -Although founded in 1893, the Company’s records are much older than -that, for they cover the period from the early Spanish days to the -present time. The history of every parcel of land in the County is -recorded in the books and maps of the Company’s title plant, and in its -old records safely stored in its archives vault. - -This great store house of real estate information, called the title -plant, is the Company’s most valuable possession. It is from these -invaluable records, many of which are originals, that the material used -in compiling “The Romance of the Ranchos” has been derived. - - -This real estate information has been indexed and classified so that the -Company’s examiners may find the necessary information in the least -possible time. Millions of dollars have been expended in creating this -great plant which is not surpassed by any in the nation. - -Great as has been the cost and the amount of labor expended—this title -plant is not finished—it never will be finished. - -Each business day of the year 1500 to 2000 documents affecting Los -Angeles County real estate titles are filed in the Recorder’s office and -by 11:30 p.m.—on the day of filing—all have been “posted” on the -Company’s books. - -Much of the “posting,” much of the map making in the title plant has no -connection with present orders. Some of the work done today may be used -tomorrow, some of it may not be used for many years. An important part -of the personnel in this great business machine, which we call the title -plant, is engaged solely in the preparation for future work. - -But when the call comes, the plant is ready. - - -This plant was created to give the people of Los Angeles County accurate -service in the searching and insuring of titles. It serves -owner—buyer—lender—borrower. - -From this plant, the Company issues policies of title insurance -protecting the ownership of real property. Step by step, these policies, -through a series of improvements extending throughout the entire history -of the Company, have been developed into the highest type of title -protection offered anywhere. - - - ESCROWS - -The modern escrow system was originated by this Company. It was designed -to make real estate transactions convenient and safe. A highly trained -personnel and complete and convenient facilities provide efficient -service to buyer and to seller. - - - TRUSTS - -The Company acts as executor and trustee under wills, as administrator -of estates, and in all other trust capacities. - -It offers at a nominal cost an “all-inclusive” declaration of trust, -which is exceedingly flexible. Life insurance policies may be placed in -this trust, thereby protecting the beneficiary from loss, and to this -trust from time to time there may be added real or personal property. - -The Company has had long experience in the management of estates. If you -name the Company as executor under your will, you will be assured that -your beneficiaries will receive considerate and courteous attention and -that your trust estate will be wisely managed and profitably invested. - - [Illustration: _Trust Department_] - - [Illustration: THE OLD SPANISH AND MEXICAN RANCHOS _of_ Los Angeles - County - High-resolution Map] - - - - - Transcriber’s Notes - - -—Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook - is public-domain in the country of publication. - -—Corrected a few palpable typographical errors. - -—In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by - _underscores_. - - - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Romance of the Ranchos, by E. 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text-align:right; } -dl dt.lr a { text-align:left; clear:left; float:left; } - -.fnblock { margin-top:2em; } -.fndef { text-align:justify; margin-top:1.5em; margin-left:1.5em; text-indent:-1.5em; } -.fndef p.fncont, .fndef dl { margin-left:0em; text-indent:0em; } -dl.catalog dd { font-style:italic; } -dl.catalog dt { margin-top:1em; } -.author { text-align:right; margin-top:0em; margin-bottom:0em; display:block; } - -p.biblio { margin-left:1em; text-align:justify; text-indent:-1em; } -dl.biblio dt { margin-top:.6em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:justify; clear:both; } -dl.biblio dt div { display:block; float:left; margin-left:-6em; width:6em; clear:both; } -dl.biblio dt.center { margin-left:0em; text-align:center; } -dl.biblio dd { margin-top:.3em; margin-left:3em; text-align:justify; font-size:90%; } -.clear { clear:both; } -p.book { margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; } -p.review { margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; font-size:80%; } -p.pcap { margin-left:auto; text-indent:0em; text-align:center; margin-top:0; - font-weight:bold; font-size:90%; max-width:35em; margin-right:auto; } -p.pcapc { margin-left:4.7em; text-indent:0em; text-align:justify; } -span.pn { display:inline-block; width:4.7em; text-align:left; margin-left:0; text-indent:0; } -div.sidenote { max-width:50%; float:left; clear:left; - - margin-bottom:1em; font-weight:bold; font-size:90%; } - - -</style> -</head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -Project Gutenberg's The Romance of the Ranchos, by E. Palmer Conner - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: The Romance of the Ranchos - -Author: E. Palmer Conner - -Release Date: November 11, 2016 [EBook #53500] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROMANCE OF THE RANCHOS *** - - - - -Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, MFR and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - -<div id="cover" class="img"> -<img id="coverpage" src="images/cover.jpg" alt="The Romance of the Ranchos" width="500" height="675" /> -</div> -<div class="box"> -<h1><i><span class="smaller">The</span> -<br /><span class="sc">Romance</span> <span class="small">of the</span> -<br /><span class="sc">Ranchos</span></i></h1> -<p class="center"><i>by</i> -<br />E. PALMER CONNER -<br /><i>Chief Title Searcher</i></p> -<p class="tbcenter"><span class="large">Title Insurance and Trust Company</span> -<br />433 South Spring Street -<br />Los Angeles</p> -<p class="center small"><i>Reprinted by permission from the Los Angeles Times</i> -<br />Fifth Edition</p> -</div> -<div class="pb" id="Page_2">2</div> -<div class="img" id="ill1"> -<img id="fig1" src="images/p01.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="752" /> -<p class="pcap"><i>Old Plaza Church</i> -<br />“<i>Where Los Angeles began</i>”</p> -</div> -<div class="pb" id="Page_3">3</div> -<h2 id="c1">Ranchos of California</h2> -<p>Picture a map of California cut up into Ranchos like a crazy quilt, -dotted with twenty-one Missions and a handful of Pueblos. Picture a -people browned by the sun, happy, prosperous and carefree. Picture -a white-walled hacienda on each of the ranchos, every one open with -a never failing hospitality and welcome. That was California when -the Americans took it.</p> -<p>With the advent of American ownership the tide of population -turned to California in a never ending stream. By sail, steamboat, -covered wagon and finally by train came a new people. The great -Spanish ranchos soon passed to new owners and took on a new -character. There is a record of Spanish ranchos traded for nearly -every commodity and necessity. Ranchos like the Malibu and the -Centinela exchanged for wines and groceries, the Los Alamitos bought -with hides and tallow, the La Canada deeded for an attorney’s fee, -ranchos for horses, for vines, for surveyor’s fees and many ranchos -for mortgages.</p> -<p>It was a period of rare honor. Don Abel Stearns refused to take -advantage of a technicality in his favor and lost a 29,000 acre rancho. -Juan Matias Sanchez to help his friends, William Workman and -F. P. F. Temple, signed their mortgage to “Lucky” Baldwin and lost -his own rancho in the San Gabriel Valley, wholly without consideration.</p> -<p>With progress and development the ranchos gave way to the -towns and farming communities. Many of these towns, now grown -to cities, were named for the ranchos on which they were built. In -Los Angeles County, Ranchos Santa Monica, San Fernando, Azusa, -La Canada, Puente and Tujunga all gave their names to the towns -founded within their borders. Santa Ana and La Habra in Orange -County likewise took their names from their ranchos. Santa Barbara -was an original Spanish Pueblo but still farther north in San Luis -Obispo County, Arroyo Grande, Pismo, Santa Margarita, Atascadero -and Paso Robles all correspond with the rancho of the same name.</p> -<p>Many names of roads and highways all over California can be -traced directly to the rancho over which they pass. Many others -were named for an illustrious owner, who perhaps in bright velvet -and astride a silver saddle, rode down the same road when California -was a land of great ranchos in the days of the Dons.</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_4">4</div> -<h2 id="c2">Rancho Topanga Malibu Sequit</h2> -<p>Among the ranchos of Los Angeles County Rancho Topanga -Malibu Sequit, more commonly known as the Malibu Ranch, is -outstanding. Not that it was the first of the grants, although in -fact it was one of the first, or because it was the largest, although its -acreage of 13,315 was exceeded by few, but the historic rancho has in -its almost intact state outlived all others and today it stands as “The -Last of the Ranchos.”</p> -<p>The Malibu was first granted in 1804 to Jose Bartolome Tapia -by Jose Joaquin de Arrillaga, Military Governor of the Californias, -acting for the King of Spain. It bordered the Pacific for miles and -extended back into the mountains,—a princely domain unexcelled for -beauty.</p> -<p>The heirs of Tapia held the property until January 24, 1848, -when they granted the great rancho to Leon Victor Prudhomme of -the Pueblo of Los Angeles for the sum of $400, $200 to be paid in -cash and $200 in groceries and wines. As the heirs were uncertain -as to the true name of the rancho they gave four names under which -it had been known and concluded by reciting that it was bounded on -the north by the high mountains, on the south by the Pacific Ocean, -on the east by the Rancho Santa Monica and on the west by the -mouth of the River of San Buenaventura. The recital that the rancho -was bounded on the south by the Pacific Ocean is correct as the -rancho faces the ocean more southerly than westerly.</p> -<p>Prudhomme also had a famous vineyard near Cucamonga and in -order to devote all of his time to the vineyard he sold the Rancho -Topanga Malibu in 1857 to Matthew Keller, known in Spanish days -as Don Mateo Keller, for $1400. Mateo Street in Los Angeles is -named for Mr. Keller.</p> -<p>In 1872 an agreement was entered into between Matthew Keller -and Mrs. Carrie S. Lewis for conveyance of the rancho to Mrs. Lewis -for $35,000, a little less than $3.00 an acre, but the buyer failed to -complete the deal and Matthew Keller remained the sole owner until -his death in 1881.</p> -<p>In 1892 in two conveyances H. W. Keller, son of Don Mateo -Keller and assignee of the other heirs, sold the property to May K. -<span class="pb" id="Page_5">5</span> -Rindge and Frederick H. Rindge for approximately $10 per acre. -Mrs. Rindge is now President of the Marblehead Land Company, -owner of the property, and it is now being developed into a seaside -residential district.</p> -<p>From Tapia to Prudhomme, Prudhomme to Keller, Keller to -Rindge—surely a very brief history of a great rancho—yet today its -value is figured in tens of millions of dollars—surely a great advance -from the days when it was traded for the wines and groceries.</p> -<div class="img" id="ill2"> -<img id="fig2" src="images/p02.jpg" alt="" width="686" height="600" /> -<p class="pcap"><i>Twenty-Mile Shore Line of the Rancho Topanga Malibu Sequit</i></p> -</div> -<div class="pb" id="Page_6">6</div> -<h2 id="c3">Ranchos Los Cerritos and Los Alamitos</h2> -<p>The lives of two persons seldom parallel themselves more -strangely than did the lives of two great California ranchos, the -Rancho Los Cerritos and the Rancho Los Alamitos. Both were part -of the Manuel Nieto grant made in 1784 by the King of Spain, each -was partitioned to a Nieto heir, each became the property of a New -Englander and each owner naturalized as a citizen of Mexico. They -rivaled each other for the honor of the finest sheep, the fattest cattle, -the fastest horses. Together they became the property of the Bixbys, -jointly they shared the growth of Long Beach and finally they divided -the honor of Signal Hill—Los Cerritos the northwesterly slopes, Los -Alamitos the southeasterly slopes.</p> -<p>Juan Temple was one of the New Englanders who early settled -in Los Angeles when California was a part of Mexico. At one time -Temple ran the mint for the government of Mexico. Later he opened -the first general merchandise store in Los Angeles, advanced the City -of Los Angeles funds for Ord’s Survey, built the first theater, the -County’s first Court House and the Temple Block, recently wrecked -to make way for Los Angeles’ new City Hall. Temple Street is -named for him.</p> -<p>Not only did Temple naturalize as a citizen of Mexico, but he -married a Spanish girl of a prominent family. Dona Rafaela Cota -became his bride and by this marriage Temple acquired one-twelfth -of the Rancho Los Cerritos, then owned by Rafaela and her eleven -brothers and sisters, heirs of Manuela Nieto de Cota. The remaining -eleven-twelfths was not so easily acquired and it cost Don Juan -“$3025 in silver coin and an equal amount in merchandise at market -prices” to complete his ownership of the 27,000 acre rancho.</p> -<p>In 1844 the large hacienda, yet standing on the Virginia Country -Club grounds, was built and occupied by the new owners. Until a -short time before his death Juan Temple divided his time between -his big Rancho and his many interests in the Pueblo of Los Angeles. -In 1866 he sold the hacienda, the cattle, the sheep, the horses and the -27,000 acres for $20,000 and removed to San Francisco where he -died. Benjamin and Thomas Flint and Llewellyn Bixby were the -fortunate purchasers.</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_7">7</div> -<p>Meanwhile, adjoining Los Cerritos on the East, Rancho Los Alamitos -had had a similar career. Another heir of Manuel Nieto to -whom this 28,000 acre Rancho was partitioned, sold it in 1834 for -$500 to Brigadier-General Jose Figueroa for whom Figueroa Street -in Los Angeles is named, and at one time Governor of California -under Mexico.</p> -<p>In 1840 the Estate of Figueroa sold the Rancho, composed of “six -sites of grown up cattle” to Don Abel Stearns for $5500 to be paid -in hides and tallow to be laid down at San Pedro or at Mazatlan. -Don Abel Stearns was the other New Englander who became famous -as a Mexican citizen. Like Temple he, too, married into a Spanish -family and was equally prominent in affairs of the Pueblo of -Los Angeles.</p> -<p>The same drought that caused a terrific loss of stock and forced -Juan Temple to sell Los Cerritos for $20,000 proved fatal to Don -Abel’s ownership of the Los Alamitos and eight months after the -Flints and Bixby bought Los Cerritos the Sheriff sold Los Alamitos -to Michael Reese for $31,000, approximately $1.10 an acre. In 1881 -the Estate of Michael Reese sold the rancho to John W. Bixby, who -in turn conveyed a one-third interest each to I. W. Hellman and -Jotham Bixby. Under the Bixbys both ranchos flourished.</p> -<p>When the Bixbys purchased Rancho Los Cerritos and later -Rancho Los Alamitos nothing was farther from their thoughts than -that they were purchasing the site of the future City of Long Beach -but they had the good judgment to hold their land and California, -oil and Iowa did the rest.</p> -<p>Four thousand acres of Los Cerritos were sold in 1880 by Jotham -Bixby Company to W. E. Willmore, who platted Willmore City, surrounded -by the American Colony Tract, composed of farm lots. -Tremendous effort was put forth by Mr. Willmore to make his city -successful. He advertised all over the country and even ran a special -excursion from Chicago with prospective Willmoreans. But the plan -was premature and not enough purchasers could be found to buy the -city lots at $25.00 to $100.00 each or the farm lots at $15.00 an acre -<span class="pb" id="Page_8">8</span> -to enable Willmore to meet his agreement with the Bixbys and -several years later he abandoned the land to them.</p> -<p>But Willmore had planned well—his streets were wide, 80 and -100 feet being usual, and one, American Avenue, being 124 feet wide, -and the natural beauty of the land and ocean frontage made it attractive -to others. Soon a syndicate under the name of Long Beach Land -& Water Company took up the sale of the lots and Willmore City -took the name of Long Beach.</p> -<p>Now the two families of the Bixbys, one from their hacienda, the -former home of Don Juan Temple on the Los Cerritos, the other -from their hacienda, the former home of Don Abel Stearns on the Los -Alamitos, watched Long Beach grow from a subdivision to a city. -The Alamitos Tract and the Townsite of Alamitos Bay were platted.</p> -<p>In 1897, William A. Clark, Montana Copper King and builder -of the San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad, purchased 8,139 -acres of Rancho Los Cerritos for $405,000. This vast tract, known -as the Montana Ranch, has been held practically intact to the present -day. Early development, however, is planned for this property by -the Janss Investment Company, Los Angeles Realtors, who have -announced that they will build a model city on the ranch.</p> -<p>In 1921 the secret of Signal Hill was discovered and an added -impetus given the development of the two ranchos. Soon the hill -bristled with oil derricks. There being then many owners there soon -were many millionaires. Oil flowed so fast from the hill that on -several occasions it streamed uncontrolled over lawns and flowers on -the slopes of Signal Hill. Daily the value of the oil taken from the -hill equalled twice the price the Bixbys paid for both ranchos.</p> -<p>Slowly the oil fields have been extended—northwesterly toward -the hacienda of Don Juan Temple and southeasterly toward the -hacienda of Don Abel Stearns.</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_9">9</div> -<h2 id="c4">Rancho Aguaje de La Centinela</h2> -<p>Traded with two barrels of wine for a small adobe house in the -Pueblo of Los Angeles, then in turn owned by a noble Spaniard, an -ignoble Frenchman, a famous Confederate General and a Scotch Baronet, -then the scene of one of the most spectacular boom subdivisions -in the Land Boom of 1886-1888 and finally the site of a prosperous -and successful city—such is the history of the Rancho Centinela.</p> -<p>The rancho was granted in 1844 by the “Department of California,” -Government of Mexico, to Ignacio Machado by a grant which -described the land as “half a league more or less of grazing land.” -Machado did not prize his grazing land very highly and the following -year traded the property to Bruno Abila for a small adobe house -“with vineyard fenced” in the suburbs of the Pueblo of Los Angeles. -But in the eyes of these two traders, the small adobe was worth -more than the great Rancho Centinela and the deed provided that -in addition to the rancho Machado was to give as an added consideration -two barrels of aguardiente (wine).</p> -<p>Bruno Abila held the rancho until 1857 at which time he carelessly—or -desperately—borrowed $900 with interest at six per cent -per month, or seventy-two per cent per year, and, giving his rancho as -security, promptly lost it under the hammer. Hilliard P. Dorsey -bought the property at Sheriff’s Sale for $2000, or about $1 an acre.</p> -<p>But Hilliard P. Dorsey paid too much for the land and two years -later Civility R. Dorsey, his widow, sold it out of his Estate for -$930, or thirty-five cents an acre. However, the deed to Francis -I. Carpenter, the purchaser, provided that he, Carpenter, was obligated -as part of the consideration to run off and dispossess of his own -effort one Fernando, a Frenchman and son-in-law of Bruno Abila, a -former owner, who had refused to surrender peaceable possession of -the rancho.</p> -<p>The next owner of the rancho was Joseph Lancaster Brent, a -Southerner by birth, but for many years a prominent citizen of Los -Angeles. In 1860, just before the Civil War started, Brent sold his -rancho and at the outbreak of the war hastened to make his way -south and join the Confederate Army. He was later made a Brigadier-General -and was with the last Confederate General to lay down his -<span class="pb" id="Page_10">10</span> -sword. The conveyance by Brent was made for a consideration of -$3,000 to Sir Robert Burnett, a Baronet of Scotland, who on a visit -to California had fallen in love with the natural charm of the -Rancho Centinela and purchased both it and its neighbor, the Rancho -Sausal Redondo.</p> -<p>From this time on the value of the rancho grew rapidly and in -1885 Sir Robert Burnett and Lady Matilda Josephine Burnett, both -of Crathes Castle in the Kingdom of Great Britain, sold the two -ranchos for $140,000 to Daniel Freeman, the founder of Inglewood.</p> -<p>Then came the great Land Boom, the town of Inglewood was -platted and thrown on the market. Beautiful parks and plazas were -planned and dedicated and Mr. Freeman, with an insight into the -future that now seems uncanny, platted streets of unheard of width.</p> -<p>Used as cattle land by the Spanish, sheep land by the Baronet and -a Boom Subdivision by Daniel Freeman, the Rancho Centinela has -attained its greatest period of usefulness and success today as the site -of the thriving City of Inglewood.</p> -<div class="img" id="ill3"> -<img id="fig3" src="images/p03.jpg" alt="" width="870" height="600" /> -<p class="pcap"><i>Ranch Home on the Rancho Aguaje de La Centinela</i></p> -</div> -<div class="pb" id="Page_11">11</div> -<h2 id="c5">Rancho San Pascual</h2> -<p>The Rancho San Pascual has always been a famous ranch. Its -owners have always been prominent in the affairs of California and in -the Pueblo of Los Angeles. It has always been famed for beauty and -today within its far-flung boundaries are the world famous cities of -Altadena, Pasadena, South Pasadena and parts of San Marino.</p> -<p>The rancho was granted in 1843 by the then Mexican Governor, -Manuel Micheltorena, to Manuel Garfias and comprised 13,693 acres -of land. Manuel Garfias later became Los Angeles County’s first -Treasurer. At the time he was campaigning for the office of Treasurer -he sold a portion of his rancho for approximately $3.00 an acre -for funds with which to finance his ambitious plans.</p> -<p>Manuel Garfias was a member of one of the finest Spanish families -and married Luisa Abila, whose family owned the Abila hacienda -facing the Plaza in the Pueblo of Los Angeles and where Commodore -Stockton resided while stationed in Los Angeles. History records -that Manuel Garfias was an excellent County Treasurer but as a -ranchero he was very poor and bit by bit he sold off parts of the -rancho until in 1857, heavily involved in financial obligations, he sold -the remainder of the rancho to B. D. Wilson, the famous Don Benito. -Wilson Avenue in Pasadena, South Pasadena and Alhambra, Wilson -Lake and Mt. Wilson are all named for B. D. Wilson. Under his -care and under the guidance of Dr. John S. Griffin, who purchased an -undivided one-half interest from Mr. Wilson, the Rancho progressed -and the price of the land gradually increased.</p> -<p>The early conveyances of parts of the Rancho in addition to the -usual indefinite ties of an oak tree, a little rock set on a big one or a -pile of bones or brush, tied in one of its courses “to a point on the -side of a hill North of the prickly pears.” Many of the descriptions -tied to the walled garden of Benjamin D. Wilson, called “Huerta de -Quati.”</p> -<p>Later the Rancho was settled by the Indiana Colony, Pasadena -was founded, then South Pasadena and San Marino and today within -its boundaries are many thousands of magnificent homes, carrying on -the fame of the famous Rancho San Pascual.</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_12">12</div> -<h2 id="c6">Rancho Santa Gertrudes</h2> -<p>Seventeen thousand six hundred and two acres of California’s -most fertile land, bordered by a large river, divided by two smaller -ones and with a billion dollar oil pool beneath—the Rancho Santa -Gertrudes sold under the hammer for $3.40 an acre.</p> -<p>The rancho was a part of the great Manuel Nieto grant made -by the King of Spain through the Spanish Governor, Pedro Fages. -The Nieto grant was divided among his heirs and Antonio Maria -Nieto received the part designated as the Rancho Santa Gertrudes and -in 1834 the Mexican Governor, Jose Figueroa, confirmed the title to -Dona Josefa Cota, widow of Antonio Maria Nieto.</p> -<p>Later the rancho was conveyed to Lemuel Carpenter, born a Missourian, -but for many years a resident of California when it was a -part of Mexico. For awhile Carpenter and his beautiful wife, Maria -de Los Angeles Dominguez de Carpenter, lived happily on the rancho. -They prospered under Mexico but failed under the United States -and on November 14, 1859, the rancho was sold by the Sheriff. One -week before the day of the sale Carpenter committed suicide.</p> -<p>John G. Downey and James P. McFarland, doing business as -Downey, McFarland & Company, were the purchasers at the sale, -paying $60,000 for the entire rancho. Both of these men were famous -characters in California history. Downey became the Civil War -Governor of the State and McFarland a leading State Senator. Together -they opened the first drug store in Los Angeles, and Downey, -with Alvinza Hayward, organized the first bank.</p> -<p>In 1865 the rancho was leased for twenty-five years to the Los -Angeles Pioneer Oil Company for exploration and development of -oil. But, although the oil company diligently explored, no oil could -be found and the lease was finally abandoned.</p> -<p>The Town of Downey was started in 1873 with a boom and predictions -were freely given that the new city would soon outdistance -its sleepy neighbor, Los Angeles.</p> -<p>Toward the east boundary of the rancho the Town of Fulton -Sulphur Springs and Health Resort was platted. But few lots were -sold until 1886 when the Santa Fe Railway built its line through the -<span class="pb" id="Page_13">13</span> -town, bought up all the lots and replatted them into smaller ones, -planned a big hotel and renamed the town Santa Fe Springs. How -foolish the silver-tongued land auctioneers made the purchasers appear -when they bought lots, then at $200 apiece. How foolish would the -same auctioneers look today if they could see their town of Santa Fe -Springs—a city of derricks—a bonanza of “Black Gold.”</p> -<div class="img" id="ill4"> -<img id="fig4" src="images/p04.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="614" /> -<p class="pcap"><i>Night at Santa Fe Springs on the Rancho Santa Gertrudes</i></p> -</div> -<div class="pb" id="Page_14">14</div> -<h2 id="c7">Rancho San Antonio</h2> -<p>No horses so fast, no cattle so fine, no land so fertile, no rancho -more famous than the Rancho San Antonio. No family more prominent, -no hospitality more welcome or as freely partaken, no hacienda -more lovely, happy or prosperous than that of the Lugos.</p> -<p>Antonio Maria Lugo received the grant of the rancho from the -King of Spain in 1810 and for fifty years thereafter this old Spanish -Don and his sons were the sole owners of its 29,514 acres, adjoining -the original pueblo grant of the City of Los Angeles on the southeast.</p> -<p>The Lugos saw the rise of the Mission chain to the height of its -glory, then the passing of Spanish control and the rise of Mexico, the -breaking up of the Mission chain, the fall of Mexico and the coming -of the Stars and Stripes. Wars and governments came and passed -and the Lugo family stood them all and kept their rancho intact. -They built a wonderful adobe in the pueblo of Los Angeles facing -the Plaza directly opposite the church and there the social life of the -city centered.</p> -<p>But American ways and American prosperity they could not stand -and as the County grew, bit by bit they lost their vast rancho by sale, -foreclosure and litigation.</p> -<p>In 1865 the Sheriff sold the home place of Vicente Lugo, one of -the sons, for a consideration of less than $1.00 an acre. With the -conveyance went a large wooden house constructed by the younger -Lugo, one of the first wooden houses in the County. In 1883 Jonathan -S. Slauson, founder of Azusa and for whom Slauson Avenue is named, -purchased the land constituting what had been the home place for -$200 an acre. In 1910 the heirs of Slauson sold the land for $500 -an acre.</p> -<p>In 1927 part of this land was sold for a consideration of $7,000 -an acre for the site of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company’s -plant. Only the cluster of trees now shows where the great wooden -house once stood while hundreds of workmen pass daily over the paths -and gardens of the noble Don Vicente.</p> -<p>On other parts of the rancho have been built Huntington Park, -Vernon, Walnut Park, South Gate and Lynwood, all prosperous -<span class="pb" id="Page_15">15</span> -communities. The original adobe house of Antonio Maria Lugo is -yet standing on Baker Avenue opposite the Southern California -Edison Company’s Power Station and near the Union Plant of the -Consolidated Steel Corporation.</p> -<p>The Lugos builded well and both the hacienda and the city home -on the plaza are still in good condition. Both should be landmarked -and properly preserved—testimony to the finest in life and honor in -the days of the Dons.</p> -<div class="img" id="ill5"> -<img id="fig5" src="images/p05.jpg" alt="" width="656" height="600" /> -<p class="pcap"><i>No Hacienda More Lovely Than That of the Lugos on -the Rancho San Antonio</i></p> -</div> -<div class="pb" id="Page_16">16</div> -<h2 id="c8">Rancho Los Felis</h2> -<p>North of the Pueblo of Los Angeles and adjoining the Los -Angeles River on the west is the Rancho Los Felis, 6,647 acres.</p> -<p>The rancho was granted in 1843 to Maria Ygnacia Verdugo but -it is evident that she had been occupying the land for some time previous -to that date as on February 17th, 1841, the City of Los Angeles, -by the President of its Common Council, granted to her the “right -to use the water from the river of Our Lady of Angels for cultivating -the lands of Los Felis.” At that time there was so much water in -the Los Angeles River in excess of what the pueblo inhabitants could -use that the city felt free to dispose of part of it in this manner.</p> -<p>In 1853 Dona Verdugo, signing by mark, granted to her daughters -parts of the rancho. These deeds recited that they were made -for “the welfare and progress of my daughters.” But the daughters -failed to progress and soon sold their respective parts for $1 per acre.</p> -<p>Antonio F. Coronel, famous pioneer of Los Angeles, purchased -the rancho and subsequently he deeded it to James Lick, equally -famous pioneer of San Francisco, by this “more or less” definite -description: “Commencing at a point on Los Angeles River; thence -Southerly 3,150 varas, more or less; thence Westerly 6,200 varas, -more or less, to a napalera (prickly pear patch); thence Northerly -5,000 varas, more or less, to a calera (lime kiln) and thence Easterly -following along the right bank of the Los Angeles River to the place -of beginning 7,100 varas, more or less, containing more or less one -and a half square leagues of land.”</p> -<p>In 1882, 4,071 acres were purchased by Colonel Griffith Jenkins -Griffith and in 1884 Colonel Griffith sold back to the City of Los -Angeles for $25,000 the valuable water rights donated 43 years -previously.</p> -<p>In the western and southern parts of the rancho development followed -rapidly. The Lick Tract, now part of Hollywood, was platted, -then Ivanhoe and the Edendale district. But most of the mountain -and slope land of the Los Felis Rancho was undeveloped except by -hand of nature until 1898 when Colonel Griffith deeded 3,015 acres -of unsurpassed land to the City of Los Angeles, one of the finest gifts -ever presented to a city—Griffith Park.</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_17">17</div> -<h2 id="c9">Rancho San Pedro</h2> -<p>Within the boundaries of Rancho San Pedro was Nigger Slough, -Rattlesnake Island and the Salt Flats, and its own name was none -too beautiful. But the Rancho San Pedro overcame all such handicaps -and developed into a favorite child in the family of the Spanish -Ranchos.</p> -<p>This rancho, containing 43,119 acres, was one of the tremendously -big Spanish grants made by a Spanish King, who believed the limit -of population which Southern California could ever care for was -represented in the ten Missions, four Pueblos (San Diego, Los Angeles, -Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo) and the comparatively -few Ranchos.</p> -<p>The grant was made to Juan Jose Dominguez of an illustrious -family quite different from the average Spanish family living in California -in its early days. The Dominguez heirs have each in succession -adapted themselves to every change and kept a large part of -their rancho intact to the present day. But much of the land was -so strategically located on the sea, around the harbor and on main -lines of boulevards and railroads between Los Angeles and San Pedro, -that it was inevitable that intensive development should take place on -these parts.</p> -<p>On December 22, 1854, the Dominguez heirs sold 2,400 acres at -the harbor to Phineas Banning, B. D. Wilson, John G. Downey and -associates for $20,000, or nearly $10.00 an acre, and on this and -adjoining land Banning founded the town of Wilmington, originally -called New San Pedro. During the Civil War Phineas Banning and -B. D. Wilson in a burst of patriotic enthusiasm donated a large -parcel of land in their new town to the United States government -for Drum Barracks, and as such it served a useful and vital purpose, -not only as a supply station and barracks, but, as well, to hold down -anti-Union sentiment. It was easy to donate the land but it took -eight years and a special act of Congress for Banning and Wilson to -get the land back after the close of the War.</p> -<p>Nine miles north of Wilmington but within the same rancho was -platted Comptonville, now Compton, originally planned as a temperance -colony. Ten miles westerly and also in the same rancho, -<span class="pb" id="Page_18">18</span> -Redondo Reach, platted in 1889, became a famous pleasure resort. -Between these far distant points have been laid out the towns of -Gardena, Moneta, and Torrance. In addition to these there are -now many hundreds of small farms, and probably the world’s largest -aggregation of oil tank farms, two or three airports, an excellent and -productive oil field, and there is plenty of land left in the rancho.</p> -<p>Such is the story of a gift from a King—a Rancho of success.</p> -<div class="img" id="ill6"> -<img id="fig6" src="images/p06.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="607" /> -<p class="pcap"><i>Patio of the Dominguez Home—Rancho San Pedro</i></p> -</div> -<div class="pb" id="Page_19">19</div> -<h2 id="c10">Rancho Santa Anita</h2> -<p>The Rancho Santa Anita, covered with oaks and on gentle, -sloping ground, was situated between Pasadena and Monrovia, and -includes within its 13,319 acres the cities of Sierra Madre and Arcadia. -Its title was founded on a grant to Hugo Reid made in 1841, -confirmed by Mexico in 1845 and by the United States in 1857.</p> -<p>For 20 cents an acre Hugo Reid conveyed the rancho to Henry -Dalton, an Englishman who had for 25 years lived in South America. -Subsequently it passed to William Wolfskill, whose home in the -Pueblo of Los Angeles stood on the present site of the Southern -Pacific station. Wolfskill left the rancho to his son, Lewis, and the -younger Wolfskill sold it in 1872 for $85,000 to H. Newmark & -Co. Both Harris Newmark of that firm and Hugo Reid, the first -owner of the rancho, have perpetuated their names in history by -their writings of early Los Angeles. Mr. Newmark’s book, “Sixty -Years in Southern California,” has had a wide circulation.</p> -<p>Three years later for nearly three times the amount paid by -H. Newmark and Co. the rancho was purchased by E. J. Baldwin. -Lucky at the mines, lucky in the markets, lucky with horses and luckiest -of all with land,—no wonder they called him “Lucky” Baldwin.</p> -<p>Baldwin at this time was a San Franciscan and had made millions -in the Ophir mines of Nevada. He built the “fireproof” Baldwin -Hotel, the largest in San Francisco, later destroyed by fire. But the -charm of Rancho Santa Anita soon took Baldwin from his northern -home and he moved into the large ranch house, devoting the balance -of his life to the development of this rancho and the acquiring of -others. Upon his death in 1909, his daughters, Anita M. Baldwin -and Clara Baldwin Stocker, succeeded him in the ownership of -Rancho Santa Anita.</p> -<p>Baldwin’s greatest love was for horses and he developed a breed -of racing stock which became world-famous. Next to his love for -horses he loved trees and he bordered every road within his rancho -with trees and jealously fostered and guarded them. The towering -lines of Eucalyptus trees along Huntington Drive and Santa Anita -Avenue through the Rancho Santa Anita stand as evidence of the -hand of “Lucky” Baldwin—those are his monuments.</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_20">20</div> -<h2 id="c11">Rancho La Brea</h2> -<p>For the inhabitants of the pueblo, later the City of Los Angeles, -the Rancho La Brea has always been one of the most useful of the -ranchos. The rancho derived its name from the La Brea Pits where -the brea, or crude oil, oozed to the surface to catch prehistoric -animals and preserve them for many thousands of years and to catch -a few stray cattle in the Spanish days, and also to furnish excellent -roofing for the adobes in the Pueblo of Los Angeles.</p> -<p>The rancho was first granted January 6, 1828, by Jose Antonio -Carrillo, Alcalde of the Pueblo of Los Angeles, to Antonio Jose -Rocha, and comprised one square league of land. Early conveyances, -however, provided that the owners of the rancho, while they were to -have complete title, nevertheless were to allow the inhabitants of the -pueblo unmolested right to take such brea as they might need for -the roofs of their adobes.</p> -<p>Antonio Jose Rocha built an excellent adobe in the Pueblo of Los -Angeles as his pueblo home and this adobe, later known as the Rocha -House, was purchased in 1855 by the Board of Supervisors and the -City of Los Angeles and used jointly as the Jail, the Sheriff’s Office, -the Court House and the City Hall.</p> -<p>In 1860 the Rocha heirs sold the Rancho to John Hancock by a -deed which described the property as being a rancho “some 4 or 8 -miles West of the Pueblo of Los Angeles.” Cornelius Cole, then -United States Senator from California, received 500 acres of land in -this rancho as an attorney fee for services rendered the Hancock -family and on these acres platted Colegrove, now a part of Hollywood. -However, much of the rancho was held intact by Mr. Hancock -and Major Henry Hancock, and later G. Allan Hancock, and for -many years the land with its springs, flowing streams and gentle -ravines provided excellent hunting ground for the people of the town -of Los Angeles. As late as 1892 there appears a conveyance, executed -by Mrs. Hancock, conveying 20 acres of land and reserving for -fifteen years the right to hunt for game. The subsequent platting of -the land following the completion of the Los Angeles-Pacific Interurban -lines soon ruined the land for hunting purposes.</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_21">21</div> -<p>For years the Hancock heirs took immense quantities of oil from -the productive oil field and, as the oil decreased, the development and -growth of the city changed the character of the land and the black -sump holes gave way to green lawns and the tall, ugly (but profitable) -derricks to fine homes, as the Wilshire District, one of the -world’s finest residential sections, was built on the Rancho La Brea.</p> -<div class="img" id="ill7"> -<img id="fig7" src="images/p07.jpg" alt="" width="616" height="600" /> -<p class="pcap"><i>Famous La Brea Pits and Ranch House, Now in Hancock Park</i></p> -</div> -<div class="pb" id="Page_22">22</div> -<h2 id="c12">Rancho Cienega o’Paso de La Tijera</h2> -<p>How differently the Spanish and the Americans viewed their -ranches is quite apparent from the names they gave them. The -Americans dubbed their ranches the “Diamond Bar,” the “3 X,” the -“109,” or some other rather picturesque but meaningless title.</p> -<p>The Spaniards blessed their ranchos by dedicating them to Santa -Anita, San Rafael, Santa Gertrudes, or San Geronimo. They saw -the many little streams of water flowing from the springs on what is -now Beverly Hills and named that Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas—the -gathering of the waters. They loved the big oaks of the district -along Ventura Boulevard between North Hollywood and Girard -and named it Rancho El Encino—the oaks. What the Americans -call the Baldwin Hills—they saw naturally formed a pass resembling -scissors and thus was named Rancho Cienega o’Paso de La Tijera.</p> -<p>In 1843 Governor Manuel Micheltorena granted Rancho Cienega -o’Paso de La Tijera to Vicente Sanchez, friend of the Mexican government, -valiant soldier and good citizen. But he did not live long -to enjoy his rancho and at about the time California became a state -his heirs partitioned his land holdings. Tomas A. Sanchez acquired -the rancho—his sisters taking property on Nigger Alley in the Pueblo -of Los Angeles as their share.</p> -<p>Tomas Sanchez also had a well deserved reputation for extraordinary -bravery and was Sheriff of Los Angeles County from 1860 to -1867, a period in which crime waves were permanent and the accepted -order of the day.</p> -<p>Gradually the Rancho increased in value. In 1875 Sanchez sold -a half interest for $60,000, later he sold a fourth and finally another -Sheriff sold the remainder. E. J. (Lucky) Baldwin became the -owner. Baldwin found this rancho something of a white elephant. -Sheep ranching became unprofitable and the land was not adapted to -orange groves and he knew nothing of the oil beneath it. But he -held the property and when he died in 1909 his estate listed Rancho -Cienega o’Paso de La Tijera as one of its most valuable possessions. -The Baldwin heirs sold large parts of the rancho, and the Los Angeles -Investment Company subdivided tract after tract within its bounds.</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_23">23</div> -<p>Seemingly no matter how fast this old rancho has been subdivided -(and the growth of Angelus Mesa has been phenomenal) the remaining -unsubdivided part grows in value by leaps and bounds directly -contrary to its diminishing size. Like the estate of “Lucky” Baldwin -the estate of his daughter, Clara Baldwin Stocker, recently deceased, -lists as its most valued possession the remainder of the Rancho Cienega -o’Paso de La Tijera.</p> -<div class="img" id="ill8"> -<img id="fig8" src="images/p08.jpg" alt="" width="607" height="600" /> -<p class="pcap"><i>Hacienda of the Rancho Cienega o’Paso de La Tijera—now a Golf Club</i></p> -</div> -<div class="pb" id="Page_24">24</div> -<h2 id="c13">Rancho Ex-Mission de San Fernando</h2> -<p>The remark is often heard, “I knew the San Fernando Valley -when it was a wheat field.” Thousands of Angelenos recall the -founding of Van Nuys and Owensmouth and the platting of Tract -1000, the largest subdivision in Los Angeles County. And even the -newcomers have seen almost unbelievable development. But what -of the valley before Tract 1000; what before the wheat?</p> -<p>When the Fathers of the Mission of San Fernando completed -their Mission and looked out through its arches their vision could not -include land not theirs. The grant to the Mission described 121,000 -acres extending from mountains to mountains on all sides of the -valley, and named the rancho Mission de San Fernando, and as such -it prospered.</p> -<p>Spain encouraged and protected the Missions of California and -granted to them great tracts of land—Mexico plundered and destroyed -the Missions and seized their lands. Among these Mission -lands seized by the Mexican government was the prize of them all, -the Mission de San Fernando. For years chaos reigned at the -Mission. The government drove off many of the Indians, others left -and the herds of cattle became legitimate prey alike for “Gentlemen -of Mexico” and Mexican bandits not claiming the distinction.</p> -<p>In 1846 armed invasion of California was commenced by the -Americans. Governor Pio Pico in a blaze of oratory declared that at -any cost the “Department of California” must be retained as property -of Mexico forever and asked for authority to sell Rancho Mission de -San Fernando, then known as Rancho Ex-Mission, for funds with -which to equip an army. In this emergency the San Fernando Valley -was sold as a land bargain never again equaled, $14,000 for the entire -rancho—approximately eleven cents an acre. Eulogio de Celis purchased -the rancho at that figure and not only did he get a Mexican -land bargain but he at once stocked his big rancho and before the war -was over sold horses and cattle to both sides.</p> -<p>In 1854 General Andres Pico, brother of the Ex-Governor, purchased -a half interest in the rancho for $15,000 and in 1862 this -interest passed to Pio Pico himself. The land holdings of the last -Mexican Governor were equal to an empire. At one time he owned -<span class="pb" id="Page_25">25</span> -Rancho Paso de Bartolo, his interest in Rancho San Fernando, his -home place called Ranchito, near Whittier in this County, and -Ranchos Las Flores and Santa Margarita, both tremendous ranches -in San Diego County. In addition to his ranchos he owned a home -on the plaza in the Pueblo of Los Angeles and considerable additional -pueblo land in Los Angeles and San Diego. He built the celebrated -Pico House, yet standing, facing the plaza in Los Angeles. His life -was crowned with success at every turn. Under Mexico he was -California’s leading citizen. Under the United States the ranchos he -owned and the honors he had held gave him a prestige accorded few -men.</p> -<p>For $2.00 an acre the Rancho Ex-Mission de San Fernando was -sold by Pico and the son of de Celis to Isaac Lankershim, Charles -Maclay, I. N. Van Nuys and B. F. Porter. Under the ownership of -these four men Rancho San Fernando became a great wheat field -and four great fortunes were made for its owners.</p> -<p>While Pio Pico, who once counted his acres in hundreds of thousands, -spent his last days in abject poverty—his ranchos, his city property, -his hotel and his home all sold for a mortgage—nothing was left—nothing -but his medals of honor and his memories of the past.</p> -<div class="img" id="ill9"> -<img id="fig9" src="images/p09.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="447" /> -<p class="pcap"><i>Mission de San Fernando</i></p> -</div> -<div class="pb" id="Page_26">26</div> -<h2 id="c14">Rancho Tajauta</h2> -<p>Rancho Tajauta, sometimes called Rancho Los Cuervos, was like -a dwarf among giants. It could have fitted into one corner of its -neighbor, the Rancho San Pedro, or been lost in the San Fernando, -and yet it was no small plot of ground. It extended from what is -now Manchester Avenue on the north to the north boundary of the -Rancho San Pedro on the south and between Central Avenue on the -west and the Los Angeles River and Rancho San Antonio on the east.</p> -<p>At the height of the cattle days there was only one house on the -Rancho Tajauta, a two-room adobe. Today it is estimated over -20,000 people live within its boundaries, which include most of Watts -and adjoining area in the southerly part of Los Angeles—and a fourth -of the rancho is yet to be subdivided. The size of the rancho, however, -was no criterion to the number of its owners and changes in its -title. Before California became a state, its original owner, Anastacio -Abila, died and left so many heirs that it was necessary to divide the -estate into seventieth parts to properly partition it. These small -interests in the rancho were then traded in like second-hand Fords -are today.</p> -<p>Phineas Banning, passing the rancho in his stage-coach and eyeing -it carefully for bandits, noticed the soil was excellent, visioned the -railroads that would cross it and bought many small interests. O. W. -Childs, famous for the water ditch which he constructed and for -which he received most of downtown Los Angeles in payment, likewise -bought a few interests. So did Don Mateo Keller, who owned -the Rancho Malibu and Francis Mellus of Mellus Row. And -among the owners was the entire legal fraternity of that day—A. B. -Chapman, Andrew Glassell, A. Brunson and R. M. Widney, all -famous names in Southern California history. A $50 gold slug, the -common medium for exchange in those days when small change was -unknown, often bought an interest. Enrique Abila, one of the heirs -of Anastacio Abila, in addition to his own holdings, gradually acquired -many of the interests of the other heirs. He made his home on the -rancho and lived to see the city reach and surround him.</p> -<p>A little rancho was Rancho Tajauta, but a very active one.</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_27">27</div> -<h2 id="c15">Rancho Repetto</h2> -<p>Rancho Repetto, as such, was not an original Spanish or Mexican -rancho, yet in character and size it was just as a Spanish or Mexican -rancho would be. Its history, although covering a period much -shorter than the life of the Spanish grant, is full of the romance of -the ranchos of the Dons.</p> -<p>The rancho derived its name from Alessandro Repetto, later -known as Alexander Repetto, who purchased its five thousand acres -shortly after the Civil War. Some of the land had been found by -the United States Land Commission to belong to the Rancho San -Antonio and this Repetto purchased from the Lugos. Some of the -land he obtained from the government and forty acres came through -state patent.</p> -<p>Toward its west boundary ran a road recently widened and paved -by the County of Los Angeles. One of the deeds to Repetto refers -to this as “the Road used by the horsemen coming from the rancho of -Juan Matias Sanchez” (originally Mission land of San Gabriel). -Later the road was called Portesuelo de la Rosa de Castella, and still -later it was officially changed to Monterey Pass. It is commonly -called Coyote Pass.</p> -<p>In 1885 Alexander Repetto died leaving as his heir Antonio -Repetto, a brother who lived in Italy. The heir preferred Italy to -California and came here only long enough to collect his inheritance, -sell the rancho and return home. Harris Newmark, John D. Bicknell, -Kaspare Cohn, who founded the Union Bank & Trust Co., -Stephen M. White, once United States Senator from California, and -whose figure in bronze stands in front of the Los Angeles County -Court House, and I. W. Hellman purchased the rancho for $60,000—about -$12.00 an acre.</p> -<p>Out of the Harris Newmark and Kaspare Cohn holdings in -Rancho Repetto was platted Montebello, originally called the Town -of Newmark. I. W. Hellman, whose interest in the rancho equalled -1,500 acres, chose his land in the northwestern part of the rancho and -with that foresight which made him the foremost banker in Los -Angeles when he lived here and the foremost banker of San Francisco -<span class="pb" id="Page_28">28</span> -when he removed there he held the land for the future. This -remainder of Rancho Repetto though closer to Broadway than Hollywood -has almost to this day remained just as it was when it was the -property of Alessandro Repetto, while to the south was a view of -intensive development, as Los Angeles industrially spread eastward, -and to the north was another view of intensive development as Pasadena -and Alhambra became cities.</p> -<p>Recently the last of Rancho Repetto has given up its aloofness. -Atlantic Boulevard has been cut through from north to south and -Beverly Boulevard is to cross it from west to east. The Hellman -heirs have conveyed a large part of it and the J. B. Ransom Corporation -has announced an immediate subdivision program. The final -chapter in the history of Rancho Repetto is being written.</p> -<div class="img" id="ill10"> -<img id="fig10" src="images/p10.jpg" alt="" width="768" height="600" /> -<p class="pcap"><i>Early Ranch House—American Period</i></p> -</div> -<div class="pb" id="Page_29">29</div> -<h2 id="c16">Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica</h2> -<p>Most of the development on the ranchos of Southern California -has just happened—they, like Topsy, just grew. But not so the -Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica. A careful plan, expenditure of -great wealth and a determination of purpose unequaled all sought to -make a great seaport of Santa Monica—and no city could have grown -more contrary to the efforts to guide it than has Santa Monica.</p> -<p>The rancho was granted December 20th, 1839, by Governor Juan -B. Alvarado to Francisco Sepulveda, officer of the Mexican army, -and comprised 31,000 acres of mountain, mesa and ocean shore land. -In the following thirty-three years many changes came over California. -The rule of the United States supplanted the ruin of Mexico, -California became a state and Los Angeles a city. The wool of the -lazy sheep became more profitable than the hides of cattle.</p> -<p>In 1872 the heirs of Sepulveda, anxious to divide their inheritance -and believing that Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica had reached -the peak of its value, sold the same for less than $2.00 an acre to -Colonel Robert S. Baker, prominent wool grower of Kern County. -Colonel Baker stocked the rancho with herds of sheep and shortly -thereafter sold an undivided three-fourths interest in his property to -Senator John P. Jones of Nevada. Jones and Baker then conceived -the plan of a great harbor at Santa Monica and a harbor city on the -rancho; the fortunes of both these men were thrown into the project -and Santa Monica was platted.</p> -<p>The Los Angeles & Independence Railroad with its terminus at -the new city and running to Los Angeles was built and operated. It -had been planned to extend the railroad into the mining district of -Inyo County and part of its name was derived from Independence, -the county seat of Inyo County. However, the line was never built -beyond Los Angeles. In connection with the railroad a large warehouse -was built in Los Angeles, and a long wharf at Santa Monica. -Every preparation was made for giant ships of the sea—ships which -were never to come.</p> -<p>In 1886 the land boom which descended on Los Angeles and -vicinity found Santa Monica well prepared to receive it. Colonel -Baker and Senator Jones had hundreds of unsold lots and those previously -<span class="pb" id="Page_30">30</span> -sold when the harbor city was budding were ready for resale. -The Arcadia Hotel, a handsome tourist resort located on the bluff, -was built by Colonel Baker and named for his wife, Arcadia Bandini -de Baker, who formerly had been Mrs. Abel Stearns. Mrs. de Baker, -child of an illustrious Spanish family, was famed for her beauty, and, -as wife of Don Abel Stearns, commanded an outstanding social position -in Los Angeles. Upon Don Abel’s death she inherited all of his -ranchos. Shortly after the boom the Estate of Colonel Baker, Senator -Jones and the Santa Monica Land & Water Company conveyed 300 -acres of land along the east boundary of the rancho to the United -States and on this and adjoining land the Soldiers’ Home was built.</p> -<p>Then another effort was made to create a harbor at Santa Monica—this -time led by Collis P. Huntington with the wealth of the -Southern Pacific Railroad behind him. This last great attempt was -given up only when threshed out on the floor of the United States -Senate and the United States had decided that the Harbor should be -at San Pedro. Perhaps it was the guiding hand of destiny that kept -Santa Monica unspoiled as a residence city.</p> -<div class="img" id="ill11"> -<img id="fig11" src="images/p11.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="527" /> -<p class="pcap">“<i>The wool of the lazy sheep became more profitable than the -hides of cattle</i>”</p> -</div> -<div class="pb" id="Page_31">31</div> -<h2 id="c17">Rancho Los Palos Verdes</h2> -<p>Rancho Los Palos Verdes has been the scene of some of the earliest -as well as the latest development in Los Angeles County. For more -than thirty years before Willmore platted Willmore City, later called -Long Beach, and before Jones and Baker laid out their harbor city -of Santa Monica there had been a thriving settlement at the port of -San Pedro in the Rancho Los Palos Verdes.</p> -<p>The town of San Pedro, later city of San Pedro, and now part -of the city of Los Angeles, was built around that port settlement and -almost the entire district was carved not out of the Rancho San Pedro, -as is generally understood, but out of the Rancho Los Palos Verdes.</p> -<p>The rancho was granted June 3rd, 1846, by Governor Pio Pico -to Jose Loreto Sepulveda and Juan Sepulveda, brothers, this grant -being a ratification of a previous one made in 1827. It extended from -Redondo to Wilmington and bounded on the north and northeast by -Rancho San Pedro and on the southeast, south and west by the Pacific -Ocean, comprising 31,629 acres. Pico, however, reserved a plat of -land along the beach, 500 varas square, for the use of the “Superior -Government of the Mexican Nation.”</p> -<p>With the death of the original grantees and the passing of the -ranch title to their many heirs, Rancho Los Palos Verdes passed into -a period of extensive litigation and had it not been of such tremendous -size and of such constantly increasing value in all probability -it would soon have belonged to the attorneys. From 1865 to 1880, -seventy-eight lawsuits were instituted involving the rancho. The -ranch title itself was not confirmed until 1880. All of the heirs and -their successors in interest held undivided parts of the rancho and six -partition suits were filed before the property was divided according to -the respective ownerships. There were also a dozen suits to eject -squatters, several divorces among the owners, three condemnation -suits by the United States government for land for the lighthouse at -Point Firmin, an action to fix the boundaries of Timms Landing at -the port, two foreclosure actions and several complaints for possession.</p> -<p>The commissioners in one of the partition suits platted the town -of San Pedro, composed of ninety-eight blocks and this plat filled the -two-fold purpose of making an easy method of dividing the property -<span class="pb" id="Page_32">32</span> -among the partitioners and of providing for the growth of the settlement -at the harbor.</p> -<p>In the years that followed the east part of the rancho progressed -rapidly while thousands of acres in the hills from Point Firmin to -Redondo were retained in a few ownerships and the land used only -for farming. Few people ever saw the rugged coast of Palos Verdes, -although Malaga Cove, Rocky Point, Point Vicente, Long Point, -Portuguese Point and Portuguese Bend were all known to fishermen.</p> -<p>In 1913 for a consideration of nearly $2,000,000 the western part -of the rancho was conveyed to Jay Lawler and Frank A. Vanderlip, -then of New York. Palos Verdes Estates was conceived in 1922 to -develop this part of the property and to make a world-famous community -of homes. The rancho of the Sepulvedas is a perfect setting -for this effort.</p> -<div class="img" id="ill12"> -<img id="fig12" src="images/p12.jpg" alt="" width="788" height="600" /> -<p class="pcap"><i>Verdugo Ranch House, Rancho San Rafael—the First of the Grants</i></p> -</div> -<div class="pb" id="Page_33">33</div> -<h2 id="c18">Mission San Gabriel Arcangel</h2> -<p>In all California no land has been the scene of such triumphs and -defeats, such prosperity and poverty, such alternating fair fortune and -dire misfortune as the lands of the Mission San Gabriel Arcangel.</p> -<p>The Mission San Gabriel was founded September 4th, 1771, by -Father Junipero Serra and land set apart for the Mission included -nearly the entire San Gabriel Valley. There was the usual struggle -to establish the Mission and convert the Indians. The first Mission -buildings were destroyed and the old mill—yet standing—built at a -great expenditure of toil and thought was a total failure. But within -a few short years after the founding Mission San Gabriel took its -place as the Queen of the Missions and the most prosperous of all.</p> -<p>The title of the Mission Fathers to the lands had not been confirmed -by written grant from Carlos III, King of Spain, and the governors -of California under Mexico took advantage of this to grant -ranchos within the valley borders. In the northwest part Rancho -San Pascual was granted to become the princely estate of Don Manuel -Garfias and later the sites of Pasadena and South Pasadena. Farther -east Rancho Santa Anita was created and eventually became the -property of E. J. (Lucky) Baldwin. Beyond that rancho were -Ranchos San Francisquito and La Puente. Along the south hills of -the valley Ranchos La Merced, Potrero Grande and Potrero Chico -were granted. By the severing of such large tracts of land the property -of the Mission San Gabriel diminished from tens of thousands of -acres to thousands of acres and then to hundreds.</p> -<p>In 1846 Governor Pico asked permission of his government to -lease the remaining land of the Mission San Gabriel “to prevent the -total ruin of the Mission.” No lessee could be found to take the land -under this act and on June 18th, 1846, Pio Pico made the final grant -of all the remaining Mission lands to Julian Workman and Hugo -Reid. The United States government, however, refused to confirm -this last minute disposal of the Mission land and declared the property -public land of the United States, first setting aside to Bishop Alemany -190 acres surrounding the Mission buildings.</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_34">34</div> -<p>The public land was quickly taken up by many settlers, who were -eager to acquire homesteads in a country almost exclusively made up -of giant ranchos. Subsequently B. D. Wilson and J. De Barth Shorb -acquired much of this land and platted the present prosperous and -beautiful city of Alhambra. San Gabriel and Monterey Park also -have been built on land originally within the Mission boundaries.</p> -<p>The 190 acres set aside for the Mission Church was the largest -parcel of land received by any one Mission out of the land it had -formerly held. At the height of the Mission glory in all a million -and a half acres were under the control of the Padres. When California -became the property of the United States twenty missions other -than San Gabriel held from four to seventy-six acres each—a total for -all the chain of less than 800 acres. Eight hundred acres out of the -original million and a half.</p> -<div class="img" id="ill13"> -<img id="fig13" src="images/p13.jpg" alt="" width="693" height="600" /> -<p class="pcap"><i>Mission San Gabriel Arcangel</i></p> -</div> -<div class="pb" id="Page_35">35</div> -<h2 id="c19">Rancho San Jose de Buenos Ayres</h2> -<p>Rancho San Jose de Buenos Ayres was not in South America, as -its name might indicate, but was an important rancho of Southern -California. The rancho was granted by Manuel Micheltorena, Governor -of the Californias, February 24, 1843, to Maximo Alanis and -comprised 4,438 acres. Don Alanis died shortly after he received the -grant and his heirs conveyed the rancho to Dr. Wilson W. Jones and -Wm. T. B. Sanford, the former, one of Los Angeles’ first doctors -and the latter, an early Los Angeles postmaster.</p> -<p>But the doctor knew little about ranching and in 1852 he was -glad to sell his half interest in the rancho to Don Benito Wilson for -$662.75, or at the rate of 35 cents an acre. Don Benito’s interests -were extensive and widely separated. Jointly with Dr. Griffin he -operated Rancho San Pascual northeast of the Pueblo of Los Angeles. -Jointly with Phineas Banning he founded and developed the city of -Wilmington at the port of San Pedro, and west of the pueblo, halfway -to the ocean, with Sanford, the Postmaster, he raised cattle on -Rancho San Jose de Buenos Ayres. Between supervising trips to his -ranchos and to the harbor he found time to maintain a home in the -Pueblo of Los Angeles—so large that after he moved it was used for -an orphan asylum—buy much city property, ship wine to San Francisco -and foster the development of the orange.</p> -<p>In 1858 B. D. Wilson bought the interest of Sanford in this and -other property for $16,000 and subsequently sold the rancho. In -1884 John Wolfskill of the prominent family of that name purchased -the rancho for $40,000. The purchase by Wolfskill was very timely -as the completion of the Santa Fe Railroad two years later sent land -prices skyrocketing and in 1887 he entered into an agreement to dispose -of the rancho for $438,700, or more than ten times what he had -paid for the land in 1884.</p> -<p>The Los Angeles and Santa Monica Land and Water Company -was organized to take over the land at that figure. This company -built a railroad through the property and platted the town of Sunset. -But few lots were sold, however, and in 1891 the Los Angeles and -Santa Monica Land and Water Company quitclaimed the land back -<span class="pb" id="Page_36">36</span> -to Wolfskill and the townsite was restored to acreage. Then for many -years the rancho was used only for farming, although its neighbor on -the east, the Rancho Rodeo de Las Aguas, was subdivided into Beverly -Hills, and on the west Santa Monica grew into a thriving city.</p> -<p>In 1919 Arthur Letts, Sr., Merchant Prince of Los Angeles, -founder of the Broadway Department Store, bought the rancho for -an investment. Since that time Westwood, Holmby Hills (named -after Holmby, England, Mr. Letts’ birthplace) and Westwood Village -have all been platted on parts of the rancho. The moving-picture -industry has expanded into the property and several of the largest -studios are located there. Now the University of California at Los -Angeles is being built on the rancho, and already opened as one of -the greatest institutions of learning.</p> -<p>B. D. Wilson, John Wolfskill and Arthur Letts all profited by -their farsightedness, but none had the vision and none could foresee -Rancho San Jose de Buenos Ayres as it is today.</p> -<h2 id="c20"><i>CONCLUSION</i></h2> -<p>The priceless, romantic history of early California is everywhere -being more and more appreciated. It evidences itself in the names of -our cities, in our landmarks which are at last being preserved and even -in our architecture.</p> -<p>If “The Romance of the Ranchos” can add its bit to perpetuating -this glorious chapter in California history the writer will feel the -time and effort well worthwhile.</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_37">37</div> -<div class="img" id="ill14"> -<img id="fig14" src="images/p14.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="750" /> -<p class="pcap"><i>Title Insurance Building</i><span class="hst"> <i>Spring Street between Fourth and Fifth</i></span></p> -</div> -<div class="pb" id="Page_38">38</div> -<h2 id="c21">Title Insurance <span class="smaller">and</span> Trust Company</h2> -<p class="center">California’s Largest Title Insurance Company</p> -<p>Title Insurance and Trust Company is the oldest and largest -Title Insurance Company west of Chicago. It is the oldest Trust -Company in the Pacific Southwest. It has been serving the people of -Los Angeles County for thirty-eight years.</p> -<p>Although founded in 1893, the Company’s records are much older -than that, for they cover the period from the early Spanish days to the -present time. The history of every parcel of land in the County is -recorded in the books and maps of the Company’s title plant, and in -its old records safely stored in its archives vault.</p> -<p>This great store house of real estate information, called the title -plant, is the Company’s most valuable possession. It is from these -invaluable records, many of which are originals, that the material used -in compiling “The Romance of the Ranchos” has been derived.</p> -<p class="tb">This real estate information has been indexed and classified so that -the Company’s examiners may find the necessary information in the -least possible time. Millions of dollars have been expended in creating -this great plant which is not surpassed by any in the nation.</p> -<p>Great as has been the cost and the amount of labor expended—this -title plant is not finished—it never will be finished.</p> -<p>Each business day of the year 1500 to 2000 documents affecting -Los Angeles County real estate titles are filed in the Recorder’s office -<span class="pb" id="Page_39">39</span> -and by 11:30 p.m.—on the day of filing—all have been “posted” on -the Company’s books.</p> -<p>Much of the “posting,” much of the map making in the title plant -has no connection with present orders. Some of the work done today -may be used tomorrow, some of it may not be used for many years. -An important part of the personnel in this great business machine, -which we call the title plant, is engaged solely in the preparation for -future work.</p> -<p>But when the call comes, the plant is ready.</p> -<p class="tb">This plant was created to give the people of Los Angeles County -accurate service in the searching and insuring of titles. It serves -owner—buyer—lender—borrower.</p> -<p>From this plant, the Company issues policies of title insurance -protecting the ownership of real property. Step by step, these policies, -through a series of improvements extending throughout the entire -history of the Company, have been developed into the highest type -of title protection offered anywhere.</p> -<h3 id="c22">ESCROWS</h3> -<p>The modern escrow system was originated by this Company. It -was designed to make real estate transactions convenient and safe. -A highly trained personnel and complete and convenient facilities -provide efficient service to buyer and to seller.</p> -<h3 id="c23">TRUSTS</h3> -<p>The Company acts as executor and trustee under wills, as administrator -of estates, and in all other trust capacities.</p> -<p>It offers at a nominal cost an “all-inclusive” declaration of trust, -which is exceedingly flexible. Life insurance policies may be placed -<span class="pb" id="Page_40">40</span> -in this trust, thereby protecting the beneficiary from loss, and to this -trust from time to time there may be added real or personal property.</p> -<p>The Company has had long experience in the management of -estates. If you name the Company as executor under your will, you -will be assured that your beneficiaries will receive considerate and -courteous attention and that your trust estate will be wisely managed -and profitably invested.</p> -<div class="img" id="ill15"> -<img id="fig15" src="images/p15.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="733" /> -<p class="pcap"><i>Trust Department</i></p> -</div> -<div class="img" id="map1"> -<img src="images/map_lr.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="918" /> -<p class="center">THE OLD <span class="small">SPANISH AND MEXICAN</span> RANCHOS <span class="small"><i>of</i> <span class="sc">Los Angeles County</span></span><br /><a class="ab" href="images/map_hr.jpg">High-resolution Map</a></p> -</div> -<h2>Transcriber’s Notes</h2> -<ul> -<li>Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook is public-domain in the country of publication.</li> -<li>Corrected a few palpable typographical errors.</li> -<li>In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by _underscores_.</li> -</ul> - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Romance of the Ranchos, by E. 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Palmer Conner - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: The Romance of the Ranchos - -Author: E. Palmer Conner - -Release Date: November 11, 2016 [EBook #53500] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROMANCE OF THE RANCHOS *** - - - - -Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, MFR and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - _The - Romance of the - Ranchos_ - - - _by_ - E. PALMER CONNER - _Chief Title Searcher_ - - - Title Insurance and Trust Company - 433 South Spring Street - Los Angeles - - _Reprinted by permission from the Los Angeles Times_ - Fifth Edition - - [Illustration: _Old Plaza Church_ - "_Where Los Angeles began_"] - - - - - Ranchos of California - - -Picture a map of California cut up into Ranchos like a crazy quilt, -dotted with twenty-one Missions and a handful of Pueblos. Picture a -people browned by the sun, happy, prosperous and carefree. Picture a -white-walled hacienda on each of the ranchos, every one open with a -never failing hospitality and welcome. That was California when the -Americans took it. - -With the advent of American ownership the tide of population turned to -California in a never ending stream. By sail, steamboat, covered wagon -and finally by train came a new people. The great Spanish ranchos soon -passed to new owners and took on a new character. There is a record of -Spanish ranchos traded for nearly every commodity and necessity. Ranchos -like the Malibu and the Centinela exchanged for wines and groceries, the -Los Alamitos bought with hides and tallow, the La Canada deeded for an -attorney's fee, ranchos for horses, for vines, for surveyor's fees and -many ranchos for mortgages. - -It was a period of rare honor. Don Abel Stearns refused to take -advantage of a technicality in his favor and lost a 29,000 acre rancho. -Juan Matias Sanchez to help his friends, William Workman and F. P. F. -Temple, signed their mortgage to "Lucky" Baldwin and lost his own rancho -in the San Gabriel Valley, wholly without consideration. - -With progress and development the ranchos gave way to the towns and -farming communities. Many of these towns, now grown to cities, were -named for the ranchos on which they were built. In Los Angeles County, -Ranchos Santa Monica, San Fernando, Azusa, La Canada, Puente and Tujunga -all gave their names to the towns founded within their borders. Santa -Ana and La Habra in Orange County likewise took their names from their -ranchos. Santa Barbara was an original Spanish Pueblo but still farther -north in San Luis Obispo County, Arroyo Grande, Pismo, Santa Margarita, -Atascadero and Paso Robles all correspond with the rancho of the same -name. - -Many names of roads and highways all over California can be traced -directly to the rancho over which they pass. Many others were named for -an illustrious owner, who perhaps in bright velvet and astride a silver -saddle, rode down the same road when California was a land of great -ranchos in the days of the Dons. - - - - - Rancho Topanga Malibu Sequit - - -Among the ranchos of Los Angeles County Rancho Topanga Malibu Sequit, -more commonly known as the Malibu Ranch, is outstanding. Not that it was -the first of the grants, although in fact it was one of the first, or -because it was the largest, although its acreage of 13,315 was exceeded -by few, but the historic rancho has in its almost intact state outlived -all others and today it stands as "The Last of the Ranchos." - -The Malibu was first granted in 1804 to Jose Bartolome Tapia by Jose -Joaquin de Arrillaga, Military Governor of the Californias, acting for -the King of Spain. It bordered the Pacific for miles and extended back -into the mountains,--a princely domain unexcelled for beauty. - -The heirs of Tapia held the property until January 24, 1848, when they -granted the great rancho to Leon Victor Prudhomme of the Pueblo of Los -Angeles for the sum of $400, $200 to be paid in cash and $200 in -groceries and wines. As the heirs were uncertain as to the true name of -the rancho they gave four names under which it had been known and -concluded by reciting that it was bounded on the north by the high -mountains, on the south by the Pacific Ocean, on the east by the Rancho -Santa Monica and on the west by the mouth of the River of San -Buenaventura. The recital that the rancho was bounded on the south by -the Pacific Ocean is correct as the rancho faces the ocean more -southerly than westerly. - -Prudhomme also had a famous vineyard near Cucamonga and in order to -devote all of his time to the vineyard he sold the Rancho Topanga Malibu -in 1857 to Matthew Keller, known in Spanish days as Don Mateo Keller, -for $1400. Mateo Street in Los Angeles is named for Mr. Keller. - -In 1872 an agreement was entered into between Matthew Keller and Mrs. -Carrie S. Lewis for conveyance of the rancho to Mrs. Lewis for $35,000, -a little less than $3.00 an acre, but the buyer failed to complete the -deal and Matthew Keller remained the sole owner until his death in 1881. - -In 1892 in two conveyances H. W. Keller, son of Don Mateo Keller and -assignee of the other heirs, sold the property to May K. Rindge and -Frederick H. Rindge for approximately $10 per acre. Mrs. Rindge is now -President of the Marblehead Land Company, owner of the property, and it -is now being developed into a seaside residential district. - -From Tapia to Prudhomme, Prudhomme to Keller, Keller to Rindge--surely a -very brief history of a great rancho--yet today its value is figured in -tens of millions of dollars--surely a great advance from the days when -it was traded for the wines and groceries. - - [Illustration: _Twenty-Mile Shore Line of the Rancho Topanga Malibu - Sequit_] - - - - - Ranchos Los Cerritos and Los Alamitos - - -The lives of two persons seldom parallel themselves more strangely than -did the lives of two great California ranchos, the Rancho Los Cerritos -and the Rancho Los Alamitos. Both were part of the Manuel Nieto grant -made in 1784 by the King of Spain, each was partitioned to a Nieto heir, -each became the property of a New Englander and each owner naturalized -as a citizen of Mexico. They rivaled each other for the honor of the -finest sheep, the fattest cattle, the fastest horses. Together they -became the property of the Bixbys, jointly they shared the growth of -Long Beach and finally they divided the honor of Signal Hill--Los -Cerritos the northwesterly slopes, Los Alamitos the southeasterly -slopes. - -Juan Temple was one of the New Englanders who early settled in Los -Angeles when California was a part of Mexico. At one time Temple ran the -mint for the government of Mexico. Later he opened the first general -merchandise store in Los Angeles, advanced the City of Los Angeles funds -for Ord's Survey, built the first theater, the County's first Court -House and the Temple Block, recently wrecked to make way for Los -Angeles' new City Hall. Temple Street is named for him. - -Not only did Temple naturalize as a citizen of Mexico, but he married a -Spanish girl of a prominent family. Dona Rafaela Cota became his bride -and by this marriage Temple acquired one-twelfth of the Rancho Los -Cerritos, then owned by Rafaela and her eleven brothers and sisters, -heirs of Manuela Nieto de Cota. The remaining eleven-twelfths was not so -easily acquired and it cost Don Juan "$3025 in silver coin and an equal -amount in merchandise at market prices" to complete his ownership of the -27,000 acre rancho. - -In 1844 the large hacienda, yet standing on the Virginia Country Club -grounds, was built and occupied by the new owners. Until a short time -before his death Juan Temple divided his time between his big Rancho and -his many interests in the Pueblo of Los Angeles. In 1866 he sold the -hacienda, the cattle, the sheep, the horses and the 27,000 acres for -$20,000 and removed to San Francisco where he died. Benjamin and Thomas -Flint and Llewellyn Bixby were the fortunate purchasers. - -Meanwhile, adjoining Los Cerritos on the East, Rancho Los Alamitos had -had a similar career. Another heir of Manuel Nieto to whom this 28,000 -acre Rancho was partitioned, sold it in 1834 for $500 to -Brigadier-General Jose Figueroa for whom Figueroa Street in Los Angeles -is named, and at one time Governor of California under Mexico. - -In 1840 the Estate of Figueroa sold the Rancho, composed of "six sites -of grown up cattle" to Don Abel Stearns for $5500 to be paid in hides -and tallow to be laid down at San Pedro or at Mazatlan. Don Abel Stearns -was the other New Englander who became famous as a Mexican citizen. Like -Temple he, too, married into a Spanish family and was equally prominent -in affairs of the Pueblo of Los Angeles. - -The same drought that caused a terrific loss of stock and forced Juan -Temple to sell Los Cerritos for $20,000 proved fatal to Don Abel's -ownership of the Los Alamitos and eight months after the Flints and -Bixby bought Los Cerritos the Sheriff sold Los Alamitos to Michael Reese -for $31,000, approximately $1.10 an acre. In 1881 the Estate of Michael -Reese sold the rancho to John W. Bixby, who in turn conveyed a one-third -interest each to I. W. Hellman and Jotham Bixby. Under the Bixbys both -ranchos flourished. - -When the Bixbys purchased Rancho Los Cerritos and later Rancho Los -Alamitos nothing was farther from their thoughts than that they were -purchasing the site of the future City of Long Beach but they had the -good judgment to hold their land and California, oil and Iowa did the -rest. - -Four thousand acres of Los Cerritos were sold in 1880 by Jotham Bixby -Company to W. E. Willmore, who platted Willmore City, surrounded by the -American Colony Tract, composed of farm lots. Tremendous effort was put -forth by Mr. Willmore to make his city successful. He advertised all -over the country and even ran a special excursion from Chicago with -prospective Willmoreans. But the plan was premature and not enough -purchasers could be found to buy the city lots at $25.00 to $100.00 each -or the farm lots at $15.00 an acre to enable Willmore to meet his -agreement with the Bixbys and several years later he abandoned the land -to them. - -But Willmore had planned well--his streets were wide, 80 and 100 feet -being usual, and one, American Avenue, being 124 feet wide, and the -natural beauty of the land and ocean frontage made it attractive to -others. Soon a syndicate under the name of Long Beach Land & Water -Company took up the sale of the lots and Willmore City took the name of -Long Beach. - -Now the two families of the Bixbys, one from their hacienda, the former -home of Don Juan Temple on the Los Cerritos, the other from their -hacienda, the former home of Don Abel Stearns on the Los Alamitos, -watched Long Beach grow from a subdivision to a city. The Alamitos Tract -and the Townsite of Alamitos Bay were platted. - -In 1897, William A. Clark, Montana Copper King and builder of the San -Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad, purchased 8,139 acres of Rancho -Los Cerritos for $405,000. This vast tract, known as the Montana Ranch, -has been held practically intact to the present day. Early development, -however, is planned for this property by the Janss Investment Company, -Los Angeles Realtors, who have announced that they will build a model -city on the ranch. - -In 1921 the secret of Signal Hill was discovered and an added impetus -given the development of the two ranchos. Soon the hill bristled with -oil derricks. There being then many owners there soon were many -millionaires. Oil flowed so fast from the hill that on several occasions -it streamed uncontrolled over lawns and flowers on the slopes of Signal -Hill. Daily the value of the oil taken from the hill equalled twice the -price the Bixbys paid for both ranchos. - -Slowly the oil fields have been extended--northwesterly toward the -hacienda of Don Juan Temple and southeasterly toward the hacienda of Don -Abel Stearns. - - - - - Rancho Aguaje de La Centinela - - -Traded with two barrels of wine for a small adobe house in the Pueblo of -Los Angeles, then in turn owned by a noble Spaniard, an ignoble -Frenchman, a famous Confederate General and a Scotch Baronet, then the -scene of one of the most spectacular boom subdivisions in the Land Boom -of 1886-1888 and finally the site of a prosperous and successful -city--such is the history of the Rancho Centinela. - -The rancho was granted in 1844 by the "Department of California," -Government of Mexico, to Ignacio Machado by a grant which described the -land as "half a league more or less of grazing land." Machado did not -prize his grazing land very highly and the following year traded the -property to Bruno Abila for a small adobe house "with vineyard fenced" -in the suburbs of the Pueblo of Los Angeles. But in the eyes of these -two traders, the small adobe was worth more than the great Rancho -Centinela and the deed provided that in addition to the rancho Machado -was to give as an added consideration two barrels of aguardiente (wine). - -Bruno Abila held the rancho until 1857 at which time he carelessly--or -desperately--borrowed $900 with interest at six per cent per month, or -seventy-two per cent per year, and, giving his rancho as security, -promptly lost it under the hammer. Hilliard P. Dorsey bought the -property at Sheriff's Sale for $2000, or about $1 an acre. - -But Hilliard P. Dorsey paid too much for the land and two years later -Civility R. Dorsey, his widow, sold it out of his Estate for $930, or -thirty-five cents an acre. However, the deed to Francis I. Carpenter, -the purchaser, provided that he, Carpenter, was obligated as part of the -consideration to run off and dispossess of his own effort one Fernando, -a Frenchman and son-in-law of Bruno Abila, a former owner, who had -refused to surrender peaceable possession of the rancho. - -The next owner of the rancho was Joseph Lancaster Brent, a Southerner by -birth, but for many years a prominent citizen of Los Angeles. In 1860, -just before the Civil War started, Brent sold his rancho and at the -outbreak of the war hastened to make his way south and join the -Confederate Army. He was later made a Brigadier-General and was with the -last Confederate General to lay down his sword. The conveyance by Brent -was made for a consideration of $3,000 to Sir Robert Burnett, a Baronet -of Scotland, who on a visit to California had fallen in love with the -natural charm of the Rancho Centinela and purchased both it and its -neighbor, the Rancho Sausal Redondo. - -From this time on the value of the rancho grew rapidly and in 1885 Sir -Robert Burnett and Lady Matilda Josephine Burnett, both of Crathes -Castle in the Kingdom of Great Britain, sold the two ranchos for -$140,000 to Daniel Freeman, the founder of Inglewood. - -Then came the great Land Boom, the town of Inglewood was platted and -thrown on the market. Beautiful parks and plazas were planned and -dedicated and Mr. Freeman, with an insight into the future that now -seems uncanny, platted streets of unheard of width. - -Used as cattle land by the Spanish, sheep land by the Baronet and a Boom -Subdivision by Daniel Freeman, the Rancho Centinela has attained its -greatest period of usefulness and success today as the site of the -thriving City of Inglewood. - - [Illustration: _Ranch Home on the Rancho Aguaje de La Centinela_] - - - - - Rancho San Pascual - - -The Rancho San Pascual has always been a famous ranch. Its owners have -always been prominent in the affairs of California and in the Pueblo of -Los Angeles. It has always been famed for beauty and today within its -far-flung boundaries are the world famous cities of Altadena, Pasadena, -South Pasadena and parts of San Marino. - -The rancho was granted in 1843 by the then Mexican Governor, Manuel -Micheltorena, to Manuel Garfias and comprised 13,693 acres of land. -Manuel Garfias later became Los Angeles County's first Treasurer. At the -time he was campaigning for the office of Treasurer he sold a portion of -his rancho for approximately $3.00 an acre for funds with which to -finance his ambitious plans. - -Manuel Garfias was a member of one of the finest Spanish families and -married Luisa Abila, whose family owned the Abila hacienda facing the -Plaza in the Pueblo of Los Angeles and where Commodore Stockton resided -while stationed in Los Angeles. History records that Manuel Garfias was -an excellent County Treasurer but as a ranchero he was very poor and bit -by bit he sold off parts of the rancho until in 1857, heavily involved -in financial obligations, he sold the remainder of the rancho to B. D. -Wilson, the famous Don Benito. Wilson Avenue in Pasadena, South Pasadena -and Alhambra, Wilson Lake and Mt. Wilson are all named for B. D. Wilson. -Under his care and under the guidance of Dr. John S. Griffin, who -purchased an undivided one-half interest from Mr. Wilson, the Rancho -progressed and the price of the land gradually increased. - -The early conveyances of parts of the Rancho in addition to the usual -indefinite ties of an oak tree, a little rock set on a big one or a pile -of bones or brush, tied in one of its courses "to a point on the side of -a hill North of the prickly pears." Many of the descriptions tied to the -walled garden of Benjamin D. Wilson, called "Huerta de Quati." - -Later the Rancho was settled by the Indiana Colony, Pasadena was -founded, then South Pasadena and San Marino and today within its -boundaries are many thousands of magnificent homes, carrying on the fame -of the famous Rancho San Pascual. - - - - - Rancho Santa Gertrudes - - -Seventeen thousand six hundred and two acres of California's most -fertile land, bordered by a large river, divided by two smaller ones and -with a billion dollar oil pool beneath--the Rancho Santa Gertrudes sold -under the hammer for $3.40 an acre. - -The rancho was a part of the great Manuel Nieto grant made by the King -of Spain through the Spanish Governor, Pedro Fages. The Nieto grant was -divided among his heirs and Antonio Maria Nieto received the part -designated as the Rancho Santa Gertrudes and in 1834 the Mexican -Governor, Jose Figueroa, confirmed the title to Dona Josefa Cota, widow -of Antonio Maria Nieto. - -Later the rancho was conveyed to Lemuel Carpenter, born a Missourian, -but for many years a resident of California when it was a part of -Mexico. For awhile Carpenter and his beautiful wife, Maria de Los -Angeles Dominguez de Carpenter, lived happily on the rancho. They -prospered under Mexico but failed under the United States and on -November 14, 1859, the rancho was sold by the Sheriff. One week before -the day of the sale Carpenter committed suicide. - -John G. Downey and James P. McFarland, doing business as Downey, -McFarland & Company, were the purchasers at the sale, paying $60,000 for -the entire rancho. Both of these men were famous characters in -California history. Downey became the Civil War Governor of the State -and McFarland a leading State Senator. Together they opened the first -drug store in Los Angeles, and Downey, with Alvinza Hayward, organized -the first bank. - -In 1865 the rancho was leased for twenty-five years to the Los Angeles -Pioneer Oil Company for exploration and development of oil. But, -although the oil company diligently explored, no oil could be found and -the lease was finally abandoned. - -The Town of Downey was started in 1873 with a boom and predictions were -freely given that the new city would soon outdistance its sleepy -neighbor, Los Angeles. - -Toward the east boundary of the rancho the Town of Fulton Sulphur -Springs and Health Resort was platted. But few lots were sold until 1886 -when the Santa Fe Railway built its line through the town, bought up all -the lots and replatted them into smaller ones, planned a big hotel and -renamed the town Santa Fe Springs. How foolish the silver-tongued land -auctioneers made the purchasers appear when they bought lots, then at -$200 apiece. How foolish would the same auctioneers look today if they -could see their town of Santa Fe Springs--a city of derricks--a bonanza -of "Black Gold." - - [Illustration: _Night at Santa Fe Springs on the Rancho Santa - Gertrudes_] - - - - - Rancho San Antonio - - -No horses so fast, no cattle so fine, no land so fertile, no rancho more -famous than the Rancho San Antonio. No family more prominent, no -hospitality more welcome or as freely partaken, no hacienda more lovely, -happy or prosperous than that of the Lugos. - -Antonio Maria Lugo received the grant of the rancho from the King of -Spain in 1810 and for fifty years thereafter this old Spanish Don and -his sons were the sole owners of its 29,514 acres, adjoining the -original pueblo grant of the City of Los Angeles on the southeast. - -The Lugos saw the rise of the Mission chain to the height of its glory, -then the passing of Spanish control and the rise of Mexico, the breaking -up of the Mission chain, the fall of Mexico and the coming of the Stars -and Stripes. Wars and governments came and passed and the Lugo family -stood them all and kept their rancho intact. They built a wonderful -adobe in the pueblo of Los Angeles facing the Plaza directly opposite -the church and there the social life of the city centered. - -But American ways and American prosperity they could not stand and as -the County grew, bit by bit they lost their vast rancho by sale, -foreclosure and litigation. - -In 1865 the Sheriff sold the home place of Vicente Lugo, one of the -sons, for a consideration of less than $1.00 an acre. With the -conveyance went a large wooden house constructed by the younger Lugo, -one of the first wooden houses in the County. In 1883 Jonathan S. -Slauson, founder of Azusa and for whom Slauson Avenue is named, -purchased the land constituting what had been the home place for $200 an -acre. In 1910 the heirs of Slauson sold the land for $500 an acre. - -In 1927 part of this land was sold for a consideration of $7,000 an acre -for the site of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company's plant. Only the -cluster of trees now shows where the great wooden house once stood while -hundreds of workmen pass daily over the paths and gardens of the noble -Don Vicente. - -On other parts of the rancho have been built Huntington Park, Vernon, -Walnut Park, South Gate and Lynwood, all prosperous communities. The -original adobe house of Antonio Maria Lugo is yet standing on Baker -Avenue opposite the Southern California Edison Company's Power Station -and near the Union Plant of the Consolidated Steel Corporation. - -The Lugos builded well and both the hacienda and the city home on the -plaza are still in good condition. Both should be landmarked and -properly preserved--testimony to the finest in life and honor in the -days of the Dons. - - [Illustration: _No Hacienda More Lovely Than That of the Lugos on - the Rancho San Antonio_] - - - - - Rancho Los Felis - - -North of the Pueblo of Los Angeles and adjoining the Los Angeles River -on the west is the Rancho Los Felis, 6,647 acres. - -The rancho was granted in 1843 to Maria Ygnacia Verdugo but it is -evident that she had been occupying the land for some time previous to -that date as on February 17th, 1841, the City of Los Angeles, by the -President of its Common Council, granted to her the "right to use the -water from the river of Our Lady of Angels for cultivating the lands of -Los Felis." At that time there was so much water in the Los Angeles -River in excess of what the pueblo inhabitants could use that the city -felt free to dispose of part of it in this manner. - -In 1853 Dona Verdugo, signing by mark, granted to her daughters parts of -the rancho. These deeds recited that they were made for "the welfare and -progress of my daughters." But the daughters failed to progress and soon -sold their respective parts for $1 per acre. - -Antonio F. Coronel, famous pioneer of Los Angeles, purchased the rancho -and subsequently he deeded it to James Lick, equally famous pioneer of -San Francisco, by this "more or less" definite description: "Commencing -at a point on Los Angeles River; thence Southerly 3,150 varas, more or -less; thence Westerly 6,200 varas, more or less, to a napalera (prickly -pear patch); thence Northerly 5,000 varas, more or less, to a calera -(lime kiln) and thence Easterly following along the right bank of the -Los Angeles River to the place of beginning 7,100 varas, more or less, -containing more or less one and a half square leagues of land." - -In 1882, 4,071 acres were purchased by Colonel Griffith Jenkins Griffith -and in 1884 Colonel Griffith sold back to the City of Los Angeles for -$25,000 the valuable water rights donated 43 years previously. - -In the western and southern parts of the rancho development followed -rapidly. The Lick Tract, now part of Hollywood, was platted, then -Ivanhoe and the Edendale district. But most of the mountain and slope -land of the Los Felis Rancho was undeveloped except by hand of nature -until 1898 when Colonel Griffith deeded 3,015 acres of unsurpassed land -to the City of Los Angeles, one of the finest gifts ever presented to a -city--Griffith Park. - - - - - Rancho San Pedro - - -Within the boundaries of Rancho San Pedro was Nigger Slough, Rattlesnake -Island and the Salt Flats, and its own name was none too beautiful. But -the Rancho San Pedro overcame all such handicaps and developed into a -favorite child in the family of the Spanish Ranchos. - -This rancho, containing 43,119 acres, was one of the tremendously big -Spanish grants made by a Spanish King, who believed the limit of -population which Southern California could ever care for was represented -in the ten Missions, four Pueblos (San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara -and San Luis Obispo) and the comparatively few Ranchos. - -The grant was made to Juan Jose Dominguez of an illustrious family quite -different from the average Spanish family living in California in its -early days. The Dominguez heirs have each in succession adapted -themselves to every change and kept a large part of their rancho intact -to the present day. But much of the land was so strategically located on -the sea, around the harbor and on main lines of boulevards and railroads -between Los Angeles and San Pedro, that it was inevitable that intensive -development should take place on these parts. - -On December 22, 1854, the Dominguez heirs sold 2,400 acres at the harbor -to Phineas Banning, B. D. Wilson, John G. Downey and associates for -$20,000, or nearly $10.00 an acre, and on this and adjoining land -Banning founded the town of Wilmington, originally called New San Pedro. -During the Civil War Phineas Banning and B. D. Wilson in a burst of -patriotic enthusiasm donated a large parcel of land in their new town to -the United States government for Drum Barracks, and as such it served a -useful and vital purpose, not only as a supply station and barracks, -but, as well, to hold down anti-Union sentiment. It was easy to donate -the land but it took eight years and a special act of Congress for -Banning and Wilson to get the land back after the close of the War. - -Nine miles north of Wilmington but within the same rancho was platted -Comptonville, now Compton, originally planned as a temperance colony. -Ten miles westerly and also in the same rancho, Redondo Reach, platted -in 1889, became a famous pleasure resort. Between these far distant -points have been laid out the towns of Gardena, Moneta, and Torrance. In -addition to these there are now many hundreds of small farms, and -probably the world's largest aggregation of oil tank farms, two or three -airports, an excellent and productive oil field, and there is plenty of -land left in the rancho. - -Such is the story of a gift from a King--a Rancho of success. - - [Illustration: _Patio of the Dominguez Home--Rancho San Pedro_] - - - - - Rancho Santa Anita - - -The Rancho Santa Anita, covered with oaks and on gentle, sloping ground, -was situated between Pasadena and Monrovia, and includes within its -13,319 acres the cities of Sierra Madre and Arcadia. Its title was -founded on a grant to Hugo Reid made in 1841, confirmed by Mexico in -1845 and by the United States in 1857. - -For 20 cents an acre Hugo Reid conveyed the rancho to Henry Dalton, an -Englishman who had for 25 years lived in South America. Subsequently it -passed to William Wolfskill, whose home in the Pueblo of Los Angeles -stood on the present site of the Southern Pacific station. Wolfskill -left the rancho to his son, Lewis, and the younger Wolfskill sold it in -1872 for $85,000 to H. Newmark & Co. Both Harris Newmark of that firm -and Hugo Reid, the first owner of the rancho, have perpetuated their -names in history by their writings of early Los Angeles. Mr. Newmark's -book, "Sixty Years in Southern California," has had a wide circulation. - -Three years later for nearly three times the amount paid by H. Newmark -and Co. the rancho was purchased by E. J. Baldwin. Lucky at the mines, -lucky in the markets, lucky with horses and luckiest of all with -land,--no wonder they called him "Lucky" Baldwin. - -Baldwin at this time was a San Franciscan and had made millions in the -Ophir mines of Nevada. He built the "fireproof" Baldwin Hotel, the -largest in San Francisco, later destroyed by fire. But the charm of -Rancho Santa Anita soon took Baldwin from his northern home and he moved -into the large ranch house, devoting the balance of his life to the -development of this rancho and the acquiring of others. Upon his death -in 1909, his daughters, Anita M. Baldwin and Clara Baldwin Stocker, -succeeded him in the ownership of Rancho Santa Anita. - -Baldwin's greatest love was for horses and he developed a breed of -racing stock which became world-famous. Next to his love for horses he -loved trees and he bordered every road within his rancho with trees and -jealously fostered and guarded them. The towering lines of Eucalyptus -trees along Huntington Drive and Santa Anita Avenue through the Rancho -Santa Anita stand as evidence of the hand of "Lucky" Baldwin--those are -his monuments. - - - - - Rancho La Brea - - -For the inhabitants of the pueblo, later the City of Los Angeles, the -Rancho La Brea has always been one of the most useful of the ranchos. -The rancho derived its name from the La Brea Pits where the brea, or -crude oil, oozed to the surface to catch prehistoric animals and -preserve them for many thousands of years and to catch a few stray -cattle in the Spanish days, and also to furnish excellent roofing for -the adobes in the Pueblo of Los Angeles. - -The rancho was first granted January 6, 1828, by Jose Antonio Carrillo, -Alcalde of the Pueblo of Los Angeles, to Antonio Jose Rocha, and -comprised one square league of land. Early conveyances, however, -provided that the owners of the rancho, while they were to have complete -title, nevertheless were to allow the inhabitants of the pueblo -unmolested right to take such brea as they might need for the roofs of -their adobes. - -Antonio Jose Rocha built an excellent adobe in the Pueblo of Los Angeles -as his pueblo home and this adobe, later known as the Rocha House, was -purchased in 1855 by the Board of Supervisors and the City of Los -Angeles and used jointly as the Jail, the Sheriff's Office, the Court -House and the City Hall. - -In 1860 the Rocha heirs sold the Rancho to John Hancock by a deed which -described the property as being a rancho "some 4 or 8 miles West of the -Pueblo of Los Angeles." Cornelius Cole, then United States Senator from -California, received 500 acres of land in this rancho as an attorney fee -for services rendered the Hancock family and on these acres platted -Colegrove, now a part of Hollywood. However, much of the rancho was held -intact by Mr. Hancock and Major Henry Hancock, and later G. Allan -Hancock, and for many years the land with its springs, flowing streams -and gentle ravines provided excellent hunting ground for the people of -the town of Los Angeles. As late as 1892 there appears a conveyance, -executed by Mrs. Hancock, conveying 20 acres of land and reserving for -fifteen years the right to hunt for game. The subsequent platting of the -land following the completion of the Los Angeles-Pacific Interurban -lines soon ruined the land for hunting purposes. - -For years the Hancock heirs took immense quantities of oil from the -productive oil field and, as the oil decreased, the development and -growth of the city changed the character of the land and the black sump -holes gave way to green lawns and the tall, ugly (but profitable) -derricks to fine homes, as the Wilshire District, one of the world's -finest residential sections, was built on the Rancho La Brea. - - [Illustration: _Famous La Brea Pits and Ranch House, Now in Hancock - Park_] - - - - - Rancho Cienega o'Paso de La Tijera - - -How differently the Spanish and the Americans viewed their ranches is -quite apparent from the names they gave them. The Americans dubbed their -ranches the "Diamond Bar," the "3 X," the "109," or some other rather -picturesque but meaningless title. - -The Spaniards blessed their ranchos by dedicating them to Santa Anita, -San Rafael, Santa Gertrudes, or San Geronimo. They saw the many little -streams of water flowing from the springs on what is now Beverly Hills -and named that Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas--the gathering of the waters. -They loved the big oaks of the district along Ventura Boulevard between -North Hollywood and Girard and named it Rancho El Encino--the oaks. What -the Americans call the Baldwin Hills--they saw naturally formed a pass -resembling scissors and thus was named Rancho Cienega o'Paso de La -Tijera. - -In 1843 Governor Manuel Micheltorena granted Rancho Cienega o'Paso de La -Tijera to Vicente Sanchez, friend of the Mexican government, valiant -soldier and good citizen. But he did not live long to enjoy his rancho -and at about the time California became a state his heirs partitioned -his land holdings. Tomas A. Sanchez acquired the rancho--his sisters -taking property on Nigger Alley in the Pueblo of Los Angeles as their -share. - -Tomas Sanchez also had a well deserved reputation for extraordinary -bravery and was Sheriff of Los Angeles County from 1860 to 1867, a -period in which crime waves were permanent and the accepted order of the -day. - -Gradually the Rancho increased in value. In 1875 Sanchez sold a half -interest for $60,000, later he sold a fourth and finally another Sheriff -sold the remainder. E. J. (Lucky) Baldwin became the owner. Baldwin -found this rancho something of a white elephant. Sheep ranching became -unprofitable and the land was not adapted to orange groves and he knew -nothing of the oil beneath it. But he held the property and when he died -in 1909 his estate listed Rancho Cienega o'Paso de La Tijera as one of -its most valuable possessions. The Baldwin heirs sold large parts of the -rancho, and the Los Angeles Investment Company subdivided tract after -tract within its bounds. - -Seemingly no matter how fast this old rancho has been subdivided (and -the growth of Angelus Mesa has been phenomenal) the remaining -unsubdivided part grows in value by leaps and bounds directly contrary -to its diminishing size. Like the estate of "Lucky" Baldwin the estate -of his daughter, Clara Baldwin Stocker, recently deceased, lists as its -most valued possession the remainder of the Rancho Cienega o'Paso de La -Tijera. - - [Illustration: _Hacienda of the Rancho Cienega o'Paso de La - Tijera--now a Golf Club_] - - - - - Rancho Ex-Mission de San Fernando - - -The remark is often heard, "I knew the San Fernando Valley when it was a -wheat field." Thousands of Angelenos recall the founding of Van Nuys and -Owensmouth and the platting of Tract 1000, the largest subdivision in -Los Angeles County. And even the newcomers have seen almost unbelievable -development. But what of the valley before Tract 1000; what before the -wheat? - -When the Fathers of the Mission of San Fernando completed their Mission -and looked out through its arches their vision could not include land -not theirs. The grant to the Mission described 121,000 acres extending -from mountains to mountains on all sides of the valley, and named the -rancho Mission de San Fernando, and as such it prospered. - -Spain encouraged and protected the Missions of California and granted to -them great tracts of land--Mexico plundered and destroyed the Missions -and seized their lands. Among these Mission lands seized by the Mexican -government was the prize of them all, the Mission de San Fernando. For -years chaos reigned at the Mission. The government drove off many of the -Indians, others left and the herds of cattle became legitimate prey -alike for "Gentlemen of Mexico" and Mexican bandits not claiming the -distinction. - -In 1846 armed invasion of California was commenced by the Americans. -Governor Pio Pico in a blaze of oratory declared that at any cost the -"Department of California" must be retained as property of Mexico -forever and asked for authority to sell Rancho Mission de San Fernando, -then known as Rancho Ex-Mission, for funds with which to equip an army. -In this emergency the San Fernando Valley was sold as a land bargain -never again equaled, $14,000 for the entire rancho--approximately eleven -cents an acre. Eulogio de Celis purchased the rancho at that figure and -not only did he get a Mexican land bargain but he at once stocked his -big rancho and before the war was over sold horses and cattle to both -sides. - -In 1854 General Andres Pico, brother of the Ex-Governor, purchased a -half interest in the rancho for $15,000 and in 1862 this interest passed -to Pio Pico himself. The land holdings of the last Mexican Governor were -equal to an empire. At one time he owned Rancho Paso de Bartolo, his -interest in Rancho San Fernando, his home place called Ranchito, near -Whittier in this County, and Ranchos Las Flores and Santa Margarita, -both tremendous ranches in San Diego County. In addition to his ranchos -he owned a home on the plaza in the Pueblo of Los Angeles and -considerable additional pueblo land in Los Angeles and San Diego. He -built the celebrated Pico House, yet standing, facing the plaza in Los -Angeles. His life was crowned with success at every turn. Under Mexico -he was California's leading citizen. Under the United States the ranchos -he owned and the honors he had held gave him a prestige accorded few -men. - -For $2.00 an acre the Rancho Ex-Mission de San Fernando was sold by Pico -and the son of de Celis to Isaac Lankershim, Charles Maclay, I. N. Van -Nuys and B. F. Porter. Under the ownership of these four men Rancho San -Fernando became a great wheat field and four great fortunes were made -for its owners. - -While Pio Pico, who once counted his acres in hundreds of thousands, -spent his last days in abject poverty--his ranchos, his city property, -his hotel and his home all sold for a mortgage--nothing was -left--nothing but his medals of honor and his memories of the past. - - [Illustration: _Mission de San Fernando_] - - - - - Rancho Tajauta - - -Rancho Tajauta, sometimes called Rancho Los Cuervos, was like a dwarf -among giants. It could have fitted into one corner of its neighbor, the -Rancho San Pedro, or been lost in the San Fernando, and yet it was no -small plot of ground. It extended from what is now Manchester Avenue on -the north to the north boundary of the Rancho San Pedro on the south and -between Central Avenue on the west and the Los Angeles River and Rancho -San Antonio on the east. - -At the height of the cattle days there was only one house on the Rancho -Tajauta, a two-room adobe. Today it is estimated over 20,000 people live -within its boundaries, which include most of Watts and adjoining area in -the southerly part of Los Angeles--and a fourth of the rancho is yet to -be subdivided. The size of the rancho, however, was no criterion to the -number of its owners and changes in its title. Before California became -a state, its original owner, Anastacio Abila, died and left so many -heirs that it was necessary to divide the estate into seventieth parts -to properly partition it. These small interests in the rancho were then -traded in like second-hand Fords are today. - -Phineas Banning, passing the rancho in his stage-coach and eyeing it -carefully for bandits, noticed the soil was excellent, visioned the -railroads that would cross it and bought many small interests. O. W. -Childs, famous for the water ditch which he constructed and for which he -received most of downtown Los Angeles in payment, likewise bought a few -interests. So did Don Mateo Keller, who owned the Rancho Malibu and -Francis Mellus of Mellus Row. And among the owners was the entire legal -fraternity of that day--A. B. Chapman, Andrew Glassell, A. Brunson and -R. M. Widney, all famous names in Southern California history. A $50 -gold slug, the common medium for exchange in those days when small -change was unknown, often bought an interest. Enrique Abila, one of the -heirs of Anastacio Abila, in addition to his own holdings, gradually -acquired many of the interests of the other heirs. He made his home on -the rancho and lived to see the city reach and surround him. - -A little rancho was Rancho Tajauta, but a very active one. - - - - - Rancho Repetto - - -Rancho Repetto, as such, was not an original Spanish or Mexican rancho, -yet in character and size it was just as a Spanish or Mexican rancho -would be. Its history, although covering a period much shorter than the -life of the Spanish grant, is full of the romance of the ranchos of the -Dons. - -The rancho derived its name from Alessandro Repetto, later known as -Alexander Repetto, who purchased its five thousand acres shortly after -the Civil War. Some of the land had been found by the United States Land -Commission to belong to the Rancho San Antonio and this Repetto -purchased from the Lugos. Some of the land he obtained from the -government and forty acres came through state patent. - -Toward its west boundary ran a road recently widened and paved by the -County of Los Angeles. One of the deeds to Repetto refers to this as -"the Road used by the horsemen coming from the rancho of Juan Matias -Sanchez" (originally Mission land of San Gabriel). Later the road was -called Portesuelo de la Rosa de Castella, and still later it was -officially changed to Monterey Pass. It is commonly called Coyote Pass. - -In 1885 Alexander Repetto died leaving as his heir Antonio Repetto, a -brother who lived in Italy. The heir preferred Italy to California and -came here only long enough to collect his inheritance, sell the rancho -and return home. Harris Newmark, John D. Bicknell, Kaspare Cohn, who -founded the Union Bank & Trust Co., Stephen M. White, once United States -Senator from California, and whose figure in bronze stands in front of -the Los Angeles County Court House, and I. W. Hellman purchased the -rancho for $60,000--about $12.00 an acre. - -Out of the Harris Newmark and Kaspare Cohn holdings in Rancho Repetto -was platted Montebello, originally called the Town of Newmark. I. W. -Hellman, whose interest in the rancho equalled 1,500 acres, chose his -land in the northwestern part of the rancho and with that foresight -which made him the foremost banker in Los Angeles when he lived here and -the foremost banker of San Francisco when he removed there he held the -land for the future. This remainder of Rancho Repetto though closer to -Broadway than Hollywood has almost to this day remained just as it was -when it was the property of Alessandro Repetto, while to the south was a -view of intensive development, as Los Angeles industrially spread -eastward, and to the north was another view of intensive development as -Pasadena and Alhambra became cities. - -Recently the last of Rancho Repetto has given up its aloofness. Atlantic -Boulevard has been cut through from north to south and Beverly Boulevard -is to cross it from west to east. The Hellman heirs have conveyed a -large part of it and the J. B. Ransom Corporation has announced an -immediate subdivision program. The final chapter in the history of -Rancho Repetto is being written. - - [Illustration: _Early Ranch House--American Period_] - - - - - Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica - - -Most of the development on the ranchos of Southern California has just -happened--they, like Topsy, just grew. But not so the Rancho San Vicente -y Santa Monica. A careful plan, expenditure of great wealth and a -determination of purpose unequaled all sought to make a great seaport of -Santa Monica--and no city could have grown more contrary to the efforts -to guide it than has Santa Monica. - -The rancho was granted December 20th, 1839, by Governor Juan B. Alvarado -to Francisco Sepulveda, officer of the Mexican army, and comprised -31,000 acres of mountain, mesa and ocean shore land. In the following -thirty-three years many changes came over California. The rule of the -United States supplanted the ruin of Mexico, California became a state -and Los Angeles a city. The wool of the lazy sheep became more -profitable than the hides of cattle. - -In 1872 the heirs of Sepulveda, anxious to divide their inheritance and -believing that Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica had reached the peak of -its value, sold the same for less than $2.00 an acre to Colonel Robert -S. Baker, prominent wool grower of Kern County. Colonel Baker stocked -the rancho with herds of sheep and shortly thereafter sold an undivided -three-fourths interest in his property to Senator John P. Jones of -Nevada. Jones and Baker then conceived the plan of a great harbor at -Santa Monica and a harbor city on the rancho; the fortunes of both these -men were thrown into the project and Santa Monica was platted. - -The Los Angeles & Independence Railroad with its terminus at the new -city and running to Los Angeles was built and operated. It had been -planned to extend the railroad into the mining district of Inyo County -and part of its name was derived from Independence, the county seat of -Inyo County. However, the line was never built beyond Los Angeles. In -connection with the railroad a large warehouse was built in Los Angeles, -and a long wharf at Santa Monica. Every preparation was made for giant -ships of the sea--ships which were never to come. - -In 1886 the land boom which descended on Los Angeles and vicinity found -Santa Monica well prepared to receive it. Colonel Baker and Senator -Jones had hundreds of unsold lots and those previously sold when the -harbor city was budding were ready for resale. The Arcadia Hotel, a -handsome tourist resort located on the bluff, was built by Colonel Baker -and named for his wife, Arcadia Bandini de Baker, who formerly had been -Mrs. Abel Stearns. Mrs. de Baker, child of an illustrious Spanish -family, was famed for her beauty, and, as wife of Don Abel Stearns, -commanded an outstanding social position in Los Angeles. Upon Don Abel's -death she inherited all of his ranchos. Shortly after the boom the -Estate of Colonel Baker, Senator Jones and the Santa Monica Land & Water -Company conveyed 300 acres of land along the east boundary of the rancho -to the United States and on this and adjoining land the Soldiers' Home -was built. - -Then another effort was made to create a harbor at Santa Monica--this -time led by Collis P. Huntington with the wealth of the Southern Pacific -Railroad behind him. This last great attempt was given up only when -threshed out on the floor of the United States Senate and the United -States had decided that the Harbor should be at San Pedro. Perhaps it -was the guiding hand of destiny that kept Santa Monica unspoiled as a -residence city. - - [Illustration: "_The wool of the lazy sheep became more profitable - than the hides of cattle_"] - - - - - Rancho Los Palos Verdes - - -Rancho Los Palos Verdes has been the scene of some of the earliest as -well as the latest development in Los Angeles County. For more than -thirty years before Willmore platted Willmore City, later called Long -Beach, and before Jones and Baker laid out their harbor city of Santa -Monica there had been a thriving settlement at the port of San Pedro in -the Rancho Los Palos Verdes. - -The town of San Pedro, later city of San Pedro, and now part of the city -of Los Angeles, was built around that port settlement and almost the -entire district was carved not out of the Rancho San Pedro, as is -generally understood, but out of the Rancho Los Palos Verdes. - -The rancho was granted June 3rd, 1846, by Governor Pio Pico to Jose -Loreto Sepulveda and Juan Sepulveda, brothers, this grant being a -ratification of a previous one made in 1827. It extended from Redondo to -Wilmington and bounded on the north and northeast by Rancho San Pedro -and on the southeast, south and west by the Pacific Ocean, comprising -31,629 acres. Pico, however, reserved a plat of land along the beach, -500 varas square, for the use of the "Superior Government of the Mexican -Nation." - -With the death of the original grantees and the passing of the ranch -title to their many heirs, Rancho Los Palos Verdes passed into a period -of extensive litigation and had it not been of such tremendous size and -of such constantly increasing value in all probability it would soon -have belonged to the attorneys. From 1865 to 1880, seventy-eight -lawsuits were instituted involving the rancho. The ranch title itself -was not confirmed until 1880. All of the heirs and their successors in -interest held undivided parts of the rancho and six partition suits were -filed before the property was divided according to the respective -ownerships. There were also a dozen suits to eject squatters, several -divorces among the owners, three condemnation suits by the United States -government for land for the lighthouse at Point Firmin, an action to fix -the boundaries of Timms Landing at the port, two foreclosure actions and -several complaints for possession. - -The commissioners in one of the partition suits platted the town of San -Pedro, composed of ninety-eight blocks and this plat filled the two-fold -purpose of making an easy method of dividing the property among the -partitioners and of providing for the growth of the settlement at the -harbor. - -In the years that followed the east part of the rancho progressed -rapidly while thousands of acres in the hills from Point Firmin to -Redondo were retained in a few ownerships and the land used only for -farming. Few people ever saw the rugged coast of Palos Verdes, although -Malaga Cove, Rocky Point, Point Vicente, Long Point, Portuguese Point -and Portuguese Bend were all known to fishermen. - -In 1913 for a consideration of nearly $2,000,000 the western part of the -rancho was conveyed to Jay Lawler and Frank A. Vanderlip, then of New -York. Palos Verdes Estates was conceived in 1922 to develop this part of -the property and to make a world-famous community of homes. The rancho -of the Sepulvedas is a perfect setting for this effort. - - [Illustration: _Verdugo Ranch House, Rancho San Rafael--the First of - the Grants_] - - - - - Mission San Gabriel Arcangel - - -In all California no land has been the scene of such triumphs and -defeats, such prosperity and poverty, such alternating fair fortune and -dire misfortune as the lands of the Mission San Gabriel Arcangel. - -The Mission San Gabriel was founded September 4th, 1771, by Father -Junipero Serra and land set apart for the Mission included nearly the -entire San Gabriel Valley. There was the usual struggle to establish the -Mission and convert the Indians. The first Mission buildings were -destroyed and the old mill--yet standing--built at a great expenditure -of toil and thought was a total failure. But within a few short years -after the founding Mission San Gabriel took its place as the Queen of -the Missions and the most prosperous of all. - -The title of the Mission Fathers to the lands had not been confirmed by -written grant from Carlos III, King of Spain, and the governors of -California under Mexico took advantage of this to grant ranchos within -the valley borders. In the northwest part Rancho San Pascual was granted -to become the princely estate of Don Manuel Garfias and later the sites -of Pasadena and South Pasadena. Farther east Rancho Santa Anita was -created and eventually became the property of E. J. (Lucky) Baldwin. -Beyond that rancho were Ranchos San Francisquito and La Puente. Along -the south hills of the valley Ranchos La Merced, Potrero Grande and -Potrero Chico were granted. By the severing of such large tracts of land -the property of the Mission San Gabriel diminished from tens of -thousands of acres to thousands of acres and then to hundreds. - -In 1846 Governor Pico asked permission of his government to lease the -remaining land of the Mission San Gabriel "to prevent the total ruin of -the Mission." No lessee could be found to take the land under this act -and on June 18th, 1846, Pio Pico made the final grant of all the -remaining Mission lands to Julian Workman and Hugo Reid. The United -States government, however, refused to confirm this last minute disposal -of the Mission land and declared the property public land of the United -States, first setting aside to Bishop Alemany 190 acres surrounding the -Mission buildings. - -The public land was quickly taken up by many settlers, who were eager to -acquire homesteads in a country almost exclusively made up of giant -ranchos. Subsequently B. D. Wilson and J. De Barth Shorb acquired much -of this land and platted the present prosperous and beautiful city of -Alhambra. San Gabriel and Monterey Park also have been built on land -originally within the Mission boundaries. - -The 190 acres set aside for the Mission Church was the largest parcel of -land received by any one Mission out of the land it had formerly held. -At the height of the Mission glory in all a million and a half acres -were under the control of the Padres. When California became the -property of the United States twenty missions other than San Gabriel -held from four to seventy-six acres each--a total for all the chain of -less than 800 acres. Eight hundred acres out of the original million and -a half. - - [Illustration: _Mission San Gabriel Arcangel_] - - - - - Rancho San Jose de Buenos Ayres - - -Rancho San Jose de Buenos Ayres was not in South America, as its name -might indicate, but was an important rancho of Southern California. The -rancho was granted by Manuel Micheltorena, Governor of the Californias, -February 24, 1843, to Maximo Alanis and comprised 4,438 acres. Don -Alanis died shortly after he received the grant and his heirs conveyed -the rancho to Dr. Wilson W. Jones and Wm. T. B. Sanford, the former, one -of Los Angeles' first doctors and the latter, an early Los Angeles -postmaster. - -But the doctor knew little about ranching and in 1852 he was glad to -sell his half interest in the rancho to Don Benito Wilson for $662.75, -or at the rate of 35 cents an acre. Don Benito's interests were -extensive and widely separated. Jointly with Dr. Griffin he operated -Rancho San Pascual northeast of the Pueblo of Los Angeles. Jointly with -Phineas Banning he founded and developed the city of Wilmington at the -port of San Pedro, and west of the pueblo, halfway to the ocean, with -Sanford, the Postmaster, he raised cattle on Rancho San Jose de Buenos -Ayres. Between supervising trips to his ranchos and to the harbor he -found time to maintain a home in the Pueblo of Los Angeles--so large -that after he moved it was used for an orphan asylum--buy much city -property, ship wine to San Francisco and foster the development of the -orange. - -In 1858 B. D. Wilson bought the interest of Sanford in this and other -property for $16,000 and subsequently sold the rancho. In 1884 John -Wolfskill of the prominent family of that name purchased the rancho for -$40,000. The purchase by Wolfskill was very timely as the completion of -the Santa Fe Railroad two years later sent land prices skyrocketing and -in 1887 he entered into an agreement to dispose of the rancho for -$438,700, or more than ten times what he had paid for the land in 1884. - -The Los Angeles and Santa Monica Land and Water Company was organized to -take over the land at that figure. This company built a railroad through -the property and platted the town of Sunset. But few lots were sold, -however, and in 1891 the Los Angeles and Santa Monica Land and Water -Company quitclaimed the land back to Wolfskill and the townsite was -restored to acreage. Then for many years the rancho was used only for -farming, although its neighbor on the east, the Rancho Rodeo de Las -Aguas, was subdivided into Beverly Hills, and on the west Santa Monica -grew into a thriving city. - -In 1919 Arthur Letts, Sr., Merchant Prince of Los Angeles, founder of -the Broadway Department Store, bought the rancho for an investment. -Since that time Westwood, Holmby Hills (named after Holmby, England, Mr. -Letts' birthplace) and Westwood Village have all been platted on parts -of the rancho. The moving-picture industry has expanded into the -property and several of the largest studios are located there. Now the -University of California at Los Angeles is being built on the rancho, -and already opened as one of the greatest institutions of learning. - -B. D. Wilson, John Wolfskill and Arthur Letts all profited by their -farsightedness, but none had the vision and none could foresee Rancho -San Jose de Buenos Ayres as it is today. - - - - - _CONCLUSION_ - - -The priceless, romantic history of early California is everywhere being -more and more appreciated. It evidences itself in the names of our -cities, in our landmarks which are at last being preserved and even in -our architecture. - -If "The Romance of the Ranchos" can add its bit to perpetuating this -glorious chapter in California history the writer will feel the time and -effort well worthwhile. - - [Illustration: _Title Insurance Building_ _Spring Street between - Fourth and Fifth_] - - - - - Title Insurance and Trust Company - - - California's Largest Title Insurance Company - -Title Insurance and Trust Company is the oldest and largest Title -Insurance Company west of Chicago. It is the oldest Trust Company in the -Pacific Southwest. It has been serving the people of Los Angeles County -for thirty-eight years. - -Although founded in 1893, the Company's records are much older than -that, for they cover the period from the early Spanish days to the -present time. The history of every parcel of land in the County is -recorded in the books and maps of the Company's title plant, and in its -old records safely stored in its archives vault. - -This great store house of real estate information, called the title -plant, is the Company's most valuable possession. It is from these -invaluable records, many of which are originals, that the material used -in compiling "The Romance of the Ranchos" has been derived. - - -This real estate information has been indexed and classified so that the -Company's examiners may find the necessary information in the least -possible time. Millions of dollars have been expended in creating this -great plant which is not surpassed by any in the nation. - -Great as has been the cost and the amount of labor expended--this title -plant is not finished--it never will be finished. - -Each business day of the year 1500 to 2000 documents affecting Los -Angeles County real estate titles are filed in the Recorder's office and -by 11:30 p.m.--on the day of filing--all have been "posted" on the -Company's books. - -Much of the "posting," much of the map making in the title plant has no -connection with present orders. Some of the work done today may be used -tomorrow, some of it may not be used for many years. An important part -of the personnel in this great business machine, which we call the title -plant, is engaged solely in the preparation for future work. - -But when the call comes, the plant is ready. - - -This plant was created to give the people of Los Angeles County accurate -service in the searching and insuring of titles. It serves -owner--buyer--lender--borrower. - -From this plant, the Company issues policies of title insurance -protecting the ownership of real property. Step by step, these policies, -through a series of improvements extending throughout the entire history -of the Company, have been developed into the highest type of title -protection offered anywhere. - - - ESCROWS - -The modern escrow system was originated by this Company. It was designed -to make real estate transactions convenient and safe. A highly trained -personnel and complete and convenient facilities provide efficient -service to buyer and to seller. - - - TRUSTS - -The Company acts as executor and trustee under wills, as administrator -of estates, and in all other trust capacities. - -It offers at a nominal cost an "all-inclusive" declaration of trust, -which is exceedingly flexible. Life insurance policies may be placed in -this trust, thereby protecting the beneficiary from loss, and to this -trust from time to time there may be added real or personal property. - -The Company has had long experience in the management of estates. If you -name the Company as executor under your will, you will be assured that -your beneficiaries will receive considerate and courteous attention and -that your trust estate will be wisely managed and profitably invested. - - [Illustration: _Trust Department_] - - [Illustration: THE OLD SPANISH AND MEXICAN RANCHOS _of_ Los Angeles - County - High-resolution Map] - - - - - Transcriber's Notes - - ---Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook - is public-domain in the country of publication. - ---Corrected a few palpable typographical errors. - ---In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by - _underscores_. - - - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Romance of the Ranchos, by E. 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