USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > Historical and biographical record of Los Angeles and vicinity : containing a history of the city from its earliest settlement as a Spanish pueblo to the closing year of the nineteenth century ; also containing biographies of well known citizens of the past and present > Part 13
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1847. His home in this city for many years was
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HISTORICAL, AND BIOGRAPHICAL, RECORD.
located where the Burbank Theater now stands. In 1887 he moved to the university district, south- west of the city, where he passed the last years of his life with his daughter and grandchildren. In an adjoining house lived his friend and pa- drino, Gov. Pio Pico, to whom he gave shelter and asylum in his old age and misfortunes. Col. J. J. Warner, the name by which he was gen- erally known in his later years, died April 1I, 1895. (His first and his middle name, Jonathan Trumbull, had no equivalent in Spanish, so he took the names, Juan Jose).
IS32.
JULIAN ISAAC WILLIAMS, a native of New York, was one of Ewing Young's trappers and came from New Mexico to California in 1832. He settled in Los Angeles and for several years was engaged in trapping and trading for furs. In 1835 he assisted Nidever, Sparks and others in removing the Indians from San Nicolas Island. It was at this time that the woman was left on the island, where she lived alone for eighteen years. He built a house in Los Angeles in 1834 and was naturalized in 1836. In 1839 he married Maria de Jesus, daughter of Antonio Maria Lugo, and shortly afterward obtained the Chino Rancho, where he lived at the time of his death. His town house was sold to the government and be- came the capitol of California when Pio Pico was governor, in 1845-46. His house at the Chino ranch was the frontier station for the overland immigration by the southern routes. He kept a register of arrivals (now owned by Richard Gird), which contains more than six thousand names of immigrants. He died in 1856, leaving a large estate to his two daughters, Maria Merced, wife of John Rains, and Francisca, wife of Robert Carlisle. He was noted for his hospitality, and rendered assistance to many of the impoverished immigrants who had lost their outfits crossing the plains.
LEMUEL CARPENTER, of Missouri, came to Los Angeles from New Mexico in 1832. He estab- lished a soap factory on the right bank of the San Gabriel River, near what is known as La Jabone- ria road (soap factory road). He became the owner of the Santa Gertrudes Rancho, but lost it through financial embarrassments, and committed suicide November 6, 1859.
1833.
SANTIAGO JOHNSON, an Englishman by birth, came to Los Angeles from Guaymas in 1833 with a cargo of Chinese and Mexican goods. After disposing of these he returned to Sonora, and in 1835 brought his family here to live. In 1836 he was naturalized, claiming at that time to have been a resident of the republic twelve years. He
purchased the San Pedro rancho with 12,000 head of stock. He was the grantee of the San Jacinto and San Gorgorio Ranchos in San Diego County. He was engaged at one time in the warehouse and forwarding business at San Pedro. His three daughters, Anita, Adelaide and Mar- garita married, respectively, Henry and Francis Mellus and James H. Lander. He died in 1862.
JACOB PRIMER LEESE, a native of Ohio, came to Los Angeles from New Mexico in 1833. From 1834 to 1836 he was engaged in general mer- chandising here with William Keith and Hugo Reid. From here he went to Monterey, where he established a business house with Nathan Spear and W. S. Hinckley. He erected the first substantial building in Yerka Buena, now San Francisco, in 1836. In this building the first Fourth of July celebration ever observed in Cali- fornia was held July 4, 1836. Leese married a sister of Gen. Vallejo, and was one of the prison- ers of the Bear Flag party. He was an active and daring business man, boldly launching out into new ventures. He made several fortunes, but finally lost all and died poor.
1834.
HUGO REID (or Perfecto Hugo Reid), a native of Scotland, came to Los Angeles in 1834 from Lower California, where he had lived six years. He was naturalized in 1836. He engaged in business in Los Angeles with Keith and Leese. In 1839 he settled on the Santa Anita Rancho, a grant of which he obtained in 1841. He married an Indian woman of San Gabriel Mission, Doña Victoria. She was a very estimable woman and made him a good wife. Common rumor makes Reid the father of Helen Hunt Jackson's heroine, Romona. Reid was a scholarly man and pos- sessed a fine library. He wrote a series of letters to the Los Angeles Star in 1852, on the language, history, customs and legends of the San Gabriel Indians. In these letters he gives a picture of mission life, which is not so bright and fascinat- ing as some of our modern writers have painted it. Mr. Reid died at Los Angeles, December 12, 1852. "His fine library was scattered after his death; the greater portion came into possession of J. Lancaster Brent." His property, whichi was quite valuable, he left to his wife, but the guardian he selected to care for it proved dishon- est and she was robbed of her fortune; even her personal ornaments were taken from her. She died of smallpox in 1863.
1835.
HENRY MELLUS, a native of Boston, Mass., came to California in 1835, on the brig Pilgrim, with Richard H. Dana, author of "Two Years Before the Mast." He left the ship to become
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
agent's clerk. His name appears in the Los Ail- geles census list (padron) of 1836. He formed a partnership with W. D. M. Howard in San Francisco. The firm became one of the most prominent business houses of California and had branches in Los Angeles, San Jose and Sacra- mento. In 1847 he married Anita, daughter of Santiago Johnson. He bought a considerable quantity of real estate in San Francisco and be- came very wealthy. In 1850 he sold liis interest in the firm and went east. He lost most of his wealth in unfortunate business ventures. In 1859 he returned to California and located in Los Angeles. In 1860 he was elected mayor, but died before the end of his teri. He was a man of fine business abilities, and was generally liked by his associates.
LEON I. PRUDHOMME was a native of France and arrived in Los Angeles in 1835. He was a cooper by trade. He married a Tapia. He was at one time part owner of the Cucamonga ranch, and claimant, in 1852, of the La Habra and Topanga ranches. He died May 8, 1871.
1836.
JOHN MARSH, a native of Massachusetts and a graduate of Harvard, arrived in Los Angeles from New Mexico in January, 1836. He applied to the ayuntamiento for a license to practice medicine, presenting his diploma as evidence of his fitness, but there was no one in the pueblo that could translate it. It was decided that since the services of a physician were greatly needed he be allowed to practice. The padre at San Gabriel afterwards translated his diploma. But as the doctor had to take his pay in hides, horses and cattle, he soon gave up the practice of medicine. He went north in 1837. He secured a rancho near the present site of the town of Antioch. His letters, published in the east, were instrumental in bringing the first emigrant train to California (1841). He was a miserly and dis- agreeable man, although strictly honest. He was murdered by a party of Californians in 1856 near Martinez.
JOHN FROSTER, a native of England, located in the jurisdiction of Los Angeles in 1836 and the same year applied for naturalization, claiming to have lived in the territory four years. He mar- ried Isadora, sister of Pio Pico, and was captain of the Port of San Pedro from 1840 to 1843. In 1844 he settled at San Juan Capistrano. Pur- chasing the ex-mission estate in 1845, he lived there 20 years. In 1864 he bought the Santa Margarita Rancho of Pio Pico, where he lived until his death, which occurred in 1884. Don Juan was a man who was well liked by all who knew him. He was genial and very hospitable.
1837.
JOHN REED, a native of North Carolina, came to Los Angelesin 1837 from New Mexico. He served as sergeant in the California Battalion in 1846-47. He married a daughter of John Row- land and resided in later years at the La Puente, where he died July 11, 1874.
1839.
HENRY MELLUS, a native of Salem, Mass., came to California at the age of 15. He landed at Santa Barbara January 5, 1839. He became a clerk for A. B. Thompson at Santa Barbara, and in later years was a partner with his brother Henry in the firm of Mellus, Howard & Co., and with D. W. Alexander was in charge of a branch of the business at Los Angeles, where he settled permanently. He died there September 19, 1863.
1841.
JOHN ROWLAND, a native of Pennsylvania, came to Los Angeles, in 1841, from New Mexico as leader of the Workman-Rowland immigration party, numbering about forty persons. There is a list of the men who accompanied him in the Los Angeles city archives. The names of the women and children are not given in it. He had been engaged in trade at Santa Fe about 18 years, and had amassed considerable wealth. He and William Workman had been partners in New Mexico. In 1842 he obtained a grant of the Rancho La Puente in company with his old part- ner, William Workman. He was one of the foreigners who opposed Micheltorena, and in 1846 he was taken prisoner at the battle of Chino. He died at La Puente, October 14, 1873, aged 82 years. He was a man greatly respected by all who knew him.
WILLIAM WORKMAN was born in England in 1800, and came to America when quite young. He located in St. Louis. From there he went to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where for a number of years he followed trapping and trading. He came with his partner, John Rowland, to Los Angeles in 1841. With Rowland he obtained the Puente Rancho. He was one of the embassy bearing a flag of truce that surrendered Los Angeles City to Stockton, January 10, 1847. He was a partner of F. P. F. Temple in the banking business in Los Angeles from 1868 to 1876. The disastrous failure of the bank so preyed upon his mind that lie committed suicide May 17, 1876.
BENJAMIN DAVIS WILSON was born in Nashi- ville, Tenn., December 1, 1811. He engaged in business quite early in life. He becanie an Indian trader, trading with the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians. His health failing him, he joined the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, and in the fall of 1833 he reached Santa Fe. For two years he
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
was engaged in trapping on the Gila and other rivers in the Apache country. He then engaged in merchandising at Santa Fe. In 1841, in com- pany with John Rowland, William Workinan, Isaac Gavin and others, numbering about 40 per. sons in all, he came to Los Angeles overland, arriving early in September. Shortly afterward he purchased the Jurapa Rancho, stocked it with cattle and settled down to the life of a ranchero. In 1844 he married Doña Ramona Yorba, dauglı- ter of Bernardo Yorba, of the Santa Anna Rancho. The mountain Indians, among whom were many renegade neopliytes, made frequent raids upon the stock of the settlers in the upper valleys. Captain Wilson headed a number of expeditions to pursue these marauders into their mountain strongholds and punish them. In one of these campaigns he was severely wounded with a poi- soned arrow shot by Joaquin, an Indian ontlaw, who in his youth had been a page in San Gabriel Mission Church, and who, on account of some offense, had been branded on the hip and one of his ears cropped. Wilson's life was saved by his Comanche Indian servant, who had accompanied him from New Mexico. The Comanche sucked the poison out of his wound. Wilson took an active part in the overthrow of Micheltorena in 1845.
When war was declared between the United States and Mexico Mr. Wilson was ordered by Governor Pico to raise a company and prepare for active service against the Americans. This he refused to do on the plea that he was an American citizen. On giving his parole to Gov- ernor Pico he was allowed to remain peacefully on his ranch. When Stockton captured Los All- geles in August, 1846, he commissioned Wilson a captain. He raised a company of 22 Americans to assist Gillespie in preserving order and to pre- vent Indian raids. When Flores and Varela revolted against Gillespie's rule Wilson and his company were absent in the mountains. They were summoned to Los Angeles. At the Chino ranch house they were besieged by the Califor- mians and compelled to surrender. They were held prisoners until the defeat of Flores at the battle of La Mesa, when they were released. In 1848 Mr. Wilson located in Los Angeles and en- gaged in mercantile pursuits. In 1850, upon the organization of the county, he was elected county clerk. I11 1852 he was appointed Indian agent by President Fillmore. In 1854 he became owner of the Lake Vineyard property. He served two terms as state senator. In 1849 his first wife died, and in 1853 he married Mrs. Margaret S. Hereford. He died at his home near San Ga- briel, March 11, 1878. One daughter by his first wife (Mrs. de Barth Shorb) and two by his sec- ond wife survive him.
DAVID W. ALEXANDER was an Irishman by birth and came to America in 1832, when he was 20 years old. He went to New Mexico in 1837, and in 1841 came to California with the Rowland- Workman party. He first located at the Rincon. From 1844 to 1849 hie carried on a freighting and forwarding business at San Pedro, and was made collector of the port by Commo- dore Stockton in 1846, having held the same position under the Mexican government in 1845. He served two terms as sheriff of Los Angeles County. I11 1864 he married Doña Adalaida Mellus, widow of Francis Mellus. Don David. as lie was familiarly called, died at Wilmington, .April 30, 1887.
FRANCIS PLINY F. TEMPLE, a native of Massa- chusetts, came to Los Angeles in 1841 and en- gaged in trade with his brother, Juan Temple. Later he established a stock ranch at San Emidio, near Fort Tijon, which he disposed of in 1868 to engage in banking with I. W. Hellman and Will- iam Workman. The partnership was dissolved in 1871 and the banking house of Temple & Workman established. The bank failed in 1875, ruining both the partners. Mr. Temple died April 30, 1880.
1842.
ALEXANDER BELL was a native of Pennsylva- nia. In 1823 he emigrated to the City of Mexico, where he resided until 1842, when he came to Los Angeles. In 1844 he married Doña Nieves Guirado. He took an active part in the revolu- tion against Micheltorena. He engaged in mer- cantile pursuits, and in 1845 built the Bell Block on the southeast corner of Aliso and Los Angeles streets. It was also known as the Mellus Row, and was for many years a famous landmark. In it Fremont established his headquarters when he was governor of the territory in 1847. Mr. Bell was a captain in the California Battalion during the war of the conquest. He was a man highly respected in the community. He died July 24. 1871.
1843.
RICHARD S. DEN, M. D., an Irishman by birth, came to Los Angeles in 1843. He acted as sur- geon for the Mexican forces in 1846, but gave his services impartially to both sides. He prac- ticed his profession for many years in Los An- geles, and was highly respected by all who knew him. He died in 1895.
HENRY DALTON was a native of England and came to California from Lima in 1843. Locating in Los Angeles, he engaged in merchandising. He served against Micheltorena in 1845. In 1847 he purchased the Santa Anita, and about the same time acquired the Azusa, where he lived at the time of his death.
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
CHAPTER XVI.
ACQUISITION OF CALIFORNIA BY THE UNITED STATES-CAPTURE OF LOS ANGELES.
HE acquisition of California by the United States was the result of one of those spasms of territorial expansion that seem at cer- tain periods to take hold of the body politic. It had been for several years a foregone conclu- sion in the minds of the leading politicians of the then dominant party that the manifest destiny of California was to become United States territory. The United States must have a Pacific boundary, and those restless nomads, the pioneers of the west, must have new country to colonize. Eng- land or France might at any time seize the coun- try; and, as Mexico must eventually lose Califor- nia, it were better that the United States should possess it than some European power. All that was wanting for the United States to seize and appropriate it was a sufficient provocation by the Mexican government. The provocation came, but not from Mexico.
Capt. John C. Fremont, an engineer and ex- plorer in the services of the United States, ap- peared at Monterey in January, 1846, and applied to Gen. Castro, the military comandante, for per- mission to buy supplies for his party of sixty-two mnen who were encamped in the San Joaquin Val- ley, in what is now Kern County. Permission was given him. There seems to have been a tacit agreement between Castro and Fremont that the exploring party should not enter the settlements, but early in March the whole force was encamped in the Salinas Valley. Castro regarded the marclı- ing of a body of armed men through the country as an act of hostility, and ordered them out of the country. Instead of leaving, Fremont intrenched himself on an eminence known as Gabilian Peak (about thirty miles from Monterey), raised the stars and stripes over his barricade and defied Castro. Castro maneuvered his troops on the plain below but did not attack Fremont. After two days' waiting Fremont abandoned his position and began his march northward. On May 9, when near the Oregon line, he was over- taken by Lieut. Gillespie, of the United States navy, with a dispatch from the president. Gil-
lespie had left the United States in November, 1845, and, disguised, had crossed Mexico from Vera Cruz to Mazatlan, and from there had reached Monterey. The exact nature of the dis- patches to Fremont is not known, but presumably they related to the impending war between Mex- ico and the United States, and the necessity for a prompt seizure of the country to prevent it from falling into the hands of England. Fremont re- turned to the Sacramento, where he encamped.
On the 14th of June, 1846, a body of American settlers from the Napa and Sacramento Valleys, thirty-three in number, of which Ide, Semple, Grigsby and Merritt seem to have been the lead- ers, after a night's march, took possession of the old castillo or fort at Sonoma, with its rusty muskets and unused cannon, and made Gen. M. G. Vallejo, Lieut .- Col. Prudon, Capt. Salvador Vallejo and Jacob P. Leese, a brother-in-law of the Vallejos, prisoners. There seems to have been no privates at the castillo-all officers. Exactly what was the object of the American settlers in taking General Vallejo prisoner is not evident. General Vallejo was one of the few eminent Californians who favored the annexation of California to the United States. He had made a speech favoring such a movement in the junta at Monterey a few monthis before. Castro regarded him with sus- picion. The prisoners were sent under an armed
escort to Fremont's camp. Wm. B. Ide was elected captain of the revolutionists who remained at Sonoma, to "hold the fort." He issued a pronunciamiento full of bombast, bad English and worse orthography. He declared California a free and independent state, under the name of the California Republic. A nation must have a flag of its own, so one was improvised. It was made of a piece of cotton clothi, or manta, a yard wide and five feet long. Strips of red flannel torn from an old petticoat that had crossed the plains were stitched on the manta for stripes. With a blacking brush, or, as another authority says, the end of a chewed stick for a brush, and red- berry juice for paint, Win. L. Todd painted the
5
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
figure of a grizzly bear rampant on the field of the flag. The natives called Todd's bear "Cochino"-a pig; it resembled that animal more than a bear. A five-pointed star in the left upper corner, painted with the same coloring matter, and the words "California Republic" printed on it in ink, completed the famous bear flag.
The California Republic was ushered into ex- istence June 14, 1846, attained the acme of its power July 4, when Ide and his fellow-patriots burnt a quantity of powder in salutes, and fired off oratorical pyrotechnics in honor of the new republic. It utterly collapsed on the 9th of July, after an existence of twenty-five days, when news reached Sonoma that Commodore Sloat had raised the stars and stripes at Monterey and taken pos- session of California in the name of the United States.
Commodore Sloat, who had anchored in Mon- terey Bay July 2, 1846, was for a time undecided whether to take possession of the country. He had no official information that war had been de- clared between the United States and Mexico; but, acting on the supposition that Captain Fre- mont had received definite instructions, on the 7th of July he raised the flag and took possession of the custom-house and government buildings at Monterey. Captain Montgomery, on the 9th, raised it at San Francisco, and on the same day the Bear flag gave place to the stars and stripes at Sonoma.
General Castro was holding Santa Clara and San José when he received Commodore Sloat's procla- mation informing him that the commodore had taken possession of Monterey. Castro, after read- ing the proclamation, which was written in Spau- ish, formed his men in line, and addressing them, said: "Monterey is taken by the Americans. What can I do with a handful of men against the United States? I am going to Mexico. All of you who wish to follow me, 'About face!' All that wish to remain can go to their homes."* A very small part of his force followed him.
Commodore Sloat was superseded by Commo- dore Stockton, who set about organizing an ex- pedition to subjugate the southern part of the territory which still remained loyal to Mexico. Fremont's exploring party, recruited to a battal- ion of 120 men, had marched to Monterey, and from there was sent by vessel to San Diego to procure horses and prepare to act as cavalry. * *
Let us now return to Los Angeles, and learn how affairs had progressed at the capital.
Pio Pico had entered upon the duties of the governorship with a desire to bring peace and
harmony to the distracted country. He appointed Juan Bandini, one of the ablest statesman of the south, his secretary. After Bandini resigned he chose J. M. Covarrubias, and later Jose M. Mo- reno filled the office.
The principal offices of the territory had been divided equally between the politicians of the north and the south. While Los Angeles became the capital, and the departmental assembly met there, the military headquarters, the archives and the treasury remained at Monterey. But not- withstanding this division of the spoils of office, the old feud between the Arribaños and the A bajeños would not down, and soon the old-time quarrel was on with all its bitterness. Castro, as military comandante, ignored the governor, and Alvarado was regarded by the sureños as an emissary of Castro's. The departmental assem- bly met at Los Angeles, in March, 1846. Pico presided, and in his opening message set forth the unfortunate condition of affairs in the depart- ment. Education was neglected; justice was not administered; the missions were so burdened by debt that but few of them could be rented; the army was disorganized and the treasury empty.
Not even the danger of war with the Americans could make the warring factions forget their fratricidal strife. Castro's proclamation against Fremont was construed by the sureños into a scheme to inveigle the governor to the north so that the comandante-general could depose him and seize the office for himself. Castro's prepara- tions to resist by force the encroachments of the Americans were believed, by Pico and the An- gelenians, to be the fitting out of an army to attack Los Angeles and overthrow the govern- ment.
On the 16th of June Pico left Los Angeles for Monterey with a military force of a hundred men. The object of the expedition was to oppose, and, if possible, to depose Castro. He left the capital under the care of the ayuntamiento. On the 20th of June Alcalde Gallardo reported to the ayuntamiento that he had positive information "that Don Castro had left Monterey and would arrive here in three days with a military force for the purpose of capturing this city." (Castro had left Monterey with a force of 70 men, but he had gone north to San José.) The sub-prefect, Don Abel Stearns, was anthorized to enlist troops to preserve order. On the 23d of June three com- panies were organized-an artillery company under Miguel Pryor, a company of riflemen under Benito Wilson, and a cavalry company under Gorge Palomares. Pico called for re-inforce- ments, but just as he was preparing to march against Monterey the news reached him of the capture of Sonoma by the Americans, and next
*Hall's History of San Jose.
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
day, June 24, the news reached Los Angeles just as the council had decided on a plan of defense against Castro, who was 500 miles away. Pico, on the impulse of the moment, issued a proclama- tion, in which he arraigned the United States for perfidy and treachery, and the gang of "North American adventurers," who had captured Sono- ma "with the blackest treason the spirit of evil can invent." His arraignment of the "North American Nation" was so severe that some of his American friends in Los Angeles took umbrage at his pronunciamiento. He afterwards tried to recall it, but it was too late; it had been pub- lished.
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