USA > California > Los Angeles County > History of Pomona Valley, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the valley who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 5
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76
Anticipating the course of subsequent events in order to segregate at once so far as practicable the subject of titles and boundaries, five important events may be noted.
By act of Congress, March 3, 1851, the United States Land Commission was created to ascertain and settle the private land claims in the state of California.
On September 29, 1852, Henry Dalton and Ygnacio Palomares both filed new petitions asking for a partition of the Rancho.
On January 31, 1854, the Board of Land Commissioners confirmed the claims of each to an undivided third interest in the Rancho San José, also the claim of Dalton to the San José Addition, but nothing was done as to the partition.
In December, 1855, the United States District Court of Southern California, on appeal, confirmed the title of Ygnacio Palomares to an undivided third of the whole Rancho (including the first addition).
Finally, on January 20, 1875, the United States Government, by President Grant, issued a patent to Dalton, Palomares and Vejar for the Rancho as a whole, specifying the total area as 22,340 acres.
DESCRIPTION OF THE LOCATION OF THE RANCHO SAN JOSÉ
The United States patent issued to Ygnacio Palomares and his associates, Dalton and Vejar, confirming their title to the Rancho San José, contains three descriptions of the Rancho. One is that adopted by the Board of Land Commis- sioners January 31, 1854, when, acting upon the petition of Palomares and Dalton filed in September, 1852, it confirmed the titles of the three grantees to undivided thirds in the Rancho. This refers to a map and testimonial filed with the Com- mission in Case 388. The second description is that adopted by the District Court for the Southern District of California in December, 1855, further confirming Palomares' title, and refers to a map "accompanying the expediente" and to the
58
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
description "in the testimonial of juridical possession in this case." With this is also the first description of the "addition." These two descriptions we have already given because of their quaint and historic interest. The third description is that of the survey by Deputy Surveyor G. H. Thompson, made under the direc- tion of the United States Surveyor General in 1866, and verified by W. P. Rey- nolds, Deputy Surveyor, in 1874, and is the one upon which the final patent, signed by President U. S. Grant in January, 1875, is based. The third description, in the usual technical form, is too long for insertion in full, but the location of the corners and the general direction of the boundaries may be outlined in a popular way. The description begins at the southeast corner of the Rancho, as in the second description, at station S. J. No. 1, where the "black willow" of the old survey stood in the hills southwest of Chino.
The next station, S. J. No. 2, is about 600 yards southwest from this on the east bank of a deep arroyo. From here a course of nearly two miles extends over rolling hills to the station S. J. No. 5, in a ravine near several springs, and west of where the line between San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties turns northward. Thence the third course runs northwesterly over the "Puente Hills" toward the town of Spadra, dropping over the hills to the station S. J. No. 4, on the east bank of the Arroyo Pedregoso (commonly called Pedegosa). From this point the fourth course crossing the Arroyo bends a little more toward the west and, following the south line of the Rubottom property, which is also the north line of the Rancho Nogales, it crosses the old Puente road, now the Valley Boule- vard, and comes after crossing the San José wash to the corner S. J. No. 9. This is also the northwest corner of the Nogales Ranch and the east corner, Station No. 13, of La Puente. It is the point where the "black walnut of the juridical possession" once stood, and is beside the road which leads into the canyon at the southwest corner of the Arnett place. The next or fifth side, more than three miles long, runs twenty-three degrees west of north, over the San José Hills to the corner S. J. No. 10, marked in the old surveys by the Tinaja Oak. This corner is in the district of Charter Oak, near the old stage road from Los Angeles to San Bernardino. It is north of Covina Avenue, between Sunflower and Valley Center, northeast of the center of what was B. F. Allen's forty acres-the N.W. 1/4 of S.E. 14 of Section 8.
From the Tinaja Oak the sixth course runs in a direction thirty degrees north of east, some three and a half miles to the corner S. J. No. 11, marked by the Botello Oak in the old surveys. This corner is close to the Foothill Boulevard, north of San Dimas and near the foot of the incline as the road descends from the mesa into the Cañada de San Dimas where the Teague nursery and pumping plants are.
From the Botello Oak, the seventh course is a long one of over five miles, running about east-south-east, north of La Verne and North Pomona, and through Claremont, to the northeast corner of the Rancho, at S. J. No. 12, which is situ- ated south of the Santa Fe Railway and east of Mills Avenue in the orchard of Alexander Kirkpatrick. Two short pieces of road mark this old line in Clare- mont, one on Hamilton Avenue from Indian Hill Boulevard to Alexander Avenue, and the other on Second Street from Columbia to Sycamore. From this northeast corner, the next three courses, differing little in direction, follow the county line west of south for more than five miles in the general direction of the San Antonio wash, to the point of beginning, S. J. No. 1, at the southeast corner of the Rancho. Mills Avenue follows this line from a little south of Cucamonga Avenue in Clare-
59
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
mont to Holt Avenue in Pomona, and the two slight bends are at Kingsley Avenue and at Lexington Street in the Phillips Addition.
The line of partition between the San José de Ariba and the San José de Abajo ran from a point north of the Tinaja Oak southeasterly along what is now the northeast line of the Packard Orange Grove Tract, crossing Orange Grove Avenue at Lewis Street and following the south sides of the Ybarra lot in the Alvarado Tract. From the southwest corner of this tract the line runs in a direc- tion slightly south of east straight to its intersection with the east line near Holt Avenue, crossing the city itself near Pearl Street.
Less than a mile from the Botello Oak in the seventh course, the "Dalton line of partition" runs west of south to the above partition line dividing the San José from west to east. This parole partition separated the Dalton section in the San José from that of the Palomares.
The "San José Addition" is a five-sided piece, of irregular shape, one side of which coincides with the sixth side of the "Rancho San José" between the corners of the Tinaja and Botello Oaks. Another side runs north of west from the corner of the Botello Oak to the much disputed north corner, southeast of Glendora. This corner was marked by an oak which parties living to the north attempted again and again to burn or destroy, so as to push their south line farther south. There was much dispute over the corner, but finally it was located by formal agreement, and the road which follows the new line from the Botello Oak corner to this one, has since been known as "Compromise Road." Thence a line runs over the hills southwesterly to the west corner of the Addition southwest of Glendora and near the intersection of the quarter-sections in the center of Section One, T. 1 S., R. 10 W. It is just south of Gladstone Avenue, near Ben Lomond. The Azusa ditch now ends just above this corner. Thence the fourth side runs southeasterly across the San Dimas wash to intersect the north line of the Puente Rancho east of the Covina Canal and south and east of the bend in the railway. This corner is about a quarter of a mile south of Covina Avenue, between Glendora and Grant Avenue, a quarter of a mile east of where the San Bernardino Road turns north. The fifth side follows the north line of the Puente Rancho, a little north of westerly, to the corner of the Tinaja Oak. To the south of this line lies the Hollenbeck Tract in the Puente Rancho.
CONNECTIONS WITH THE WORLD OUTSIDE
In these early days before the railroads or telegraph, before the overland stage or pony express, the connections with the world outside were few indeed. News of the most important events in "The States" arrived by some traveler long after their occurrence. Messages of greatest consequence were sent across the continent by special couriers. This isolation from the affairs of the world dis- turbed very little the leisurely people of the Valley in the early forties. So long as there was pasture for their stock and market for their produce, so long as their fields yielded sustenance for their families and the people about them, so long as the pueblo and the Mission ministered at times to their social and spiritual needs, why should they be concerned with the affairs of people beyond the mountains and over seas?
But there came a time when the doings of men in the north and of men in the far east were of the utmost consequence to every man who owned property in the Valley, and to all its inhabitants as well. Among the rancheros who met
60
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
from time to time at the Bella Union or at the stores in Los Angeles late in 1845 and early in 1846, there developed an increasing restlessness; there were rumors from the north of trouble between the Californians and the settlers or adventurers of other nationalities, and these rumors were reflected in growing uneasiness at home. English, French and Americans were acquiring more and more property and land, and with it more power. Were the real Californians, Mexicans in their own Province, to be crowded out? Should there not be, as there had been in the past, rigid laws expelling and excluding all others from the Province? More- over, the government of the Department of California since the beginning of the Mexican regime had never been administered firmly and effectively, as in the "good old days of the King." . There had been bitter struggles and conflict between aspirants to the position of governor. One administration had followed another. with two exceptions, in quick succession. After Arguello and Echeandia there had been Manuel Victoria, 1831-32; Pio Pico, 1832-33; José Figueroa, 1833-35; José Castro, 1835-36; Nicholas Gutierrez and Mariano Chico, both also in 1836. Juan Bautista Alvarado, to be sure, had served well from 1836 to 1842; then had come Micheltorena, 1842-45, and now Pio Pico was governor again. It seemed that the home government was losing its grip on its distant provinces. Neither the civil government nor the military could secure necessary assistance from the national exchequer, and the fatal move secularizing and ruining the Missions had cut them both off from the chief source of revenue at home, as if they had killed the goose that laid the golden egg, so that they were compelled for support to draw often upon their own and other private resources. Santa Anna, the Mexican president, was having troubles far more important, as it appeared, nearer home. Even then, although the news had not reached California, Mexico was practically at war with the United States, Congress having annexed Texas in March (1845), and General Zachary Taylor, under President Polk, having marched to the Rio Grande and blockaded its entrance at Brownsville and Matamoras in May. At home the bitter feeling between the governor, Pio Pico, and General Castro, chief of the military forces of the province, had grown to open enmity. The general, Don José Castro, himself governor of the province ten years before, conservative, proud of his family and race, and at heart intensely loyal to California, saw clearly the trend of events and the danger to California both from the decay within and from the aggression of adventurers from without. And he was annoyed and angered at the indifference and inefficiency of the governor, his greed and selfish- ness, and his willingness to sacrifice the best interests of the Province in politic moves for his own self-interest. In this triangular array of hostile forces the rancheros and caballeros, with their following in the south, rallied generally about Don Pio Pico. Here perhaps was the beginning of the age-long rivalry which has burned between the northern and southern parts of the state, blazing out fiercely at times and then smoldering unnoticed, but never quite dying out. At any rate, Pio Pico was an Angeleñan ; his ranches and his friends were in Southern Cali- fornia ; even as governor he had chosen to live at his home in Los Angeles, far from the seat of government at Monterey. Numbers even of those early settlers from the states, who had married California señoritas and so cast in their lot with the Mexican people, associated themselves with Pio Pico in the impending conflict.
At length to the eager groups of men gathered in the Plaza and at the Mission came the news of open rebellion and a coup d'état. Castro had taken matters into his own hands. Having tried in vain to persuade Pio Pico to join him in vigorous measures against the foreigners, he had assumed supreme authority and com-
61
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
menced an active campaign against them, especially the Americans. Issuing orders of expulsion from the Province, he had begun to eject them by force. At Monterey he was rallying about him all the forces he could command. General Vallejo, in command of the little garrison at Sonoma, had reluctantly contributed some horses and equipment. The Americans around the Bay had combined to resist and had actually captured the fort at Sonoma, arresting General Vallejo and his officers and making them prisoners at Sutter's Fort. More than that, they had hauled down the Mexican flag and raised a new one called the Bear Flag.
The news flew quickly, as men rode from the Plaza and the Mission, to rancho after rancho of the Valley, and other news soon followed. The Americans had captured a band of horses which Alviso was leading to General Castro. The General had taken a number of Americans and was strengthening his position at San Rafael. On June 14, when the Americans captured Vallejo and his garrison at Sonoma, they had announced a new government, calling it the Republic of California. They had proclaimed their intention of overthrowing the existing government because of its seizure of property, "individual aggrandizement," enormous exactions on imported goods, its failure to provide a republican govern- ment or to permit purchase or rental of lands.
There was much discussion over this proclamation. To be sure, it promised that those who were not found under arms should not be disturbed in any way, and there were assurances of republican government, and of civil and religious liberty ; but almost universally among the loyal Mexicans, south as well as north, there was only anger or contempt. The proclamation said they had been "invited to this country by a promise of lands on which to settle themselves and families." Who had invited them, and by what authority? What right had these gringos to their California lands, or to a part in their government? But the whole affair would seem absurd,-a little handful of a score or more foreigners venturing to overturn the Mexican regime, a government inheriting its authority from the Spanish Crown, and that over an empire which had been owned and ruled by men of Spanish blood for over three hundred years! Castro would soon exterminate the usurpers.
But wiser heads saw in the "Bear Flag Republic" the forerunner of American occupation, and while it was stoutly (and truly) asserted that the movement was without authority from the United States Government, yet they were not surprised, a few days later, to learn that a company of American cavalry under Captain Fremont had marched down from his camp on American River to support the party at Sonoma. Already the fame of Fremont, "The Pathfinder," had spread up and down the Coast. Strong and sinewy as an Indian, the peer of any hunter as a rider and rifleman, hardy and without fear, he was also a trained engineer and officer in the United States Army. When, therefore, it was reported that Fremont had been placed at the head of the new republic and had driven General Castro and de la Torre, with all their men, from San Rafael, from San Pablo and from Port Yerba Buena, as San Francisco was then called, there was great dismay among all the Californians of the south. But among the few Americans, by the same token, there was great rejoicing. They had come to realize that Mexico could not retain this country. They knew also that England and France, especially the former, had never forgotten the dreams of Drake and their other explorers, and were only awaiting the opportune moment to intervene. Moreover, Pio Pico and most of the Californians were known to be far more favorable to intervention by France or England, if worse should come to worst, than by the United States.
62
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Now the die was cast and the United States must come to the rescue. They may or may not have known here at the time-it matters not-of Fremont's hesitation at first to join the revolutionary movement ; how he repeatedly refused to act without authority from the government at Washington, and only consented when the little force at Sonoma were threatened with annihilation as Castro's three divisions were advancing against them. Fremont had saved the Americans and advanced their cause, anticipating at the critical moment the action of other powers. And even if he had far exceeded his rights, acting without orders from his superi- ors, it was impossible to communicate with them; the case was desperately urgent, and history would justify his course.
During those exciting days in the latter part of June, 1846, the Americans were often in consultation, gathering in Los Angeles from all the surrounding region. Fourth of July had a new significance for them this year, although they could not celebrate the day openly. Neither did they know that, at the very moment, Commodore John Drake Sloat (of the United States Navy), on the battleship Savannah, was anchored in the harbor of Monterey, with official orders to take possession of the ports of California in the name of the United States. Not until the seventh of July were the Stars and Stripes raised over the Capital at Monterey, such was the deliberation and indecision of Commodore Sloat, just arrived from Mazatlan and waiting to confer with the American Consul, Larkin, and to become acquainted with conditions on the Coast.
Messengers, more than one, riding hard upon fleet horses, brought the news from Monterey to Los Angeles and San Diego. Strange tidings they brought along the King's Highway, and spreading thence to every corner of the Province! War between the United States and Mexico! It had been declared in May, two months ago! Two hundred and fifty sailors and marines had landed at Monterey under Captain Mervine, and the port was in their possession. Commodore Sloat had issued a proclamation declaring that henceforward California would be a portion of the United States, urging inhabitants to accept peaceably the privileges of citizenship, and inviting judges, alcaldes and other civil officers to retain their offices. He had also sent messages to General Castro at San Juan Bautista and to Governor Pico at Los Angeles, urging them to surrender and inviting them to Monterey for conference.
To the Californians came also the news that Castro was marching south, calling upon all to arm themselves and join his force in defense of the Province, also that the governor had called a meeting of the provincial assembly.
To the Americans came further accounts of the raising of the Stars and Stripes in place of the Bear Flag by Fremont and his men at Sutter's Fort, with a salute of twenty-one guns from a brass four-pounder ; of a similar demonstration by the garrison under Ide and Merritt and Semple at Sonoma, and again at San Francisco.
Here in the south there was intense excitement and feeling. Men like Varela were eager to fight. Pio Pico and his friends were enraged but unwilling to join forces with Castro. Others counseled moderation. They could not hope finally to win against "The States," and the home government apparently could not save them. Better to yield to the inevitable and accept the privileges offered without discrimination. It might not be so bad. The proclamation of Commodore Sloat promised that peaceable inhabitants should enjoy "the same rights and privi- leges as the citizens of any other portion of that territory, with all the rights and privileges they now enjoy, together with the privilege of choosing their own magistrates and other officers for the administration of justice among themselves";
63
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
it promised religious freedom greater than they had enjoyed under Mexico, and lighter taxes; it assured them continued possession of all their property and land.
In the San José Valley divisions arose between one rancho and another. Palomares and Vejar were friends of Pio Pico; the former as a "juez del Campo," Judge of the Plains, was probably present at the provincial assembly. The Rowlands and Workmans and their friends at La Puente were out-and-out Americans. Colonel Williams, like many other Americans who were married in the early days to daughters of prominent Californians, found his position a difficult one. A few of these men cast in their lot with Pio Pico, but more were found with those who went to meet Fremont and pledge allegiance to their native land. Doubtless their counsel and influence had weight among the Californians who urged moderation.
However futile it may be, so far as the past is concerned, the consideration of those incidents which have shaped the course of later events, and the possibilities which might have resulted had these incidents been different, must always have their place in the mind of a student of history. If only Commodore Sloat had remained in command of the forces of occupation; if the cordial spirit of his proclamation had been maintained, or if Captain Fremont had been allowed to conduct the negotiations with the Californians at San Pedro; if there had been wisdom and tact, a proper recognition of the native pride and natural rights of the Californians, it is quite probable that the State would have joined the Union with- out bloodshed and that no part of the Mexican War need have been fought on Cali- fornia soil.
But Commodore Sloat, on account of illness, it is said, was very soon replaced by Commodore R. F. Stockton, who arrived at the Port of Monterey July 15. Thus only a week after the raising of the flag, came a new executive, and with him a new policy. A new proclamation appeared, as unlike the first as darkness and light,-harsh and false, and irritating in the extreme. Sending Fremont to San Diego, Stockton himself came with the consul, Mr. Larkin, to San Pedro and prepared to march in force against Los Angeles. By this time Castro had reached Los Angeles and was in conference with Pio Pico. Finding that neither the assembly nor the governor had authorized a general mobilization of the Province for resistance, Castro agreed with Pico to the sending of a delegation under José Maria Flores to negotiate with Stockton, but the haughty commodore refused to treat with them, saying that they and all others under arms must be dealt with as rebels.
Failing, then, to agree upon a plan of vigorous resistance, or perhaps realizing its folly, both Pio Pico and Castro fled to Mexico, and Stockton, landing a force of marines, marched to Los Angeles. Thus, on a certain day in August of this eventful year of 1846, four of the notable characters in this romance of California were traveling with their companions not far from the pueblo of the South. The imperious commodore, Stockton, and his armed marines, were beginning their triumphal march over the lowlands from San Pedro. On the Camino Real to the south Fremont and his men were riding from San Diego to join the commodore. As these two parties approached the pueblo, the other two were leaving it by different routes, one by boat from another port, and the other over the Camino Real de San Bernardino, through the San José Valley and the San Gorgonio Pass, on their way to Sonoma and Mexico. And these four parties were typical, perhaps, of as many streams in the tide of human affairs. In two of them there were departing from these western shores the easy hospitality and the proud nobility
64
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
of an older civilization ; in the other two there were entering in its place both the domineering aggression and the brave sincerity of another race. And these streams were setting this way and that, in waters which should long mingle freely and never be quite clear of each other, but finally should leave the Anglo-Saxon in the places where the Latin had been, even as they had before displaced the Indian.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.