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 9
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One of the heirlooms much prized by Kewen Dorsey is a bowie knife, pre- sented to him not many years ago, by the man who cared for his father's body when he was killed and who took this knife from his belt at the time. It has an inlaid mother-of-pearl handle and was always worn out of sight but within reach. For those were days when men were quick to act, when honor was counted dearer than life, and a man's life often depended upon his quickness with gun and knife.
Besides this knife which his father carried, Kewen Dorsey preserves also another whose story is even more sanguinary than this. An older knife than his father's, it bears the date 1826, the year when it was made for his grandfather, Uncle Billy Rubottom. And this is the story of the older knife. When Uncle Billy first crossed the plains in 1852 he came in charge of an emigrant train of over one hundred wagons. One of the party took with him a parcel of nine negroes. Whether these negroes were his slaves or were loaned or rented to him by another plantation owner and were to be returned is not clear, but the negroes became independent and would not return. And when Uncle Billy went back to Arkansas there were some who said that he had sold these negroes himself and pocketed the money. One day as he was organizing another caravan to go back to California two men came to him with the direct charge. It is not difficult to guess what Uncle Billy said. At any rate one of the men fired a shot which passed through Uncle Billy's hand, tearing two fingers, nearly off and going clear through his body. Believing himself mortally wounded, but with incredible stamina he drew a silk handkerchief through the bullet hole to stanch the flow of blood, and then in a frenzy of rage he dashed after the two men. With his whole hand, he drew his knife from his belt and pulled off the sheath with his teeth. Then following the men upstairs, it is said that he fell upon them so furiously that he literally cut them all to pieces. A large ransom was offered by the friends of the men for the capture of Uncle Billy, dead or alive, and he was carried to the mountains by his brother, who cared for him there until the wound was healed, for it did not prove fatal after all. When he was well and strong again, the two came down to the valley and appeared at a large gathering of townspeople. "Here's the man that ransom
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is offered for," said his brother as they came into view, "if any one wants the money he'd better get him now." But no one made a move; somehow or other no one seemed anxious to take him. No court would hold him guilty, but there remained a family feud-a feud which would very likely have been much more serious if Uncle Billy had not soon moved West just as he had planned to do. Even on the way, it is said that a party came as far as New Mexico to get Uncle Billy and take him back, but, as "Toots" Martin and others who were in the party say, with a wise look and satisfied chuckle, "They went back without him." Nor was this the end of the story. Many years after, when Uncle Billy was over seventy years old and had only a few more years to live (he died October 14, 1885), when A. T. Currier was sheriff and A. B. Caldwell was postmaster in Spadra, letters came to Caldwell from a sheriff in Spadra Bluffs, Arkansas, inquir- ing about William Rubottom. As a result of the correspondence which was car- ried on for some time, the Eastern sheriff wrote Caldwell that he was coming on. Caldwell in the meantime had, of course, informed Uncle Billy and told him that the sheriff was one of a number of the second generation determined to avenge the death of the two men whom he had killed nearly a half century before. Friends urged Uncle Billy to go north and avoid the trouble, and he was tempted at first to go. But as the time approached the old spirit prevailed and he said, "H-, what do I want to go away for? I'm too old to run away. Let them come." When the sheriff arrived at Spadra he was told where he would find his man. And sure enough he found him. For the old man was waiting for him. With his old pistol in one hand and the same old knife in the other, Uncle Billy shouted, "hands up." And the sheriff's hands went up quickly as Uncle Billy said "This is the same old knife that killed those men, and it is still good." There were more words, too, but they need not be told even if we knew what they were. It is enough that again the man who came to "get" Uncle Billy returned without his quarry, and Uncle Billy was never molested again. In his later life the memory of the men whom he had killed would often come up to trouble him ; but he would always say, as he talked confidentially with his grandson, "I should have to do just the same if I were living it over again."
Still another tragedy in this much troubled family came very near to wiping them all out, including the grandson, Kewen Dorsey, as well. It was some years after the death of his father, when his mother had married James M. Greenwade and they were living in Cucamonga, not far from the country store which Green- wade kept. There were the father and mother and three little children. In those days when every one drank, and holidays were celebrated by drinking "a little more," it came about that Greenwade and a comrade were celebrating Christmas night in the way they were wont to do, and the celebration continued till New Year's day, 1869. In all this week from Christmas to New Year's neither of them was quite sober, and both were threatened with delirium tremens before the spree was over. On New Year's Eve Greenwade went down to the store with his jug and filled it up at the barrel. Every country store then had its "barrel" for the con- venience of its customers, usually in the back of the store. A dipper hung near by and every one helped himself, leaving a dime for his drink. So Greenwade filled his jug at the barrel, but with it he mixed some strychnine, mistaking it per- haps for whiskey, in the hazy state of his mind. Coming back to the house again he got some glasses, filled them with the concoction, and urged them all to drink. Greenwade himself drank first, and his little daughter with him, but the mother
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became suspicious and caught the glasses away from the boys before she or they had tasted it. Her suspicions were at once confirmed, as husband and daughter died on the spot from the poison. Only by a miracle had Kewen and his mother and his half-brother Jeff escaped the same fate. Kewen's mother was a true Rubot- tom, determined and fearless. After the death of Kewen's father, his namesake, Colonel Kewen, came into possession of certain papers and property belonging to Kewen and his mother. The mother tried repeatedly to get them from him, but in vain, until, taking matters into her own hands, she demanded them of him at the point of a revolver and got them.
These accounts of the tragedies in this one family in Spadra read to us today life the fantasmagoria of another world, as indeed they were, for the times were strenuous, and law and order were only in the making then. They were not strange then, however, but rather typical. Despite this background of another generation, and in fact partly because of it, Kewen Dorsey has been a most valuable citizen in town and valley. By reason of his good judgment and ability, he has helped very materially in the building up of its resources. His tall, well- knit figure is typical of his rugged strength of character and his clear, steady eye is the mark of his sincerity.
CHAPTER FOUR
THE SPANISH SETTLEMENT AT SAN JOSE HILLS
CYRUS BURDICK, THE PIONEER OF POMONA-REVOLUTIONARY FORBEARS-OVER- LAND JOURNEY-RESIDENCE AT SAN GABRIEL-EARTHQUAKES-REMOVAL TO SAN JOSÉ VALLEY-FIRST ORANGE GROVE-MEXICAN LIFE AT THE SPANISH SETTLEMENT-PASSING OF THE EARLY GENERATION-CHILDREN OF YGNACIO PALOMARES-THE VEJAR FAMILIES-THE YGNACIO ALVARADO HOUSE AND ITS ACTIVITIES-THE INDIANS-THE FIRST SCHOOL AND ITS TEACHER, P. C. TONNER-FIRST SCHOOLHOUSE-TONNER THE TEACHER-TONNER THE STUDENT AND POET-SWEET SAN JOSÉ-THE LOOP AND MESERVE AND OTHER EARLY TRACTS OF THE SAN JOSÉ DE ARIBA.
The scene of this story reverts very soon to the spot at which the story began, to the eastern end of the San José Hills and the stream through the willows at their foot, where Don Ricardo Vejar and Don Ygnacio Palomares first sur- veyed the valley with approving eyes and where a little later, together with their families and with appropriate religious exercises, they took formal possession of the Rancho. It was in 1870 that Cyrus Burdick and his family came to this place and bought a small tract of land beside the stream and over the end of the hill. As he was thus the first American, not of Spanish blood, to come into what is now Pomona to live, and since he was so conspicuous a figure in its early devel- opment, it will be of interest first to go back some years and follow this family from their Eastern habitat to their final home in the Golden Hesperides.
In Revolutionary days the forbears of both Cyrus Burdick and his wife lived in Vermont and New York. Gideon Burdick, his grandfather, was born in Rhode Island in 1762, and was a drummer-boy in the army. From an authentic account of that time we find that "when very young he volunteered in the Revolutionary War, and served under General George Washington in Defense of his Country: for which several years previous to his death he received eight dollars a month, as a pension from the Government of the United States." Judge Thomas Burdick, father of Cyrus, was a surveyor and teacher when a young man in Jamestown. Utica, and other places in New York. He wrote a text book on arithmetic which was published in Albany and used in the schools of the state. In Iowa, to which state he moved later, he was mentioned as "a prominent and well-known citizen at Council Bluffs," and he held various positions of trust in Pottawattamie County, among them that of county clerk and of county judge. The spirit of the pioneer must have been in their blood, as the family moved from point to point westward across the continent. Not for the sake of adventure but in search of a permanent home and a larger, freer life in the ever enlarging West, they followed the retreating frontier from New York to Ohio, from Ohio to Illinois and Iowa, and thence, trekking over plains and mountains, to the very Pacific Coast. Time after time the family halted on the frontier and established them-
* See page 36.
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selves, believing their wanderings over and hoping to abide. But each time it was only for a sojourn of a few months or years before the same spirit com- pelled them to "pull up their stakes" and move on. The last long trek was that in 1853 from Council Bluffs, Iowa, in prairie schooners across the plains to Colorado, Utah and California. The party made up a large caravan. Wagons loaded with household goods and provisions were drawn by oxen and by horses. Women and children also were made as comfortable as possible under the great canvas tops of these wagons. But the younger men for the most part rode horse- back, herding the cattle and scouting ahead to make sure of the road, and to guard against attack. At least, this was the way they started out. When they arrived in San Bernardino, the men were all afoot, and barefoot many of them besides, the last cows of their herd were hitched into the wagons, in place of the oxen and horses with which they had started, dragging them slowly in on the last stretch of the terrible overland trail. Sickness had delayed them at Salt Lake and com- pelled them to change their plans and to come by the southern route to Los Angeles instead of going to Sacramento Valley as they had intended. Yet not- withstanding all the sufferings and hardships which they actually experienced 011 the way, they appear to have been more filled with gratitude for their escape from other and worse dangers than with weariness and relief on account of those encountered and now past. Once at least they had escaped an ambush by hostile Indians, once they had all but drunk of poisoned water, and once a fate like that of the Donner Lake party at the hands of Mormon-supported Indians, was narrowly averted. Survivors of this journey tell of supernatural guidance, of spiritual warnings on account of which by taking a different course, or making a long detour, each of these disasters was avoided. Wonderful it certainly was, if not even miraculous or providential. As the party came down from the pass into the midst of the green fields and gardens of the little settlement at San Ber- nardino, it seemed to them a very paradise. Here were feed for the cows and fresh fruit and vegetables for the travelers, rest for all, and freedom from the thraldom of anxiety and hunger and fear. But after a short time for rest at San Bernardino the Burdicks and others of the party pushed on to San Gabriel and Los Angeles.
In the family of Cyrus Burdick, then a young man of nineteen, were his father, Judge Thomas Burdick, his mother Anna (Higley) Burdick, his two brothers Horace and Thomas, and his sister Lucretia who had married James Frank Burns, one of the overland party as they were crossing the plains. At- tracted by the settlement at San Gabriel and by the favorable conditions for farming, they first secured some land east of the village, and made their home there while looking into various opportunities for occupation and investment. In their search for favorable openings Cyrus Burdick went as far north as Puget Sound, and was interested for a time in mining in Arizona and in the tin mines at Temescal. In 1856 he decided to open a store in San Gabriel in company with Frank Burns. Burns was a dynamo of energy and in the opening and building up of their business was a good partner for the more quiet and conservative Bur- dick ; but he soon grew tired of the store, and while he retained his interest in the business, he ceased to take an active part in it. He soon moved to Los Angeles where he was for many years a notable character and filled many important positions-teacher, county school superintendent, county sheriff and chief of police.
CYRUS BURDICK
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The long adobe building just across the road from the Mission church was a strategic location for their store. It was a central spot for the villagers as well as for the ranchers who came in for tools and provisions. It was convenient for travelers on the road between the Pueblo and the country who wanted to stop for something to eat or to drink, or for ammunition for their guns, for feed for their animals, or for rope or leather or anything else needed in mending wagon or harness, or bridle. It was also a convenience for those who lived at the Mission or who came there to mass and could thus do their errands on the way. More- over they soon discovered that besides keeping a good stock of the necessaries of life, the young storekeeper Burdick was always fair in his dealings, ready to accommodate and never meddled in others' affairs. Studying with Padre Sanchez, he set himself earnestly to learn the language of the Mexicans, who constituted, of course, the greater part of his customers, and he was often consulted by those who were in trouble, for they found they could always trust in his advice. Traders came from far-away points, not only to buy but to sell and exchange grain and potatoes and onions they brought from El Monte ; butter and eggs, and shingles and wood from San Bernardino. So the business and good reputation of the store grew steadily stronger, and friends and acquaintances increased.
The incident related in the last chapter, when Hilliard P. Dorsey stopped at the store to load his guns on the way to his last impromptu duel, was not an uncommon one. As a result doubtless of his willingness to accommodate and his giving every one a square deal he rarely "lost an account." Sometimes in those days of the Vigilantes, more unscrupulous and lawless than their name- sakes in the North, an account would end abruptly, as when one day some men came by the store with a fellow whom they had caught stealing horses, and one de- manded some rope to string him up with. "I'll sell you no rope for lynching." said Burdick. "If you have the power to take the man and hang him you have the power to take the rope." As they strung up the thief to a tree on the street, the merchant went to his ledger and wrote across the credit side of the fellow's account, "balanced by death from hanging."
In January, 1859, Cyrus Burdick married Amanda Chapman, a young daugh- ter in a family whom the Burdicks had known in the East. By extending the adobe store building, a suite of rooms was added for their home. It was while taking an inventory of some goods he was buying from her father that Mr. Burdick met the young woman who soon became his wife. Charles P. Chapman, her father, had come across the plains from Iowa. Her mother, Amanda Fuller, was from Vermont. According to a number of early settlers in Monte and San Gabriel, she was "the prettiest girl in the Valley." But more than this, she was a fine housekeeper and nurse and a most necessary helpmeet for the young store- keeper. Though of Eastern parents she soon became a favorite with the best Mexican families as well as with the few Americans in the Valley. Among those who liked to tarry at the store and visit with the Burdicks, when they came to the Mission or passed by on their way to Los Angeles, were the Palomares and Vejar families from the San José Rancho. And there were other friends living at this time near the Mission who later moved to the San José Valley. Notable among them were the families of C. F. Loop and F. M. Slaughter, of whom this history has more yet to say.
So the life here was full of incident and interest, of pleasure as well as busi- ness. As one looks back upon it, there must have been far more of service, in contributing to the comforts and needs of others, than of profit getting for them-
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selves. Living for a time in quarters at one end of the store, they awoke every morning with the chimes of the Mission bells in their ears-"those musical Mission bells," as Mrs. Burns, Mr. Burdick's sister, now in her ninety-first year, refers to them, fondly recalling the memories of those Mission days. Sunday services and daily mass were conducted by the Spanish padres, of whom there were still one or two always there. And Mrs. Burdick tells of gala days, fiestas and barbecues- and of the bull-and-bear fights so dear to the Mexican heart, with gay toreadors and with the usual gory ending when the bear, rising up on his haunches with forepaws outstretched for his bear hug, would receive the ugly thrust from the horns of the angry bull.
In 1860 Mr. Burdick brought from San Diego three swarms of bees, the first to be introduced in the Valley. Studying their habits and taking special care of them himself, he was able to sell at a dollar a pound all the honey he could produce. This alone would soon have earned him a small fortune, but he became so impreg- nated with the poison from bee-stings that he was threatened with tetanus and his doctor warned him that he must give up his bees at once.
During a large part of their time in San Gabriel earthquakes were of frequent occurrence. The most vigorous and terrifying of all was that of 1855, when Los Angeles and all the Valley were rocked to their foundations. Adobe houses with walls three feet thick cracked and crumbled into piles of debris. When a heavy shock was felt people would rush out into the open, there to find the cattle bawling with legs asprawl, and tree trunks swaying from side to side like drunken men. The water in the ditches was rocked and spilled, or even quite emptied out For weeks at a time, so the older residents narrate, the earth was never quiet. Dishes were always rattling. Retaining strips were fastened to the shelves to keep things from sliding off. Even when not conscious otherwise of a tremor, one miglit often see the surface of the water in a tumbler slightly quivering. Those who lived in old adobe buildings like the store, whose massive walls supported those great square-hewn pine timbers, hauled from the San Bernardino Mountains, were in constant fear of being buried under these great roof timbers.
It was during their life at San Gabriel that the Civil War broke out. Many of the Burdicks' closest friends were Southerners and one of the most intimate was F. M. Slaughter, who was intensely "rebel" in his sympathies. But in his quiet way Cyrus Burdick was always deeply loyal and patriotic. He early enlisted for service in the Union army and received his arms and equipment from the gov- ernment, but as mobilization of Western volunteers was repeatedly postponed, for him as for many other Californians the call never came.
It has been stated that Burdick and Burns rarely lost an account. This was especially true of their Mexican customers. Honesty and candor usually command a return in kind-noblesse oblige-but not always. In an unfortunate hour Mr. Burdick was persuaded to endorse a note for a minister living then in San Gabriel. The amount of the note-about $8,000-would not be considered large today, and the possibility of demand upon him would seem to be remote considering the position and standing of the principal signatory. But when the note matured the minister, a Mr. Brewster, had absconded leaving word that Mr. Burdick would have to pay the note. All he had was in the store. He was urged to repudiate, to go through bankruptcy, to place his property in his wife's name or his part- ner's. But for him all this was unthinkable. Doubtless he could have borrowed a large part of the amount from friends, but after this experience he would ask no one to endorse any note of his. There was only one way to meet the obliga-
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tion and this he followed without hesitation. At a fearful sacrifice everything was sold out, even their private furniture-everything had to go. But the money was raised and the note paid off.
This experience is a striking index of the sterling integrity which was a dom- inant characteristic of this pioneer-all the more conspicuous in a time when life and law and order, and character even, were lightly esteemed. This same char- acteristic of scrupulous honesty compelled other sacrifices later. At one time after bargaining for a large tract at Twelfth and Main streets in Los Angeles, and making certain payments on it, he sacrificed it all to meet other obligations. Con- sidering the enormous values existing in and on properties which Mr. Burdick has owned in Los Angeles and Pomona, one might well wonder how he escaped becoming a millionaire. But the explanation is clear. It was this absolute honesty and an almost ultra-conservatism which combined to prevent his gaining great wealth. Because of these traits manifested often later in the development of the town and valley he has been called sometimes "timid" and a "moss-back." They were, however, elements most needed here at that time and later in the mad days of wildcat speculation bursting in the boom, elements that made him a tower of strength both to the community and to many reliant friends. No wonder that every one said "his word is as good as his bond"; no wonder that "Don Cy" was trusted implicitly by every one, especially by the Mexicans, who knew that he would not see one wronged or exploited, as so many were because of their ignor- ance of our language and laws.
About this time Judge Burdick disposed of his ranch at San Gabriel and se- cured a place near the old fort on Fort Street then in the outskirts of the Pueblo and far enough from the Plaza to be had at a small price. It extended from the corner of First and Fort, now Broadway, well up the hill opposite the spot on which the City Jail now stands, and as far as the Fort on the side which now overlooks The Times. It was a fine, sightly location, and on it was a large adobe house, built by some Mexicans of earlier days, and ample enough to accommodate not only "Grandpa and Grandma Burdick" but the families of their children when they returned for long or short visits, as they often did. For Thomas Burdick was very fond of his children and ready to make any sacrifice for them. So the old adobe below the Fort was the headquarters for all the Burdick families for many years after. Here Judge Burdick even in his declining years found much to do in a legal and clerical way. In 1856 he was elected County Supervisor. Dignified in appearance and bearing, always scrupulously clean and correct in his dress, he was a figure even more conspicuous in the West than he had been in the Fast. And these were but the outward signs of an inner breeding and upright- ness quite as marked.
· After disposing of their business at San Gabriel in 1864, Cyrus Burdick was engaged in several occupations in Los Angeles and elsewhere, including a mining venture in Arizona. In 1866, he went to the Chino ranch where for two years he had a dairy and made fine cheese for the Los Angeles markets. Here again he had as friend and neighbor Hon. F. M. Slaughter, who had moved from San Gabriel to his ranch at Rincon. This was after the death of Robert Carlisle, and while the ranch was in charge of Joe Bridger, another son-in-law of Colonel Williams.
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