USA > California > Riverside County > History of Riverside County, California > Part 22
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Leading an easy, unprogressive life, giving much time to fes tivities and to gay and tasteful dress, the Estudillo fortunes de- clined during the days of the old grandees, and it became quite convenient to replenish the depleted family "strong-box" by selling undivided interests in the great grant to hardy, venturesome pio- neers. Thus it came about in the '60s and '70s that Benson, Collins,
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Bevington, Tyler, Kennedy, Wakefield, Van Leuven, Worthington, Tripp, Logsdon, Webster, Procco Akimo, Gen. Boughton, Ables, Hewitt and others obtained possession of lands here, and the great Spanish grant began gradually to crumble and give way to the energy, push and enterprise of Americans. The territory that had been given over exclusively to cattle-raising began to take on new life, and new industries, feeble in their beginning, marked the opening of a changed civilization. The plains that had known only the tramp of wild animals, and the half-tamed hoofs of Mexi- can cattle, were destined to give way to the ploughshare. Where fortunes had been calculated by herds, and hides were the medium of exchange, with the uniform valuation of two pesos, came pioneers, the forerunners of a changed condition that was destined to leave the life of the Spanish grandees a fast receding memory.
Of this life no one thing did as much toward its fruition as did the use of water for irrigation purposes. This is a broad statement -as broad as the Great West-and as true of other portions as it is of the great San Jacinto valley. The first irrigation ditch in the San Jacinto valley was constructed in 1871 by Samuel V. Tripp, who obtained water from the San Jacinto river in the canyon above the Webster ranch, and with an irrigation ditch of crude construction irrigated a small garden patch on lands now occupied by D. G. Webster. This feeble attempt at irrigation might be said to be the beginning of the splendid irrigation systems that today cover thousands of acres of the valley's fertile lands and produce fortunes of wealth annually to owners of irrigated orchards and farms.
As new families came into the valley the sheep industry re- ceived considerable attention and became of much importance. Grain raising was first experimented with in the section about Little Lake, where a community field of wheat was planted and cared for by the white families of the valley. To protect this field from the herds of cattle roaming at large it was necessary that men should camp there night and day. One pioneer of an inventive turn of mind constructed a wooden ratchet, or sound-producing instrument, that was used to good effect during the long night watches before harvest. Grain was tramped out with horses and hauled to San Bernardino, to be ground into flour. In those days the barb-wire fence was unknown here, and the rude log fence was the only pro-
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tection early settlers had against the half-wild herds of the ranges. But gradually and firmly the settlers asserted their rights and demanded protection for their smaller holdings against the depre- dations of the stock of the cattle kings. Surveys were made, and those who had bought undivided rights were allotted particular portions, and the barb wire fence, the true friend of the small farmer of the West, came to put an end to stock quarrels and cattle persecutions.
Among the early settlers of the valley, some had crossed the plains with ox teams, and the story of their travels should never be forgotten. J. M. Logsdon, who settled in San Jacinto with his family in 1877, passed through the lower portion of the great San Jacinto grant in 1861, he and his wife and children being members of a party of 300 souls who came by the southern overland route, following the old Butterfield stage line much of the way. Before. the war, previous to this date, this old stage route maintained a daily mail and passenger service of an actual schedule time of but fifteen days from Visalia, Cal., to St. Louis, Mo. This service had been abandoned, however, with the opening of the Civil war, and to make it more difficult for travelers the governor of Texas issued military orders that any one attempting to pass out of the state should be arrested and his property confiscated. The party, of which Mr. Logsdon and family were members, was under strict surveillance by both state troops in the rear, and Confederate forces at Fort Bliss, now El Paso. By strategy the party were enabled to make a sudden and successful dash across the Rio Grande and into Mexican territory. There they were safe from Confederate molestation, but they had before them 300 miles of rugged moun- tains and desolate plains, where roads were unknown, from Fort Bliss, Texas, to Tucson, Arizona, where they again took up the old stage line route. A treacherous French guide led the party astray, and connived with thieving Mexicans to rob the Ameri- cans of their mules and oxen. Thus the trials and hardships of an arduous journey were made doubly trying and severe. The wagon- master had befriended a Mexican, who had been with the party for many days, but who was looked upon with suspicion by the majority of the Americans. On one stormy night the Mexican disappeared, and in the morning it was found that several animals were also missing, among them a splendid mule belonging to the wagon-
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master. When the loss was discovered the owner of the stolen mule secured a mount and started on the trail of the fugitive Mexican. The thief had depended on the heavy rainfall to obliterate his trail, but unfortunately for him the precipitation ceased soon after his departure and the tell-tale tracks of the stolen animals made an easy trail for the pursuing wagonmaster, who came within sight of the Mexican after a ten-mile ride. There was little parley- ing, but one word was spoken, and that word came from the long barrel of an old Kentucky flintlock. The wagonmaster secured the stolen animals and regained his party, and no more stock was lost on Mexican soil.
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After leaving Tucson the great Colorado Desert proper was reached, and from that point it was necessary that the party should divide into small companies, traveling a half day's time apart. This was made necessary in order that the springs and water holes along the way might be replenished for each succeeding company. Thus the main party of 300 people, with horses, mules and oxen, was scattered along the desert route from the Colorado River valley in Arizona to Vallecitos, Cal., a distance of 300 miles. When a day's journey into the desert, on the California side of the Colorado, a number of animals belonging to Mr. Logsdon's small ·company broke loose and started back. It was late in the after- noon; the company had halted at a dry camp for only a few mom- ents before beginning the all-night trip to the next desert water hole. Thinking to overtake the animals in a few minutes, Mr. Logs- don took the backward trail, without coat or hat. The only other man in the party also joined in the search. Through the soft desert sand tracks of the missing animals were easily followed. A long rope hanging from the neck of a broncho mule made a mark which particularly distinguished the trail. On the back trail, a distance of several miles, a deserted camp of a number of Mexicans, whom they had passed earlier in the day, was found, and here the prints of many trampling hoofs, and the ending of the mark made by the dragging rope, were proof positive that the Mexicans had captured the animals and were making way with them. Here Mr. Logs- don met the other searcher returning from the hunt discouraged.
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With the remark that "he would get his animals if he had to follow the greasers to the City of Mexico," Logsdon resumed the trail with increased haste. But first he instructed his fellow trav.
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eler to resume the journey as soon as he had reached the dry camp, and not to wait for him until the company was beyond the desert, at some point where water and grass were plentiful. With a burning fever Logsdon struggled on, hatless and coatless, sinking many times into the soft sand, but rising with a grim determina- tion such as only the rugged pioneers seemed to possess. Late in the night Logsdon passed the Cummings' camp, members of the original Texas party. Here he was told the Mexicans had been heard to pass, riding rapidly towards the Colorado. He was given a horse, and saddle, bridle and stirrups were improvised from bal- ing rope and sacks. Thus equipped the nearly exhausted man took up the trail with renewed determination, and at another camp a few miles farther on learned with satisfaction that the Mexicans had passed a quarter of an hour before. Here Logsdon was given a hat and coat, and a double-barreled shotgun was pressed upon him. Two young Texans, thirsting for adventure and bloodshed, insisted on joining in the chase. Before the young man-eaters had their well-equipped arsenals ready for action much time was lost, but after hours of hard riding the familiar bray of Logsdon's broncho mule was carried to him across the desert waste, and, leav- ing the well-beaten path, the Mexicans were found fast asleep in a grassy nook near the banks of the Colorado. Thoroughly ex- hausted from their fifty miles of hard riding across the desert, and thinking themselves well out of danger, they had tied their saddle horses to their belts with their long riattas and had given them- selves up to sleep.
The white men easily became masters of the situation, but the bravado that was so apparent in the Texans at their camp a few hours before, suddenly disappeared, and one of the poor fellows' hands trembled so that he could not untie the buckskin saddle strings with which Logsdon had instructed him to bind the Mexi- cans, while Logsdon kept them covered with his double-barreled shotgun. The other young fellow was finally told to secure the thongs, and the Mexicans were fast bound with their hands behind their backs. With the Mexicans in this condition self-possession quickly returned to the trembling young Texan, and the scoundrel did his utmost in his endeavors to shoot the helpless prisoners, and it was only by turning his shotgun upon the coward and threaten- ing his life that Logsdon saved the lives of his prisoners. The
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stolen animals were recovered and the Mexicans taken before an Indian judge. At this preliminary hearing they were remanded to the governor of Baja California, for sentence. It was reported both were shot.
After a delay of two days, caused by the trial, Logsdon resumed his westward journey alone across the desert-a journey where death from thirst and hunger stalked close by his side. There were many days of suffering and exhaustion before he overtook his wife and small children, who were waiting for him in the green, well- watered Vallecitos, and during all those anxious days and nights neither husband nor family knew the welfare of the other.
At Vallecitos two brothers-in-law, brave young men of the emi- grant party who had shared the trials, hardships and dangers of the months of travel across mountain ridges and desert plains, killed each other in a drunken quarrel, and left the sisters to build their dreamed-of California homes in widowhood. Of the party of 300 that left Texas, three are at this writing living in this portion of Riverside county, viz., J. M. Logsdon of San Jacinto, James Humphreys of Winchester, and George Cummings of Perris.
Of a number of the early pioneers of the valley a few words should be of interest. Mrs. William Webster was a distant relative of the noted English navigator, Sir Francis Drake, whose ship visited the shores of California in 1580. Procco Akimo, who for years kept a store here, was a Russian exile. He came to Cali- fornia from the Aleutian Islands, whence he had fled from Siberia. Many years ago he was janitor in Louie Jacobs' bank in San Ber- nardino, at a time when it was feared that the town would be raided by a gang of outlaws. So great was the banker's confidence in Akimo's honesty that he was given possession of the entire de- posits of the bank. Akimo buried the funds, and for days he was the only person who knew their whereabouts. After the danger of raid was past, and quiet was again restored in the little Mor- mon city, the trusted janitor returned the money to the bank's tills. This is Louie Jacobs' own story. Mrs. Procco Akimo was a step- mother of two nephews of the celebrated South Carolina states- man, John C. Calhoun.
Frank Roberts, who owned the "Frenchman's Garden," now a portion of the Nat Goodwin ranch, was another interesting char- acter. A sailor in early life, he was a world-wide traveler. His
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knowledge of different countries and peoples was inexhaustible. He was also a great reader and knew the works of Victor Hugo almost by rote. A great lover of flowers, he never tired of telling of the beauties of the famous gardens and parks of Paris. Cour- tesy and honesty were his religion, and it was impossible for any- one to leave his little mountain home without receiving some flower, fruit or vegetable at the hands of the kind-hearted hermit. Roberts died at the Sisters' Hospital in Los Angeles about fourteen years ago. H. T. Hewitt was with Walker's filibustering expedition to Mexico. A small company, of which Hewitt was a member, was captured by the Mexican authorities. All were tried, condemned and shot except Hewitt, who was pardoned because of his youth, being a lad still in his teens. Mrs. J. C. Jordan, whose death oc- curred at her San Jacinto home two years ago, was the "Aunt Ri" of Helen Hunt Jackson's "Ramona," the book that has made the San Jacinto valley known to the reading public throughout the world. During Mrs. Jackson's visit to the valley she was a guest of Mrs. W. P. Fowler, then Miss Mary Sheriff, at the Webster ranch. The Hawthornes, who settled in the mountainous Aguanga country in the early '70s, came of New England stock. The hus- band was a first cousin of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Husband and wife were possessed with the wanderlust throughout their lives; married before they were twenty, they went from Maine to New York, then the western frontier; then into the Ohio Reserve, and from there to the new lands of Illinois. Fast-growing settlements drove them onward and westward, and a desire for the frontier led them into the Dakotas, then Montana, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, and at last into their mountain retreat at Aguanga, where the old lady remarked with a smile that another westward move would take them into the Pacific Ocean. The couple had twelve children, all of whom were born in prairie schooners. But hardships en- dured by the parents were too great for the little ones, and the children all died in babyhood.
As late as 1880 big game abounded in the mountains on all sides. Above Strawberry valley deer ran in herds, and men now living here tell of deer coming to their camps in Round valley, above Tauquitz, so tame that six were shot before the herd took fright. Bears were also plentiful and made great ravages on the sheep and hogs of early settlers. The old bear, Clubfoot, who
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traveled up and down the state, and was known to the sorrow of ranchers, from Siskiyou to Mexico, met his fate on the Charles Thomas ranch, in Hemet valley, late in the '70s. For years this wise old Bruin had baffled all attempts of settlers to end his career. Traps were set, pitfalls were constructed, poisoned meats were temptingly placed in his path, hunters lay for him in mountain fastnesses-but all in vain. When he caught his foot in the trap that mis-shaped it, and gave him his name, he learned his lesson well. It was a passing prospector who earned the reward offered by the ranchers of the state for his death. The old miner would not tell the secret of the concoction that proved Old Clubfoot's un- doing. The poisonous preparation was put on pieces of meat and the meat placed on sharpened sticks, which were stuck into the ground along the brute's runway. The following day Old Club- foot was found in the dark recesses of a nearby canyon, his days of depredation ended forever. The story of his life and death was published in all the San Francisco dailies and other papers throughout the state. Mountain lions played havoc with young calves and frequently raided hog pens. When wounded or when cornered in the hunt they were fierce and dangerous, but if let alone there was never much danger to human life from them. Ante- lope roamed at will over the valley, and in passing through what is now the Moreno section, on their way to San Bernardino for sup- plies, old settlers saw many herds of this now practically extinct wild game.
As has before been stated, cattle, horse and sheep raising were the principal industries of the valley up to 1880. Before that date one could not walk about in safety because of the great herds of wild Mexican cattle that roamed in thousands over the level plains. All this old life was soon to change, for in 1882 a corpora- tion known as the San Jacinto Land Association bought a large body of land, consisting of more than 10,000 acres in the north- central part of the valley. This tract was purchased partly from Francisco Estudillo direct and partly from parties who had pre- viously bought of the Estudillos. The uniform price paid was $2.50 an acre. The tract was subdivided and a townsite platted. A . brick building quickly followed, and thus the town of New San Jacinto was born in the summer and fall of 1883, and the original San Jacinto became known as South San Jacinto, Old Town, Hewitt
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Town, and, finally, Bowers. Following the operations of the San Jacinto Land Association other large tracts were subdivided and placed on the market in rapid succession, including the Fairview tract at Valle Vista, Winchester and the Hemet tract. It was in the spring of 1884, however, that the greatest boom was experienced in the settlement of the valley. Let us go back, if we may, to that date, and view the valley in the late spring, after the bountiful rains of that memorable season. There was no railroad, so the homeseekers must stage in, either from San Gorgonio, on the Southern Pacific, or from Pinacarte, a small station on the Southern California Railway near the present town of Perris. Let us choose the San Gorgonio route over the Beaumont grade. As the stage rounds the last spur of the mountain on the down grade into the valley, a scene of enchantment bursts upon the view. Spread out before us, broad, level and beautifully grand, is the great San Jacinto valley. On its expansive bosom thousands of head of fatted cattle graze, belly-deep in waving fields of alfilaria, bunch grass and clover. Almost at one's feet, and running close to the skirts of the mountain, a silver ribbon of placid water shim- mers in the morning sunshine, stretching westward for miles, and finally broadening into a lake, at the western extremity of which a narrow outlet through the hills allows the overflow to pass on twenty miles farther to Lake Elsinore. As the stage crosses the river the water is bed-deep. Leaving the river behind our party passes through a timbered belt, thick with cottonwoods, dense with luxuriant undergrowth of green, and noisy with the notes of myriads of sweet-throated birds. Emerging from this wonderland of music, the stage rolls along over miles of rich, virgin, valley land, carpeted with flowers that rival the rainbow's hues. Water is but a few feet below the surface, and artesian water, pure, clear and cold is obtainable at a depth of fifty feet. Everywhere vegeta- tion and animal life abound! The magic touch of God's bounteous rains has transformed the sterile cattle ranges into a veritable Paradise! Where on earth could man wish for better environ- ments in which to build a home and fortune? Where a more desirable place to rear a family? A virgin soil of unsurpassed fertility; a climate without equal for healthfulness-perfect in winter, unexcelled in summer; a scenery unknown except in favored California; a valley made famous by rare old, fair old Indian
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legends; a valley whose sands had been crimsoned cycles agone by the blood of its own children fighting for their rights; a valley in which faithful Ramona and brave Alessandro sought refuge from their persecutors; a valley whose grand old mountain wins the hearts of all who gaze upon its majestic grandeur-
"Our Mount is the monarch of mountains; They've crowned him long ago,
On a throne of rocks, in a robe of clouds, With a diadem of snow."
Such was the environment, such the scene that charmed the homeseekers and caused them here to cast their lot. Years of pros- perity and gradual growth followed, but the time of most rapid advancement was the boom period that swept over the whole of California from 1884 to 1888.
HEMET
It was in the year 1886 that a party of California capitalists, consisting of E. L. Mayberry, W. F. Whittier, Hardcock Johnson, Mr. Judson and others became interested here and purchased 3,000 acres of land from Francisco Estudillo, about the same amount from H. T. Hewitt, also 1,000 acres in the Hemet valley, in the San Jacinto mountains, from Charles Thomas, paying Mr. Thomas $15,000 for the property, which later became the site of the great Hemet Dam and Lake Hemet. In 1890 operations were begun which brought about the building of that dam, one of the largest pieces of stone masonry in the world, and placed 7,000 acres of valuable land under an excellent water system. But to gain this consum- mation, years of unrelenting energy have been devoted; thousands upon thousands of dollars have poured a steady, golden stream into the valley; the best brains of past masters in constructive work have been called into use-all, that the people of this portion of the San Jacinto valley might enjoy life more abundantly. The original Hemet water system has gradually spread east and west, until practically the entire Fairview tract at the head of the valley and hundreds of acres west of Hemet are irrigated from that source.
HISTORICAL HAPPENINGS AND STIRRING EVENTS
During the very early settlement of the valley by Americans many startling and tragic events occurred to lend excitement to the otherwise calm and monotonous life of sheep and cattle-raising.
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Numerous raids were made upon the large bands of fine horses on the Estudillo ranch by the notorious Joaquin Murietta and his followers, but never were the settlers able to get within rifle shot of the thieves. Probably it is as well for the growth of population that they were not, for it is said those Mexican dare-devils seldom missed their mark. In those days justice was of the proverbial Wild West type, and once the transgressor fell into the hands of the rough-natured pioneers, whose motto was, "Justice before law," he was quite likely to be summarily dealt with. In the year 1878 there lived an old soldier named Adam Neese, with his wife, near Tres Sierretes. One evening at dusk a Mexican appeared at the cabin and asked for food, and to remain for the night. The old soldier was in the yard, and as the wife was preparing food, she heard a sound as of a falling body. Alarmed, she stepped to the door, to be met by the bloodthirsty Mexican, who forced her back into the room, where she battled with him desperately, finally succeeding in breaking away and reaching the corral in safety. An alarm was raised, and grim-visaged men gathered and returned with the brave woman, to find evidence too true of a most dastardly murder. News of the atrocious crime spread throughout the valley, and a systematic man-hunt was organized. After days of search the fugitive was found in a deserted sheep camp at San Ignacio. He was brought to San Jacinto, which then consisted of Kennedy's store and mail station, and chained to the floor of an adobe build- ing to await trial. Soon after sundown of the day the prisoner was brought in, someone, on pretense of wanting to shoot a wild- cat, borrowed Constable Ortega's pistol. In a few minutes a party of armed men entered the little adobe room, where Ortega was guarding his prisoner, and informing him that his services were no longer necessary proceeded forthwith with the captive to the nearest cottonwood tree. Here, as the pioneer would jestingly remark, a small "necktie" party was indulged in. Such was the swift work of crude justice in the early days of the great San Jacinto valley.
About two years after this lynching, a hold-up and fatal shoot- ing occurred on the San Gorgonio grade. Among early purchasers of unsurveyed interests in the great San Jacinto Viejo grant were General Boughton and Mrs. Wakefield. Soon after locating here with her young son of about sixteen years of age, Mrs. Wakefield 15
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