USA > California > San Bernardino County > Ingersoll's century annals of San Bernadino County, 1769-1904 : prefaced with a brief history of the state of California : supplemented with an encyclopedia of local biography and portraits of many of its representative people > Part 13
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Ridge poles and side beams of poles are then added and poles for rafters, all bound in place with green pliant leaves of the yucca. Stakes are driven in at the ends and sides and then brush of the willow is closely wattled in to form the walls and the roof is thatched with tules. Often walls and roof are daubed with mud or adobe." "In the hot months the family usually moves into summer quarters. The patches of maize, melons and
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vegetables ripening at this time are likely to be at some distance from the permanent residence. So on the edge of the garden a ramada is built and here are moved the metates, pots, water jars and other needful plunder and a picnic begins which ends only when the garden truck is exhausted."
These Indians manufacture pottery, baskets, sandals, cordage, baby hammocks, bows and arrows and "rabbit sticks" (used in hunting rabbits) and all of these from the plants of the desert.
The Serrano tribe, as a tribe, has disappeared, except for the little reser- vation in the foothills above Redlands, known as "Manuel's Village."
SAN MANUEL RESERVATION.
This reservation is situated about one mile north of the state insane asylum at Highland. It consists of 640 acres of mountain-side and it is doubtful if the whole reservation contains five acres of arable land. It rises abruptly from the valley, and it requires the agility of a mountain goat to climb the stony hillsides. It appears utterly incapable of sustaining any- thing, even though San Manuel is called a "self-sustaining reservation." That means these Indians receive no annuity or supplies from the United States government. Once in a while they are visited by an Indian agent from somewhere, but that is all. There are about seventy-five Indians belonging to the reservation. Their houses are scattered here and there among the hills, and though poor and mean in appearance, the sur- roundings are re- markably clean. The men are sometimes employed as wood A Home on San Manuel Reserva ion choppers on the mountains and by the ranchers as laborers in thevalley. The women are able to obtain some work as washerwomen. They also make a fewbaskets. These Indians are said to be perfectly honest. One rancher in the vicinity frequently loans them small amounts of money which, he says, are always repaid. There are a few families of Indians at Craftonville and a few others scattered through the valley. They are all that remain of the descendants of the
original owners of the valley.
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The Indians of San Bernardino valley have had, at least, two large burial places. A very old graveyard, established by the padres, to teach the Indians the white man's mode of burial, instead of cremation, was situated near the rancheria of Politana. It has been crowded out little by little until. now it is entirely covered by an orange grove. Another Indian burial place was taken by the Santa Fe railroad, and it is said was paid for by the railroad company.
CHAPTER II. THE MEXICAN ERA.
The downfall of Spanish rule in North America came with the Revolu- tion of 1822. In 1823 the Mexican Republic was formed and California be- came a territory under the jurisdiction of that government and remained under Mexican rule until it passed into the control of the United States in 1847.
Under the Spanish rule the Missions had absorbed the best part of the land and had produced the greater part of the wealth of the country. A few large grants had been made outside of the mission holdings, but the settlers outside of the missions and pueblos were few and widely scattered. The growth of the pueblos of San Diego, Monterey, Los Angeles and San Fran- cisco had been very slow; a large proportion of their inhabitants were soldiers who had completed their service and remained in the country, marry- ing native women in many instances; others were colonists who had come to the country because of the inducements held out by the government, but none of these were calculated to make progressive citizens and they did little except to cultivate their "suertes" (lots) and raise a little stock.
LAND GRANTS.
During the Spanish period no regular grants were made in San Ber- nardino territory. A grant known as "Santiago de Santa Ana," containing 60,000 acres, was made to Antonio Yorba in 1801, in the Santa Ana cañon. It is probable this may have extended slightly within our bounds but the main body of it lies in what is now Orange County. In the Temescal Valley a grant was made about 1817 to Leandro Serrano, who had married a daughter of Antonio Yorba. After long litigation this Temescal Grant was decided by the courts to be but a "permit for grazing privileges" and was not sustained.
The Mexican government did not make any grants for some time after it came into power. And at first, it was a somewhat difficult matter to find persons who desired to take large grants, except where there was some very exceptional advantage offered. The first Mexican land grant in this section was that of Jurupa.
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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
JURUPA GRANT.
The first land grant made in this county under the Mexican government was that made to Juan Bandini, in 1838, of seven leagues of land, known as the Jurupa Grant. Jurupa is said to be an Indian word, meaning "friendship" or "peace."
Juan Bandini was one of the ablest and most prominent of the Spanish
JUAN BANDINI.
pioneers. Born in Peru, he came to San Diego in 1821 and almost at once, by reason of his unusual education and ability, was appointed a member of the territorial assembly. He held many important offices and bore a large share in the history of California territory under Mexican rule. He first married a daughter of Juan Estudillo, of San Diego, by whom his children were, Arcadia, who married Don Abel Stearns and then Col. R. S. Baker;
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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
Josefa, who married Pedro C. Carrillo; Ysidora, who married Col. Cave J. Coutts ; Jose M. and Juan. Of these Mrs. Baker and Juan, Jr., still live. Later Señor Bandini married Señorita Refugio Arguello. Of this marriage Mrs. C. E. Johnston, Mrs. J. B. Winston and Arturo Bandini still survive.
Bancroft says of Bandini: "He was a man of fair education and abilities, of generous impulses, of jovial temperament; famous for his gentlemanly manners, of good courage in the midst of discouragements and always well liked and respected; indeed, his record as a citizen is excellent. He also per- formed honestly and efficiently the duties of his various official positions. He was an eloquent speaker and fluent writer."
Señor Bandini at once began stocking his Jurupa Rancho and built a ranch house there, which he and his family occupied for a time.
LA PLACITA DE TRUJILLO. (The little town of the Trujillos.)
The early occupants of grants in San Bernardino county were greatly troubled by the raids of the desert Indians, who would dash in through the various passes, drive off a band of stock and get back to their own strong- holds, while the ranch owners were helpless. In order to protect their stock the Lugos induced a few New Mexican families to settle in the vicinity of Politana, by giving them a half league of land (about 2,200 acres) in exchange for which these settlers were to help fight the Indians and act as vaqueros.
About 1843, Bandini offered these colonists a better location and more land if they would move across the Santa Ana River and settle on the Jurupa. After some hesitation and discussion, their leader, Lorenzo Trujillo, decided to accept this proposition and consequently five families moved to a location several miles south of Politana and established a new settlement which was known as Trujillo's, or Bandini's Donation, as referred to on the records. This was at first composed of five families, but others soon came in. They were on the flat where they could irrigate their lands and soon had vineyards, orchards and grain fields. They began the erection of an adobe church but it was washed down before it was completed by the heavy rains of 1852.
AGUA MANSA. (Gentle Water.)
About 1852 another colony of New Mexicans was located on the river a mile or more northeast of "la Placita." These people also made improve- ments and cultivated the land as well as caring for stock and aiding in its protection. A considerable settlement grew up here and the two colonies decided to unite in building a church to replace the one swept away in 1852. Miguel Bustamente, who was one of the early settlers of Agua Mansa, gives this description of the erection of this church: "The colonists appointed a committee to select a site that would be safe from flood, and after going up
LITTLE CHURCH OF AGUA MANSA.
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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
and down the river they decided upon the hill of San Salvador. Then all of the colonists went to work-some with their hands and some with money- and made the new church. They made the adobes and the cement. Joaquin Molla, who had twelve or fourteen yoke of oxen hauled the timber from Aliso's mill. (This must have been the mill of Vignes and Sexton in Mill Creek cañon.) We paid from $35.00 to $40.00 per M. for the lumber. It took a year to build the new church. Father Amable held the first mass in it." For many years this little chapel was the only Catholic church in the county. It has crumbled away now until the very foun- dations are gone. The bell, however, made from metal collected in the vicinity and cast at Agua Mansa, now hangs in the Catholic church at Colton.
(See Father Peter's Reminiscences).
MIGUEL BUSTAMENTE The great flood of 1862 washed away both of these prosperous little settlements and buried the fields and vineyards in sand. Fortunately no lives were lost, but the church on the hill of San Salvador and the residence of Cornelius Jan- sen near it, were the only buildings left standing. There was naturally much distress at this time and the people of Los Angeles rendered assistance.
The San Bernardino correspondent of the Los Angeles Star, January 26th, 1862, writes: "The Agua Mansa, a beautiful and flourishing settlement is destroyed, not a vestige of anything left to denote that such a place ever existed. The suffering and loss of property in this district is indescribable. Fortunately no lives were lost although there were many narrow escapes."
The same paper in another column appeals to its readers for help: "We beg to call the attention of the public to the deprivation sustained by the peo- ple of the town of Jurupa, in San Bernardino county. Here are five hundred of our fellow creatures suddenly deprived of everything-left in utter deso- lation." The correspondent reports in the paper of February 22nd: "Last week two of the Sisters of Charity from your city arrived here to superin- tend the distribution of clothes, provisions, etc., provided by the citizens of Los Angeles for the sufferers of Agua Mansa."
A new village was built up about the church and was long one of the best known settlements of the county.
In 1843, Bandini sold a part of the Jurupa Rancho to B. D. Wilson, who had lately come into California with a party from New Mexico.
Benjamin D. Wilson was a native of Tennessee. He spent a number of years trapping and hunting in New Mexico, and then came to California in
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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
1841 with the Workman party. This party, who came with the intention of settling permanently, brought with them their families. It included Wil- liam Workman, who became one of the most prominent citizens of Los Angeles : B. D. Wilson, Lorenzo Trujillo, Ygnacio Salazar, and a number of other New Mexicans. Wilson purchased the Jurupa Rancho in 1844, and settled down as a stock rancher; he married Ramona, daughter of Bernardo Yorba, and one of the daughters of this union, Mrs. J. de Barth Shorb, still survives. In the fall of 1844, he was severely wounded by a grizzly bear that had attacked and slain one of his cattle. After recovering from the wounds, he hunted up the bear and put an end to it, after a pitched battle. In the fall of 1845. he took charge of an expedition against a band of marauding Indians and went across the mountains in pursuit. On the way out, the party camped at a lake where grizzlies were so numerous that twenty-two men lassoed eleven bears, and on the return of the party the feat was repeated, making twenty-two bears killed in this vicinity.
After selling Jurupa, Wilson located near Los Angeles and served a term as State Senator; acted as Indian Agent and took an active part in all affairs political and in the development of the country. He died in Los Angeles in 1878.
Colonel Johnson and Isaac Williams purchased the grant from Bandini and Wilson, and in 1847 they sold a part of it to Louis Robidoux, a French- man, possessing considerable property who had come from New Mexico.
Louis Robidoux was born in St. Louis, the son of one of the pioneer merchants of that city. The family were prominent in the early history of Missouri and one of the brothers, Joseph Robidoux, was the founder of St. joseph. Louis went to New Mexico in the thirties, where he accumulated considerable property by hunting and trapping. He married a New Mexican, and in 1844 came to California with a party of New Mexicans. He purchased the Jurupa rancho and became one of the largest and most progressive ranch- eros of the day. He served as Juez de Paz, and was one of the first board of supervisors. He was genial and kindly in disposition and honorable in all his dealings. He died in 1867.
Robidoux improved the rancho by building fences and putting in a large acreage of grain. He built a grist mill which is described as of the most primitive type, having a turbine wheel and two sets of stones. The grain was washed and dried in the sun and shoveled into the hopper with a rawhide scoop. This was at the time-1846-7-the only grist mill in Southern California.
MILITARY POST.
The San Bernardino frontier was always subject to frequent invasions of the Mojave and Paiute Indians. In 1847, Colonel A. J. Smith, of the U. S. Infantry, was sent to Cajon Pass with forty dragoons to protect the settlers of that vicinity. In April, 1847, a corps of the Mormon Battalion was sent
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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
to establish a post at Cajon. This does not seem to have been maintained any length of time. A few troops were posted at Chino rancho for a time. In 1852 a post was established on the Jurupa grant by Captain Lovell and Colonel Smith. A small body of troops was stationed here from this time until 1854, when they were withdrawn.
A part of the Jurupa rancho is now included in the city of Riverside. Agua Mansa district alone now remains in San Bernardino county. Here a few crumbling adobes and an old graveyard mark what was the first settle- ment within the limits of this county.
CUCAMONGA.
Cucamonga is said to mean "Sandy Place." Among the Cucamonga hills and on the mesa below was a rancheria of Indians who had never come directly under the mission influence. They cultivated their fields, raised stock, and were generally quiet and industrious people. They had occupied this vicinity when the Spanish first came into the country and the history of their extinction is but the common history of the native American.
In 1839, Governor Alvarado granted this tract of land to Tiburcio Tapia. a wealthy and influential citizen of Los Angeles. Robinson says, regarding him: "We stopped at the house of Don Tiburcio Tapia, the 'Alcalde Con- stitutional' (Constitutional Judge) of the town, who was once a common soldier, but who, by honest and industrious labor has amassed so much of this world's goods as to make him one of the wealthiest inhabitants of the place. His strict integrity gave him credit to any amount (with the trad- ing vessels which Robinson represented), so that he was the principal mer- chant and the only native one in 'el Pueblo de Los Angeles.'"
Don Tiburcio employed the unsuspecting natives to aid him in building a house which was practically a fortress upon one of the highest hills of the grant. They also assisted in setting out vineyards and orchards and caring for the stock. Some Mexicans were brought in and as the stock increased and the settlement grew, the Indians were driven from their fields back into the hills and cañons. When their crops failed them, it was only natural that they should seize on a beef, fattened upon their own ranges. Señor Tapia was at last forced to employ guards to protect his cattle and at length the depredations grew so frequent that his ranchmen went out in force and a fierce battle was fought which resulted in the destruction of the greater part of the Cucamonga Indians ; their existence as a separate rancheria was ended.
Many tales of battles, of buried treasure, of love and of hatred, are told in connection with the house on the red hill and the estate of Cucamonga. One of these tales is like this: Don Tiburcio amassed a large amount of property and especially of gold coin-something unusual in those days ; when rumors of American occupation began to disturb the country, he feared that this might not be safe in Los Angeles, so he transferred it to his ranch home.
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But even here he became uneasy and one night, so the story goes, he packed it into an iron-bound chest, loaded it on his cart and taking a blindfolded Indian with him, went off into the hills. He returned without the chest, and shortly afterward died suddenly. When his daughter came, some years later, to live in the old house, she was constantly troubled by a mysterious light moving about and stopping at one particular spot on the wall of the room once occupied by her father. At last her husband, determined to satisfy her of the idleness of her imagination, and dug into the clay wall. To his own discomfiture, he found a small skin purse, and in the purse a sheet of parch- ment containing some tracing and writing and a Spanish coin. This was supposed to be the key to the hidden treasure, but it was already so faded that it was not decipherable (though why parchment should have faded in so short a time is not explained). The Indian held the word he had given to his old master as inviolable, only intimating that the box was buried at the foot of an oak tree. Credulous searching parties have, since the death of Señor Tapia down to the present day, dug at the roots of oak trees, or places where they suppose oak trees sometime to have stood, all through that sec- tion, but so far as known, no treasure has ever been discovered.
After Señor Tapia's death, the estate was managed for the daughter, Maria Merced, by his old mayor-domo and compadre, Jose M. Valdez. Under his supervision the "mother" vineyard, containing twelve rows of forty-seven vines each, was planted, and from this stock other vineyards were started. A winery and distillery were also put up. The daughter, who had been brought up in a French family in Los Angeles, married a French settler of that city, Leon V. Prudhomme. In 1857 the rancho came into the hands of John Rains, through his marriage with Maria Merced, the daughter of Isaac Williams of the Chino Rancho. Rains, who was an enterprising and pro- gressive young American, at once began improving the place, setting out more vines and adding more stock. A correspondent of the Los Angeles Star for 1859, after stating that 125,000 additional vines had been set out, thus describes the Cucamonga vineyard: "This vineyard is laid out in ten-acre lots with roads two rods wide traversing it. In the center of the vineyard is a lot two acres square to be reserved for wine press, cellars and necessary buildings. This square is enclosed by fruit and ornamental trees. The plans have been made under the supervision of F. P. Dunlap.", Mr. Rains aband- oned the old fortress on the hill and built a house which was complete in every respect, and which became a social center for the society of the country. The winery, shops and stage station gave employment to many men, and Cucamonga became the most important point between San Bernardino and Los Angeles, while its wines were known for their fine quality all over the state.
John Rains filled a prominent place in the business and political life of the time. In 1860, he was a delegate with John Bidwell to the Democratic
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National Convention at Charleston. In 1861 occurred the terrible tragedy of his assassination. He was shot to death while driving to Los Angeles and dragged from his wagon and hidden away in a cactus patch. It was near- ly a week after his death before the body was discovered.
"On the 17th of November, 1862, as he was traveling alone and unarmed, he encountered several men, one of whom inquired where he was going. Rains replied, "to town." "I think not; we've got you now!" was the rejoinder, and immediately he was fired upon by the assassins, who jerked him from his wagon by one arm. As he was still able to speak and make resistance, they lassoed him and dragged him across the road into the bushes, where his body was afterwards found, bearing marks of most brutal treatment, his clothing torn off, and one boot lost in the struggle. The murder was committed for the sake of plunder. Upon suspicion of participa- tion in this crime, Manuel Ceredel was arrested. Taken ill with smallpox, and thinking himself about to die, Ceredel disclosed all the particu- lars of the conspiracy against Rains, in con- sequence of which several parties started in pursuit of his confederates, arresting five or JOHN RAINS six, who were identified by Ceredel. Recov- ering somewhat unexpectedly, Ceredel was tried and sentenced to ten years in the State prison, a decree that did not satisfy the people. While in the hands of the sheriff, on board the steamboat Cricket, en route for San Quen- tin, the prisoner was seized by the vigilance committee of Los Angeles and hanged to the yard-arm. After remaining there for about twenty minutes the body was taken down, some stones were tied to his feet, and it was thrown overboard. Between betrayed comrades, smallpox, state prison and vigilantes further residence on this planet seemed for Ceredel impossible."
On the 5th of February, 1864, Santiago Sanches was hanged for the murder of Manuel Gonzales. He admitted his guilt, but protested that his arrest and execution were to gratify the spite of Americans who suspected him of the murder of John Rains, a charge of which he was innocent. In June, 1864, Jose Ramon Carrillo, while riding with a Californian on the high- way near the stage station, Cucamonga, was shot by a man in ambush, who escaped without having been seen. The cause of the cowardly assassination was attributed to the suspicion that had always been entertained that he was accessory to the murder of John Rains in November. 1862. Although he had twice surrendered himself to the authorities for trial, his examination and release did not remove the feeling entertained by the friends of Rains, and
COL. ISAAC WILLIAMS
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Carrillo had felt his life endangered ever afterward. His assassin was never known.
The widow married later Jose C. Carrillo, and is still living in Los An- geles. One of her daughters by her first husband is the wife of Ex-Gov. H. T. Gage.
In 1870 Mrs. Carrillo disposed of her interest in the Cucamonga Rancho to the Cucamonga Company, a corporation.
(See Later History of Cucamonga, Chapter XXII.)
RANCHO SANTA ANA DEL CHINO.
In 1841 this fine tract of land, known for its rich soil and abundant water supply, was granted to Don Antonio Maria Lugo. In 1843, his son-in-law, Col. Isaac Williams, purchased the Lugo claim for $10,000 and secured an additional grant, making a holding of some 35,000 acres in all. Various theories are advanced as to the meaning of the name "Chino," but the most plausible seems to be that it took its name from a curly-leafed willow growing on the place-"chino" sometimes meaning "curly-haired" in Spanish.
Col. Williams increased the stock upon the place, importing a large number of sheep from New Mexico; built a grist mill and set out orchards. At one time he proposed to erect a fort in the Cajon Pass to shut out marand- ing Indians, and he did begin to build an adobe wall entirely about his rancho, to confound the horse thieves, but the breaking out of the gold excitement drew off his laborers and it was not completed. He built for himself a hacienda (farm house) which was the scene of many historic events. The exterior presented the usual fortress-like appearance, but the interior was finished and furnished perhaps more elaborately than any dwelling previously erected in Southern California. Robinson, who enjoyed the boundless lios- pitality of the Williams home calls it a delightful spot and says: "It is the most spacious building of the kind in the country and possesses all desirable conveniences."
Col. Williams was born in Pennsylvania in 1799. He early became a hunter and trapper in the west; after several years in New Mexico and Arizona, he came to California about 1832 with Ewing Young's band of trap- pers. He was so pleased with the country that he remained and located in Los Angeles. Here he put up an adobe building on Main street, about where the St. Charles hotel now stands, and became a trader. It is said that he was the first merchant in the country to put his goods on shelves and sell them over a counter. Later he sold this building to the city and during the brief period when Los Angeles was the capital of California, it served as the seat of government. It was also used as a court house when the county of Los Angeles was organized.
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