USA > California > Land in California, the story of mission land, ranches, squatters, mining claims, railroad grants, land scrip, homesteads > Part 16
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In the title story of California's southern metropolis, a city that has the largest population of any California city and one of the greatest areas of any city in the world, we turn from great court battles and squatter violence to activities that are more in keeping with the pastoral man- ner of living.
Los Angeles shares with San José the distinction of having been founded as one of the original Spanish pueblos in California and not as a presidio.
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On August 1, 1852, Mayor John G. Nichols went before the Los Angeles Council to remind the members that the Land Commission would be meeting in the city in a few weeks. "We have but little time," he said "to procure from the archives in San Francisco the copies of such docu- ments as may be needed. When we consider the value of the city claims amounting to not less than a million dol- lars it would seem only proper that some provision should be made for its protection to the utmost extent. I there- fore recommend to the council early and efficient action." J. Lancaster Brent, attorney and Democratic leader, was engaged to represent the city, whose claim was filed with the board on October 26, 1852.
In submitting its case to the board, Los Angeles pre- sented the history of its founding as a pueblo in 1781 under the specific directions of Governor Felipe de Neve, the giving of formal possession to the settlers four years later, the raising of the pueblo to the rank of city in 1835 by act of the Mexican Congress, and the incorporation on April 4, 1850, by an act of the state legislature which provided that the city should succeed to all the rights, claims, and powers of the pueblo with respect to property.
Los Angeles claimed not just four square leagues but, with a longing even then to be the biggest city, sixteen square leagues-or about 112 square miles. It interpreted the laws governing the establishment of a pueblo as mean- ing four leagues square rather than four square leagues, and based its interpretation on the language of the 1789 plan for the establishment of the town of Pitic in Sonora, which was cited, together with the governor's instructions in 1791 to the presidios to measure their "four common leagues" from the center of the presidio square.
The board was prepared to accept most of the assertions
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in the petition, readily admitted that Los Angeles had been regularly incorporated and had been declared to be the capital of California on May 23, 1835, and that the city was in existence on the important date of July 7, 1846. The only disagreement was in the extent and limits of the city's claim. .
Eminent citizens-Agustín Olvera, José Antonio Car- rillo, Manuel Requena, Antonio F. Coronel-had made interesting and agreeable depositions, filled with refer- ences to rodeos, judges of the plains, Spanish place names, and rancho living. They unanimously understood that the boundaries of their town extended two leagues in each direction from the center of the plaza, but they could not recall that the common lands of the pueblo had ever been assigned or the designation of boundaries completed.
The opinion of the board, delivered by Commissioner Farwell, was that no foundation had been laid, by the evidence, for presuming an assignment to the city beyond the four square leagues to which it was entitled by law. On February 5, 1856, it confirmed Los Angeles' title to four square leagues only-one-fourth of what had been asked.
There were appeals to the District Court, and petitions for review filed by Brent, and, on behalf of the United States, by Pacificus Ord, brother of Surveyor Ord. On February 2, 1858, both sides signed and filed a stipulation accepting the board's decision as final.
Los Angeles had not waited for confirmation of title, not even for the legislative authority which came in 1850, before going ahead with the sale of its lands. In 1849 it had heeded an order issued by the military governor that no grants of unappropriated pueblo lands should be made without reference to the city map. It employed Lieu-
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tenant E. O. C. Ord of the United States Army to survey "the City of Los Angeles and to lay out streets and blocks, where there are no buildings, from the Church to the last house before the vineyard of Celis, and from the vineyards to the hills .... from the Church northerly to the ravine beyond the house of Antonio Ygnacio Abila." Ord, assisted by William R. Hutton, made his survey. The city's first auction of lots took place in November of 1849, the ayuntamiento having picked fifty-four to offer. Part of these lots were in the old "upper district"-that is, north of the plaza-in the blocks that were bounded by Bull, Eternity, Virgin, and Short streets. Part were in the new "lower district," south of the plaza and within the blocks bounded by Second, Fourth, Spring, and Hill streets. Buyers paid from fifty to two hundred dollars for lots hav- ing a width of 120 feet and a depth of 165 feet. The new district brought better prices than the old, for "business" had begun to move south. Purchasers included John Temple, Benjamin D. Wilson, and Francisco Figueroa.
So began the city's prodigal practice of raising its funds through selling its lands. Auction followed auction with purchasers paying cash and receiving city deeds executed by the president and secretary of the council.
The Ord map had included only the heart of the pueblo's four square leagues. It had been extensive in its covering of the vineyards, cornfields, and gardens that lay between Main Street and the Los Angeles River. It had laid out blocks as far south as unlabeled Pico Street, as far west as Grasshopper (Figueroa) Street, and almost as far north as the old cemetery. Many of the blocks shown had not been numbered or divided into lots. Accordingly, other surveyors were called upon to supplement Ord's work, notably Henry Hancock, George Hansen, A. F.
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Waldemar, and Frank Lecouvreur, with the city council taking over the job of numbering Ord's unnumbered blocks and supplying street names.
As early as August 13, 1852, the city had passed an ordinance providing for the disposition of vacant city lands, with a limit of 35 acres to one person, the applicant obligated only to make two hundred dollars worth of im- provements within a year. This ordinance was repealed in less than two years and another adopted which provided for putting up at public auction lands applied for, with a minimum bid of one dollar an acre for thirty-five-acre (Hancock's Survey) lots, and with a rising scale of mini- mum bids for smaller lots. Purchasers would receive a quitclaim from the mayor. On March 28, 1854, the city ceded "all the right she may have in favor of the persons who by themselves or their ancestors may have occupied them without interruption, peaceably and in good faith, for the term of twelve years, with house, fence or cultiva- tion." Following this action there was confirmation of many old titles, for example, that of the tract in the city which Antonio Ygnacio Abila claimed to hold under grant from the governor made in 1817, later confirmed by the ayuntamiento in 1839. The city granted lands to various individuals and corporations for services ren- dered or conditional upon services being rendered-as to the Pioneer Oil Company for drilling for oil; to the Canal and Reservoir Company for constructing a ditch and a dam; to Phineas Banning for boring an artesian well, he to pay ten dollars an acre if successful. The largest of such grants was made in 1864 to O. W. Childs in payment for his construction of a new and important zanja or canal. He received practically all the blocks between Main, Figueroa, Sixth, and Twelfth streets, a
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stupendous conveyance of what is now called "down- town" property.
Los Angeles, like San Francisco, was successful in the rapid disposition of its patrimony. Today it has left Pershing Square, Elysian Park, and the old plaza.
Apparently there was little concern over the city's title at any time between 1849, when sales began, and 1856, when confirmation of pueblo ownership was obtained. Occasionally the mayor would ask Lancaster Brent about when action might be expected from the Land Commis- sion, but aside from that the title situation in Los An- geles was serene. Everyone took it as a matter of course that the city's title was good. Squatter troubles were re- mote, too, though a few of the surrounding ranchos were to have difficulties of this sort before the United States or the surveyor general could get around to a settlement of their problems. The serenity of the land situation was due to the fact that gold seekers did not come to Los An- geles. Only the "backwash" from the Gold Rush came, and this consisted largely of gamblers who conducted their business from adobe buildings near the plaza. Here there was even more sin than sunshine, according to all contemporary accounts, with days and nights filled with the sounds of chinking fifty-dollar gold pieces, discordant music, and pistol shots, rather than the voices of men dis- cussing the Los Angeles title situation.
After the title to Los Angeles' four square leagues had been confirmed, the boundaries had to be surveyed before a patent could be issued by the United States. Henry Han- cock did the surveying in September, 1858. Conforming with it, a patent bearing the signature of President Andrew Johnson was issued by the United States on August 9, 1866. At first held invalid by the United States
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Land Office, upon a technicality, with a new one being issued August 4, 1875, this 1866 patent was later upheld as the true and valid patent of the city's lands.
Long before Los Angeles concerned itself with its own title or with the United States at all, it was the center of California's cattle industry. It was surrounded with ranchos, several of them dating from the Spanish period. Practically the whole of what is now Los Angeles County, if we except part of the Santa Monica Mountains, part of the Mohave Desert, and the Angeles National Forest, was included in ranchos owned by Spanish Californians and by a few Anglo-Saxons who had become Mexican citizens. Beyond these county boundaries were the ranchos of other counties. The pueblo of Los Angeles was the hub of these ranchos, a trading center, and around its plaza, which was dominated by a church, were shops and the town houses of rancheros.
With confirmation of its pueblo title, Los Angeles con- tinued to be the center of the "cow counties," and its geographical growth from that date was largely through the annexation of, or the consolidation with, areas that had rancho origins. This growth, however, did not mean that Los Angeles was acquiring the ownership of lands beyond its original pueblo boundaries. It merely acquired jurisdiction over annexed or consolidated territories, as these came within city limits.
There had been various changes in the boundaries of Los Angeles after the state legislature passed the act of incorporation on April 4, 1850, but on July 28, 1855, they had been fixed as including all lands belonging to the former pueblo. In 1859 the state authorized Los Angeles to extend itself 1,500 yards or less on any or all sides. Los Angeles availed itself of this opportunity and took in 400
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yards on the south. This first annexation of August 29, 1859 is known as the "Southern Extension."
Los Angeles did not embark on its vast program of an- nexation and consolidation, however, until 1895, when the Highland Park area, adjoining the old pueblo bound- aries on the northeast, became a part of the city and with it 904 more acres. Touching the high spots of the program, which was carried out, of course, at the request of the persons affected, expressed at the polls, the "Shoestring" annexation of 1906 should be mentioned. This annexa- tion, together with the consolidation of Wilmington and San Pedro with Los Angeles in 1909, gave the city front- age on the ocean and a harbor. And then, as one writer said, Los Angeles dug a harbor "by its bootstraps" and filled it with world commerce. The Hollywood consolida- tion of 1910 is important, not only because it brought the motion-picture center within the city limits, but because it was the only action of this sort that brought in a lot of people. Hollywood came in because its population was becoming dense and it needed an outfall sewer and water from the Owens River basin, both of which Los Angeles could offer. Other areas and communities "joined up" for similar reasons. In 1913 water that had been brought 250 miles came plunging down the open aqueduct at San Fernando Reservoir, and two years later, on May 22, 1915, the greater part of the San Fernando Valley was annexed to Los Angeles. Since the aqueduct would not come to the city, the city had gone to the aqueduct. That single act brought nearly 170 square miles of new territory into the city, overwhelmingly the largest annexation. Sawtelle, Hyde Park, Eagle Rock, Venice, Watts, and Tujunga were among the towns that came in through the consolida- tion route. All had been communities that had sprung up
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on old ranchos. The bigger city offered what the small communities needed.
An important part of the saga of these annexations is the fact that Los Angeles upon its establishment as a pueblo had been entitled under Spanish law to certain water rights. These were prior or preferential rights in the waters of the Los Angeles River which passed through the pueblo boundaries-so far as these waters were neces- sary for the purposes of the town and the use of the towns- men. Los Angeles succeeded to all the pueblo rights and they expanded with the annexation of new territory. Rulings upon the water rights of the city were obtained from California's Supreme Court in the cases of Los An- geles v. Hunter and Los Angeles v. Pomeroy.
By 1945 ninety-five annexations or consolidations had given Los Angeles an area of more than 450 square miles. It had started out with 28! Among the ranchos con- tributing territory to the city's jurisdiction were the San Pedro, the Sausal Redondo, La Ballona, La Brea, Rincón de los Bueyes, Las Cienegas, Ex-Mission de San Fernando, El Encino, Providencia, and Los Felis-names that roll pleasantly off the tongue and carry us back to the pastoral age that flourished here before fifty-foot lots, stuccoed houses, filling stations, shops, food markets, and heavy automobile traffic filled the Los Angeles panorama.
The title story of San Francisco and Los Angeles from pueblo days as presented here is one of essential contrasts. If other phases of the rise and development of California's two greatest cities had been followed, however, there would be similarities: today both are on the march, both have the unlimited enthusiasm and energy of their citi- zens, and both have greater roles to play.
Appendixes
APPENDIX I
BOUNDARY AND PROPERTY PROVISIONS OF THE TREATY OF GUADALUPE HIDALGO, 1848
The Treaty was signed at Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2, 1848; ratifications were exchanged at Queretaro, May 30, 1848; and proclamation was made July 4, 1848.1
ARTICLE V.
Boundary line between the two republics estab- lished.
The boundary line between the two republics shall commence in the Gulf of Mexico, three leagues from land, opposite the mouth of the Rio Grande, otherwise called Rio Bravo del Norte, or opposite the mouth of its deepest branch, if it should have more than one branch emptying directly into the sea; from thence up the middle of that river, following the deepest channel, where it has more than one, to the point where it strikes. the southern boundary of New Mexico; thence, west- wardly, along the whole southern boundary of New Mexico (which runs north of the town called Paso) to its western termination; thence, northward, along the west- ern line of New Mexico, until it intersects the first branch of the River Gila; (or if it should not intersect any branch of that river, then to the point on the said line nearest to such branch, and thence in a direct line to the same;) thence down the middle of the said branch and of the said river, until it empties into the Rio Colo- rado; thence across the Rio Colorado, following the division line between Upper and Lower California, to the Pacific Ocean.
Southern and western limits of New Mexico, as referred to in this article, defined.
The southern and western limits of New Mexico, mentioned in this article, are those laid down in the map entitled "Map of the United Mexican States, as organized and defined by various acts of the Congress of said re- public, and constructed according to the best authorities. Revised edition. Published at New York, in 1847, by J. Disturnell." Of which map a copy is added to this treaty, bearing the signatures and seals of the undersigned plenipotentiaries. And, in order to preclude all difficulty in tracing upon the ground the limit separating Upper from Lower California, it is agreed that the said limit shall consist of a straight line drawn from the middle of the Rio Gila, where it unites with the Colorado, to a point on the coast of the Pacific Ocean distant one marine league due south of the southernmost point of the port
1 The text is from the U. S. Statutes at Large, vol. 9, pp. 922 ff.
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A commissioner and surveyor to be appointed by each government to run and mark the boundary lines, who shall meet at San Diego within one year from exchange of ratifications. They shall keep journals, &c.
Boundary line to be religiously respected.
Mexicans estab- lished in territories ceded to the United States to be free to continue where they are, or to re- move at any time, retaining their property or dispos- ing of the same at pleasure.
Those who remain may either retain the title and rights of Mexican citizens or become citizens of the United States. Election to be made within one year.
of San Diego, according to the plan of said port made in the year 1782 by Don Juan Pantoja, second sailing-master of the Spanish fleet, and published at Madrid in the year 1802, in the Atlas to the voyage of the schooners Sutil and Mexicana, of which plan a copy is hereunto added, signed and sealed by the respective plenipotentiaries.
In order to designate the boundary line with due pre- cision, upon authoritative maps, and to establish upon the ground landmarks which shall show the limits of both republics, as described in the present article, the two governments shall each appoint a commissioner and a surveyor, who, before the expiration of one year from· the date of the exchange of ratifications of this treaty, shall meet at the port of San Diego, and proceed to run and mark the said boundary in its whole course to the mouth of the Rio Bravo del Norte. They shall keep journals and make out plans of their operations; and the result agreed upon by them shall be deemed a part of this treaty, and shall have the same force as if it were inserted therein. The two governments will amicably agree regarding what may be necessary to these persons, and also as to their respective escorts, should such be necessary.
The boundary line established by this article shall be religiously respected by each of the two republics, and no change shall ever be made therein, except by the express and free consent of both nations, lawfully given by the general government of each, in conformity with its own constitution.
ARTICLE VIII.
Mexicans now established in territories previously be- longing to Mexico, and which remain for the future within the limits of the United States, as defined by the present treaty, shall be free to continue where they now reside, or to remove at any time to the Mexican republic, retaining the property which they possess in the said territories, or disposing thereof, and removing the pro- ceeds wherever they please, without their being sub- jected, on this account, to any contribution, tax, or charge whatever.
Those who shall prefer to remain in the said terri- tories, may either retain the title and rights of Mexican citizens, or acquire those of citizens of the United States. But they shall be under the obligation to make their election within one year from the date of the exchange of ratifications of this treaty; and those who shall remain in the said territories after the expiration of that year,
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without having declared their intention to retain the character of Mexicans, shall be considered to have elected to become citizens of the United States.
Property to be in- violably respected.
In the said territories, property of every kind, now belonging to Mexicans not established there, shall be inviolably respected. The present owners, the heirs of these, and all Mexicans who may hereafter acquire said property by contract, shall enjoy with respect to it guar- anties equally ample as if the same belonged to citizens of the United States.
ARTICLE IX.
Mexicans who, in the territories aforesaid, shall not preserve the character of citizens of the Mexican republic, conformably with what is stipulated in the preceding article, shall be incorporated into the Union of the United States, and be admitted at the proper time (to be judged of by the Congress of the United States) to the enjoyment of all the rights of citizens of the United States, according to the principles of the constitution; and in the mean time shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty and property, and secured in the free exercise of their religion without restriction.
How Mexicans remaining in the ceded territories may become citizens of the United States.
APPENDIX II ACT FOR THE ADMISSION OF CALIFORNIA INTO THE UNION (Approved September 9, 1850)1
Preamble.
Whereas the people of California have presented a con- stitution and asked admission into the Union, which constitution was submitted to Congress by the Presi- dent of the United States, by message dated February thirteenth, eighteen hundred and fifty, and which, on due examination, is found to be republican in its form of government:
California declared to be one of the United States.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- tives of the United States of America in Congress as- sembled, That the State of California shall be one, and is hereby declared to be one, of the United States of America, and admitted into the Union on an equal foot- ing with the original States in all respects whatever.
Entitled to two representatives until an enumera- tion is made.
SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That, until the rep- resentatives in Congress shall be apportioned according to an actual enumeration of the inhabitants of the United States, the State of California shall be entitled to two representatives in Congress.
Admitted into the Union upon certain expressed con- ditions.
SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the said State of California is admitted into the Union upon the ex- press condition that the people of said State, through their legislature or otherwise, shall never interfere with the primary disposal of the public lands within its limits, and shall pass no law and do no act whereby the title of the United States to, and right to dispose of, the same shall be impaired or questioned; and that they shall never lay any tax or assessment of any description whatso- ever upon the public domain of the United States, and in no case shall non-resident proprietors, who are citizens of the United States, be taxed higher than residents; and that all the navigable waters within the said State shall be common highways, and forever free, as well to the inhabitants of said State as to the citizens of the United States, without any tax, impost, or duty therefor: Pro- vided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed as recognizing or rejecting the propositions tendered by the people of California as articles of compact in the ordinance adopted by the convention which formed the constitution of that State.
Proviso.
APPROVED, September 9, 1850.
1 The text is from the U. S. Statutes at Large, vol. 9, p. 452. The following provision appears in an act approved September 28, 1850, ibid., p. 521: "That all laws of the United States which are not locally inapplicable shall have the same force and effect within the said State of Cali- fornia as elsewhere within the United States."
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APPENDIX III
ACT TO ASCERTAIN AND SETTLE THE PRIVATE LAND CLAIMS IN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
(Approved March 3, 1851)1
Commission constituted.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- tives of the United States of America in Congress assem- bled, That for the purpose of ascertaining and settling private land claims in the State of California, a com- mission shall be, and is hereby, constituted, which shall consist of three commissioners, to be appointed by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, which commission shall con- tinue for three years from the date of this act, unless sooner discontinued by the President of the United States.
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