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Title Insurance and Trust Company 433 South Spring Street Los Angeles

Ranchos of California

Picture a map of California cut up into Ranchos like a crazy quilt, dotted with twenty-one Missions and a handful of Pueblos. Picture a people browned by the sun, happy, prosperous and carefree. Picture a white-walled hacienda on each of the ranchos, every one open with a never failing hospitality and welcome. That was California when the Americans took it.

It was a period of rare honor. Don Abel Stearns refused to take advantage of a technicality in his favor and lost a 29,000 acre rancho. Juan Matias Sanchez to help his friends, William Workman and F. P. F. Temple, signed their mortgage to "Lucky" Baldwin and lost his own rancho in the San Gabriel Valley, wholly without consideration.

With progress and development the ranchos gave way to the towns and farming communities. Many of these towns, now grown to cities, were named for the ranchos on which they were built. In Los Angeles County, Ranchos Santa Monica, San Fernando, Azusa, La Canada, Puente and Tujunga all gave their names to the towns founded within their borders. Santa Ana and La Habra in Orange County likewise took their names from their ranchos. Santa Barbara was an original Spanish Pueblo but still farther north in San Luis Obispo County, Arroyo Grande, Pismo, Santa Margarita, Atascadero and Paso Robles all correspond with the rancho of the same name.

Many names of roads and highways all over California can be traced directly to the rancho over which they pass. Many others were named for an illustrious owner, who perhaps in bright velvet and astride a silver saddle, rode down the same road when California was a land of great ranchos in the days of the Dons.

Rancho Topanga Malibu Sequit

Among the ranchos of Los Angeles County Rancho Topanga Malibu Sequit, more commonly known as the Malibu Ranch, is outstanding. Not that it was the first of the grants, although in fact it was one of the first, or because it was the largest, although its acreage of 13,315 was exceeded by few, but the historic rancho has in its almost intact state outlived all others and today it stands as "The Last of the Ranchos."

The Malibu was first granted in 1804 to Jose Bartolome Tapia by Jose Joaquin de Arrillaga, Military Governor of the Californias, acting for the King of Spain. It bordered the Pacific for miles and extended back into the mountains,--a princely domain unexcelled for beauty.

The heirs of Tapia held the property until January 24, 1848, when they granted the great rancho to Leon Victor Prudhomme of the Pueblo of Los Angeles for the sum of 0, 0 to be paid in cash and 0 in groceries and wines. As the heirs were uncertain as to the true name of the rancho they gave four names under which it had been known and concluded by reciting that it was bounded on the north by the high mountains, on the south by the Pacific Ocean, on the east by the Rancho Santa Monica and on the west by the mouth of the River of San Buenaventura. The recital that the rancho was bounded on the south by the Pacific Ocean is correct as the rancho faces the ocean more southerly than westerly.

Prudhomme also had a famous vineyard near Cucamonga and in order to devote all of his time to the vineyard he sold the Rancho Topanga Malibu in 1857 to Matthew Keller, known in Spanish days as Don Mateo Keller, for 00. Mateo Street in Los Angeles is named for Mr. Keller.

In 1872 an agreement was entered into between Matthew Keller and Mrs. Carrie S. Lewis for conveyance of the rancho to Mrs. Lewis for ,000, a little less than .00 an acre, but the buyer failed to complete the deal and Matthew Keller remained the sole owner until his death in 1881.

In 1892 in two conveyances H. W. Keller, son of Don Mateo Keller and assignee of the other heirs, sold the property to May K. Rindge and Frederick H. Rindge for approximately per acre. Mrs. Rindge is now President of the Marblehead Land Company, owner of the property, and it is now being developed into a seaside residential district.

From Tapia to Prudhomme, Prudhomme to Keller, Keller to Rindge--surely a very brief history of a great rancho--yet today its value is figured in tens of millions of dollars--surely a great advance from the days when it was traded for the wines and groceries.

Ranchos Los Cerritos and Los Alamitos

The lives of two persons seldom parallel themselves more strangely than did the lives of two great California ranchos, the Rancho Los Cerritos and the Rancho Los Alamitos. Both were part of the Manuel Nieto grant made in 1784 by the King of Spain, each was partitioned to a Nieto heir, each became the property of a New Englander and each owner naturalized as a citizen of Mexico. They rivaled each other for the honor of the finest sheep, the fattest cattle, the fastest horses. Together they became the property of the Bixbys, jointly they shared the growth of Long Beach and finally they divided the honor of Signal Hill--Los Cerritos the northwesterly slopes, Los Alamitos the southeasterly slopes.

Juan Temple was one of the New Englanders who early settled in Los Angeles when California was a part of Mexico. At one time Temple ran the mint for the government of Mexico. Later he opened the first general merchandise store in Los Angeles, advanced the City of Los Angeles funds for Ord's Survey, built the first theater, the County's first Court House and the Temple Block, recently wrecked to make way for Los Angeles' new City Hall. Temple Street is named for him.

Not only did Temple naturalize as a citizen of Mexico, but he married a Spanish girl of a prominent family. Dona Rafaela Cota became his bride and by this marriage Temple acquired one-twelfth of the Rancho Los Cerritos, then owned by Rafaela and her eleven brothers and sisters, heirs of Manuela Nieto de Cota. The remaining eleven-twelfths was not so easily acquired and it cost Don Juan "25 in silver coin and an equal amount in merchandise at market prices" to complete his ownership of the 27,000 acre rancho.

In 1844 the large hacienda, yet standing on the Virginia Country Club grounds, was built and occupied by the new owners. Until a short time before his death Juan Temple divided his time between his big Rancho and his many interests in the Pueblo of Los Angeles. In 1866 he sold the hacienda, the cattle, the sheep, the horses and the 27,000 acres for ,000 and removed to San Francisco where he died. Benjamin and Thomas Flint and Llewellyn Bixby were the fortunate purchasers.

Meanwhile, adjoining Los Cerritos on the East, Rancho Los Alamitos had had a similar career. Another heir of Manuel Nieto to whom this 28,000 acre Rancho was partitioned, sold it in 1834 for 0 to Brigadier-General Jose Figueroa for whom Figueroa Street in Los Angeles is named, and at one time Governor of California under Mexico.

In 1840 the Estate of Figueroa sold the Rancho, composed of "six sites of grown up cattle" to Don Abel Stearns for 00 to be paid in hides and tallow to be laid down at San Pedro or at Mazatlan. Don Abel Stearns was the other New Englander who became famous as a Mexican citizen. Like Temple he, too, married into a Spanish family and was equally prominent in affairs of the Pueblo of Los Angeles.

When the Bixbys purchased Rancho Los Cerritos and later Rancho Los Alamitos nothing was farther from their thoughts than that they were purchasing the site of the future City of Long Beach but they had the good judgment to hold their land and California, oil and Iowa did the rest.

Four thousand acres of Los Cerritos were sold in 1880 by Jotham Bixby Company to W. E. Willmore, who platted Willmore City, surrounded by the American Colony Tract, composed of farm lots. Tremendous effort was put forth by Mr. Willmore to make his city successful. He advertised all over the country and even ran a special excursion from Chicago with prospective Willmoreans. But the plan was premature and not enough purchasers could be found to buy the city lots at .00 to 0.00 each or the farm lots at .00 an acre to enable Willmore to meet his agreement with the Bixbys and several years later he abandoned the land to them.

But Willmore had planned well--his streets were wide, 80 and 100 feet being usual, and one, American Avenue, being 124 feet wide, and the natural beauty of the land and ocean frontage made it attractive to others. Soon a syndicate under the name of Long Beach Land & Water Company took up the sale of the lots and Willmore City took the name of Long Beach.

Now the two families of the Bixbys, one from their hacienda, the former home of Don Juan Temple on the Los Cerritos, the other from their hacienda, the former home of Don Abel Stearns on the Los Alamitos, watched Long Beach grow from a subdivision to a city. The Alamitos Tract and the Townsite of Alamitos Bay were platted.

In 1897, William A. Clark, Montana Copper King and builder of the San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad, purchased 8,139 acres of Rancho Los Cerritos for 5,000. This vast tract, known as the Montana Ranch, has been held practically intact to the present day. Early development, however, is planned for this property by the Janss Investment Company, Los Angeles Realtors, who have announced that they will build a model city on the ranch.

In 1921 the secret of Signal Hill was discovered and an added impetus given the development of the two ranchos. Soon the hill bristled with oil derricks. There being then many owners there soon were many millionaires. Oil flowed so fast from the hill that on several occasions it streamed uncontrolled over lawns and flowers on the slopes of Signal Hill. Daily the value of the oil taken from the hill equalled twice the price the Bixbys paid for both ranchos.

Slowly the oil fields have been extended--northwesterly toward the hacienda of Don Juan Temple and southeasterly toward the hacienda of Don Abel Stearns.

Rancho Aguaje de La Centinela

Traded with two barrels of wine for a small adobe house in the Pueblo of Los Angeles, then in turn owned by a noble Spaniard, an ignoble Frenchman, a famous Confederate General and a Scotch Baronet, then the scene of one of the most spectacular boom subdivisions in the Land Boom of 1886-1888 and finally the site of a prosperous and successful city--such is the history of the Rancho Centinela.

The rancho was granted in 1844 by the "Department of California," Government of Mexico, to Ignacio Machado by a grant which described the land as "half a league more or less of grazing land." Machado did not prize his grazing land very highly and the following year traded the property to Bruno Abila for a small adobe house "with vineyard fenced" in the suburbs of the Pueblo of Los Angeles. But in the eyes of these two traders, the small adobe was worth more than the great Rancho Centinela and the deed provided that in addition to the rancho Machado was to give as an added consideration two barrels of aguardiente .

Bruno Abila held the rancho until 1857 at which time he carelessly--or desperately--borrowed 0 with interest at six per cent per month, or seventy-two per cent per year, and, giving his rancho as security, promptly lost it under the hammer. Hilliard P. Dorsey bought the property at Sheriff's Sale for 00, or about an acre.

The next owner of the rancho was Joseph Lancaster Brent, a Southerner by birth, but for many years a prominent citizen of Los Angeles. In 1860, just before the Civil War started, Brent sold his rancho and at the outbreak of the war hastened to make his way south and join the Confederate Army. He was later made a Brigadier-General and was with the last Confederate General to lay down his sword. The conveyance by Brent was made for a consideration of ,000 to Sir Robert Burnett, a Baronet of Scotland, who on a visit to California had fallen in love with the natural charm of the Rancho Centinela and purchased both it and its neighbor, the Rancho Sausal Redondo.

From this time on the value of the rancho grew rapidly and in 1885 Sir Robert Burnett and Lady Matilda Josephine Burnett, both of Crathes Castle in the Kingdom of Great Britain, sold the two ranchos for 0,000 to Daniel Freeman, the founder of Inglewood.

Then came the great Land Boom, the town of Inglewood was platted and thrown on the market. Beautiful parks and plazas were planned and dedicated and Mr. Freeman, with an insight into the future that now seems uncanny, platted streets of unheard of width.

Used as cattle land by the Spanish, sheep land by the Baronet and a Boom Subdivision by Daniel Freeman, the Rancho Centinela has attained its greatest period of usefulness and success today as the site of the thriving City of Inglewood.

Rancho San Pascual

The Rancho San Pascual has always been a famous ranch. Its owners have always been prominent in the affairs of California and in the Pueblo of Los Angeles. It has always been famed for beauty and today within its far-flung boundaries are the world famous cities of Altadena, Pasadena, South Pasadena and parts of San Marino.

The rancho was granted in 1843 by the then Mexican Governor, Manuel Micheltorena, to Manuel Garfias and comprised 13,693 acres of land. Manuel Garfias later became Los Angeles County's first Treasurer. At the time he was campaigning for the office of Treasurer he sold a portion of his rancho for approximately .00 an acre for funds with which to finance his ambitious plans.

Manuel Garfias was a member of one of the finest Spanish families and married Luisa Abila, whose family owned the Abila hacienda facing the Plaza in the Pueblo of Los Angeles and where Commodore Stockton resided while stationed in Los Angeles. History records that Manuel Garfias was an excellent County Treasurer but as a ranchero he was very poor and bit by bit he sold off parts of the rancho until in 1857, heavily involved in financial obligations, he sold the remainder of the rancho to B. D. Wilson, the famous Don Benito. Wilson Avenue in Pasadena, South Pasadena and Alhambra, Wilson Lake and Mt. Wilson are all named for B. D. Wilson. Under his care and under the guidance of Dr. John S. Griffin, who purchased an undivided one-half interest from Mr. Wilson, the Rancho progressed and the price of the land gradually increased.

The early conveyances of parts of the Rancho in addition to the usual indefinite ties of an oak tree, a little rock set on a big one or a pile of bones or brush, tied in one of its courses "to a point on the side of a hill North of the prickly pears." Many of the descriptions tied to the walled garden of Benjamin D. Wilson, called "Huerta de Quati."

Later the Rancho was settled by the Indiana Colony, Pasadena was founded, then South Pasadena and San Marino and today within its boundaries are many thousands of magnificent homes, carrying on the fame of the famous Rancho San Pascual.

Rancho Santa Gertrudes

Seventeen thousand six hundred and two acres of California's most fertile land, bordered by a large river, divided by two smaller ones and with a billion dollar oil pool beneath--the Rancho Santa Gertrudes sold under the hammer for .40 an acre.

The rancho was a part of the great Manuel Nieto grant made by the King of Spain through the Spanish Governor, Pedro Fages. The Nieto grant was divided among his heirs and Antonio Maria Nieto received the part designated as the Rancho Santa Gertrudes and in 1834 the Mexican Governor, Jose Figueroa, confirmed the title to Dona Josefa Cota, widow of Antonio Maria Nieto.

Later the rancho was conveyed to Lemuel Carpenter, born a Missourian, but for many years a resident of California when it was a part of Mexico. For awhile Carpenter and his beautiful wife, Maria de Los Angeles Dominguez de Carpenter, lived happily on the rancho. They prospered under Mexico but failed under the United States and on November 14, 1859, the rancho was sold by the Sheriff. One week before the day of the sale Carpenter committed suicide.

John G. Downey and James P. McFarland, doing business as Downey, McFarland & Company, were the purchasers at the sale, paying ,000 for the entire rancho. Both of these men were famous characters in California history. Downey became the Civil War Governor of the State and McFarland a leading State Senator. Together they opened the first drug store in Los Angeles, and Downey, with Alvinza Hayward, organized the first bank.

In 1865 the rancho was leased for twenty-five years to the Los Angeles Pioneer Oil Company for exploration and development of oil. But, although the oil company diligently explored, no oil could be found and the lease was finally abandoned.

The Town of Downey was started in 1873 with a boom and predictions were freely given that the new city would soon outdistance its sleepy neighbor, Los Angeles.

Toward the east boundary of the rancho the Town of Fulton Sulphur Springs and Health Resort was platted. But few lots were sold until 1886 when the Santa Fe Railway built its line through the town, bought up all the lots and replatted them into smaller ones, planned a big hotel and renamed the town Santa Fe Springs. How foolish the silver-tongued land auctioneers made the purchasers appear when they bought lots, then at 0 apiece. How foolish would the same auctioneers look today if they could see their town of Santa Fe Springs--a city of derricks--a bonanza of "Black Gold."

Rancho San Antonio

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