The Romance Of The Ranchos - free ebook by E. Palmer Conner

The Romance of the Ranchos

by E. PALMER CONNER Chief Title Searcher Title Insurance and Trust Company 433 South Spring Street Los Angeles Reprinted by permission from the Los Angeles Times Fifth Edition Old Plaza Church “ Where Los Angeles began ”...

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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. With the advent of American ownership the tide of population turned to California in a never ending stream. By sail, steamboat, covered wago

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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 Ar

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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

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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 Machad

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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

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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 $3.40 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

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Rancho San Antonio

No horses so fast, no cattle so fine, no land so fertile, no rancho more famous than the Rancho San Antonio. No family more prominent, no hospitality more welcome or as freely partaken, no hacienda more lovely, happy or prosperous than that of the Lugos. Antonio Maria Lugo received the grant of the rancho from the King of Spain in 1810 and for fifty years thereafter this old Spanish Don and his sons were the sole owners of its 29,514 acres, adjoining the original pueblo grant of the City of Los

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Rancho Los Felis

North of the Pueblo of Los Angeles and adjoining the Los Angeles River on the west is the Rancho Los Felis, 6,647 acres. The rancho was granted in 1843 to Maria Ygnacia Verdugo but it is evident that she had been occupying the land for some time previous to that date as on February 17th, 1841, the City of Los Angeles, by the President of its Common Council, granted to her the “right to use the water from the river of Our Lady of Angels for cultivating the lands of Los Felis.” At that time there

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Rancho San Pedro

Within the boundaries of Rancho San Pedro was Nigger Slough, Rattlesnake Island and the Salt Flats, and its own name was none too beautiful. But the Rancho San Pedro overcame all such handicaps and developed into a favorite child in the family of the Spanish Ranchos. This rancho, containing 43,119 acres, was one of the tremendously big Spanish grants made by a Spanish King, who believed the limit of population which Southern California could ever care for was represented in the ten Missions, fou

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Rancho Santa Anita

The Rancho Santa Anita, covered with oaks and on gentle, sloping ground, was situated between Pasadena and Monrovia, and includes within its 13,319 acres the cities of Sierra Madre and Arcadia. Its title was founded on a grant to Hugo Reid made in 1841, confirmed by Mexico in 1845 and by the United States in 1857. For 20 cents an acre Hugo Reid conveyed the rancho to Henry Dalton, an Englishman who had for 25 years lived in South America. Subsequently it passed to William Wolfskill, whose home i

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Rancho La Brea

For the inhabitants of the pueblo, later the City of Los Angeles, the Rancho La Brea has always been one of the most useful of the ranchos. The rancho derived its name from the La Brea Pits where the brea, or crude oil, oozed to the surface to catch prehistoric animals and preserve them for many thousands of years and to catch a few stray cattle in the Spanish days, and also to furnish excellent roofing for the adobes in the Pueblo of Los Angeles. The rancho was first granted January 6, 1828, by

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Rancho Cienega o’Paso de La Tijera

How differently the Spanish and the Americans viewed their ranches is quite apparent from the names they gave them. The Americans dubbed their ranches the “Diamond Bar,” the “3 X,” the “109,” or some other rather picturesque but meaningless title. The Spaniards blessed their ranchos by dedicating them to Santa Anita, San Rafael, Santa Gertrudes, or San Geronimo. They saw the many little streams of water flowing from the springs on what is now Beverly Hills and named that Rancho Rodeo de las Agua

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Rancho Ex-Mission de San Fernando

The remark is often heard, “I knew the San Fernando Valley when it was a wheat field.” Thousands of Angelenos recall the founding of Van Nuys and Owensmouth and the platting of Tract 1000, the largest subdivision in Los Angeles County. And even the newcomers have seen almost unbelievable development. But what of the valley before Tract 1000; what before the wheat? When the Fathers of the Mission of San Fernando completed their Mission and looked out through its arches their vision could not incl

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Rancho Tajauta

Rancho Tajauta, sometimes called Rancho Los Cuervos, was like a dwarf among giants. It could have fitted into one corner of its neighbor, the Rancho San Pedro, or been lost in the San Fernando, and yet it was no small plot of ground. It extended from what is now Manchester Avenue on the north to the north boundary of the Rancho San Pedro on the south and between Central Avenue on the west and the Los Angeles River and Rancho San Antonio on the east. At the height of the cattle days there was onl

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Rancho Repetto

Rancho Repetto, as such, was not an original Spanish or Mexican rancho, yet in character and size it was just as a Spanish or Mexican rancho would be. Its history, although covering a period much shorter than the life of the Spanish grant, is full of the romance of the ranchos of the Dons. The rancho derived its name from Alessandro Repetto, later known as Alexander Repetto, who purchased its five thousand acres shortly after the Civil War. Some of the land had been found by the United States La

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Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica

Most of the development on the ranchos of Southern California has just happened—they, like Topsy, just grew. But not so the Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica. A careful plan, expenditure of great wealth and a determination of purpose unequaled all sought to make a great seaport of Santa Monica—and no city could have grown more contrary to the efforts to guide it than has Santa Monica. The rancho was granted December 20th, 1839, by Governor Juan B. Alvarado to Francisco Sepulveda, officer of the

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Rancho Los Palos Verdes

Rancho Los Palos Verdes has been the scene of some of the earliest as well as the latest development in Los Angeles County. For more than thirty years before Willmore platted Willmore City, later called Long Beach, and before Jones and Baker laid out their harbor city of Santa Monica there had been a thriving settlement at the port of San Pedro in the Rancho Los Palos Verdes. The town of San Pedro, later city of San Pedro, and now part of the city of Los Angeles, was built around that port settl

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Mission San Gabriel Arcangel

In all California no land has been the scene of such triumphs and defeats, such prosperity and poverty, such alternating fair fortune and dire misfortune as the lands of the Mission San Gabriel Arcangel. The Mission San Gabriel was founded September 4th, 1771, by Father Junipero Serra and land set apart for the Mission included nearly the entire San Gabriel Valley. There was the usual struggle to establish the Mission and convert the Indians. The first Mission buildings were destroyed and the ol

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Rancho San Jose de Buenos Ayres

Rancho San Jose de Buenos Ayres was not in South America, as its name might indicate, but was an important rancho of Southern California. The rancho was granted by Manuel Micheltorena, Governor of the Californias, February 24, 1843, to Maximo Alanis and comprised 4,438 acres. Don Alanis died shortly after he received the grant and his heirs conveyed the rancho to Dr. Wilson W. Jones and Wm. T. B. Sanford, the former, one of Los Angeles’ first doctors and the latter, an early Los Angeles postmast

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CONCLUSION

The priceless, romantic history of early California is everywhere being more and more appreciated. It evidences itself in the names of our cities, in our landmarks which are at last being preserved and even in our architecture. If “The Romance of the Ranchos” can add its bit to perpetuating this glorious chapter in California history the writer will feel the time and effort well worthwhile. Title Insurance Building Spring Street between Fourth and Fifth California’s Largest Title Insurance Compa

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ESCROWS

The modern escrow system was originated by this Company. It was designed to make real estate transactions convenient and safe. A highly trained personnel and complete and convenient facilities provide efficient service to buyer and to seller....

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TRUSTS

The Company acts as executor and trustee under wills, as administrator of estates, and in all other trust capacities. It offers at a nominal cost an “all-inclusive” declaration of trust, which is exceedingly flexible. Life insurance policies may be placed in this trust, thereby protecting the beneficiary from loss, and to this trust from time to time there may be added real or personal property. The Company has had long experience in the management of estates. If you name the Company as executor

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