Riverside County CA Archives History - Books .....Introductory To History Of Riverside County 1912
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Book Title: History Of Riverside County California

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY TO HISTORY OF RIVERSIDE COUNTY
By E. W. Holmes

   Within the limits of what is now the county of Riverside there are few points
definitely known to have been the scene of Mission activities or of other
important action worthy of record; and yet across these broad valleys, these
mountains and deserts, have toiled, in the long centuries before the American
era, a people whose history belongs as much to this section as to the state as a
whole. As an introduction to the more exact history of Riverside and the county
of which it is the capital, it seems proper to dwell briefly upon the indefinite
past and hint at causes which have made this region one of the most attractive
which the world now knows.

   What this land is, with its beautiful valleys and magnificent mountains, its
equable climate and fertile soil, is due to causes shaping it in ages so distant
as to be almost incomprehensible to the human mind. Before man was, these grand
mountains stood massive and silent, guarding the valleys from the cold of a
northern clime. For centuries innumerable the lofty summits have caught the
moisture from the inflowing ocean winds, and sent in the down-flowing streams to
the slowly forming valleys below the elements of fertility which the
disintegrating rocks supplied.

   That animal life existed here long before the mountain's upheaval the
discoveries of the scientists is convincing proof, for the fossil remains so
plentifully found indicate that even further back in the far distant past, when,
perhaps, our mountains hardly showed above the level of the sea, the climate
must have been humid and tropical in character, and many monstrous creatures, no
longer living upon the earth, ranged amid a very jungle of vegetable growth,
which, deeply buried for millions of years may have created the immense deposits
of oil now being utilized by man as a source of wealth. Even within the limits
of the city of Riverside the bones of some of these prehistoric animals have
been discovered.

   When did man first appear upon these shores? And why did he not—under
climatic conditions so nearly identical with those which made possible his
advancement around the shores of the Mediterranean, and the resultant
civilizations of Egypt and Greece and Rome—reach a higher state of development?
Was he indigenous, or did his ancestors drift across the sea from eastern Asia
and down along this coast? The ruins found in the southwestern part of the
continent seem to warrant the belief that a civilization might once have existed
far superior to that found by Cortez and his followers. Those at Mitla and
elsewhere, to the southward, prove some earlier race to have reached the stone
age, and to have been fully equal in advancement to that stage of development in
the old world. Are our present Indians their decadent descendants, or are they
of a later and more barbarous people who swept down upon and destroyed the more
advanced race which preceded them? Since our government has reversed its former
brutal treatment of the American Indian, and provided training schools such as
we now have in Riverside, where the Indians are given education and a kindly
environment, we have reason to change our former belief in their mental
inferiority. Who that has seen the self-respecting and well-dressed Indian
student alongside a squad of Japanese youth has failed to notice the resemblance
between them, and when he remembers that only half a century has enabled a
nation of barbarians to acquire the wisdom of the ages, and use it successfully
in war and commerce against the white race, his foolish prejudice must be
greatly modified and the conclusion reached that these dark-skinned people are
not naturally so greatly inferior in intelligence as has been assumed, and may
fairly claim to be of those whom God "created in His own image."

   Into this long undeveloped land, which nature has so wonderfully fitted for
the highest human use, has now come a new race, bringing energy and the most
approved modern methods for its development. The olden days, veiled in mystery,
when the unsophisticated savage roamed in happy freedom over its flower-bedecked
valleys, are gone. The centuries of the Spanish era, with its records of
cupidity and crime on the part of a brutal soldiery, of the generous hospitality
of the better class among their leaders, and of the self-sacrificing devotion of
the noble missionaries under Junipero Serra, leave a misty glamour of romance,
which the entrance upon the scene of the gold-seeking and matter-of-fact
American has not lessened. It is little over half a century since the Mexican
was dispossessed, and already the few rude pathways he had made over mountain
and valley and desert have been transformed into many great railway and trolley
lines, over which has swept a continually increasing tide of population, to
utilize for business and home-making the wonderful natural resources of Southern
California. Orchards and vineyards and fields of grain furnish immense
quantities of freight for trans-continental railways and create wealth for the
people who possess them. The waters of the once idle mountain streams are no
longer wasted in the desert sands, but are made to generate electric power for
the manufacturer and the transportation lines and light for the cities, and
finally supply, through innumerable canals, the irrigating water which makes
possible the productiveness of the once barren mesas. It is the history of the
steps by which this change has been wrought that is the purpose of this
publication.

   The name of California was derived from a Spanish romance, published about
1510. In that work the "Island of California" is described as "on the right of
the Indies" and "very near the terrestrial paradise." It was reputed to be
settled by a "race of Amazons, without any men among them." It is very evident
that the first explorers of the Pacific coast were largely influenced by the
same sort of mythical tales regarding the strange new land as were those who,
under Coronado, braved the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico in search of the
reputed wealth of the "seven cities of Cibola," which proved to be but the
adobe-built villages of the Pueblo Indians.

   It was only fifty years after Columbus discovered America, and seventy years
before the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, that the Spaniards sent out from
Acapulco, on the west coast of Mexico, their first exploring party along the
coast of Alta California. This expedition was in charge of Juan Cabrillo, a
Portuguese by birth, and he was given orders to explore the northwest coast of
America. On the 28th of September, 1542, he found a "safe and land-locked
harbor," which he named San Miguel—now San Diego. Sailing-northward five days
later he discovered the islands of Santa Catalina and San Clemente. It is quite
certain that white men had set foot in what is now a part of Riverside county
some two years earlier than this, for when Coronado started with his little army
in search of Cibola he sent an auxiliary force by sea, under Hernando de
Alarcon, who was to co-operate with him on the line of the Colorado river, which
he ascended for quite a distance, landing at several points and having
intercourse with the Indians who lived upon its shores.

   Cabrillo continued his explorations along the northern coast and returned to
winter at the island of San Miguel, one of the Santa Barbara islands, where, as
the result of an accident, he died and was buried in 1543. His successor in
command, Bartolome Ferrolo, continued the explorations, during the following
season, as far north as the Oregon line, and as a result the Spaniards claimed
all the territory up to the forty-second degree of north latitude, which claim
they maintained for fully three hundred years, notwithstanding the fact that Sir
Francis Drake landed upon the California coast in 1579 and claimed sovereignty
over it for Queen Elizabeth. The Spaniards attempted no further explorations
until Viscayno led an expedition, some sixty years later, over virtually the
same route as that followed by Cabrillo. It was he who gave most of the present
names to our channel islands and the prominent points along the southern coast.

   It was Viscayno's party which first came in close contact with the Southern
California Indians, who appear to have been very numerous at that time. It is
evident that at first these people looked with favor upon the strange white
race, if we may judge by the offer of a chief of one of the large rancherias to
give ten wives to each Spaniard of the party who would become a resident of his
village. Viscayno seems to have been the original California "boomer," for he
was so enthusiastic over the California climate and productions that in his
official report to the Spanish king he commends everything most highly. The
people were reported of a gentle disposition, of good stature and fair
complexion, the women being of somewhat larger size than the men and of pleasing
countenance. The object of Viscayno's boom literature was to promote a scheme
for the founding of a settlement at Monterey bay, but before the expedition was
organized Viscayno died, and the scheme died with him. Had he lived, the
settlement of California would undoubtedly have antedated the settlement of the
English in Virginia.

   It is difficult to realize the long period of time elapsing between the first
visit of the Spaniards and their first attempt to make a permanent settlement.
Nothing more clearly indicates the deteriorating influence of the vast wealth so
wrongfully acquired in their conquests, upon the character of the Spanish
people. Corruption among the rulers demoralized her armies and prostrated her
industries. Religious bigotry had driven into exile the most intelligent and
enterprising of her people, and palsied the bravery and spirit of adventure
which had formerly characterized them. Other nations showed a desire to take
advantage of the situation, and the only way in which to retain the grand
territory of Alta California seemed to be by colonization; but her illiberal
treatment of foreign emigrants shut the door of progress. Her sparse settlements
in Mexico could spare few colonists. The only way left was to convert the
California Indians and make them citizens.

   The Jesuits had long held absolute control of affairs in Lower
California—much more populous then than in recent years—but when, in 1767, the
Spanish king ordered their expulsion from Spain and all her colonies, the decree
of perpetual banishment compelled their immediate removal. Governor Portola, to
whom was intrusted the enforcement of the decree, turned over all the missions
in that colony to the Franciscans. At the head of the Franciscan contingent
given charge of these missions was Father Junipero Serra, a man of indomitable
will and great missionary zeal. He had had much successful experience in Mexico
in teaching agriculture to the Indians. Following his assumption of the care of
the missions in a territory seven hundred miles in extent in Lower California,
he undertook the occupation and colonization of Alta California, this work to be
done by the joint effort of the church and state. It was decided to proceed to
San Diego by land and sea. The vessels were to carry the heavier articles and
the land party to take along the horses and stock required. The journey by land
proved one of great hardship, and when Portola arrived at San Diego in July,
1769, only one hundred and twenty-six remained of the party of two hundred and
nineteen who started.

   It is a matter of some interest to know that the first expedition sent
overland from San Diego shortly after, under Portola, to establish the northern
missions, took a course very nearly that upon which the Santa Fe railroad is now
located, and that it camped upon the banks of the Santa Ana river, which stream
the commander named the "Rio Jesus de Los Temblores," because of the sharp
earthquake experienced there. This party, however, did not touch this county. 
   The first white people absolutely known to have crossed the territory which
is now Riverside county were members of an exploring party which was sent out
from Mexico under the command of Lieutenant Colonel de Anza, its destination
being San Gabriel. It crossed the Colorado river in the latter part of December,
1775, and after a hard journey across the desert reached the San Gorgonio Pass,
only to encounter there severe cold and a heavy fall of snow, accompanied with
several severe earthquakes. They forded the Santa Ana river not far from our
present county line on the 4th of January, 1776, and reached San Gabriel a day
or two later, from which point, after a few days' rest, seventeen of their
number were hurried to San Diego to assist in quelling a serious Indian outbreak
that threatened the safety of that mission.

   It seems proper to give at this point a brief outline of what is known
concerning the Indian people who occupied this section before the coming of the
whites. J. M. Guinn, in his valuable and very interesting history of the
Southern California coast counties, says regarding them: "Whether the primitive
California Indian was the low, degraded being that some writers represent him to
have been admits of doubt. A mission training, continued through three
generations, certainly did not elevate him in morals, and when, later, he was
freed from mission restraint and brought in contact with the white race he
lapsed into a condition more degraded and more debased than that in which the
missionaries found him. Whether it was the inherent fault of the Indian or the
fault of his training it is useless to discuss. If we are to believe the
accounts given of him by Viscayno and others who saw him before he had come into
contact with civilization he was not inferior in intelligence to the normal
aborigines of the country east of the Rocky mountains. He wore clothing made of
skins better tanned and made than those of Castile, and made fishing lines and
nets of excellent quality. The coast and island Indians constructed canoes
larger and better than those of the eastern Indians, which they handled with
wonderful dexterity and courage. They obtained shells and coral, from which they
made beads for use as money. As hunters and fishers they seem to have been fully
the equal of the Eastern tribes, but in the art of war they were inferior.   It
is believed that the Indians of the interior valley and those of the coast
belonged to the same general family." The most numerous of the tribes known to
have lived in Riverside county were the Cahuillas and the Serranos, but these in
recent years seem to have so intermingled as to be practically of one family. It
is unfortunate, remarks Mr. Guinn, that the old padres were too intent on
driving out the old religious beliefs of the Indians and instilling new ones to
care much for what the aborigines had formerly believed or what traditions or
myths they had inherited from their ancestors.

   There are in the possession of the Historical Society of Southern California
a number of letters, published in 1851-2, which give quite elaborate information
concerning these people. The writer was Hugo Reid, a Scotchman who came into
this country in 1834 and married a neophyte of the San Gabriel Mission, the
daughter of an Indian chief. It is claimed that Reid was the putative father of
Helen Hunt Jackson's heroine, Ramona. He says that the Southern California
Indians were practically one great family, but under many distinct chiefs,
speaking nearly the same language. When war was waged against outside tribes of
no affinity it was made a common cause, the hereditary captain of each
commanding his own lodge. Robbery was never known among these people. Murder was
of rare occurrence, and punished with death. Marriage between kinsfolk was not
allowed, and incest was punished with death. In quarrels between the Indians the
chiefs acted as judges, and if they could not agree an impartial chief was
called in. There was no appeal from his decision. Whipping was never resorted to
as a punishment. The chiefs had one, two or three wives, as their inclinations
dictated, the subjects only one. Of their religious notions, Mr. Reid says:

   "They believed in one God, the Maker and Creator of all things, whose name
was held so sacred as hardly ever to be used, and then in a low voice. They had
no bad spirits connected with their creed, and never heard of a devil or hell
until the coming of the Spaniards. They believed in no resurrection whatever.
The world, they believed, was at one time in a state of chaos, until God gave it
its present formation, fixing it on .the shoulders of seven giants made
expressly for this end. When they move themselves an earthquake is the
consequence. Animals were then formed, and lastly men and women were made
separately from earth, and ordered to live together."

   The Cahuilla tribes, inhabiting the mountain districts in Riverside county,
had this tradition of their creation: The primeval Adam and Eve were created by
the Supreme Being in the waters of a northern sea. They came up out of the water
upon the land, which they found to be soft and miry. They travelled southward
for many moons in search of land suitable for their residence, and where they
could obtain sustenance from the earth. This they found at last upon the
mountain sides in Southern California. Mr. Reid says that some of the Indian
myths, divested of their crudities, and with the ideas clothed in fitting
language, are as poetical as are those of Greece or Scandinavia.

   The common notion that peace and happiness were the universal condition
during the mission era seems hardly justified. Outbreaks were not uncommon, and
were usually due to the lawless and brutal conduct of the worthless adventurers
who gathered about the settlements. The record of those turbulent years of the
first half of the last century is an interesting one to the student, and we
condense from Bancroft's, Guinn's and other histories a few points of local
interest.

   Many a Riverside orchardist has turned up with his plough evidences that his
orange grove was planted upon the site of an Indian village, of which there is
no other record, and the rocks along the river banks bear unmistakable evidence
that years ago the Indian women used them to grind the acorns and grain they had
gathered. Along the sides of "Little Rubidoux," since the settlement of
Riverside, there existed an Indian rancheria, and the bones of the dead buried
there were recently uncovered in preparing that section for modern improvements.
It is reasonable to conclude that it was from these people that recruits were
gathered to make a settlement of Indian neophytes in the San Bernardino valley
proper. It seems that the friars at San Gabriel decided that it was necessary to
establish a station on the direct line of travel between that mission and
Mexico, through the San Gorgonio Pass. They accordingly selected an ideal spot
for the purpose, near what has been known as Bunker Hill, between Colton and San
Bernardino. The Indian name of the valley was Guachama, which is said to have
signified "a place of plenty to eat." The station was called Politana, after a
trusty Indian who was placed in charge. All the Indians were friendly, and
everything seemed prosperous. But the year of the earthquakes— 1812—closed with
the ruin of Politana. The year had opened with many conversions, but the strange
rumblings beneath the earth and the frequent severe earthquake shocks roused the
superstitious fears of the Indians. And when, finally, a hot mud spring burst
out at Politana (now the popular resort known as Urbita), and the temperature of
the waters greatly increased, the Indians believed these strange phenomena to be
a manifestation of some powerful spirit displeased at the presence of the
Christians, and proceeded to appease this malevolent deity by killing the most
of the converts and destroying the buildings. It is said that for a time a few
Indians lingered around the spot, but, excepting an occasional relic which
the-white man's plow turns up, no evidence of the former village exists.

   It is probable that there was no mission of which so little is known as that
organized later near the border of this county as a branch of the San Gabriel
Mission, the ruins of which could very recently be seen near the old road
between Riverside and Redlands. Almost nothing exists to commemorate the events
of the brief period of Franciscan rule over this region. It is said, as
evidencing the considerable Indian population existing along the Santa Ana river
at that time, that in 1830 no less than four thousand cattle were killed for
their hides and tallow, which were conveyed to San Gabriel for purposes of
trade. It is known that the native tribes grew restless under the control of the
padres in 1832, and, revolting, destroyed the original mission buildings.
Stronger and better ones were constructed, and it is the ruins of these which
existed near old San Bernardino in recent years. This mission was abandoned soon
after in consequence of the edict of secularization.

   The Indians seemed to have retained for a considerable period a partial
control of their rich rancherias in the Temecula, San Jacinto and other valleys,
and were very numerous even until the disastrous years of flood and drouth in
the early sixties, when smallpox and other diseases sadly decimated the
aborigines throughout the entire southland.

   The part which some of these Indians played in the destruction of a band of
white desperadoes deserves mention here, since the bloody conflict probably took
place within the limits of Riverside county. In 1851 the owners of the immense
ranches, granted by the Spanish government, employed a large number of Indians
to care for the great herds of cattle and horses owned by them. Though
dispossessed of their heritage and therefore justified in holding resentment,
the Indians were not the only thieves who raided the ranches. Renegade white men
stole cattle, and too often the red men got the punishment. In the instance
referred to the Indians, unassisted, exterminated the band of white thieves. The
whole southern country had been long terrorized by a band of white men under the
leadership of an old Texan ranger named John Irving. The authorities at Los
Angeles had issued warrants for their arrest, and sent a posse out to capture
them. The sheriff sought them at Temescal and at Rubidoux's ranch at Jurupa, and
learning the gang had gone north followed in pursuit, only to find that the
robbers had broken into and stolen from several ranch houses near San
Bernardino. Irving had threatened to kill the owners, but failed to find them,
and struck off in a road which was supposed to lead to San Jacinto. The Indians
employed upon the ranches followed, and, harassing the gang, forced them into
the San Timoteo canyon. Here, where the horses were useless because they could
no longer charge the attacking force, the Indians shot them down with bows and
arrows and then mutilated them with stones. Only one badly wounded member of
Irving's band escaped alive. One Indian chief was killed and two others of the
attacking party were wounded during the fight. It is believed that the captors
secured some thousands in gold, which they distributed among themselves.

   Few Americans can read without a feeling of shame the history of the
treatment given the American Indians by the white races, and they are gratified
that in these later years our government is giving to the surviving remnants of
the aboriginal race the training and opportunity necessary to place them on an
equality with the whites. It was inevitable that this half of the earth should
not remain sparsely populated and undeveloped while the older continents were
overcrowded; and though we may, in the light of present advancement, regret the
brutality of our ancestors in the past, we know that the world is infinitely
better for the Christian civilization which has developed here, and in the
process made serviceable for man's use the wonderful natural resources of the
continent—substituting for a wilderness, where warring savages kept the
population at a standstill the greatest and grandest democracy the world has
ever known.

   There is still, in spite of the ravages of disease among them during many
decades, a considerable Indian population in Riverside county. It is probable
that in the early times the Cahuillas were the most numerous. They made their
home principally in the elevated valleys of the San Jacinto mountains, where the
remnant of the tribe still occupy a government reservation. A branch known as
the Saboba Indians occupy a reservation near the city of San Jacinto, and
another, the Pechangos, who formerly occupied the fertile and well-watered
section about Temecula, are located upon a two hundred-acre reservation near
their old home. The Serrano tribe, which once lived in the San Bernardino
mountains and along the Santa Ana river in this county, are now located in the
San Gorgonio Pass and along the base of the big mountains on the desert side.
Away at the extreme eastern edge of the county, along the Colorado river, there
are some seven hundred Yuma Indians, whose children to the number of about one
hundred and forty are being taught in the government school near them. There is
a Catholic school for Indians, maintained by that church, at Banning, and there
are day schools for the young Indian children at Banning, Coachella, Thermal and
at the various other reservations. With these schools and the great government
training school—the Sherman Institute—at Riverside, where the Indian youth are
given practical training in agriculture and the trades, to fit them for
self-support and qualify them for citizenship, these people are at last being
given the chance for advancement which is their due.

   While we deplore and seek to find justification for the course pursued by our
ancestors, when taking possession of the continent, we may at least congratulate
ourselves that they did not enslave the people they supplanted. But it was
otherwise with the Spanish conquerors. They saved the souls of the natives by
getting them to accept the dogmas of their church, but even the generally kindly
disposed priests made them virtually slaves, teaching them to work, and allowing
them only scant food and clothing in recompense for labor which enriched only
their conquerors. Ignoring entirely the Indian's right, acquired by centuries of
possession, the Spanish and Mexican authorities coolly gave to the prominent
among their own people immense tracts of land, including always the choicest,
best watered spots, upon which the Indian villages were located. Within the
comparatively small portion of the county, which lies upon the western slope of
the mountain range, fifteen such large grants were made, the titles to which
were subsequently confirmed by the United States, the aggregate area included
amounting to over 333,546 acres.

   It is a fact worthy of note that most of those who obtained these grants were
either of pure Spanish blood, or Americans who had married into their families,
and that they were practically all friendly to the Americans and aided heartily
in organizing California as an American state. In the convention held to
organize the state government there were many delegates from this class, headed
by that splendid type of the Spanish gentleman, General Vallejo of Sonoma, whom
many of us had the pleasure of meeting in the pioneer Riverside days. Pedrorena,
a son-in-law of the original Estudillo, and a large land owner in the San
Jacinto valley, is said to have been the youngest delegate in the convention;
and Abel Stearns, whose name is so prominently associated with this section, was
another prominent man among the Southern California representatives.

   Few of the original grantees obtained possession of a larger territory than
did Bernardo Yorba, although of his vast estate only the Rincon grant and the
Sierra (Yorba) rancho, aggregating over 22,000 acres, were located within the
borders of the county. He, however, owned the Rancho Canyon de Santa Ana,
granted to him directly, and also a large interest in that magnificent tract of
62,000 acres known as the Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana, which the Spanish
government had in 1810 given to his father and Juan Pablo Peralta. Thus did Don
Bernardo Yorba's acres extend from the Temescal, in this county, to the ocean
near Newport Beach. His big adobe ranch house was located on the Canyon de Santa
Ana rancho, and views of its ruins, together with the little old chapel and the
family cemetery, can still be seen from the Santa Fe trains. Here he ruled a
tract as large as some European states. His great flocks and herds and vast
fields of grain brought him a most princely income, which enabled him to extend
to all a liberal hospitality. Tradition says that he nailed gold coin as
ornaments around the doorways of his home. In 1849 he purchased the right to
take brea from a thousand acres in the heart of the present Fullerton oil
fields, which he used as fuel. He died in 1858, leaving a family of seventeen
children, and a widow who died only a few years ago.

   Abel Stearns was confirmed in the ownership of the Jurupa and La Laguna
ranchos, containing about 46,000 acres, and he at one time owned some 200,000
acres in what is now San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange and Los Angeles counties.
His wife was Arcadia Bandini, whose father, Juan Bandini, was one of the first
of the Spanish people to welcome the Americans, and Mrs. Stearns and her sister
made the first American flag to be flung to the breeze in California. Mr.
Stearns also purchased La Sierra grant of 17,774 acres, which had been confirmed
to Vicente Sepulveda. He also laid claim to a Mexican grant called Rancho
Temescal, but this claim was not allowed.

   Another family which was given a large acreage in this county was that of Don
Jose Antonio Estudillo—the grandfather of our present state senator, Miguel
Estudillo—whose duty it was, as prefect at the time of the formation of San
Diego county in 1850, to divide the new county in election precincts. At the
first election Mr. Estudillo was chosen county assessor; Juan Bandini,
treasurer, and John Brown of San Bernardino coroner. Mr. Estudillo died in 1852,
his will being the first one filed in the new county. The Rancho San Jacinto
Viejo of 35,503 acres was granted to his widow and heirs in 1880.

   The Rancho San Jacinto Nuevo and the Rancho San Jacinto Nuevo y Protrero,
containing together nearly 49,000 acres, were granted to Thomas W. Sutherland,
guardian of the minor children of Miguel Pedrorena and his widow, Maria Antonia
Estudillo de Pedrorena, the latter being the daughter of Senor Estudillo.

   The name of Louis Rubidoux appears as the grantee of the Rubidoux rancho and
the San Gorgonio grant, with the total acreage of 11,189 acres. Luis Vignes,
well known in the early history of Los Angeles, was grantee of the Temecula and
Pauba ranchos, containing some 53,000 acres, and the heirs of Pablo Apis became
the owners of the Little Temecula rancho with its 2233 acres.

   The Santa Rosa rancho, containing about 47,000 acres, was confirmed to Juan
Moreno. Later this became the property of Parker Dear, who married the daughter
of Mrs. Couts, who was a granddaughter of Juan Bandini.

   As in the case of the Bandini family, noted above, most of the Spanish
residents of Riverside county were friendly to the Americans, as were some of
Anglo-Saxon ancestry who had married into Spanish families. After Fremont and
Stockton had taken possession of Los Angeles they left that city with a garrison
of only fifty men in charge of Captain Gillespie. His tactless and overbearing
methods aroused anew the animosity of the native Californians, who revolted and
compelled him to retire with his little force to the American man-of-war at San
Pedro. When the attack was made the commander sent a message to Benito D.
Wilson, who was at Jurupa—now West Riverside—ordering him to join the little
squad of soldiers at a military station at Chino and come to the assistance of
the Americans at Los Angeles. But the Mexicans met him in force at Chino, and
after a sharp skirmish took the entire party prisoners and imprisoned them for a
long time at Los Angeles, where they would all have been hanged but for the
energetic efforts of humane leaders among the Mexicans. They remained in prison
until the Americans again captured the city.

   Louis Rubidoux, whose name is so familiarly associated with the territory
upon which, a quarter of a century later, the city of Riverside was located, and
for whom Mt. Rubidoux and city streets and buildings are very appropriately
named, bore quite a conspicuous part in the wartr When Captain Gillespie was
driven out of Los Angeles he took his company to San Diego by water to reinforce
the garrison there, and when General Kearney, with a battalion of American
troops, was coming across New Mexico to assist in the conquest of California, he
was ordered to take his company, and joining Kearney, guide the party to San
Diego. Mr. Rubidoux was a member of Gillespie's company, and because of his
knowledge of the country was selected to act as guide. Kearney was met near
Warner's ranch, and the united forces, numbering about one hundred and sixty
men, most of them poorly mounted and greatly worn by their long journey across
the deserts of Arizona and California, were proceeding on their way in a rather
straggling fashion, when, at San Pasqual, in San Diego county, they were met by
a force of Mexicans under Andreas Pico. The latter were not superior in number,
and were very deficient in firearms, but they were splendid horsemen and expert
with their lances, and they charged the Americans with such impetuous courage
that Kearney's little force suffered severely, losing eighteen men killed, all
but one of whom died of lance wounds, and as many more seriously wounded, among
the latter being Mr. Rubidoux. This action was probably the bloodiest that
California saw during the war. In spite of this success the Californians
subsequently retired, and Kearney's little army was allowed to reach San Diego
without further molestation. This action has a local interest because of the
prominent part taken in it by one so long and intimately associated with the
early history of this section—who was the owner of the tract upon which the
business section of Riverside is located. Mr. Rubidoux was a native of France,
and, evidently something more than the rough and courageous frontiersman he was
admitted to have been, for he was able to converse in four languages and brought
with him a good library in which he took much pride, and his Spanish wife was a
member of one of the oldest and wealthiest of the Santa Fe families^ His brother
is said to have been the founder of the city of St. Joseph, Mo., and is said to
have brought to this coast some $30,000 in gold, besides horses and cattle, with
which to stock his ranch. Not many years ago there remained ruins of an old
adobe structure on the edge of the High-grove mesa, overlooking the river
bottom, which is said to have been constructed by him as a fort for defense
against the Indians. As an evidence of his standing among his contemporaries it
should be mentioned that when Los Angeles was organized as a county in 1850,
Louis Rubidoux of Jurupa was elected one of the three associate justices, whose
duty it was, as a "Court of Sessions," to set in operation the machinery of the
new county government. He built himself a home on what has been known in later
years as the Daley ranch, and the conspicuous group of adobe ruins on the north
side of the county road, a short distance west of the bridge, is all that
remains of it. This neighborhood, known as Jurupa, was for many years the center
of the military and social activities of a large territory. On the south side of
the road, where Mr. Ables' seedling orange grove now stands, the government
built a fort, covering two or three acres of ground. Within this enclosure adobe
buildings were constructed and used for barracks by the force of some two
hundred United States soldiers, quartered here for several years, to guard the
settlers against the Indians who, at times, were very troublesome. Both the
walls of the enclosure and the barracks were made of large adobe bricks, capable
of withstanding bullets, and when torn down, twenty years later, to make way for
orchard planting, it was with difficulty that they could be broken and leveled.
Some of these were used in constructing the farm buildings erected on the
premises. In preparing the tract for farm use the plows brought up evidence that
here had existed the first mill for the grinding of grain in the interior of
Southern California. A strongly-built cement ditch had brought water for power
and irrigation, and one of the two mill-stones unearthed is now used as a corner
foundation for one of Mr. Ables' ranch buildings. Mr. Rubidoux met with an
accident which made him an invalid in the last decade of his life, and because
of this he was unable to prevent the waste of the wealth he had acquired, and
little remains in the possession of his descendants, many of whom still reside
in the county. He died in 1869. His widow, still kindly remembered by a few of
the older citizens, remained with one of her daughters in the old home for a
while, but spent the last years of her life with a married daughter at San Jacinto.

   Near the river, some dozen miles or more below Riverside, there stood at one
time the old ranch house of Don Juan Bandini, that worthy old Spaniard of San
Diego, to whom Governor Alvarado gave, in 1840, the eleven leagues of land since
known as the Jurupa rancho. This name, given the rancho and military station,
was an Indian word, and is said to have been the first spoken by an old Indian
chief, who greeted with it the Catholic priest who first visited the spot—Jurupa
meaning, so it is said, "peace and friendship." It is interesting, as
illustrating the conditions existing in those early days, to quote a reference
to Bandini found in Dana's work, "Two Years Before the Mast." There was a
wedding in a prominent Spanish-American family at Santa Barbara, while the
author was there, and he mentions the presence of Bandini as a guest, and the
fact that he rode horseback from his home on the Santa Ana river to Santa
Barbara to attend the festivities. The distance traveled over mountain and
plain, to attend this important social function, must have been considerably
more than a hundred and fifty miles.

   In those days there was quite a settlement of Spanish people at Agua Mansa,
in the river bottom above Jurupa. But the great flood of 1862 nearly destroyed
it, as it did many other places in Southern California. It was this
long-continued storm which sent a flood of water four feet deep through the town
of Anaheim, in Orange county, although that settlement was several miles from
the river channel. The rain commenced falling on the 24th of December, and for
thirty days the sun showed itself but twice, and then very briefly. The
resulting floods, sweeping down from the encircling mountains, drove the people
of Agua Mansa from their homes, swept away many of the dwellings, destroyed the
timber, and left the river bottom the wide and sandy waste it is today. For half
a century at least the river channel had been narrow and straight, held in place
largely by the heavy growth of cottonwood and willows, but with the destruction
of this protective growth the channels have since changed with nearly every
severe winter storm.

   James H. Roe, writing concerning the appearance of things along the river,
when he came into the country in 1873, says: "Among the old buildings, until
recently standing on the west side of the river, near Agua Mansa (gentle water),
was the Mexican Roman Catholic church—an adobe building—in front of which, on a
rude tower, was one of the old bells, made in Spain, so romantically associated
with the old California missions. The Latin inscription on this bell was too
much defaced to be deciphered in Riverside's time. In later years the bell had
fallen from the tower, and was hung from the branch of a cottonwood tree close
by. But, except in the river, which was often a roaring torrent in winter and
absolutely dry in summer, the land all about was so destitute of water that it
was a current joke in those days that the coyotes and jackrabbits had to carry
canteens when they crossed the plains."

   Aside from the Spanish grantees and their families, whose large possessions
have been described, there were very few white people in the county previous to
1870, the year in which was made the first serious attempt at colonization by
Americans. Benjamin Ables, who located at first at San Jacinto (in which section
at that time there were hardly a half dozen American families) and who finally
purchased and built upon the site of the old fort at Jurupa, says that at the
time of his coming to the latter place, there were only the families of the
Widow Rubidoux, Cornelius Jensen, Judge Arthur Parks, and possibly one or two
others. Mr. Jensen was evidently a man of good standing, for he represented his
section as supervisor of the county for many terms, and is remembered as a man
of good business ability.

   Few citizens realize that Riverside came near being as famous in silk culture
as it has finally become as the most successful and famous among the orange and
lemon-growing sections of the world. Following the flood year of 1862 came the
terrible drouth of '63 and '64, which practically destroyed the cattle industry
of Southern California, and forced the great ranch owners to seek some other use
for their land. Experiments were made in many directions, to find crops that it
would pay to grow and therefore give value to the otherwise worthless property.
Most of these resulted in failure, but one which seemed to have better chance of
success than many (because the climatic and soil conditions were unquestionably
favorable, and there was a force of Indian women who might furnish the cheap
labor required) had a disastrous sequel on account of the death of the one man
qualified to successfully inaugurate the business. It is because Riverside owes
her location to the silk-culture craze that the story of California's experience
in sericulture deserves space in this history. To encourage the silk industry
the legislature in 1866 passed an act authorizing the payment of a bounty of
$250 for every plantation of 5,000 mulberry trees two years old, and one of $300
for every 100,000 merchantable cocoons produced. As a result it is said that
three years later there were ten million mulberry trees in the state in various
stages of growth. Demands for the bounty poured in upon the commissioners in
such volume that the state treasury was threatened with bankruptcy. At the head
of the industry in the state was Louis Prevost, an educated French gentleman,
who was thoroughly conversant with the business in all its details. He believed
that California would surpass his native country in the production of silk. He
established at Los Angeles an extensive nursery of mulberry trees and a
cocoonery for the rearing of silk worms, and an association of leading citizens
was organized for the establishment of a colony of silk weavers. Mr. Prevost and
Thomas A. Garey (the latter gentleman well known afterward to Riverside orange
growers as the nurseryman who introduced the Mediterranean Sweet variety of
orange, and whose nursery furnished many of the trees planted here in the early
years of the colony), were a committee to select a location for the proposed
silk-growing colony, which was to consist of a hundred families, sixty of whom
were ready to settle as soon as the location was decided upon. They decided that
the soil and climate here were far better adapted to the culture of the mulberry
than any other of the southern counties. They therefore purchased 4,000 acres of
the Rubidoux rancho and 1,460 acres of government land adjoining it to the
eastward, and also arranged to purchase 3,169 acres of the Jurupa rancho on the
east side of the river. But before all the deals were perfected Mr. Prevost
died, August 16,1869, and as his death deprived the Association of its
mainspring all work stopped. The silk culture craze began to decline. The
immense profits of ten or twelve hundred dollars an acre that had been made in
the beginning by selling silk-worm eggs to those who had been seized by the
craze had fallen off from over-production; and a finishing blow was given the
business when the state repealed the law granting the bounty. Without an
experienced head to manage their business the Silk Center Association decided to
give up its project and offer its lands for sale on most advantageous terms;
and, through the efforts of one of its members, Thomas W. Cover, who
subsequently located on government land at the junction of what is now Brockton
and Jurupa avenues, and became a prominent Riverside orange grower, they soon
found a buyer.

   And this brings us to the era when new men came with full appreciation of the
county's possibilities, and the energy and taste to evolve here an ideal
civilization.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORY OF
Riverside County
CALIFORNIA
WITH
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
OF
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been
Identified With Its Growth and Development From
the Early Days to the Present
HISTORY BY
ELMER WALLACE HOLMES
AND OTHER WELL KNOWN WRITERS
ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME

HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 
1912


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