1800-1850 (1827)(1828)(1839)(1850)(1850-1860)Table of Contents
Reyner Banham Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies, Pelican: NY, 1971(1976), 256 pp., 1976, 1971, 1849 See Text
Fred E. Basten Santa Monica Bay: The First 100 Years, A pictorial history of Santa Monica, Venice, Ocean Park, Pacific Palisades, Topanga and Malibu, Douglas-West Publishers: Los Angeles, CA, 1974, 227 pp., 1851, 1839, 1828, 1827, 1904 See Text
Harry Carr Los Angeles City of Dreams (Illustrated by E.H. Suydam), D. Appleton-Century Co.: NY, 1935, 402 pp., See Text
Ingersoll's Century History Santa Monica Bay Cities (Being Book Number Two of Ingersoll's Century Series of California Local History Annals), 1908a, 1879-1805 See Text
Mark E. Kann Middle Class Radicalism in Santa Monica, Temple University Press: Philadelphia, 1986. 322pp. 1986, 1838, 1850-1800 See Text
Karen Kaplan, What made Pio Pico so, well, ugly? California's last Mexican governor had grotesque features that a neurologist thinks were caused by a metabolic disorder known as acromegaly. Los Angeles Times, July 19, 2008, 2008a, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer See Text and Image
Tom Moran and Tom Sewell Fantasy by the Sea Peace Press: Culver City, CA, 1980 (1979) (Originally published by Beyond Baroque Foundation with a grant from the Visual Arts Program of the National Endowment for the Arts) 1839, 1850-1800, pre-1768 See Text
Morris U. Schappes A Documentary History of the Jews in the United States, 1654-1875, The Citadel Press: New York, 1950, 762pp., 1950, 1897, 1925, 1857, 1856, 1848, 1847, 1846, 1815 See Text
Betty Lou Young Our First Century: The Los Angeles Athletic Club 1880-1980, LAAC Press: Los Angeles, California 1979, 176pp., 1880, 1850, 1843, 1833, 1820s, 1800 See Text
Betty Lou Young and Randy Young Santa Monica Canyon: A Walk Through History Casa Vieja Press: Pacific Palisades, CA, 1997, 182pp., 1850, 1848, 1847, 1846, 1838, 1831, 1827, 1822, 1820, 1802, 1800, 1784 See Text
Notes:
" . . . By 1880 . . . in the fall, the circus came to town [Los Angeles] as it had each year since the 1840s . . . " BLY
Documents
Reyner Banham Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies, Pelican: NY, 1971(1976), 256 pp., 1976, 1971, 1849
"Planning in Los Angeles? . . . for this has always been a planned city; Lieutenant Ord's survey map of 1849 is also a plan for further development."
Fred E. Basten Santa Monica Bay: The First 100 Years, A pictorial history of Santa Monica, Venice, Ocean Park, Pacific Palisades, Topanga and Malibu, Douglas-West Publishers: Los Angeles, CA, 1974, 227 pp., 1851, 1839, 1828, 1827, 1904
"In 1822, California became Mexican territory. Santa Monica, at this time, was still an unoccupied and unclaimed mesa covered with wild grass. There were visitors, however, to the Malibu Rancho, lying northwesterly of Topanga Canyon, which had been granted in 1804 to Jose Bartolome Tapia. Smugglers, too, had discovered the isolated coves and canyons along the coastline.
"In 1827, Xavier Alvarado and Antonio Machado were given a provisional grant to 'a place called Santa Monica,' referring to Santa Monica Canyon and the land that lay between it and Topanga Canyon, extending to the hills in the rear. Machado gave up his interest to Alvarado in 1831 and when Alvarado died, his sons remained in possession until 1838 when they abandoned 'Santa Monica' to Ysidro Reyes and Francisco Marquez.
"The year following the Alvarado-Machado grant to 'a place called Santa Monica' (1828), Don Francisco Sepulveda, soldier and citizen of that growing inland town, Los Angeles, was given possession of and provisional title to 'the place called San Vicente,' which included all of the original town of Santa Monica. It faced the ocean, extending from Santa Monica Canyon to what is now Pico Boulevard. Inland, it reached almost to the Westwood region and took in the mountains that overlooked the San Fernando Valley.
" . . .
"The grant to Francisco Sepulveda was confirmed by California Governor Alvarado in December, 1839 . . . " p. 2
"The dispute was settled when the Board of Land Commissioners, created in 1851 to investigate and pass upon land titles in California, ruled that Sepulveda would receive 'Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica' with 30,000 acres. To Reyes and Marquez went 'Boca de Santa Monica' with 6,600 acres." p. 5
Harry Carr Los Angeles City of Dreams (Illustrated by E.H. Suydam), D. Appleton-Century Co.: NY, 1935, 402 pp.
Chapter XXIII Los Angeles Is Somewhere Else
" . . .
"During the forties and fifties the Russian otter hunters came into these waters and brutally slaughtered the Catalina natives, coming ashore to massacre the men and steal the women. Most of those who escaped were brought to the mainland by the mission fathers to have their souls saved.
" . . .
Ingersoll's Century History Santa Monica Bay Cities (Being Book Number Two of Ingersoll's Century Series of California Local History Annals), 1908a, 1879-1805
Settlement
What is commonly know as the Santa Monica Bay region includes portions of four land grants, Malibu-extending twenty-twomiles along the coast to the north; Boca de Santa Monica, including the mouth of the Santa Monica Canyon; San Vicente y Santa Monica. which has an ocean frontage of a mile and a half and extended back four miles from the coast, covering an area of about 40,000 acres; and La Ballona rancho, with an ocean frontage of four miles.
For nearly three quarters of a century after the first settlement was made on the Malibu tract in 1804, or possibly earlier, this entire region was given over to grazing herds of cattle and sheep and to grain raising, on a small scale. The haciendas of the grant owners were each a little community in itself and the simple, pastoral life of the Spanish occupation lingered, to an unusual degree until the final breaking up of these ranchos, during the past twenty-five years.
But life in those slow-moving days, while not as strenuous as in our day of perpetual rush and change, had its occupations, its interests and its amusements. Most of these rancheros were also residents of Los Angeles and took an active part in municipal and territorial affairs. At their country homes they were surrounded by a large retinue of relations, retainers and servants, the latter mostly Indians. All of these were under the protection and command of the head of the house and all were fed, clothed, and provided for. The number of people about his place was a matter of pride with the ranchero.
[p. 125] And the days on one of these large stock ranges were not all "siesta" by any means. Herds and flocks must be guarded from thieves and the ravages of wild beasts; they must be shifted from plain to valley, from coast to mountain-side, as the season demanded. There were rodeos, the annual rounding-up of stock, to attend and sometimes a large cattle owner must be present at several of these affairs in order to secure all of his stock. Then matanza, or slaughtering, was a busy season requiring a careful selection of animals and good judgement in bargaining with the trader of the hide droghers [sic] [drovers?]; sheep-shearing was another period of arduous labor; the tanning of hides, the rendering of tallow and the harvesting of grain all demand due attention. There were dry seasons when losses wer heavy, and cold, wet years which were disastrous to cattle and especially sheep.
The greater part of the necessary supplies were raised upon the rancho, but yearly the hides and tallow were traded with the sailing vessels that put into San Pedro, for such supplies and luxuries as were brought from the Orient, or from Boston. Certainly the life of those years was not without its interests. The unstability of political affairs, the constant bickering and jealousy of Monterey and Santa Barbara on the one hand and Los Angeles and San Diego, on the other; the frequently changing and very uncertain orders and officials sent from Mexico, all of these afforded pretty steady excitement in Los Angeles. And Los Angeles seems never to have been a really dull place-even in its sleepiest days. There were generally something doing -if it was only a murder before breakfast. For amusements there were balls and weddings, horse races and bull fights and the various fiestas of the church.
The ranchos near the coast were not as exposed to depredations from the dreaded "desert" Indians as were the more interior locations, but there are still traditions of lively scraps wtih bands of thieving Indians on the Malibu and the San Vicente, and there is at least one "encino del Indias" located on the palisades where an Indian horse thief was hanged without legal preliminaries.
[p. 127] . . . Señor [Tiburcio] Tapia was something of a politician, or so it would seem now-a-days; but we are assured that in the early days of Los Angeles the office had to seek the man and sometimes went begging for an occupant, so we must put Señor Tapia down as one of the most self-sacrificing and public spirited citizens Los Angeles ever had. He was re-elected vocale twice. In 1831 he was alacade (mayor) of Los Angeles; in 1833 he was "sindico," (recorder); in 1835 "encargado de Indians"; 1836, alcalde-second alcalde-it took two mayors to keep things moving; In 1839 he was alcalde again and was also confirmed in the grant of the Cucamonga Rancho by governor Alvarado. In 1840 he was one of the five substitute judges elected by the junta, or superior court. In 1844 he again served the city as alcalde.
He must have been a busy man, as the leading merchant of the town and as one of the owners of the Topanga Malibu and, at the same time he was making extensive improvements on the Cucamonga Rancho, where he built a residence. It is said that as rumors of the American design upon California became rife, Don Tiburcio became alarmed for his store of coin, which was unusually large for that period. He is said to have carried much of it to Cucamongo and buried it, and there are also stories of other chests of it hidden on the Malibu. Whatever treasures of silver and gold he may have stowed away, did him no good, for he died suddenly in 1845 and it seems to have been lost to his family. He left one daughter, Maria Merced, who later marries Leon V. Prudhomme, one of the early French settlers of Los Angeles, and who is still living in the city.
" . . .
[p. 180] Chapter III. From Town to City. 1880-1890.
[p. 180] José Raymundo Carrillo, a native of Loreto, who came to California in 1769 . . . married Tomasa Ignacia Lugo and their sons, Carlos, José and Domingo, were among the most prominent citizens of the Mexican period of Califoria history. Their only daughter, Maria Antonia, married Captain José de la Guerra y Noriega, one of the most brilliant figures in Santa Barbara history.
[p. 181] Carlos Antonio Carrillo [1783-1852], grandfather of Juan J., was born at Santa Barbara in 1783. He began life as a soldier and was engaged in many military affairs. In 1830 he was elected a member of the Mexican Congress and worked earnestly for the interests of his country and the preservation of the mission. One of his speeches, "El Exposicion sobre el Fondo Piadoso" was the first production of a native Californian, printed in book form. In 1837, his brother José Antonio, who was an active politician, secured for Carlos an appointment as governor of California, with the privilege of locating the capitol of the state at his pleasure. In consequence of this document, the original of which is now in the possession of Mr. Juan J. Carrillo, Señor Carlos Carrillo chose Los Angeles as capitol and was inaugurated there with an elaborate ceremony-the only time that Los Angeles was ever made the capital [sic]. The distinction was short-lived, however, as Governor Alvarado refused to recognize the authority of his Uncle Carlos and after a brief and bloodless campaign, Don Carlos retired from the field. He was the grantee of the Sespe Rancho and of Santa Rosa Island. He died in 1852. Bancroft says of him: "In person Don Carlos, like most of his brothers and cousins, was large and of magnificient presence, distinguished for his courteous and gentlemanly manners. In all California there was no more kind-hearted, generous, popuar and inoffensive citizen than he." His wife was Josefa Castro; his sons José, Pedro C. and José Jesus; his daughters, Josefa, wife fo Wm. J. Dana; Encarnacion, wife of Thomas Robbins; Francisca, wife of A.F. Thompson; Manuela, wife of John C. Jones, and Maria Antonia, wife of Lewis Burton.
[p. 181] Pedro C. Carrillo [ - 1888], father of Juan J., was born in Santa Barbara and was educated in Honolulu and Boston. On his return to California he took an acitve part in affairs, filling various offices in Santa Barbara and Los Angeles and being the grantee of Alamos y Agua Caliente, Camulos ranchos and San Diego island. During the American conquest, he favored the Americans and was active in their behalf. In 1847 he was the guide who led a messenger from Stockton to Fremont through the enemy's country. He was made receiver of the port of San Diego, after the American occupation and later served as receiver of the port at Santa Barbara and at San Pedro. His wife was Josefa Bandini, a sister of Mrs. Arcadia de Baker and the oldest one of the famous Bandini sisters. It was she who made the American flag which was used by Commodore Stockton at San Diego-the first American flag raised in Southern California
Mark E. Kann Middle Class Radicalism in Santa Monica, Temple University Press: Philadelphia, 1986. 322pp., 1986, 1838, 1850-1800
Chapter 2: The Highest Bidder
"Local historians disagree about which entrepreneurs should be considered Santa Monica's official founders. The first candidates are Ysidro Reyes and Francisco Marquez "enterprising harness makers" who won the favor of the king of Spain and were granted title to the 6,400-acre Rancho Boca de Santa Monica in 1838. A great great grandson claims that these founders started a hospitable community that was occasionally forced on the defensive by outsiders, marauding Indians and gringo bandits." p. 29
Karen Kaplan, What made Pio Pico so, well, ugly? California's last Mexican governor had grotesque features that a neurologist thinks were caused by a metabolic disorder known as acromegaly. Los Angeles Times, July 19, 2008 Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
"It's a good thing Pio Pico served as California's governor long before the age of television-his broad forehead, bulbous nose and protruding jaw prompted the author Gertrude Atherton to observe in 1902 that "an uglier man than Pio Pico rarely had entered this world."
"Now a neurologist believes he knows why Pico was so hard on the eyes: He probably suffered from acromegaly, a metabolic disorder that causes cartilage and soft tissues in the face and extremities to grow grotesquely large.
"Dr. Ivan S. Login, a professor at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, began speculating about Pico's condition six years ago after receiving a postcard from his daughter, who was vacationing in San Diego.
"The 1852 daguerreotype shows Pico, the last Mexican governor of California, in a three-piece suit and bow tie. But the dapper clothes don't mask his exaggerated features.
""When you see one person who's got that, you recognize it forever," Login said. "As soon as I saw that postcard, I knew exactly what was wrong with that man."
"Login suspected the cause was a benign tumor of the pituitary gland in the brain, which causes the excess production of growth hormone. He and his daughter consulted more than a dozen historians and searched for more images of Pico, who served two terms as governor in the 1830s and 1840s.
"After examining an oil painting from 1847 and a photograph taken in 1858, the neurologist found other telltale signs of acromegaly. Pico's left eyeball was out of sync with his right, probably because the tumor compressed the nerves controlling eyeball movement. He had also lost the ends of his eyebrows, a sign that the tumor prevented Pico's pituitary gland from producing normal amounts of testosterone.
"That lack of testosterone may have also made him impotent, according to Login's report published this month in the journal Pituitary. Though large families were common at the time, Pico and his wife, Maria, apparently had no biological children.
" In photos taken when Pico was in his 80s, the ex-governor's fingers were slender and his face appeared normal. A bushy beard suggested his pituitary gland had regained normal function.
"Login said he suspects the tumor died on its own after becoming too big for its blood supply sometime after Pico turned 57, allowing him to father children with other women after his wife died.
"[Governor Pio Pico, 1852]"
Tom Moran and Tom Sewell Fantasy by the Sea Peace Press: Culver City, CA, 1980 (1979) (Originally published by Beyond Baroque Foundation with a grant from the Visual Arts Program of the National Endowment for the Arts) 1839, pre-1768
The Land
"Marshland and unstable sand dunes made up most of the property that Abbot Kinney owned. A century earlier [1805], Indians from the offshore islands had regularly visited the area to collect decorative marine shells. The Los Angeles River had once flowed through on its way to the sea, but had long since meandered south to a new outlet.
"It was part of the former La Ballona Rancho, a land grant deeded to the Machado and Talamantes families by the Mexican government in 1839. Some of it had been used for cattle grazing but the land was too often flooded to provide good forage."
Morris U. Schappes A Documentary History of the Jews in the United States, 1654-1875, The Citadel Press: New York, 1950, 762pp., 1950, 1897, 1925, 1857, 1856, 1848, 1847, 1846, 1815
Schappes' footnotes:
"9) Carvalho (1815-1897) married Sarah Solis of Philadelphia; his first son, David Nunes was born in 1848 (died 1925); Jacob S. Carvalho; Solomon Solis was born in 1856. Solomon Nunes Carvalho died 27 May 1897 (age 83.)
Betty Lou Young Our First Century: The Los Angeles Athletic Club 1880-1980, LAAC Press: Los Angeles, California 1979, 176pp., 1880, 1850, 1843, 1833, 1820s, 1800
1. Pueblo to City
" . . .
" . . . In 1880, when the LACC was founded, . . . Los Angeles (for its ninety-nine year history) had been isolated-first as a colony of Spain, then as a rough-and-tumble frontier town . . . Little remained of the pueblo . . .
"(In those days) social life and sports centered around the Plaza . . . bullfights, bearbaiting . . . cockfighting. . . . horse racing . . . and card games . . . Californios were inveterate gamblers; every game and contest carried some kind of wager.
" . . . first Yankee settlers in the 1820s . . . John Temple and Abel Stearns . . .
"(Visitors) were mainly interested in local bars and gambling. . . .
" . . . billiards-introduced by Joseph Paulding of Maryland in 1833 . . (in 1843) the first social club, the Amigos del Pais, met in an adobe building which housed a dance hall, reading room, and card tables."
Betty Lou Young and Randy Young Santa Monica Canyon: A Walk Through History Casa Vieja Press: Pacific Palisades, CA, 1997, 182pp., 1850,1848, 1847, 1846, 1838, 1831, 1827, 1822, 1820, 1802, 1800, 1784
" . . .
"The rancho period began in 1784, as soldiers, planning retirement, were granted permission to establish homes and run cattle on their own lands outside the pueblo. While these were little more than grazing permits, subsequent grants were accorded official status. The earliest such grant along the northwestern fringe of Santa Monica Bay was for Rancho Topanga Malibu Sequit, issued by the Spanish to José Bartolomé Tapia in 1802. To the south, Augustin and Ygnacio Machado and Felipe and Tomas Talamantes were given grazing rights to Rancho La Ballona in 1820-the low-lying flatland bordering Ballona Creek, the present site of Culver City.
"In 1822 Mexico won its independence from Spain. Therefore, in 1827, Francisco Javier Alvarado and Antonio Ignacio Machado were given a grazing permit for "the place called Santa Monica" by Guillermo Cota, the alcalde (mayor) of Los Angeles in the name of the new Mexican government. Machado is believed to have relinquished his share to Alvarado in 1831, but Alvarado's sons kept the grant until June 14, 1838, when they relinquished their rights to Francisco Marquez and Ysidro Reyes." pp. 5, 6
" . . .
"An even greater threat arose when the United States army marched into Los Angeles in 1846 and again in 1847, leading to the surrender of Alta California to the United States in 1848. . . . "