![Rancho La Puente](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/Rancho_La_Puente.png)
Rancho La Puente was a ranch in the southern
San Gabriel Valley
The San Gabriel Valley ( es, Valle de San Gabriel) is one of the principal valleys of Southern California, lying immediately to the east of the eastern city limits of the city of Los Angeles, and occupying the vast majority of the eastern part ...
that measured just under , and remained intact from its establishment in the late 1700s as an outpost of
Mission San Gabriel
Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to:
Organised activities Religion
*Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity
*Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...
until about 1870. By modern landmarks, the ranch extended from
San Gabriel River on the west to just west of the
57 Freeway on the east and from Ramona Boulevard/San Bernardino Road on the north to the
Puente Hills
The Puente Hills are a chain of hills, one of the lower Transverse Ranges, in an unincorporated area in eastern Los Angeles County, California, in the United States. The western end of the range is often referred to locally as the Whittier Hills.
...
on the south. All but , which fall within
Orange County
Orange County most commonly refers to:
*Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area
Orange County may also refer to:
U.S. counties
*Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando
*Orange County, Indiana
*Orange County, New ...
, are within
Los Angeles County
Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is the ...
. Today, the present communities of
Avocado Heights,
Bassett,
Baldwin Park Baldwin Park may refer to:
* Baldwin Park, California
** Baldwin Park (Metrolink station) in Baldwin Park, California
* Baldwin Park, Florida, a neighborhood in Orlando, Florida
* Baldwin Park, Missouri
* A public park in Baldwin, Nassau County, ...
,
San Dimas,
Rowland Heights
Rowland Heights is an unincorporated area in and below the Puente Hills in the San Gabriel Valley, in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 48,231 at the 2020 census. Rowland Heights is in the Los Angeles metropol ...
,
Hacienda Heights
Hacienda Heights () is an unincorporated suburban community in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 census, the community had a total population of 54,038, up from 53,122 at the 2000 census. For statistical purposes, the ...
,
City of Industry
City of Industry is a city in the San Gabriel Valley, in eastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city is almost entirely industrial, containing over 3,000 businesses employing 67,000 people, with only 264 residents as of t ...
,
La Puente
La Puente (Spanish for "The Bridge") is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city had a population of 39,816 at the 2010 census and is approximately east of downtown Los Angeles.
History
The original inhabitants of the ...
,
Walnut
A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus ''Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''.
Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a true ...
,
Covina
Covina is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, about east of downtown Los Angeles, in the San Gabriel Valley. The population was 51,268 according to the 2020 census, up from 47,796 at the 2010 census. The city's slogan, "On ...
,
West Covina
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some R ...
, and small sections of
South El Monte
South El Monte is a city in the San Gabriel Valley, in Los Angeles County, California, United States. At the 2010 census, the city had a population of 20,116, down from 21,144 at the 2000 census.
Geography
According to the United States C ...
and
Irwindale
Irwindale is a city in the San Gabriel Valley, in Los Angeles County, California. The population was 1,422 at the 2010 census, down from 1,446 at the 2000 census. The ZIP Codes serving the area are 91010, which is shared with Duarte, 91702, w ...
are contained within the old boundaries of Rancho La Puente.
History
The name "La Puente" originates from the Spanish
Portola Expedition Portola may refer to:
* ''Portola'' (album), a 1998 album by Rose Melberg
* Portola, California
* Portola, San Francisco, California
People with the surname
* Gaspar de Portolá
Gaspar de Portolá y Rovira (January 1, 1716 – October 10, 1 ...
of 1769-1770, the first land-based exploration of
Alta California
Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...
by Europeans. In July, 1769 the party came north through "la abra" (later altered into
La Habra
La Habra (archaic spelling of ''La Abra'', ) is a city in the northwestern corner of Orange County, California, United States. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 60,239. A related city, La Habra Heights, is located to the north o ...
), "an opening" or pass through the
Puente Hills
The Puente Hills are a chain of hills, one of the lower Transverse Ranges, in an unincorporated area in eastern Los Angeles County, California, in the United States. The western end of the range is often referred to locally as the Whittier Hills.
...
. Descending down into a valley the expedition dubbed "San Miguel" (now the
San Gabriel Valley
The San Gabriel Valley ( es, Valle de San Gabriel) is one of the principal valleys of Southern California, lying immediately to the east of the eastern city limits of the city of Los Angeles, and occupying the vast majority of the eastern part ...
), the group headed northwest and camped near a large stream (now the
San Gabriel River). Father
Juan Crespi
''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronounced differently) in the Isle of Man. In Spanish, t ...
noted in his diary that the expedition had to build a bridge ("la puente") to cross the stream because the channel was so miry. That first bridge, and later more permanent bridges across the river, gave the area its name.
The Rancho La Puente was created as one of many outlying ranchos operated by
Mission San Gabriel
Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to:
Organised activities Religion
*Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity
*Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...
from its founding in 1771 at
Whittier Narrows
The Whittier Narrows is a narrows or water gap in the San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles County, California, United States, between the Puente Hills to the east and the Montebello Hills to the west. The gap is located at the southern boundary of t ...
and its relocation to its current site within four years. The Mexican government
secularized the missions in the middle 1830s, at which time the mission ranchos passed into private ownership.
At the end of 1841, a group of travelers and settlers arrived in the
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
area from
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...
, now referred to as the Workman-Rowland Party. Led by American
John A. Rowland
John A. Rowland, commonly known in Spanish as Don Juan Rowland, was a settler and ranchero in the San Gabriel Valley of California. Born in Maryland, Rowland travelled across the eastern United States before immigrating to the Mexican territory of ...
(ca. 1797-1873) and British native
William Workman (1799–1876), the expedition contained American, European, and New Mexican members who settled throughout California. Rowland traveled, in early 1842, to the capital at
Monterey
Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under both ...
and petitioned Governor
Juan Bautista Alvarado
Juan Bautista Valentín Alvarado y Vallejo (February 14, 1809 – July 13, 1882) was a Californio politician that served as Governor of Alta California from 1837-42. Prior to his term as governor, Alvarado briefly led a movement for independe ...
for the Rancho La Puente. The grant was finalized in March with boundaries specified as ".... being on the East bounded by El Chino and San Jose, and on the West by the River San Gabriel on the North by the land of Don Luis Arenas, and on the South by the lands of the Senor
uan
UAN is a solution of urea and ammonium nitrate in water used as a fertilizer.
Uan or UAN may also refer to:
* Adapa, an alternate name for the first of the Mesopotamian seven sages
* Autonomous University of Nayarit ((in Spanish: ), a Mexican pu ...
Perez of the los Nietos and los Coyotes ...." or "more or less" four square leagues, or . Strangely, William Workman, who had been implicated in what was claimed to be an assassination attempt of New Mexico's governor during a period in which the independent
Republic of Texas
The Republic of Texas ( es, República de Tejas) was a sovereign state in North America that existed from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846, that bordered Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande in 1840 (another breakaway republic from Mex ...
plotted to annex most of that territory, was not included in the original grant, although a document was issued by Alvarado at the time of the grant, extending the rights and privileges of use of the rancho to Workman. This document is in the collection of the
Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum
The Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum is a historic house museum located at 15415 East Don Julian Road in City of Industry, California, that features the homes and private cemetery that belonged to the pioneer Workman-Temple family.
W ...
but was never submitted to the Land Commission to determine the validity of a Rowland and Workman claim to the land.
After Workman, as captain, and Rowland, as lieutenant, of an American and European military contingent helped
Pio Pico
Pio may refer to:
Places
* Pio Lake, Italy
* Pio Island, Solomon Islands
* Pio Point, Bird Island, south Atlantic Ocean
People
* Pio (given name)
* Pio (surname)
* Pio (footballer, born 1986), Brazilian footballer
* Pio (footballer, born 1988), B ...
defeat Governor
Manuel Micheltorena in an
armed standoff at
Cahuenga Pass
The Cahuenga Pass (, ; Tongva: ''Kawé’nga'') is a low mountain pass through the eastern end of the Santa Monica Mountains in the Hollywood Hills district of the City of Los Angeles, California. It has an elevation of . The Cahuenga Pass connec ...
near Los Angeles in February 1845, Pico issued a new grant to Rancho La Puente. Made in July 1845, the grant extended the size of the rancho to the maximum allowed under Mexican land law, eleven square leagues, or . When Rowland submitted an affidavit claiming (unbelievably) that Workman was inadvertently left off the earlier grant, Pico officially added Workman as co-owner.
After the conquest of the Mexican department of
Alta California
Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...
by the United States during the
Mexican-American War
Mexican Americans ( es, mexicano-estadounidenses, , or ) are Americans of full or partial Mexicans, Mexican heritage. In 2019, Mexican Americans comprised 11.3% of the US population and 61.5% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% ...
, the article of the 1848
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ( es, Tratado de Guadalupe Hidalgo), officially the Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Limits, and Settlement between the United States of America and the United Mexican States, is the peace treaty that was signed on 2 ...
, which would have provided that Spanish and Mexican-era land grants be honored, was stricken at the insistence of President
James K. Polk
James Knox Polk (November 2, 1795 – June 15, 1849) was the 11th president of the United States, serving from 1845 to 1849. He previously was the 13th speaker of the House of Representatives (1835–1839) and ninth governor of Tennessee (183 ...
and Congress. With the onset of the
Gold Rush
A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New Z ...
and the arrival of tens of thousands of Americans to California, disputes over rancho lands became significant. Consequently, Congress passed legislation on 3 March 1851 requiring holders of Spanish and Mexican land titles to file a claim before a commission for adjudication. Approvals were automatically appealed by the federal government to the federal courts, as far as the United Supreme Court.
A claim for Rancho La Puente was filed with the
Public Land Commission
The California Land Act of 1851 (), enacted following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the admission of California as a state in 1850, established a three-member Public Land Commission to determine the validity of prior Spanish and Mexican la ...
in Fall 1852 when the commission held proceedings in Los Angeles, but after the land commission approved the claim two years later, the government appealed to the courts on the ground that the Pico grant was not legitimate. The federal government had every right to be suspicious of claims to land especially when grants presumably had taken place following Pico's ascendency to governor and the occupation by the US. People presented claims for land the proceedings of which were not reflected in the government records. At the Los Angeles federal district court, Rowland and Workman won two separate appeals, in 1856 and 1862, and it appeared that the government was going to take the matter to the Supreme Court. The Civil War years saw the claim in limbo and Rowland hired an attorney to secure a patent. Finally, in April 1867, the lawyer's efforts were successful and the patent
patented
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...
was issued.
With the patent secured and La Puente's owners approaching their seventies, the two decided, in 1868, to formally partition the rancho, leaving the two men exact allotments of hill and valley land, so that Rowland mainly occupied the northern and eastern part and Workman the western and central portions.
Rowland, who returned to New Mexico in 1842 to bring his family back to California, built an adobe on the north side of San Jose Creek the following year. A dozen years later, he razed the structure and built, across the creek, a brick Greek Revival two-story house (the
John A. Rowland House) for his second wife, Charlotte M. Gray. Rowland, who built the first private grist mill in the county in 1847, mainly concerned himself with cattle ranching and farming, achieving great success. He died in October 1873 and was buried at the
El Campo Santo Cemetery established by Workman. His many heirs took over, but over the years land was sold off, including for the creation of the towns of
Puente Puente, a word meaning ''bridge'' in Spanish language, may refer to:
People
* Puente (surname)
Places
*La Puente, California, USA
*Puente Alto, city and commune of Chile
*Puente de Ixtla, city in Mexico
*Puente Genil, village in the Spanish provin ...
and
Covina
Covina is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, about east of downtown Los Angeles, in the San Gabriel Valley. The population was 51,268 according to the 2020 census, up from 47,796 at the 2010 census. The city's slogan, "On ...
during the famed Boom of the Eighties (1886–88).
William Workman, whose family accompanied him to California, lived in a temporary shelter through the winter of 1841-42 and then constructed an adobe the following summer, believed to have been three rooms. The adobe was expanded to ten rooms in two southward-facing wings by 1856 and then remodeled with the addition of brick rooms at the corners and on a new second floor, this work being completed by 1870. Workman, also a highly successful cattle rancher and farmer, entered business activities (real estate, oil, and banking, among others) with his son-in-law,
Francisco P. Temple (F. P. F.), and the two were the wealthiest individuals in Los Angeles County during the first half of the 1870s, during which the first growth boom experienced in the region took place. When the economy turned sour, however, and the Temple and Workman bank collapsed, Workman, who had mortgaged most of his portion of La Puente for a loan from
Elias J. "Lucky" Baldwin of San Francisco, lost everything and took his own life in May 1876. Workman's house and was sold back to the Temple family by Baldwin in 1880—today's
Workman and Temple Family Homestead is the remnant of this property. Baldwin retained ownership of thousands of acres of Workman's former holdings until his death in 1909, though some land, notably for the town of
Baldwin Park Baldwin Park may refer to:
* Baldwin Park, California
** Baldwin Park (Metrolink station) in Baldwin Park, California
* Baldwin Park, Florida, a neighborhood in Orlando, Florida
* Baldwin Park, Missouri
* A public park in Baldwin, Nassau County, ...
, was sold. In 1911, Baldwin's estate sold off more La Puente land for the subdivision of North Whittier Heights, now
Hacienda Heights
Hacienda Heights () is an unincorporated suburban community in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 census, the community had a total population of 54,038, up from 53,122 at the 2000 census. For statistical purposes, the ...
.
Historic sites of the Rancho
Among the remaining historic sites left from the rancho era are: the Workman House (1842 adobe and 1870 brick additions),
El Campo Santo Cemetery (1850s with 1919-21 renovations), and a water tower (ca. 1880s)--all on the grounds of the
Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum
The Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum is a historic house museum located at 15415 East Don Julian Road in City of Industry, California, that features the homes and private cemetery that belonged to the pioneer Workman-Temple family.
W ...
(www.homesteadmuseum.org) and the
John A. Rowland House (1855), now undergoing long-awaited renovations under the auspices of the Historical Society of La Puente Valley. There is also an 1880s adobe house that was built by John Rowland's son,
William R. Rowland, and is under the ownership of the
City of Walnut and is at Lemon Creek Park.
See also
*
Ranchos of California
The Spanish and Mexican governments made many concessions and land grants in Alta California (now known as California) and Baja California from 1775 to 1846. The Spanish Concessions of land were made to retired soldiers as an inducement for ...
*
List of Ranchos of California
These California land grants were made by Spanish (1784–1821) and Mexican (1822–1846) authorities of Las Californias and Alta California to private individuals before California became part of the United States of America.Shumway, Burgess M ...
References
External links
USC Digital Library: Map of old Spanish and Mexican ranchos in Los Angeles County
{{coord , 34.030, -117.960, region:US-CA_type:landmark, display=title
Puente, La
La Puente
La Puente (Spanish for "The Bridge") is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city had a population of 39,816 at the 2010 census and is approximately east of downtown Los Angeles.
History
The original inhabitants of the ...
Puente Hills
San Gabriel Valley
1842 establishments in Alta California
Avocado Heights, California
Baldwin Park, California
Covina, California
Hacienda Heights, California
City of Industry, California
La Puente, California
San Dimas, California
West Covina, California