Early life
Lemuel Carpenter was born c. 1808 in Kentucky. He migrated to Missouri about 1828, where he served in Searcy's Company of Missouri Militia in 1829.Southern California Pioneer
Carpenter was in southern California by January 1833, arriving in the company of trappers Cyrus Alexander, William Chard, Joseph Paulding, and Albert Toomes.David J. Weber: ''The Taos Trappers: The Fur Trade in the Far Southwest, 1540-1846'', University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Okla., 1971, p. 152.Iris Higbie Wilson: "Lemuel Carpenter" in ''The Mountain Men and the Fur Trade of the Far West'', LeRoy R. Hafen, ed., The Arthur H. Clark Co., Glendale, Calif., 1972, pp. 33-40.Hubert Howe Bancroft: ''California Pioneer Register and Index 1542-1848'', Regional Publishing Co., Baltimore, Md., 1964, p. 82. Early California settler John Bidwell includes him in this recollection of people he knew in the Pueblo de Los Ángeles: "Los Angeles I first saw in March, 1845. It then had probably two hundred and fifty people, of whom I recall Don Abel Stearns, John Temple (Jonathan Temple), Captain Alexander Bell, William Wolfskill, Lemuel Carpenter, David W. Alexander; also of Mexicans, Pío Pico (governor), Don Juan Bandini, and others". Carpenter started a soap manufacturing business ("jabonería") at Chokishgna, California, Chokishgna, a Tonga, Tongva-Gabrieleño villageVerne Dyson: "The Old Ranchos That are Buried in Los Angeles" in ''The Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine'', issue of December 18, 1927, pp. 12-13, 23 (23), https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25458857/, last accessed 2 February 2019.U.S. Department of the Interior: "Feature Detail Report for: Chokisgna (historical)," Geographic Names Information System, citing: Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. ''Bulletin 30 - Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico'', edited by Frederick Webb Hodge, Part 1, published in 1907, Part 2, published in 1910, https://geonames.usgs.gov/apex/f?p=gnispq:3:0::NO::P3_FID:1732516, last accessed 2 Feb 2019. on the San Gabriel River (California), San Gabriel River in present-day Bell Gardens, California, El Monte that profited sufficiently for him to purchase Rancho Santa Gertrudes, which included the Tongva people, Tongva village Nacaugna, California, Nacaugna, now Downey, California, southeast of what is now downtown Los Angeles. He was among the first of the Americans to plant a vineyard for the making of wine. His original settlement was known as "Carpenter's Farm" from 1837 until it was destroyed by a flood in 1867. He was active in revolutionary activities, sided with the Americans in the Mexican–American War, Mexican War, tried gold mining, and in general prospered in his new home. A popular travel guide notes: "Rancho Santa Gertrudes…was sold to Lemuel Carpenter, a Kentuckian, who married the beautiful María de los Angeles Domínguez. ... The Carpenters [were] happy and prosperous under Mexican rule".Mildred Brooke Hoover, Hero Eugene Rensch, and Ethel Grace Rensch; revised by William N. Abeloe: ''Historic Spots in California'', Third Edition, Stanford University Press, Stanford, Calif., 1966, pp. 153, 163; 20, 56, 401.Terry Carpenter: "Lemuel CARPENTER, Anglo L.A. Pioneer", http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/CALOSANG/2001-04/0986744501, 8 Apr 2001. Rancho Santa Gertrudes was owned by Lemuel Carpenter until 1859. In 1859 the rancho was sold at sheriff's auction to John G. Downey and James P. McFarland. "Samuel", actually "Lemuel" but misspelled by the recorder, Carpenter was recorded as the legal possessor as late as 1862.Family
Lemuel's father is believed to be Jonathan Carpenter (c. 1785 Virginia-c. 1853 Missouri) and grandson of Matthew Carpenter (c. 1761 Virginia-c. 1798 Virginia). In the 1850 census, Lemuel Carpenter is listed as age 42, with a real estate value of $8,000 dollars, a farmer. His wife, Maria, is listed as age 22 — she was his second wife. His children, all born in California, are listed as: * Susana Carpenter, age 11. * José Antonio Carpenter, age 9 (born November 20, 1837; descendants still live in Los Angeles) * Refugio Carpenter, age 6. * Francisco Carpenter, age 3.Misfortune and Death
Carpenter's prosperity took a precipitous downturn when a $5,000 loan from John G. Downey taken out in 1852 ballooned into a $104,000 debt by 1859. Unable to repay the debt, he eventually killed himself. The diary of Lemuel Carpenter's daughter Mary Refugio Carpenter includes this entry written on January 2, 1861: "I have been thinking so much of my father tonight. It made me weep."John Adams: "Loss of father cast shadow over her diary" in ''The Downey'' [Calif.] ''Eagle'' issue of December 5, 1997, on file with the Downey Historical Society, Downey, Calif.References and notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carpenter, Lemuel American pioneers California pioneers People of Mexican California People of the American Old West 1800s births 1859 deaths People from Los Angeles History of Los Angeles History of Los Angeles County, California 19th-century American people 19th century in Los Angeles Year of birth uncertain Suicides by firearm in California