by Paul R. Spitzzeri
According to an 1871 Los Angeles Star newspaper article, John Rowland’s grist mill, located a short distance east of his adobe house on the Rancho La Puente along San José Creek—this being a couple miles from William Workman’s dwelling, which still stands at the Homestead, was completed in 1847. This was just after the American seizure of Mexican Alta California during the Mexican-American War and just prior to the outbreak of the Gold Rush
A miller during his long tenure at Taos, New Mexico, Rowland not only used this facility for his own grain processed into flour, but made it available to others on a commercial basis, though it was likely far from his largest source of income. This reflects a slowly growing agricultural component to a regional economy that was primarily driven by the raising of cattle and horses and which would only become more important and necessary when the livestock industry was heavily affected by a post-Gold Rush market glut, the importation of better breeds of cattle and floods and drought during the first half of the 1860s.
It appears that, aside from the mill constructed in the mid-1820s for the Mission San Gabriel in what is now San Marino, Rowland’s was the earliest non-institutional example in our area. It was not long, however, before others followed and we’ll look at some of these during the 1850s, when the featured artifact recently acquired for the Homestead’s collection was generated. This was a 21 April 1853 invoice and receipt sent by miller William Potter to F.P.F. Temple, whose half of Rancho La Merced, several miles to the west, was acquired by his father-in-law and Rowland’s long-time friend and La Puente co-owner William Workman and then gifted to Temple and his wife, Workman’s daughter Antonia Margarita.
The document noted that corn was ground into both flour and bran, so it is at least an indicator of early farming at Temple’s portion of La Merced, on to which he and his family moved about two years prior. This was in the first several months in 1851, the same year that another San Gabriel Valley flouring mill was being proposed by Henry Dalton, who, like Workman, was a native of England, but who spent about 20 years in Peru before migrating to Mexican California and Los Angeles in 1843, not long after Rowland and Workman settled on La Puente.
In short order, Dalton acquired the ranchos Azusa, San Francisquito and Santa Anita, all prime lands at or near the foothills of the Sierra Madre (San Gabriel) Mountains and with plenty of water available to them. Never short of ideas, including those that were far-fetched, Dalton took out an advertisement in the second issue of the Star, from 24 May 1851, for “Farm Lots for Sale” in which he informed readers he planned to subdivide property “lying in the valley of San Gabriel, beyond and contiguous to the Mission, consisting of two leagues,” or nearly 9,000 acres.
He continued that “this land possesses great natural advantages, having a rich soil” including sections “irrigated by the waters from the arroyo de Azusa.” It was added that “the principal waters of the San Gabriel river are formed from the internal springs within and near said land.” Moreover, he asserted that,
There is on this land a beautiful site for a town [which he later called Benton, named for powerful United States senator Thomas Hart Benton from Missouri who was the father-in-law of a current California senator, John C. Frémont, of great fame and notoriety], which the undersigned intends laying out as soon as the wants of trade among settlers require it; and he soon intends to build a merchant flouring mill near by.
The town was never built and most of the farm lots were not sold as intended, but the mill was erected, as a Southern Californian article from July 1854, which was featured in part one, observed, as it stated, “Mr. Henry Dalton, on his late visit to San Francisco, purchased a Mill, out and out, which will have three run of stones in it,” while it concluded that, “he intends placing it on his ranch, Asuza [sic], which is situated in a large, wheat-growing country.”
Just under three months later, Dalton took out an ad in the newspaper’s 19 October issue as a “Notice for Farmers” and which informed readers that “the undersigned having erected a Flouring Mill of great capacity on his Ranch of Azusa, proposes renting his lands in its vicinity, for the purpose of raising wheat.” He promised that “the locality is well known as the best Wheat land in the county, in consequence of its maturing earlier, and being less liable to rust, smut and other diseases than elsewhere.”
A week prior, it was reported under the heading of “Visit to Azusa Mills,” a representative from the Southern Californian “accompanied our friend Henry Dalton, Esq., to the above named Mill,” acquired from a San Francisco firm as noted above and with the entirely appropriate name of Mills. The trio of stones was mentioned and considered “of the modern and most approved style” and said, when fully operational, to be able to process 40-50 barrels of flour daily.
The account added that the mill’s completion would necessarily increase the value of Dalton’s holdings “and give importance, convenience and character to all the property in that section of our County.” It then averred that,
It speaks well, indeed, of the spirit and enterprise exhibited on the part of our citizens, to develope [sic] the resources and greatness of our county. We wish our neighbor and friend every success.
On the 26th, the paper again highlighted the “Azusa Mills” as something that “will naturally attract the attention of the citizens of our county as one of the most valuable improvements going on in our midst” and that it was “a strong indication of the onward march of our county and the progressive spirit of our citizens.”
It informed readers that Dalton was to be praised for his initiative “and although at a considerable outlay of money, we doubt not it will finally handsomely reimburse him.” The Dalton domains were “well worthy of the attention of the emigrant and our citizens generally” and were, as the ad stated, “admirably and perhaps the best adapted in the county for the early production of wheat.” With fertile soil, abundant water through “a beautiful stream” that was easily accessed, “it is free from anything like misty fogs, with the air pure and salubrious.”
This was soon followed by another ad in the Southern Californian, starting on 18 January 1855, of Dalton’s “MAGNIFICENT REAL ESTATE DISTRIBUTION!” This comprised 434 “splendid prizes” including “splendid modern-built private residences—in the City of Los Angeles,” “very valuable city and town lots—eligibly situated on the principal thoroughfares,” orchards and vineyards deemed “in the highest state of cultivation,” town property of high value in his “City of Benton,” and farms on Rancho Azusa.
These were declared to be the “Finest Agricultural Lands in the Lower Country, offering the most attractive inducements to those wishing to obtain future Homes in this the loveliest portion of California” and which, he continued, was “to form the most valuable section of country on the Coast of the Pacific.” He also offered horses and mares “of the best blood in the country” and broken and ready for use, as well as cattle. Only 166 tickets, however, were sold, so an early May drawing was cancelled and the scheme withered away.
The Homestead is fortunate to have in its holdings the first of more than 20 ledgers kept by Dalton to record his business dealings over many years and the period covered in it is 1845-1856, spanning the end of the Mexican era and almost the first decade of the American period. This remarkable and valuable artifact also includes transactions at the Azusa Mills and a sample page from October 1855 is shared here.
The year 1851 brought another substantial regional development, it being worth noting here that Los Angeles County was a vast territory including all of modern Orange (1889) and San Bernardino (1853) counties and a portion of what became Kern County (1866), as well. So, when Antonio María Lugo, a prominent figure in the Angel City, gave his Rancho San Bernardino to two sons and they sold it to Mormons sent by Brigham Young from Utah to open up trade routes to the Pacific through southern California, the town of San Bernardino was established, including the region’s first saw mill as well as a successful flour mill.
The 7 August 1852 issue of the Star reported that “the Mormons of San Bernardino are still occupied in harvesting their wheat” and, even with some issues with rust, were expected to have 3,500 barrels of flour “to supply our own county with” and, including wheat raised elsewhere “will be more than sufficient to meet our demands for bread, even allowing for a considerable immigration to take place.” It was added,
The grist mill is completed and in operation, and the apparatus for bolting the flour [running it through a sieve to separate out the bran] will soon be set to work. It is expected that flour from San Bernardino will be offered for sale in our market within three weeks.
In Los Angeles, Rafael Gallardo, a former alcalde (akin to a mayor) who received grants of land within pueblo limits by authorities in the last half of the 1830s and resided in an adobe (that survived into at least the 1930s) on what is now North Broadway just south of Ord Street in Chinatown, had a mill was east of the Los Angeles River where César A. Chávez Avenue, formerly Macy Street and then Brooklyn Avenue in Boyle Heights, crosses. In fact, from César Chávez north to Mission Road is Gallardo Street lined with small auto-related and other businesses.
By April 1853, that property and mill was sold to Theodore Bors, a native of Prussia who came to Los Angeles a few years later during the Gold Rush and who was a trader and blacksmith. A 2 April advertisement in the Star promoted the business he ran with G.S. Harkness, including as gunsmiths “on the other side of the river, near the Old Mill.” The 17 September edition of the paper contained an ad in which:
Theodore Bors, Blacksmith, Old Mill, on the other side of Los Angelee [sic] river, near the San Gabriel road, informs the citizens of Los Angeles, that he is now ready for the service of the public and is enabled to grind Wheat or Corn, as cheap as any mill in the county.
His smithy was also briefly mentioned in that such work “in all its branches [is] promptly attended to.” The “San Gabriel road” is Mission Road and that eastern side of the river included some 21 acres owned by Bors, including the mill property of about an acre and three quarters at the northwest corner of Chávez and Mission, this being the southern section of the massive Union Pacific Los Angeles Transportation Center.
After two years, Bors introduced an invention of his own design, this being, as explained in an ad in the Star of 29 November 1855, a “new machine for the washing of wheat, which has proved very successful” in that, when the crop was run through the apparatus it came out “perfectly clean, the sand and stones being withdrawn from it remaining in the machine.” He went on to inform readers that “the wheat is one minute in the water” and then “is immediately carried off and spread out, and in the course of two or three hours is perfectly dry.
A second machine was then used, which further refined the cleaning process of the wheat with respect to “any little sand or rust which may have remained in it, as also smut [dirt or soot] or any kind of seed” so that the refined product “is bound the make good Flour, as this being the principal thing.” Bors even offered for those curious to visit the mill so that they “can wash their wheat with the machine free of charge, as he is fully confident that he can give entire satisfaction to all.”
The 20 November 1858 issue of the Star directed readers to another notice by Bors who announced,
The subscriber respectfully informs the public that he has now in successful operation, his NEW GRIST MILL, which is located on the eastern bank of the Los Angeles river. He is ready to execute all orders for grinding Wheat or Corn, at low rates. He has also, in connexion [sic] with his mill, a new Smut machine, for cleaning grain, which cannot be excelled. He will also have a Corn-sheller, for the convenience of his customers.
Residing with Bors when the 1850 federal census was taken early the next year (because of California’s late admission into the Union) was John Hoogstraten, a native of Holland, and the two were partners in the mill. The capital invested in improving the establishment, however, did not yield the dividends anticipated and the local economy, following the end of the Gold Rush and then the Depression of 1857, was in such a moribund state that the two men decided to sell out.
The Star‘s issue of 10 December 1859 ran an ad by Bors and Hoogstraten (who lived in Los Angeles through at least 1870) that they were offering “a good grist mill on the place, but recently improved, with a breast [water] wheel eighteen feet high, and all the necessary machinery.” Additionally, the enterprise contained “the highest water-fall in the country” to generate the water power for the mill’s operation, while also part of the 21-acre property was a residence, a vineyard, fruit orchard, ample water for irrigation and a fence. One possible use, given its prime location on the road leading to and from town was “as a public place,” meaning an inn or hotel.
The partners specified that they were wanting to consummate a deal within two months and, while Hoogstraten was recorded in the 1860 census, taken in late June, as a miller residing in the same area, Bors headed for Arizona. In late May, however, while in the Tubac or Tucson areas in the south of the territory, he died of a self-inflicted accidental gunshot wound, though, about a month prior, a suit was filed in the district court against the two men, Frederick Limberg, his wife Mary Bors (likely Theodore’s sister) Mary and an infant named Dorothy Bors, presumably Theodore’s child.
The legal action was initiated by John Rains, the owner of Rancho Cucamonga, but who was acting as guardian for two minor children of his late father-in-law, Isaac Williams, who owned the Chino ranch. These children, Victoria and Concepción, were from a common-law relationship Williams had with María Antonia Apis, whose father, Pablo, was an indigenous chief in the Temecula area and Rains loaned money to Bors and Hoogstraten, apparently as an investment. A mortgage sale was held in 1862 about the time that Rains was murdered in what became an unsolved crime.
There was a recommendation, apparently never followed through, in April 1860 by a Common (City) Council special committee headed by Dr. John S. Griffin and including William Wolfskill, Abel Stearns and Jonathan Temple, among others, to build a dam in an arroyo just east of the mill, and a survey conducted for it even suggested placing a wagon road across the structure—this was about a dozen years before the first bridge spanned the river just to the south.
The reservoir behind the dam was anticipated, at 15 feet depth, to be about 30 acres and impound enough water, from creeks in the nearby hills (the Ascot, Monterey and Rose hills sections to the northeast) to irrigate 150 acres of farmland. The concept was too audacious for the small town mired in economic doldrums only worsened by the floods (the first water works in the Angel City was built during this time and washed out by the flood) and droughts that followed, but it looks to have been the first major proposed dam and reservoir project in a region that eventually contained many of them in the 20th century.
The Bors mill property later became the home of the Gavitt/Tarbox distillery, where grapes were manufactured into Brandy and the September 1872 sale of the tract for $14,000 from James Kennedy to Elisha Tarbox was recorded as being on “the Boise Mill property.” After Tarbox’s tenure ended during another financial downturn in the last half of the 1870s, during which the Temple and Workman bank collapsed, San Gabriel Valley vintner Leonard J. Rose and his partner Charles Stern took possession and operation of the distillery.
We’ll return with part three, looking at other regional grist mills, including in Los Angeles, during the 1850s, so check back for that.