by Paul R. Spitzzeri
John Quincy Adams Warren, in his late 1860 southern California sojourn, ended his first letter to the American Stock Journal, published in its February 1861 issue, with the assertion that, when it came to viticulture and wine-making, that of Los Angeles County would become “the most extensive in the world.” In his following missive, appearing in the March edition, the visitor remarked in his early November visit, that “observation and analysis have proved the soil in this county, as better adapted to the cultivation of the grape, than in any portion of the state” as humidity and temperature were adjudged to be “found in equable proportions.”
Discussing the Mission grape (vinis vinifera), Warren stated that it was planted elsewhere in the Golden State, but with middling success, though “here the grape has obtained an extensive fame from its richness of flavor” as well as its excellent table use. Imported varieties, such as the Catawba and Isabella “have proved useless.” The investment in a new vineyard amounted to about $12 an acre with vines set apart every six feet and, with the writer asserting that he would “notice the principal vineyards, gardens, stock-ranches, &C . . . without any preference,” he began with the enterprise of Mathew Keller, generally viewed as one of the best of the local vintners.
Warren recorded that,
The vineyard is near the center of he town and only a few moment’s walk from the hotel or main street,—[it] has some 100,000 vines, of which about 50 or 60,000 are now in bearing, and in fine condition—ready for the manufacture of wine. The season is now commencing, and some dozen men—principally Indians—are employed picking and carrying the grapes, and assisting in the manufacture. These Indians are generally paid from 50 to 75 cents per day.
Keller was an advocate for leaving grapes on the vines longer to impart more a better flavor with anticipation of producing up to 50,000 gallons of wine and 5,000 of brandy for the market in San Francisco, to where he also transported 125,000 pounds of grapes. The prior year’s production was 35,000 gallons, a decline of 15,000 from 1858 and his was due to a shorter crop and more grapes shipped out. The grower told Warren that he anticipated 3 million vines were in Los Angeles county and the wine yield to be around a half million gallons.
The Keller place also had around 2,000 fruit trees of apple, cherry, nectarine, pear, peach, plum and quince along with citrons, lemons and oranges in tropical fruits, walnuts and peppers, among others. His livestock ranch, the location of which was not mentioned, but which was the Malibu, on the coast west of town, and which he acquired three years prior, and it was largely devoted to sheep. His brick house had a garden with fruit trees, flowers and shrubs, with pepper trees being notable, while “everything about the place denoted comfort, industry and enterprise.” As a prior post here outlined, Keller invested heavily in seeking to expand his wine trade to the East Coast to some success not long before his death in 1881.
Heading south 1 1/2 miles from town (where Main and 11th streets are now), Warren visited the property of Ozro W. Childs, who had fifty acres his orchard and vineyard, including “a fine nursery of some 20,000 to 30,000 trees,—apple, pear, cherry, apricot, &c., and looking uncommonly well, and very thrifty growth—without any irrigation whatever.” There was the “very promising” orchard of 600 apple, 500 orange, 400 peach and 200 pear trees, as well as apricots and more, which “will prove quite remunerative,” while Warren enjoyed the produce of the proprietor’s fig trees.
A 12-acre vineyard of around 10,000 vines looks to have been recently planted and the present season’s yield was anticipated to bring up to 3,000 gallons. Childs also had an apiary with 200 hives of Harbison and Langstroth bees and was to “raise a large quantity of honey for market, of the very best quality.” The bees utilized the willow the fenced the vineyard, and it was added that “the soil is rich and fertile, possessing the most desirable qualities, and producing excellent crops. As to the landscape, it was noted that “the grounds are laid out with unusual taste, and promises to become one of the most prominent places of Los Angeles” and a previous entry here discussed the Childs gardens and the owner’s broader history and another went into his real estate ventures during the region’s first boom some fifteen years after Warren’s visit.
Asking “permission of the reader” for a detour away from the Angel City and into the heart of the San Gabriel Valley, Warren remarked on the “somewhat dusty” but “agreeable and attractive” drive northeast through “a succession of rolling country, partly hill and plains, deep ravines . . . [and more] affording quite a diversity to the traveler.” Passing the Mission San Gabriel, the author remarked that “this was once a fine edifice, but has shared in the general decadence of the country, and its time-worn appearance is far from imposing,” even as the altar and paintings remained.
He added that, “the old mission has nearly gone to ruin, mere piles of broken adobe are left as relics of the perished past,” including bricks melted into mounds, while the town “shrunk in the lapse of time” and significantly depopulated. More than sixty years later, Walter P. Temple invested heavily in San Gabriel with commercial buildings and the donation of the site for the city hall as part of something of a revival there.
Warren’s arrival came during a time (as now with warm, low humidity conditions in what is usually a Santa Ana weather pattern) when “the country is very dry,” though, in the spring, following rains, the area was “covered with wild oats, clover, &c, and nothing can exceed its richness” so that “the herbage is abundant, affording an ample supply for the stock, on which they feed and fatten rapidly.” It was remarked, as well, that “the great scarcity of water . . . precludes much attention being paid to agricultural purposes, consequently more attention is given to stock-raising.”
Heading further northeast, Warren reached the 13,300-acre Rancho Santa Anita, then owned by William Corbett and the brothers Albert and Thomas Dibblee, who acquired the tract in 1858 from circus promoter Joseph Rowe who owned it for four years after buying the ranch from Henry Dalton of the nearby Azusa and San Francisquito properties. Some 5,000 acres of Santa Anita were fenced to protect cattle intrusion and allow for unimpeded grazing for the sheep that the partners stocked.
The inventory was around 7,000 animals, about two-thirds from imported varieties like Cotswold, Merino and South Down, while substantial sums were invested in thoroughbred bucks with the effort “to produce, by means of crosses, a good carcass, and at the same fine wool of long staple.” The wool clip for the season underway totaled some 14,000 pounds, though much of the shearing was not done. The animals fed on “a fine meadow of soft moist soil,” where there was usually a good amount of grass even into the middle of summer,” while springs provided adequate water for both the sheep and agriculture.
As to farming, Warren reported that there were some 200 acres “from which good crops have been taken the past season” including 150,000 pounds of barley, 100 tons of hay and 125,000 pounds of potatoes.” Another 50 acres comprised the vineyard of 50,000 vines, 80% of which were planted the prior year and which “will produce a good crop of grapes in a few years, and te manufacture of wine will commence.” The account observed that “there are numerous buildings” and “general neatness and good order is observed, and, in point of location, soil, and stock, this is destined to become one of the best ranches in the country.”
Warren’s third letter, appearing in the April issue of the Journal, began with the note that he departed from Santa Anita and headed south “over a level plain, used principally for stock grazing, [to] reach the main road leading to Lexington, being a portion of the Monte—signifying wood—a swampy, low ground covered mostly with trees, excepting those portions under cultivation” and with fertile, rich soil. It was added that,
The Monte embraces an area of some 15 or 20 square miles, and is occupied mostly by squatters, to the great annoyance of the rightful claimants, who hold Mexican Grants. In consequence of the troubles existing, and the uncertainty of results, there is not that attention paid to agriculture, or improvements made, which the resources and fertility of the soil warrant, and matters are somewhat in a dormant state.
As alluded to in the first part of this post, squatters were in conflict with William Workman, his son-in-law F.P.F. Temple and Juan Matias Sánchez, Workman’s former Rancho La Puente foreman with their commonly-held Rancho Potrero Grande in which is most of today’s South El Monte, while Dalton was embroiled in controversy with much of his Rancho San Francisquito to the north (including a good portion of Temple City, founded by F.P.F.’s son Walter in the 1920s).
The first visit at El Monte was to Fielding W. Gibson, whose 300 acres, including a small portion of three on which corn was grown specifically for manufacturing brooms, with 3,000 of these vital household implements were made by him for the local market. Warren added that “in the stock department, Mr. G. has the lead over others,” specifically with horses. His “Ethan Allen,” took a first prize in the harness division of a fair at Philadelphia and was acquired for $2,000. Also highlighted were imported donkeys, purchased “at heavy expense,” but which “will prove, without doubt, highly advantageous to the owner.”
The account continued that “Mr. Gibson deserves much credit for the efforts he is making to improve the stock of the country,” something he expanded upon during successive years in partnership with F.P.F. Temple with respect to purebred horses. Moreover, in 1865, Gibson and Temple purchased the north end of the Rancho San Pedro, through which Warren passed on his way from the port to Los Angeles, and established the townsite of Centerville or Gibsonville. When George D. Compton acquired a substantial portion of the tract, however, the town took on his name.
From El Monte, Warren returned northwest through San Gabriel and, enjoying refreshing rain, took the opportunity to describe the Mission fruit orchard, “which still thrives, but on a much smaller scale” than before the secularization process of the 1830s. The traveler “visited the famous orange grove—once the finest in the country,” although “many of the trees [have] died.” The writer commented that,
Here were orange, lemon, citron, and pomegranate trees, profusely loaded with the tempting and almost ripe fruit—while on many of the trees could be seen ripe, and green fruit, and blossoms on the same tree, presenting a most attractive appearance. This is the only point of interest in the whole mission, excepting the old church. Everything else, including the vineyards, having gone to decay.
A mile to the northwest was reached the property of William M. Stockton, whose orchard of around 20 acres had 1,000 bearing trees, mainly apricot, peach, pear and plums, mostly pears generating thousands of bushels of “large . . . and very thrifty” fruit of “excellent flavor.” The current crop was expected to top 3,000 barrels and an effort to graft the apple to older pear trees was deemed a successful experiment. Varieties of white and yellow fig brought produce “which has proved to be large and fine, and far preferable to the common black fig,” while among the 200 acres for farming and grazing, there were 50 head of cattle and mules.
Just a half-mile to the west, Warren arrived at the Lake Vineyard tract of Benjamin D. Wilson, who, 19 years that month, came to the area from New Mexico with the Rowland and Workman Expedition. While Wilson intended to catch a ship at Monterey to China, his plans were thwarted when he arrived too late, so he returned to Los Angeles and ended up one of the region’s most prominent figures, serving as the Angel City’s mayor, as well as a state senator, and involved in many business projects during more than 35 years.
The body of water in the name of Wilson’s domain is now the one in Lacy Park and the writer observed that it was “a most popular and pleasant resort in the summer season, for sailing, fishing, &c.” It was added that “the mansion is large and substantial, and beautifully located, commanding an extensive view of the country around.” The farmland and vineyard comprised some 300 acres, with the latter including 40,000 bearing grapevines and a newer one of up to 90,000, while more than 20,000 gallons of wine, half white, 30% port, and the rest angelica, brandy and claret, were made.
Warren was impressed by the wine’s “excellent quality, owing to the care taken in manufacture, and sufficient time allowed for age—none allowed to be sold under three years,” so that the younger vintages, when released, “must command a quick sale, from its age and fame.” The fruit orchard had several types, but “the orange trees attract the most attention, being of large size, and loaded with fruit, and free from the ravages of the scale insect, which has preyed so severely upon the orange in other sections.” Wilson’s were considered in the best shape seen to date on the trip, with some fruit from the prior year still on trees, and 10,000 young ones in the nursery. Lemons were in evidence with fruit “remarkably large and fine” and more effort placed with them.
The writer briefly wrote about the Rancho San Pascual, located to the north of Lake Vineyard and of which Wilson was an owner, acquiring about 700 acres in 1852 from grantee Manuel Garfias, but, as Garfias got into severe financial distress, Wilson and Los Angeles physician John S. Griffin acquired the remainder of the 14,000-acre ranch the year before Warren’s visit. Almost two-thirds was sold in 1873 to a colony of settlers from Indiana who then bestowed the name Pasadena on the new town there.
While the chronicler noted that he would return and provide more information about San Pascual, he observed that, “the ranch is well stocked with cattle and horses” and on a brief ride through the property, Warren “observed some very fair specimens of American stock,” with Wilson planning to importing bulls to improve his herd. Moreover, the account remarked that “being satisfied that it will be highly advantageous; and being a gentleman of extensive means and influence,” Wilson “will be enabled to do much good, in this section of the country where it is needed. Lastly, as the writer headed back to the Angel City, he stated,
My visit, though brief, was a pleasant one, passed in the hospitable mansion, in the company of Mr. Wilson and his esteemed lady [second wife, Margaret Hereford], with a most agreeable family, where the visitor is made to feel perfectly at home.
With this, we’ll stop and return tomorrow with part three, so check back with us then!