 The Romance of the Ranchos Azusa 1851 Giant Lottery to Give Away Town Azusa 1862 Gold Town Wiped Out by Flood Azusa 1870 Waters Break Damn and Fight for Water The Title Insurance and Trust Company of Los Angeles presents the Romance of the Ranchos A weekly dramatization of the colorful history behind the Southern California of today Each week, our wandering Vecchero Frank Graham returns to tell the fascinating events which took place on some particular section of the Southland Your purchases of defense bonds and stamps help to defend America today But don't forget that they are also a sound business proposition for you A systematic and continuous defense bond savings program now will mean substantial resources for you and your family in the future Title Insurance and Trust Company of Los Angeles strongly urges that you look on your defense bond investment program in the light of both patriotism and sensible business practice And like any such plan, it should be put into effect immediately and followed systematically Visit your post office, bank, title insurance company in your county, or other source tomorrow and invest in America Now here is our wandering Vecchero Frank Graham to tell us the story Tonight our story takes us to the section of Southern California around Azusa in the San Gabriel Canyon A land with a colorful background which was once owned by one of the most interesting characters of California history Henry Dalton, it's a story rich in the romance of the Ranchos Any story of Azusa must necessarily start with the name Azusa It's an unusual name, evidently Indian in origin It puzzled folks for a long time about its meaning, where it had come from, and so on The legends and stories which have grown up around the name are numerous And range from the humorous, such as that it means from A to Z in the USA To the sublime, such as the beautiful legend told by an old Indian woman in the early days of her life It seems that many moons before, a beautiful young Indian maiden journeyed with her father to the village of a nearby tribe When he arrived, they found the villagers upset My father, why do these people mourn? Why is their wailing and chanting? Are they not happy? No, my child, for their chief lies near death in the hut Near death? Cannot their medicine men cure you? No, they have tried to cure you The chief will soon be taken by great spirit My father, take me to him You, my child? What could you do? I cannot say, I do not know, but I feel that I must see him And place my hands upon his head My child, you cannot do that I can, I must Father, take me to him For I know that I can cure him I know that I can cure him Into the hut of the sick chief the young girl was taken She kneeled beside the unconscious man Gently placed her hands upon his fevered brow Oh, make well this man with great spirit Take away the evil demons which taught me to Make him whole again My daughter, the chief stirs His eyes open, he rises up You have cured him I do not know how, my son But I thank the great spirit for giving me the town Very soon the chief was well again And in gratitude he made the lovely young girl the bride If his handsome son, the future chief As they stood in the ceremonial ring before the council Her father spoke My child, I give you no name Bestowed on you in gratitude by chief Whose life you save I name you Azusa Blessed miracle And legend has it that from the lovely young maiden With the miraculous healing powers Azusa and the valley around it received its name Aside from the legends which received back Into the misty depths of time There is little recorded history of this area Until about the year 1841 When a 4,430 acre tract for a rancho Was granted by the Mexican governor To don Luis Arias Former alcalde of Los Angeles He erected a small adobe house on the hill Near the present site of the high school And then two years later A young man arrived in the fort of San Pedro Who was to make most of the history of Azusa To the custom officials he was Henry Dalton merchant born in England In business in Peru Coming here to look over the country Henry Dalton came, saw and was conquered He brought his business to Los Angeles Soon he was in the market for a ride Hearing about the rancho Azusa He went to don Luis Arias See, I would be willing to sell it I do not care much for rancho life Could, then we can get down to business No, I am afraid not, senor For even though I would like to sell it I cannot You cannot? Why not? The government, you know It is all mixed up It is trouble with michel torrena No, it's also unsettled That they have issued an order For beating the sale of any land You mean they won't play it? You mean they won't let you sell your land Whether you want to or not? See, that is it I could sell, but it would not be legal I need the money too But isn't there something we can do? No, I am sorry, senor Even the government cannot do anything You would think they would let me raise some money Any way I could I owe them money Oh, the money See, a thousand pesos And they need it They are supposed to raise an army For michel torrena Then they have no money Wait a minute, how do you know this? I came just yesterday and asked me if I could pay And you said you could not? See, not a peso You didn't say anything about selling your land? No, what good would he do? Maybe a lot Come on, we are going to the prefect right now And see about this What are you talking about, senor? If you owe them money and they need it And you can raise it by only by selling the land Don't worry, they'll find some way to let you sell the land Come on, senor You have just sold a rancho And the sale was made As Dalton had surmised, the governor was only too glad To arrange matters legally Now Henry Dalton, or Don Enrique As he was called by the Californians Took up life on rancho azusa Rebuilding the old arenas adobe And building many new structures Crops were planted, the land was stocked with cattle The astute English businessman soon had a thriving domain Where shortly before had been wasteland But Dalton was smart enough not to put all his eggs In one basket He kept up his prosperous mercantile business In the Pueblo And then, one day in 1846 Came news that Mexico was at war with the United States For the next few months Life in Los Angeles was unsettled With first the Californians, then the Americans in charge Both of them brought trouble to the neutral Englishmen It was toward the end of hostilities That the situation became acute Mr. Dalton Mr. Dalton, sir Yes, Ben, what is it? It's the soldiers again They came this morning and took two wagon loads of our merchandise Cool, heaven And they said they'd be back for more this afternoon Mr. Dalton, sir, were almost out of stock If they take much more, we'll have to close up shop I know, I've just been figuring out how much they've taken so far It comes to almost $65,000 worth Holy mackerel Well, that's enough to ruin any business They'll never pay us for that much I'm afraid you might be right Although I'm filing claims with both governments To try to collect But if I can't, I'm ruined, Ben Well, what? What'll I tell them when they come back this afternoon? Tell them? I guess there's not much you can tell them, Ben Just let them have what they want And may the good Lord help us That started the avalanche of worries that beset the rancher The American victory and the gold rush Combined to start a flood of American settlers Poring into Southern California Some of them settled on the rancher, Azusa Renting the land from Dalton The United States Land Commission demanded Proof of title to the land from all the rancheros And when the government surveyors Mapped out Dalton's holdings The Englishman's domain began to crumble Mister, can I get a drink of water? Huh? Oh, huh Howdy, stranger Sure, there's a bucket of cool spring water right there Help yourself Thanks very much Uh, I ain't never seen you around here, have I? Well, that's right, Refreshing No, he ain't I'm surveying this land for the United States government Oh, that's so Well, my name's Casey Glad to know you Nice place you have here You like it Own it, do you? No, I rent it from Henry Dalton You rent it from Henry Dalton Now, what for? It isn't his Well, of course it's his It's always been his, stranger Not now This is public land You're smart, you'll file your claim for it right away Well, come in, Casey Glad to see you Mr. Dalton, I... I come up to see you because... Well, I was talking to that surveyor fella Oh, yes, I've seen them around From the government, aren't they? Yes, and... Well, he... I don't know exactly how to say this But he said that you don't own my land He did? Yes, I told him he was wrong But he says their survey shows that my land's public land Yes, I've seen their maps They're wrong, Casey I know, I think so, too But what am I to do? He told me I'd better file a claim for my land Yes, I guess you'd better Before someone else does Well, Mr. Dalton, I don't feel right about that After all, you've been pretty square with me Oh, you needn't feel badly, Casey I understand It's all you can do I'm going to fight this decision, son If I have to take it to the Supreme Court I have to Because it's not just your piece of land I'm taking It's a lot more, too But if I lose the fight I'd rather see you get it than somebody else And if I win, well, you haven't lost anything I'm sorry, it had to happen this way, Mr. Dalton Oh, my son, it'll just about ruin me But it isn't your fault Mr. Dalton, would... Would you shake hands? Sure, son, sure God bless you On top of the unsettled war claims The government refused to confirm Domingue Enrique's claim To the best portions of his land He fought it out on the courts for years And that took money, lots of it Debt began to haunt him And he had to find ways of raising money And so, as far back as 1851 He'd concede the plan See, here it is bent, all mapped out Man alive A real town on paper Yep, the city of Benton Right here on my land What I had left, that is Here, aiming to sell letters, is that it? I'm going to give them away Mr. Dalton, give them away Yeah, I'm getting other lotteries Selling chances on these lots People take a chance on a gamble Where they wouldn't buy a bar in a piece of land You know, most people can't visualize What a piece of land will look like Once it's cultivated You have to make it attractive to them some way Maybe, this is it Why, sure, it's a marvelous idea Why, you sell a million chances You make plenty of money I hope so, Ben I have to Mr. Dalton, what are you doing? That paper you're tearing up That's the map of Benton No, Ben, it's the map of no place There is no Benton There never will be any You mean you've given it up? Given it up There was nothing to give up People just weren't interested That's all I guess we'll have to figure some other way Oh, I... I'm sorry, Mr. Dalton Yeah, so am I She was a nice little town, wasn't she? I could almost see her Down there at the foot of the hill This would make a fine place to live, Ben Someday, people are going to realize that I hope I live to see it But now, unborn town of Benton I hereby consign you to the dust of history Into the fire, Ben, throw it in Land is one of the most basic of all commodities And when the market for land and real estate In any area is good It means that general business conditions there Must also be favorable So it's encouraging to learn That California's leading authorities Are predicting a substantial real estate market In Southern California during the next few years In spite of war conditions In a statewide survey made by the California Real Estate Association Since the beginning of the war last month Interesting figures on real estate activity As compared with that a year ago were revealed 59% of the real estate leaders Reported that local markets were improved 77% reported a better market for older homes 75% reported fewer rental vacancies 58% reported more purchases of real estate For income purposes And 69% said realty selling prices Were higher And so although war conditions Are having an adverse effect in some fields of endeavor The capital outlay being made to meet New housing needs is extremely reassuring The survey indicates that Southern California Will continue to be a white spot in the nation Both as a place to earn a living And as a place to enjoy living Dalton's dreams of the town of Benton Nestled under the hill where Azusa now stands Is not to be And the financial ruin which hung over him Was to continue for years more Constantly growing But for a while at least Life went on much the same as before On that part of the ranch of Azusa Which Dalton still held undisputed It was a thriving community unto itself In July of 1847 The Englishmen had been baptized For Roman Catholic faith In order to marry Maria Guadalupe Zamorano A daughter of one of the old families Of Southern California Dalton experimented with many new crops But he took his greatest pride in his vineyards Where he grew many different varieties of grapes All used to make wines and brandies In his great winery Wine was the chief industry And it was also the constant source of trouble Not only for Dalton But for all the early rancheros For most of the labor was performed by the Indians Every week when Sunday came The red men took up to be paid for their week's work All right men, step right up here Form in line Are you all ready Mr. Dogan? Yes, but I won't do any good But let's try them anyway All right there you Cedro step up here All right Six days work Here you are Money Me no want money Take back Now wait a minute to Cedro You work for it You're going to get it No want money Want to go a diente But men You need the money You can buy things with it But by branding if you want But it's bad for you You'll be much better off If you take the money You want to go a diente No money There you are Mr. Dogan What are you going to do? Listen you men I can't play you an aguardiente It's against the law And furthermore I don't want to It isn't good for you Now listen No no Pay in the go a diente Everybody does I don't care what everybody does You'll all get drunk And you'll be no good for three or four days I'm going to put a stop to it From now on you'll get no brandy Understand? No aguardiente No guardiente No work What? You mean if I don't give you the brandy You won't show up for work tomorrow? No guardiente No work for you no more There you are Mr. Dogan That's the way it is There ain't nothing we can do About it I guess Stupid idiots Can't they see We're only trying to help them No and I guess There ain't much use Trying to make them see it They'd like their fire water too well I'd like to ring the neck of the hombre Who first gave an Indian a taste of the stuff Yes but he ain't around I guess So what do I do? And I guess there's only one thing to do Blast this Give it to them We gotta have hands to do the work When they get out with their spree Go ahead I'll wash my hands off them All right All right you obstinate critters Come on ruin yourselves But don't blame us The Indians taste for fire water It's a big problem The Rancheros had other pressing problems too One of which struck with full force on Henry Dalton And the Rancho Azusa In a semi-arid land of Southern California Water was more valuable than gold And as more settlers came upon the lands And founded towns, built farms and homes The struggle to hold the limited sources Of the precious water began Early Henry Dalton had built diversion dams And irrigation ditches To bring the water of the San Gabriel to his land The Azusa neighbors But now, settlements had grown up Further down the river And friction started Now listen Dalton, we need water You're gonna get it I understand that sir But don't forget we need water too We're only taking as much as we need now The rest of the river is yours Well it's not enough We're gonna get more I've already suggested That we form a committee of three With representatives of both sides To decide the distribution to each of us I'm perfectly agreeable To abide by their decision Blast your committee We've already decided How much we need We're gonna have it now You have to open up those gates And let more water through Man, you're asking me to drain off the life Blood of my land And the land of all the people in this center I'm not asking you, I'm telling you Oh you are, well listen here young man I'm not going to let my crops dry up and die No, nor the crops of my neighbors Until you agree to the arbitration committee And until they say otherwise We'll keep right on taking as much water as we need Is that so? Yes, that's so There's enough for all of us So I have a right to my share Yeah, well you listen If you don't open up them gates We'll open them for you You won't touch those gates You have no right Never mind the right You try to stop us All right then If you want to fight You've got it son Come ahead, try it Mr. Dalton Look over there by the diversion ditch It looks like a couple of men Yeah it sure does That's funny Did you send any of the men over there To repair the ditch? No, I don't know what they're doing Hmm Well it looks like they're working anyway I'll stroll over that way While you finish loading the wagon All right I'll be ready in just a minute Say, what are you men doing? Oh it's you Dalton Now what does it look like we're doing? Here you can't do that You're opening the gates You're letting the water flow That's right I told you if you didn't open them We would Here stop them Get away from those gates Oh no you don't Put on that walking stick Go ahead Charlie Don't pay no attention to them Open them up You can't do this I'll have the law on you We don't worry about that After we get the water Here you stop it Stop it I say Oh wait a minute Dalton Get back there I'd advise you not to interfere Take your hands off me You rascal Here stop it How do you like it down there? Here help me out you Blast it No You can stay down there We get through Stay back Dalton Wait till I get my hands on you I don't think you will Stay back Oh so you'd pull a gun on me And it's loaded too Just stay where you are Or we'll finish And you tell you where you are brother What? Drop that gun and put up your head Thank goodness Good old Ben Here help me out of this ditch Before I drown All right And you boys better get going Out of sight quick And no never let me catch you Near these gates again Or you'll find out I can use this gun too In spite of Dalton's efforts to form an arbitration committee, the fight over the water rights to the San Gabriel continued for years, sometimes coming to violence. It was not finally settled until 1889, with the appointment of the committee of nine. In the meantime, another event had brought more settlers streaming into the region of Azusa. For gold had been discovered in San Gabriel Canyon and miners flocked there. The San Gabriel plassers were rich, and in the years from 1858 to 1863, the average miner's return from mining in the San Gabriel was greater than the average in the gold rush towns of the north. Town sprang up in the canyon, including El Doradoville, Downeyville, real booming gold towns. But on Saturday, January 18, 1862, Man alive Joe, look at that water. I've never seen a flood like this, even up here. I'm sure glad we climbed up here on the mountain. Town sure gonna get wet today. Hey, hey, did you hear that? It sounds like an earthquake almost. I wonder what it is. No, no. Hey, look at that. Look up the canyon. Holy mackerel, man, with a solid wall of water. Good. Maybe wipe the town right off the face of the map. Come on, man. Let's get out of here. Wiped off the face of the map were the mining towns of San Gabriel Canyon. But the hardy miners came back to take many millions in gold dust from the workings in the years that followed. Among them were many a canyon character who lives in the tales of the old timers today. There was Bates Persinger, the strongest man alive who was said to have thought nothing of carrying a bale of hay on his shoulder for 15 miles up into the canyon without shifting the weight once. There was John Knox Portwood, the bad man with mattress on his gun. Bill Potter, known far and wide for his tall stories. There was Stuttering McNabb and the mysterious Indian who had a fabulously rich goldmine hidden in the mountains. These and many others made the tales of canyon lore a fascinating study. But down at the mouth of the canyon, history was being made too. Dalton, desperate in need for relief from his troubles, tried a second time to establish a town on his land. In 1878, the plot of Mount City was drawn up and the venture was to be financed through a newly formed company, the Mount City Land and Water Company. But it was only a short time before. No. No, you spin. You mean Mount City's gone just like Benton? Worse, because now the banks got part of it and the land ain't mine anymore. Everything would have been all right if only we could have sold a few farms and made the payments. You mean they couldn't sell nothing? Oh, there's a few buildings just the start of a town but not enough to do any good. No, Ben, something had better happen pretty quick or I'm finished. Maybe the government in Washington will give you back that land that all the squatters took. I don't know. Maybe. But I've been waiting almost 30 years for that and they haven't made a decision yet. I don't suppose they ever will. Sure they will. When they do, you'll be saved. Mr. Dawson. Oh, Henry. Yes, Ben? I got news from Washington. From Washington? Ben? Oh, I can tell by your face, old friend. They decided against you, sir. No, Mr. Dawson, it's no good. I've tried to start a town here twice and failed. Last time I even lost the land for the bank you represent. All I have left is my little homestead. I guess I'm left. I wouldn't say that. Maybe we can make this thing pay after all. I want to try it. Build a town. Well, work. People just don't want to live out here, I guess. Ah, you're wrong. Things are different now. There's a railroad coming through here and another farther down. There's going to be a land boom around this valley. I think this time a town will succeed. I doubt it. Anyway, I'm sick of it. I'm so trying. Well, I'm not. I'm so sure of this. I'm going to take this land over from the bank myself and start the town of Azusa. And Jonathan Sayers Lawson was right. He founded the town of Azusa just in time to catch the great boom of the 80s when 36 new towns sprang up between there and Los Angeles. With fairs as low as $1 for the train trip from the Missouri River west to California, settlers flocked to the valleys of southern California, and almost overnight the town of Azusa grew into a thriving community. Around it grew Glendora, Duarte, Irwindale, Covina. A great citrus industry has grown up on the land which Henry Dalton first saw to be a fine place to live. Today, in the beautiful little city of Azusa, over 5,200 people look forward to an even greater future. Such is the story of progress, and such is the romance of the ranchos. Frank Graham will be back in just a moment. As you probably know, the 1940 census established the population of Los Angeles County at slightly more than 2,785,000. The population of Greater New York, according to the same authority, is 7,455,000. And yet during the month of last November, the number of deeds and mortgages recorded in Los Angeles County was almost twice the total recorded in Greater New York. The actual figures were 19,699 for Los Angeles County, 10,984 for Greater New York. Such figures graphically illustrate the leadership of southern California in volume of real estate transactions. They also reveal the importance of the service of the title, insurance, and trust company of Los Angeles, which facilitates real estate transactions by verifying and ensuring land titles promptly, and at minimum cost to owners and investors. Next week, we're going to tell you the story of one of the first Americans to cross the mountains into Southern California, a real pathfinder. Jedediah Smith was a fur trapper looking for new fields to conquer and he helped to open up this country for Americans. Be sure to hear his story. Until next week then, this is your Wondering Vaquero, Frank Graham, saying, hasta la vista, señoras y señores. The romance of the ranchos, a presentation of the title, insurance, and trust company of Los Angeles, featuring Frank Graham as the Wondering Vaquero, is dramatized by John Donkel and produced by Ted Bliss, with special music arranged by Irwin Yew, Bob LeMond speaking. This is the Columbia Broadcasting System.