 of the ranchos April 4th, 1845 Engle were traded for two barrels of brandy November 16th, 1860 Scotch Nobleman buys ranchos in a nellow May 23rd, 1941 Celebrity is the wrong opener at Hollywood Park The title insurance and trust company of Los Angeles presents the romance of the ranchos dramatizing the thrilling adventure which signalized the growth of Southern California from the days of the dawns to the present Each week our wandering Vakero Frank Graham uncovers another tale of the early days of the Southland recreated from the pages of history Business of the title insurance and trust company to know the facts about land ownership in Southern California and believe me, that means a lot of facts to know when you consider that the early day ranchos comprising what is now Los Angeles County have been split up into more than a million and a half separate parcels of assessed real estate That means thousands and thousands of changes of ownership of these parcels through the years Keeping track of all these and of the milestones and the lives of the myrids of owners deaths, wills, divorces, deeds, mortgages foreclosures, judgments and so on is the big job of the title insurance and trust company It's a job that never ends and one that gets harder rather than easier as time goes on Our story tonight however presents the romantic and adventurous background of all this activity and it's one of the most interesting of the series and here is our wandering Vakero Frank Graham to tell the story Our story tonight deals with the land we know as the modern cities of Englewood, Hawthorne, El Segundo and Redondo, Hermosa and Manhattan beaches steeped in the romance of the ranchos Back through time our story takes us from the Hollywood Park of today to another kind of horse race which took place in the year 1822 He dismounted hitting that pile of rocks We haven't surrounded him, dismounted We're closing on him Julio, you stay with the horses All right men, spread out How are the old men? Be careful, these men are desperate Slowly now Hold your fire Get him, fire! He's down Hurry, after him There he is It's a fair trade, he ruined my sombrero but he will not need his sombrero anymore No, he will not steal any more horses either Let that be a lesson to all horse thieves That's him riding with Julio Riding with Julio? Oh I see, he's dead But he is than we are Good work, I've been waiting for you I have news Well wait a minute, I must rest a moment before I get excited again What do you see Don Antonio? I fix him up one wooden box And see that the news is spread so that all horse thieves will know that I, Don Antonio Nacio Avila will personally see to what they do not escape from the law Oh you're a good catcher of horses Don Antonio That is my duty as consulman of the pueblo Do your duty so well that capitano, riega, militari, comandria Santa Barbara has decided to reward you Reward for me? That is the news I have for you I send you permission to use the place called Sazual Redondo to fill the corral and keep your stock You mean the land by the round club of willows? Ah this is wonderful, no it's wonderful Oh madre de Dios I'm so happy, haha I will make it my rancho Rancho Sazual Redondo The property of Don Antonio Nacio Avila Consulman of the pueblo and horse thieves catcher extraordinari And so in 1822 A year after Mexico obtained its independence from Spain, Don Antonio Nacio Avila became the holder of the great rancho He'd only been given permission to live there and keep his cattle and actual ownership of the land was not given him for 15 years Then too, the boundaries of his domain were not clearly fixed The way was open for other settlers to contest his claim to the great 25,000 acre parcel of land Thus, one another prominent and respected citizen of the early south land When he moved in on what Don Antonio considered his tract he made no protest at first Then one day came the news Don Antonio, Don Antonio What is it Diego? What's the matter? I've just come from the pueblo Don Ignacio Machado is at the prefect's office He's filing a claim to the land of Centinella Creek where he's been leaving What? You mean he really intends to claim ownership? See that is what he's doing right now I must get there at once, I must protest This is my land, here What's the answer? But, Senor, prefect, I protest this is my land Well, Don Antonio That is what is not quite clear The boundaries of your land have never been very clear I hardly know what to say Everyone knows that the land of the round club of willows called Sausal Redondo is mine That's just it, Don Antonio I claim the land called the springs of the Centinella not your Sausal Redondo Don Ignacio, that you should do such a thing to me It's the same thing, it is part of my land Hey, Senor, if it is your land why have you not used it, cultivated it? Because, I was being gracious Nothing new used But I didn't think you'd do this to me You were being gracious Senor, why have you not said something before Why have you not protested before For three years I have lived here Bill Hauss is a coronal, planetary vineyard See, Don Antonio He even built the reservoir and ditches for the irrigation Ah, no matter, this was not his land That is a matter for the Ayuntamiente They do decide, not you, Senor And I say no, Senor Senores, Senores, please This is an office of the law You will have to go somewhere else Pardon, Senor I do not mean to lose my temper, Senor But only this It is not that I am irritating It's that you are so stubborn, Don Antonio If there is any justice, I shall have my land After all, Senores Senores, Senores, please Don Antonio didn't secure What he called justice The Ayuntamiente or city council of Los Angeles Decided that Machado had valid Claim to the land called a Roque de la Sentinela Or Springs of the Sentinela And so the neighbors were forced To bury the quar A few years later in 1837 Governor Alvarado granted Don Antonio Title to his land And Machado received his grant in 1844 From the later governor, Michele Torrena Then, a year later Dung in Nassio Machado Finally, tired of the country And decided to move into Los Angeles At last, Don Antonio Avila Saw a chance to regain possession Of all the land for his family And so he called in his brother Bruno You see, I'll just have one word That Don Inosio has decided to move Into the Pueblo He wishes to leave his ranch or a Roque de la Sentinela See, but where do I come in? Why Don Inosio is looking for a house in the Pueblo Well, my brother You have a house in the Pueblo I know, but I do not understand Well, if you could persuade Don Inosio You mean I give up my house For his little rancho? Oh, but Bruno, it is a fine rancho Very valuable, his vineyards grow Fine scrapes for Vino Vino? See, it is rich land You will enjoy the country life That I will not, I am happy in the Pueblo My house there, it is worth Much more than this rancho No, I think I stay But Bruno, for me, for our family Great Rancho, once again, ours all ours It will keep our children Our children's children rich and respected Great Rancheros You must think of them, but Well, I don't know, I Think about it So you come before me to transfer your property See, that is right, Senor Sanchez Don Bruno Avila here as a house in the Pueblo I have the rancho a waje de la Centenela We wish to trade See, I will draw up the necessary paper Let me see now Ignacio Machado and Bruno Avila April 4, 1845 Ignacio Machado, give to Bruno Avila Don Ignacio, see Don Bruno I have been thinking I do not think I want to live in the country This is a fine time to be thinking of that The business is all settled Any moments in your Sanchez will have the papers already But I think my house in the Pueblo Is worth more than your rancho And I do not like this But me, amigo You came for me and offered I know, but I have thought it over It is not enough Not enough? What more can I give? I do not own any more land I have no gold Do you have a guardiente? Yes, I have Made from my own vineyards It is just like you will be able to make Well, suppose you were A couple of barrels of brandy Then perhaps your rancho would be worth As much as my house Almost two barrels? There is a lot with much love Yes, that is what I mean Very well I shall do it, Senor Sanchez Add to what I shall give Don Bruno Two barrels of a guardiente But the best a guardiente? Of course, Senores Just a moment Not at all, Senor I am foolish to make such a bad trick Senor, you evidently do not know The value of a house in the Pueblo You evidently do not realize The value of a great rancho in the country You are, Senores, it is already Good, then it is settled Not exactly You must sign the paper first See, put your name to it But, Senor, I do not know how to write You cannot even sign your name? No He cannot even sign his name Then I will sign for you, Don Bruno Gracias, Senor There Now, Don Ignacio Eh? Will you sign now? You mean I must sign it too? But of course Oh But that is It will be impossibly Sword hands, you know But, a minute ago your hand was not sword Use your hands with me Very sudden, you know Rheumatism Would you like for me to sign for you too? Don Ignacio So, you laugh because I cannot write And all the time you cannot sign your name either Eh? You are caught you this time, Don Ignacio Once again the two great ranchers were merged Into ownership for the same family In 1851 The new rulers of California, the United States Government, appointed a land commission To pass upon the validity of Spanish and Mexican land grants And finally, patents were issued to the Avila brothers But a few years later, disaster was to strike For Bruno, he needed money worse than land And so we went first to John G. Downey In James P. McFarland Los Angles' first bankers And later to Hilliard P. Dorsey From whom he borrowed money Mr. Dorsey, I want $1,400 Eh, that's a lot of money, Avila I don't have to have some security See, I thought of that I'll give you a mortgage On the Rancho Aguaje de la Sentinera Don Bruno See, Senor Sherry Bad news for you, this is a summons Your land is to be foreclosed Don Bruno was able successfully To contest the foreclosure suit By Downey and McFarland But when the debtor came into court to contest Dorsey's suit And so it seems to me Don Bruno, from reading of the agreement Between you and Mr. Dorsey The air's a valid claim against you Of course, Senor, before you said it In the case of Downey and McFarland Your wife did not sign the mortgage on your homestead According to the law she must But this time she did sign Your judge, I speak only Spanish It was written in English I did not know what I was signing I suppose that the Rancho had been reserved for us I'm sorry, Senora I'm afraid the law can't recognize that claim My decision is that Captain Hilliard B. Dorsey Is entitled to a judgment of $3359 And a decree of foreclosure Details of the records of Captain Hilliard's judgment And decree of foreclosure against Don Bruno's land Are posted in the files Of the title insurance and trust company Along with those of thousands Of other transactions behind which Lie real life stories of drama Tragedy, triumph, happiness and woe One of the many sources of Land title information which the title Insurance company must check daily Is the county's record of superior court filings During 1940 alone These included 56,565 Separate actions affecting land titles And a figure for the last 10 years Is 515,294 Among these were 125,875 divorces 97,257 probates 50,512 involving juveniles And 32,555 Classified as psychopathics Which include cases of incompetency And commitments to insane asylums Each and every one of these filings Can affect the validity of land titles So each and every one Was noted and posted In the title insurance company records The same day it was filed in superior court Once again, the rancho of Juarez De la Sentinela was split from Sao Sao Radondo in ownership For an 1856 Hiliard P. Dorsey stood in front of the county court It was 1900 Who'll make it? 2000 I have 2000 Do I hear more? It's going for 2000 And it's twice Sold The captain Hiliard P. Dorsey For the sum of $2,000 But captain Dorsey, a veteran of a Mexican war And a real westerner Was not to enjoy ownership of his rancho very long For he had married Civility Rubatom Daughter of Uncle Billy Rubatom Was one of the Southland's best-loved characters And the captain and his wife And his wife's relatives Had the disagreements One day Dorsey returned home Civility! Civility! I brought company! That's funny Perhaps your wife has gone outside I didn't see her. Raffy's in here That's civility! Perhaps she has left you, senor What'd you say? I did not mean anything by it, darling That's all right, Ramon What's this? I don't know Oh, probably telling you she has gone to the neighbors No, Ramon The first time She's run away from me She's gone to her father's house in El Monte And taken our baby with her Oh, senor, I am sorry But surely her father... That does not mean anything You don't know her father, senor He doesn't care very much for me Oh, that is too bad Yeah, too bad for him This is the last time I'll stand for his meddling I'm going out there to his place in El Monte And bring her back No I have a feeling A feeling like... No, no, civility, don't you get excited Nothing's going to happen Hilliard knew he had these calls before It's high time he taught him a lesson But he's not likely to sit back and do nothing He's the kind of man who doesn't like to be crossed Well, stop fretting He comes here, he'll just be wasting his time That is, Leslie comes to apologize Apologize? Not Hilliard That's what I'm afraid of You should get such things Nothing's going to happen Probably nothing at all Sounded like somebody coming in the gate Your imagination's working overtime, civility It'll make you feel any better I'll go see No, child, just be calm Nothing to worry about Take an old shotgun with me I'll be all right Father Anybody out there? Hello How'd you, Dorsey? Yeah, that's me. I'm coming in, Rubon Get out of my way Now, just a minute, son Just calm down a bit I said get out of my way I've come to get my wife and you ain't going to stop me Now, look here, Dorsey You better get control yourself You're asking for it Father, look out, he's got a gun Dorsey, don't I'm all right, civility Hilliard Either him or me I guess I had the best aim Hilliard Pete Dorsey was dead And his widow, civility, had no taste for running the complicated affairs of the Rancho Oaxay de la Centenara Among her many other troubles was the cause of a certain Frenchman, the son-in-law of the former owner, Bruno Avila He'd built his home on the land But this is no longer down Bruno's land I own it now, and you have no right here M-m-moselle, this is my home I built it with my own hands My wife, she and I live here and you want that we should go I do, this is my land I need it for my own cattle But where am I supposed to go? I don't care where you go We'd let you stay here this long and I can't let it go on any longer Senior, I shall run him off, no? No, I want no violence I'm sure the gentleman will see my position and leave of his own accord That I will not do The widow Dorsey could not cope with the situation and shortly afterwards she sold the rancho with great relief The next owner was Francis J. Carpenter who turned the property over to Joseph Lancaster Brent the attorney and land title expert almost immediately Brent quickly settled the matter of the Frenchman by paying him $300 for any further claim to the land Then a stranger came to Tom and shortly afterward he stopped him to see them Mr. Brent, I hear you'll be interested to sell your share of this land called the Rancho Centenella Yes, I've been thinking of it, sir You see, I'm a southerner and there's some talk of war between my countrymen and them Yankees That's the case, I want to be free to go back and offer my services But tell me, you're a Scotch nobleman, aren't you? Why would you want to be buying land here? Well, I don't want to seem disloyal but the claim it here satisfies my wife and me It's quite a bit different than our cold, dreary Highlands Well, sir, I warrant it is So you decided you'd like to live here? Well, I think so That is, if I can get the land I want And that is, uh, Centenella? It's a start with, yes Well, perhaps I can accommodate you, sir That is, it is Don't worry about that, Mr. Brent The price is no object Well then, I'm sure we can make a deal Joseph Lancaster Brent went off to become a great Confederate general Sir Robert Burnett of Craiths Castle, Scotland took up his abode in Bruno Avila, Adobe which stands today Shortly afterward, he bought the ranch of South Sal Redondo from the airs of Antonio Ignacio Avila And once more, these two tracks were combined into one great rancho For twelve years, Sir Robert directed operations of sheep and cattle raising on his vast acreage But finally, in 1873, it became necessary for him to return to Scotland And with regret he turned his domain over to another How did you happen to come here, sir, all the way from Canada? Well, we were going to Jamaica for my wife's health But I read a book called California for Health, Pleasure and Residence So I came here instead So we have people advertising our land, huh? And now you've decided to stay? Yes, I've looked over a number of ranchos but I don't mind telling you I like yours best The cool sea air will be very beneficial for my wife's health, too But you see, Mr. Freeman, I don't want to sell I only want to lease I'll even do that. I'll take a lease if you'll give me the first option to buy It's a deal, Mr. Freeman And so Daniel Freeman, the father of Englewood, came into possession of a great rancho A few years after, he stocked its acres with new herds of cattle and fine horses and planted thousands of fruit and eucalyptus trees He was able to exercise his option to buy, and the march of progress was begun Up until 1875 it had been thought that this land was best for cattle and sheep raising But in 1875 and 76 the great drowth parched the land and sheep and cattle died like flies Daniel Freeman fought to save his herds Round up those trees, man, and keep them moving Don't let them stop Oh, damn, it's no use The poor creatures can't stand it If I can only get them to the hills, they may find enough green foliage to save them Ah, but you'll never get them to the hills Not many anyway They're dropping like flies They've lost thousands of heads of sheep I'll save the others if I can No, it's not much use, Dan You better do what some of the other ranches are doing Driving them over their cliffs into the sea Holding them out of their misery Maybe, but I'm going to try the hills first And, Joe, one thing I know This country is going to grow and become a big shipping and industrial community They'll need lots of farmland to supply them And I'm going ahead with the times This is going to be a barley farm next year Daniel Freeman envisioned a great land that was to be and he helped to build it not just with his vast acres of barley which found markets in New York and London but as an active participant in the birth of a new city In 1887 the directors of the Centinella Englewood Land Company gathered Ladies and gentlemen, I'm pleased to send you this great tract of land for development into the town of Englewood We're going to build a real town We're all set to buy and sell lots Build a hotel, put in water and gas works everything Englewood's going to be metropolis before you know it Hey, look at this in the Englewood Star 1,500,000 feet of lumber will be delivered to Englewood at once 4,500,000 feet more coming lumber will be sold at cost to all who will build 50 new buildings going up inside of 30 days Railroads to Redondo Beach is in goes right through Englewood There's nothing to stop us now We've got grocery stores hotels, liveries, stables a brickyard and we're even going to have a college Yes, sir, the Freeman College of Applied Sciences Town lots and farms in Englewood can be bought cheap today but they'll never be cheaper Englewood's not a town on paper No, sir, she's a real town She's going to grow into a big beautiful and prosperous city You bet And Englewood did grow and adjust that Today it's a prosperous community of over 30,000 people It's tree shaded streets of homes and gardens watered by the same springs of the Sentinel which attracted Antonio Ignacio Avila Around it on the 25,000 acres of the Rancho Aguaje de la Centenela Rancho Sao Sao Redondo sprung up other prosperous communities Hawthorne, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach Hermosa Beach and El Segundo On the romantic domain of the Avilas stands the Douglas Aircraft Company's El Segundo Division and the North American plant furnishing wings for the defense of our nation One of the country's greatest airports is fast-taking shape It's the Los Angeles Municipal Port at Mines Field and true to the traditions of Don Antonio Avila at Great Horsemen and Catcher of Horse Thieves and to the spirit of Daniel Freeman breeder of fine horses It is still intimately associated with the sound of running hooves for it is the home of that modern mecca which is Hollywood Park Such is the story of progress and such is the romance of the ranchers Few people realize that Title Insurance Service comparable to that provided by the Title Insurance and Trust Company of Los Angeles is not available anywhere else in the United States at rates so low as prevail here One reason such low rates are possible is that this company writes more policies of the Title Insurance than any other company in the United States But the principal reason is the efficiency of its methods and personnel and the completeness of its files The same files that contain the facts on which you're based these authentic stories of Southern California's adventurous past The Title Insurance and Trust Company sincerely hopes that you find these programs entertaining that by exploring for you the colorful history of our Southland they add something to your enjoyment in living here And what's the story for next week, Frank? Next week our story deals with the film of movie stars Beverly Hills which was once the great rancher Rodeo Delos Aguas It's the story of a lonely but valiant widow who weathered trouble with neighbors and the Indians and single handed raised her great family And so until next week this is your Wandering Vaquero Frank Graham saying The romance of the ranchers featuring Frank Graham is the Wandering Vaquero is brought to you each Wednesday night at this time by the Title Insurance and Trust Company of Los Angeles Bob LeMond speaking This is the Columbia Broadcasting System