 The Romance of the Ranchos San Jose 1841 American Slee Revolution in New Mexico Los Angeles 1841 First American party arrives in Southern California Los Angeles 1845 Bandit Joaquin killed by Posse The title insurance and trust company of Los Angeles presents The Romance of the Ranchos Dramatizing the great events and famous people Responsible for the growth of our Southern California From the days of the dawns to the present Each week our wandering vocato Frank Graham Recreates another fascinating chapter In the Romance of the Ranchos Some years ago a writer in a national magazine Made this amazing statement Los Angeles, he wrote, is a city without a past It has no memories because it has nothing to remember And he further said that life without a past Without a sense of permanence lacks fullness and reality Which is of course very true But to call Los Angeles by and by implication Southern California A community without a past could hardly be more incorrect Few areas have histories as long and rich and colorful As has Southern California The contribution of such a history to our living today Can be realized to the full only when it is known And fully appreciated by the majority of citizens Particularly those of the younger generations So it is that title insurance and trust company Hopes that these broadcasts will help Southern Californians To get more out of life in this Southland By being familiar with its golden past And here is our wandering vocato Frank Graham To tell us the story Buenas noches señoras y señores Tonight we're going to tell you the first half Of a truly remarkable life story It's the story of a man who stands out as one of the greatest Of the early American pioneers Who helped to make California a part of the United States And his life is typical of many other men like him I speak of Benjamin David Wilson First American mayor of Los Angeles And a civic leader for many years He helped to found Pasadena Owned the land which became Riverside and Westwood Hills Had streets and boulevards named after him And furnished Mount Wilson with its name There is so much to tell We've decided to devote two programs to the task And tonight we present the first It's a truly thrilling chapter In the romance of the ranchers The adventurous life of Benjamin David Wilson Began 130 years ago On December the first 1811 In Nashville, Tennessee Eight years later his father died Leaving the family poor A few years after that, at Yazoo City near Vicksburg A doctor paid a call on Benjamin D. Wilson Oh, that's awful stuff It ain't exactly supposed to taste good I hope I don't have to take much of that Son, you might have to You're pretty sick, son In fact, your health is broken down generally What do you mean broken down? I just get a little sick You're more than a little sick, son You've had too much on your shoulders Well, that's silly I've been taking care of myself for some time now Maybe that's it How old are you, son? Me? Well, I'm almost sixteen Here you are, working from dawn to dusk Running a trade and business with the Indians Wearing yourself to the bone You ought to be out in the air, playing, growing up What do you mean I am grown up? You ain't had a chance to grow up, son Oh, I have so I'm a man, I can take care of myself My health's all right Just listen to me, all right, son It ain't the work then Maybe it's the climate You've got the damp getting in you, clear to the bone Whatever it is, you ain't got much to look forward to around here You mean I might die? I'd say yes and I'd say no If I was you, I'd settle up things here and get away It ain't right for a fine-strapping youngster like you to glue any surf like you're doing Get away, but where'd I go? You don't rightly know I Somewhere with this clean, dry air to breathe Lots of sunshine and light Out west, maybe? Lord, do you mean the Indian country? You suggest nothing like that You'd better stay here and die in your bed as to get killed by them red devils I'm not afraid of that Heck, I haven't heard a lot about that country from the folks on the Missouri packets It ain't as bad as some folks think Now listen here, son I'm advising you to leave this country here and I didn't say nothing about the Indian country I'm a doctor I'm advising you to go somewhere where it's healthy Well, if I'm going anywhere I'm going where I can do something where there's adventure and excitement Yep, doc If I'm going to go anywhere I'm going out west and I am going Young Benjamin Wilson settled up his business and headed west Joining the Rocky Mountain Fur Company in Missouri he made the hazardous journey across the plains and arrived in the little Mexican town of Santa Fe in 1833 There he joined a party of trappers on an expedition to the Hila Valley On his return to Santa Fe he talked one day to another young man You see, Maxwell, my knowledge of the country down there in the Hila Valley is no reason why we can't trade for ourselves instead of riding other people's coat to it In other words, you want to form your own company That's it There's a fortune to be made in beaver skins and there's no reason why we can't do it as well as the next fellow Well, I don't know, Ben I never thought much about leaving Santa Fe I think I'd just leave, stay right here Why? With a whole wide west beckoning to a man with some gumption? Why do you want to stay cooped up in this little town? Well, I'm getting along comfortable Oh, man, don't you want to get anywhere and make something more of yourself in there? I'm doing all right I ain't risking my neck on the trail Risking your neck? Why, man, what's there to be afraid of? Maybe nothing, maybe plenty For one thing, the Mexican government ain't particularly fond of us Americans, you know It's against their laws for us to be traveling here in New Mexico There's no real reason why we shouldn't be allowed to carry on a legitimate business And as long as it is legitimate, I'll stand on my rights as a free American citizen to carry on my business Yeah, well, just so the Mexican governor doesn't hear you say that The Mexican governor has his hands full with the Apaches without worrying about us Yeah, and what about the Apaches? Well, what about them? They're our friends They like Americans They're wars with the Mexicans Yeah, that's now And they might change their minds anytime and then they'll be all white men, Americans as well as Mexicans And not as long as one who says he's alive and leading them You know how I've met him? He's a fine man He's educated by whites and he's friendly to us Now, if the Mexicans hadn't murdered his father well, he'd be friendly to them, too Well, maybe Now look, Maxwell, there's nothing to be afraid of You're crossing your bridges before you come to him I'm going to take an expedition out on the plains with or without you Now, if you want in on the profits, well then, you're welcome So what do you say? Are you with me? Well, I guess so, I'll go but I got a feeling that we're not going to have easy sailing Maxwell's foreboding was prophetic but the young merchant's expedition was ill-timed It was on the return journey toward Santa Fe that the men first noticed something strange Yeah, I can't make it out There's another on the hill ahead Must be two miles Yeah Their patchy signal fires, all right? And look at them A whole line stretching away at regular intervals beyond the horizon to the north But what could it be? What are they up to? I don't know Must be important news There's a village up ahead there we'll find out there I don't like this I'm glad we sent the others on ahead with our goods There's nothing to be afraid of Hi there, Tucker, kick up those news Yes, sir Here we are, just the three of us How could we defend ourselves? Who wouldn't blaze you're talking about? Defend ourselves from what? I don't know, but listen, what's that? The drums The patchy drums Yeah It's from the village I don't like this You need to do either That's a war dance Ben, you don't suppose... Yeah, I don't know Look at them coming from out of the canyon The patchies painted holy smokes They're out for trouble Ben, what do we do? What can we do? Three against a hundred? Stand still and surrender to them See what all this is about See, what is this? Hey, stop, let me go We need to turn this out You fellas are mistaking us for somebody else We're Americans, understand? No, take, no We hunt Americans What's the trouble? We're your friends, wait No Americans, no friends Well, listen, I'm a friend of your chief, Juan Jose Juan Jose, dead Juan Jose was murdered by a treacherous American I feel as badly about as you do That's no reason for the patchies to declare war on all Americans Yeah, me know The brave no care They cry for scalp They won't kill all white men Yeah, but we've been your friends We've helped you Me know, me sorry Me try, tell them They know, listen Oh, but you're their chief Me tell them no Me not be chief anymore There's no use, we're doomed We're doomed Why, Max, we'll pull yourself together We're not finished Already, other tribes kill whole camps of Americans My braves not be without scalp too No can stop them Well, this is helping your muster Well, your whole tribe is doomed You can't make war on the white man and win No can stop them Yeah, but you could help us to get away Me like to, but But if the braves found out, eh Yeah, I know Well, no matter They're not find out Me help You will Chief God bless Wait, let me see how much time left Look, what are they doing to that wood? They're building a fire Big fire Then they're gonna burn us Burn us alive Calm down, man Now stop, they're not gonna burn us We're gonna get away I got an idea Now chief Could you get these two men away safely If all the warriors were drawn outside the camp? Well, give them punis Get away down, Kenyon All right, then You give me ten minutes and the camp will be empty But then what are you gonna do? I'm gonna make a break for it Draw them off into the hills up there Oh, man, what are you saying? You'll be killed I'll get you sure I don't think so Anyway, be better than roasting to death out there And maybe Maybe we'll all have a chance I won't let you do it If anybody's gonna do it, I will On that sprain, ain't gonna yours Forget it, man You just tend your own getaway in our manager All right? I got you into this Now I'm gonna get you out of here Take buffalo skin Oh, chief Thank you, chief Now remember this If you ever need anything You can find me at Santa Fe Then you can't do this Good luck, man Then wait, then come back Talk to the lookies He's going Then, then Quiet, no noise yet They no see you Oh, they do now Look at them, they're starting after them Run, then, then If him get to hill Run, then Then find hiding place Run Look, there he goes Here are the rocks He's there Then be safe now Find hiding place Oh, but they're going in after him They might come No time to talk now Look at that Make safe Go, go now Oh, but then He'll do this for you Make safe Go now or pick no good Go Yes, you're right Come on, Tucker Let's go And make God protect him Lying motionless In a crevasse of a canyon Wilson waited for the apaches To give up the search One, two, three hours he lay Listening to the ominous Tread of nearby feet Finally His night wrapped The plains in blessed darkness He left his sanctuary And started on foot For Santa Fe 100 miles away Four days later He virally stumbled into the town To find that the Apache war Was on an earnest A war which was The last almost half a century He heard no word of Maxwell and Tucker Until late one night He received a visitor In his quarters at Santa Fe Yeah, who is it? Me Chief, what are you doing here? Come see you, Wilson Of course, come on in here What are you doing in Santa Fe? Come see you I don't understand it Aren't you with your tribe? No more No more chief You mean because of what you did for us? Oh, I'm sorry No matter You, other men, Godway Not killed, best that way Then they did get away safely Oh, they hurt for Chihuahua Oh, I'm glad for that But you, are you all right? All right, but I'm hurt Well, they hurt you, huh? Oh, that's bad Well, that arm's broken You'll have to get it fixed up Right away Not that hurt And it doesn't matter We'll have to fix it up in chief You saved my life And from now on, I'm taking care of you Thank you Wilson never saw Max Will again For a few years, Wilson carried on his business In Santa Fe But a revolution took place That Armijo took over the Mexican governorship of New Mexico His special hatred was for Americans And in the summer of 1841 Matters were fast coming to a head All right, come on, men Vericate the doors and the windows Get the guns from the shelf There's no telling what they'll do What chance have we? Only 20 of us are against that mob These riots are getting worse, Ben Armijo is working them up Into a fury against them What's he telling them? He's telling them that the Americans in Texas Organized an expedition To march into New Mexico And take it over And even it's true, too Sure it's true How it's found out, I don't know A lot of gooders will do us For them to come Before they can get here, we'll be gone From the sound of that mob out here We may be gone as before Very long at all We've got to get out of here, Ben We've been talking about going to California Well, now's the time to do it We may not get another chance It looks like you may be right Ben Ben, Bill, they're coming this way Get your guns You may have to fight for it They're out for a break But we're ready for them Yeah, about 20 of us We might have a chance of standing them off From the sound of that mob without it Well, wait a minute My ears going bad They sound like they're getting farther away Well, wait a minute I believe you're right They are getting fater But only a minute ago they were headed this way Looks like nothing could stop them I don't understand Wait Who is it? It's me It's my old friend, Chief Mingus Yeah, just a minute Come on in here, Chief What's going on out there? No trouble now People go away No bother you now But how? Why? Mostly Pueblo Indians If you're a friend Me make sign Him tell them you're not here They go somewhere else But then This is the second time you've saved our lives And I thank you No easy again You better go I'm sure right Gentlemen, we better go We'll get our things together as fast as possible And head for California I'm with you gentlemen Work when you make the arrangements And we'll leave right away Right Come on then now Me say goodbye Why not come with us, Chief Me stay here But maybe You take Indian boy Lorenzo Him want to go Well, sure I'll take Lorenzo One day Lorenzo Go California He watch over white friends Like me You good man Wilson Indian life Well, thank you Someday I hope to do something For your people To repay what you've done for me Across the plains The first party of Americans came William Workman John Roland Lenule Carpenter Wilson And the others Across parched deserts In lofty mountains And then one day November 1841 They came in sight Of the fertile valleys Of Southern California Lorenzo Look at that Boy, that's as green As I've ever seen That looks like paradise to me Paradise on earth Man, I can hardly wait to Buy a patch of that emerald green And settle down To the rest of my life How about you, Ben? Oh, it's pretty all right But I don't aim to settle just yet There's lots more places to go Lots more adventure I'm going places Where I can do Well, Ben, from all I've been told About this place I'd be willing to lay you a little bit I'll bet before you're through You'll settle down here Live, die, and be buried here I'll have to wait a long time But by golly, I'll collect that bit Most of the titles to land In Southern California Are based originally on the Early Day grants issued by the King of Spain And later by the Mexican Government a century or more ago Records of those original grants And of every subsequent transfer Of every square foot of land in Los Angeles County are the implements By means of which title insurance And trust company carries on its work Abstracts of literally millions of Documents and legal instruments are Contained in the company's vast system Of records or title plans in the Main office at 433 South Spring Street in Los Angeles Every day there is gathered Information from some 50 public Offices including abstracts of Approximately 1,500 newly recorded Instruments in the county This information is daily added To the files of the title insurance And trust company of Los Angeles The purpose of all this record keeping Is to enable the title insurance And trust company to provide you With prompt and accurate service Whenever it is necessary to establish The true ownership of any piece of land The service includes in addition To the searching of all records The issuance of a policy of title insurance Which ensures the completeness And accuracy of the work Benjamin D. Wilson did not intend To settle in California He planned to go on to China But his time passed and he was unable to Get the birth on a ship. The sleepy Land of the Dones began to grow on him One day he met his friend John Rowland Ben! Ben Wilson! Wait a minute! When's this John? How about you run your rancho? Came in the day on business Say I got news for you Oh yeah, what news? An American frigate's in the bay At San Pedro You can get a birth abortor And she's bound for China Hmm, that's true Yep, long wait But now you finally found it Well, uh... Hey, what's the matter with you? You aren't even interested Well, I tell you John I'm not so sure I want to go to China What? After all this time And now you have your chance To change your mind? Well, where do you want to go? I'm not so sure I want to go any place You mean... Oh, that's right Ben Wilson the rolling stone Out for adventure And now you're satisfied To stay in this sleepy little town Yeah, I know You got the laugh on me all right But I don't care much I sort of like it here You know, it's the first place I ever lived Where there weren't any courts No lawyers, no laws They don't need them And the people They're honest and peaceful They're words as good as gold And they're friendly I don't know what sort of homey here What did I tell you? You'll be settling down Asking for a ranch, Nick Yeah, I've already been talking To Don Juan Bandini About buying this Rupa Rancho Out beyond your land there Buying? Well, man All you gotta do is ask for one They'll give it to you That's me You know, you were with me at Monterey I know, but you had to apply For Mexican citizenship And I'm not gonna do that I'm gonna stay an American citizen I got ideas about that Well, anyway You are gonna settle down Get some land there Yep That's fine And now that you are You can pay up that little bet I made Oh, no, now You said live, die, and be buried here And I'm not dead yet Not by long shot You'll have to wait a while Me and me go In 1843, Wilson bought the Rupa Rancho Of which the present city Of Riverside is a part And settled down and married Ramona The lovely daughter of Don Bernardo Yorba In the years that followed He became a respected ranchero A friend of all An American always But a man the Californians Regarded as a brother They affectionately called him Don Benito And that is the name By which he's been known Ever since Respect for his abilities As a man and a leader Made the Californians turn to him for help In many a situation Which called for responsible leadership One such time Was when he was put in charge Of an expedition against The marauding Mojave Indians Whose leader Joaquin The terror of the outlying ranchos Was once a neophyte In a California mission Late one afternoon When Don Benito was riding Far ahead of his party Accompanied only by his lieutenant Don Benito And look Yeah What is it? Look, the Indians, four of them Riding along the arroyo They haven't seen us yet Come on, down into the arroyo Hey, but what do you intend to do? We'll hide here until they're close enough And we'll talk to them But how do we better wait for the others? No, no, no, we'll be all right Now, just be quiet They're coming closely All right, come on Out we go Far and desert, senor See, we do And you have no water Provision, nothing Oh, we, uh We left them over in the arroyo There is something strange here Senor You are Joaquin, are you there? How did you know? By the markings on your face Who are you? What are you doing here? Joaquin, horsemen Many of them coming Senor, you are after me Don't Benito, look out He's got a bone arrow Don't, don't Benito Don't Benito, are you all right? Yeah I guess you You hit yourself You hit you on the On the shoulder Not bad Easy Oh Yeah, hands me Yeah What about Joaquin? You got him, Don Benito He still lives but not for long California is rid of one outlaw And the other They're riding away But our men are in pursuit They will be caught All right I can always depend on you To turn up on a ninja See, what Chief Manga told me To look after white friends You feel good? Not very Kind of thing Senor, your shoulder It's beginning to swell I don't like the looks Yeah Let me see No need to look, Lorenzo I can tell you You won't have to look after The white friend much longer Yeah That was a poisoned arrow It shot me Avila Yeah Avila How's this, Senor? You out of weight? Yeah Yeah Well, what's happened to you? Where am I? You are safe in camp Yes, but the poisoned arrow Oh, you have nothing to fear, Don Benito You will recover But how? How can that be? Lorenzo saved your life, Senor He took every last drop of the poison from the wound His swelling has gone down And the wound is healing fine All is well Lorenzo For the third time I owe my life to a faithful friend An Indian Somehow, sometime I'll repay their race For their friendship And Don Benito Wilson Did repay his debt to the Indians All through his later life The citizens of Los Angeles Called him the stepfather Of all Indians He always had a smile A kind word Or a helpful hand for them And finally He was appointed Indian agent For the United States government And he used his post to help the plight Of the Forgotten Red Man The Indians of Southern California Had no greater friend Than Don Benito Wilson But then He was a friend to every man And so it was not strange that his friends Approached him one day In the early 40s With a request But then we need you We need somebody to look out after our incident You need somebody to look out after yours too So why not yourself? Gentlemen, I tell you I don't want to assume any office In the first place I have no right I'm not even a Mexican citizen There is no matter, senior We have no better man Than you in all of the California We Californians want you to do it too There you are, Ben You can't refuse now As long as you stay here We'll keep after you To be Alcalde of Los Angeles Now will you take it Or shall we run you out? Well, you'll never run me out of this country Not till I'm carried out feet first That's perfect, Ben Do you realize what you said? You not only agree to be Alcalde But you settled up a little better than you and I had As long as you decide that you are going to live Die and be buried here You might as well pay up me, Amiga See? I will And I'm glad to do it Because all I hope is That I still have many more years to live And enjoy This wonderful end Frank Graham will be back in a moment The lives of Southland pioneers Like Benjamin D. Wilson Are a real inspiration to all of us It is impossible in a half hour program Or even in two of them To present all of the many accomplishments And constructive activities of Don Benito In the area that now is centered By the communities of Pasadena, Alhambra South Pasadena and San Marino Don Benito Wilson is particularly well remembered At one time there was a mountain A canyon, a school, an avenue, a lake And a mountain trail in that area All named for him Wilson laid out the original town of Alhambra In 1871 On his late vineyard tracks The second large subdivision in Pasadena The largest orange orchards in the world Up to that time were planted Title insurance and trust company of Los Angeles Considered it a privilege, as well as a service To portray the lives of such men In these programs And now Frank, what about next week? Well, Don Benito Wilson did live many years more To take a great part in the history of California And so we're going to continue his dramatic life story Next week It's a thrilling adventure you won't want to miss And so until 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 Traumatized by John Dunkel And produced by Ted Bliss With special music arranged by Erwin Yeo Bob Lamon speaking This is the Columbia Broadcasting System