 the romance of the ranchos westwood 1820 ex-soldier settles on rancho westwood 1852 last indian raid on southland rancho westwood 1929 great university founded on old rancho the title insurance and trust company of los angles presents the romance of the ranchos a weekly dramatization of the colorful and romantic history of our southern california each week our wandering vocero frank graham returns to tell the facts about a part of the southland rich in the romance of the ranchos title insurance and trust company of los angles has asked me to say a word now about a different kind of insurance insurance for victory in our nation's war against ruthless enemies your purchases of united states defense bonds and stamps constitute a form of insurance that will provide protection against loss of possessions more valuable than property or life itself america has never lost a war and with united people behind its war effort it won't lose this one unite now for victory by buying more and more united states defense bonds and stamps and now here to tell us the story is our wandering vocero frank graham we now know chase senoras y señores first i want to call your attention to a change in time for this program starting next week the romance of the ranchos will come to you an hour and a half earlier at six o'clock on wednesday that's six o'clock next wednesday evening and every wednesday evening thereafter make a note of it will and out tonight we're going to trace the romantic history of that part of our southland around the communities of westwood hills westwood village home the hills and bel air this land was once the great rancho san jose de buenos iris a region rich in the romance of the ranchos the history of this land began when governor felipe deneve in 1781 decreed the founding of a pueblo near the porcincula river a town to be called el pueblo de nuestra señora la reina de los angeles he also provided the population for that otherwise lifeless spot of southern california up from sinaloa came a tiny band of soldiers and settlers to found and build a village which was to grow into the great city of today there were only a handful of them with their families one of them was the soldier maximo and alice sir this is it see me amigo this is the site you mean to tell me that tomorrow we bring our families from the missional san gabri and listen to a speech and just call this baron dusty spot home and stay here see as soon as the ceremonies are over we begin to build our houses and in the meantime our families sleep on the ground in the dust oh come me amigo you must not be discouraged any new venture looks bad at first wait until we have a few adobes up around the plaza a few corals and stores then it will begin to look like hope ah it is a stupid idea anyway out here in the middle of a wilderness nobody nothing wrong but you are wrong there are many indian villages near here in the missio ah the missio if the father is want to live in a wilderness and preach to the indians let them but why should i have to you do not understand can you not see can't you look out across these beautiful planes and see the country that could be fertile orchard great herds roaming the grazing land a thriving town ships stopping at the bay bringing goods to us taking hides and callow from us to every country of the world ah that is a glorious site mother the deals this heat has touched your brain you're completely local you're seeing things that don't exist and never shall honor no you are wrong they will exist we will make them exist ah this may be a baron hot dusty loneliness but now but wait let me go away someday in pueblo de los ageles will be a place to be reckoned with the prediction of maximo alanis was to come through many years after his death slowly the little pueblo grew but those early years were full of hardship and there were some who could not weather them one of these was senora alanis after her death maximo lived on in the little house in the pueblo for several years more he carried on his duties as a soldier in the fast-growing pueblo de los angeles but age was creeping up on him and one day he was called to see the captain who had just come from moderate deus capitan you sent for me see senora sit up i i have done nothing wrong oh no of course not senior in fact it is to compliment you that i have sent for you oh see you have been a soldier here for many years have you not oh a trifle see some 30 years and your service to your country has been on excel gracias i i am trying to do my best but senior are you not a little tired of the army tired see you're not getting any younger you know and most of our men feel that they have done their duty when they reach your age i know you mean i'm getting too old useless not at all a man with your vast experiences always needed but you have served more than enough time to entitle you to a pension pension wish to pension me off no no alanis do not jump at conclusions as long as you wish to remain in the service you will be welcome and your capitano you wish to discharge me pension me off like an old horse i have outlived my usefulness alanis stop it i am doing nothing of the kind i did not mean to hurt your feelings by what i said i i thought you would be happy happy to be discarded as too old once and for all i am not trying to discard you as too old you are not too old you may remain a soldier for another 30 years if you wish but most of your comrades in arms have asked for attentions after that many years but you you go on serving and asking nothing you see why shouldn't i am happy but alanis after so many years of faithful work you deserve some rest and some reward reward see the government wishes to reward you for your fine work and you do not wish to take it but the pension is that the reward see most men think so and that is the spirit it is given in the government please you from work pays you eight pesos a month and you have nothing to worry about for the rest of your life nothing to worry about what would i do with myself no no work to do it pesos to live on in what would i do how would i fill up the days oh you would find plenty to do once you got used to it besides there will be the land to take care of land quite land oh i did not tell you well beside the pension you are entitled to a square league of public land only what you choose see honor to keep your cattle build a house become a ranchero just like sergeant verdugo and domingas and all the others so you'll see there will be plenty to do you have a new life before you as a great ranchero the government wishes to do this for me see it is no more than right after the fine service you are rendered oh senior capitane i'm overwhelmed it is too much i thought oh i am sorry capitane i thought you were trying to get rid of me oh no no senior no we shall be sorry to lose you but i'm sure that you'll go on serving your country as a great ranchero see see me i mean well it is fine but now that i have my pension what am i to do do just sitting in the sun and enjoy life what more do you want oh to a man accustomed to action just sitting becomes unbearable i should like to try it just once i paint the pension is not that much you cannot live like a prince you know that is only more reason for you not to move around too much action wets the appetite your pension is plenty if you sit in the sun and don't get too hungry you are hopeless my amigo oh but this is not joking my right i am serious see i know but why if you want action don't you go out and find your rancho that you have coming oh i have looked all around the pueblo there's no land close by that is not spoken for see i know but there is plenty of fine rich land just a few leagues away see but i am an old man lonely my my children growing up my my wife gone i've lived all my life in the pueblo i do not enjoy the prospect of going out to a lonely adobe in the hills to spend the rest of my day then my friend get married rise another family huh what are you saying of course you are not so old all this talk of pensions has made you feel old you still have many years of life ahead of you in fact their whole new life look at it in that way my amigo but maria again after my wife died i knew your wife too son and she would not wish you to be lonely if she could tell you i'm sure she would want you to marry again and be happy perhaps you are right see me amigo perhaps you are right and so massimo alanis did not close his lonely heart for romance and presently he found the love and comfort he sought on february 2nd 1818 at the mission san gabriel he and senorita juana reyes were married the old soldier started a new life and a new family for a time they made their home in the adobe of senora alanis which stood on the land east of alameda street near the los angles river but soon disaster threatened well see mo look at it coming up to the very foundation do not worry me carida soon as i have these few clothes packed we shall get away to the hill we shall be safe see but our home it will be swept away in the flood and a lovely orchard they are ruined in our cattle ground here we shall not be able to save much but what are we to do i don't know except that we shall not come back here these spring rains would flood us out every year i i must find a home for us that our home that will be safe but i do not know but i i still have a parcel of land coming from the government now me carida i must find it and claim it and so massimo alanis set out on a search for his rancho to be with his old friend he was riding one day oh me amigo we are almost four leagues from the pueblo and i am dying of this heat never mind the heat me amigo but but this is wilderness there is nothing here and no one that is all right no one will bother you and there will be no arguments over the land oh but amigo me oh so far from the town and and so hard massimo either you want to be a rancher or you do not oh but if you do then you must give up the pueblo and come out to live where there is land for cattle and orchards if you do not and stay in the pueblo and be content oh if you were not my friend i should be hungry with you but uh since you are my friend you are right gracias me amigo but i am so hot and tired and i still haven't seen anything that looks good ah me amigo let's let's turn back and try another direction tomorrow now wait we're almost at the top of this hill i want you to see what lies over just a minute and we will be there come oh very well but i can tell you i won't like it it's hot and sticky i like the cool shade of the pueblo it is hot there too you can have your shade anywhere now stop quibbling oh here we are at the top oh look at that santa maria oh it is a pretty view it's beautiful look there in the distance you can see the ocean look at that plain pasture land for the cow me amigo do you feel it the breeze the cool breeze yeah it is from the ocean it is like that all the time even when it is hottest in the pueblo the breeze from the ocean is oh it is like heaven i feel refreshed already at the temperature me amigo look at this land to make a wonderful arancho see see it will you like it of course did you not want me to like it see but you hardly even looked at oh i do not have to look at it me amigo i can feel it any place that has cool breezes like this is wonderful i shall take it i shall leave here because of the breeze see see and i shall call my rancho san jose the one is ours and Joseph of the pleasant breeze if you sell a parcel of real estate or borrow money and offer real estate a security your prospective purchaser or the bank or other financial institution you're dealing with will probably require that you furnish a policy of title insurance when you buy real estate or make a loan secured by it you have every reason to insist on receiving the same protection and here's why let us suppose that you're buying a parcel of land from john jones and that you have a complete record title of the land from the original united states patent down to the present owner revealing no defect in the title of any of the previous owners now suppose that one of the deeds in this chain of title had been forged or that one of the owners had been a minor who could not legally give a good deed or that one of the deeds had been issued on behalf of the corporation by an officer who had not been legally authorized to do so or that one of the owners who gave the deed was actually married and his wife did not join in its execution these are some of the matters constituting possible title defects which even the most careful examination of records might not reveal and yet any one of them might jeopardize the title you're acquiring a policy of title insurance from the title insurance and trust company of los angles will protect you against these defects it was an 1820 who don maximo alanis found his rancher san jose of the pleasant breezes and applied for his grant then without delay he took his cattle to the new pasture land for the community grazing tracks of the Pueblo were overcrowded he began to build an adobe house in a grove of sycamores near the present site of the mary mount school just north of the campus of uc la by spring it was finished and he loaded his family into a rumbling curator and started on the journey to the new home a distance of some 13 miles it takes a matter of minutes today but in 1821 the trip consumed almost a week not only because there were no roads only trails and the two-wheel cart with wheels made of imperfectly rounded slabs of tree trunks made slow progress but the main reason we've been traveling all of two hours i'm tired carita you mean we should stop see desiguro oh what i do not like no money i know my simo but we cannot pass them by you'll know that he would never get over the insult but why must we stop at every house only way to the ranch or whether we like the people or not now my simo you'll know as well as i that it would be a breach of custom if we did not they are probably all prepared for us food and music and everything and we shall have to go through another fiesta we have been away from home two days and already we have been to three fiestas and this will be another and they will want us to stay two three days at best we will not get away until morning what is the difference mi querido i am anxious to get to our new home a few days will not make a difference there is plenty of time of course me carita it is not a question of time but i am hot i want to get to the cool breezes of the ranch we shall get there soon enough mi querido after three or four more days and fiestas time meant nothing and the traveler must stop at every house along his route for a visit there was always food and music and dancing there was rest and hospitality for as long as they would stay but finally alanis was in his new home his family safely established there and one by one the pleasant years rolled by they were prosperous peaceful years marred only by an occasional argument over water rights but then about 1840 when marximo alanis was indeed an old man a real trouble threatened marximo mi amigo it is true sepulveda has actually claimed part of your land no i cannot believe that don francisco would do this to me perhaps it is a mistake but he has included part of the rancho son jose de buanas iris in the map of his land to be sent to the governor this has never been part of his rancho son be sent till you know that mi amigo see i know it so do most people around here but does the governor up north north i see that is the trouble he has never given me full title to the land even though they gave me possession of it for my services as a soldier i i never received any proper title and for all the governor knows this might be sepulveda's land see but mi amigo you must do something right away if you do not your rancho might be taken away from but i have lived here for 20 years everybody knows that more than that what can i do you must petition the authorities right away as for a proper title to this land see see i will do it immediately most excellent commandante general of this department of california don manuel michel torrena i jose masimo alanis a citizen of the town of rosario and a resident in this city for a trifle of 60 years come before your excellency praying in the following terms most excellency sir will your excellency pardon my lack of words and boardiness i was given possession of my land the rancho massimo alanis petitioned the governor for proper titles of the rancho santa the buenos aries to his aid came many prominent citizens of the pueblo to swear that it was truly his land among them or antonio maria lugo dissente sanchez augustin machado anastasio avila which has compelled me to come before your excellency with this petition i trust in the power and authority of your excellency to grant me this title to the property and i i swear i am without malice i i cannot sign my name god and liberty los angeles february third 1843 massimo alanis who kisses your feet massimo's petition was successful and at last he held full title to the rancho san jose de buenos aries it was not too long afterward that the final rest came to the old soldier and a new era was to start for the rancho this was a land of americans now and one of them don benito wilson was to come into possession of buenos aries about the year 1852 it was in that year too and on the rancho which is now westward that something happened which caused the early southlanders a great deal of merriment it was early in the morning when the myodomo of wilson's rancho i hope to hear hey bro petro are you awake what is it senior i kept your stupid act something is wrong what are the cattle bowling about that is what i want to know look outside see what it is seniority is dark open your eyes it is passed on you can see i shall look well well what is it what is it what you're seeing indians indian what are you saying man see indians they are still in the cattle it's an indian raid an indian raid impossible this is 1852 man we haven't had an indian raid in this section for years no senior wilson but this is one they were mojave's they come through pass at cohenga they stole 500 head of your cattle we chased them they came from cohenga but then they crossed several other ranchos to get the Buenos Aires see and they didn't steal any cattle anywhere else no don't bring it only yours but that means they deliberately went out of their way to steal my cattle maybe what why haven't i always been their friend haven't i gone out of my way to help them spent my good time and energy acting as indian agent just to help them see they call you stepfather of the indians and then they do this to me maybe because you are their friend they do not like to steal from strangers after all i've done worry if i ever catch them senior you're angry with him you said never mind what i said for once in my life i'm angry at them if i can leave my hands on them i'll cut out their hearts don't make me i mean it and i will catch them gather them in right away after all i've done for them they do this to me don't they need to chase the mr bus mojave's across the mountains but in vain that is what made the incident even more of a joke to the townspeople of osanglis seeing good hearted old don benito heart on the trail of some of his beloved indians really angry for once in his life but that was the last indian raid on the rancho and now under american influence its phenomenal growth began in 1884 john wolf skill bought the rancho san jose de Buenos Aires for something over 40 000 dollars three years later after the san jose railroad came through he was approached by a man mr wolf skill i represent the law san jose and san amonica land water company ever heard of us no i have it and you will hear lots about it we're organized to start a new town right around here we may be interested in buying your land that is if you don't want too much for well i'm not particularly interested in selling it probably asking pretty good price how about uh say uh hundred dollars an acre or uh what a hundred dollars why a man that had come to almost 450 000 dollars yep if that ain't enough well i could see my soul man back 450 000 dollars hey mr wolf skill don't you feel well the elaborate plans of the los angles and san amonica land and water company to build the town of sunset near where westwood villages today were unsuccessful and Buenos iris remained a rancho until about 1919 when Arthur lex founder of the broadway department store in los angles bought it and started subdivision of the first unit of the area home be hills later the jans investment company handled the development of the land into the present beautiful communities then in 1929 a portion of this property was chosen as the site of the great new university of california at los angles with a huge institution of learning came business and homes and in the 12 years since then the area with its communities of westwood village westwood hills home be hills and bel air have completed as phenomenal a growth as any in fast growing california from a grain field in 1919 to an area with almost 24 000 inhabitants and many millions of dollars worth of building investments such as the story of modern progress on massimo alineses ranchos and jose de buenos iris and such is the romance of the ranchos frank graham will be back in a moment to tell you about next week's story he also has a very important announcement to make to you tomorrow title insurance and trust company of los angles begins another calendar year of service to the community a service which briefly stated consists of providing to all of you who deal in real property of prompt efficient and sound title service at rates that are decidedly lower than those prevailing generally in other parts of the united states with every confidence in the future of the community and the nation title insurance and trust company and its entire personnel join in extending to all of you best wishes for a happy and prosperous new year in 1942 what's the story for next week frank next week we're going to tell a romantic love story of a young american joseph chatman and a beautiful young senorita who saved his life i know you'll want to hear it so be sure to make a note of a change in time for this program next week the romance of the ranchos moves up an hour and a half in time to the more convenient hour of six o'clock that's next wednesday at six o'clock romance of the ranchos will come back to you with the story of joseph chatman so until then this is a show wandering by carol frank graham extending my best wishes for the coming years to each one of you police on your new wave and win us no chess senior us a senior the romance of the ranchos a presentation of the title insurance and trust company of los angles featuring frank graham is the wandering the caro is dramatized by john donkle and produced by ted bliss with special music arranged by irwin yo remember next week romance of the ranchos comes to you at a new time six o'clock on wednesday one hour and a half earlier bob lamar speaking and bidding you good night this is the columbia broadcasting system