Misión Vieja and the 1900 Federal Census

Lucinda Temple Zuñiga (1860-1928) standing in front of the store and saloon owned by her husband Manuel M. Zuñiga (1854-1928) at the Basye Adobe.  Rafael Basye and Jesús Andrade built the adobe and started the business and then Zuñiga assumed ownership after Basye's death.  Lucinda's brother, Walter P. Temple (1869-1938) bought the adobe in 1912 and moved his family into it.  Copy provided by Carlos Hartnell, a Zuñiga descendant, to the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum.

With the 1890 federal census largely destroyed by fire, there is a major twenty-year gap between censuses, spanning from 1880 to 1900.  For example, in the Los Angeles region, the economic slump that began in 1875 continued for about a decade.  But, in 1885, a direct transcontinental railroad link reached the Los Angeles area from the east via the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad line.  Soon after, a massive real estate boom, called the "Boom of the Eighties," ensued, bringing many new residents to the region.  The boom went bust by the end of the decade and the 1890s was largely marked by a national depression, beginning in 1893 and compounding the local downturn, and several years of drought.

As to Old Mission, many of the old families remained, while there were a few new additions.  Though not technically within the neighborhood, there were several groups of Chinese settlers close by, including a group of four men who worked a farm and had four Chinese laborers with them.  It is noteworthy that all eight men had been in the United States for at least twenty years, the earliest of them migrating in 1862.  This is significant because, in 1882, an exclusion act was passed by Congress forbidding any Chinese to settle in the country.  Also just outside Misión Vieja, there was the unusual circumstance of Sing Hom, a farmer who came to California at age 10 in 1877, being married to Claire, a white woman from Pennsylvania and of English and French parentage.  Intermarriage was not only exceedingly rare, but in the El Monte area, known as a hotbed of racism during the 19th-century, it must have attracted some attention, given that the Homs had quite a few neighbors from Texas, Alabama and Missouri around them.

One of the first Old Mission families counted in the census by enumerator William P. Spence was that of Tomás Alvitre, then 65 years old, and married for 45 years to his wife Francisca Verdugo.  The two had three adult children, two sons and a daughter, residing with them, as well. 

Two households away were the brothers Charles and Walter Temple, the sole remaining members of the once-prominent family that owned a great deal of land in and around Old Mission prior to the failure of the family's bank in 1876.  The two, youngest of eleven children, inherited the fifty-acre Temple Homestead salvaged by their mother, Antonia Margarita Workman, after the bank's collapse.  She died in 1892, however, during a two-week period when the flu took the lives of her mother and son, also.  Walter, aged 30, and Charles, 28, still owned the early 1850s adobe and circa 1870 French Second Empire brick residence on the property.  They, however, were leasing the former, as will be seen below.  Meantime, the two had a boarder, a man only identified as "Camp," a 28-year old who was listed as married for five years, though his wife was not with him.  Moreover, no information was given as to his birthplace or that of his parents.  "Camp," however, was listed as the teacher at the La Puente School, which the Temple brothers were both involved in as trustees around this period.  Also of note is that Charles Temple was a widow--his first wife was Rafaela Basye of a well-known Old Mission family.  Therein lies a tale to be told at a later date (but, hopefully, not too much later)!

The next two households consisted of two men who leased the old Temple adobe from the Temple brothers.  These were Italians Giovanni Piuma and Paolo Briano.  Piuma was born in 1864 and migrated to the United States at age 21 in 1885.  His wife, Mary, came to this country a few years after he did, presumably to marry him, because their first child was born that same year, 1888.  Every two years another child followed, so that the brood was six by the time of the census.  Also in the household were Piuma's parents, Rosa and Frank and a sister-in-law, all of whom migrated from the old country a few years prior.  Briano, aged 28, and his wife Mary were migrants of 1896, having just married, and had a daughter and son after their settling in California.  Notably, while Piuma's occupation was "wine maker," that of Briano was "farm laborer," so it appears that the latter worked for the former, though later they were partners.

The next residence was occupied by Manuel Zuñiga (listed as "Sunaga"), his second wife, Lucinda Temple, sister of the Walter and Charles noted above, and his son, David, by his late first wife, Carmel Davis.  Zuñiga was proprietor of the store and saloon opened in 1869 by Rafael Basye in an adobe building he had constructed.  After Basye's death in the late 1880s, Zuñiga took over the business and ran it from an undetermined period of time.

A seemingly-new family to the neighborhood was adjacent to the Zuñigas, this being the household of "Alves" [Elva?] Maria Flores and her four children.  Next to the Flores family was that of Ramona Alvitre de Gonzalez, a member of the long-standing Alvitre family in the community, and long the widow of Feliz Gonzalez.  She resided with three sons, a daughter and two granddaughters.

Then there is Julia Davis Cruz, her brothers Peter and Thomas, and two nieces, Lenora and Lucinda.  There are direct connections here to Manuel Zuñiga from above.  Namely, Julia, Peter and Thomas were the siblings of Zuñiga's first wife, Carmel, and Lenora and Lucinda were his daughters.  Yet, though their brother David resided with his father and step-mother, the Zuñiga daughters were living with their aunt and uncles.  Also puzzling is that Julia's marital status box was left blank, though she had been twice married (in the 1880 census her last name was given as "Montigue") and it is not known if her second husband, Carlos Cruz, was dead or living in 1900.

A few households follow of relatively new families to the area, including one shown as "Emetino" and other of a woman, Gertrude Cordova and her two children.  These are followed by blacksmith "Eufemio" Bojorquez and his wife and three children.  Afterward is Martín Flores and his wife and three children.

Next come more members of the Alvitre (shown as "Alvetra") family, including siblings Michaela and Ramon Alvitre, children of Juan Jose and Tomasa Alvarado.  Michaela, listed as 60 years old, but five years older than that, had a boarder, while her brother, shown as 57 and widowed from Francisca Rayales, but also older (by about four years) had two sons, John and Ramon, with him as well as a boarder.

Another relatively new family to the neighborhood, shown as "Antoya," but most likely "Montoya" followed.  Household head, Alejandro, was Mexican-born and an immigrant of 1883 and he lived with his wife and two young sons.

Then is the household of Victor Manzanares, whose father Cristobal, was an 1850s arrival in Old Mission, and whose mother was Inocencia Alvitre.  Victor and his several siblings were listed in the 1880 census as orphans, but he was, by 1900, married and had give children.  Following was the family of Jessie Manriquez and her son and three daughters.

A few households away was Elizabeth (Adelaida) Bermudez Barry, whose mother was Maria Ventura Alvitre, and her eight daughters and two sons.  Elizabeth was recently widowed, her husband, Irish-born George Barry, having died in 1899.  The Barrys were a long-time family in Old Mission and are the subject of a new book by descendant James Aguirre.

Further down the list were members of the Andrade family, including Encarnación, who married Rita Marina Gonzalez, daughter of Ramona Alvitre.  The couple resided with their six children, three sons and three daughters.  Below was 75-year old Maria Siriaca Valenzuela, first married to Francisco Duarte and then to Cristobal Manzanares, and who was living with her Duarte children: Antonio, Francisca and Dominga, as well two grandsons.

Adjacent was Anastacio Alvitre, 75, and the son of Juan Jose Alvitre and Tomasa Alvarado and older brother of the Michaela and Ramon Alvitre noted above.  He was residing with his wife Eleuteria Verdugo, their son Pedro, and Eleuteria's sister, Salvadora Verdugo.  Interestingly, there were also two Chinese brothers in the house, whose names appear to read "Pun Luie" and "Ken Luie" and who were 38 and 40.  "Ken" was a migrant of 1875 and his brother three years later and the younger was listed as married for two years though there was no spouse present.

The next family, possibly the last in the Misión Vieja community for this census, was that of Felipe and Francisca Rodriguez, living with nine children.  Remarkably, Mrs. Rodriguez had given birth to 17 children with just that little more than half surviving.  Of course, larger families were more common then than now and the loss of children was frequent.  In fact, one woman, Antonia Andrade, lost five of twelve children; Elizabeth Barry lost three of thirteen; and Raymunda "Emetino" lost an amazing ten of sixteen.  Rare was the case where all of a large family survived, though this was the case with Francisca Alvitre, who bore eleven children.

The 1900 federal census revealed that some longtime families, such as the Alvitres, Zuñigas, Davises, Manzanareses, and Barrys still maintained a large presence in the community.  Yet, there were new residents, including the Italian Piuma and Briano families, a few Chinese and a couple of Mexican families.  Farming was the predominant occupation and would remain so for another fifteen or twenty years.  Future censuses would start to show a declining population, particularly as the oil  industry came to the area.

Contributed by Paul R. Spitzzeri, Collections Manager, Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum, City of Industry

Misión Vieja and the 1880 Federal Census

A circa 1870 view of a portion of the Temple Ranch at Misión Vieja, southwest of today's intersection of San Gabriel Blvd. and Durfee Avenue just east of Rosemead Boulevard.  The 1850s adobe house is at the left of the water tower in the center.  Later, a brick residence was added.  By 1880, the Temple family's wealth had vanished in a disastrous bank failure and fifty acres including the area seen here were sold back to the family by Elias J. "Lucky" Baldwin.  Courtesy of Phillip Nathanson, from an original stereographic photograph in his collection.

In the ten years since the 1870 federal census, significant changes occurred at Misión Vieja and the broader Los Angeles region.  The first half of the decade had seen an economic boom accompanied by a significant population growth throughout the county.  Mining activity in the deserts of Inyo and San Bernardino counties brought mineral ore through Los Angeles.  Agriculture was growing rapidly, including viticulture and wine-making and the developing orange industry.  Immigration, largely fueled by migrants from the eastern American states and Europe, swelled Los Angeles' population, but also that of established and newer towns in the county.  During the early 1870s, new communities like San Fernando, Artesia, Downey, Pomona, and Orange, among others, arose.  Transportation improvements were also notable, at the crude harbor at San Pedro, the new competing wharf at Anaheim Landing (Seal Beach), and new railroads, such as the Los Angeles and San Pedro line from the city to the port and the construction of local branch lines of the Southern Pacific Railroad, which finally made a direct connection to San Francisco in summer 1876.  The boom, however, came to a spectacular crash in late 1875 and early 1876, as silver mine speculation at Virginia City, Nevada engulfed San Francisco banks and the panic rode the telegraph lines to Los Angeles.  There, the bank co-owned and managed by Old Mission resident F. P. F. Temple, foundered.  With a loan from San Francisco capitalist, Elias J. (Lucky) Baldwin, the bank reopened, but only long enough for depositors to close their accounts and withdraw the borrowed cash, forcing the bank to close for good.  As collateral for the loan, Temple, his father-in-law William Workman of Rancho La Puente, and Juan Matias Sanchez, Temple's co-owner at Rancho La Merced, put up much of the land in and around Misión Vieja and then lost it to Baldwin after he foreclosed in 1879, just before the following year's federal census. 

When A. J. Howard, the census enumerator, came through Old Mission in mid-June 1880, he found many of its long-time residents still there.  As a small farming and ranching community, it did not likely change as much as Los Angeles or some of the bigger outlying settlements, like Los Nietos to the south or El Monte to the north.

The first recognizable name he came upon was Maria Duarte, this being Maria Inez Alvitre, daughter of Jose Claudio Alvitre and Asención Valenzuela.  Maria (really, Inez) was only 40 years old, but was already widowed three times, as she was listed without a spouse and with one son, Antonio, and four daughters, three under 18 and one, Maria, who was in the household with her husband and son.  Inez Duarte had outlived first husband Julio Duarte, who died in 1867. She then married Vicente Aragón, but he died shortly afterward.  Finally, she wedded Luis Reyes in 1870, but he obviously passed away within the decade.

Next was the household of Mexico native Juan Mora, whose wife Petra had been previously married, given that the rest of the family consisted of Mora's step-children with the surname of Silvas.  After this was a family of seven Manzanares brothers and sisters, orphaned, it seems, after their parents Cristobal Manzanares and Inocencia Alvitre, sister of the Inez mentioned above, seemingly passed away during the preceding decade.  The children ranged from 23-year old Victor to six-year old Trinidad, so the earliest either parent could have died would have been about 1874.

Then comes José Yorba, son of Teodosio of the notable Orange County ranchero family and his mistress and then wife, Inocencia Reyes.  José had been married to Eziquia Lopez in 1862 and she lived with him in 1870, but in 1880 he had a new wife, Francisca.  Also in the household were five children from two to sixteen years, consisting of a son and four daughters.  Unique among other men captured in the census from the neighborhood is José's occupation: gambler!

Afterwards is Ramon Rosas and his wife Ramona Alvitre, daughter of Jacinto Alvitre and Lugarda Moreno.  While the couple had no children, there were several people in the household including Francisco Alvitre, probably a cousin of Ramona, and his wife, three sons and a daughter.  Ventura Bermudez, cousin to Ramona (listed, however, as aunt) was also in the household.  She had long been widowed, her husband having been José Antonio Bermudez, and her children were grown.  José Antonio Bermudez's sister, meanwhile, Rita, lived next door to the Rosas clan and she resided with her daughter Ramona Gonzalez, whose father was Raymundo Alvitre.  Gonzalez had six children from ages seven to seventeen living with her and was widowed\, as her husband, musician Feliz died in 1873.

Next to this was Juan Jesus (listed as John J.) Davis, saloon keeper at the general store owned by his neighbor and cousin, Rafael Basye.  Juan Jesus and his brother, José, were the New Mexico-born sons of Martin Davis and Josefa Sanchez, a sister of Old Mission area  rancher Juan Matías Sanchez.  Another Sanchez sister married Rafael Basye's father in New Mexico, as well.  Juan Jesus married Guadalupe Alvitre and the two lived with a young son, Antonio, and Guadalupe's mother, Celestina Alvitre.  As for Basye, who also married an Alvitre, Maria Antonia, he was listed as a retail grocer and he and his wife had three sons and a daughter from a year to ten years old.

The next three households included Ramon Lopez and Juan Castillo, who were married to sisters.  Then was the large household of Juan Manriquez and his wife, Maria, which included three sons, two of them with wives and six children, for a total of twelve in the residence.  Following was Fecundo Reyes, long widowed from his wife Maria Dolores Verdugo, and his two teenaged children, as well as his 90-year old mother, the oldest resident in the community, Clara Cota.  Clara's daughter and Fecundo's sister was Inocencia Reyes, mentioned earlier as the mistress, then wife of Teodosio Yorba.  Another Manriquez son, José, resided nearby with his wife and five children from one to seventeen years of age.

Then came Tomás Alvitre, his wife Francisca Verdugo and their large clan of seven daughters and three sons, ranging from a year to twenty-six years, although the remarkable part of this is that Francisca was listed as age fifty and would have had a child at age 48 or 49!  Next door was another unusual occurrence for the time period, a divorcee.  This was Michaela Alvarado, age 42, living with her three year old daughter, Margarita and a 16-year old girl, listed as a cook, named Juana Temple.  There was the prominent Temple family elsewhere in the census, but it may be that Juana was an adopted member of that family, since it is known that she was not a birth child of that clan.

A few households down is that of Juana Bermudez, age 79, and her son-in-law Ramon Alvitre, son (14th child, in fact!) of Juan José Alvitre and Tomasa Alvarado.  His wife, Francisca, daughter of Juana, and their five children, from one to sixteen years old, were listed, as well.

Two residences down was Antonia Margarita Workman de Temple, whose husband, failed banker F. P. F. Temple (mentioned at the top), had died of a stroke less than two months prior.  Though Lucky Baldwin had foreclosed on thousands of acres of Temple and Workman land, he did sell 50 acres of the Rancho La Merced surrounding the Temple homes (and 1851 adobe and a later brick house) to Mrs. Temple.  In significantly reduced financial circumstances, she lived with a daughter and two sons, Margarita (14), Walter (12) and Charles (9), as well as an eight-year old girl, Andrea, listed as a daughter, but probably adopted (as was noted earlier with the Juana Temple who was a cook in the residence of Michaela Alvarado.)  Also in the Temple household was Mrs. Temple's mother, Nicolasa Urioste de Workman, age 74, two female Indian servants listed as a cook and laundress and "boarder" Julia Montigue.  This latter was Julia Davis, long attached to the Temple family and whose mother, Venancia Peña de Davis, resided next door with another daughter, Carmel, and three sons, Peter, Francis and Thomas.  Venancia's husband, José Davis, mentioned above in connection his brother, Juan Jesus, and who was likely an employee of the Temple family, died in 1875 in an accidental fall.

After the listing of another family, the Rangels, the census moved on northward to El Monte.  Our ability to track the future of the Misión Vieja community gets complicated by the fact that almost all of the 1890 federal census, including the California sheets, was destroyed by a fire decades ago.  Moreover, the population of the neighborhood began to decline, as will be seen in future posts touching on later censuses.

Contributed by Paul R. Spitzzeri, Collections Manager, Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum, City of Industry

Misión Vieja and the 1870 Federal Census

In the ten years between the 1860 and 1870 federal censuses, enormous changes took place in Old Mission and in the Los Angeles region broadly.  First, the economic slump that arose in the latter part of the 1850s with the end of the Gold Rush and the resulting lessening of demand for the region's cattle met headon with the weather patterns with which we are familiar, but folks then were not:  El Niño and its counterpart, La Niña.  Christmas Eve 1861 it began to rain and, for most of the next month-and-a-half, it did not let up.  In fact, some estimates are that up to 50 inches, a staggering sum by any standard, fell on the Los Angeles area.  Without dams, channels and other means of flood control and with a largely undeveloped landscape, most of the area became a vast inland lake (mirrored by conditions in the San Joaquin Valley, most of which was underwater.)  Those cattle that were not drowned in "Noah's Flood" were then subjected to the torments of a two-year drought in which four inches of rain were estimated for the years 1862 and 1863.   Consequently, farming became the mainstay of the local economy as cattle ranching declined.

The flood and drought combination not only ravaged the region and the Misión Vieja community, but was even worsened by a smallpox epidemic that occurred in 1863.  While specific information on deaths in Old Mission is lacking, local rancher F. P. F. Temple paid for coffins for those who succumbed to the highly-contagious disease.

Meanwhile, Temple, his father-in-law, William Workman and their compadre Juan Matias Sanchez were consolidating their ownership of most of the land in the Old Mission area as the economy led owners to sell their land to the trio.  Between 1857 and 1863, the ranchos Potrero Grande, Potrero de Felipe Lugo and Potrero Chico were acquired by combinations of the three men.  Later, however, they would be on the other end of a similar consolidation of land by San Francisco capitalist Elias J. "Lucky" Baldwin.

Population changes are also important to note.  Misión Vieja was part of the El Monte township and, in 1860, the Spanish-surnamed population of the larger El Monte area numbered near 500.  But, a decade later, that total dropped to below 400, a 20% decline.  At the same time, the proportion of American and European residents climed about 15%, from about 750 to over 850 persons.  While this growth of "Anglos" was actually the smallest in the county (Los Nietos, which bordered Old Mission to the south, saw an astounding 4650% increase in Americans and Europeans, from only 24 to over 1,100), it still represented a change that would only accelerate in coming decades.

So, in late July 1870, when assistant census marshal Horace Allanson, a resident of San Gabriel, ventured into Old Mission, he encountered a transforming community, as he would have anywhere else in the county where he conducted his enumeration.  As with 1860, the census included the listing of real estate and personal estate values, which were provided by the head of household and may have been under or overcounted according to what the person wished to be known.  Unfortunately, while the 1860 enumerator, James MacManus had poor (or no) command of Spanish names, but clear writing, the case was largely the reverse with Allanson: he seems to have done better with the names, but his legibility is somewhat challenging for viewers of the original sheets.

One of the first families he found in the neighborhood was that of Francisco and Ramona Estrada, natives of Mexico, who resided with seven children, all born in California.  Two households down was Cristobál Manzanares and his wife Inocencia (enumerated as Ygnacia) Alvitre, daughter of the José Claudio Alvitre and Asunción Valenzuela, whose deaths in 1861 were explained in the last post.  The household included five children from one to fifteen years of age.

A few households below the Manzanares family was that of Diego Nieto.  The son of Antonio Nieto (son of Jose Manuel Peréz Nieto, grantee of the massive Rancho Los Nietos, later divided into several smaller ranches like Los Alamitos, Los Cerritos, Las Bolsas, Los Coyotes and Santa Gertrudes, and Teresa Morrillo) and Josefa Cota, Diego was born at Las Bolsas, which has father had received when the Los Nietos division happened.  In 1864, Diego, at 40 years old, married Isabel Yorba, the widow of Felipe Santiago Duarte, who had married Isabel in Summer 1860.  A daughter, Josefa, age six, resided with the couple.

Adjacent to the Nietos was Isabel's brothers, Jose and Bautista Yorba.  All three were the children of Teodosio Yorba of the famed Orange County-area clan, who died in 1863, and his long-time mistress and then his wife, Inocencia Reyes.  Jose Asención married Esiquia Lopez in August 1862 and the couple had one son, Jose, aged one year.  Bautista, then 23 years old, was single and living adjacent to his brother, but in April 1873 married Maria Antonia Rowland of the prominent family that owned much of Rancho La Puente to the east.

Next was Inocencia's brother, Fecundo (a.k.a. Secundino), who was widowed (his wife Maria Dolores Verdugo, having died sometime in the previous decade) and living with his two sons, a daughter, and Clara Cota, mother of Inocencia and Fecundo who was listed as 90 years old, but was actually a decade younger.

Nearby were members of the Pérez, Duarte and Archuleta families, the latter almost certainly connected to the household of Juan Matias Sanchez, a major figure in the area as noted above, given his half-ownership of Rancho La Merced and 1857 acquisition of Rancho Potrero Grande.  Sanchez declared $30,000 as the value of his real estate and $15,000 for his personal property, making him far wealthier than anyone in Misión Vieja with one exception, noted below.  Sanchez presided over a household including his wife María Luisa Archuleta and six children ranging from 3 to 18 years of age.

A photo from about 1870 of members of the Temple family, residents of the Misión Vieja area for sixty-five years.  At center is Antonia Margarita Workman de Temple (1830-1892), wife of F. P. F. Temple, who is not in the photo.  On her lap is daughter Margarita (1866-1953) and flanking her are, left, son Thomas (1846-1892) and, right, Francis (1848-1888.)  Directly behind Mrs. Temple is her son John (1856-1926), while at the back row far left is daughter Lucinda (1860-1928.)  Seated at far left is Julia Davis (1851-1917), an Old Mission resident and a goddaughter of the Temples.  The young woman, standing second to the left, might be Margarita Burke, listed a few households away at Old Mission from the Temples in the 1870 census as a house servant, probably for the Temples.  The identity of the man seated at the far right is not known and the man standing at far right might be Mrs. Temple's brother, José Manuel Workman (1833-1901).  Photo courtesy of Bette Temple from the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum.

Two households down from Sanchez is that of Feliz Gonzalez, a native of Mexico and a 38-year old musician, who married Ramona Alvitre, daughter of Raimundo Alvitre (son of Juan Jose Alvitre and Maria Tomasa Alvarado and grandson of family patriarch Sebastian) and Rita Maria Bermudez, whose parenets were Juan Hilario Bermudez and Ana Maria Lugo.  The Gonzalez family had nine children and there would be another daughter born in 1871 named Laura, who married Walter P. Temple of another Old Mission family.

Adjacent to the Gonzalez family was Rafael Basye, who was a nephew of Juan Matias Sanchez and had been in his uncle's household in 1860.  Basye had, in February 1869, married Maria Antonia Alvitre, daughter of Anastacio Alvitre and Eleuteria Verdugo, and they had a three-month old son, James.  Constructing an adobe house just west of the Rio Hondo, which had been the San Gabriel River until floods in the winter of 1867-68 changed the course to its current one, Rafael opened a store and there was also a saloon there.  Perhaps this is why Feliz Gonzalez resided next door, to provide entertainment in the saloon?!  Later, Basye's house, store and saloon passed to the ownership of Manuel Zuñiga who lived there with his second wife, Lucinda Temple.  Then, in 1912, Lucinda's brother, Walter (mentioned above) purchased the adobe house and moved his family, including wife Laura Gonzalez and four children into it.  While there, a couple of years later, oil was discovered and propelled the Temples into wealth (a future post will detail this remarkable history.)

Amidst these families and others, including the Figueroa and Manriquez clans, there was a rare American or European in the Old Mission community, James Ross, a 28-year old native of New York who was living alone and was listed as a farmer.

There was also a curious household in this grouping, number 231, which appears to have been headed by a "Maria Mesa," although Allanson's scrawl is difficult to decipher.  She was shown as a 67-year old native of Mexico, but what was interesting was that there were seven children, all girls, in the household with five different surnames.  These included Maria Renteria, age 11; Maria Castro, 7; Librada and Gertruds Quintana, ages 10 and 13; Maria Cerradel, 13; Ramona Alvitre, 7; and Zenobia Yorba, 7.  Was this some kind of small girls' school?  Could these children have been orphans?  Unfortunately, the census does not give any indication.  Also of note is that 10 year old Librada Quintana had $150 worth of personal property, a very unusual declaration for a child in a census.

Several households later is that of Tomás Alvitre, the 50-year old son of Jacinto Alvitre and Lugarda Moreno.  Tomás was first married to Magdalena Linares in 1849, but she seemed to have died very shortly thereafter, probably in childbirth, because, in 1852, he married Maria Francisca Verdugo.  In 1870, the couple resided with five childen, ages 2 to 16.  Three households away was Tomás' sister, Ramona, and her husband Ramon Rosas.  Notably, a brother of Tomas and Ramona, Felipe Alvitre, was notorious for the 1854 murders of El Monte resident James Ellington and a Peruvian and was executed by hanging at Los Angeles in early 1855.  This will also be covered in a future post on this blog!

Next to Ramona Alvitre de Rosas was her cousin, Maria Buenaventura, or Ventura, Alvitre, daughter of Juan Jose Alvitre and Tomasa Alvarado.  Ventura was a widow of José Antonio Bermudez, whom she had married in 1832 (Ventura's sister, Benita, had married José Antonio's brother, José Dolores) and was living with three sons and a daughter, aged 18 to 30.  Ventura's sister-in-law, José Antonio's sister, María Rita Bermudez, age 42, lived nearby in her own household.  Another Bermudez, 28-year old Petra, resided with four others in her household, including Felicita, age 29 (probably a sister) and two boys and a girl, aged 9, 10 and 12.

Another single household was that of 22-year old Francisca Valenzuela, member of the family that, with the Alvitres, were co-grantees of the Rancho Potrero Chico within the Old Mission community.

Adjacent to Francisca was George "Perry," actually Barry, a native of Ireland, who resided in El Monte in 1860 but then married Adelaida Bermudez, daughter of Jose Dolores Bermudez and Maria Benita Alvitre (Adelaida appears to be listed in the mangled 1860 census as "Avalangthum"!)  A 16-year old male named Dolores Bermudez lived next door and undoubtedly is a brother or other relation of Adelaida.  George and Adelaida then had two children, 2-year old Lucinda and four-month old Santiago or James.  Only a few years prior, in 1866, George Barry had been involved in a fight with a man that led to Barry's shooting and killing of his adversary.   Although convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to San Quentin, Barry was able to mount a successful appeal and was freed.  More on this incident in a future blog post!

Next to the Barrys was the Cage family.  Edward Cage, a native of Mississippi, was married to Macaria, from Guaymas, Mexico, had lived in Sebastopol in Napa County before moving to Misión Vieja and working as a farmer.  Three years later, however, his son Robert got into a dispute with Tomás Mianez, who was a sheepherder for the Temple family, over animals entering the Cage property and Robert Cage shot and killed Mianez.

As hinted above, rancher F. P. F. Temple and his family resided next to the Cage clan.  Owner of half the Rancho La Merced and portions of the neighboring three ranches: Potrero Chico, Potrero Grande, and Potrero de Felipe Lugo, Temple was also a partner in one of Los Angeles' first banks, Hellman, Temple and Company and was involved in real estate, oil, railroads, mining and other enterprises over the ensuing several years.  Indeed, his reported wealth was staggering, especially for Misión Vieja, comprising $180,000 in real estate and over $100,000 in personal property.  Temple and his wife Margarita Workman lived with six children ranging from a year to 21 years, including the youngest, Walter, mentioned above.

Over the next several households (and perhaps earlier ones) were employees of the Temple family, including Joseph Davis, a native of New Mexico, who had worked previously for Juan Matias Sanchez.  In fact, Davis' wife, Venancia and two of their children had been reported in the Sanchez household in 1860, though Joseph was not there himself.  In 1870, however, there were five children from two to 16 years.  One of them, Julia, seems to have been a nurse or nanny for the Temples, since she appears in several Temple family photographs.  Her sister, Carmel, went on to marry Manuel Zuñiga, who was mentioned above, before dying young.  Peter, age 5, was later a carpenter for Walter Temple, when Temple built his La Casa Nueva mansion at what is now the Homestead Museum in City of Industry in the 1920s.

After Davis is Samuel A. Jackson, a native of Vermont, who is listed as "Horse Trainer," a job he held for Temple, who had begun breeding thoroughbred horses earlier in the 1860s.  Jackson, his wife and two-year old son lived in their own household.  Then came Charles W. Hamilton, a 55-year old Massachusetts native, who was the school teacher at the Old Mission or Temple School, created in the early 1860s on land donated by F. P. F. Temple.  Following was Temple's nephew, Thornton Sanborn, son of F. P. F.'s sister, Lucinda.  Sanborn, age 45, was born in Reading, Massachusetts, and had worked for about fifteen years for his uncle, both at Rancho La Merced at Misión Vieja and in Springfield in Tuolumne County's gold country, where Temple ran cattle.  Another Temple employee was 63-year old Mathews Burke, who was from England, but had been married to a Latina, evidently deceased by 1870.  There were three children in the Burke household, ages 14, 15 and 16, one listed as a house servant and who was undoubtedly a Temple employee.  Burke is now buried at the El Campo Santo, the Workman and Temple family cemetery at the Homestead Museum.

There were some other families, including the Andrades and two single men, Lucas Rojas and Agustín Guerrero, who were laborers, probably for the Temples.  Jesus Andrade has been identified as a partner of Rafael Basye in the construction of the 1869 adobe house and general store that became known as the Basye Adobe.   Then, the Old Mission census ended with Henry Fogle, a 28-year old native of Illinois, who conducted dairy operations for F. P. F. Temple, but who also possessed a self-reported $6,000 value of personal property, a significant amount for the day.  Fogle resided with his Missouri-born wife, Mary Ann, and their two sons and daughter, between 4 and 8 years old.

The early 1870s was a period of significant growth and great prosperity for the Los Angeles region, which was experiencing its first true land and population boom.  While the 1870 census counted a little over 15,000 persons in the county, the next five years saw the population more than double.  Like most booms, however, the speculation in land and certain industries became unmanageable and, when the state's largest bank collapsed in San Francisco in summer 1875, the local economy faltered and a bank owned by F. P. F. Temple and his father-in-law, William Workman, collapsed.  More on this in a later post!

Meantime, next post will concern the 1880 census.

Contributed by Paul R. Spitzzeri, Collections Manager, Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum, City of Industry

Misión Vieja and the 1860 Federal Census

In mid-July 1860, census marshal James McManus ventured south from El Monte and into the community of Misión Vieja or Old Mission.  Whereas McManus had no problem whatever in enumerating the names of such American and European denizens of the former like Irish-born Barnabas Newman or Texan Samuel Bryant, the marshal had a distinct lack of ability in recording the names of the Spanish-speaking inhabitants of the latter.  This, obviously, makes demographic and genealogical research that much more difficult.

For example, on the 18th, after leaving the home of farmer Ransom Moore, MacManus arrived at his next household and recorded the name of the head as Wauken Dwarty.  Next door was broher Hulio Dwarty.  Beyond that was Jose (at least that name came out all right!) Elvetre.  Some other choice examples:  Vicenta Malendas; Innosencia Rase; Catrudas Veha; Rafael Vasa; and Walupa Olivara.  It takes some basic familiarity with Spanish names, an understanding of the local history and some investment of time, but most of these can be teased out with some effort.  The first name, for instance, is Joaquín Duarte, followed by his brother Julio.  Then there is José Alvitre and the surnames Melendrez, Reyes, Vejar, Basye and Olivera, as well as given names like Inocencia, Gertrudes, and Guadalupe.  If only MacManus would have taken the time and a few dollars to hire a deputy marshal who knew Spanish, the results would have been much different (and clearer.)

The Duartes were an old Misión Vieja family and Joaquin was married to a woman from the earliest of the community's residents: Anastacia Alvitre, whose parents were Asención Valenzuela and José Claudio Alvitre.  Joaquin and Anastacia were, in 1860, the parents of two daughters, Crispina and "Powler," which would be Paula.  Next door, Julio Duarte, son of Manuel Duarte and Apolinaria Ontiveros (whose father built the Ontiveros Adobe, foundations of which are at Heritage Park in Santa Fe Springs), was living with his wife, Maria Ines Alvitre, Anastacia's younger sister.  Then, the next household after was that of Claudio and Asención (noted as "Sensona") Alvitre and their seven younger children.  As noted previously, Claudio was one of the youngest of the children of patriarch Sebastián Alvitre and his wife, Maria Rufina Hernandez.  Finally, the family following Claudio and Asención was that of their daughter, Inocencia and her husband Cristobal Manzanares, along with their son and two daughters.  Manzanares was from Abiquiu, New Mexico, from which many residents left for the Los Angeles area, especially in the early 1840s when the New Mexican communities of Agua Mansa, San Salvador and La Politana were established near today's Riverside. 

Disaster would soon strike all four families:  Less than a year after the census, Claudio, in a drunken rage, stabbed his wife to death and was hunted down and lynched by unidentified members of the neighborhood (more on this in a future post!)  Then, prior to 1867, Julio Duarte passed away.  Ines remarried, to Vicente Aragon, but he died within a couple of years and she entered into her third marriage in 1870, to Luis Reyes.

The next household from the Manzanares's was that of Vicente (shown as "Vicenta" although listed as a male!) Melendrez and his wife "Daruta" or Dorotea Valenzuela.  She was from the very large family that had many branches in the San Gabriel Valley, her parents being José María Valenzuela and María de Jesus Rodriguez and her father's father being an early Spanish soldier in California named José Pedro Gabriel Valenzuela, a native of Alamos, Sonora, origin of many early Spanish Californians.  Melendrez was a native of the Ensenada, Baja California area and he and Dorotea had eight children, seven of which were in the household for the census.  Sadly, Dorotea died very shortly afterward and Melendrez remarried, with his second wife being María Antonia Rodriguez.  The couple would have four children.

Mixed in with the Spanish-speaking denizens of Old Mission was Charles O. Cunningham, a Maine native who was a farmer on 160 acres (a section) of land in 1860.  Among the farm laborers in this household was José Duarte, a relative of those mentioned above.  Also present was Francis Baker, born in Massachusetts, who went on to be a Los Angeles policeman and police chief.  As for Cunningham, who was married to Mary Thompson, daughter of early El Monte hotel owner Ira Thompson, he was an El Monte Township constable and justice of the peace and later went on to some renown in Arizona Territory (perhaps a story for another day!)

Two households down was "Setternena" or Saturnina Lobo, widow of Juan José Lobo, whose mother, Casilda Soto, was grantee of Rancho La Merced, encompassing much of Misión Vieja.  A widow, Saturnina lived with her four children, including two sons and two daughters.  Not far away was another Lobo widow, Dolores, whose husband had been Juan Lobo, and who, at age 30, was raising her five children alone.

Nearby was Inocencia Reyes, who was discussed in this blog's post on the 1850 census as being the common-law wife of prominent rancher Teodosio Yorba.  What wasn't discussed last post was that she was the daughter of Maria Clara Cota, of the prominent Santa Barbara family, and who was married in 1816 at Mission San Gabriel to Antonio Faustino Reyes, whose mother was a Dominguez from that well-known South Bay clan.  Inocencia's brother, José Facundo, was an Old Mission resident, as well, and was married to María Dolores Verdugo, daughter of Joaquín Verdugo and Magdalena Vejar (brother of Ricardo, owner of much of what is now Pomona and widow of Juan Villalobo). 

Residing with her seven children, it is highly notable that the value of Inocencia's estate included $2000 in real estate and $4000 in personal property, putting her in financial circumstances far superior to anyone in Old Mission, excepting ranchers Juan Matias Sanchez and F. P. F. Temple, who, along with Temple's father-in-law William Workman (who had given Sanchez and Temple the Rancho La Merced after he foreclosed on the property that had been owned by Casilda Soto de Lobo) were the major landowners in the area.  It seems likely that her estate came at the behest of Yorba, who finally married Inocencia later in 1860.  Unfortunately, she did not live long, dying in 1863, perhaps during a smallpox epidemic that wreaked havoc in Los Angeles generally, but especially in Misión Vieja.

Another household in which the surname of the family was mangled by Marshal MacManus was that José "Clouthaalis," which might be Gonzalez, this group consisting of a husband, wife (Mary or Maria) and son (Francisco.)

José (shown as "Hosa") A. Bermudez was residing in Old Mission with his Estefana and daughter Maria and it is presumed that he was Jose Antonio Bermudez and married to Maria Presentación Alvitre, daughter of Juan José Alvitre--the brother of the Claudio noted above--and Tomasa Alvarado.  This makes sense, even though the wife's name is different, because three households away was Tomasa Alvarado, who was widowed.  She lived with her daughter Micaela and the latter's husband merchant John Morrow, a native of Tennessee and her seven-year old son, Brown, from a first marriage to Henry Malcomb.  Micaela had married the latter in 1852, had her son that year or the next and then married Morrow in Spring 1858.

Next to Tomasa was her niece, "Johanna," actually María Ines Alvitre, her husband "Halina", that is, Julio Duarte (again shown as "Dwarty") and their two sons, "Hossuth" or Jesús and Jose.  Strangely, a few more households away is a "Flora A. Alvetro," but who was a 47-year old male, along with three sons and a daughter, Juan, Pedro, Felipe and Maria "Alvetre," but these members of the Alvitre family are not obviously identifiable.  The next household to these mysterious Alvitres was that of Sinforoso Rosas, widow of María del Refugio (Trinidad) Alvitre, and his youngest son Juan.

This detail of an 1861 California Land Claims survey map shows #s370, 371 and 372 as the ranchos Potrero de Felipe Lugo, Portrero Grande, and La Merced, all within the area described as "Mis Vicia" or Misión Vieja (Old Mission). Click on the photo to get a zoomed-in look at it.  Courtesy: Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum.

The largest single household in Misión Vieja in the 1860 census is that of Juan Matias Sánchez, a native of New Mexico who came to California in the 1840s over the Old Spanish Trail and went to work as mayordomo (ranch foreman) for William Workman at Rancho La Puente.  As noted above, Sánchez was given half of the 2,363-acre Rancho La Merced from Workman after the latter foreclosed on the property on a defaulted loan to original owner, Casilda Soto de Lobo.  By 1860, Sánchez was a prosperous rancher and he, Workman and F. P. F. Temple began consolidating landholdings in the area that continued through the next few years.  Sanchez' household consisted of himself, wife Maria Archuleta and four children: Jose, Maria, Tomasa and Francisco. 

There were also six Indian servants, including a mother, "Vanancio" and her four children "Hula Ann," "Massemon," Alvino and Victoria.  This was the former Venancia Peña, a Luiseño Indian from Mission San Luis Rey in Oceanside, San Diego County.  The children were Julia, Máximo, Peter and Carmel, whose father was Joseph Davis, but who was not listed in the census in 1860.  The Davises later became associated with the Temple family after leaving the employ of Sanchez. 

Notably, the last column on the census sheet was for comments about "whether deaf and dumb, blind, insane, idiotic, pauper or convict," as if these all had a common thread!  The only time this column was utilized by Marshal MacManus was with Máximo Davis, who was only five years old.  The notation reads: "Blind at 3 days old caused by applying a mud by an Indian woman."  This is a fascinating and rare example of a record referring to Indian medicinal treatments, the "mud" evidently being a poultice applied to the face of the infant for some unspecified ailment, but the treatment of which seems to have caused the blindness.  In later years, Máximo was raised by his older sister, Julia.

Another noteworthy person in the Sánchez household was Rafael "Vasa" or Basye.  Basye was the son of Juan Matias Sanchez's sister and emigrated from New Mexico to California to live and work for his uncle.  Eventually, Basye was given a piece of land on which he built an adobe house and store.  More on him in our discussion of the 1870 census.

Not far from the Sanchez household was that of his La Merced co-owner, F. P. F. Temple.  The Massachusetts-born rancher was married to Antonia Margarita (shown as "Margaretta") Workman and the couple had four children, Thomas, Francisco, William and John (the couple lost two sons during the 1850s) and two Indian children as servants, 12-year old Rosa and ten-year old Juan.  The presence of several families of day laborers, farm laborers, and a washerwoman nearby might indicate employees of Temple, whose $18,000 estate was the highest in the area, a couple thousand more than that of Sánchez.

Close to the Temples was Francisco Vejar of the prominent family that owned half of Rancho San José in what is now Pomona.  His sister, Magdalena, as was noted above was married to George Morrillo, co-grantee of Rancho Potrero de Felipe Lugo with Teodoro Romero, husband of Magdelena's daughter by a first marriage, Juana María Verdugo.

Near Vejar was Dolores Bermudez (son of Juan Hilario and Ana María Lugo) and his wife Maria Ignacia Dominguez, of that well-known family in the San Pedro/Compton area.  The couple had  two children, as well as a daughter from Bermudez' first marriage to Maria Benita Alvitre, who seems to have died about 1853.  Dolores's brother, José Antonio, had also been married to an Alvitre, María Ventura.

Next door to Bermudez was "Hosa Alvetre" or José Alvitre, who was probably José Apolinario, and his wife "Marea" who would then have been María Antonia Soto, along with five children.

Another badly misspelled listing was for "Lafusio Sonia" and family, this mangled moniker was for Refugio Zuñiga, a 45-year old farmer married to Juana Maria Verdugo (widow of Teodoro Romero, the co-grantee of Rancho Potrero de Felipe Lugo at the northeast portion of the Old Mission community along the west bank of San Gabriel River).  Also listed in the household were Domingo, 20, Juana Maria's son with Romero and her four children with Zuñiga, three daughters and a son, Manuel, who would later marry into the Davis and Temple families at Misión Vieja.

At the end of the Old Mission listings, finally, was "Anastasio Alvetre" and his wife "Lauterio" or Eleuteria Verdugo and their two sons and two daughters.  Another notable person to mention, though he wasn't living directly in Misión Vieja yet was George Barry, an Irishman working as a laborer in El Monte in 1860.  Within three years, he would move to Old Mission, marry Adelaida Bermudez, daughter of José Antonio Bermudez and Maria Ventura Alvitre, and work as a laborer in the area.  Barry will also be the topic of a future blog entry!

In 1860, Misión Vieja and the Los Angeles area generally were in the midst of transformation.  In the previous decade, the Gold Rush had flowered and then faded and the economy was in a serious downturn mirroring a national depression from 1857.  The cattle industry, the lifeblood of the regional economy, was suffering from overstocked herds and low demand.  Moreover, Californios, such as those who resided at Old Mission, were not only feeling growing economic pressure, but their political and social power was declining as Americans and Europeans took greater control in the area.

Matters would only get worse.  On Christmas Eve 1861, a heavy rain began and led to one powerful storm after another, with hardly a let-up before the end of January.  The resulting flooding, in the days before flood control, was devastating and the economy further suffered as many cattle drowned.  The El Niño effect, unknown then, became La Niña and a two-year drought, with an estimated four inches of rain for each, finished off most of the remaining cattle, which starved.  As noted above, there was an 1863 smallpox epidemic that ravaged the Indian and Californio/Mexican populations, including at Old Mission.  The post-Civil War years brought more American and European migration and the economy recovered, but the benefits largely did not accrue to the native Spanish speakers.

Next, we'll examine the 1870 census, which did not suffer so much from poor spelling as from sheer difficulty in readability!

Contributed by Paul R. Spitzzeri, Collections Manager, Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum, City of Industry

Misión Vieja and the 1850 United States Census

As spotlighted in previous posts, there were two Mexican-era censuses of the Los Angeles district: in 1836 and 1844.  With the controversial conquest of California and other portions of northern Mexico by the United States came a long delay by Congress in acting upon the status of the possession.  In fact, citizens of California, most of whom very new arrivals due to the explosion of the Gold Rush, took matters in their own hands late in 1849, writing their own constitution and setting up their own government.  Forced into making a decision, Congress finally admitted California into the Union in September 1850.

That year was also one in which the decennial (every ten years) federal census was taken, but California became a state too late in the year to be counted along with the others, so the enumeration was delayed until the first two months of 1851.  Los Angeles County was much larger than it is today, including all of San Bernardino County (formed in 1853, it remains the largest county in area in the U. S.) and Orange County and portions of Kern County.  Though it was sparsely populated, this massive area and the taking of the census within it was entrusted to just one person: John R. Evertsen, later a resident of San Gabriel.

It must have been a very difficult job.  Evertsen not only had to deal with a huge territory, but also the flux of people in Gold Rush California made it hard to track down residents in the county.  While it wouldn't be surprising that Evertsen would miss those who were coming and going within the county, it is striking that he grossly undercounted the native aboriginal peoples (Gabrieliño Indians), only listing about 200 of them.  Overall, Evertsen counted 1,610 persons in Los Angeles city and about 3,500 in the county, clearly very low.

Indeed, the federal count throughout California was less than 100,000 and, because representation in Congress was based on population, the state's leaders decided to conduct a census in 1852.  Notably, the county population was determined in this count to be just under 8,000, with almost half of these being native people.

So, examining the 1850 federal census poses the obvious problem.  The count was highly inaccurate and so a look at those who lived at Misión Vieja has to be looked at not just who is listed, but who was not.  Of course, there were also omissions in the 1844 census.  Another issue is that Evertsen didn't break down his county into the existing townships, so determining where a place like Old Mission started and stopped is impossible, though there is a run of six census sheets in which the general area is noticeable.

Essentially, Mission Vieja included several major family groups including those with the surnames Bermudez[s], Lugo, Morrillo, Vejar, Alvitre, [Villa]Lobo, Valenzuela, Zuñiga, Rosas and Duarte, most of whom had appeared on the Mexican-era censuses of 1836 and 1844, discussed in earlier posts on this blog.

Relative to the Bermudez family, there was José Antonio Bermudez and his wife María Buenaventura Alvitre (daughter of Juan José Alvitre and María Tomasa Alvarado), who were in the 1836 Mexican census, though not in the followup eight years later. The Bermudez family resided with their seven children and an elderly woman named María Santa Anna.  José's sister María Antonia and her husband Claudio Rayales appear on the other end of the census listing with their four daughters. 

The next household was José Lugo, his wife María, and three other persons. They were followed by Tomasa Olivarez [Ontiveros], widow of Juan Crispín Pérez [Nieto], also captured on the 1836 census along with her son Pedro and his family and another son Juan.

Two households down, is George [Jorge] Morillo and his wife Magdalena Vejar with four children and Anastácio Alvitre and his wife Eleúteria [shown as Luteria] Verdugo.  Anastácio was the son of Juan José Alvitre and María Tomasa Alvarado, and the brother of Buenaventura Bermudez.  Morillo had been the co-owner of Rancho Potrero de Felipe Lugo with Teodoro Romero, who was married to Magdalena Vejar's daughter, Juana María Verdugo.  Juana María, however, was widowed and then married Refugio Zuñiga (listed as Sunega).  Her five children by Teodoro Romero appear on the census as does José Jesus Zuñiga, a 12-year old boy.

Also listed was Joaquin Soto, his wife Petra Rodriguez and their five children. Soto's sister, María Casilda Soto de Lobo, will be discussed below and another sister, Trinidad, was married to Ricardo Vejar, grantee in 1837 of Rancho San José, now the general Pomona area.

The next household was that of Refugio Zuñiga [shown as Suñega], whose family had a long history at Misión Vieja. Zuñiga was just recently married to Juana María Verdugo, who was previously wed to Teodoro Romero. The five Romero children were in the household as was Jose Jesus Zuñiga, a 12-year old boy, presumably Refugio's son from an earlier marriage.

Another family was that comprised of Francisco Vejar [shown as Bejar] who was the brother of Magdalena Vejar Morrillo. He resided with his wife María, 22, and two daughters Francisca, 5, and Asención, 3.
Another major Old Mission family was the Valenzuelas [shown as "Balenzuela" on the sheets] and two brothers were represented in the 1850 census, Antonio and José.  Antonio, age 45, was married to María Dominga Alvitre, daughter of the Sebastian Alvitre, who was patriarch of the family discussed in the posts on the 1836 and 1844 Mexican-era censuses. Living with the couple was their daughter Salomé, her husband Lauriano García and their children Antonio and Lugarda.  Antonio's younger brother, José, was residing with his wife Soledad Duarte, along with Teresa Gonzalez, a one-year old boy presumed to be her son and two other Duartes, Basilio and Julio, assumed to be Soledad's brothers.

Another early family, at household 358, was Sinforoso Rosas and his four children. Rosas had been married to María del Refugio (Trinidad) Alvitre, but she died in early 1849, probably in childbirth not long after marrying Rosas. The four Rosas children obviously came from an earlier marriage.
Next to the Rosas family were two households comprising the Lobos. The heads of the families were brothers Juan and José, but it is interesting to note that one, Juan, used the Lobo name, while José retained the original and more common surname of Villalobo. Each was married, Juan to Dolores Verdugo (who later married Fecundo Reyes, sister to the Inocencia Reyes noted below) and had children. Living with Juan was another brother, Santiago, and his wife Presentación Alvitre, as well as the matriarch of the family Casilda Soto, grantee in 1844 of the Rancho La Merced.

Towards the end of the Old Mission listings were the Alvitres, specifically brothers Jacinto (whose listed of 70 is about fifteen years off--he was in his mid-50s!), Juan and José Claudio, sons of the Sebastian noted above. Their sister, Dominga, was listed earlier in the census with her husband, Antonio Valenzuela. Jacinto and his wife Lugarda Moreno also had their daughter Ramona and her husband Ramon Rosas in their household. Ramon and his brother Sinforoso (see above) had married Alvitre sisters. Juan and his wife María Tomasa Alvarado had two sons with them, Reimundo and Diego, as well as Diego's wife María Cerradel and their two sons. There was also a fifteen-year old girl whose connection is not known.    José Claudio resided a short distance from his brothers and was with his wife María de la Asunción Valenzuela. As noted above, their daughter, Presentación, was married to Santiago Lobo.  A future post will relate the unfortunate circumstances in 1861 surrounding the deaths of José Claudio and Asunción Alvitre.

Next to José Claudio was his sister, María Florentina, who was married to Manuel Antonio Pérez.  Pérez was shown as owner of $2,000 worth of real estate because he was grantee, in the mid-1840s, to Rancho Potrero Grande.  The couple lived with their daughters, Barbara and Antonia and their son Juan.  It has been said that Pérez, who in the grant to the Potrero Grande was simply listed as "Manuel Antonio, an Indian," was given the surname because he was baptized by the well-known Eulalia Pérez de Guillen, the llavalera or keeper of the keys, at Mission San Gabriel.

Also in Misión Vieja is the household of Inocencia Reyes and five children ranging from a few months to sixteen years old.  While there is no husband listed and the children's names are only listed with their given, or Christian, ones, as if their last name was Reyes, the father of the children was Teodosio Yorba, son of Antonio Yorba and María Grijalva and brother of well-known rancher Bernardo Yorba.  Teodosio had been married to María Antonia Lugo, whose father, Antonio María owned the Rancho San Antonio southwest of Misión Vieja and was the original grantee of the Rancho Santa Ana del Chino in modern Chino and Chino Hills, and had a daughter with her.  He then had a hija natural (or daughter out of wedlock) with Catalina Manriquez.  By 1835, Teodosio and Inocencia were together and had several children, including the five shown in the 1850 census.  A decade later, on 5 September 1860, Teodosio and Inocencia were married and their children assumed the Yorba name officially.  At that time, Teodosio, who, in 1846, had been granted the Rancho Lomas de Santiago in what is now Orange County, experienced financial problems during a troubled economy and sold the ranch to William Wolfskill, a Los Angeles orange grower.  Teodosio suffered a stroke and died three years later at Old Mission.  It should be noted that hijos natural were not neceesarily uncommon.

Finally, it is noteworthy that, of all the persons who can be confidently identified as residents of Misión Vieja, everyone was a Latino from California or Mexico, except for one person.  There is a household of thirteen persons, all of whom were male, excepting two persons, and which consists of a Mexican laborer named Tomás de la Porrillo and his wife and son along with several single men.  All of these, with last names of Villa, Morales, Ballesteros, Villareal, and Estrada, were laborers and from Mexico, evidently working for local ranchers.  There are also two young adult Indians, but the name that stands out is Levi J. Woods, the only American and European in the community.  He was a 51-year old laborer from Vermont and it would be interesting to know why he was in Misión Vieja and for whom he worked.

As stated above, there were many persons who were not counted and the much higher tally in the 1852 state census leads to the suspicion that a fuller representation of residents of Old Mission is far from present in the federal enumeration.  Still, a look at the 1850 count provides some information about those living at Misión Vieja during the crucial time after the American conquest of California and the earliest days of the Gold Rush.

The image at the top of this post is from a reproduced 1877 regional map and shows the ranchos Potrero Grande and Potrero Chico just above the place name "Old Mission."  To the right is a part of the Rancho Potrero de Felipe Lugo and the snaking "New" San Gabriel River, created by flooding in 1867 (the "Old" San Gabriel River or Rio Hondo is, for some reason, not included.)

Contributed by Paul R. Spitzzeri.