The lives of two persons seldom parallel themselves more strangely than
did the lives of two great California ranchos, the Rancho Los Cerritos
and the Rancho Los Alamitos. Both were part of the Manuel Nieto grant
made in 1784 by the King of Spain, each was partitioned to a Nieto heir,
each became the property of a New Englander and each owner naturalized
as a citizen of Mexico. They rivaled each other for the honor of the
finest sheep, the fattest cattle, the fastest horses. Together they
became the property of the Bixbys, jointly they shared the growth of
Long Beach and finally they divided the honor of Signal Hill—Los
Cerritos the northwesterly slopes, Los Alamitos the southeasterly
slopes.
Juan Temple was one of the New Englanders who early settled in Los
Angeles when California was a part of Mexico. At one time Temple ran the
mint for the government of Mexico. Later he opened the first general
merchandise store in Los Angeles, advanced the City of Los Angeles funds
for Ord’s Survey, built the first theater, the County’s first Court
House and the Temple Block, recently wrecked to make way for Los
Angeles’ new City Hall. Temple Street is named for him.
Not only did Temple naturalize as a citizen of Mexico, but he married a
Spanish girl of a prominent family. Dona Rafaela Cota became his bride
and by this marriage Temple acquired one-twelfth of the Rancho Los
Cerritos, then owned by Rafaela and her eleven brothers and sisters,
heirs of Manuela Nieto de Cota. The remaining eleven-twelfths was not so
easily acquired and it cost Don Juan “$3025 in silver coin and an equal
amount in merchandise at market prices” to complete his ownership of the
27,000 acre rancho.
In 1844 the large hacienda, yet standing on the Virginia Country Club
grounds, was built and occupied by the new owners. Until a short time
before his death Juan Temple divided his time between his big Rancho and
his many interests in the Pueblo of Los Angeles. In 1866 he sold the
hacienda, the cattle, the sheep, the horses and the 27,000 acres for
$20,000 and removed to San Francisco where he died. Benjamin and Thomas
Flint and Llewellyn Bixby were the fortunate purchasers.
Meanwhile, adjoining Los Cerritos on the East, Rancho Los Alamitos had
had a similar career. Another heir of Manuel Nieto to whom this 28,000
acre Rancho was partitioned, sold it in 1834 for $500 to
Brigadier-General Jose Figueroa for whom Figueroa Street in Los Angeles
is named, and at one time Governor of California under Mexico.
In 1840 the Estate of Figueroa sold the Rancho, composed of “six sites
of grown up cattle” to Don Abel Stearns for $5500 to be paid in hides
and tallow to be laid down at San Pedro or at Mazatlan. Don Abel Stearns
was the other New Englander who became famous as a Mexican citizen. Like
Temple he, too, married into a Spanish family and was equally prominent
in affairs of the Pueblo of Los Angeles.
The same drought that caused a terrific loss of stock and forced Juan
Temple to sell Los Cerritos for $20,000 proved fatal to Don Abel’s
ownership of the Los Alamitos and eight months after the Flints and
Bixby bought Los Cerritos the Sheriff sold Los Alamitos to Michael Reese
for $31,000, approximately $1.10 an acre. In 1881 the Estate of Michael
Reese sold the rancho to John W. Bixby, who in turn conveyed a one-third
interest each to I. W. Hellman and Jotham Bixby. Under the Bixbys both
ranchos flourished.
When the Bixbys purchased Rancho Los Cerritos and later Rancho Los
Alamitos nothing was farther from their thoughts than that they were
purchasing the site of the future City of Long Beach but they had the
good judgment to hold their land and California, oil and Iowa did the
rest.
Four thousand acres of Los Cerritos were sold in 1880 by Jotham Bixby
Company to W. E. Willmore, who platted Willmore City, surrounded by the
American Colony Tract, composed of farm lots. Tremendous effort was put
forth by Mr. Willmore to make his city successful. He advertised all
over the country and even ran a special excursion from Chicago with
prospective Willmoreans. But the plan was premature and not enough
purchasers could be found to buy the city lots at $25.00 to $100.00 each
or the farm lots at $15.00 an acre to enable Willmore to meet his
agreement with the Bixbys and several years later he abandoned the land
to them.
But Willmore had planned well—his streets were wide, 80 and 100 feet
being usual, and one, American Avenue, being 124 feet wide, and the
natural beauty of the land and ocean frontage made it attractive to
others. Soon a syndicate under the name of Long Beach Land & Water
Company took up the sale of the lots and Willmore City took the name of
Long Beach.
Now the two families of the Bixbys, one from their hacienda, the former
home of Don Juan Temple on the Los Cerritos, the other from their
hacienda, the former home of Don Abel Stearns on the Los Alamitos,
watched Long Beach grow from a subdivision to a city. The Alamitos Tract
and the Townsite of Alamitos Bay were platted.
In 1897, William A. Clark, Montana Copper King and builder of the San
Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad, purchased 8,139 acres of Rancho
Los Cerritos for $405,000. This vast tract, known as the Montana Ranch,
has been held practically intact to the present day. Early development,
however, is planned for this property by the Janss Investment Company,
Los Angeles Realtors, who have announced that they will build a model
city on the ranch.
In 1921 the secret of Signal Hill was discovered and an added impetus
given the development of the two ranchos. Soon the hill bristled with
oil derricks. There being then many owners there soon were many
millionaires. Oil flowed so fast from the hill that on several occasions
it streamed uncontrolled over lawns and flowers on the slopes of Signal
Hill. Daily the value of the oil taken from the hill equalled twice the
price the Bixbys paid for both ranchos.
Slowly the oil fields have been extended—northwesterly toward the
hacienda of Don Juan Temple and southeasterly toward the hacienda of Don
Abel Stearns.