Traded with two barrels of wine for a small adobe house in the Pueblo of
Los Angeles, then in turn owned by a noble Spaniard, an ignoble
Frenchman, a famous Confederate General and a Scotch Baronet, then the
scene of one of the most spectacular boom subdivisions in the Land Boom
of 1886-1888 and finally the site of a prosperous and successful
city—such is the history of the Rancho Centinela.
The rancho was granted in 1844 by the “Department of California,”
Government of Mexico, to Ignacio Machado by a grant which described the
land as “half a league more or less of grazing land.” Machado did not
prize his grazing land very highly and the following year traded the
property to Bruno Abila for a small adobe house “with vineyard fenced”
in the suburbs of the Pueblo of Los Angeles. But in the eyes of these
two traders, the small adobe was worth more than the great Rancho
Centinela and the deed provided that in addition to the rancho Machado
was to give as an added consideration two barrels of aguardiente (wine).
Bruno Abila held the rancho until 1857 at which time he carelessly—or
desperately—borrowed $900 with interest at six per cent per month, or
seventy-two per cent per year, and, giving his rancho as security,
promptly lost it under the hammer. Hilliard P. Dorsey bought the
property at Sheriff’s Sale for $2000, or about $1 an acre.
But Hilliard P. Dorsey paid too much for the land and two years later
Civility R. Dorsey, his widow, sold it out of his Estate for $930, or
thirty-five cents an acre. However, the deed to Francis I. Carpenter,
the purchaser, provided that he, Carpenter, was obligated as part of the
consideration to run off and dispossess of his own effort one Fernando,
a Frenchman and son-in-law of Bruno Abila, a former owner, who had
refused to surrender peaceable possession of the rancho.
The next owner of the rancho was Joseph Lancaster Brent, a Southerner by
birth, but for many years a prominent citizen of Los Angeles. In 1860,
just before the Civil War started, Brent sold his rancho and at the
outbreak of the war hastened to make his way south and join the
Confederate Army. He was later made a Brigadier-General and was with the
last Confederate General to lay down his sword. The conveyance by Brent
was made for a consideration of $3,000 to Sir Robert Burnett, a Baronet
of Scotland, who on a visit to California had fallen in love with the
natural charm of the Rancho Centinela and purchased both it and its
neighbor, the Rancho Sausal Redondo.
From this time on the value of the rancho grew rapidly and in 1885 Sir
Robert Burnett and Lady Matilda Josephine Burnett, both of Crathes
Castle in the Kingdom of Great Britain, sold the two ranchos for
$140,000 to Daniel Freeman, the founder of Inglewood.
Then came the great Land Boom, the town of Inglewood was platted and
thrown on the market. Beautiful parks and plazas were planned and
dedicated and Mr. Freeman, with an insight into the future that now
seems uncanny, platted streets of unheard of width.
Used as cattle land by the Spanish, sheep land by the Baronet and a Boom
Subdivision by Daniel Freeman, the Rancho Centinela has attained its
greatest period of usefulness and success today as the site of the
thriving City of Inglewood.
[Illustration: _Ranch Home on the Rancho Aguaje de La Centinela_]