San Dimas Community News

History

SAN DIMAS – BEFORE THE RAILROAD

Gabrielino Indians roamed a wilderness valley sheltered from blistering desert winds by the Sierra Madres. A lush spring in the eastern valley supplied water for the natives and the game they hunted. To this oasis called “La Cienega,” by the Spanish, and Mud Springs by the early white settlers, along a trail that became Arrow Highway, came the only settlers between San Bernardino and San Gabriel to carve a beginning for an unborn city – San Dimas.

Mud Springs was ideally located in the shadow of the San Gabriel Mission, in the Valley of the Archangel and located on the road from the pueblo of Los Angeles to San Bernardino. Because of the natural springs it was a place of refuge. In 1774, Juan Bautista DeAnza, on one of his expeditionary trips, camped in the vicinity of Mud Springs on his way to establish a colony at the Presidio San Francisco. DeAnza rested his men and then continued on, leaving the land unaware of their intrusion.

Another decade passed and ranchos, immense in size and made possible by Spanish grants, saw the first personal ownership of land under boundaries. In 1837, the royal representative, Governor Alvarado, issued a formal deed granting 20 square leagues to Ignacio Palomares and Ricardo Vejar. The deed was the beginning of the Rancho San Jose. The two partners came to a mutual agreement that Rancho San Jose be equally divided: Don Ricardo Vejar taking the southern half and Don Ygnacio Palomares holding the northern half, upon which was Mud Springs or Las Cienegas.

Luis Arenas, brother-in-law of Palomares, obtained a grant, an additional league of land (about 4, 428 acres) and it was known as the San Jose Addition. This grant was obtained from Governor Alvarado who regranted the enlarged rancho to the three partners: Palomares, Vejar and Arenas. This is the land on which the cities of Pomona, Claremont, Chino, La Verne and San Dimas stand today.

In the early days, the wild canyons to the north, referred to as Horsethief Canyon, were the haunts of horse thieves. These outlaws would raid cattle from a corral Don Palomares had built up in the canyon. Don Palomares took unkindly to the thieves and prayed the help of St. Dismas (sometimes spelled Dysmas or only Dimas), the crucified, repentant thief on the Cross. The saint’s name became associated with the canyon and years later the community in the valley inherited the canyon’s name.

Non-Spaniards also settled at Mud Springs, the first of whom were Mr. and Mrs. Dennis Clancy. In 1862, Mr. and Mrs. Clancy acquired a portion of Rancho San Jose land. Through Army friends, Mr. Clancy secured a contract with the Government to supply hay, grain and horses to troops passing that way to Arizona. This developed into a way-station for Army Supply and later became a stop for the Phineas Banning stage coach line.

The original owners of the San Jose Rancho did not maintain a life-long partnership. The Mexican War and California’s admission to the Union weakened the Dons’ position in the valley. From 1855 to almost 1968 California, and especially Southern California, suffered from a series of floods and destructive droughts. The story of the famine years in California is a weird tale seldom told and scarcely believed. After the high prices of the gold rush, over production and drought virtually put an end to the cattle industry in Southern California. The doom of the Dons came quickly. Within five years after the famine (1869) nearly all of the great “ranchos” in Southern California had changed owners. Weather was not the only cause of the fall of the Dons. The other factors were falling prices, usurious rates of interest and expensive legal litigation (over poor land boundaries, overlapping grants, the incursions of squatters and defective land titles).

In a little less than twenty years after the famine years, Southern California entered the period of subdivision. With the demise of the Ranchos, the settlers turned to agriculture - subdivisions do not lend themselves to large cattle ranching.

Water Wars Tell Early San Dimas History

During the early days, the Rancheros and Dons who were gente de razon lived near sources of water. Don Luis Arenas, owner of Rancho Azusa and part of Rancho San Jose, farmed where the San Gabriel River emerged from the mountains into the Los Angeles basin.1 Arenas built the first dam and a large ditch to store and provide water for his stock and crops.

In 1844, Arenas chose to retire from ranching and sold out to a "fiery ambitious little Englishman Captain Henry Dalton."2 Thus began a half century of competition, litigation, and guile to acquire water and water rights in the semi-arid San Gabriel Valley.

San Dimas Orange Growers Association

Fueled by the land boom of the 1880’s, the introduction of the navel orange and arrival of the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe railroads, the population of Southern California quadrupled the last two decades of the nineteenth century. With this growth, planting citrus trees became a major activity in San Dimas between 1880 and 1900.
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"The San Dimas Torrey's"

The genealogy and history of the Torrey families and their children in America is very interesting through the fact that ninety-five percent of those bearing that name are the descendants of one man, Philip Torrey, who with his wife Alice Ricards, lived in the parish of Combe St. Nicholas, Somersetshire, England.
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THE SAN DIMAS MANSION

Since this building has been much in the news lately, it seems timely to reprint the brochure given out at the only time the home was opened to the public.

“The Carruthers
Residence
Formerly James W. Walker Home
San Dimas, 1890
Opened by Carruthers Family
Co-Sponsored by
San Dimas Chamber of Commerce
And
San Dimas Historical Society
Compiled by J. I. Carruthers & George A.V.Dunning
Printed by Pomona First Federal, June, 1966

“In 1885 the Santa Fe Railroad laid tracks through the northwestern portion of old San Jose Rancho, completing the last leg of the road from San Bernardino to Los Angeles.

“The result of the action brought about the beginning of the present City of San Dimas.

“In 1885 most of the land that is now San Dimas was owned by five men, headed by Moses L. Wicks. They were the people who founded the San Jose Ranch Co. and were responsible for the subdivision that is now San Dimas.

In those days, it was a must for every town to have its own hotel and so San Dimas was to be no exception.

Lumber rafts were floated down the coast from northern California to San Pedro. From there the logs were hauled by teams to a site near the present Puddingstone Shopping Center in San Dimas. Here a planing mill was built and the lumber for the old Santa Fe Depot, the San Dimas Hotel and a number of other smaller buildings were milled.

Refurbished March 2009

“The construction of the hotel building started in1885 and was completed in 1887. The architect for this building was J. C. Newsom. The landscaper was Mr. Meserve, a pioneer nurseryman from Pomona.
“Upon completion of the building, the San Jose Ranch Co. turned it over to a Mr. Carter who had previously been a hotel manager. Under the terms of the agreement with the Ranch Co., Mr. Carter was to furnish the hotel and operate it for a period of two years. At the end of the two years, the Company promised to deed over to Mr. Carter the building and the north half-block of property on which it was built.

“The land boom that was prevalant throughout Southern California at this time, collapsed about the time that the hotel building was completed and as a result only twelve lots were sold in downtown San Dimas. The only people who ever stayed in the hotel when it was open, were the five men who owned it. In other words it never had one paying guest. However, as promised, the Ranch Co. deeded the property and building over to Mr. Carter. Mr. Carter immediately closed the hotel and hired Mr. Thomas Gore, the first Santa Fe Depot Agent, to be its caretaker. Mr. Gore stayed in the house for about six months until Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Walker of Covingtn, Kentucky, purchased it in the fall of 1889.

“Since 1889, the building has been a private home. First lived in by Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Walker, known affectionately to the community as Aunt Sue and Uncle Jimmy. It was then passed to the next family generation, Mr. and Mrs. F. W. Potts and then to their daughter, Mrs. R. I. Carruthers, who is now living in it. Altogether there have been six different generations who have lived in the house at one time or another.

“Nearly everything that happened in San Dimas in the early days took place in this building. The first school in San Dimas was held in its basement First church services were held in the living room. All of the early day clubs met here, as it was the only building big enough to hold the people. People came to its doors from all surrounding communities: La Verne, Pomona, Claremont, Covina, Glendora and Azusa. All in all, the old house has seen a lot of history and has seen San Dimas grow from a small town and few people to a population exceeding 13,000,.

“The house has had no major alterations since it was built. The siding and all woodwork inside of the house is of redwood. It has 30 rooms and about 13,200 square feet of floor space. All of its ceilings are 12 feet high. The height of the building from the ground to the eaves is about 40 feet and to the top of the tower is about 65 feet. The front porch is 80 feet long and the north porch is about 60 feet long. The living room is 35 feet by 23 feet wide. The downstairs hall is 75 feet long and the upper hall is 65 feet long and 40 feet long.
“The original lighting was kerosene lamps, followed by electricity in 1902. The house was heated by fourteen fireplaces and has seven chimneys. In later years, a coal furnace was installed that consumed a ton of coal a week.

“The big Deodar and Pine trees in the front yard are part of the original plantings and are among the longest and oldest of their species in the State. (Ed.Note: The Galapos Pine Tree, the only one known in California, was lighted as a Christmas Tree by Southern California Edison until World War II.)

“The building is one of the last of the old boom-time hotels left in Southern California.”

(Note: When Jack Carruthers was asked about ghosts, he laughed and said that was just a story put out by one of the leasees after 1978 in hopes of getting some free publicity.)

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