  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 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. |
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