Page 11 - hssc1929parks

144 Historical Society of Southern California

In 1850 the mansión was built for Don Ricardo Vejar,
but it is usually identified with his son Ramón, who as he
member of the
grew to manhood was perhaps the outstanding
family. Symbolic of the change that it has witnessed, the
misfortunes that wrested it from the possession of the Ve jars,
as other ranchos passed from the ownership of their Cali-
fornia friends and relatives during their first unhappy years
as American citizens, the old name of Rancho San José de
in
Abajo is almost forgotten the valley. But in the presence
of the venerable mansión the old days live again. One can
picture the scene . . . the Ve jars at home . . . Judge Hayes
the
driving out through valley, dust of the unpaved road rolling
away under the spinning buggy wheels, and we know the
-
meaning of his notes
". . . the valley of San José, full of agreeable people,
industrious withal . . . The feast of San
fond of festivity,
José . . . Ricardo Vejar and 100 in family, Palomares. My
heart would be cold to forget the faces of old I was ever
happy to see in this smiling valley. Al varados, Ve jars, Ybar-
ras, their fortunes have changed since 1852, and threaten
yet a greater change as the spirit of speculation begins to
brood over and close around them. Longer here perhaps than
elsewhere have lingered the ancient California customs, the
elegance of manners, natural hospitality, courtesy, mirth.
Home of jarabe and son, of Trust as well."1

Rancho La Puente
Rancho La Puente in early times was one of the wide-
spread cattle ranges possessed by Misión San Gabriel, stocked
with Mission herds, inhabited only by the Indians of scattered
rancherías.2
In the fall of 1841 the men whose names were to be-
associated with this jewel of ranchos, came
come enduringly
across the weary plains to Los Angeles from New Mexico,
where they had been living for more than a decade previously.
They were the partners John Rowland and William Workman.

1. Pioneer Notes, The Diaries of Judge Benjamin Hayes, ed. by Marjorie Tisdale
Wolcott, p. 217.
2. "In 1828 there are named as Mission ranchos, ba ťuente, Santa Ana, durupa,
San Bernardino, San Timoteo, San Gorgónio, four sítios on the Río San Gabriel." -
Bancroft, Vol. XIX~p. 568n.