Los Angeles herald., 1891-07-19

$500 after their arrival there. In ad-
dition, the head of each family waa
given, at Los Angeles, two oxen, two
two cows with one calf, one ass and one
hoe, and to the colony the tools for .
cart-maker. The pay for the live stock
and the tools was deducted by the gov
ernment from their wages in small ir-
stallment The government alse agiae,l
to buy tneF products at the rEliag
market ri ea.
The col ists went 20 work, aud s0qr
had theme built muk-rooled huts
OF palisad around the old plaza rbey
also dug a. irigatiuR ditch. the idenl.-
cal zanja madre OF today, which is taken
out OF the river above the Buena Vista
street bride. All of the colonists, how
ever, were not industrious, and Corporal
Felix was compelled in 1882 to send
away Lara, Mesa and Quintero as ''use-
less to the town and to themselves" Bv
1884 the colonists had replaced their
huts with substantial one-story adobe
houses, rooted with asphaltum from the
springs on the western hills. They also
erected small adobe chapel that same
year near the southwest corner of the
old plaza, where the Los Angeles cornice
works now stands, on the northeast cor
ner OF Buena Vista and Bellevue streets.
and occasionally missionary from San
Gabriel would come over and say mass
therein.
The colonists prospered from the start.
Their crops were large, and their cattle
multiplied. The facilities afforded for
irrigation by the river enabled them to
use all the land they could cultivate.
In l785 the colOnists had an addition
to their number, Jose Francisco Sinova,
who had lived sometime in California rs
a laborer, applied for admission a.
colonist.
In September. 1855, the colonists were
put In formal possession of their lands.
Governor Pedro FACES, the successor of
de Neve, commissioned Ensign Jose
Arguello to survey the town and give
the colonists possession. Taking Cor
poral Vicente Felix and private Roaue
de Gotta, of town guard, for Witnesses.
he summoned before him each of the
nine colonists. and in the presence of
them all, formally granted first the
house-lots, then the fields, and last the
branding iron, by which the live
stock of each was to be distinguished
from that of his neighbors'. In both
house-lots and fields pretense of meas
urenent was made. In each case the
nature OF the grant was fully explained,
the grantee assented to the conditions
involved, and for each grant a separate
paper was drawn up, and signed by Ar
guello and the two witnesses, and then
each colonIst made his mark thereon. sa
not one of them could write. The nine
colonists included eight of the original
founders OF the town, namely: Pablo
r odriguez. Jose Vanegas, Jose Moreno.
Antonio Felix Villavicencio, Basilio
Rosas, Jose Antonio Navarro, Manuel
Camera and Alexandra Rosas, and Jose
Francisco Sinoya, the newcomer, made
the ninth.
The founding of the town was now
completed. The colonists had their
lands, water, crops, cattle and homes,
and were prosperous. Up to this time
there had been no soldiers among them
as calonists, only the town guard. As
soon as the time of Corporal Felix and
those of his guards had expired in the
army, they applied for admission to the
colony, and Felix retained the Office Of
commissioner of the town, under the
jurisdiction OF the fort of Santa Barbara.
After that, as fast as the time OF enlist
ment of other soldiers would expire.
they came to Los Angeles, and, in the
last decade OF the last century, the town
grew rapidly. 1t was many years, how
ever, before they had regular church
services or a school for the child
rem. and it is related of one
colonist that, although he was tho owner
OF a. Thousand mares and cattle in pro-
portion, he had to go to San Gabriel,
and beg for enough cloth to make him q
shirt. And it was long after this before
the town was erected into city, and be-
came ambitious to be the capital city of
California, which honor it finally ac-
quired.
Los Angeles, July II, 1891.