The herald., 1898-11-08
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Interesting Annals Of the Old Puebla
de Los Angeles

The regular meeting of the Historical So
ciety was held last evening at the residence
of Mr.. and Mrs. j. M. Quinn, North Grand
avenue, with a large attendance. The
meeting was called to order by the presi-
dent, DIR. j. D. Moody. The first paper of
the evening was an interesting sketch by
Fl. D. Barrows entitled "a Native Cali
fornian's Story" The subject of this sketch,
who is still living on Seventh street near the
old historic Coronel homestead, Ramon
Valenzuela, was born August l3. 1878.
His father was Don Gaspar Valenzuela. a
native OF Santa Barbara, and his mother,
Maria Ygnacio Lopez, daughter of Claudio
Lopez, who was mayordomo of San Ga
briel mission. Don Claudio planted the or
ange orchard south of the church and the
large vineyards that fourished in the time
of Father Sanchez. Ramon married. Ascen.
sion Serrano at the San Gabriel mission in
lS40, when she was 10 years and 8 months
old.
Don Gaspar Valenzuela, the father of Ra-
mon, was soldier and when he was dis.
charged from the mission in 1928 he came
to the pueblo and was granted lot on the
east side OF San Pedro street, where Fifth
street now runs. Here he planted a vine
yard and lived until his death in ls49.
Claudio Lopez, Ramon's maternal grand
father, planted an orchard and VINEYARD on
the west side of San Pedro, between the
huertas of Eugenio Valdez on the north
and Encarnacio Urquides on the south, and
north of Guillermo Gotta and Antonio Ma
ria Lugo, the former site of whose vineyard
is crossed by Second street.
Don Ramon was a soldier in the army
during the Mexican war and participated in
the skirmish on the Dominguez ranch un-
der Jose Antonio Carrillo, who with sixty
Californians put the Americans to flight,
who took their dead with them and buried
them on Deadman's island, off San Pedro.
Don Ramon served till the end of the war
and though he is now past 80 years old, his
memory is clear on past events that are
now history.
The second paper was read by Miss Laura
E. King, on '"The Pioneer Schools and
Their Teachers" The first school in San
Gabriel, Miss King said, was kept under
wide-spreading oak tree, walled in with
tall mustard thicket. William A. Wal
lace was the first teacher. In 1855 the school
grew to such proportions that a room
twenty-five feet long in an adobe house was
hired. The benches were rough boards
nailed to stakes and four children were de.
tailed every Friday evening to sprinkle and
sweep the adobe floor. The successor to
Mr.. Wallace, who was an English botanist.
dismissed the school one day to 20 and see
a man hung, which did not meet with the
approval of the parents. The next teacher
was the Baptist minister, whd was strict
disciplinarian, followed by Mrs. Foster,
who remained two years and is lovingly re-
membered by her former pupils, among
whom the reader was one. Mrs. Fosters
arrival marked an epoch in the school his
tory of Southern California, as she was the
first woman teacher employed.
A piano solo by Miss Marcus was fol-
lowed by paper entitled 'The Old Pueblo
de Los Angeles" The name Los Angeles
was selected for the locality in which the
pueblo was founded by Father Crespi, a
Franciscan friar, long years before it was
located, when he passed through here on
his northern trip with Governor Portalo's
expedition, August 2, 1859, to find the bay OF
Monterey. Los Angeles is one of the few
names retained of all that Padre Crespi
scattered broadcast over river, valley and
mountain.
Governor Felipe de Neve decided upon
this as the most desirable site to found one
of the two pueblos ordered by the viceroy
of Spain, which was done with solemn re-
ligious ceremonies, September 4, 1851. The