The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-06-14
A LAND OF
~ BIG ~
FAMILIES.

fpfbIH last ffr'h'h w" 'h'NWn'''' P""'l
~ hyblonco that 'hrfr wna no danger ~
,see an,,tle hrtc Tho hia families ~
so,hh,fn California have hing treh
famous
In many families there are eighteen or
tsrptv rhild,rr, occas ionpllv fafniy ~
,rop,y.four ~ twenty hvr childrcn, and
oncc In n while Sta,th iinily WIN
,r,n,v.seyen ~ more children may !"
found fptnily circles 60 mwtirg twelve
or aftc, n boys and girls ar" common
Juan Asuerrp Martinc, h generally
credited With bling tho father ~ more
children thsn any ono else In southern
California, 10 and his wife, Conception,
have welcomed. frs' and last, tiirty-t~o
BOYS and girls In their little hoard house
on a ranch near Corona ~ Riverside county
Besidcs the father and mother. twenty
one of the children now live at home. Inc
other srown-up children have homes or
their own and live in the netghborhood
The youngest Martinez child IA years old
and the eldest IL ~ Mr.. and Mrs. Martinez
have twenty, light grandchildren.
Martinez IL az His wife Is three years
younger They have been married forty
two years Martinez was the eleventh
child In his fathers family.
The Martinez family were great land
holders in California before the American
occupation. For thirty years the family
lived In ease and luxury amid their vast
herds and hocks. Now all the many de-
scendants are poor laboring ranchers.
Mrs. Martinez ia stout and large OF bone
She ha. a motherly face and CHEEKY ring
to her voice. She is proud OF her large
W.. L<, thnr Ia
visitor how many children there were,
she thought for a moment and then said
There's Ave dead and twenty-seve ven
alive. That makes thirty-two. Yes,
thirty-two in all.
.oh, no, no, could not get along with
one lees. My husband and have cried
just as much when our little ones have
died AS the hig rich folks do when they
lose their only child
we are very poor, and have to work
and pinch to get even cheap food for our
children, but myl how we love them all!
When Isabela-she's that little one over
there-was sick last winter. my husband
was almost crazy. He sat up whole week
to look after her.
.We say every day that we don't know
how people can live In those big fine houses
In Los Angeles and San Francisco and
have all that money to spend without
longing for a houseful Of boys and girls
I'd die quick IL had only three or four
children
your children's names?" was asked.
so metimes," Mrs. Martinez replied.
lauehingly. But my husband Juan has
an awful bad memory, and he has to ask
the name Of one Of the little children al
most every day.
"You see there's the sixteen boys and
eleven girls. The boys are like this; now
let me think Oh, they are all like this:
Manuel Tiburcio. Jose. Eugenio. Ramon.
Mateo. Juan, Sancho, Antonio, Narciso,
Carlos, L,lis-let me think-Francisco,
Jesus, Ignacio and then the baby one.
Miguel The girls are Maria, Martina.
LuRarda, Conception, Casilda, Arma. Bar
hara, Loretta, Isabella. Marco LA and Monica.
Il don't remember now the names Of all
our children who have died. There were
two named Bartolo and one named Marco
I remember"
The children gathered about the corre-
spondent ~ he wrote the names from their
mothers dictation Once or twice she was
corrected as she made a slip in the cata-
logue Of her children from the eldest to
the youngest.
Juan and we're married in the summer
Of 1885, she went on. "We have lived right
here ever since. l was II then and Juan
about 20.
me think. Narciso and one of the dead
boys were twins and Jesus and Barbara
we're twins and 70 were MARITIME and one
OF the little girls who died. That makes
six. Yes. know that's right
Are all my children healthy? Now. look
at that lot. They are a little dirty and
poorly dr.. ssed. but, my, how l love them
ALL
The recent school census in California
shows that San Bernardno county bears
The banner for numerous families Sever
fathers in San Bernardino city provide
for the wants of seventeen children each
while eight more boast Of having thirteen
children each.
The largest family il the county is tina,
in Jeremiah Flynn's home, where twenty
two children have been born. OF these
eighteen are now living. Mrs. Flynn has
been a mother OF triplets once and OF twins
three times. The Flynns were married
in 1858 and the youngest child is three
years old.
Not half mile down the road from the
Flynn home jackson Pvller and his wife
have a home circle Of sixteen children
and some three miles farther Is the Masor
home where eight boys and eight girls art
growing up.
Near the San Gabriel Mission in Lot
Angeles county in 1888 and 1887, no thu
school census showed. were forty-ont
Spanish families, among whom were Al
children, varying from months to 81
years Of age. Don Pho PicD, the last Span
ish Governor in California, was the father
OF twenty nine children, and it is reckoneo
that his grandchildren, great grandchildren
and great great grandchildren now mum
Der more than two hundrs d and seventy.
Hitt.ll in his history of California, sayl
that no part of America. ever showed ~
many big families as California, He tell
of four Spanish fathers in Contra Costs
county, who used 10 assemble an aggregate
of eighty-tight children on gala occasions
and Of one man. Manuel Guerrcz. who wal
the father of thirty-seven children anc
the husband of two wives. His younges
child was born on mis- sixty-seventh birthday
United States Senator Bard. whose HON,
IL AT H,epapoe Eantnra countv told Droo;