Benjamin Wilson

Benjamin Davis Wilson, statesman and politician (b. December 1, 1811 in Wilson County, Tennessee; d. San Gabriel, Ca. March 11, 1878), known to the local Indians as Don Benito due to his benevolent manner. Wilson was a fur trapper and trader by profession.

Life in California

Rancho Jurupa

Wilson came to California in 1841 with the intention of going on to China. He was unable to obtain passage and became a naturalized Mexican when he settled in modern-day Riverside, California, and married Ramona Yorba whose father was the prominent Spanish (Mexican) landholder of Rancho Jurupa and Rancho Santa Ana. In 1848 he bought the lands of Rancho Jurupa (Riverside) from his father-in-law. Wilson became one of the first Anglo ranchers of great repute and was often asked to assist with Indian affairs. Wilson accepted by becoming Justice of the Peace of the Inland Territory. In one instance in 1845 he was asked to pursue a band of marauding Ute Indians, led by the fierce Chief Walkara, who rustled cattle from the local ranchers. The Indians drove the cattle into the high desert (Lucerne). In his pursuit Wilson sent 22 men through the Cajon Pass and lead 22 others into the depths of the San Bernardino Mountains where he came upon a natural game reserve teeming with black bear. He named the place Big Bear Lake. The lake today is known as Baldwin Lake.

Rancho San Pascual

In 1854 Wilson bought the lands for Lake Vineyard, his own ranch and winery near modern-day San Gabriel, California. He was the second elected Mayor of Los Angeles after California was made a State. He also served as Los Angeles County Supervisor and was elected to three terms of the State Senate. He came into possession of adjoining Rancho San Pascual (present day Pasadena) through a series of complicated land deals, which began with him lending money to its owner Manuel Garfias in 1859. In 1863 Wilson and Dr. John Strother Griffin, who had also loaned Garfias money and with whom Wilson undertook many business deals in early Los Angeles, including railways, oil exploration, real estate, farming and ranching -- bought the entire rancho property outright, and diverted water from the Arroyo Seco up to the dry mesa. In 1873, they subdivided their land (with Griffin getting almost 2/3 of the property, but Wilson retaining some better land (east of current Fair Oaks Avenue), near his Lake Vineyard property. Griffin then sold 2,500 acres of his property to the "Indiana Colony," represented by Daniel M. Berry. In 1876, after the colony had sold most of its allotted land and established what would become the city of Pasadena, Wilson began sub-dividing and developing his adjacent landholdings which would become the eastern side of the new town. In 1864 Wilson took the first white-man expedition to the summit of what would become Mount Wilson.

Legacy

Wilson lived out his days in present-day San Gabriel. He gave several acres of property to his son-in-law James de Barth Shorb which he named San Marino. Other parts developed as Alhambra. The Huntington Library sits on the site of Shorb's home. Wilson's first wife died in 1849 after which time he married the widow Margaret Hereford. They would have four children of which one daughter Ruth would marry George Patton, Sr. and have a son who would become the WWII General George S. Patton, Jr. The Pattons would later purchase Lake Vineyard. Wilson died at the ranch in 1878 and was buried in San Gabriel Cemetery. The last of his land holdings in the downtown Pasadena area were bequeathed to Central School on South Fair Oaks Avenue.

Mount Wilson is the most famous monument to Benjamin Wilson, but Wilson Avenue in Pasadena and Don Benito School of the Pasadena Unified School District also honor his name.

References

Historic Adobes of Los Angeles County, "Rancho San Pascual". John R. Kielbasa. Pittsburg: Dorrance Publishing Company, 1998. ISBN 0-8059-4172-X.

External links