Eulogio F. de Celis | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Los Angeles Common Councilman | |
| In office December 2, 1872 –December 18, 1874 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Los Angeles, California |
| Died | 1903 San Fernando, California |
Eulogio F. de Celis (Jr.) (died 1903) was a Californio ranchero, newspaper publisher, and politician. He once owned most of the San Fernando Valley. [1] [2] He also served as a member of the Los Angeles Common Council.
Eulogio F. de Celis Jr. was born in the Pueblo de Los Ángeles, the son of Eulogio de Celis and Josefa ( née Arguello), both of Spanish descent. His father had settled in Mexican Alta California in 1836, and his mother was the daughter of Alta California Governor Luís Antonio Argüello. They acquired the Rancho Ex-Mission San Fernando from Mexican governor Pío Pico in 1846. [3]
Young Eulogio was educated both in England and in France. The family moved to Spain in 1854. When the elder de Celis died in 1869, the family returned to Los Angeles. [4] [5]
In 1854, de Celis (Sr.) sold the southern half of the rancho to Andres Pico, the governor's brother. In 1875, de Celis (Jr.) sold the remaining northern half of his late father's holdings, which were facing foreclosure, to Charles Maclay and George K. Porter. [3]
The Los Angeles Times said of him that:
He spent money with a lavish hand, and his friends and associates shared in his generosity, as many old settlers here remember. One historian states that Señor De Celis bought a lot near the site of the Westminster Hotel, built one of the best houses in the city at that time, and presented it outright to a friend who was in straitened circumstances.
He is described as a polished, cultured gentleman of attractive personality, who in his prosperity had hosts of friends, but for several years before his death he was abjectly poor, and at one time almost blind, though later his sight was partially restored. [4]
De Celis died impoverished in May 1903, leaving a widow, two sons and two daughters. [4] He had two brothers, José Miguel and Pastor de Celis. [6]
The Times noted:
There was a pathetic little funeral yesterday at the old Spanish Church. The casket was of the plainest and there were no flowers; indeed, not even pallbearers to carry it from the hearse to the altar. A few mourners, a small group of friends of the family in former years, mostly women, followed the body borne by men who happened to be passing at the time, down the aisle to the front seats. A spectator would never have imagined . . . that the man . . . was at one time one of the well-known figures of Los Angeles, and the son of a prominent capitalist of early days who counted his leagues by thousands . . . . [4]
De Celis was editor of the Spanish-language newspaper La Cronica, which had been founded in Los Angeles in 1872. [7] In 1878 he was publishing a newspaper called La Reforma, and he was attacked editorially by the Los Angeles Daily Herald, which said he had not paid a bill owed to the Herald for printing his newspaper. "He can come and pay the charges overdue for presswork and take his forms away, and this time he must keep them away, for he is such bad pay that we shall no longer subject ourselves to the worry of the job." [8]
He translated Confessions of a Filibuster by Horace Bell into Spanish, which was published by La Cronica in a series during October 1877. It was reproduced by the Guatemalan Museum in 1956. [9]
De Celis was elected to represent the 3rd Ward in the Los Angeles Common Council, the governing body of the city, on December 2, 1872, and he was reelected on December 1, 1873. His second term ended December 18, 1874. [10]
De Celis's father, known as Eulogio de Celis, settled in the Pueblo de Los Angeles in 1836 and operated a hide trading business with Henry D. Fitch, Jonathan Temple, and Abel Stearns. In 1846, to raise war funds during the Mexican–American War, the Pio Pico government sold the secularized lands from the Mission San Fernando to the senior de Celis.
With the cession of California to the United States following the Mexican–American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim was filed with the United States Public Land Commission in 1852 and the land grant was patented to Eulogio de Celis in 1873. [11] [12]
The grant, which was supposed to contain fourteen square leagues, was bounded on the north by Rancho San Francisco and the Santa Susana Mountains, on the west by the Simi Hills, on the east by Rancho Tujunga, and on the south by the Montañas de Portesuelo (Santa Monica Mountains). When the Rancho Ex-Mission San Fernando grant was patented in 1873, it was surveyed at nearly twenty six square leagues, the single largest land grant in California. [13] It amounted to "nearly 120,000 acres, virtually all of the Valley save for the Encino and a few other ranchos," [14]
De Celis and his brothers, Jose Miguel and Pastor, deeded a parcel of land in Newhall in the Santa Clarita Valley for use as a railroad station for the sum of one dollar. [6]
In 1875, Eulogio F. de Celis sold what was left of his father's holdings, which were facing foreclosure, to Charles Maclay and George K. Porter for $125,000. [14]
Chatsworth is a suburban neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, in the San Fernando Valley.
Luis Antonio Argüello was the first Californio (native-born) governor of Alta California, and the first to take office under Mexican rule. He was the only governor to serve under the First Mexican Empire and also served as acting governor under the subsequent provisional government, which preceded the First Mexican Republic.
North Hills, known previously as Sepulveda, is a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California.
Californio is a term used to designate a Hispanic Californian, especially those descended from Spanish and Mexican settlers of the 17th through 19th centuries. California's Spanish-speaking community has resided there since 1683 and is made up of varying Spanish and Mexican origins, including criollos, Mestizos, Indigenous Californian peoples, and small numbers of Mulatos. Alongside the Tejanos of Texas and Neomexicanos of New Mexico and Colorado, Californios are part of the larger Spanish-American/Mexican-American/Hispano community of the United States, which has inhabited the American Southwest and the West Coast since the 16th century. Some may also identify as Chicanos, a term that came about in the 1960s.
Andrés Pico was a Californio who became a successful rancher, fought in the contested Battle of San Pascual during the Mexican–American War, and negotiated promises of post-war protections for Californios in the 1847 Treaty of Cahuenga. After California became one of the United States, Pico was elected to the state Assembly and Senate. He was appointed as the commanding brigadier general of the state militia during the U.S. Civil War.
José Darío Argüello (1753–1828) was a Querétaro-born Californio politician, soldier, and ranchero. He served as interim Governor of Alta California and then a term as Governor of Baja California.
José María de Echeandía (?–1871) was twice Mexican governor of Alta California from 1825 to 1831 and again from 1832 to 1833. He was the only governor of California that lived in San Diego.
Don Manuel Domínguez e Ybáñez (1803–1882) was a Californio ranchero, politician, and a signer of the Californian Constitution in 1849. He served as two terms as Alcalde of Los Angeles (mayor). He was one of the largest landowners in Southern California, having inherited Rancho San Pedro in 1825, one of the largest ranchos in California. He was one of the founders of the cities of Carson and Compton and of the fishing village of San Pedro. Today, California State University, Dominguez Hills and the communities of Rancho Dominguez, East Rancho Dominguez, and West Rancho Dominguez bear his family's name.
Rancho San Rafael was a 36,403-acre (147.32 km2) Spanish land grant in the San Rafael Hills, bordering the Los Angeles River and the Arroyo Seco in present-day Los Angeles County, southern California, given in 1784 to Jose Maria Verdugo.
Rancho Los Encinos was a Spanish grazing concession, and later Mexican land granted cattle and sheep rancho and travelers way-station on the El Camino Real in the San Fernando Valley, in present-day Encino, Los Angeles County, California. The original 19th-century adobe and limestone structures and natural warm springs are now within the Los Encinos State Historic Park.
Rómulo Pico Adobe, also known as Ranchito Rómulo and Andrés Pico Adobe, was built in 1834 and is the oldest residence in the San Fernando Valley, making it the second oldest residence in Los Angeles. Built and owned by the Pico family of California, a prominent Californio family, the adobe is located in the Mission Hills section of the city and is a short distance from the San Fernando Mission. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.
The history of the San Fernando Valley from its exploration by the 1769 Portola expedition to the annexation of much of it by the City of Los Angeles in 1915 is a story of booms and busts, as cattle ranching, sheep ranching, large-scale wheat farming, and fruit orchards flourished and faded. Throughout its history, settlement in the San Fernando Valley was shaped by availability of reliable water supplies and by proximity to the major transportation routes through the surrounding mountains.
Rancho La Liebre was a 48,800-acre (197 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Kern County, California and Los Angeles County, given in 1846 by Governor Pío Pico to José María Flores. Liebre means "Hare" in Spanish and the rancho was named as such because of the abundance of jack rabbits in the area.
Rancho Ex-Mission San Fernando was a 116,858-acre (472.91 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Los Angeles County, California, granted in 1846 by Governor Pío Pico to Eulogio F. de Celis. The grant derives its name from the secularized Mission San Fernando Rey de España, but was called ex-Mission because of a division made of the lands held in the name of the mission—the church retaining the grounds immediately around, and all of the lands outside of this were called ex-Mission lands. The grant encompassed most of the present-day San Fernando Valley.
Rancho San Francisquito was a 8,894-acre (35.99 km2) Mexican land grant in present day Los Angeles County, California given in 1845 by Governor Pio Pico to Henry Dalton. The grant included present day cities of El Monte, Irwindale, and Temple City.
Rancho El Escorpión was a 1,110-acre (4.5 km2) Mexican land grant in present day Los Angeles County, California given in 1845 by Governor Pío Pico to three Chumash Native Americans - Odón Chijulla, Urbano, and Mañuel. The half league square shaped Rancho El Escorpión was located at the west end of the San Fernando Valley on Bell Creek against the Simi Hills, and encompassed parts of present day West Hills and Woodland Hills.
The Pico family is a prominent Californio family of Southern California. Members of the family held extensive rancho grants and numerous important positions, including Governor of Alta California, signer of the Constitution of California, and California State Senator, among numerous others. Numerous locations are named after the family across California.
The Sepúlveda family is a prominent Californio family of Southern California. Members of the family held extensive rancho grants and numerous important positions, including Alcalde de Los Ángeles, California State Assemblymen, and Los Angeles County Supervisor.