The history of Los Angeles County, California includes the history of the Tovaangar; the pueblo, missions and ranchos of the Spanish-Mexican era; the histories of the various incorporated cities and unincorporated areas within the borders; and the story of the government of Los Angeles County.
However, since statehood the boundaries of Los Angeles County have been changeable and beyond the vast administrative apparatus overseen by the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, the county was subdivided into minor civil divisions called townships. These townships were initially created under the Public Land Survey System but have functioned and been shaped quite differently than the rectangular townships of the Midwest or the township governments of New England.
Los Angeles County was one of the original counties established at the time of statehood. The eastern part of the original county was set aside in 1853 as San Bernardino County. In 1866 Kern County was established with land that had previously been assigned to Tulare and Los Angeles Counties. The boundary between Los Angeles and Ventura was resurveyed in 1881 due to unclear or conflicting descriptions in some previous statues and an additional 300 mi2 were affirmed to belong to the jurisdiction of Ventura. Orange County was set apart from Los Angeles County in 1886 with the boundary between the two counties set at Coyote Creek with additional specifics codified in 1919. [1]
Townships in California have never developed as real units of local government. Since the California constitution of 1879, they have instead lost all functions other than those of a minor judicial nature. [2] Government functions that elsewhere in the United States might fall to the township in California are the responsibility of various special purpose districts. [2] The main purpose of townships in California since 1879 is the "judicial township" which employs justices of the peace and constables. [3] [4] However townships were also used for organizing election precincts [5] and federal census enumeration. [6]
The names and boundaries of townships in Los Angeles county have ebbed and flowed quite a bit over the decades. Six townships were organized in Los Angeles County in 1850. There were over 40 named townships within Los Angeles County circa 1934. [2]
Township name | 1850 | 1870 [7] [8] | 1887 [9] | 1922 |
---|---|---|---|---|
Los Angeles Township | X | X | X | X |
San Gabriel Township | X | X | X | |
San Jose Township | X | X | X | |
San Bernardino Township | X | |||
Santa Ana Township | X | |||
San Juan Capistrano Township | X | X | ||
Wilmington Township | X | X | ||
San Antonio Township | X | |||
Los Nietos Township | X | X | ||
Anaheim Township | X | X | ||
Santa Ana Township | X | |||
San Joaquin Township | X | |||
Soledad Township | X | X | ||
La Ballona Township | X | |||
San Fernando Township | X | X | ||
El Monte Township | X | X | ||
Azusa Township | X | X | ||
Antelope Township | X | |||
Belvedere Township | X | |||
Cahuenga Township | X | |||
Calabasas Township | X | |||
Catalina Township | X | |||
Chatsworth Park Township | X | |||
Covina Township | X | |||
Downey Township | X | |||
Fairmont Township | X | |||
Inglewood Township | X | |||
Gardena Township | X | |||
Lomita Township | X | |||
Lankershim Township | X | |||
Long Beach Township | X | |||
Malibu Township | X | |||
Monrovia Township | X | |||
Norwalk Township | X | |||
Pasadena Township | X | |||
Redondo Township | X | |||
Rowland Township | X | |||
San Antonia Township | X | |||
San Dimas Township | X | |||
South Pasadena Township | X | |||
Venice Township | X | |||
Whittier Township | X |
The Bear Flag is the official flag of the U.S. state of California. The precursor of the flag was first flown during the 1846 Bear Flag Revolt and was also known as the Bear Flag. A predecessor, called the Lone Star Flag, was used in an 1836 independence movement; the red star element from that flag appears in the Bear Flag of today.
The Santa Susana Pass, originally Simi Pass, is a low mountain pass in the Simi Hills of Southern California, connecting the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles neighborhood of Chatsworth, to the city of Simi Valley and eponymous valley.
Niles Canyon is a canyon in the San Francisco Bay Area formed by Alameda Creek, known for its heritage railroad and silent movie history. The canyon is largely in an unincorporated area of Alameda County, while the western portion of the canyon lies within the city limits of Fremont and Union City. The stretch of State Route 84 known as Niles Canyon Road traverses the length of the canyon from the Niles district of Fremont to the unincorporated town of Sunol. Two railroads also follow the same route down the canyon from Sunol to Niles: the old Southern Pacific track along the north side, now the Niles Canyon Railway, and the newer Union Pacific track a little to the south. At the west end of the canyon are the ruins of the Vallejo Flour Mill, which dates to 1853.
Ballona Creek is an 8.5-mile (13.7 km) channelized stream in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States, that was once a "year-round river lined with sycamores and willows". The urban watercourse begins in the Mid-City neighborhood of Los Angeles, flows through Culver City and Del Rey, and passes the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Preserve, the sailboat harbor Marina del Rey, and the small beachside community of Playa del Rey before draining into Santa Monica Bay. The Ballona Creek drainage basin carries water from the Santa Monica Mountains on the north, from the Baldwin Hills to the south, and as far as the Harbor Freeway (I-110) to the east.
The California State Library is the state library of the State of California, founded in 1850 by the California State Legislature. The Library collects, preserves, generates and disseminates a wide array of information. Today, it is the central reference and research library for state government and the Legislature. The California State Library advises, consults with and provides technical assistance to California's public libraries. It directs state and federal funds to support local public libraries and statewide library programs, including Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grants. The California State Library's mission is to serve as "...the state’s information hub, preserving California’s cultural heritage and connecting people, libraries and government to the resources and tools they need to succeed and to build a strong California." Two of its branches are located in Sacramento, California, at 914 Capitol Mall and 900 N Street. A third branch, located in the California State Capitol, closed in 2020 in preparation for the demolition of the Annex and is expected to return when the new building is completed. The Sutro Library is in the San Francisco State University library building.
The Los Angeles Chinese massacre of 1871 was a racial massacre targeting Chinese immigrants in Los Angeles, California, United States that occurred on October 24, 1871. Approximately 500 white and Latino Americans attacked, harassed, robbed, and murdered the ethnic Chinese residents in what is today referred to as the old Chinatown neighborhood. The massacre took place on Calle de los Negros, also referred to as "Negro Alley". The mob gathered after hearing that a policeman and a rancher had been killed as a result of a conflict between rival tongs, the Nin Yung, and Hong Chow. As news of their death spread across the city, fueling rumors that the Chinese community "were killing whites wholesale", more men gathered around the boundaries of Negro Alley.
Ballona is a geographic place name in the Westside region of Los Angeles County, California.
Rancho El Alisal was a 8,912-acre (36.07 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Monterey County, California, given in 1833 by Governor José Figueroa to the brothers Feliciano and Mariano Soberanes and to William Edward Petty Hartnell. Alisal means Alder tree (sycamore) in Spanish. The land is approximately four miles southeast of present-day Salinas.
Falling Springs is an archaic placename in Los Angeles County, California. Falling Springs was the site of rustic resorts located along the north fork of the San Gabriel River in the San Gabriel Mountains along Soldier Creek, 12 miles (19 km) north-northeast of Azusa, in close proximity to Crystal Lake Recreation Area in the Angeles National Forest.
La Placita is a former settlement and the earliest community established in Riverside County, California, USA. The town was informally established soon after 1843 on the Santa Ana River, across from the town of Agua Mansa. La Placita and Agua Mansa were the first non-native settlements in the San Bernardino Valley. Together, they were referred to as "San Salvador", and were the largest settlements between New Mexico and Los Angeles in the 1840s.
Mission Acres was a rural community in the northern San Fernando Valley. Its historic boundaries correspond roughly with the former community of Sepulveda and present day community of North Hills within Los Angeles, California. The community's western border was Bull Creek, which flowed south out of Box Canyon in the western San Gabriel Mountains near San Fernando Pass.
George Fall was an American politician. He was a member of the Los Angeles, California, Common Council, the governing body of that city, in 1870–71 and was present when a mob lynched 18 Chinese in the Chinese massacre of 1871.
The California Digital Newspaper Collection (CDNC) is a freely-available, archive of digitized California newspapers; it is accessible through the project's website. The collection contains over six million pages from over forty-two million articles. The project is part of the Center for Bibliographical Studies and Research (CBSR) at the University of California Riverside.
The California Nursery Company was established in Niles, California, and incorporated in 1884 by John Rock, R. D. Fox, and others. The nursery sold fruit trees, nut trees, ornamental shrubs and trees, and roses. It was responsible for introducing new hybrids created by such important West Coast breeders as Luther Burbank and Albert Etter.
Charles Howard Shinn (1852–1924) was a horticulturalist, author, inspector of California Experiment Stations, and forest ranger in California.
John Rock was a German-born American horticulturalist and nurseryman. John Rock was a leader in California in pomology and the nursery business from 1865 until his death in 1904. Charles Howard Shinn wrote the entry for John Rock in L.H. Bailey's Cyclopedia of Horticulture He said "John Rock's scientific spirit, his wide and ever-increasing knowledge, his very high standards of business and his unselfishness made him during his long life the leader of Pacific coast nurserymen. He introduced more valuable plants and varieties to American horticulture than any other man of his period. His connection with Japan, India, Australia and with the great establishments abroad was close and constant. He did much to encourage men like Luther Burbank, and his collections were always at the service of students and the public."
The California Equal Suffrage Association (CESA) was a political organization in the state of California with the intended goal of passing women's suffrage.
The second Los Angeles federal building in Los Angeles County, California, more formally the United States Post Office and Courthouse, was a government building in the United States was designed by James Knox Taylor ex officio and constructed between 1906 and 1910 on the block bounded by North Main, Spring, New High, and Temple Streets. The location was previously known as the Downey Block.
The Los Angeles Union Stock Yards were a livestock market and transfer station in the so-called Central Merchandising District south of downtown Los Angeles in Los Angeles County, California. The stock yards closed in 1960 and the facilities were demolished and replaced with other industrial warehouses.
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