San Bernardino County

San Bernardino County was segregated from Los Angeles County, of which it originally formed a part, by an act of the, Legislature, passed April 26, 1853; and the earliest history recorded of a concerted systematic effort to establish public schools in the territory comprised in San Bernardino County are of that year. T. 1. Herring […]

Secularization, that practically razed the missions, was closely followed in San Bernardino by an epoch of speedier and more extensive advancement, in the opening of the section to general development. This period began with the division of the country into large ranchos, under the governorship of Juan B. Alvarado, who very practically made to such

In 1853 or 1854 one Leonardo Serrano, a native Californian, applied to the Board of Land Commissioners, then in session in California, claiming a Mexican grant of five leagues of land, including that tract known as the Rancho de Temescal. After a careful investigation, his claim was rejected, and the land, like other Government land,

Ontario founded by the Chaffey brothers, is the most western town in San Bernardino County, and the lands extend to within four miles of the county line. It is thirty-eight miles east of Los Angeles, and twenty-four miles west of San Bernardino and Colton. Cucamonga is the nearest place on the east, Pomona on the

The Mormons were, too, a peaceable and law-abiding element, and as long as their party was in the majority they maintained good government. It was not long, however, before the Gentiles were attracted to this beautiful valley in considerable numbers, coming from neighboring counties and from a distance; and between these and the Mormons hard

In the year 1851 began the third period or chapter in the history of the section-that of Mormon occupation. Brigham Young, the head of the Mormon church, desired the establishment of a colony on the Pacific coast, as an out-fitting post for the church, and as a pacific port where European converts might be landed,

The timber belt of the Sierra Nevada, in this county, extending from Swarthout Canon in Cajon Pass on the west to Mount Grayback on the east, a stretch of some thirty miles, averages three miles in width. A few Mormons, in 1851, built the first road from San Bernardino valley to the summit of the

Lawlessness in 1859-60, politics ran high in San Bernardino County. There was a strong secessionist element, to oppose which John Brown rode over the country convoking the Union men thereof to rally at the old school-house ” to form a political organization. There were present at the first meeting John Brown, Charles G. Hill, William

John Brown, Jr., acting as court interpreter, supplied the following bit of early history to the San Bernardino Times, of January 22, 1876: For some days past the District Court has been engaged in hearing the case of Craig, Cave et at. vs. Craft et at., involving the right to use the water of Old

The Indian Tribes that inhabited San Bernardino County were not a few, and several of them have representatives at the present day. There are the Yuma, who dwell along the Colorado River, from its entrance into Arizona to its outlet, occupying only the river bottoms; the Yuma are so far removed from the settled districts