Riverside, San Bernardino County, California

The Rubidoux Rancho was patented in December 1876, to the Rubidoux heirs, and by them to the Riverside Company. That portion of the Riverside colony north of the Government land strip is situated on the Jurupa Rancho, being held under the original grant and patents from the United States Government, based upon a final confirmation of title by the United States Supreme Court. That portion reaching from south of the Jurupa line to the south line of present improvements is United States Government land, entered by Benjamin Hartshorn, who sold it to the River-side Land and Irrigation Company. South of this again is a portion of the Rancho San Jacinto Sobrante, confirmed by United States patent. The title to all these lands is perfect and unquestioned, with no liens whatever existing. The origin of Riverside was as follows: In November, 1869, the California Silk Center Association was formed in Los Angeles for the purpose of growing silk-worms, and the mulberry-tree, citrus fruits and grapes. To this purpose the superintendent of the company purchased, under authority, over 4,000 acres of the Roubidoux Rancho, and 1,460 acres of Government land on the Hartshorn tract, which. ad-joined this to the eastward. There had also been made arrangements to purchase from the Los Angeles Land Company 3,169 acres of that portion of the Jurupa Rancho opposite the Roubidoux Rancho, on the east side of the Santa Ana river. At this time was planted, for the nourishment of the silkworms of the prospective colony, a number of mulberry trees, many of which still exist. The president of this association was Louis Prevost, a French gentleman well versed in sericulture. In April 1870, he died; and as he was the only member conversant with the methods of the proposed system, the enterprise of silk-raising was abandoned.

Additional Riverside Resources

Source: An Illustrated History of Southern California: embracing the counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the peninsula of lower California.

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