Sixty Years in Southern California, 1853-1913: Containing the Reminiscences of Harris NewmarkNewmark, Harris
History
Sixty Years in Southern California, 1853-1913: Containing the Reminiscences of Harris Newmark
Newmark, Harris
California, Southern; Los Angeles (Calif.)
Not far from Del Valle's--that is, back of the later site of the Pico
House, between the future Sanchez Street and Calle de los
Negros--lived Don Pio Pico, then and long after a striking figure, not
merely on account of his fame as the last of the Mexican governors,
but as well because of his physique and personality. I may add that as
long as he lived, or at least until the tide of his fortune turned and
he was forced to sell his most treasured personal effects, he
invariably adorned himself with massive jewelry of much value; and as
a further conceit, he frequently wore on his bosom Mexican decorations
that had been bestowed upon him for past official services. Don Pio
really preferred country life at the _Ranchito_, as his place was
called; but official duties and, later, illness and the need of
medical care, kept him in town for months at a time. He had three
sisters, two of whom married in succession José António Carrillo,
another resident at the Plaza and the then owner of the site of the
future Pico House; while the third was the wife of Don Juan Forster,
in whose comfortable home Don Pio found a retreat when distressing
poverty overtook him in old age. Sanchez Street recalls still another
don of the neighborhood, Vicente Sanchez, grandfather of Tomás A.
Sanchez, who was domiciled in a two-story and rather elaborate
dwelling near Carrillo, on the south side of the Plaza. Sanchez Hall
stood there until the late seventies.
The Beau Brummel of Los Angeles in the early fifties was Don Vicente
Lugo, whose wardrobe was made up exclusively of the fanciest patterns
of Mexican type; his home, one of the few two-story houses in the
pueblo, was close to Ygnácio Del Valle's. Lugo, a brother of Don José
María, was one of the heavy taxpayers of his time; as late as 1860, he
had herds of twenty-five hundred head of cattle, or half a thousand
more than Pio and Andrés Pico together owned. María Ballestero, Lugo's
mother-in-law, lived near him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account