Rancho La Puente
Encyclopedia
Rancho La Puente was a ranch in the eastern San Gabriel Valley
that, in its fullest extent, measured just under 49000 acres (198.3 km²), and remained intact until about 1870. By modern landmarks, the ranch extended from San Gabriel River
on the west to just west of the 57 Freeway on the east and from Ramona Boulevard/San Bernardino Road on the north to the Puente Hills on the south. All but 40 acres (161,874.4 m²), which fall within Orange County
, are within Los Angeles County. Today, the present communities of Avocado Heights
, Bassett
, Baldwin Park
, San Dimas
, Rowland Heights
, Hacienda Heights
, City of Industry, La Puente
, Walnut
, Covina
, West Covina
, and small sections of South El Monte
and Irwindale
are contained within the old boundaries of Rancho La Puente.
of 1769-1770, the first land-based trek through California by Europeans. After leaving, in late July 1769, a campsite at today's Hillcrest Park
in Fullerton
, the party headed northwest through "la abra
" [corrupted later into La Habra] or "an opening" in the Puente Hills and ascended a canyon that led to the north side of the hills [a 1930s Daughters of the American Revolution
plaque in Brea Canyon incorrectly identifies that canyon as part of the Portola route—member diaries clearly state a northwest direction from modern Fullerton]. Descending down into a valley the expedition dubbed "San Miguel," the group came to a stream. According to Father Juan Crespi, whose diaries were published in 2001, the expedition built a bridge to cross what is now San Jose Creek. In the original text, the words "la puente" were used to signify "the bridge"--the feminine being used in some dialects of Spanish, such as those, like Crespi and others in the Portola expedition, who were from the Catalan region of Spain.
The ranch was created as one of many ranchos operated by the missionaries at Mission San Gabriel from its founding in 1771 in Whittier Narrows
and its relocation to its current site within four years until the Mexican government secularized the missions ni the middle 1830s, at which time mission ranchos became subject to private ownership. Maps from the 1850s onward make reference to a "Mission Cranoras," which appears to be a corruption as "graneros" or granaries and references exist in nineteenth-century maps and letters to adobe ruins north of the old Workman homestead, now the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum, and close to the old Southern Pacific railroad tracks paralleling Valley Boulevard. The La Puente ranch was used by the mission fathers for wheat raising as well as stock pasturage. Although some sources claim that a grant of La Puente was made in 1820 by Governor Pablo Vicente de Sola
to a Spaniard who then fled as Mexico obtanied its independence from Spain, there is no record in official records of this grant.
At the end of 1841, a group of travelers and settlers arrived in the Los Angeles
area from New Mexico
and have been referred to as the Rowland and Workman Expedition. Asserted to have been led by American John A. Rowland
(ca. 1797-1873) and British native William Workman
(1799–1876), the expedition contained American, European, and New Mexican members who settled throughout California. Rowland traveled, in early 1842, to the capital at Monterey
and petitioned Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado
for the Rancho La Puente. The grant was finalized in March and specified four square leagues, or 17740 acres (71.8 km²) .. Strangely, William Workman
, who had been implicated in what was claimed to be an assassination attempt of New Mexico's governor during a period in which the independent Republic of Texas
plotted to annex most of that territory, was not included in the original grant, although a document was issued by Alvarado at the time of the grant, extending the rights and privileges of use of the rancho to Workman. This document is in the collection of the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum.
After Workman, as captain, and Rowland, as lieutenant, of an American and European military contingent helped Pio Pico
defeat Governor Manuel Micheltorena
in an armed standoff
at Cahuenga Pass
near Los Angeles in February 1845, Pico issued a new grant to Rancho La Puente. Made in July 1845, the grant extended the size of the rancho to the maximum allowed under Mexican land law, eleven square leagues, or 48790.55 acres (197.4 km²). When Rowland submitted an affidavit claiming (unbelievably) that Workman was inadvertently left off the earlier grant, Pico officially added Workman as co-owner.
After the conquest of the Mexican department of Alta California
by the United States during the Mexican-American War, the article of the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
, which would have provided that Spanish and Mexican-era land grants be honored, was stricken at the insistence of President James K. Polk
and Congress. With the onset of the Gold Rush
and the arrival of tens of thousands of Americans to California, disputes over rancho lands became significant. Consequently, Congress passed legislation on 3 March 1851 requiring holders of Spanish and Mexican land titles to file a claim before a commission for adjudication. Approvals were automatically appealed by the federal government to the federal courts, as far as the United Supreme Court.
A claim for Rancho La Puente was filed with the Public Land Commission
in Fall 1852,, but after the land commission approved the claim two years later, the government appealed to the courts on the ground that the Pico grant was not legitimate. At the Los Angeles federal district court, Rowland and Workman won two separate appeals, in 1856 and 1862, and it appeared that the government was going to take the matter to the Supreme Court. The Civil War years saw the claim in limbo and Rowland hired an attorney to secure a patent. Finally, in April 1867, the lawyer's efforts were successful and the patent patented
was issued.
With the patent secured and La Puente's owners approaching their seventies, the two decided, in 1868, to formally partition the rancho, leaving the two men exact allotments of hill and valley land, so that Rowland mainly occupied the northern and eastern part and Workman the western and central portions. Rowland, who returned to New Mexico in 1842 to bring his family back to California, built an adobe on the north side of San Jose Creek the following year. A dozen years later, he razed the structure and built, across the creek, a brick Greek Revival two-story house (the John A. Rowland House
) for his second wife, Charlotte M. Gray. Rowland, who built the first private grist mill in the county in 1847, mainly concerned himself with cattle ranching and farming, achieving great success. He died in October 1873 and was buried at the El Campo Santo Cemetery
established by Workman. His many heirs took over, but over the years land was sold off, including for the creation of the towns of Puente
and Covina during the famed Boom of the Eighties (1886–88).
William Workman
, whose family accompanied him to California, lived in a temporary shelter through the winter of 1841-42 and then constructed an adobe the following summer, believed to have been three rooms. The adobe was expanded to ten rooms in two southward-facing wings by 1856 and then remodeled with the addition of brick rooms at the corners and on a new second floor, this work being completed by 1870. Workman, also a highly successful cattle rancher and farmer, entered business activities (real estate, oil, and banking, among others) with his son-in-law, Francisco P. Temple
(F. P. F.) , and the two were the wealthiest individuals in Los Angeles County during the first half of the 1870s, during which the first growth boom experienced in the region took place. When the economy turned sour, however, and the Temple and Workman bank collapsed, Workman, who had mortgaged most of his portion of La Puente for a loan from Elias J. "Lucky" Baldwin
of San Francisco, lost everything and took his own life in May 1876. Workman's house and 70 acres (283,280.2 m²) was sold back to the Temple family by Baldwin in 1880—today's Workman and Temple Family Homestead is the 6 acres (24,281.2 m²) remnant of this property. Baldwin retained ownership of thousands of acres of Workman's former holdings until his death in 1909, though some land, notably for the town of Baldwin Park
, was sold. In 1911, Baldwin's estate sold off more La Puente land for the subdivision of North Whittier Heights, now Hacienda Heights.
(1850s with 1919-21 renovations), and a water tower (ca. 1880s)--all on the grounds of the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum (www.homesteadmuseum.org) and the John A. Rowland House
(1855), now undergoing long-awaited renovations under the auspices of the Historical Society of La Puente Valley. There is also an 1880s adobe house that was built by John Rowland's son, William R. Rowland
, and is under the ownership of the City of Walnut
and is at Lemon Creek Park.
San Gabriel Valley
The San Gabriel Valley is one of the principal valleys of Southern California, United States. It lies to the east of Los Angeles, to the north of the Puente Hills, to the south of the San Gabriel Mountains, and west of the Inland Empire. It derives its name from the San Gabriel River that flows...
that, in its fullest extent, measured just under 49000 acres (198.3 km²), and remained intact until about 1870. By modern landmarks, the ranch extended from San Gabriel River
San Gabriel River (California)
The San Gabriel River flows through southern Los Angeles County, California in the United States. Its main stem is about long, while its farthest tributaries extend almost altogether...
on the west to just west of the 57 Freeway on the east and from Ramona Boulevard/San Bernardino Road on the north to the Puente Hills on the south. All but 40 acres (161,874.4 m²), which fall within Orange County
Orange County, California
Orange County is a county in the U.S. state of California. Its county seat is Santa Ana. As of the 2010 census, its population was 3,010,232, up from 2,846,293 at the 2000 census, making it the third most populous county in California, behind Los Angeles County and San Diego County...
, are within Los Angeles County. Today, the present communities of Avocado Heights
Avocado Heights, California
Avocado Heights is an unincorporated census-designated place in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It lies in the San Gabriel Valley, near Puente Hills. On the northern border lies the unincorporated community of West Puente Valley; on the eastern border the City of Industry...
, Bassett
Bassett, California
Bassett is an unincorporated community in the San Gabriel Valley, in Los Angeles County, California, United States, located within the Census boundaries of Avocado Heights...
, Baldwin Park
Baldwin Park, California
Baldwin Park is a city located in the central San Gabriel Valley region of Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 75,390, down from 75,837 at the 2000 census.- History :...
, San Dimas
San Dimas, California
San Dimas is a city located in the San Gabriel Valley, in Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 33,371. The city historically took its name from San Dismas Canyon in the San Gabriel Mountains above the northern section of present day San Dimas...
, Rowland Heights
Rowland Heights, California
Rowland Heights is an unincorporated community of , located in and below the Puente Hills in the San Gabriel Valley, in Los Angeles County, California. The population of the census-designated place was 48,993 at the 2010 census, up from 48,553 at the 2000 census...
, Hacienda Heights
Hacienda Heights, California
Hacienda Heights is an unincorporated census-designated place in and below the Puente Hills of the San Gabriel Valley, in Los Angeles County, California, United States...
, City of Industry, La Puente
La Puente, California
La Puente is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 39,816 at the 2010 census.* City flower: The Golden Hibiscus* City colors: Green and White.-History:...
, Walnut
Walnut, California
Walnut is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 29,172 at the 2010 census and its current mayor is Tom King, a former Detective from the Los Angeles Police Department....
, Covina
Covina, California
Covina is a small city in Los Angeles County, California about east of downtown Los Angeles, in the San Gabriel Valley region. The population was 47,796 at the 2010 census, up from 46,837 at the 2000 census...
, West Covina
West Covina, California
West Covina is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. Located some east of Downtown Los Angeles in the eastern San Gabriel Valley, it is a mostly middle class suburb of Los Angeles...
, and small sections of South El Monte
South El Monte, California
South El Monte is a city in the San Gabriel Valley, in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 20,116, down from 21,144 at the 2000 census.-Geography:...
and Irwindale
Irwindale, California
Irwindale is a city in the San Gabriel Valley, in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 1,422 at the 2010 census, down from 1,446 at the 2000 census....
are contained within the old boundaries of Rancho La Puente.
History
The name "La Puente" originates from the Portola ExpeditionPortola expedition
250px|right|Point of San Francisco Bay DiscoveryThe Portolá Expedition was led by Gaspar de Portolá from July 14, 1769 to January 24, 1770. It was the first recorded Spanish land entry and exploration of present day California, United States...
of 1769-1770, the first land-based trek through California by Europeans. After leaving, in late July 1769, a campsite at today's Hillcrest Park
Hillcrest Park
Hillcrest Park is located in the Riley Park-Little Mountain neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia. It is located immediately north of Queen Elizabeth Park and west of Riley Park....
in Fullerton
Fullerton
-Locations:Australia* Fullerton Cove, New South WalesCanada* Cape Fullerton, NunavutUnited States* Fullerton, California, a city in Orange County...
, the party headed northwest through "la abra
La Habra, California
La Habra is a city in the northwestern corner of Orange County, California. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 60,239. Its related city, La Habra Heights is located to the north of La Habra, and is in Los Angeles County.-Origin of name:...
" [corrupted later into La Habra] or "an opening" in the Puente Hills and ascended a canyon that led to the north side of the hills [a 1930s Daughters of the American Revolution
Daughters of the American Revolution
The Daughters of the American Revolution is a lineage-based membership organization for women who are descended from a person involved in United States' independence....
plaque in Brea Canyon incorrectly identifies that canyon as part of the Portola route—member diaries clearly state a northwest direction from modern Fullerton]. Descending down into a valley the expedition dubbed "San Miguel," the group came to a stream. According to Father Juan Crespi, whose diaries were published in 2001, the expedition built a bridge to cross what is now San Jose Creek. In the original text, the words "la puente" were used to signify "the bridge"--the feminine being used in some dialects of Spanish, such as those, like Crespi and others in the Portola expedition, who were from the Catalan region of Spain.
The ranch was created as one of many ranchos operated by the missionaries at Mission San Gabriel from its founding in 1771 in Whittier Narrows
Whittier Narrows
The Whittier Narrows is located at the southern boundary of the San Gabriel Valley, in Los Angeles County, California. It is a gap in the Puente Hills where the Rio Hondo and the San Gabriel River diverge....
and its relocation to its current site within four years until the Mexican government secularized the missions ni the middle 1830s, at which time mission ranchos became subject to private ownership. Maps from the 1850s onward make reference to a "Mission Cranoras," which appears to be a corruption as "graneros" or granaries and references exist in nineteenth-century maps and letters to adobe ruins north of the old Workman homestead, now the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum, and close to the old Southern Pacific railroad tracks paralleling Valley Boulevard. The La Puente ranch was used by the mission fathers for wheat raising as well as stock pasturage. Although some sources claim that a grant of La Puente was made in 1820 by Governor Pablo Vicente de Sola
Pablo Vicente de Solá
Pablo Vicente de Solá , the last Spanish governor of Alta California from 1815-1822....
to a Spaniard who then fled as Mexico obtanied its independence from Spain, there is no record in official records of this grant.
At the end of 1841, a group of travelers and settlers arrived in the Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
area from New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
and have been referred to as the Rowland and Workman Expedition. Asserted to have been led by American John A. Rowland
John A. Rowland
John A. Rowland was an early settler and rancher of the eastern San Gabriel Valley area of Los Angeles County, California. He and his family were very prominent in the region's early development and the unincorporated community of Rowland Heights, California is named for him.-Early life:John...
(ca. 1797-1873) and British native William Workman
William Workman
William Workman was an Irish-born Canadian businessman and municipal politician.- Biography :Workman migrated to Montreal, Quebec in 1829....
(1799–1876), the expedition contained American, European, and New Mexican members who settled throughout California. Rowland traveled, in early 1842, to the capital at Monterey
Monterey, California
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...
and petitioned Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado
Juan Bautista Alvarado
Juan Bautista Valentín Alvarado y Vallejo was a Californio and twice Governor of Alta California from 1836 to 1837, and 1838 to 1842.-Early years:...
for the Rancho La Puente. The grant was finalized in March and specified four square leagues, or 17740 acres (71.8 km²) .. Strangely, William Workman
Workman-Temple family
The Workman-Temple family relates to the pioneer interconnected Workman and Temple families that were prominent in: the history of colonial Pueblo de Los Angeles and American Los Angeles; the Los Angeles Basin and San Gabriel Valley regions; and Southern California — from 1830 to 1930 in Mexican...
, who had been implicated in what was claimed to be an assassination attempt of New Mexico's governor during a period in which the independent Republic of Texas
Republic of Texas
The Republic of Texas was an independent nation in North America, bordering the United States and Mexico, that existed from 1836 to 1846.Formed as a break-away republic from Mexico by the Texas Revolution, the state claimed borders that encompassed an area that included all of the present U.S...
plotted to annex most of that territory, was not included in the original grant, although a document was issued by Alvarado at the time of the grant, extending the rights and privileges of use of the rancho to Workman. This document is in the collection of the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum.
After Workman, as captain, and Rowland, as lieutenant, of an American and European military contingent helped Pio Pico
Pío Pico
Pío de Jesús Pico was the last Governor of Alta California under Mexican rule.-Origins:...
defeat Governor Manuel Micheltorena
Manuel Micheltorena
Manuel Micheltorena was a Brigadier General of the Mexican Army, Adjutant-General of the same, Governor, Commandant-General and Inspector of the Department of the California...
in an armed standoff
Battle of Providencia
Battle of Providencia took place in 1845 on Rancho Providencia in the San Fernando Valley of southern California....
at Cahuenga Pass
Cahuenga Pass
The Cahuenga Pass is a mountain pass through the eastern end of the Santa Monica Mountains in the Hollywood district of the City of Los Angeles, California....
near Los Angeles in February 1845, Pico issued a new grant to Rancho La Puente. Made in July 1845, the grant extended the size of the rancho to the maximum allowed under Mexican land law, eleven square leagues, or 48790.55 acres (197.4 km²). When Rowland submitted an affidavit claiming (unbelievably) that Workman was inadvertently left off the earlier grant, Pico officially added Workman as co-owner.
After the conquest of the Mexican department of Alta California
Alta California
Alta California was a province and territory in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and later a territory and department in independent Mexico. The territory was created in 1769 out of the northern part of the former province of Las Californias, and consisted of the modern American states of California,...
by the United States during the Mexican-American War, the article of the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is the peace treaty, largely dictated by the United States to the interim government of a militarily occupied Mexico City, that ended the Mexican-American War on February 2, 1848...
, which would have provided that Spanish and Mexican-era land grants be honored, was stricken at the insistence of President James K. Polk
James K. Polk
James Knox Polk was the 11th President of the United States . Polk was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He later lived in and represented Tennessee. A Democrat, Polk served as the 17th Speaker of the House of Representatives and the 12th Governor of Tennessee...
and Congress. With the onset of the Gold Rush
Gold rush
A gold rush is a period of feverish migration of workers to an area that has had a dramatic discovery of gold. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, and the United States, while smaller gold rushes took place elsewhere.In the 19th and early...
and the arrival of tens of thousands of Americans to California, disputes over rancho lands became significant. Consequently, Congress passed legislation on 3 March 1851 requiring holders of Spanish and Mexican land titles to file a claim before a commission for adjudication. Approvals were automatically appealed by the federal government to the federal courts, as far as the United Supreme Court.
A claim for Rancho La Puente was filed with the Public Land Commission
Public Land Commission
The Public Land Commission, a former agency of the United States government, was created following the admission of California as a state in 1850 . The Commission's purpose was to determine the validity of prior Spanish and Mexican land grants in California.California Senator William M...
in Fall 1852,, but after the land commission approved the claim two years later, the government appealed to the courts on the ground that the Pico grant was not legitimate. At the Los Angeles federal district court, Rowland and Workman won two separate appeals, in 1856 and 1862, and it appeared that the government was going to take the matter to the Supreme Court. The Civil War years saw the claim in limbo and Rowland hired an attorney to secure a patent. Finally, in April 1867, the lawyer's efforts were successful and the patent patented
Land patent
A land patent is a land grant made patent by the sovereign lord over the land in question. To make a such a grant “patent”, such a sovereign lord must document the land grant, securely sign and seal the document and openly publish the same to the public for all to see...
was issued.
With the patent secured and La Puente's owners approaching their seventies, the two decided, in 1868, to formally partition the rancho, leaving the two men exact allotments of hill and valley land, so that Rowland mainly occupied the northern and eastern part and Workman the western and central portions. Rowland, who returned to New Mexico in 1842 to bring his family back to California, built an adobe on the north side of San Jose Creek the following year. A dozen years later, he razed the structure and built, across the creek, a brick Greek Revival two-story house (the John A. Rowland House
John A. Rowland House
John A. Rowland House in Hacienda Heights, California was built in 1855. The home of pioneer John A. Rowland, of the Workman-Rowland party, co-leader of the first American band of settlers to reach Southern California in 1841. John A. Rowland built this home for his second wife, Charlotte M...
) for his second wife, Charlotte M. Gray. Rowland, who built the first private grist mill in the county in 1847, mainly concerned himself with cattle ranching and farming, achieving great success. He died in October 1873 and was buried at the El Campo Santo Cemetery
El Campo Santo Cemetery
El Campo Santo is a cemetery located at the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum, 15415 East Don Julian Road, in City of Industry, California....
established by Workman. His many heirs took over, but over the years land was sold off, including for the creation of the towns of Puente
La Puente, California
La Puente is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 39,816 at the 2010 census.* City flower: The Golden Hibiscus* City colors: Green and White.-History:...
and Covina during the famed Boom of the Eighties (1886–88).
William Workman
Workman-Temple family
The Workman-Temple family relates to the pioneer interconnected Workman and Temple families that were prominent in: the history of colonial Pueblo de Los Angeles and American Los Angeles; the Los Angeles Basin and San Gabriel Valley regions; and Southern California — from 1830 to 1930 in Mexican...
, whose family accompanied him to California, lived in a temporary shelter through the winter of 1841-42 and then constructed an adobe the following summer, believed to have been three rooms. The adobe was expanded to ten rooms in two southward-facing wings by 1856 and then remodeled with the addition of brick rooms at the corners and on a new second floor, this work being completed by 1870. Workman, also a highly successful cattle rancher and farmer, entered business activities (real estate, oil, and banking, among others) with his son-in-law, Francisco P. Temple
Francisco P. Temple
Francisco P. Temple served on the first Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in 1852.-Biography:...
(F. P. F.) , and the two were the wealthiest individuals in Los Angeles County during the first half of the 1870s, during which the first growth boom experienced in the region took place. When the economy turned sour, however, and the Temple and Workman bank collapsed, Workman, who had mortgaged most of his portion of La Puente for a loan from Elias J. "Lucky" Baldwin
Lucky Baldwin
Elias Jackson "Lucky" Baldwin was a prominent California businessman and investor of the second half of the 19th century.-Biography:...
of San Francisco, lost everything and took his own life in May 1876. Workman's house and 70 acres (283,280.2 m²) was sold back to the Temple family by Baldwin in 1880—today's Workman and Temple Family Homestead is the 6 acres (24,281.2 m²) remnant of this property. Baldwin retained ownership of thousands of acres of Workman's former holdings until his death in 1909, though some land, notably for the town of Baldwin Park
Baldwin Park, California
Baldwin Park is a city located in the central San Gabriel Valley region of Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 75,390, down from 75,837 at the 2000 census.- History :...
, was sold. In 1911, Baldwin's estate sold off more La Puente land for the subdivision of North Whittier Heights, now Hacienda Heights.
Historic sites of the Rancho
Among the remaining historic sites left from the rancho era are: the Workman House (1842 adobe and 1870 brick additions), El Campo Santo CemeteryEl Campo Santo Cemetery
El Campo Santo is a cemetery located at the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum, 15415 East Don Julian Road, in City of Industry, California....
(1850s with 1919-21 renovations), and a water tower (ca. 1880s)--all on the grounds of the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum (www.homesteadmuseum.org) and the John A. Rowland House
John A. Rowland House
John A. Rowland House in Hacienda Heights, California was built in 1855. The home of pioneer John A. Rowland, of the Workman-Rowland party, co-leader of the first American band of settlers to reach Southern California in 1841. John A. Rowland built this home for his second wife, Charlotte M...
(1855), now undergoing long-awaited renovations under the auspices of the Historical Society of La Puente Valley. There is also an 1880s adobe house that was built by John Rowland's son, William R. Rowland
William R. Rowland
William "Billy" Richard Rowland was the eleventh sheriff of Los Angeles County, California, and a large landowner in the La Puente area of the San Gabriel Valley. He organized the posse and crafted the successful strategy that resulted in the wounding and capture of notorious bandit Tiburcio...
, and is under the ownership of the City of Walnut
Walnut, California
Walnut is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 29,172 at the 2010 census and its current mayor is Tom King, a former Detective from the Los Angeles Police Department....
and is at Lemon Creek Park.