Lemuel Carpenter
Encyclopedia
Lemuel Carpenter, was one of the first Anglo-American settlers of what is now the Los Angeles
, California
metropolitan area.
. He migrated to Missouri
about 1828, where he served in Searcy's Company of Missouri Militia in 1829.
includes him in this recollection of people he knew in early Los Angeles
: "Los Angeles I first saw in March, 1845. It then had probably two hundred and fifty people, of whom I recall Don Abel Stearns, John Temple (Jonathan Temple
), Captain Alexander Bell, William Wolfskill
, Lemuel Carpenter, David W. Alexander; also of Mexicans, Pio Pico
(governor), Don Juan Bandini
, and others".
Carpenter started a soap manufacturing business on the San Gabriel River
in El Monte that profited sufficiently for him to purchase Rancho Santa Gertrudes
, on the site of Tongva Nacaugna
and present-day Downey, California
, southeast of what is now downtown Los Angeles.
He was among the first of the "Californios" to plant a vineyard
for the making of wine
.
His original settlement was known as "Carpenter's Farm" from 1837 until it was destroyed by a flood in 1867. He was active in revolutionary activities, sided with the Americans in the Mexican War
, tried gold mining
, and in general prospered in his new home. A popular travel guide notes: "Rancho Santa Gertrudes
…was sold to Lemuel Carpenter, a Kentuckian, who married the beautiful María de los Angeles Domínguez. ... The Carpenters [were] happy and prosperous under Mexican rule".
Rancho Santa Gertrudes
was owned by Lemuel Carpenter until 1859. In 1859 the rancho was sold at a sheriff's auction to John G. Downey
and James P. McFarland. "Samuel", actually "Lemuel" but misspelled by the recorder, Carpenter was recorded as the legal possessor in 1862..
In the 1850 census, Lemuel Carpenter is listed as age 42, had a real estate value of $8,000 dollars, and was a farmer. His wife, Maria, is listed as age 22—she was his second wife. Their children, all born in California, are listed as:
taken out in 1852 ballooned into a $104,000 debt by 1859. Early settler Major Horace Bell gives this narrative of the series of events involved: "The first notable land owner to pay tribute to El Boticario [John G. Downey] was El Carpintero. Lemuel Carpenter, to be explicit. A thoroughly Anglo-Saxon
name, surely, but Lemuel was one of those Americans that had settled in the Land of Mañana in early days, when it was still Mexico, and his business sense had become numbed by that easy faith in his fellow man which characterized the Californians when they negotiated one with another over financial matters. Lemuel Carpenter had become El Carpintero and almost as native as his Spanish nickname implied. He owned forty thousand acres of the richest land in California, thousands of head of horned cattle and a corresponding number of horses. He had a good ranch house, a vineyard, corn fields, barley fields, springs, streams and lakes; also a family. He was of the most honorable standing, respected by all who knew him. His age was about fifty.
Authorities differ as to the date of Carpenter's arrival in Los Angeles. C. D. Willard in his "History of Los Angeles," says he came with a party of trappers in 1832 or '33. Harris Newmark in his "Sixty Years in Southern California," says he came with the Wilson-Workman-Rowland party from New Mexico in 1841. His first property was a little rancho called La Jabonería ("The Soap Factory") on the west bank of the Rio San Gabriel near El Monte. The locality is still known by this name. Here Carpenter manufactured soap and made enough money from it to acquire a large part of the great Nietos family grant known as Rancho Santa Gertrudis, which stretched away on the opposite bank of the river across the region where are now the towns of Downey
, Rivera
and Los Nietos.
One unlucky day El Carpintero borrowed fifty dollars from El Boticario; this was about Christmas time, 1852, when he was having a good time among his friends in town and needed a little spending money instanter. For this sum he gave his note and forgot all about it for a year, when payment was demanded with interest. Lo, El Carpintero discovered he had signed a note bearing interest at the rate of 12 & 1/2 per cent. a day, compounded daily! The note had grown from fifty dollars to five thousand dollars or thereabouts. Then a new note was given Dec. 9, 1853, for five thousand dollars bearing interest at 5 per cent. a month, compounded monthly and payable in three months. This note was secured by the forty thousand acre ranch. Oh, he was a broth of a boy, this sprig of Irish royalty, commonly known as El Boticario! Did El Carpintero pay this five thousand dollars when due, with interest piled up? No, it ran on for a year and ten days. Then the interest was computed and another note given, this time for $9,154 at 5 percent a month, compounded monthly, secured by a second mortgage on the forty thousand acre ranch. This was in 1854. In 1856 the interest was again computed and another note was given for $4,000 with a reduced interest of 4 percent per month, compounded monthly. This note was given to secure an installment of interest due and unpaid, on the original note of fifty dollars with its accumulations.
El Carpintero having finally exhausted his mortgage security the $4,000 note was secured by the signature of good old Don Pío Pico, last governor of California under Mexico, who was a neighbor and compadre of El Carpintero. And let it here be explained in passing that one compadre never goes back on another. It is an endearing relationship between men that does not exist in gringo society. It was in 1859 that El Boticario applied the thumbscrews of the law to El Carpintero and demanded his pound of flesh. He brought suit for the foreclosure of mortgage, and also sued on the Pico note. El Carpintero squared up; he paid it all, principal, interest, compound interest and costs, except the $4,000 note with its four years' compound interest and its costs. That was paid by poor old Don Pío. It was the first step of this Californian grandee on the downward grade to poverty. Of course El Carpintero paid the other notes not with cash but with his forty thousand acres, his cattle, horses, vineyards, cultivated fields; his springs, streams and lakes. More, he added his life's blood as further interest. He drove a bullet through his brain, and so passed the first of the great California private domains, and one of the richest, of that long list that was to go as tribute to the new business methods."
The diary of Lemuel Carpenter's daughter Mary Refugio Carpenter includes this entry written on January 2, 1861: "I have been thinking so much of my father tonight. It made me weep.".
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...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
metropolitan area.
Early life
Lemuel Carpenter was born ca. 1808 in KentuckyKentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
. He migrated to Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
about 1828, where he served in Searcy's Company of Missouri Militia in 1829.
Southern California Pioneer
Carpenter was in southern California by January 1833. Early California settler John BidwellJohn Bidwell
John Bidwell was known throughout California and across the nation as an important pioneer, farmer, soldier, statesman, politician, prohibitionist and philanthropist...
includes him in this recollection of people he knew in early 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...
: "Los Angeles I first saw in March, 1845. It then had probably two hundred and fifty people, of whom I recall Don Abel Stearns, John Temple (Jonathan Temple
Jonathan Temple
Jonathan Temple came to Los Angeles in 1828 and became a large landowner, cattle rancher and one of the area's wealthiest citizens.-Biography:...
), Captain Alexander Bell, William Wolfskill
William Wolfskill
William Wolfskill was a cowboy and agronomist from Los Angeles, California, who was highly influential in the development of California's agricultural industry in the 19th century.-Valencia orange:...
, Lemuel Carpenter, David W. Alexander; also of Mexicans, Pio Pico
Pío Pico
Pío de Jesús Pico was the last Governor of Alta California under Mexican rule.-Origins:...
(governor), Don Juan Bandini
Juan Bandini
Juan Bandini was an early settler of what would become San Diego, California.-Early history:Juan Bandini was born 1800 in Lima, Peru to José Bandini, a Spanish sea captain. His father came to California in 1819 and 1821 and participated in the Mexican War of Independence...
, and others".
Carpenter started a soap manufacturing business on the 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...
in El Monte that profited sufficiently for him to purchase Rancho Santa Gertrudes
Rancho Santa Gertrudes
Rancho Santa Gertrudes was a 1834 Mexican land grant, in present day Los Angeles County, California resulting from a partition of Rancho Los Nietos...
, on the site of Tongva Nacaugna
Nacaugna, California
Nacaugna is a former Tongva-Gabrieleño Native American settlement in Los Angeles County, California. It was located at Rancho Santa Gertrudes - Carpenter's Ranch, the Lemuel Carpenter ranch in present day Downey, California.-See also:...
and present-day Downey, California
Downey, California
Downey is a city located in southeast Los Angeles County, California, United States, southeast of downtown Los Angeles. The city is best known as the birthplace of the Apollo space program, and is the city where folk singer Karen Carpenter lived and died...
, southeast of what is now downtown Los Angeles.
He was among the first of the "Californios" to plant a vineyard
Vineyard
A vineyard is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice...
for the making of wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
.
His original settlement was known as "Carpenter's Farm" from 1837 until it was destroyed by a flood in 1867. He was active in revolutionary activities, sided with the Americans in the Mexican War
Mexican–American War
The Mexican–American War, also known as the First American Intervention, the Mexican War, or the U.S.–Mexican War, was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848 in the wake of the 1845 U.S...
, tried gold mining
Gold mining
Gold mining is the removal of gold from the ground. There are several techniques and processes by which gold may be extracted from the earth.-History:...
, and in general prospered in his new home. A popular travel guide notes: "Rancho Santa Gertrudes
Rancho Santa Gertrudes
Rancho Santa Gertrudes was a 1834 Mexican land grant, in present day Los Angeles County, California resulting from a partition of Rancho Los Nietos...
…was sold to Lemuel Carpenter, a Kentuckian, who married the beautiful María de los Angeles Domínguez. ... The Carpenters [were] happy and prosperous under Mexican rule".
Rancho Santa Gertrudes
Rancho Santa Gertrudes
Rancho Santa Gertrudes was a 1834 Mexican land grant, in present day Los Angeles County, California resulting from a partition of Rancho Los Nietos...
was owned by Lemuel Carpenter until 1859. In 1859 the rancho was sold at a sheriff's auction to John G. Downey
John G. Downey
John Gately Downey was an Irish-American politician and the seventh Governor of California from January 14, 1860 to January 10, 1862. Until the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2003, Downey was California's only foreign-born governor...
and James P. McFarland. "Samuel", actually "Lemuel" but misspelled by the recorder, Carpenter was recorded as the legal possessor in 1862..
Family
Lemuel's father is believed to be Jonathan Carpenter (ca. 1785 Virginia - ca. 1853 Missouri) and grandson of Matthew Carpenter (ca. 1761 Virginia - ca. 1798 Virginia).In the 1850 census, Lemuel Carpenter is listed as age 42, had a real estate value of $8,000 dollars, and was a farmer. His wife, Maria, is listed as age 22—she was his second wife. Their children, all born in California, are listed as:
- Susana Carpenter, age 11.
- José Antonio Carpenter, age 9. (born 20 Nov 1837 CA & his descendants are still living in Los Angeles)
- Refugio Carpenter, age 6.
- Francisco Carpenter, age 3.
Misfortune and Death
Carpenter's prosperity took a precipitous downturn when a $5,000 loan from John G. DowneyJohn G. Downey
John Gately Downey was an Irish-American politician and the seventh Governor of California from January 14, 1860 to January 10, 1862. Until the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2003, Downey was California's only foreign-born governor...
taken out in 1852 ballooned into a $104,000 debt by 1859. Early settler Major Horace Bell gives this narrative of the series of events involved: "The first notable land owner to pay tribute to El Boticario [John G. Downey] was El Carpintero. Lemuel Carpenter, to be explicit. A thoroughly Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...
name, surely, but Lemuel was one of those Americans that had settled in the Land of Mañana in early days, when it was still Mexico, and his business sense had become numbed by that easy faith in his fellow man which characterized the Californians when they negotiated one with another over financial matters. Lemuel Carpenter had become El Carpintero and almost as native as his Spanish nickname implied. He owned forty thousand acres of the richest land in California, thousands of head of horned cattle and a corresponding number of horses. He had a good ranch house, a vineyard, corn fields, barley fields, springs, streams and lakes; also a family. He was of the most honorable standing, respected by all who knew him. His age was about fifty.
Authorities differ as to the date of Carpenter's arrival in Los Angeles. C. D. Willard in his "History of Los Angeles," says he came with a party of trappers in 1832 or '33. Harris Newmark in his "Sixty Years in Southern California," says he came with the Wilson-Workman-Rowland party from New Mexico in 1841. His first property was a little rancho called La Jabonería ("The Soap Factory") on the west bank of the Rio San Gabriel near El Monte. The locality is still known by this name. Here Carpenter manufactured soap and made enough money from it to acquire a large part of the great Nietos family grant known as Rancho Santa Gertrudis, which stretched away on the opposite bank of the river across the region where are now the towns of Downey
Downey
-Schools:*Downey High School*Thomas Downey High SchoolOr a company:*W. & D. Downey, photographic studio-Surname Downey:*Aaron Downey, NHL forward*Brian Downey *Brian Downey *Bruce Downey*Glen Downey , Canadian children's author...
, Rivera
Rivera
Rivera is the capital of Rivera Department of Uruguay. It is located at the north end of Route 5, on the border with Brazil. The Brazilian city of Santana do Livramento is right across the border, only a street away of it...
and Los Nietos.
One unlucky day El Carpintero borrowed fifty dollars from El Boticario; this was about Christmas time, 1852, when he was having a good time among his friends in town and needed a little spending money instanter. For this sum he gave his note and forgot all about it for a year, when payment was demanded with interest. Lo, El Carpintero discovered he had signed a note bearing interest at the rate of 12 & 1/2 per cent. a day, compounded daily! The note had grown from fifty dollars to five thousand dollars or thereabouts. Then a new note was given Dec. 9, 1853, for five thousand dollars bearing interest at 5 per cent. a month, compounded monthly and payable in three months. This note was secured by the forty thousand acre ranch. Oh, he was a broth of a boy, this sprig of Irish royalty, commonly known as El Boticario! Did El Carpintero pay this five thousand dollars when due, with interest piled up? No, it ran on for a year and ten days. Then the interest was computed and another note given, this time for $9,154 at 5 percent a month, compounded monthly, secured by a second mortgage on the forty thousand acre ranch. This was in 1854. In 1856 the interest was again computed and another note was given for $4,000 with a reduced interest of 4 percent per month, compounded monthly. This note was given to secure an installment of interest due and unpaid, on the original note of fifty dollars with its accumulations.
El Carpintero having finally exhausted his mortgage security the $4,000 note was secured by the signature of good old Don Pío Pico, last governor of California under Mexico, who was a neighbor and compadre of El Carpintero. And let it here be explained in passing that one compadre never goes back on another. It is an endearing relationship between men that does not exist in gringo society. It was in 1859 that El Boticario applied the thumbscrews of the law to El Carpintero and demanded his pound of flesh. He brought suit for the foreclosure of mortgage, and also sued on the Pico note. El Carpintero squared up; he paid it all, principal, interest, compound interest and costs, except the $4,000 note with its four years' compound interest and its costs. That was paid by poor old Don Pío. It was the first step of this Californian grandee on the downward grade to poverty. Of course El Carpintero paid the other notes not with cash but with his forty thousand acres, his cattle, horses, vineyards, cultivated fields; his springs, streams and lakes. More, he added his life's blood as further interest. He drove a bullet through his brain, and so passed the first of the great California private domains, and one of the richest, of that long list that was to go as tribute to the new business methods."
The diary of Lemuel Carpenter's daughter Mary Refugio Carpenter includes this entry written on January 2, 1861: "I have been thinking so much of my father tonight. It made me weep.".