Horace Bell: Reminiscences of a Ranger, Part Two

As Indiana native Horace Bell settled in to his new home in the Gold Rush-era frontier town of Los Angeles, he took a great interest in the more unsavory aspects of his adopted community.  An early instance of this was his encounter with "Ricardo Urives," actually Ricardo Uribe, who Bell, in his 1881 memoir Reminiscences of a Ranger, stated was "the most perfect specimen of a desperado I ever beheld."

Bell went on to aver that Uribe "could stand more shooting and stabbing than the average bull or grizzly bear" and described an instance in which Uribe single-handledly evaded a phalanx of other desperadoes in the Calle de los Negros, leaving a half-dozen wounded men in his wake as he sported "at least a score of wounds" and was, in addition "so cut and carved that his own mother would have failed to recognize him."

Bell watched from a second-floor balcony of "Captain Bell's residence" [again, not explaining that he was the nephew of said captain] as Uribe left the field of battle to get patched up before riding off to his sister's Rancho de los Coyotes, one of the ranches carved from the massive Nieto grant and located in today's cities of Cerritos, Buena Park, Stanton and La Mirada.

Waxing grandiloquently, Bell went on to say that "Ricardo's courage was that of the lion or the riger, and like those barons of the brute creation, when brought face to face with moral as well as physical courage, the animal bravery of the desperado would quail."

He then went on to relay the tale of how Uribe was off on a bender of some kind "tormenting, berating and abusing every one who came in his way" when"a quiet young gentleman" demanded that Uribe stop his bullying.  As Uribe menacingly brandished a knife, the young man coolly displayed a revolver and calmly told his adversary that he'd shoot him dead if he didn't step away.  Astonishingly, Uribe, the man who took several bullet and knife wounds fighting half a dozen men in Bell's previous tale, merely "turned and slunk away."

At that moment, the county sheriff, James Barton, rode up and congratulated the young man on his bravery, even as the individual in question appeared not to know just who he had confronted.  Bell finally identified the courageous young dude as John G. Downey, who he claimed was "then a stranger," although Downey had been a druggist in town for at least three years and was on the Los Angeles Common [City] Council in 1852, the year of Bell's arrival.

Downey, Bell went on, became governor of California in 1860, being elevated from lieutenant governor when John B. Weller was elected to the U.S. Senate.  He then, according to Bell, was"the best governor, possibly, our state ever had," even though Downey only served two years and returned to Los Angeles.  It might be that Bell's desire to laud Downey led him to magnify the circumstances of the conflict with Uribe, though there is no other source to corroborate Bell's tale.

A portion of Horace Bell's fanciful account of Ricardo Uribe's battle with the "Jim Irvin" gang from Bell's 1881 memoir Reminiscences of a Ranger.  Unfortunately, most of Bell's account is not particularly accurate, though the story is great fun to read.

There was one other Uribe story--this having to do with the 1851 arrival from the northern gold fields of a gang of bandits to the Los Angeles area.  Bell's version has it that "Jim Irvin" and his men "found some friends in jail" and that "Irvin" decided "to take the prisoners out of the hands of the sheriff, and take them along with him" to Mexico, his destination.

After a company of U.S. troops showed up in town and thwarted "Irvin" and his gang, Bell said the desperadoes headed to the Los Coyotes ranch "and made a hostage of Ricardo, who was the majordomo or foreman of his sister's rancho, in exchange for a supply of good horses on which to make their escape to Mexico.

Then, Bell stated that "Irvin" and his men headed north and east to the San Gorgonio Pass and towards the Colorado River, which was hardly the quickest way to Mexico--that would have been the coastal route through San Diego.  In any case, Uribe decided to, singly, follow the party "whom he had doomed to destruction" and crossed the Chino Hills, possibly through today's Carbon Canyon leading from Brea to Chino Hills, as a shortcut.

Suddenly, the reader learns that Uribe "with a chosen band of Cahuilla Indians" native to the area east of modern San Bernardino, confronted the bandits, "who rode quietly into the ambush and were slaughtered to a man.  According to Bell, the Indians reported later that while they "fought from their place of concealment," Uribe charged the gang "face to face, [and] let them know that he was the avenger of his own wrongs" back at Los Coyotes.

Bell claimed that he was told the circumstances of this heroic standoff by Uribe during "the gorgeous honor of eating beef stewed in red pepper, beans and tortillas, at Ricardo's table"  Moreover, the account concluded, Uribe was "neither robber nor gambler, but a good-hearted, honest fellow, who just fought for the very love of fighting, for fighting was the order of the day."

The problem with Bell's version of the "Irvin" tale is that it is basically not true.  Bell was not in Los Angeles in early 1851 when the events took place and existing sources, mainly the lengthy narrative written by attorney Joseph Lancaster Brent, tell a very different story.

The larger incident, known as the Lugo Case, will be covered here subsequently, but suffice it to say for now that James "Red" Irving, a former soldier with the American invasion of Mexican California, had, indeed, rode with his gang of thieves into the Los Angeles area on his way to Mexico.  Irving learned, however, that two members of the prominent Lugo family had been arrested on the charge of murder after an incident near Cajon Pass.  Ironically, Bell later discussed the matter elsewhere in Reminiscences as if it was completely separate from Irving's involvement.

Seeing an opportunity for extorting some cash from the Lugos, Irving visited the family's Rancho San Bernardino at the base of the pass and offered to break the brothers from jail, Menito and Chico, from jail, but was refused by the family.  Enraged by this lack of gratitude from the Lugos, Irving decided to storm the jail and take the brothers as revenge.  It is true that, as a court case was in process and Irving and his men waited for their opportunity, a military force happened to show up in Los Angeles, preventing the bandit chief from carrying out his designs.

However, Irving headed straight for Rancho San Bernardino, not to Los Coyotes, to exact his frustrations on the Lugos and Brent stated in his account that he sent a warning.  There is no indication that Uribe had anything to do with what followed as he is not mentioned by Brent or other sources.  The battle between the Cahuillas, led by their chief Juan Antonio, and the Irving gang in San Timoteo Canyon near modern Redlands, did take place and the bandits were annihilated, excepting one survivor.  But, it is almost certain that Ricardo Uribe was not there--still Bell's tale is certainly entertaining.

To conclude, Bell's assertion that Uribe was a good fellow, despite his violent tendencies, is a common theme in the major's two books. He would make the same statement about Dave Brown, who will be discussed here later, as well, and a few other characters, actual or fictional.

Uribe, in fact, did have a few run-ins with the law.  On 14 June 1850, just as the American legal system in Los Angeles was getting underway, the very first criminal court case held at the Court of Sessions (later the County Court) was that of People v. Ricardo Uribe three charges of assault and battery against three men: Pedro Romero, Jose Antonio Cuaja and Juan Lopez.  The case files don't contain any details about the incident, but Uribe was found guilty on the first two counts, while he was acquitted on the last.

On 11 February 1851, Uribe was again before the Sessions court, on a charge of assault on a public officer, with the defendant accused of having attacked Deputy Sheriff William B. Osburn.  While Uribe was "held to answer" after a preliminary hearing, there is no known disposition of the case.

So, these tales of the fierce and brave Ricardo Uribe and, especially, Bell's claims of his involvement in the imperfect rendering of the Lugo Case are good examples of where a reader of Reminiscences of a Ranger and On the Old West Coast should be mindful of how the author can be enormously entertaining, if somewhat loose with facts.