The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and Criminal Justice, 1853

The second group of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, at work in 1852-53, dealt significantly with the matter of building a new city and county jail, but did so in the context of mounting problems dealing with the fragile financial fortunes of the county.

As noted before, the cadre of five, elected in fall 1852, was an entirely new slate from its predecessors and was a mixture of little-known citizens, like G.A. Sturgis and Daniel M. Thomas  and prominent members of Los Angeles society, namely Benjamin D. Wilson and David W. Alexander.

As their predecessors found, there were some substantial claims made on the county for services rendered by public officials dealing with criminal justice.  One of the first meetings of the new board included an allowance of $1500 as salary for district attorney Kimball H. Dimmick, later a federal district judge, as well as over $300 to jailer George D. Robinson and another $600 to Sheriff James R. Barton, San Gabriel constable J.D. Barker, whose work was probably connected with dealing with the sensational murder of merchant and militia general against southern California Indians, Joshua Bean, justices of the peace and former sheriff George T. Burrill and J. S. Mallard and others.  Expenditures of $2500 at one meeting of the board must have taken a significant part of the county's meager coffers, as will be noted below.

The flow of money continued the next day, with new jailor George W. Whitehorne submitting bills for nearly $200, another $100 from Barton and a smaller amount of money from others, including supervisor Sturgis, who was also serving as justice of the peace at San Gabriel, Burrill, and Dimmick.  At this meeting, Sheriff Barton was also asked to oversee repairs to the Court House, a rented adobe that was, seemingly, in perpetual need of significant work, when band-aid repairs were usually what could be afforded.

Financial matters came to a head on 1 December, when Whitehorne submitted bills totaling a little over $160 for jail services and was informed that there was a lack of funds and he would have to wait until funds were received before getting paid.  The county treasurer, Francis Mellus, reported to the council that there simply were no funds to cover expenses.

In the first meeting of 1853, held on 3 January, the requests for payment kept coming, totaling well over $700 with most of the money being for jail expenses (this proved to almost always be the case) and to Sheriff Barton for summoning juries and for constable William B. Osburn for attending the justice court of Burrill in Los Angeles.

Two days later, the contract executed with J.D. Hunter to build the jail was annulled with the reason given that it was "by an act of Providence he is now prevented from proceeding with it," though what the providential act was did not get recorded.  The minutes also stated "that the locality of said Jail is unsuitable & the plan on which it was to be built not conforming to the requirements of the Law."  It also would appear that, given the financial strictures noted above, there was not enough money to contemplate continuing with the jail project.

In fact, at the 5 January meeting, it was reported that the county's debt was nearing $50,000, a significant sum given the low revenue it received and treasurer Mellus stated that this condition "will not suffice to build a suitable Jail, the imperative necessity of which is felt by all the people of the County."

Consequently, the board voted to petition the state legislature to pass a law "authorizing said Board to levy a tax upon all real and personal property in this County not to exceed one dollar upon every one hundred dollars worth of such property for the purpose of building a Jail."  This, evidently, went nowhere.

More expenditures, almost in mind-numbing sameness, came in the following few months, most of this, again, being for the maintenance of the jail, but also substantially comprised of fees for constables, the sheriff, and other officers for their work.  The board issued a new order for allowing the jailor $5 a day for his services and $1 per day for wood and candles.  Matters were such that county clerk Wilson W. Jones requested, through the District Court, that an audit of accounts be done because he was owned a considerable sum (unstated) for his services.

Perhaps the financial problems of the county were too much for Leonardo Cota and Daniel M. Thomas, who resigned in early July, just a few months shy of the end of the term.  William Foster and James R. Waite were appointed to finish out the term.

David W. Alexander, left, with long-time friend and rancher William Workman, shown in 1851 in New York, was chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in 1852-53 and later a sheriff in 1856 and 1876-77.  Courtesy of the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum.

At a meeting two days later, the board resolved that, "in view of the expense of the Rent of the building at present occupied as the Jail of Los Angeles County, [it is] ordered that the proprietor of said building be warned that the County will not continue to Rent said Building from him after the last day of this month."   The board ordered Sheriff Barton, who was the tax collector, to remit $70 from the first available funds and rent a new building, owned by F.I. Alvarado, for the jail, provided that Barton was "to repair the same as to make it suitable for that purpose," whatever "suitable" entailed.

The situation was such that, on 11 July, the board voted to slash the district attorney's salary in half from $1500 to $750, payable quarterly, while jailor's fees and those of the constables and sheriff continued to absorb most of the budget.

In early August, the board came to terms with prominent merchant Jonathan Temple to buy the Rocha Adobe, on the west side of Spring Street, for a court house and county offices, the price being $3160.  $1000 was apportioned immediately for repairs.  Further, the board "ordered that a County and City Jail be built on the Rocha lot aforesaid according to the law & specifications presented by S.C. Foster & filed with the Clerk and the said Foster and W.T.B. Sanford constitute a committee to contract for the materials and Building of said Jail."

The total cost of the jail was not to exceed $6000, with the city of Los Angeles having a 1/4 interest through a $1500 lien on the property.  The city jail was to occupy the first floor and the city and jailor were to share a room as an office.  Meanwhle, the city was granted the use of two rooms in the northeast corner of the Rocha Adobe for its use.  The city's total share of costs was to be $1500 up front and $1000 after a year.  The board also mandated that 10 cents on each 100 dollars of taxable property was to go to a contingent fund to aid in the purchase and building of county structures up to a maximum of $7000.

Foster would soon be mayor of Los Angeles during one of its frequent crime crises--this being the spate of murders in late 1854 that led to a notorious execution of Felipe Alvitre and lynching of Dave Brown in the first part of 1855, for which Foster helped lead the lynching after resigning as mayor.  He then was promptly reelected in the special election that followed!

Once the deals with Temple, Foster and Sanford were inked, a new issue came up as crime rose dramatically during the spring and early summer of 1853.  The supervisors, on 11 August, resolved that

whereas in the opinion of this Board, it is proper & necessary to aid the well directed efforts of certain citizens of this County, in their endeavour to preserve the public peace, and as the aforesaid Citizens have organized a Volunteer Company for that purpose, under command of A.W. Hope, [it is] ordered that, accounts for the expenses of maintaining horses & such reasonable acc[oun]ts for equipments &c to the amount of one thousand dollars & no farther under any consideration [was to be apportioned].

This was the county's official "seal of approval" for the Los Angeles Rangers, the best known of many militia groups that formed in Los Angeles over the first few decades of the American era and the one that was most successful in carrying out paramilitary operations in the area of criminal justice administration.

 A new board was seated in early October 1853 after the election of the month prior. More on this third edition of the Board of Supervisors in the next post.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and Criminal Justice, 1852

By the terms of California's first constitution, ratified in late 1849, nearly a year before Congress belatedly bestowed statehood, the responsibility for the administration of counties was given to the Court of Sessions.

This body was headed by the county judge and assisted by two justices of the peace from among the county's townships--these latter were administrative entities aside from the incorporated towns and cities within the county.  For Los Angeles County, only the city of Los Angeles was incorporated for many years, so the outlying townships, such as El Monte, San Gabriel, San Juan Capistrano, and the Los Angeles township surrounding the city, had their justice of the peace and constables charged with maintaining law and order in their jurisdiction.

The Court of Sessions not only had to try to be the governing authority for the massive county, which, while having a small population of under just under 10,000 persons, stretched from the Pacific Ocean to the Colorado River and from Ventura to San Diego counties, embracing part of which became Kern County later, but it had the bulk of the business to conduct in the administration of criminal and civil court matters, as well.  For criminal justice, the Sessions court heard all major crimes, except capital murder, rape and a few others, such as arson, though some of the types of cases changed over time.

So, while the court did its best to serve its legislated duties, it was clear from almost the beginning of its operations, starting in the very late spring of 1850, that something had to be done to divide responsibilities.  The state legislature responded by creating boards of supervisors for California's counties, with these entities to start their work in mid-1852.  Not long afterward, the decision was made to reduce Los Angeles County's incredible mass by creating San Bernardino County, which remains the largest county in size in all of America.

In the spring 1852 elections, five citizens were elected to the inaugural Board of Supervisors for Los Angeles County--and it remains that number today, which is stunning given the enormous population of the county of just under 10 million, rather than around 10,000 some 150 years ago.  These men included:

• Jefferson Hunt, a prominent member of the Mormon Battalion sent by the church from Utah to California at the end of the Mexican-American War and who, as an California assembly member introduced the legislation that created San Bernardino County, because the town of San Bernardino was then a Mormon town.  Hunt was back in Utah by 1860 and died in Idaho in 1879.
• Julián Chavez, a native of New Mexico who migrated to Los Angeles in the 1830s, who held political office from time to time between then and the early 1870s, and whose property in the hills north of downtown Los Angeles became the famed Chavez Ravine.  Chavez also died in 1879 in Los Angeles.
• Samuel Arbuckle, born in Pennsylvania, and who became a merchant and auctioneer in his many years in Los Angeles.  His sole turn in public office, however, was his one-year stint with the first cadre of supervisors.  He died in Los Angeles in 1874.
• Manuel Requena, a native of Campieto, Mexico, who came to Los Angeles in 1834 with the Hijar-Padres colony, which included the politically active Coronels and Olveras.  Requena, as already noted on this blog, was a member of the first common (city) council in Los Angeles and served at the same time as a supervisor--something that could be done in those days.  He served many terms as a council member and was briefly mayor, but served only two years as a supervisor.  Requena died in 1876.
• F.P.F. Temple, who was the only supervisor not born in the first decade of the century, being born in 1822 in Reading, Massachusetts near Boston.  He came to Los Angeles in 1841 to join a half-brother, Jonathan, often mentioned in this blog, and worked in his brother's store.  Married into the Workman family of Rancho La Puente in the eastern San Gabriel Valley, Temple was the second Los Angeles city treasurer. He, too, served a single term with the supervisors and was county treasurer in 1876-78, during which time his bank failed, leaving him the dubious distinction of being the only bankrupt treasurer (albeit with a deputy doing the day-to-day work)!

The first meeting was held on 5 July 1852, but basically only to present the certification of the election of the five supervisors.  Two weeks later, on the 19th, with Temple absent, the board conducted its initial business, including ordering a proposal to be advertised in the Los Angeles Star newspaper for a new jail.  The notice offered that the successful bidder would receive half the determined amount in cash for construction upon completion, but the other half in scrip (basically,an I.O.U. payable when the county had the money).  Proposals were due on 4 August.

On the meeting of that day (with Temple again absent), the board dealt with the matter of the existing contract with George Robinson, the jailor--namely, it ordered it canceled and a new one drawn up.  The provisions were that he be given $3 per day, half in cash and half in, you guessed it, scrip (no wonder that the performance of local officials was often questionable, to say the leased, if part of your compensation was provisional on available future funding!)  The agreement also specified that the jailor receive 50 cents a day for candles and two loads of wood per month, as well as 25 cents a day per person for food for prisoners.

F.P.F. Temple (1822-1880), with his son, John, about 1858, was on the first Los Angeles County of Board of Supervisors, though frequently absent during the first part of the abbreviated term, which lasted all of four months.  From the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum collection.

A special meeting of the 5th (again, Temple was not present), had a number of claims presented by officials for payment by the county.  Justice of the Peace J.S. Mallard requested $87 for attending as an associate justice at the Court of Sessions.  George T. Burrill, who was the first county sheriff, was in 1852 the county coroner and the other associate justice at the Sessions court and asked for $96 for the two offices.  Constable William B. Osburn, a veteran lawman in Los Angeles, requested $81.10. Current sheriff James R. Barton, murdered while on duty in 1857, placed his claims for $29,50 for general duties and $152 for attending the Sessions court as, basically, a bailiff, as well as serving summonses for trial and grand juries.  Notably, the board only approved $25 for the jury work and stated the remainder of his $127 court claims were invalid as not allowable by law.  Through his attorneys, Jonathan R. Scott and Lewis Granger, Barton filed an exception and it is not known what happened to that action.

The following day, the 6th (guess who wasn't there?), more officials came looking for payment.    Robinson asked for over $500 for various services, including guarding prisoners, candles, wood, and "feeding lunatics", among others.  There isn't a record, though, of what Robinson was given.  Lewis Granger, who served as the district attorney in 1851 and 1852, was actually ordered to remit $375 back to the county, evidently because of overpayment for his services.

On 30 August (yup, Temple did show up for this meeting and one prior), the board was presented with the offer of the successful jail contractor.  J.D. Hunter, a Mormon Battalion captain who came to town with Hunt in 1847, was awarded the contract, which called for him to be paid $3,000 in cash up front and $4,000 in cash when the work was done--obviously, the whole scrip matter was dispensed with, probably because no one would bid on a project with that provision.  Hunter, who offered a bond of $14,000 as security for the contact, was given nine months to finish the work.

As a fall election was on the docket, mid-September business for the board included confirming the existing townships of Los Angeles, San Gabriel, San Jose (present Pomona area), San Bernardino (soon to be spun off in the new county), Santa Ana (before the town in present Orange County was created but in the general area), and San Juan Capistrano.   Then, a new one, San Salvador, which embraced the former Agua Mansa community of principally New Mexican settlers, who came to the area in the early 1840s, was created in what later became Riverside County.

At the 15 September meeting, Dr. Alpheus P. Hodges, who had been Los Angeles' first mayor and coroner, presented a bill for $420, constituting 84 visits to the jail at $5 each.  Hodges, who only served a single one-year term as mayor, remained in town for a few years before returning to his native Virginia, where he died in 1858 at only 36 years of age.

Among the later business of the first board were more official claims for payment, including $230.50 for Sheriff Barton "allowed on mandamus and costs."  What mandamus essentially means is that Barton was negligent, intentionally or not, in carrying out his legally mandated duties, so a court order was issued to force him to do the work required.  The details are not known, but it is possible Barton chose not to carry out these duties because his previous claims for work had been rejected by the board, but this is only speculation. 

The abbreviated first term of the inaugural Board of Supervisors came to a close in mid-November, when the newly elected group of five were seated (Requena, the only incumbent seeking reelection narrowly lost his attempt to retain his seat).  These included:

• David W. Alexander, born in Ireland in 1811 and who migrated to California in 1842 from New Mexico.  Alexander was a merchant and rancher, who served twice as county sheriff in 1856 (resigning abruptly, probably because of a near riot that summer) and again in 1876-77.  He died in 1876
• Leonardo Cota, a native of Mexico who married into the prominent Yorba family and who was a captain in the Californio defense forces during the American invasion of 1846-47 alongside his cousin, General Andrés Pico, playing a valuable role in the Battle of San Pasqual victory over the Americans.  Cota was later a founder of Santa Ana and died in 1887.
• G.A. Sturgis is something of a mystery figure, there being almost no information about him, except that he served a single term from November 1852 to November 1853 on the board.
• Daniel M. Thomas was born in North Carolina about 1817 and came to Los Angeles from Utah, so he was likely a Mormon.  He was a farmer, but little else is known about Thomas, who also served a single term.
• Benjamin D. Wilson, of whom volumes can be (and have been) written.  Born in 1811 in Tennessee, Wilson spent eventful years in New Mexico, before coming to California in late 1841 intent on going to China.  Literally missing the boat, he bought the Rancho Jurupa in the present Riverside area, married into the Yorba family, like fellow supervisor Cota, and became exceptionally prominent in politics (serving, for example, as Los Angeles mayor and a state senator, as well as a federal Indian agent), ranching and business, and other enterprises.  He died in 1878.

The next post will pick up the work of the second set of supervisors for the remainder of 1852 and most of 1853.

The Big House IV: San Quentin State Prison and Los Angeles County Inmates

The fifth Los Angeles County resident sent up "to the big house" at San Quentin State Prison was Atanacio Moreno, who arrived at the facility on 10 April 1854, and whose story was told here in an April post.

Moreno was followed by an Indian named Juan Chapo, who was delivered to San Quentin on 4 August.  Juan Chapo was tried before the District Court on a charge of manslaughter because, as recorded in the diary of that court's jurist, Benjamin Hayes, he was "indicated for killing an Indian woman.  He was in a deep state of intoxication at the time.  It occurred at Mr. Jno Roland's."

This was the ranch of John Rowland, owner of some 24,000 acres comprising half of the massive Rancho La Puente in the eastern San Gabriel Valley.  Rowland had a large population of Gabrieleño Indians working for him and Juan Chapo was undoubtedly one of the ranch's laborers.

The register listing for prisoner #414 at San Quentin State Prison, Juan Chapo, a Gabrieleño Indian who pled guilty to killing Anselma, an Indian woman, during a drunken state and sentenced to one year and a $1 fine based on "an excellent character."  Click on the images to see them enlarged in separate windows.

Hayes did not provide any further information concerning the circumstances of the killing of the woman, named as Anselma in court documents, but he did note that "an excellent characer [was] proved for him."  Consequently, Hayes went on, "the Court sentenced him to one year in the state prison" after Juan Chapo pled guilty.  Strangely, Hayes also pronounced a fine of $1.

It is also notable that, in the San Quentin register, there is no occupation listed nor are there the physical descriptions of heights, complextion, and color of eyes and hair usually given.  The only other notation was that Juan Chapo was discharged a couple of weeks early on 22 July 1855 and then faded from history.

The other prisoner confined at San Quentin around this time was a notable character in Los Angeles:  José Serbulo Varela.  Varela was from an old, established family in town, dating back to its early Spanish-era period.  During the Mexican-American War, he served in the Californio forces defending the town and region against the American invasion.

In 1846, when a cadre of Americans, who gathered for mutual protection at the Rancho Santa Ana del Chino's adobe home of its owner Isaac Williams, on what is now the grounds of Boys Republic, a troubled youth facility in Chino Hills, were captured, there was a serious consideration of executing the group.  This included the John Rowland mentioned above, as well as prominent Angeleno Benjamin D. Wilson, namesake of Mount Wilson, and others.

Varela, however, refused to consider the idea and told his fellow Californios that they would have to kill him before trying to take out revenge against the American prisoners, who were held for a substantial period before finally being released.  From that point forward, Varela, it was said, was held in the highest esteem by Americans, to the point that, whenever he fell afoul of the law, which was often, he was invariably bailed out and released.

Jose Serbulo Varela, a hero to many Anglos for his defense of Americans captured at the Battle of Chino and threatened with summary execution in 1846 during the Mexican-American War, was convicted of perjury and sentenced to a year at San Quentin, registering as prisoner #400.  Varela was found murdered in an irrigation ditch in 1860.

Charged for petty larceny and perjury in a crime against Santiago Feliz, of the family which owned the Los Feliz Rancho northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Varela was acquitted of the larceny charge, but convicted of perjury, evidently in his sworn statement of what took place in the matter with Feliz.

On 16 June 1854, he was sentenced to a year at San Quentin and registered ten days later as prisoner #400.  The 5'5 1/2" Varela, listed as 41 years of age and with dark complexion, hair and eyes and with the occupation as a laborer, served out his term and was discharged, presumably on or just before 26 June 1855.

Varela, who was said to be a drunkard, continued to attract trouble, but was always put out on his liberty because of his conduct at Chino, until his luck ran out in September 1860, when he was stabbed to death and his body found in the zanja madre (the mother ditch used for irrigation in town) at Los Angeles.