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.