* Genealogy of the Loney Family *
(version February 11, 2024)
Please email corrections to Mike Clark
 

>

 

  1. John Loney (1842-1914) was born on July 23, 1842 in Ontario, Canada, and came as a young man in the 1860s to the United States, where he married Josephine Burrell (1852-1912) on July 30, 1870 in Napa, California. He and Josephine at some point settled in the Gordon Valley, probably purchasing the land from the Gordon family, who became their neighbors. He became a U.S. Citizen on Sept. 3, 1877 in Napa, and his name from 1880 on appears in the county records as a registered voter. Although his residence was at his Napa County ranch, he died on Oct. 5, 1913 in Solano County, and he is buried with wife Josephine in Rockville Cemetery, which is in Solano County also.

    children - LONEY

    Maria (Mollie) Loney (1872-1921)
    Thomas Hugh Loney (1876-1934), who who follows:
    Ida Loney (1879-1934)
    Charlotte Loney (1882-1901)
    Alice Loney (1885-1953)
    Edith Lorraine Loney (1888-1963)
    James C. Loney (1890-1911)

     

  2. Thomas Hugh Loney (1876-1934), the son of John Loney and Josephine Burrel, was born on Feb. 23, 1876, probably in Napa County. He married Loleta Gordon (1877-1963) on Nov. 14, 1900 in Suisun, California. Loleta was the daughter of William Henry Gordon, Jr. (1833-1912), who owned the neighboring ranch and was one of the pioneer settlers of Gordon Valley. Thomas died on Oct. 2, 1934 in Napa County, most likely at his ranch on Gordon Valley Road, and he is buried with wife Loleta in the Rockville Cemetery in Solano County, California.

    children - LONEY

    Clyde Eugene Loney (1905-1993) married Ruby Virginia Gein (1912-2012), and they lived for 47 years at their orchard and vineyard near Mankas Corner on Gordon Valley Road in Solano County. Both are buried at Fairmont Memorial Park in Fairfield, California. They had two children:
    • Loretta Lavonne Loney (1930-1985)
    • Clyde Loney, Jr. (b. 1933) married Gloria Marie Damboise (b. 1935). They have two sons - Ron Loney (b. 1956), who runs Green Valley Tractor in Fairfield, and Scott Craig Loney (b. 1967), who is a half owner of the real estate company of Country Estates, Inc. in Fairfield.
    Gordon Wesley Loney (1907-1993), who follows:
    Thomas Hugh Loney (1914-1992).

     

  3. Gordon Wesley Loney (1907-1993), the son of Thomas Hugh Loney and Loleta Gordon, was born on July 17, 1907. He married Shirley Jarrett (1903-1988), her second marriage, in 1921. Shirley previously had been married to Willard Stewart Bourne (1893-1988). Gordon had no children of his own, but he adopted Betty Bourne, the natural daughter of his wife Shirley from her first marriage. Gordon died on Jan. 25, 1993 in Suisun City, and is buried next to Shirley in Rockville Cemetery in Solano County, California.

    children - BOURNE (Shirley Jarrett and Willard Scott Bourne)

    Betty Bourne was born on Aug. 20, 1921 in Siskiyu County to Shirley Jarrett and Willard Scott Bourne, and adopted by her stepfather Gordon Loney. Please see the Bourne Family Genealogy for more information on Betty's ancestry.

  4.  

 

 



* Genealogy of the Gordon Family *
(version February 11, 2024)
Please email corrections to Mike Clark

 


 

  1. William Henry Gordon, Sr. (1801-1876) was born on Sept. 16, 1801 in Adams County, Ohio - one of five children born to John Gordon (1758-1832), who had fought in the American Revolution. William was a restless spirit, and he came west as a young man in 1823 to Taos, New Mexico, when it still was part of Mexico. There he became a Mexican citizen, converted to the Catholic faith, and took a Mexican wife named Juana (Juanita) Maria Lucero, also known as Mary Jane Lucero, who he married on June 27, 1826 in Taos.

    William was a fur trapper, which meant that he was often separated from his wife and children for weeks at a time, while he traveled far from home in search of pelts. He met many other trappers and mountain men during these travels, and he no doubt knew of, and perhaps even spoke to Kit Carson, William Wolfskill and others, who had trapped as far west as California, which like Santa Fe in those days was part of Mexico. Their tales convinced William that California was a land of opportunity, so he and Juana, with their children and Juana's 11-year old sister Rufino Lucero, joined an expedition to California organized by John Rowland and William Workman, and guided by Lorenzo Trujillo. They left Taos, New Nexico in early September, 1841 with a caravan of horses and pack mules that took two months to reach Mission San Gabriel in Los Angeles, by way of the "Old Spanish Trail". Gordon's companions on the journey included William Knight, the future founder of Knights Landing, and Juan Felipe Pena and Juan Miguel Vaca, who later became associated with the Pena Adobe in Vacaville. (see Appendix: Workman-Rowland Party).

    William upon arriving in Los Angeles made friends with the Mexican General Mariano Vallejo, the Commandante General of Alta California. Vallejo enticed Gordon to resettle at Cache Creek in a remote area of the northern San Joaquin Valley, in the fall of 1842 by making William the "Director of Colonization of the Northern District", and providing him with two square leagues (8,894 acres) of land, which became known as the Quesesoni Grant. This made the Gordons the first white settlers in what is now Yolo County. Gordon's Quesesoni Ranch in 1843-46 was a well-known rendeveous for trappers and hunters, and is mentioned almost as often in periodicals of the day as Sutters Fort and Sonoma. Juana died at this homestead on March 22, 1844, becoming the first of the family to be buried in the family cemetery on the north bank of Cache Creek.

    Relations between the Mexican government and hoardes of American settlers streaming into California became strained in 1845 over American sympathies for the newly formed Republic of Texas, and related issues that eventually would lead to the Mexican War. Things finally came to a head in California in June of 1846 when a posse of about 20 riders stopped by Gordon's Cache Creek homestead while on their way to arrest Gordon's friend General Vallejo at his home in Sonoma, which was just over the hills and to the west of of Gordon's ranch. Gordon fed the posse, provided them with fresh mounts, and sent his sons Thomas and John along with the riders to insure that Vallejo and his family met no harm. Vallejo's subsequent arrest on June 14 marks the start of the Bear Flag Revolt, wherein California became independant from Mexican rule.

    William, who by now was known to most of his friends and acquaintances as "Uncle Billie", married his second wife Elizabeth Corum (neé Alexander) on June 16, 1856 in Sonoma County, California, afterwhich he moved in 1866 with Elizabeth and her son Charles Corum to Gordon Springs, which is in the Cobb Valley at the foot of Boggs Mountain in Lake County, California. He is rumored to have had a quicksilver claim called the Gordon Springs Mine somewhere around Boggs Mountain, but the location of which was kept secret from his family. Descendants of his stepson Charles (modern-day members of the Anderson family) still live in the area, and believe the stories of this claim.

    William died on Oct. 3, 1876 at Cobb at the home of his stepson Charles Corum. Some rumors put his burial place at the foot of Windy Mill Road on the east side of Boggs Mountain. However, there is a headstone for him in the Gordon Cemetery, which is a private family cemetery that is located in a somewhat remote area of farm fields on the north bank of Cache Creek in Yolo County, more or less between Esparto and the Watts-Woodland Airport. Also, there is an obituary for William from an unknown newspaper, which states that his service was held at a local church with his remains "taken to the Gordon Ranch for burial" (please see the newspaper article to the left). Because this article names the Gordon Ranch, and not the Corum Ranch, this almost certainly puts William's final resting place at Cache Creek.

    children - GORDON (with Juana Lucero)

    Jose Tomas "Thomas" Gordon (1827-1854), the oldest son of William and Juana, was born on April 27, 1827 at El Rancho (Ranchos de Taos), New Mexico, and baptized two days later in Taos. He married Mary Elizabeth Reynolds (1834-1917) on Oct. 15, 1852, probably at his fathers Cache Creek ranch, in Yolo County, California. He died on Nov. 23, 1854 at Cache Creek, leaving behind his widow and a daughter named Elizabeth (1853-1911), and is buried in the Gordon Family Cemetery. His widow Mary remarried three years after his death to John Samuel Tutt (1826-1908), and died on Jan. 4, 1917 in Woodland, where she is buried with her second husband in the Woodland Cemetery.

    Juande (John) de Jesus Gordon (1829-1908) was born on Sept. 3, 1829 in El Rancho (Ranchos de Taos), New Mexico, and baptized three days later in Taos, He settled with his father at Cache Creek, and was married first to Rebecca Potter on Aug. 1851 in the Russian River area of California, and then to Mary Rhodes on Nov. 1, 1871 in Yolo County, California. He had at least six children. He died in 1908 and is buried in the Gordon Family Cemetery. Although he is said to have died at his home near Guinda in Yolo County, he is probably the John H. Gordon who is recorded in the California Death Index as having died at the age of 79 years on March 8, 1908 in Santa Clara County.

    Maria Isabella (Belle) Gordon (1831-1890) was born on Aug. 19, 1831 at El Rancho (Ranchos de Taos), New Mexico, and baptized four days later in Taos. She married Nathan Coombs (1825-1877) when she was about 15 years old on June 13, 1844 at Sutters Fort, with John Sutter himself conducting the ceremony. Her husband Nathan is best known as the founder of town of Napa, which he laid out in 1848 on land he had purchased from General Vallejo's brother Salavador three years earlier. Nathan also partnered with his father-in-law William Gordon in 1851 to purchase the Chimiles Rancho (El Rancho de las Putas) from the Berryessa family, and he served in the State legislature. Belle and Nathan divorced about 1876, afterwhich she married her second husband Charles Plass (b. c.1847), who was 15 years her junior, and moved to Cobb Valley, near her father. Belle died on May 1, 1890 in Napa and is buried with her first husband in the Coombs Mausoleum in Tulocay Cemetery. Charles Plass remained in Napa after her death, and was still alive when his brother Phillip, a Civil War veteran, died in 1920, probably in Napa. As Phillip is buried in Tulocay Cemetery, Charles is probably buried there too.

    William Henry Gordon, Jr. (1833-1912), who follows:

    Jose (Joseph) Manuel Gordon (1835-1912) was born on Nov. 9, 1835 at San Francisco del Rancho (Ranchos de Taos), New Mexico, and baptized on Dec. 5, 1935 in Taos. He married Ruth Ann Glasscock (1838-1913) on May 1, 1872 in Woodland, California, and died on July 12, 1912 in Napa County. He is buried as Joseph Gordon in the Gordon Family Cemetery, where his wife is buried with him as Ann Gordon.

    Jose Ricardo Gordon (b. 1840) was born on Nov. 21, 1840 in San Francisco del Rancho (Ranchos de Taos), New Mexico, and baptized eight days later in Taos. He must have died young and been buried in Taos, as there is no further mention of him, and he does not seem to be buried in the Gordon Family Cemetery at Cache Creek.

    Maria Serafina (Sarah) Gordon (1838-1868) was born on June 25, 1838 in San Francisco del Rancho (Ranchos de Taos), New Mexico, and baptized on July 1, 1838 in Taos. She married a man named Ingraham, whom one source names as Oran Ingraham (b. c.1825). Sarah died in 1868 in Gordon Valley, probably at or near the home of her brother William. She is buried in the Gordon Family Cemetery in Yolo County with her son Charles (1855-1875).

    Margaret Gordon (1841-1882) was born on Dec, 17, 1841 at the San Cabriel Mission in California. She is said to be "the first white child born in the state" (History of Solano and Napa Counties, p. 822). She married Robert Edward Tutt (1838-1913) on Jan. 14, 1858 in Yolo County, and they had several children, most of who were born in Cottonwood, a former settlement near Madison in Yolo County. She is buried in the Gordon Family Cemetery with five of her children, four of whom predeceased her. Her husband lies in the Capay Cemetery in Esparto.

    children - GORDON (with Elizabeth Corum)

    Robert Gordon (1858-1865) died as a child and is buried in the Gordon Family Cemetery.

    children - LUCERO (from Juana Lucero's family)

    Rufina Lucero (1830-1908), the younger sister of William Gordon's first wife Juana, became a member of the Gordon family with William's marriage to Juana. Rufina came as an 11-year old in 1841 with the Gordons to California, and eventually married Cyrus Alexander (1805-1872), a trapper Gordon knew from Taos, who obtained the Rancho Soyotome land grant in the Russian River Valley and after whom the Alexander Valley in Sonoma Couty is named. Both Rufina and her husband are buried in the Alexander Family Cemetery in Healdsburg, California.

    children - CORUM (from Elizabeth Corum's family)

    Charles Alexander Corum (1849-1910), the stepson of William Henry Gordon, was the son of William's second wife Elizabeth Alexander (1816-1895). Charles father was Elizabeth's first husband Harrison Corum (1814-1892), whom she must have divorced after a short marriage. Their son Charles was born on June 12, 1849 in Cooper County, Missouri, and Charles came west with his mother as a small boy in 1852 to Yolo County, California, where she married her second husband William Gordon. Charles then moved with his mother and stepfather in 1866 to Cobb Lake in Lake County, California, and married Laura Jane Morelan (1857-1934) on July 27, 1873 in the nearby town of Kelseyville. Their daughter Lovina Corum (1876-1946) grew up at Cobb Lake and married a local rancher named Arthur Anderson (1846-1944). Charles died on Dec. 9, 1910 at Cobb Lake, and he is buried nearby in the Middletown Cemetery. The Anderson family that lives today in the Cobb Mountain-Gordon Springs area are descendants of Charles daughter Lovina and her husband Arthur.

     

  2. William Henry Gordon, Jr. (1833-1912), the son of William Henry Gordon and Juana Maria Lucero, was born on Sept. 27, 1833 in El Rancho (Ranchos de Taos), New Mexico, when it was still part of Mexico, and baptized on Sept. 27, 1833 in Taos. There seems to be confusion of him in some sources with an unrelated man named Julian Gordon. William came to California in 1841 as a boy with his parents on the Workman-Rowland Expedition, a trade caravan of horses and pack mules, and settled at Cache Creek in Yolo County, his father being the first settler there. The younger William married Julia Etta Chapman (1841-1925) on June 19, 1860 somewhere in Napa County, and he farmed for the next two years at Cache Creek in Yolo County. He then acquired from his father in 1862 a 1200-acre farm in Napa County, just a few miles west, but in a valley on the other side of a low range of mountains from where his father's adobe. This parcel, which became known as the Gordon Valley, was carved out of the Chimiles land grant, and the elder William and Nathan Coombs had purchased this parcel from the Berryessa brothers a decade earlier. The younger William most likely grew wheat here, which he probably dry farmed, and he worked these 1200 acres for the rest of his life. He died on November 5, 1912 at his ranch, and he is buried with wife Julia and all of his children just down the road in Rockville Cemetery, which is in adjacent Solano County.

    children - GORDON

    Frances Cephronia (Sophrania) Gordon (1863-1897) married William A. Clark (1851-1908). Both are buried in Rockville Cemetery in Solano County, California.

    George Edwin Gordon (1864-1943) married Clara Estelle Leonard (1866-1946) and had a son Nile Chester Gordon (1895-1953). George, Clara and Nile are all buried in Rockville Cemeterey.

    Frank Leslie Gordon I (1867-1955), who follows:

    William Henry Gordon III (1872-1936) married Rosalie Chapman (1879-1965). Both William and Rosalie are buried in Rockville, Cemetery.

    Loleta Gordon (1877-1963) was born Jan 10, 1877 in Napa County, California, probably on the Gordon Ranch. She married Thomas Hugh Loney on Nov. 14, 1900 in Suisun City, California; and died March 13, 1963 in the town of Napa. For her children with Thomas, please see the Loney Genealogy. Both Loleta and Thomas are buried in the Rockville Cemetery.

     

  3. Frank Leslie Gordon I (1867-1955), the son of William Henry Gordon and Julia Etta Chapman, was born on June 11, 1867 at the Gordon Ranch in Gordon Valley, Napa County, California. He married his first wife Jennie E. Suggs (1875-1894) on Nov. 8, 1893 in Suisun Valley, but little is known of her beyond her marriage, and the birth and death years inscribed on her tombstone at Rockville Cemetery, Solano County, California. Frank then married his second wife Alice Antoinette Gosling (1874-1955) on Oct. 30, 1898 at her parents house in the Berryessa Valley, which is now beneath the Lake Berryessa Reservoir. He became a politician, and sought in 1932 both the Republican and Democrat nominations for California State Senator, ultimately serving from 1933 to 1949 as Senator for the 11th District (Napa County). He died on Jan. 31, 1955 in Saint Helena, California, and is buried with both wives in Rockville Cemetery.

    children - GORDON

    Frank Lelsie Gordon II (1901-1982), who follows:

    Walter Windiate Gordon Gordon (1903-1971) was born on Feb. 9, 1903 in Suisun City, California. He married Eula Conner (1896-1975) in 1956 in Arizona, and they resided at various locations in Napa County, before retiring to Tyler County, Texas, where Eula had been born. Walter died there on Sept. 30, 1971 in the town of Colmesneil, and is buried with Eula in the Ferrell Cemetery of Colmesneil. He had no children of his own, but raised Eula's son Jessie Brown (1919-1985) from her previous marriage to Harvey Brown (1873-1962).

     

  4. Frank Leslie Gordon II (1901-1982), the son of Frank Leslie Gordon I and Alice Annette Gosling, was born on March 7, 1901 at the Gordon Ranch in Gordon Valley, which is in Napa County, California just on the north side of the Solano County line. He married Gwendolyn Elizabeth Wilson (1903-1976) on Feb. 14, 1924 in Fairfield, California, and they lived on the ranch, where they raised their family. He died on Feb. 4, 1982 in Fairfield, and is buried with Gwendolyn in the Rockville Cemetery, which is just a few miles down the road in Solano County.

    children - GORDON

    Mildred Etta Gordon (1925-1976) was born on Oct 2, 1925 in Gordon Valley, Napa County, California, and married Richard Lambert Macy (1925-1994) in Reno, Nevada. Their son Matthew Gordon Macy (b. 1962) and his wife Patty still live in a house that Mildred and Richard built in 1954 on the old Gordon Ranch. Mildred died on Jan. 26, 1976 in San Francsico, California, and is buried in Rockville Cemetery in Solano County, California. Richard then married his second wife Patricia Adele Green on Jan. 2, 1980 in Carson City, Nevada. Patricia's son Scott Green (b. 1961), from her first marriage to Robert Edward Green (1929-1977), helps his uncle Don Gordon to run the old Gordon Ranch.

    Charlotte Elizabeth Gordon (1926-2015) was born on Sept. 12, 1926 in Gordon Valley, Napa County, California. She married James "Jamie" Arnold Panton (1921-2008) on Nov. 15, 1947 in Carson City, Nevada, and they had three children - Peter (b. 1948), Heidi (b. 1954) and Heather (b. 1956). Charlotte died on Dec. 27, 2015 in Walnut Creek, California, and she is buried with Jamie at Rockville Cemetery. Her grandson Scott Panton (b. 1974) helps his uncle Don Gordon to run the old Gordon Ranch.

    Frank Lelsie Gordon III (1937-2004) was born on April 2, 1937 in Napa County, California. He graduated from the University of California at Davis, and worked for many years for the Napa Valley Register newspaper. He never married, nor had children, and died on Feb. 16, 2004 in Napa County. He is buried in Rockville Cemetery.

    Donald Walter Gordon (b. 1942) was born on May 21, 1942 in Solano County. He married his first wife Patricia Louise Baines (b. May 5, 1943) on Feb. 10, 1963 in San Joaquin County, and they divorced on March 27, 1980 in the same county. He then married his second wife Christin M. Wright (b. 1953) on May 22, 1982 in Solano County. Don still owns part of the old Gordon Ranch, which he runs primarily as a vineyard with the help of his nephews Scott Green (b. 1961) and Scott Panton (b. 1974). He also managed as a vineyard for many years another part of the old ranch that had passed down to his cousin Betty Lopez (neé Bourne, b. 1921), who is the adopted daughter of Don's cousin Gordon Wesley Loney (1907-1993). However, Don now owns the old Loney parcel as well, having purchased it from Betty at some point after the 2015 death of Betty's second husband John Lopez. Betty's stepfather Gordon Loney, like Don, is a direct descendant of Yolo County pioneer William Gordon (1801-1876), who came to California in 1842 in a covered wagon.

  5.  


    Appendix: The Workman-Rowland Party


     

    The Workman-Rowland Party was an expedition that was made up initially of maybe 25 or so European and American traders and fur trappers, who left Santa Fe, New Mexico in early September of 1841 bound for California. Two of these men brought their wives and children with them, and another probably brought his wife. They planned to follow the so-called "Old Spanish Trail", which was neither old nor Spanish, as the route had been laid out only a few years earlier in 1829-30 by 25-year old Antonio Armijo*, who wrote an 1830 report that was published by the Mexican government. Jedidiah Smith in 1826 had forged an earlier, but much longer version of this route (see the map below), which had much gentler terrain. However, Indian hostilities soon made that route too dangerous for most. Thus, William Wolfskill and George Yount in 1830-31 more or less followed Armijo's route, when they made their way from Santa Fe to Los Angeles, and the Workman-Rowland Party ten years later wisely did the same.

    *Antonio Armijo (c.1804-1850) led some 60 men on horses, with a pack train of 100 mules to California, where they traded wool blankets for more mules and horses (two blankets for one animal), then herding them back to New Mexico to sell for profit. Armijo wrote a diary of his journey in Spanish, describing the route they followed, when and where they stopped, and noting where there was no water. He subsequently submitted a report to José Antonio Cháves, the Mexican governor of New Mexico, who saw to the publishing on June 19, 1830 of Armijo's route description. Armijo and his father a few years later settled in California, where they held the Tolenas land grant in Napa and Solano Counties. (See the website of the Old Spanish Trail Association, especially posts by historian Paul Spitzzeri.).

    Although this expedition is often portrayed as a wagon train, this is incorrect, as the trail they followed was a trade route much too rough for wagons. As such, the trail had to be negotiated with horses, and pack trains of mules. Workman and Rowland's caravan made a brief stop on September 6 in the town of Abiquiu, not far from Santa Fe, where they were joined by their trail guide Lorenzo Trujillo, and a contingent of about 25 New Mexicans, including Trujillo's family, and those of Juan Felipe Pena, and Juan Manuel Vaca. Trujillo, who had led a party in 1838 over Armijo's trade route, was an Indian from the catholic congregation at the Taos Pueblo, yet despite his origins he was also a renowned Indian fighter. Although the expedition is named after Workman and Rowland, they were just the organizers, and Trujillo was the real leader. He may have also recruited the rest of the Abiquiu contingent, but more likely it was Antonio Armijo, the trailblazer of 1829, since both Pena and Vaca were cousins of his, and they brought two of Armijo's young sons with them on the expedition.

    Bancroft's 1886 History of California (v. IV, p. 277-299) states that "they drove a flock of sheep for food; [and] met with no adventures and few hardships." Michael White, an actual member of the party whom Bancroft interviewed, states "we met with no adventures on the road. Indians would occasionally come to our camp and beg for something to eat, which we gave them". Some participants later wrote how the smallest children rode in saddle bags, whereas most of the children rode on pack animals with the provisions. The group was made up of maybe 70 or so people when it arrived on November 5, 1841 at Mission San Gabriel in California, after a two-month, 1,200-mile journey across the plains and desert. The nine or so traders who came with the group then bartered off their trade goods for more livestock and returned home to Santa Fe, whereas the rest of the contingent remained, some of them to settle in southern California, and a few continuing north to settle in the Sacramento and Napa Valleys.

    Few realize the importance of the Workman-Rowland Party in the early history of California, nor the importance of the trade route they followed. Trail blazers Armijo and Wolfskill, who preceeded Workman and Rowland, acquired land grants from the Mexican government, and soon brought their families out to join them. Then expedition members Gordon, Vaca and Pena also picked up land grants, and occupied adjoining ranchos in the contiguous Napa, Solano and Yolo Counties of central California. One source goes so far as to claim that Gordon's daughter Margaret was "the first white child born in the state" (Hist. Solano & Napa Counties, p. 822). George Yount, Wolkill's former trail companion, acquired the Caymus Land Grant in Napa Valley, where he founded the town of Yountville, and William Knight, though not associated with any of the ranchos, founded Knight's Landing on the east side of Yolo County. The Workman-Rowland Party, along with the Bartleson Party that arrived the same year, were the first large trade caravans made up mainly of immigrants who came to California not to trade, but to stay and settle. Hundreds more settlers came in the next few years, then hundreds of thousands more in the 1850s during the Gold Rush.

    The list below probably names most, if not all of the American and European men of the Workman-Rowland Expedition. It comes from Bancroft's 1886 History of California (v. IV, p. 277-299), and is based on a list that Rowland signed and gave to Mexican authorities upon his 1841 arrival in California. Three of these men in the top tabulation are thought to have brought with them 16 or so women and children. Those of this party who remained in California are underlined, and those who did not are marked with an *.
     
    • *Fred Bachelor
    • *Frank Bedibey
    • *James Doke
    • Jacob Frankfort
    • Isaac Given
    • *William Gamble
    • William Gordon (1801-1876)
        (plus seven family members)
    • *Frank Gwinn
    • *Wade Hampton
    • Dr. William Knight (1800-1849)
        (and possibly his wife Carmen)
    • Thomas Lindsay
    • *L. (or J. H.) Lyman
    • *John McClure
    • James D. Mead
    • William C. Moon
    • John Rowland (1791-1872)
    • Daniel Sexton
    • Hiram Taylor
    • *Tibeau
    • Albert G. Toomes
    • Michael White (1801-1885)
    • Benjamin D. Wilson (1811-1878)
    • William Workman (1802?-1876)
        (plus three family members)
    • John Behn and John Reed do not appear in Rowland's list,
      but Benjamin Wilson names them in his account of the journey.
     
      Although Bancroft (1886) only names the three patriarchs of the Mexican and Indian contingent from Abiquiu, New Mexico, we more or less know the names of about 26 family members, who probably came with them. All of these families remained in California following their arrival at Mission San Gabriel in the southern part of the province. Antonio Armijo, the trailblazer of 1829, was already there in northern California with his father, working a land grant called the Tolenas Rancho. The Pena and Vaca families became partners and petitioned for a grant of their own, afterwhich they proceeded north on the El Camino Real to become Armijo's neighbors on what came to be called the Los Putos Rancho. The Gordon family, and John Reid Wolfsill, a younger brother of trailblazing pioneer William Wolfskill, either held or soon acquired grants to the north and east of the Armijo and Vaca-Pena grants.
       
      Pencil sketch drawn prior to 1877 by Nathan Coombs, Sr. of the Armijo Adobe on the Tolenas Rancho. It is the only known likeness of the adobe, which once stood where the Rancho Solano Golf Course is today.
    • Juan Felipe Pena (d. 1863)
        (plus wife and six children)
    • Juan Manuel Lorenzo Trujillo (1794-1855)
        (plus plus wife and eight children)
    • Juan Miguel Vaca (1782-1856)
        (plus eight children; no wife)
    • Two young sons of the 1829 trailblazer Antonio Armijo
      are thought by some to have come with Penas and Vacas.

     

 

 

by Janet & Michael Clark

This history is an evolving document.
Despite our best intentions it probably contains mistakes.
Please let us know if you spot any by sending an email to Mike Clark

 

 



Copyright © 1998- - Bella Vista Ranch