Chumash to Hard Cash
CHUMASH TO HARD CASH PART TWO — PRUDHOMME
The Short, Stressful Life of the Prudhomme Dynasty on the Rancho Malibu
LAND GRAB: 1844 - 1857
Good timing, bad timing. Leon Victor Prudhomme had his share around the Malibu in the middle of the 19th century.
On Jan. 24, 1848, Prudhomme and his wife, Maria Merced Tapia de Prudhomme, signed the title deed taking control of the 14,000-acre Rancho Topanga Malibu y Sequit — the very same day that gold was discovered in northern California, at Sutter’s Mill.
That was good timing, exquisite timing, because the discovery of gold changed everything in California. Gold seekers, rascals, adventurers and suppliers went forth and multiplied the population of California from less than 20,000 to more than 100,000 in two years and created a relentless demand for Rancho Malibu leather, tallow and beef.
Two weeks after Prudhomme signed the deed — and Marshall found gold — Mexico and the United States ended their war with signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and Malibu became part of the United States.
That was exquisite timing for Uncle Sam, horrendous timing for Mexico but also very bad timing for Prudhomme, as the Malibu Rancho got caught up in the middle of regime change, plunging Prudhomme into a long legal tussle with the United States Lands Commission. To appease “gringo law,” Prudhomme had to prove that he had legally taken over the deed to the
Rancho Malibu from the Tapia family, and he also was burdened with proving the legality of Tapia’s claim from the King of Spain going back to 1802.
Prudhomme had proof, and the rules were fair, but the rules could be bent by gringo interests. And the gringo were interested in the Malibu — a small province of prime, oceanfront cattle land only a few miles from the growing pueblo of Los Angeles.
Prudhomme’s battle with Uncle Sam was epic and similar to the legal war May Rindge would fight 80 years later — and also lose. The United States government had no intention of letting Prudhomme win.
The Malibu was too valuable to remain in foreign hands.
OUR PRUDHOMME
Founded by the Spanish as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Río de Porciúncula in 1781, Los Angeles had been under Mexican control since 1821 and became the capital of Alta California. Where the Spanish had discouraged and disallowed extranjeros from settling on the King’s lands, Mexico’s more open control inspired an influx of everyone from all over, and that included a large French population — many of them part of Napoleon’s Old Guard, who had fought with Mexico for independence from Spain.
Napoleon died in 1821, and Leon Victor Prudhomme was born in 1822. Although one of Prudhomme’s sons, Charles, would become a prominent historian of 19th-century Los Angeles, “Not much is known of Leon Victor Prudhomme’s early life,” wrote W.W. Robinson and Lawrence Clark Powell, two prominent 20th-century Los Angeles historians, in their book The Malibu: “He came to Los Angeles in 1844, it has been stated, with the man who would be a near-neighbor, Captain Joseph Mascarel.”
Poking around on the Internet, looking for more information on the second owner of the Malibu, a chat room under the heading “History of the French Community in Los Angeles” made this claim:
“After having established themselves, many French pioneers married into large local Californian families like Alvarado, Lugo, and Suñol: Bouchet and Lataillade. Léon Victor Prudhomme was named Captain of the Militia and assistant to Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado in 1838. He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and assistant to General Vallejo, Commander of the Mexican Army. Captured by American troops in 1846 he later requested to serve in the American army under General Jean Frémont, himself born of French parents in Savannah, Georgia.”
Impressive, but that’s not the guy, according to Clark and Robinson in The Malibu:
“Prudhomme is not to be confused with Victor Prudhon, a teacher who came to California in the 1830s, attained various high positions politically and militarily and became a Sonoma ranchero. Our Prudhomme was active in the French colony of Los Angeles and became a great friend of the Tapia family.”
The Tapias were prominent and prosperous in Los Angeles. They owned the Malibu Rancho and also Rancho Cucamonga, and Tiburcio Tapia — son of Jose Bartoleme — was mayor of Los Angeles in 1830 and again in 1839 and 1840.
Leon Victor Prudhomme arrived “French off the boat” in 1844, and while Mexico had only recently ejected Spain from the New World, the people of the Pueblo still felt like they were on the far side of the moon. The population of Los Angeles exploded from just 650 in 1820 to 1,680 in 1844, and the residents welcomed anyone modern from the Old World — and the French were known for their sophistication and literacy.
The Tapias apparently liked the cut of Prudhomme’s jib, because the 20-something Frenchman worked with Tiburcio on the family properties in Cucamonga and the Malibu. When Tiburcio died in 1845, Prudhomme became the administrator of the Tapia estate and a trusted adviser of Dona Maria — the wife of Jose Bartoleme and mother of Tiburcio.
On the Fourth of July 1847, the 25-year-old Prudhomme married 15-year-old Maria Merced Tapia, a daughter of Tiburcio and granddaughter of Jose Bartoleme Tapia. Prudhomme was now a full-fledged ranchero, a position he had earned with sweat equity, but also by marriage. According to The Malibu: “As ranchero he divided his time between Malibu, the Pueblo — where the Tapias had a town house on Main Street between First and Requena — and at Cucamonga in what is now San Bernardino County.”
The soil and climate of southern California in the middle 1800s was favorable to vineyards, and Prudhomme invested his energy into growing grapes and selling wine, and that most likely endeared him to the growing population of French transplants in Los Angeles.
Leon Prudhomme and Maria Merced had a daughter, Emily, almost immediately, and by January of 1848, the 26-year-old Prudhomme was trusted by the Tapias and ready to assume control of the Malibu Rancho.
EUREKA = I HAVE FOUND IT
In January of 1848, James C. Marshall was a 38-year-old transplanted New Jersey carpenter, who had gone west in 1838 to grow with the country. He contracted malaria while farming along the Missouri River and went farther west, for his health, to Oregon. He took the Siskiyou Trail south, and by July of 1845 he met Capt. John Sutter at Sutter’s Fort in the foothills of the California Sierras. Marshall went to work for Sutter applying his carpentry skills to maintaining the fort and running the sawmill.
Marshall served with Capt. John Fremont during the Bear Flag Revolt in June of 1846. American rebels followed the example of the Texas uprising and revolted against Mexican rule, capturing General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo and holding him captive at Sutter’s Fort.
The California Republic existed for 25 days under the Bear Flag, until John C. Fremont came and replaced that flag with the Stars and Stripes. Unknown to the northern California rebels, the United States had already declared war on Mexico in May of 1846, but the news did not reach the Sierras until two U.S. warships captured Monterey in California.
Say Something!
Remember my personal information
Advertisment
Comments