Anaheim's History, Before And When It Came To Be

The little red square is approximately where Anaheim would begin. 

This month marks the 168th anniversary of the founding of Anaheim. The reason for my posting this blog piece is in response to a post on Facebook from the City of Anaheim. It wasn't a bad post, it was just a post celebrating the anniversary of Anaheim's founding. They briefly mentioned the colonists founding the town, then quickly skipped over the Spanish rancho history instead turning our attention to the forgotten "native people" they claim lived on the land before anyone else.

Of course, I knew that last part was not exactly true, so I quickly chimed in and made my point, the post was supposed to honor the men and women who made Anaheim what it was. Plus, without Juan Pacifico Ontiveros selling a fraction of his rancho land to George Hansen on behalf of the Los Angeles Vineyard Society, there simply would be no Anaheim at all.  They sort of skipped that part, too.

Well, people suddenly came out of the woodwork arguing with me that I was wrong, that the Tongva tribe lived in Anaheim, and basically trying to do what has been popular the last 40 years or so,  rewrite our history.  Ever since history revisionist author Howard Zinn published his monstrosity, "A Peoples History of the United States," it has been an uphill battle trying to educate the masses and deprogram them from this overly embelished and demonized version of history that too many people seem to believe, where the white man is bad and everyone else is a victim. Sorry that just isn't how history was -- it was never that cut and dried, ever. Life is a lot more complicated than that.

Going back to the post, and the comments that ensued, I felt it imperative to write a blog post here on my Remembering Anaheim History blog, to point out that we cannot simply downplay the acheivements of others to appease the hurt feelings of those who did not make those acheivements themselves, or to be "inclusive," in regards to the founding of Anaheim itself.

Pre-Anaheim Era

Going back to Anaheim history -- or the history that predates it, we must go back to the Portola Expedition, when Gaspar de Portola, a Spanish Army Officer and the first Governor of the "Californias" traveled with Spanish missionaries through Alta California, from San Diego up to the San Francisco Bay area and back down to San Diego.

During this expedition they traveled through Southern California ending up along the Santa Ana river by late July, 1769. 

Juan Crespi's diary

Juan Crespi's diary 

Per the diary of Juan Crespi, who was a friar within the expedition group, he wrote:

"Friday, July 28 - About seven in the morning we set out, continuing our way to the northwest along the skirts of the mountains which we have on the right, to the north, and after traveling a league and a half  (approx 4.5 miles) we came to the banks of a river which has a bed of running water about ten varas wide (approx. 27.8 feet or 8.359 meters) and a half a vara deep.

It is not at all boxed in by banks. Its course is from northeast to southwest, and it empties through this place, according to the judgement of those who sailed to the bay of San Pedro. It apparently has its source in the range that we have in sight on the right, about three leagues from the road that we are following. The bed of the river is well grown with sycamores, alders, willows, and other trees which we have not recognized. It is evident from the sand on its banks that in the rainy season it must have great floods which would prevent crossing it. It has a great deal of good land which can easily be irrigated.

We pitched camp on the left bank of this river. On its right bank there is a populous village of Indians, who received us with great friendliness. Fifty-two of them came to the camp, and their chief told us by signs which we understood very well that we must come to live with them; that they would make houses for us, and provide us with food, such as antelope, hares and seeds. They urged us to do this, telling us that all the land we saw, and there was certainly a great deal of it, was theirs, and they would divide it with us. We told them that we would return and would gladly remain to live with them, and when the chief understood it he was so affected that he broke into tears. 

The governor made them a present of some beads and a small silk handkerchief, and in gratitude the chief gave us two baskets of seeds, already made into pinole, together with a string of beads made of shells such as they wear. I called this place the sweet name of Jesus de los Temblores, because we experienced here a horrifying earthquake, which was repeated four times during the day. The first, which was the most violen, happened at one in the afternoon, and the last one about four. One of the heathen who were in the camp, who doubtless exercised among them the office of priest, alarmed at the occurrence no less than we, began with frightful cries and great demonstrations of fear to entreat heaven, turning to all the winds. This river is known to the solders as the Santa Ana." ----

The quote I posted above was transcribed into English and published in 1927, by the Herbert Eugene Bolton, for the University of California Press. In this printing of the diary, there are footnotes all throughout the book that were added later, with names of locations familiar at the time it was published. In the part that speaks of this particular day in 1769, the footnote about the Santa Ana River simply states, "Still called by the same name. Camp was near Olive, east of Anaheim."   

The Friar didn't write that. Herbert Eugene Bolton did. This was to give perspective of where the missionaries were at any given point during their expedition based on landmarks that were well known by 1927.

It is imperative that you remember that footnote, because it tells you exactly where the native tribe lived. Remember that Friar Crespi stated they, (as in the missionaries), made camp on the left bank of the river, that was the west side of the river. While the native tribe lived on the right bank of the river.  The right bank was on the east side of the Santa Ana River. That was not near the original settlement of Anaheim. We are talking about a distance of approximately 4 miles away.

Red Square: Original Anaheim Settlement Boundaries
Orange Circle: Olive, Orange, CA

First off, that area is known as Olive, just as the book notated, and Olive is part of the City of Orange - not Anaheim. 

Second, as I stated above, the original "Mother Colony" settlement was approximately between 3.5 to 4 miles miles west of the Santa Ana River, so it wasn't close to or on top of the site where in 1769, the expedition discovered the Tongva encampment.  Please see my comparison maps below. 

As you can see the red square in each map is where the settlement of Anaheim was started, the original "Mother Colony." The orange circle is the approximate location where the Tongva native tribe were living when Portola's expedition discovered them. Please compare the terrain below, as pointed out by the blue arrows. This shows you where each location was in approximation to the terrain. 

Red Square: Anaheim Colony
Yellow Circle: Native Encampment (right side of river)
Blue Arrow: Terrain matches both maps

Certain historical maps note a native camp Totpavit, which is said to actually be the location in Olive, while other maps have mistakenly named it Hutukgna, which as it turns out Hutukgna is actually a little further northeast, closer to present day Yorba Linda.

So, when the missionaries came through the area, they noted the trees such as alders, willows and sycamore along the riverbank. Why is that? Well, because of the water source of course. The California Sycamore grow along river banks and areas that often flood. So, why were there no trees near the actual Anaheim settlement? 

Because the area where Anaheim was to be located another 88 years later was considered a very dry area, and was several miles away from the river. Some writings even referred to it at times as a desert. Even the very early Anaheim High School Yearbooks discuss this, and how the land was basically dry grass and only scrub oak*, with no real water source to sustain life.  (*Note: Scrub oak is found in rocky soils, foothills, and dry interior climates of coastal Southwestern California). 

George Hansen knew if they could secure water rights from the river, with purchase of the land, he could dig a trench of water from the river to the settlement and irrigate the areas to cultivate it for proper agricultural work. 

Why hadn't it been done before by anyone else?

The natives did not have the know how to properly irrigate the area, so they lived closer to rivers or the coastline, and Juan Pacifico Ontiveros was just not that interested.  He was a very wealthy man and had a great deal of land. It was known that cattle and wild horses ran freely grazing the plains. Ontiveros had no desire to cultivate the land. In fact, he eventually sold the majority of the land surrounding Anaheim to Abel Stearns. If you don't know about him, you might want to read my blog on his story next. 

When the German settlers came to Anaheim, they worked very hard to make a settlement out of nothing. The Spanish and even natives that lived miles away called the settlement Aleman Camp, for the Germans who settled there. 

"50 men....known as the Los Angeles Vineyard Company. Each man purchased a share, which was valued at $750. They bought almost 1,200 acres of land, being a part of the Rancho San Juan Cajon de Santa Ana, and owned by Juan Pacifico Ontiveros, who they paid $2 dollars per acre. The tract was laid out in twenty-acre lots, and work was at once begun upon it under management of George Hansen, who was selected for their superintendent. He began leveling, building fences, digging ditches, etc. Expenses were $216 per day, a considerable amount for that period. 

George Hansen

The tract was one and one-half miles long and one and a quarter wide, fenced in with 40,000 willow poles, six feet above the ground and one and one-half feet apart; those were strengthened by three horizontal poles. These poles eventually took root and soon the colony was surrounding by a living willow wall. The whole was defended by a ditch four feet deep, six feet wide at the top, sloping to one foot at the bottoms. Streets were laid out through the tract, a gate constructed across the end of the main street and when this was closed it made the enclosure secure from invasion. Thousands of wild Spanish cattle and horses roamed the plains at that time and these would have devastated the growing vines and other crops unless so protected. These sturdy pioneers gave the name of Anaheim to their new found home, from the German, heim -- home-- and the Spanish, Ana -- a proper name. Home by the Santa Ana River. A ditch was dug to convey water for irrigation, seven and one half miles in length, and several miles of lateral were constructed. On each twenty-acre tract, eight acres of vines were planted the first year."---  History of Orange County, Page 53.

The main ditch or trench dug by Hansen from the Santa Ana river was not only 7 miles long, but there were 35 miles of subsidiary ditches from this and twenty-five feeders to those, as well.  They also went on to dig private wells within the community, and by 1879, they built an artesian well that was over 103 feet deep. They pumped the water up by means of an engine that forced the water into a large tank which was 35 feet high.  

The Anaheim Gazette, dated August 5, 1926 states:

"Previous to laying out the colony, in 1858, there were no trees about Anaheim except a series of scrub oak.....some of the old-timers planted sycamore trees and later on eucalyptus trees."

Timothy Carroll

If it had not been for Anaheim's first nurseryman, Timothy Carroll, we wouldn't have the abundance of plant life in Anaheim at all. He came from Ireland to Anaheim in 1863, and purchased 500 acres of land to raise alfalfa and fruit trees. It was by Mr. Carroll that many of the orchards and groves came to acquire their trees, and many of the foreign trees located all over Anaheim, including the famous Moreton Bay Fig Tree located in Founder's Park at 400 West Street. In fact, many of the citrus, pine, palm and all the vegetable root stock came by way of Mr. Carroll and his "Evergreen Nursery." He was also a very knowledgable engineer who became very rich for his invention the Carroll Sugar Beet Dump. He passed away at his home in Anaheim on September 20, 1912. 

So, in ending this little blog post, I have shown you that no, the Tongva people did not live on top or even in the general proximity of the original Anaheim settlement, they lived on the other side of the Santa Ana river, in present day, Olive.  I have also shown you the hard work that went into creating a town from the ground up -- making something out of nothing, literally, and how no one gets to downplay or take that credit away from the hardworking men and women who came to this land and made it on their own. Let us never forget the true pioneers of Anaheim, the original immigrants of the Los Angeles Vineyard Society who created the Mother Colony. ----

(Copyright 2025- J'aime Rubio, www.jaimerubiowriter.com)