Lemuel Carpenter (c. 1808 in
Kentucky – November 5, 1859 in
California) was one of the first Anglo-American settlers of what is now the
Los Angeles, California metropolitan area.
Early life
Lemuel Carpenter was born c. 1808 in
Kentucky. He migrated to
Missouri about 1828, where he served in Searcy's Company of Missouri Militia in 1829.[1]
Upon his arrival, Carpenter started a soap manufacturing business and set up his jabonería (soap factory) at
Chokishgna, a
Tongva-Gabrieleño village[7][8] west of the
San Gabriel River, in
Rancho San Antonio. The location of the jabonería was near the present-day crossing of the
Interstate 5 and the
Río Hondo in
Bell Gardens.[9] He followed the practice of the California missions' indigenous people and used the abundant native
amole plant as an alkali to produce hard soap.[7][10] The Historical Society of Southern California would later credit him as the first commercial soap manufacturer in Southern California.[6][11] His business profited sufficiently for him to purchase
Rancho Santa Gertrudes, which included the
Tongva village
Nacaugna, now
Downey, California, southeast of what is now downtown Los Angeles.[12][13]
By the late 1830s, was among the first of the Americans to plant a
vineyard for the making of
wine.[14]
In the 1836 padrón or census of Los Angeles, he was listed as Samuel Carpenter and was one of fifty foreigners living in the pueblo.[11] Early California settler
John Bidwell first saw the
Pueblo de Los Ángeles in March 1845 and, years later, would list Lemuel Carpenter as one of the settlers of the pueblo who he recalled out of about 250 residents.[15]
His original settlement was known as "Carpenter's Farm" from 1837 until it was destroyed by a flood in 1867.[16] He tried
gold mining, and in general prospered in his new home. A popular travel guide notes: "
Rancho Santa Gertrudes…was sold to Lemuel Carpenter, a Kentuckian, who married the beautiful María de los Angeles Domínguez. ... The Carpenters [were] happy and prosperous under Mexican rule".[12][17]
Carpenter was active in revolutionary activities and sided with the Americans during the
Mexican–American War.[4] He was held as a prisoner of war and on September 30, 1846, he was received by American forces during a prisoner exchange between Californio forces and detachments of Companies B and D of the
California Battalion and Los Angeles volunteers under the command of
Archibald H. Gillespe.[18]
Rancho Santa Gertrudes was owned by Lemuel Carpenter until 1859.[17] In 1859 the rancho was sold at sheriff's auction to
John G. Downey and James P. McFarland. "Samuel", actually "Lemuel" but misspelled by the recorder, Carpenter was recorded as the legal possessor as late as 1862.[19]
Family
Lemuel's father is believed to be Jonathan Carpenter (c. 1785 Virginia-c. 1853 Missouri) and grandson of Matthew Carpenter (c. 1761 Virginia-c. 1798 Virginia).[20]
In the 1850 census,[21] Lemuel Carpenter is listed as age 42, with a real estate value of $8,000 dollars, a farmer. His wife, Maria, is listed as age 22 — she was his second wife. His children, all born in California, are listed as:
Susana Carpenter, age 11.
José Antonio Carpenter, age 9 (born November 20, 1837; descendants still live in Los Angeles[22])
Refugio Carpenter, age 6.
Francisco Carpenter, age 3.
Misfortune and Death
Carpenter's prosperity took a precipitous downturn when a $5,000 loan from
John G. Downey taken out in 1852 ballooned into a $104,000 debt by 1859.[3][23] Unable to repay the debt, he eventually killed himself.[24]
The diary of Lemuel Carpenter's daughter Mary Refugio Carpenter includes this entry written on January 2, 1861: "I have been thinking so much of my father tonight. It made me weep."[25]
References and notes
^White, Virgil D. (1994). A-K. Index to Volunteer Soldiers in Indian Wars and Disturbances, 1815-1858. Vol. I. Waynesboro, Tennessee: National Historical Publishing Company. p. 217.
^Weber, David J. (1971). The Taos Trappers: The Fur Trade in the Far Southwest, 1540-1846. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. p. 152.
^
abWilson, Iris Higbie (1972).
Hafen, LeRoy Reuben (ed.). Lemuel Carpenter. The Mountain Men and the Fur Trade of the Far West. Vol. IX. Glendale, California: Arthur H. Clark Company. pp. 33–40.
^
abBancroft, Hubert Howe (1964). California Pioneer Register and Index 1542-1848. Baltimore, Maryland: Regional Publishing Company. p. 82.
^Quinn, Charles Russel (1973). History of Downey, The Life Story of a Pioneer Community, and of the Man who Founded it – California Governor John Gately Downey – From Covered Wagon to the Space Shuttle. Downey, California: Elena Quinn. pp. 12, 20–22, 32, 104–105.
^Pinney, Thomas (1989).
A History of Wine in America, From the Beginnings to Prohibition. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. p. 245. As California began to draw Americans both by sea and overland, others took up vine growing: Richard Laughlin, [...]; so did William Logan in 1831 and, later in the decade, William Chard and Lemuel Carpenter.
^Thrapp, Dan L. (1990). Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography. Spokane, Washington: Arthur H. Clarke Company. p. 228.
^Bartlett, Lanier, ed. (1930). On the Old West Coast; Being Further Reminiscences of a Ranger-Major Major Horace Bell. New York: William Morrow & Company, Incorporated.
^Adams, John (December 5, 1997). "Loss of her father casts shadow over her diary". Downey Eagle. Downey, California – via Downey Historical Society.