Towns of San Bernardino County, California

The Colony Of Etiwanda
was founded in 1881 by W. B. Chaffey and George Chaffey, Jr., brothers from the province of Ontario, Canada. They purchased from Captain Garcia a tract comprising 3,000 acres, putting the land on the market the following year. The water right gave exclusive control of the water of East and Day canons to the north of the tract, and about seventeen miles of pipe were laid.

The Santa Fe system has a station on the tract, at some four miles distance from the town proper.

There is here a hotel, a schoolhouse which cost $3,500, and a store of general merchandise. The tract comprised some 3,000 acres, of which about 1,500 acres are now under cultivation. These lands were sold at $150 to $200 per acre, and planted to vines: they have yielded quite that much per acre as revenue since the fourth year. The soil is a chocolate-colored loam, suited to the cultivation of the orange, the lemon, and the raisin grape, the last named being the chief product. This settlement in fact is noted for the excellence of its raisins. In 1889 it shipped some seventy-five carloads of raisins, which sold for five and three-fourths cents per pound, and there is always a keen competition for the Etiwanda crop among the packers. This section also ships to Eastern markets some fine lemons and oranges. A large acreage will be planted to divers fruits during the coming season. Water is conducted hither from the canons by several miles of flume, being distributed, after reaching the settlement, to the highest corner of each ten acres of land by means of cement pipes. Water is furnished to the settlers on a basis of an inch steady flow to nine acres of land, or thirty-seven and a half inches for twenty-four hours once a month to each ten acres.

South Riverside
Twenty-five miles southwest of San Bernardino, on the Santa Ana branch of the Santa Fe system, is a town something over two years old, close to which will run the railway from Elsinore to Pomona. This young town, known as the Queen colony, has a population of about 400, with two daily mails, post, telegraph and express offices, a bank with $100,000 capital, good school and church facilities, etc. It is the center of a large and fertile agricultural district, rapidly settling up. The building improvements here in 1888 amounted to over $125,000. Within five miles is a large deposit of lignite coal.

East Riverside and West Riverside are practically suburbs of the large colony.

Lugonia
so called from the Lugos, the old Mexican family who formerly owned this territory, is that portion of San Bernardino County lying between old San Bernardino and Crafton, having the Santa Ana river for its northern boundary, and for its southern the foothills north of San Timoteo Canon. The soil here is greatly diversified, ranging from the lightest sandy loam to the heaviest adobe. This is one of the finest fruit sections, being almost frostless, and watered from a stream that never fails. The tract is delightfully situated, commanding a view of the San Bernardino Mountains, that extend for forty miles, and rise over 4,000 feet high on the north; on the east the peaks of San Bernardino and Grayback; and on the west an almost level plane, stretching nearly seventy miles to Los Angeles and the ocean.

This small settlement on the north side of the Mill Creek zanja offered lands with water right for from $25 to $50 per acre, up to 1881, Lugonia being but a school district at that time.

About 1881-'82 Judson & Brown secured 1,500 acres of land on the sloping hillside south of Lugonia and the Mill creek zanja, surveyed and platted same into five, ten and twenty-acre lots, with wide avenues and streets traversing the whole plat.

This enterprise was regarded as an experiment, from the fact that the red soil of this slope had never been tested as to its adapt-ability to horticultural pursuits.

With plenty of water and good cultivation the doubt as to the value of the land was soon removed and the success of the colony enterprise was assured. Thus encouraged the projectors enlarged their possessions by additional purchases, until they had between 3,000 and 4,000 acres in their colony, which, on account of the peculiar color of the soil, they named

More Towns | Return to San Bernardino County

California Genealogy

Copyright 2002- by CaliforniaGenealogy.com. The webpages may be linked to but shall not be reproduced on another site without written permission.